December 26
Dear Mother—
Of course we had a big feed. The army didn’t come across with any extras, but by scouring the country for miles around our company, and all the companies for that matter, had some meal served up. Here’s our line up—celery soup, roast beef, mashed potatoes, macaroni with cheese and tomatoes, a salad, cake, prune pie, celery, and cocoa. Besides the Red Cross sent cigarettes, candy, and crackers.
In the afternoon we took a ride by camion to Sedan where the “Y” was putting on some kind of a show for us. After much cheering, and not missing a single bump we arrived and found that the show was going on—movies were being run off—French movies, a nice long drawn out thing in six or seven parts on Nero, his love affairs, his fiddle, and Rome. I for one wasn’t at all mad when they cut the picture short and started in on some live stuff. After a Lieutenant got a couple of stories off his chest, the ball started. Some real American coons from a near by outfit were the live stuff. They sang by fours, threes, and twos, and when they got tired of that they gave us some A No. 1 clog dancing. Believe me! they could sure shuffle their feet. The “Y” had decked them out in some paper caps which added to the hilarity. They were the whole show and it was worth the trip to see them.
The “Y” also were there with the Christmas tree. We rang the bell for chocolate, cigarettes, a cigar, and cookies.
The other day I went over to Charleville again. Ran into a place that had real pies—chocolate and apple. Also had cakes. The prices were near the top, but we bought a few notwithstanding. The girl behind the counter could have sold us ice at the North Pole—she was a peach. Two of us told the boys to break away and we would show them something better—and we did. There was a girl in a small café that we had discovered on our last trip. We took the boys along in and they agreed that she was the class. Here we ate the pies and cakes and the girl behind the bar came in for a share. It was a good thing that we were riding in the Ford and not walking, or we would never have got back to camp. Those pies went fine but we ate more than our share I’m afraid.
Last night and today it snowed again—just enough for snow balls. This afternoon we were throwing them with the French kids. They can peg them as well as our boys, but I guess they forget how to use their wing when they get older.
