Letter home from a West Virginia farm kid enduring Marine basic training on Paris Island:
Dear Ma and Pa, I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before all of the places are filled. I was restless at first because you get to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m. But I am getting so I like to sleep late.
Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot, and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing. Men got to shave but it is not so bad; there’s warm water. Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food, but tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food, plus yours, holds you until noon when you get fed again. It’s no wonder these city boys can’t walk much.
We go on “route marches,” which the platoon sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it’s not my place to tell him different. A ’route march’ is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks. The sergeant is like a school teacher. He nags a lot. The captain is like the school board. Majors and colonels just ride around and frown. They don’t bother you none.
This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don’t know why. The bull’s-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don’t move, and it ain’t shooting at you like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don’t even load your own cartridges. They come in boxes.
Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though; they break real easy. It ain’t like fighting with that ole bull at home. I’m about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake. I only beat him once. He joined up the same time as me, but I’m only 5’6’ and 130 pounds and he’s 6’8’ and near 300 pounds dry.
Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.
Your loving daughter, Alice
Alice had good training at home and it made the difficult things not so difficult. If we have good training at home the difficult things are not so difficult and you can be ready for anything that might happen in life. How do you get this training? Matthew 11:29-30 “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Jesus said to take His yoke upon us. The yoke on oxen disciplines them so they will plow straight and stay on course. The Lord’s yoke to us is the discipline and commitment we must have so we will stay on the straight way and won‘t stray from the course. The yoke is not easy, disciplining ourselves is not easy, but we must have the yoke of the Lord; we must discipline ourselves each day to have our burdens lightened.
Matthew 11:29 again says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me;” To learn of Him is to desire to learn more about Him, to desire to know Him more. We do this by disciplining ourselves to read His word and spend time in prayer each day.
By disciplining ourselves to faithfully read the word, spend time in prayer, attend church and share Him with others, getting to know the Lord more and more each day, the difficult things in life will not be so difficult anymore. That’s what Jesus meant when He said, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.“ The hard things won’t be so hard. Our burdens will seem lighter even though they will still be there. When we know Him more we are ready for anything the world throws at us.
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