Have really grown quite attached to the old boiler and would like to bring it home with me.

Convois Autos.,
S.S.U. 647,
Par B.C.M.
France

Bretzenheim, Germany
March 12, 1919

Dearest Mother:-

Thirteen more days and we expect to leave these parts for Paris.  We are taking advantage of these beautiful days by working on our cars and getting them in as perfect shape as possible for our return trip.  My car never ran better since leaving Ft. de Vanves a year ago last month that it is running right now.  It seems to have taken new life with the rest of us at the prospects of being “mustered out.”  Have really grown quite attached to the old boiler and would like to bring it home with me.  There is not a bolt or a part on the car that I have not tampered with.  I wonder what is going to become of all the ambulances and trucks which are daily being turned in?  Most of them are in no shape to be taken back to the States.

John H. Willard between the wars.

Your last letter to me enclosed a picture of yourself, Sis and Johnny.  I would have recognized you and Marion hasn’t changed much as I remember her but John I shouldn’t have known if I had met him on the streets of Mankato.  I’ve never seen a bigger change in anybody.  Maybe it was the uniform which made such a great difference.  You know I never did have a chance to get very well acquainted with John in long trousers.  In my mind’s eye I always see him in short pants and not very large.  This last picture makes him look like someone I never saw.  If he meets me at the train when I get home he’d better wear his name in large letters in some very conspicuous place or I certainly shall pass him up. – Mother, you actually look younger than when I last saw you.  How do you do it?  Is Dad growing correspondingly young?  Sis isn’t quite as plump as I remember her.  I like her better the other way.  Quite a display of hardware she’s wearing.  Did Bill send her those from this side?

Johnny Taylor and Eric Astlett have just returned from a seven day permission in England.  They had a wonderful time.  Both have relatives and many friends there which added considerably to their good times.  They say it was just like leaving home when they had to start back.  Food conditions there are good, they say, compared with what it is in Germany and even France.  Butter, for instance, is hard to get but the boys say that the margarine is every bit as good.  Their report of England and English people made me sorry than ever that these new permission regulations were not in vogue when Fraser and I went on our permissions.  We will not have another chance to get over there now.

-SECTION NEWS-

The gang is sitting outside the window enjoying the warm sun and fresh air.  They are going over them many old things which have taken place since we were made a section.  Just now they are ragging one another about certain incidents on the baseball diamond.  Jack Swain from Dallas, Texas is retelling in his very funny way of how Fraser over-ran second-base, in a game we played in Nancy, and slid for a rock somewhere out in left field, thinking it was the base.

Cook Tom, the friend of all homeless cats, has found a new pet and pal.  It’s a little, sick, mangy, yellow cat.  Tom calls him Sam McGee because he’s always cold and is continually hanging the stove.  At night he sleeps in the oven or fire-box.  There were a few live coals in the fire-box when Sam jumped in the other night and he had to sacrifice a good share of his hair to keep warm.  But Sam gladly made the sacrifice.  This morning Sam was in the oven when Tom built the fire.  Not seeing him there Tom partly closed the oven door and wen after the coffee water.  When he returned he saw two paws sticking up through the crack in the door in “Kamarad” fashion.  When Tom opened the door Sam showed more life than he has for the week he has been with us.

Old Roland with ambulance men

Am enclosing a few photographs of a few of our past mascots.  Old Roland was the most fun.  You couldn’t help but laugh every time you looked at him even when he was sober which only during working hours on week days when he worked off all the effects of his wine.  Roland is the Chief of Police and the Chief of the Fire Department of Lagny, France.  He’s a good all round man.  During the day he hires out on some ditch or garden job and during the evening he consumes wine.

In the picture of Apremont if you look closely you may see your little “tin soldier” in the act of carrying a bucket of water to his car which has a white towel hanging over the radiator.  This particular piece of ground and up on the hill in the background were scenes of some very severe fighting.

Love,
  Grant.