Letters From the Front

Dated: March 2, 1917

I am not going to go into the details of our life here, as you have no doubt heard all about it over and over again, both by letter and at first hand from some of those who have already returned home. However, I might say that, as far as I am concerned, soldiering out here, even under the worst conditions, is like everything else in life, and the anticipation was by far the worst part of it; and, altogether apart from the duty part of it, I should not like to have missed it for lots of reasons.

First, there is the recruiting poster question: 'Daddy, what did you do during the great war?' Then there is what I might call gratified curiosity—the feeling out for or testing of, how much one can stand in the way of hardships and military discipline which was the harder of the two for me, as I always was inclined to get hot under the collar when anyone ordered me to do this or that when I preferred him to express it as a wish.

Then, too, there is the opportunity which has been afforded me to see a little of the world and to become acquainted with the customs of people other than our own and be able to make a comparison between the two; and, lastly, it has taught me to appreciate more and more how much farther ahead we are in Canada in both business and farming methods than the older countries we are now in.

Since leaving Canada I have had the pleasure of meeting several old Commerce boys, among them being Purdy, Cruickshank, Ross, Scully, all of the Pay Office, London; Curran, who was on his way home on leave, and several of the boys since coming to France, among them being Hay, Cunningham, Tandy and Buzzell. I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Jim Lovett,

or, in fact, any of the other boys who came in the first lot, but am still hoping to do so.

I don't think I would be satisfied to finish off this letter without first letting you know what I think of the weather conditions in France. I thought, first of all, that France would somewhere near live up to the name 'sunny' which is often applied to it; and I also thought that I was pretty well hardened to cold, but find, much to my displeasure, that I was very wrong in both cases. Of course, every old timer here will tell you, 'It's the coldest winter we've had in twenty years,' and so on, but that's an old, old, story, and the song 'Take me back to Canada' appeals very much to me at times; although, of course, we must first finish the job, and I sincerely hope that I am in it at the finish.

You will, no doubt, be surprised to hear that we have already had the opportunity of seeing at the movies 'The Battle of the Somme,' as shown in Canada and elsewhere. It certainly was good, and I enjoyed every minute of it.