John F. Zeller Papers
I'm writing early this week because this week-end is bound to be crowded. Mother & Dad arrive sometime tonight -- but of course I shan't see them until sometime tomorrow afternoon. So I want to get correspondence out of the way.
But the week-end is going to be particularly bad because -- good news -- I start to Center School Saturday and there will be a big assignment for Monday. I wasn't scheduled to start and I had expected two or three weeks of K.P. and dirty work before I actually got there. But one of the fellows whose name comes in the beginning of the alphabet had a bit tough luck with his teeth -- and has to wait until the dentists fix him up before he goes to school. Evidently they picked his substitute from the end of the alphabet -- for I got the call. At any rate -- I'm on my way toward that commission.
It will be a great relief to be rid of the dirty work the ordinary private must do -- picking up snipes dropped by thoughtless officers, washing dishes, handling garbage, scrubbing the latrine, shoveling coal, walking guard in all kinds of weather. But it has been a real experience and good training. Now that it is behind me -- for good, I hope, -- I 'm glad I had the 10 weeks here.
My letters will undoubtedly be brief from now on, for the classes are really tough, but I'll try to write or drop a card now & then.