May 31-June 4, 1944

Dear Folks:                                                May 31
            We are on a 7 day leave. The enlisted men are in Edinborough and Horridge, Hollis, Smutsky, & I are in northern England close to Scotland. The town is small and on the edge of a lake which is surrounded by large grass covered hills. So far we four are the only U.S. soldiers here but there are a few Brit solders. There seem to be quite a few retired people living in hotels long the lake front.
            To get back to the start, we left London yesterday morning, carrying our B-4 bags the one that has clothes hangers in it & zippers. The train was crowded so we put the bags in the baggage car. After the train started Dick wanted some paper out of his so went to baggage car and brought the bag back to our seat. Everything went fine until we had to change trains at a town and went to the car and found no bags. We started tracing them thru the railroad and stayed in that town last nite to see if the bags would catch up with us. They couldn’t find them by this morning so we came on up here with just Dick’s bag.
            June 1 Had a big day to-day. Got up at 9 A.M. & had breakfast. We are staying at the George’s hotel, a small place. We pay 15 shillings ($3.00) a day for board and room. Thru the W.V.S. (Women’s Voluntary Service) we got some bicycles. Dick and Nick wanted to play some golf so I rode to the golf links with them. It was 10 mile down the valley. The road was hard surface and wound in and out around the mountains — they are not just hills. We crossed several springs coming out of the mountains and I guess that is what feeds the lakes. We stopped at a house by the road that advertised “Tea and Refreshments” and drank tea and ate bread & butter & strawberry jam & cakes. We tried to buy some eggs but the lady had a quota to fill. There are lots of flowers in bloom.
            Neither Nick nor I had any hiking clothes so Dick loaned me a sweater and wool shirt and loaned Nick a leather jacket. Incidentally, the camera and 4 roll of film were in my bag and I sure miss it. The method of notifying us when meals are ready here at the hotel is to beat on a large copper drum head. Out by the golf course the road lead up a long steep hill. Going up we pushed the bikes. Coming down, the brakes on Nick’s bike wouldn’t hold and he kept going faster and faster. Finally he turn the bike out into the grass and fell off. Golf clubs and sandwiches flew all over the place. No damage. The bike seat I had was slanted foward and I kept sliding off the seat. The hotel has hot water and a bathtub. They are short on help so lock the door at 11 P.M.
            I forgot to mention that the town we stopped at the first nite was a resort town like Coney Island, N.Y. We rode the rolley-coaster and some little racing cars.
            June 4. Our leave was cut a little short so we are back in base. Coming back on the train yesterday we got caught in the week end railroad rush so rode part of the way back in the baggage car. I have an idea for training the infantry. Give them week-end passes and tell them to get a train ride. It would be rough on infantry but the civilians would break them in and they would be tougher fightin’ men. The railroad still hasn’t found a trace of our bags. An R.A.F. Officer riding in our baggage car lost his bag right out from under his nose yesterday. It seems the conductor divides the number of bags by the number of stops and throws off some baggage at each stop, thus getting an even distribution of baggage and none that he doesn’t know what to do with at the end of the run.
            Speaking of G. Waite and his number being increased, you should see how our number jumped. I now have the product of the number of kids in our family multiplied by the sum of all members of Chris’ own family and ours. (You may have to read that again). I see Delmar made it home. Sounds like you had lots of company lately. Got another letter from Jo.
                        Yours truly,
                                    John
Got a box of cookies from Aunt Hattie.