The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1918-12-04

l well, 1 Will Drlnk rhfa letter 70 q
close hoping to hear from you son and
by the way it is going will be home
soon. Tell all my friends ! said
hello and those who cannot come over
to do their bit at home. Help the
Red Cross; they are helping us.
/ Well, don't worry for am at fine
place and having . good time and don.
think will go to France or to the
over soon. Don't worry.
From your loving husband,
Orvey.
Mr.. and Mrs. Frank Klock have re-
ceived the following good letter from
their son, Oryal Klock, who went over
seas and into action with the Ionia
company early in the war. Orval is
one of the few surviving members of
that company and we are all glad to
hear that he came through as well
as he did:
Oct. 90, 1918.
My Dear Parents:
Well, folks, / am back from the
| line again now, safe and sound only
awfully dirty and lousy. / went II
days without shaving, so you can
imagine what / looked like.
/ am enclosing a slip which entities
you to send me something for Christ
mas, if you will. Now you can send
me what you want to, only don't go
to any trouble about anything. But
for one thing, if you will, / would
like a good jackknife and, l wonder if
it would be safe to send my watch
This one is getting so it don't run
good any more. l would like few
Hershey bars, a couple of handker-
chiefs, and you know. folks, anything
from home.
Well, Mother, tomorrow is your
birthday and would sure like to be
with you, but / am with you in
thought anyway and l only hope that
I can be with you your next birthday.
/ am enclosing a little poem which
thought was pretty good and it sure
is about right, too. (This poem ap-
pears on another page of this issue.)
am feeling fine now only / think
was gassed a little the way | feel.
We are in hopes that we are going
back fer a rest now and it is about
time. We have done a lot of fighting
in the last five months and we are all
tired out now. Some of the fellows
are getting seven days. furlough and
hope to get one after awhile.
We are having pretty rainy weather
now and the nights are chilly a. be
sleeping out of doors, but / am in
hopes that this winter will end it all
and / may return home again. Be-
lieve me, folks, home is a sweet place.
got bunch of papers again today.
had one pretty close call this
time at the front. A big shell came
over and exploded so close to me that
the dirt and stuff buried me but it
didn't hurt me at all, only made me
deaf for few hours. You asked
me to tell you more about war ex-
periences, well could tell you lot,
but / don't know where to start. In
this last drive, / could tell you about
sleeping in a shell hole all night and
when I got up in the morning, was
Icing in three inches Of mud and
water. but that is little thing to
think of in a big drive like this one.
I'll tell you, folks. man can't ex-
plain how he feels up on the front
and when he goes over the top and
when you're moving forward In bar
rage and see on all sides of you some
one killed or blown to pieces, and you
want to turn back, but instead you
keep. advancing and you don't know
but the next one has your number on,
well, all / can say is, that war is hell
in its worst form.
] have always thought I was COM
ing back, but Of course one don't
know, but II it be my lot to return,
then you can figure on one more place
at the family table for q long time,
because have travelled and bummed
around now just long enough to know
what a good feed, home and parents
mean.
In one Of these drives, a German
wanted to surrender and couldn't find
anything white to wave, 20 he took on