Evening star., 1943-09-24

Blanding, am going to be awfullys
busy Strengthening myself out.
The two days I spent at Banding :
during my induction convinced mes
that have certain pronounced
characteristics that I would do well
to get rid of before becoming a
buck private. There is the little
matter of untidiness, for example.
I am of the shake e-ashes-on-
the-floor school, and when I un-.
dress my motto is: Let my clothes
fall where they may"
One of the first things I did at
Blanding was to carelessly toss away
cigarette butt. The next thing Is
knew had rake in my hand andis
before / was relieved of it I had
raked the better part of Middle
Florida, and in a pouring rain, too.
Ways and Means Available.
Later, silyery-voiced sergeant,
lined us all up, still in the rain,
and explained to us that Uncle Sam
was very neat gentleman, indeed,
and wanted all of the fine boys in
his army to be just as neat as hels
was, and If we weren't--and here 4
the sergeant's voice took on the
mellow tones Of tiger defending o
Its young there were ways and,
means Of making us be neat. 81
There is another little matter that
I must take care Of. and that Is
the little matter Of readjusting my
sleeping habits. For the past Is
years any old night could have been
New Years eve and I would have
been on hand to blow a whistle and
toot a horn. On the other hand, e
any old morning could have been0
Armistice morning and would have
surely observed the minute Of si-, :
lence at IL am, because I would
have been sound asleep. But the
Army does not operate on any such
hours. I found that out when the
same adorable sergeant told us at
Blanding that because he knew
what we had to go through the next
day IN the way of physical exami.l
nation, we would be allowed to sleeps
late.
You won't be disturbed until !.
5:45," he said, smiling at us In.
gratiatingly, land you won't have
to go to bed until o'clock. That's
when the lights will be turned out"
In bed at 8, up at 5:45. / win :
have to learn all over to do that.
just as other men take refresher
courses in physics and trigonom-
etry. am going to have to take
refresher course in going to bed
with the chickens and getting up
with the same.
Hopes to Impress Sergeant.
II any one had asked me before
I went to Blanding whether or not :
l knew how to make up a bed, t.
would have said. Eyes, any fool can >
make bed" In one way I would !,
have been right. can make up a !,
bed that I or Aunt Bessie or Uncle !.
Ben could sleep in, but, brothers,
know nothing about making up
bed for Uncle Sam. He is a par
ticular sleeper, and don't let any J
one tell you different.
We were issued bedclothes and
told to go make up our own beds
according to the model bed on ex-
h1bit in the barracks. I studied that
MODEL bed for 20 minutes, then
made up my upper bunk. I chinned
myself on my bunk. I circled it
like a conscientious carrier pigeon,
tucking in things here and tuck
ing in things there. When I had
finished 1t bore no resemblance to
any model bed.
So, you can see that my furlough
is not going to be an idle one.
am practicing neatness, early to
bedness, and bed-making. When T
get back to Camp Blanding on the
9Th of October, my goal is to have
that sergeant Ito hell with all that
brass that I associated with as q
war correspondent in London) COM
pliment me on bed-making and say,
Private McLemore, at the rate you
are going you'll be a private first
class before the turn of the CEN
tury."
My dream used to be of some
time wearing four stars. Now I'll
settle, men, for that one stripe that
looked like pullet's wishbone.