The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1943-07-29
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

| Charlotte boys waved to us as they
passed on their way to the ball
park. Happy voices foated to us
from the post exchange. The sup
per hour neared.
The straw-boss private woke up,
yawned and went away, telling us
what would happen if we did like
wise. He returned soon in truck.
He motioned peremptorily to us and
we loaded the cans into the truck.
Away we went to headquarters COM
pany-and painted more garbage
cans. It was definitely suppertime
by now.
"Now can we 60 home, Private
Dooley, sir?" asked Lisk. I looked
at Lisk every time the blindness
left me, and I could see the boy
was tired.
The private sighed YEARLY. "Git
in the truck" he said. Away we
went back to our street. We stopped
in front of our barracks and Pri-
vate Dooley dismounted. "The
truck driver" he said, would ap-
preciate it if you boys would go and
help him wash the truck"
We sat in the back of the truck
and watched the mess hall fade
away behind us. Two, three, four
miles we left it behind us. We had
to wait ten minutes before we could
get the wash-pit. It took us fifteen
minutes to wash the truck. BY the
time we got back to the mess hall,
we were too tired to eat. But we
ate.
On the way to our barracks we
met Yardbird Fred McPhail, neat
and cool, on his way to the recrea-
ton hall. "Good news, soldiers"
said Yardbird McPhail. ''We don't
have to drill tomorrow.
We halted and sighed blissfully.
"No, SIR" said McPhail. "They
can't lay a hand on us from sunup
until shutdown. The whole barracks
is on kitchen duty all day."
It was through no fault of mine
that I was a kitchen policeman on
my sixth day. The whole barracks
got the grind. And it was duty, not
punishment.
1t was all very simple, this KIP
business. All you have to do is to
get up an hour earlier, serve the
food, and keep the mess hall clean.
After we served breakfast, found
very easy job in the dining hall,
where life is much pinker than it is
in the kitchen. A quartet was
formed and we were singing Home
on the Range" A corporal passed
by just as hit sour note. He put
the broom into my left hand, the
mop into my right.
There was a citizen-soldier from
Kannapolis to help me clean the
cooks barracks. For a time it was
awful. We tried to concentrate on
the floor while a news broadcaster
almost tore up the radio trying to
decide whether we were to be in
the Army ten years or twenty.
We finished the job in an extreme
ly short time to impress the cor
poral. This, we found later, is
serious tactical blunder and a dis
credit to the ethics of gold-brick-
ing. The sooner you finish job the
sooner you start in on the next.
The corporal liked our work, I'M
fortunately. Kannapolis was allowed
to sort garbage and was promoted
to the pot-and-pan polishing section.
I was Themes Kokenes' assistant.
He washed and I dried. Later we
formed goldbricking entente. We
both washed and made Conrad Will
son dry.
Pollyanna the glad girl would have
found something silver-lined about
the hot sink. So did I. cat least"
I told Kokenes, this will give me
back a chance to recover from that
mop"
When I said "mop," the mess SER
geant handed me one. He wanted
to be able to see his face in the
kitchen floor. After lunch he want
ed the back porch polished.
We left the Reception Center mess
hall better place to eat in, at