The journal. (Caldwell, Ohio) 1934-1961, 1949-08-25

from neF niece, Mrs. led
Ueckerts, who with her nus
band, Chief Warrant Officer
Ueckerts and son, Jon, are sta
toned in Algiers, Africa. Mrs.
UeckertS is also a niece of Mrs.
Carrie King, Caldwell. The
complete letter is as follows:
Dear Aunt Stella:
How are things in southern
Ohio? Our winter is over and the
weather is beautiful now. Every
thing is a maze of color as the
wild flowers are so thick that in
places you can't see the green of
the fields. But as the year goes
further into the summer every
thing except the palms and the
cactus will turn brown. A good
deal of the land around Algiers
reminded me of Ohio as it was
hilly and had many trees and
there is some here but not as
much. | read Bromfield's book,
Pleasant Valley, and it made me
realize how many years it has
been since I've seen Ohio and
how much | would like to see it
again. Neither Tex nor Jon have
ever seen snow before but they
will see d lot of it this coming
winter as we will be in Germany.
Our work here is completed
but we must now wait for the
Battle Monuments Commission to
take over their part of the Job.
Our job was to gather the bodies
from all points in Africa and pre-
pare them for shipment home or
for burial here, whichever the
family desired. They chose a spot
in Carthage for the permanent
American cemetery here and it
has one of the most beautiful
views | have ever seen. Now the
Battle Monuments Commission
will build chapel and a home
for the caretaker and will do the
landScaping. We expect to be
here for at least two months yet
which pleases us as the beautiful
time Of the year has just started
and we want a little time to en-
JOY 1t. | was SO surprised to hear
that Milly had seven children.
Where does she live now? And
where and what are Verna and
Thelma doing now? We Just have
Jon and altho we would like a
little sister for him | don't care
to have baby here. The doctors
and hospitals here are not very
good. Fortunately none of us
have been sick so far, altho if
something did happen we could
! fly to Germany as they have a
large military hospital there.
We have to take a lot of pre-
/ cautions just for daily living,
such as putting fresh vegetables
{ to soak for an hour in medicated
water, putting medicine in the
/ drinking water and drinking no
milk, other than canned, or eat
ing any milk products from here.
The French think we are over
cautious and the Arabs think we
are crazy. There are only two
reasons why an Arab is never
sick. Either to much blood or bad
blood in the head, and few Arabs
are without the little scars along
the forehead or at the base of the
| head which shows they have had
blood removed, usually about one
pint at time.
There are many nice things
could tell you about this coun-
try as it is very much like liv-
ing in Biblical times. The people
dress now just as they did then.
They carry the same type of
watering jug to the same type of
public watering place. They plow
their ground with a primitive
wooden ploW with a wooden
point, and this is drawn by
camels, oxen, burros, or even
people. They sow their seed by
hand and harvest the same way.
They thresh wheat by having
oxen or burros walk round and
round on it. They irrigate by hav-
ing an OK draw one bucketful of
water at time. These buckets
are made of goat-skins. This is
indeed a strange land. We've only
made few trips SO far. One was
a weeks stay in Italy. / was so
impressed by it, I would like to
tell you about it.
First when we went there we
saw the more modern part of
Rome that had been built by
Mussolini. The buildings and sta
diums where he had planned on
having his youth center. One of
the buildings now houses the Hq.
of AGRS-MZ. One thing that in
terested me was the fact that old
MuSSo started a new calendar.
The date on the monument he
had erected in his honor was the
year TEN. He really must have
thought he was going someplace.
Michelangelo's work in the Six
tine Chapel is a never to be for
gotten sight One of his most ia