Dear Hildie:

 

Sorry to hear about the dog and the rattlesnake. That’s rough.

 

Meant to send crew to Crowley today but bad weather. Now delayed until Monday.

 

Trying to wrap up some writing I’m doing but it gets hard, because it’s mostly rewriting.

 

Lord, at this time in 1963 I was in the classification center at Fort Polk, waiting to be assigned a training company. It was so lonely, but there were some great guys I became friends with for a little while, though I never saw them again because they went to different companies. A big black guy called Joe, who’d been in before; Herman, who’s almost graduated from Southern in ROTC and then, in his final year, mysteriously dropped out and enlisted as a private; Donald, who was from Baton Rouge and a really nice person.  I wonder if any of them are still alive. And I’ve always wondered what Herman’s story was.

 

Take care. Don’t drown in this rain. As for Hurricane Danny, “I spit on him.” So there.

 

Love,