“After
that the company commander drilled the boys for a while. Since these Italian fruit merchants from New
York City couldn't get it through their heads how to do 'to the rear' we spent
about 1 1/2 hrs. of supposedly free time practicing.
"In
this camp everyone goes to church - either to Catholic, Jewish or Protestant
services. Out of 112 men in our company
only 30 were Protestants. This would be
very surprising out in the mid-West, but it's to be expected, I guess, among
these foreigners."
--
Letter from my father, Camp Sampson, N.Y., to his family, Sunday, April 23,
1944. My father grew up in an overwhelmingly white
and Protestant county and seems not to have regarded Jews and Catholics as real
Americans at this time in his life, but as "foreigners."
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