Oct 13, 2015

Sat, Oct 13, 1945: a "memorizing machine"

"I think you're right about getting out of this work, Dad. I'm going to stick it out.  The next nine weeks will be the worst, and then we hit the 'gravy train.'  I was a little bit disgusted last week with being a 'memorizing machine' for the Navy with no objective in view.  But although I went somewhere almost everynight, including a football game Friday before the big test, I didn't make a mark below 95 in four tests Saturday morning.  The thing that really worried me was that I felt so tired -almost too tired to think - and decided I needed a change.  The medical officer agreed that a lot of men would be better of physically elsewhere but didn't seem to think anything is wrong that won't correct itself when they graduate me from this 'prison.'"

-- Letter from my father, Boulder, Colo., to his family, Bloomington, Kans., Saturday, October 13, 1945.  My father had been considering switching of the language program; but my grandfather had discouraged him from doing that in a previous letter.

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