A letter from a Nattyflatt kid at Marine boot camp

Hello Ma and Pa, I am fine. Hope you are too. Tell brother Walt and brother Elmer that the Marine Corp beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up before all of the places are filled. I was restless at first because you got to stay in bed until nearly 6am, but I am starting to like sleeping in. Tell Walt and Elmer that the only thing you do before breakfast is smooth your cot and polish some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothin'. Men got to shave, but it's not so bad, there's warm water. Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, bacon, eggs, cereal, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried egg plant, pie, and other regular food, but tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by the 2 city boys that live on coffee. Their food plus yours holds you till noon when you get fed again. It's no wonder these city boys can't walk much. We go on "route marches", which the platoon sergeant says are long walks that will harden us. If he thinks so, it's not my place to tell him different. A route march is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks. The country is nice, but awful flat. The sergeant is like a school teacher. He nags a lot. The Captain is like the school board. Majors and Colonels just ride around and frown. They don't bother you none. This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don't know why. The Bulls-Eye is near as big as a chipmunks head and don't move. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don't even load your own cartridges, they come in boxes. Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat. You get to wrestle wlith them city boys. I have to be careful though, they break real easy. It ain't like fightin' with that ole bull at home. I'm about the best they got in this except for that Tug Edwards from over in Santo. I only beat him once. He joined up at the same time as me, but I'm only 5'6" and 130 pounds, and he's 6'8" and near 300 pounds dry. Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get onto this and come stampeding in. Your loving daughter, Carol