1944 January 28

1944 28 January

Dear George,

Guess what I'm chewing on at this minute. The last mouthful of a most delicious 5 cent Tootsie Roll sent over by Post Exchange.  Doesn't that make your mouth water?

Yesterday and the day before I had quite some adventures in a jeep. The first day I had to deliver a drum of fluid to a fellow who lived in an alley off the main street of a walled Chinese town some distance from here. Most Chinese town have at least four gates. Some towns still have moats around them; many gates are approached by going down stairs. Three gates in this town were impossible to get through by jeep but by fording a stream we could get into town by the fourth gate. Jeeps are so rare in these towns that a large portion of the population turn out to see them. Here they did too. Most, probably all, Chinese courts and houses have the spinet stop, a heavy eight to ten inch high beam across the threshold. To get to the alley, we had to bump over one of these. Then going up the ally we found the buildings so close together and the turns so sharp that the sides of the jeep scraped in turning around the corners. After climbing up a few low but steep embankments, we got to the door of this fellow's house and delivered the drum. 

The next day, I took a jeep and trailer load of missionaries ad baggage to another walled town. Here we had to cross a narrow stone slab bridge just wide enough for the jeep and go over another one which was made of stones. No vehicle of any description had ever before come into town this way. 

Of course, you can imagine the boys shouting, "Ding how", showing their fist with the thumb pointed up and running beside and behind the jeep. One little fellow was so interested in the jeep he did not see the bundle in his way and tumbled right over it. 

On market day, we have our greatest difficulty getting thru main street. People, cows, horses, and mules (all pack animals) and baskets of produce not to mention portable display stands, clutter each side of the street narrow as it is, leaving just room enough for people to walk down the center. To get there we have to blow the horn, race the motor and then crawl at a snail's pace while people and kicking animals scramble out of the way and merchandise is hastily pulled aside. Once a band of mules ran right into the dining room of a house and chased the family away from the table. No matter how serious, the natives here always laugh at whatever happens to the other fellow. On the highway some of the horsemen and muleteers become so excited upon seeing a jeep that thy stampede their trains and many packs fall off.

Well my son, the Tootsie Roll is finished and so is the orange which followed it. The rain  continues to pour down. Then paper glazed window in my room does not admit too much light so I must leave the door open to see. 

Will you do me a favor? Read this letter to Grandma and Grandpa and if Aunt Ruthie is home at a reasonable hour, to her too. Thank you. 

Give my love to your mother, brother, and sister and to my mother, father, and sister.

Dad.