Letter 65 ~ October 23, 1918

Minnie writes me that she hears the quarantine at Camp Funston will be lifted soon. She also says that my brother Willis is nearly recovered from the flu.

Addressed to Mr. Ward C. Griffing, 25th Company, 164th Depot Brigade, Camp Funston, Kansas

Manhattan, Kansas
October 23, 1918

Dear Ward:

I didn’t get to write to [you] yesterday. This evening is the first since Monday I’ve felt good enough to write to you. I’m going to write every day tho the rest of the week. Your mother said you only had two letters from me last weekend. I know there should have been at least four if you didn’t get them since the Sunday before. I haven’t heard from you for a long time and expect it will be a longer time yet. Your mother said she had a letter from you yesterday.

I’m glad you like your work and hope you get to stay at Camp Funston a long while yet. Maybe you will get a chance to come home soon. Papa heard today the quarantine was to be lifted at Camp Funston. My, but I’m glad. If that’s true, there’s only one thing then stands in the way – that is your pass, but you surely will be able to get that.

I was so disappointed today. I thought maybe I would get a letter from you, and here came a card from the Camp Funston Post Office saying a letter was held for [insufficient] postage. I’m going to send it tonight but it will not get here before Saturday and probably not till Monday. My, boy, you don’t know how I hate to half to wait for that letter. I want it so bad.

Mrs. Arnold was down this afternoon. She heard from Cecil yesterday. He’s just fine and has been right up to the front lines lately.

Brownie had a letter from Ernest again. She said it was anything but cheerful. I guess he’s getting tired of staying in one place so long and he says the scenery is getting old. He’s down in the Southern part of France near the seacoast because he writes that he walks down to the shore often. He hasn’t been doing a thing.

Ross Arnold and John Hylton were downtown today for their physical examination. Ross just about didn’t pass because he is so small. John didn’t pass the examination at the college. I think it is a shame. He hadn’t entirely recovered from the ‘flu’ was the reason. They said his heart was weak. Everett didn’t have the ‘flu’: he was sick from vaccination and they thought it was the influenza, so they sent him to the hospital. He’s alright now. Homer sure had it tho.

[My sister] Bertha has hopes of getting to leave soon. [Her husband] Charlie [Scholer] says the epidemic is dying down in Washington [D.C.], and it sure is around here. Only two new cases at college today, we heard.

Stella [Munger] and I are going down to see Miss [Stella K.] Stuart this week. She told [my brother] John we had better come. She wanted to find out how we were getting along.

I just now had to stop writing to you to write a business letter for Papa. I sure like to do that and if I’m around Papa nearly always asks me to.

I wish I could clear up this weather. Isn’t very nice for you dear, is it? And I’m afraid if you don’t get to drill during the week, they will make you drill on Sunday. And I want you to do something else lots different, if it is possible. I heard one of the finest compliments on you the other day, Ward. I don’t think I had better tell you now.

You know, it sounds so funny [to hear] everyone talking about Xmas presents. You know they have asked that they all be sent (those that go thru the mail) by December 5th. And the boys in France by the 15th of November.

Your mother said that you didn’t get the cake she sent you. That certainly was too bad. Too bad you didn’t get it and then the sugar which is such an item these days. Ward, maybe you will get to be here my birthday this year. It’s only three weeks from Saturday and you ought to get off by that time. I hope before then. I don’t care when just so it’s soon. With lots of love, -- Minnie G. Frey

P.S. Of course your mother tells you that [your brother] Willis is getting well fast. He’s up and around the house now. I don’t believe any of us will get it now. It’s almost thru with.

Footnotes:

• Ross D. Arnold was Ethel Arnold’s 19 year-old brother.
  

• John B. Hylton was the 19 year-old son of house carpenter Albert Hylton and his wife Hattie.