The DU Lounge
Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsSomething to keep you going. Oorah.
THEY NEVER THOUGHT THEIR FARM KID WOULD SAY THIS AFTER JOINING THE MARINES. THIS IS PRICELESS.
Dear Ma and Pa,
I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before all of the places are filled.
I was restless at first because you get to stay in bed till nearly 5am. But I am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot, and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing.
Men got to shave but it is not so bad, there's warm water. Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food, but tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by some city boys that live on coffee. Their food, plus yours, holds you until 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 to 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 tide back in trucks.
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 chipmunk head and don't move, and it ain't shooting at you like the Higgett boys at home. 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 training. You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they break real easy. It ain't like fighting with that ole bull at home. I'm about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake. I only beat him once. He joined up 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 setup and come stampeding in.
Your loving daughter,
Alice
murielm99
(30,616 posts)This is hateful and disgraceful stereotyping. You should delete immediately.
Maraya1969
(22,408 posts)Like my great grandparents who were first cousins but didn't even know it. We laugh about it and say it explains all of our problems. Their names were Amesy and Dorma.
I don't think the one that wrote this article was writing about something happening now. It looks like that way things were a long time ago.
murielm99
(30,616 posts)Women were treated so equally in our military "A long time ago."
Kali
(54,990 posts)and I thought it was funny as hell!!! it disparages wimpy urbanites more than rural folk.
aeromanKC
(3,301 posts)Even though I am a Vet that would consider himself one of those city boys.
(I read this with an Andy Griffith awe shucks No Time for Sergeants voice in my head. And then got to the end and chuckled)
cksmithy
(230 posts)I am 71, and as a girl and teenager, I was the best shot of all six kids. I never shot a chipmunk, or any living animal, but could knock off all of the tin cans sitting on the fence. My brothers couldn't and would get so mad or just say it was luck, because girls couldn't do that. Also, the walk home from bus stop was 3/4 of a mile, had to carry books, no one used a backpack at the time. It was uphill and with the dress code, girls wore dresses and, I called church shoes, very uncomfortable to walk in. I was never in the military but this post reminded me of my home. My father made fun of city slickers all of the time. That's probably why I live in town and not the country.
mcar
(42,179 posts)I live in a rural, red county in FL. SO is a public school teacher. I cannot even give you the number of his students who have joined the military out of HS over his 30 years of service. And yes, sometimes it is the best option for poor rural kids and that's a crying shame.
I can tell you about the funeral of the father of one of his students, who re-enlisted after 9/11, and was killed in Iraq in 2004 at age 32, leaving behind a young family.
I can also tell you about my nephew, who enlisted right out of HS and served 3 tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was seriously wounded but he was lucky - he was the only survivor of a suicide bombing in Afghanistan. He's from Austin. He's now got a master's degree.
How dare you ridicule both the "country boys" and the "city boys" who choose to serve? Oh, and what about the girls?
You know, I enjoyed "Gomer Pyle" in reruns all those years ago. But farmers are fighting and dying in Ukraine right now.
How dare you?
As farmers, now retired, we get sick of the stereotypes.
I have spent a lifetime trying to convert neighbors to the Democratic party. Sometimes I win. This crap does not help.
mcar
(42,179 posts)This prejudice doesn't help at all.
There should be no place for it here.
Kali
(54,990 posts)after a LONG day of working cattle and joking about the mishaps and minor injuries, this made me laugh. I think some people forget this is the lounge.