Two minutes later the streets were flooded. Of course, this wouldn’t be something to write home about except that this was the first I’ve seen in three months that didn’t come out of a Lister bag.22
Well, take care of yourself and don’t neglect to have your tonsils taken out if they need it.
We just had our monthly examination for venereal diseases. I passed with flying colors. Thot you might be interested. Still pure as driven snow.
‘Bye—Love Carl
. . .
Camp Maxey, Texas
Friday Oct, 29
Dear Mom,
At last, at long final last, the jolly news has come! I’ve found out where and when I’ll be going! I’m going to Queens College in Queens, N.Y. So it’s not such a bad deal. I’ve never seen the big city yet. And this will be my chance. From what I’ve been able to gather from the guys from N.Y. I’m pretty lucky in getting Queens. It’s got a campus, unlike the other city schools there, and is supposed to be a rather good school and not one of these real tough ones.
I’d guess I’d have a little trouble coming home on week-ends, but it’ll be pretty good for the seven day furlough, which I have only three months to wait for now. Who knows, maybe I can get home for Xmas or New Years.
I don’t know which way the train will go—but if it goes through Chicago I imagine it will also go through Canton—which it probably won’t. If it does, however, I’ll call you from somewhere and I can see you and pop for ten minutes. Maybe you can get on and ride to the next stop and we can have twenty minutes together, but that probably won’t work because you won’t have any way of getting back and also it most likely will be a troop train and civies won’t be allowed on it.23
I may not even be allowed to get off of it so I may not even be able to call you. Soooo, don’t stay at home all week just to wait for a phone call.
By the way, are any of your activities going to take you to N.Y. again? Come on up, I’ll show you around.
But enuf of that. Where is Fred now? Back at dear old Miami? How did he enjoy his furlough? What did he do? Has anything exciting happened in Canton lately?
The Houston Symphony Orchestra played here a few days ago. I enjoyed it very much—for the laughs. I thought Texas had become civilized but I found out how wrong I was. The Houston Orchestra is supposed to be the best in Texas and Texas is quite proud of it, of course, as they are of everything having to do with said state. Well, do you remember how the Canton Symphony sounded a few years ago when they were going strong? That is a favorable comparison with the Houston Symphony. They played Tch’s 5th, some Strauss, some Mozart, Templeton’s parody of Mozart (not bad) and finished up with the “Red, White, and Blue” and “Deep in the Heart of Texas.” More fun.
Keep your chins up—howz your throat?
Lots of Love –son Carl
Carl was out of the infantry and assigned to the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) at Queens College in New York City. America was at war and Carl was going back to school.
The ASTP came about because of politics. A majority of undergraduate students had been males, so the colleges were depleted when they were called into the army. The colleges brought political pressure to bear to use the colleges in training, and as a result the army started the ASTP.
Anyone with more than a 115 IQ could get in. There was no military training, just academic work. It was taking basic college classes extra fast. And it was generally believed that if you got into the ASTP you were assured of becoming an officer.
The program was a blessing for Carl. He no longer was in the infantry. He was in an academic setting in New York City, an exciting, expensive city that Carl could occasionally explore. An Emerald City.
It was wartime, but sometimes you wouldn’t know it from Carl’s letters. Carl was horseback riding, ringing in the New Year at Times Square, dancing at the Stage Door Canteen, hopping on the Staten Island Ferry, and even taking in Broadway. And he wasn’t doing it alone.
Carl was falling in love, with a girl and a city. And he was on the verge of becoming an officer. It was almost as if Carl had won the lottery.
Almost.
. . .
Queens College opened in 1937, though many of the Spanish tile–roofed stucco buildings had been built in the 1900s and 1920s. Its position on a hill provided a clear view of the Manhattan skyline from the far-end of the campus.1
The first ASTP unit came to the Queens College campus in the summer of 1943, and the appearance of all 345 ASTP men there was a welcome sight for the 1,625 civilian students.2
The ASTP students were still in the army, meaning they wore uniforms to class, received their same service pay and had to follow all army rules and regulations. Basically, ASTPers had “approximately 59 hours of supervised activity a week.”3 Though it could differ, it typically meant that from Monday to Friday ASTPers around the country arose to Reveille at 6:30 a.m. and ended their day on campus with Taps at 10:30 p.m. On the weekend they were required to wake at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday as well as attend classes from 1:20 to 3:20 p.m. After that, the students’ schedule freed up until 6:30 p.m. the next day, Sunday.4
. . .
Carl joined the program as a replacement. He would move into the recreation building, with army bunks taking over the gym floor. With him were several hundred enlisted men from across the United States.5
A student by the name of Anna Lee Kram captured the campus scene with her poem “Forward, Cupid—Hut!”:
They came in August,
A.S.T.P.
Marching and drilling,
(Gosh, it was thrilling!)
Olive, drab, spilling
From out building C.
Girls went wacky
Over khaki
Preened and primped,
Homework skimped
Soldiers to vamp us
On the campus.
Classes cut.
Forward, hut!
Alas! The Dean’s Office says
“—Eyes on your books.
Be efficient and curt,
Don’t talk, smile, or flirt;
The war effort’s hurt
By a coed’s coy looks.”
AFTERTHOUGHT
