Charley was okay with that. It would be easier not to say goodbye at all.
On December 9, almost exactly a year after Pearl Harbor was attacked and the United States became involved in World War II, Charley became a soldier. His next letter to Edie was mailed from Camp Chaffee, Arkansas, where he would spend thirteen weeks in basic training.
Within a week of arriving, Charley wrote to Edie and asked her to send some art supplies—some pens, several nibs, ink, and drawing paper. Not knowing what the army would be like, he’d left all this behind. Charley soon discovered, however, that between drills, marching, obstacle courses, and KP, he just might find time to draw.
A few days before Christmas, invitations to eat Christmas dinner with local families were distributed around the barracks. At first, Charley didn’t take one. He wasn’t sure he wanted to spend the holiday with strangers. “Besides, I’m going to be so homesick that day, I’ll want to be alone.”4 But by the next day, Charley had decided he’d go after all. It seemed those who stayed behind at camp on Christmas Day would be participating in a ten-mile hike. Suddenly dinner with strangers didn’t sound so bad after all.5
In 1942, Charley, the art student, became Charley, the soldier.
Courtesy of Charley Harper Art Studio
On Christmas Day, a truck with a tarp over the top bounced across the Arkansas countryside, delivering the new young soldiers in pairs to the homes of their hosts. When Charley and a soldier named Francis were dropped off, Charley surveyed the run-down country home. He wondered if he should turn and chase the truck down, but once inside, he changed his mind. “It looked like the people were doing a good job making the best of what they had.”6
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