November 30th, 1943

Dear Mom:

Your last letter caught up with me at Barriefield where I have been for a week now.

From your letter I guess that my last letter never arrived but I don't know why. It was written about a week after I had been down to see Aunt Lydia. In it I mentioned that I be leaving about the 20th which I did.

Now I will go over what happened the weekend at Aunt Lydia's.

The first thing is that it took me from 10 o'clock Friday night until 11:30 Sat. morning to get there. I took the train to Kingston and arrived there at 3:30am. From there I had to hitch hike about 60 miles, 15 of which I had to walk. That was because there were no cars at that hour of the morning. After I arrived there I had a grand time so much so that I am going to go back again this weekend.

At Christmas I am getting five days leave but as yet I don't know where I am going maybe Aunt Lydia's, I will see if it is alright this weekend.

It would be nice to go home but 5 days isn't enough to get there and back for that matter I may go home with one of the boys. There are a couple that have asked me.

Did I tell you that I had bought a "Victory Bond" here as well as the one at home it is for $50 and am paying for it in instalments of $8.40 a month.

Boy! Am I in for a stiff course here they throw everything but the kitchen sink at you in 5 weeks and it is all new stuff we have never had. We have to know everything about 10 different guns. By that I mean the barrel and breech mechanism, the recoil mechanism, the carriage and the fire control instruments all of which are different on each gun.

When I left Hamilton the weather was still grand but here we arrived in a couple of inches of snow and heavy frost. That part was not bad but we have to wear our great coats here on parade when we go out. That made me mad because I had not worn it since I left home.

Well I have worn out one pair of boots and have a new pair.

This camp is not as bad as it is cracked up to be the main thing that is wrong is that there is very little entertainment which is not so good. That isn't worrying me as I am going to be busy. As yet I have not been out of camp but am going to go into Kingston Thursday night to see about getting some pictures taken. Will you look after my Christmas shopping from that end as per usual put the touch on the bank. How do I stand there now? I will get some thing for Barbara here and will send Gram a picture so fix up the rest of the family and the Kenora gang.

There isn't much more that I can think of now so I will close after enclosing my new address.
Gnr. Loney E.J. K_____
A21 C.O.C.T.C.,
M.P.O. 302,
Barriefield Camp,
Kingston, Ont

Well goodbye for now.
Love to all
Ted