24/7/42

Dear Folks:

Well I have been in England almost two months and haven't seen it all yet. Had a couple of days with Bill [brother] seeing London which I enjoyed. Bill likes it full well over here. Wouldn't consider going back until the war is over. I imagine if I were about 20 I would feel the same. However I will be glad to get back to Canada again and see my own Regt. and family. Over here the officers change around a lot and I could expect to get shifted plenty if I were to remain here. I don't like that so well.

I think I have picked up a lot. I have learned to live on the side of a hill for several days, eat meats out of a mess tin in about 2 minutes, etc. I imagine a house must be quite a stuffy place to live now. I don't think I have lost a pound of weight.

This next week I will be with 3rd Div. which is Wimp's Div. but I don't think I will see him on account of being pretty busy. I will be riding an English motorcycle and as I haven't much experience on that type I will probably run down a large part of the Division before I am through.

The weather has continued fairly cool especially at nights. We get a lot of semi cloudy weather during the day and even when it is hot it is usually fairly overcast. We have moved around quite a lot and I have seen quite a lot of the country so far. This of course is a country in miniature. Thirty miles here seems like three hundred because of the amount of scenery crowded in. Over here a large rangy hill like those around Alex Donaldson's farm would be called a Down while the part down by the creek would be called a bottom. The latter more covertly I think. I can't get used to their left hand driving. I shiver every time a big truck comes round a curve on the left. I have seen several English stage shows since I came to England but I cannot understand their English humour, it sounds assinine to me. It would be hard to figure two more different types than the Canadian and the English except that they both suffer from lack of foresight in the war effort. Over here they have their troubles and are proverbially slow in accomplishing things. However to the limit of their constitutional speed they are doing things, but in Canada where we are naturally faster we aren't. It would make you laugh to see their efforts on construction. It took seven years to replace one London bridge over the Thames. We could do it in a year. As for paving, the comparison is worse. One of the wits over here says it is the women who wear the pants over here and they really are not afraid of heavy work I must admit. They work in freight yards, docks and have muscles like Pa's.

I should offer my congrats to Bernice [sister], and hope she names the little girl Mackenzie Kingla or some fancy name after our national hero. Remember me to Aunt Kate and Tot and the rest of the relatives and friends around Drew. If all goes well I will see you in October some time but I am not really counting on it. I can't see how we can afford to stay out of France that long. Time seems to fly. I have been in England almost two months and I can hardly realize it. I would like to get a few months in Canada and then come back with the 19th. I think they would show up well after a little experience.

I expect old Jim will be finishing his course some of these times. I wish he would come over and fly me back when I go. I don't get along very well with choppy seas. Well that is all the chatter for now. For hot news you will have to call on Barbara.

Love
Elmer D