U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SOIL CONSERVATION SERVICE Box 322 OFFICIAL BUSINESS B Miss Christine Smith Pittsboro, Mississippi 1940? GREENSBORO FEB 23 12 M 1940 GA UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SOIL CONSERVATION SERVICE February 22, 1940 Greensboro, Georgia Dear Chris; Believe it or not, but this is the first letter that I have ever spent five days on. You see it's like this. On Monday night I decided to write to you. After starting and stopping two or three times I gave it up as a bad job. Have done this every night since then, and it had cost Uncle several sheets of station- ary. I think that I must have had a good case of the jitters;so bear with me as I feel like unloading. We received our expected notice of furlough yesterday. It is to start on March first, and is supposed to be of a tempo- ary nature;but you know how those kind of things are. My appoint- was permenant, but that didnt amount to much. I wonder how I will feel about my past eighteen months if I happen to think about it ten years from now. Right now I feel that it has been beneficial in more ways than one, and in one way it has been wasted time. I wouldnt have learned things that I have or met people that I have met if I had stayed in one place. If some one had taken me in hand about five years ago and made me stick to one thing instead of trying to learn something about everything, they would have done a good deed. But then I wouldnt have driven up to your door one night last summer. I had already had one blind date in that man's town, but something told me that this time it would different. I remember now how I kept telling myself not to expect anything out of the ordinary, and at the same time hoping that it would be. It was. And it didnt rain today. Neither yesterday. I had to stay in the office while the rest of the boys went to the field. Some- body had to draw a few maps, and I was elected. I still believe that they went hunting. Read "Gone With The Wind over the week end, but didnt get a fever over it. Found it very descriptive, and good from a historical standpoint;but it wasnt what I expected. I suppose that I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't hear so much dis- cussion about it. Naturally the ones that have read it tell only the most interesting parts;and one was to wade through plenty to get to the spots of interest in that book. The country around Tara must have been very beautiful at the time the book depicts but it is a different place now. I have been through there lots UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SOIL CONSERVATION SERVICE of times, and it is a sad sight. This particular section that I am in now was of the same type, about the same time. The vice- president of the Confederacy was born in a little town just East of here; and a gentleman named Sherman passed pretty close to here. Except they dont call him a gentleman around here. Want to go home Saturday afternoon on a little business, and the following Thursday for good; that is until Spring quarter. Have a chance to sell a little timber and want to go home and see just what I have got. One of the boys (age 42) is an old saw mill man and he is going to look after it for me. He is one of those people that didnt get beyond the fourth or fifth before he had to go to the war, but he knows his trees. The radio is blaring forth about something that will keep your hair from falling out. What I need is something to get some color in mine, as the grey hairs are becoming predominant. I took it down yesterday and looked at it good, and thats how it is. Dont let anybody tell you that worry does that. Well I had better quit and put the body to rest. Be good and write when you have the time. Love; B