Back into the Routine in Rockhampton (18)

Smiling faces (Gene on the left) inside the 92nd Evac.
A & D (Admissions and Discharging) in Rockhampton

After the flurry of discharges and preparations to leave Australia only to be told to reopen, the 92nd Evac settles down to the same old routine.  Capt. Pfile continues in his diary:

September 4, 1943 (Saturday)
     ...  Our first 3 days since we re-opened, we admitted 238!  ...

7 Sept. '43
Dear Folks,
     ...  In a cartoon recently in "Yank", a girl was shown talking to a friend.  The room was full of Australian things - kangaroo, emu, platypus, kukuburra [kooksburra] bird, etc.  The girl was saying "Sometimes I wish George hadn't gone to Australia!" 
     Beth is sending my camera and film.  There are a host of common ordinary things that I hope to take pictures of, for they are really the interesting items.  The scenery is about the same the world over, and we can't get around much any way to see the really remarkable things.
     I was able to buy 15 cigars the other day - 3/ or about 50¢.  Each month each person is allowed to buy a certain amount of cigarettes ( 40¢ a carton, Vernon - any popular brand!)[Gene's stepfather was a heavy cigarette smoker who died from lung cancer in 1958], but this was the first time cigars were available.  Of course they do have some pipe tobacco but it is usually Velvet, Prince Albert or Half and Half, none of which I fancy.  Officers also have a liquor ration available: 2 bottles monthly of brandy, gin, rum or whiskey, 12 bottles (24 oz.) of beer or ale, and any amount of wine.  It is all Australian.  So far I have purchased 1 bottle of brandy (really very good and only $2.56 for 26 oz.) and some wine and a few bottles of beer.  The liquor part strikes me as very funny.  But this is really part of the British Empire!  They have an iten called ginger beer which is really only ginger ale, but stronger in ginger than ours.  Their wine is quite good.
     I bought flower seeds today, also.  I may not get to pick the flowers, but I remember well the baby chicks that we never expected to see grown up, but which we ate quite a few as fryers!  We've had some rain.  In fact, 3 days of almost steady drizzle before it stopped.  Of course the natives say it is unusual for this time of year!
     We are certainly in the country!  The other day a few cows were wandering thru one corner of our area, and a few horses in another.
     ...  As Australians would say, "Good-o!" and love!  Eugene
     P.S. I've been writing twice weekly.
     E.

September 8, 1943 (Wednesday)
     ...  Spring is in the air!  Last night I woke to hear a muffled scream over by Power's bed.  Then a terrific caterwalling.  Ed said the damned cats ran right under his bed and bumped against it.  Christie said they ran thru his tent twice!  Fenton later told of peppering some cats with .22 shot.  He said each one would yell "Kee-rīst" and jump straight up about 6 feet.
     Last night we had sheep hearts for supper.  Armstrong looked at them and said "Kangaroo hearts!  Nope, too small, must be wallaby!"
     We've admitted over 400 patients in about a week!

September 9, 1943
     Italy surrenders.  Glory Be!  Of course we don't have it though.  The Germans do!

12 Sept. '43
Dear Folks,
     ...  We didn't get to see Mrs. Roosevelt.  She visited our neighbor but not us.  Can't say as I blame her!

Bathing a horse in the Fitzroy River near Rockhampton

     Everything is going fairly smoothly.  The boys betting on the races continue to be clipped regularly.  This country certainly is enthusiastic about them.  On lots of the side steets around town you will see somebody leading or riding a sleek looking horse that must be raced somewhere, out for exercise.  There is some question though on just how honest the races always are.
     ...  Have you heard the song "Waltzing Matilday" any time?  It seems to be the Australian popular song.  They play and sing it a lot over here [and it was the second song our father taught my sister and me to sing;  the first was "O Tannenbaum"]. 
     There is a roadside stand not far from here.  The other evening the proprietor told us when the Americans first came over, they taught him how to make a hamburger and a malted milk.  The nearest thing they had to a hamburter was "meat pie" - some "minced" (as they call ground or chopped) meat with "herbs" wrapped in dough.  They were likewise astonished at the amount of ice cream we put in milk shakes.  Down town they have "hamburger bars".  Really the only thing that is cheap over here is food, and that is going higher.  They like our cigarettes.


Aussie soldiers on bicycles near Rockhampton

     It seems funny to see all the people riding bicycles, even women dressed in high-heeled shoes, etc.  Youngsters often carry a knap[sack on their back.
     ...  Love, Eugene.

 13 Sept. '43
Dear Folks [Mary X and John],
     Friday I mailed a package to Beth that included a boomerang for you , Jack [Gene's 14-year-old nephew] and a picture book for you, Marianne [the 4-year-old daughter of Jim, the brother of Beth and Mary X, who was temporarily living with the Barretts]!  [When Beth received the package she wrote to Mary X,  "...Tell Jack it is a wicked looking object and he had better watch for the package or you may not let him have it!!  The book for Marianne is a bit (!!) lurid - perhaps you'd better censor it.  Jack can read about the boomerang in it."  Later Jack reported in a letter to his grandparents that he could get it to change direction, but not return completely.]  I tried throwing the boomerang but it wouldn't come back to me.  You can no doubt find something in the library on how to throw it.  It is made from a tree root, already curved.  It is the same type as the Aborigines used.


Yepoon Beach near Rockhampton

     Yesterday we went to the beach, and had a swim and steak roast (a really GI version in simplicity).  There are sharks around here so we did not venture far out.  We saw a fish trap that really works.  It is full moon right now, with the biggest tide variation.  What I would like to find is a quiet pool to observe sea life, but there don't seem to be any.
     ...  You all sound busy!  Take it easy - Eugene


15 Sept. '43
Dear Folks,

Gene on his cot, inside the mosquito net.

     ...  So you are pestered with mosquitoes this year.  We haven't had any rain to speak of, and yet we have swarms of them staying in our tents all the time.  In the daytime they "nest"  in the dark corners of the tent and in the clothes, and fly up in a small cloud when disturbed.  At night they become active and z-z-z around your ears.  Fortunately they really aren't vicious as they get at home.  Later as the weather warms up, they no doubt will be.  What is bad is to get 3 or 4 inside your net at night and have them chew on you all night!  Last night while I was writing to Beth I killed several, and enclosed them in a bit of paper for her to see the size!
     Yesterday I planted flowers!  Two rows about 18 inches long is all - petunias and zinnias!  One of the other officers planted sweet peas and snap dragons!  sounds funny, planting flowers this time of year
     I've been working on linoleum block prints.  If they come along O.K., and they seem to look O.K. ... I'll send the blocks to Beth for her to print , for Christmas cards.  This George Christie from Canon [City, Colorado] is my artist.  He does the drawing.  He did last year for the one I made, too!
     ...Your weather is cooling down and ours warming up.  Last night I didn't pull my sleeping bag over me until early morning.  I had a leak in my air mattress, but was able to patch it.  They can't be replaced any more for love or money!  So I'm glad mine is not ruined.
     ...  Love, Eugene

September 18, 1943
     599 patients in the hospital last midnight.  The highest we've ever had (Later - about Sept. 20 - 615)
     Today I went over to the rifle range (by myself) and made 4 bulls out of 11 shots.  Not bad for the first time I ever shot an M1 Garand, first time on a range, and that also included zeroing the rifle.  3-3's, 4-4's and 4-5's, 45 out of a possible 55.  The range was 200 yards, 10 inch bull, all positions.  One bull was off hand!
     Tonight at the show they threw on for a "sing" the song "I wonder Who's Kissing Her Now".  One of the patients said, "That's not in very good taste!"
     Last night I went with Christie to Mt. Morgan to pick up a patient who had gone AWOL and then turned in to the hospital there.  ...    
     I planted Zinnias and petunias 5 days ago.  Today the zinnias are up!  Such speed!

Not much else seems to be moving very quickly!