CLIFF YOUNG NOW ENGAGED ORDERLY WORK
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Elmira Boy, Son of Mr. and Mrs. Philip E. Young, Is Kept Busy With
Hospital Work in France--French Patients Fill Hospitals
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Mr. and Mrs. Philip E. Young, of this city have received an interesting letter from their son, Clifford J. Young. who enlisted the latter part of last May in the Roosevelt Hospital and was assigned to the Mackey unit.1 He sailed for France July 3. Mr. Young, when he enlisted in the service was a junior in Amherst college.2 His letter follows:
"Somewhere in France.3
"Thanksgiving Day in the evening.
"Dear Folks:
"It has indeed seemed somewhat like Thanksgiving Day. No rain, no snow, no sun, sloppy under foot, and not very cold.
"Dinner was at 2 o'clock and buffet luncheon on the cold turkey at 5 p.m. So much made it look homelike.
"You no doubt read in the papers that all American soldiers in France got their turkey and cranberries. Well, it was good---see if you wouldn't like this menu: Soup, bread, turkey with dressing, cranberries, corn, mashed potatoes with turkey gravy, apple and celery salad, mince pie, apple pie and a box of ten packages of Piedmont cigarettes.
"This afternoon we listened to a good concert by a band from some Engineering Corps in the court yard.
"I worked this morning until about noon and then celebrated the holiday by getting a hair-cut and shave. A few days ago we had a swarm of patients (French) come in, which filled us to capacity and the whole unit has been worked full speed ever since. That day reveille was at 2:15 a.m. and I started the day at 3:15 a. m. building fires in ward stoves and was kept busy at a thousand and one things until 6 p. m., time out for meals and about one-half hour rest all day to take a cup of coffee.
"That was not only the longest, but also the hardest day's work I ever put in. Since then, my hours have been 7:30 a. m. to 12 m. and 1 p. m. to 6 p. m. so you see, any temporary vacation since visiting Paris, has come to an end. It is for that reason also, that it has gone nearly two weeks since I last wrote you. In the evening I haven't had the "pep" to get about writing.
"Your letters of October 16 and 17 did not reach me until November 21, which of course, made them arrive a week after the one of October 29. The only packages to arrive to date were some newspapers, and Mr. Crise's tobacco clippings, which I shall acknowledge in the near future. It was surely mighty thoughtful of him. I have been smoking the mixture of clippings and Edgeworth for the last few days and it is fine.
"I had a terrible time trying to guess what the package was.It looked like a pillow and had very little scent until I took a good whiff and it made me sneeze; then I recalled the grammar school days, when I used to smell tobacco snuff to make me sneeze in school, and thus diagnosed the "pillow."
"Well, I am now doing real hospital orderly work, just what I expected before enlisting. The French patients are always willing to work, and so we get them to sweep and mop the corridors, and carry the coal and ashes,4 so we have time to get everything done.
"We have to go around with a hospital "tea-wagon" and serve meals to all the bed-patients, which thank heavens, is a minority of the total number. In the afternoon I get a few surgical dressings to do. The French assistance is reducing our labors, so that we don't have to work quite all the time.
"I had four good letters the other day, all in one mail. I owe about a thousand letters that I would gladly answer if I had time and pep, but no matter how little I have to do, somehow I haven't wanted to spend my spare time writing letters. I have been reading a bit of French now and then.
"Andy is still driving a flivver,5 as errand wagon, and is enjoying it, all but the punctures. He always sends his best to you all.
"If this arrives in time, I'll wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, with love, from
"CLIF."
"It is now permitted for us to send personal pictures, but I have none of interest just now, later. "C."
Transcribed by William B. Thompson, Sept. 21, 2014
1. Roosevelt Hospital later merged with Mt. Sinai Hospital. I'm not certain what was meant by "Mackey unit," The Internet also has references to "Roosevelt-Mackey unit." The first one left for France in June of 1917, shortly before Clifford's embarkation. See other accounts of medical personnel in WW1.
2. Clifford later became a Presbyterian minister. Presumably at Roosevelt Hospital those who wished to serve their country or help those in need could enlist in the Army in non-combatant roles.
3. In WW1 and WW2 censors did not allow military personnel to disclose their exact locations.
4. Most buildings in Europe in 1917 did not have central heating. Clifford mentioned lighting fires being part of his duties. Presumably each ward had its own coal burning stove for heat. Apparently patients carried buckets of coal from the coal bin/pile to their ward, and carried the resulting ashes back out.
5, Originally "flivver" referred to the Model=T Ford, but later it was used or any low cost car.
Copyright © 2014, 2019 William B. Thompson. Commercial use prohibited