Skip to content

2-Oct.-45

One sees rice fields at various places around here, but this isn’t the main rice producing section of the Philippines. They grow many of the crops here that we grow in the States. Corn is grown during the same season that we grow ours. Rice growing in the fields looks a lot like wheat in its green stage and when it’s ripe the kernels of rice are found in the top part of the stalk the same as wheat. The money that we use here is pesos and its value is half that of our Am. currency. It is counted the same as our money in the bills and in making change, etc. Prices here are very high, but they have dropped to a certain extent since the Am. troops first arrived here. One very seldom needs any change here in coins for almost everything that one buys is in even pesos. There are many Filipinos in the selling business and all day long they come around to our tents here with their shoes, fans, and bags, etc. All of the goods that they have to sell around our tents here is handmade and it is very neat work. The shoes they sell are carved out of wood and have straps across the top to hold them on. All of the hand bags and things such as that are made out of reeds and various types of
grasses. Many Filipinos wear wooden shoes with just a strap across the toes. It seems almost impossible to me that they would stay on their feet, but they seem to get around very well with them. I guess shoes are hard to get around here, so that is all they have to wear.

At the present time the orders are that we are to return to the States as a unit and no man will be transferred from the unit with more than 60 points. It is reported that we are to go back with the 38th Div. There is a small Red Cross about a mile from our camp here and every night many of us go over there for coffee and doughnuts. They also have programs of various kinds during the week. We played bingo the other night and last night there was a band from some unit there and they really played very well. We don’t have to work very hard here. We have four platoons and only one has to work each day. Last Sunday Mitchell and I went into Manila to a football game at Rizal Stadium. They have a football league here
and games are played several days each week. Rizal Stadium is located at one of the universities here and I imagine that the stadium holds around 15,000 people. All big baseball games were played at this stadium in peace time. We played a colored unit in this same depot the other night and defeated them 18 to 14 in a basketball game.

Phone conversation of July, 2000: The Army during the war always kept colored units separate.