Dear Ma, Pa, Barb, Ann & Ele Letter No. 80

Co. "A" ASTU 3920
U. of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
9/8/43
Letter 80

Dear Ma, Pa, Barb, Ann & Ele,

It doesn't seem like I'll ever get away from the West coast. I'm about 30 miles from the West coast between the Coastal Range Mts. & the Cascade Mountains & about in the middle of the state. But I don't think anybody could ask for anything better than what we have right here. I'll tell you about it in a minute. We left Moscow at 5:30 last night and arrived here about 1:30 PM today. First we went to Spokane, from Spokane we headed southwest to Wallula on the Wash. border and traveled along the border next to the Columbia River to Portland & from Portland down to Eugene. Eugene has a population of about 20 thousand and is a beautiful clean place. I raved about the conditions we had at the University of Idaho, but believe me when I say that the conditions and the campus are far superior than those of Idaho. It's a much larger campus and it holds a lot more students. We live in a men's dormitory, and the place is wonderful. I am with a friend of mine (Ronald Hemenway) (Kansas). There are two in each room. We have double beds, a sink, two closets, 6 large drawers & 4 small drawers, medicine cabinet & 3 mirrors. It looks like this: [drawing]

We have a latrine & two showers on each floor. The mess hall (or shall I say dining room) is immaculate. In fact the whole place is immaculate. We eat from plates & have cups & saucers for our coffee. Tonight for chow we had ham, potatoes, & cabbage on a plate, coffee, bottle of milk & a glass, [?] on a small plate, butter & bread on a small plate & a piece of pie. And boy it's good. The lounging room is like an old fashioned place with big heavy furniture. It's really swell.
Everything done so far has been done with perfect organization. And the way they talk it's really going to be swell. But we will have to work real hard.
We start classes on Monday. We will find more about the campus tomorrow.
I'll tell you more tomorrow. And I'll write when I can because we won't have too much time for ourselves. Until then I remain,

Your Loving Soldier Boy,
Love & Kisses
Tony

P.S. Please tell Grandma & Aunt Anna. I'll write to Grandma tom.

T.