Greenballs
02-11-2006, 03:05 AM
LETTER FROM A FREE STATE FARM KID, NOW DOING BASIC
TRAINING AS A COMMANDO
Dear Ma and Pa
I am well. Hope you are. Tell my boetie Wouter and my
other boetie Koos that being in the Kommandos beats
working for Oom Piet by a mile. Tell them to join up
quick before maybe all of the places are filled. I was restless at
first because you got to stay in bed till nearly 6 am, but am now
starting to enjoying sleeping late.
Tell Wouter and Koos all you do before breakfast is
smooth your cot and shine some things. No varke to
feed, no cows to milk, no mampoer to mix or braai wood
to split. Practically nothing. Manne get to shave but
it is not so bad, there's warm water.
Breakfast is strong on fruit juice, pap, eggs, bacon,
etc. but short on steaks, boerewors, chops, potatoes
and other regular food like vetkoek. But tell my
boeties you can always sit between two dorpies that
live on coffee. Their food plus yours holds you till
noon, when you get fed again.
It's no wonder these city boys can't walk much. We go
on "route" marches, which the Sersant says are long
walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it is not my
place to tell him different. A "route march" is about
as far as to our postbox at home. Then the dorpies
from the city get sore feet and we all ride back in
trucks.
The country is nice, but awful flat. This next will
kill my boeties with laughter. I keep getting medals
for shooting. I don't know why. The bulls-eye is
near as big as a dassie's head and doesn't move at
all. And it isn't shooting back at you like those
bl*ks*mse Venter boys from the next door plaas.
All you have to do is lie there all rustig like and
hit it. You don't even have to make your own
cartridges. They come in boxes.
Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat
training. You get to wrestle with the dorpies from the city. I have
to be really careful though, they break real easy. It's not like
fighting with Swart Duivel, our old bull at home. I'm about the
best they got in this platoon except for that GrootJan Jordaan from
somewhere in the Noord Transvaal. He joined up the
same time as me. But I'm only 5'6" and 130 pounds and
he's 6'8" and weighs over 300 pounds dry.
Be sure to tell my boeties to hurry and join before
other okes find out about this Kommando setup and come stampeding in!
Your loving daughter, Esther
:smiley36:
TRAINING AS A COMMANDO
Dear Ma and Pa
I am well. Hope you are. Tell my boetie Wouter and my
other boetie Koos that being in the Kommandos beats
working for Oom Piet by a mile. Tell them to join up
quick before maybe all of the places are filled. I was restless at
first because you got to stay in bed till nearly 6 am, but am now
starting to enjoying sleeping late.
Tell Wouter and Koos all you do before breakfast is
smooth your cot and shine some things. No varke to
feed, no cows to milk, no mampoer to mix or braai wood
to split. Practically nothing. Manne get to shave but
it is not so bad, there's warm water.
Breakfast is strong on fruit juice, pap, eggs, bacon,
etc. but short on steaks, boerewors, chops, potatoes
and other regular food like vetkoek. But tell my
boeties you can always sit between two dorpies that
live on coffee. Their food plus yours holds you till
noon, when you get fed again.
It's no wonder these city boys can't walk much. We go
on "route" marches, which the Sersant says are long
walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it is not my
place to tell him different. A "route march" is about
as far as to our postbox at home. Then the dorpies
from the city get sore feet and we all ride back in
trucks.
The country is nice, but awful flat. This next will
kill my boeties with laughter. I keep getting medals
for shooting. I don't know why. The bulls-eye is
near as big as a dassie's head and doesn't move at
all. And it isn't shooting back at you like those
bl*ks*mse Venter boys from the next door plaas.
All you have to do is lie there all rustig like and
hit it. You don't even have to make your own
cartridges. They come in boxes.
Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat
training. You get to wrestle with the dorpies from the city. I have
to be really careful though, they break real easy. It's not like
fighting with Swart Duivel, our old bull at home. I'm about the
best they got in this platoon except for that GrootJan Jordaan from
somewhere in the Noord Transvaal. He joined up the
same time as me. But I'm only 5'6" and 130 pounds and
he's 6'8" and weighs over 300 pounds dry.
Be sure to tell my boeties to hurry and join before
other okes find out about this Kommando setup and come stampeding in!
Your loving daughter, Esther
:smiley36: