I was always telling jokes, playing practical jokes and seemed to havea ecstatic outlook on life ... maybe just because I still had it. I knewa lot of jokes from the days with the old gang back at home and everynight just after the lights went out and we were all in our bunks, Iwould tell a joke. I told a different one every evening of the eightmonths we were in this camp. It got to be like a bedtime story andthey expected it.

Murphy was another kid in our chamber and sometimes he would get apackage from home with cigars in it. He would be so happy he'd put twocigars inside his mouth with a cigarette between them and smoke all threeat once. When he got letters from his kid back home, whom wasreceiving all his allotment checks, he would hear of all the thingsshe was buying with his money to furnish their home when they gotmarried. I remember there was a piano bought along with all the otherfurniture. When we were back in Atlantic City waiting for discharge, Imet him standing on a street corner looking very dejected. His kidhad married someone else and used his money to furnish their home.