Country Bumpkin
By James K. Richardson 
Co. B, 272nd Regiment

Shortly after graduating from High School, August 27, 1940 to be exact, I enlisted in the United States Army.  The air waves at that time were loaded with non commercial spot announcements, encouraging graduates to "join the army and pick your own job"  I bit on it hook line and sinker.  The recruiting sergeant was extremely nice, and I thought if this is the way that I would be treated by our Drill Sergeant, I was going to get along just fine.  I was a farm boy, from north east Texas, and had never been more than 25 miles from home.  Dumb as a door knob in the ways of the world.  After I joined up with the recruiting Sergeant, he gave me meal tickets, travel, and hotel room vouchers.  I traveled to Dallas on an Interurban Railway car. I was the only recruit on the car, but I was met at Dallas by a soldier who took me to the hotel.  I couldn't believe how much money I was allowed on a dinner meal (we called it supper in Texas).  Being a growing boy, I used it up.  The next morning we were taken to a recruiting station, stripped, probed, and generally examined.  After being sworn int, they gave us  more meal tickets, travel vouchers, etc and turned us loose on the big city of Dallas.  It was early in the day so I spent 15 cents of my own money and attended a movie.  I had lots of time to kill, as our train didn't leave for Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio until midnight.  I decided that my Aunt who lived in Dallas would be picking up her mail at the Post Office after she got off work, so I waited outside the post office from about 4:00 PM until 4:30 PM, not having the slightest clue that people didn't pick up their mail at the Post Office in a town the size of  Dallas. The good Lord must have been enjoying watching over this dumb country boy, for about 4:30 My Aunt and Uncle drove up to a drop off mailbox at the Post Office, and I spotted them.  They were amused when I told them that I "figgered" they had to pick up their mail.  I jumped in their car, and told them I had to be back at the Railroad station at midnight.  They took me home, fed me and gave me a few spending dollars, and delivered me back to the Railroad station into a 5 year adventure, I will never forget.