CALLS AND SEMI OFFISHUL SOSIAL F'JNCCHUNS:
(From The Infantry School Neva)
If you are a civilian, all you have to io is call on your frends and if
the peple next door gets nasty about your puting your close on their closeline
you don't have to have nuthing to io ’vith them, but in the Army it’s difren-.
In the Army, besids calling on your frends, you have to call on other peepj-e
like for inst the Commanding Offiser and peeple that calls on you and you have
to roturn it.
Vhen you first. cone to a post it is everybody s business to can on yo
first except you have to call on the Commanding Ofviser :irst# fhey is ^nothing
so terribly bad about that though* Of course the old gent probiiy has .1 t seen
you before and he wi 11 be embarrassed and not know what to say, buo you can aJ-l
ways out him at ease by cracking; some joke or something and laughing and saying
something like Colonel haven’t I saw you somewhere9 before seens to me you was
in the Base Section SOS in France* Or you can say Wasn t you the Colonel
what fell of fen his horse in the 1st Bivision parade* And then most likely he
will slap you on the back and say OH Yes and laugh, and after that everything
will go all right* You see pit you have to do is use a little tact which is
saying the right thing at the ri sht tine. It will be .ill right then if you ig~iC
up a camel and ion't be afraid to offer one to the colonel but don t offer one
to his wife ascolonels wifes don't generally smoke in oublic* ^ne thing to re
member is not to be soared of the old man as he is genrully a pretty good fellow
If youshould hap ?en to drew your cigarette butt on the floot it is proper etikeG
not to notice it but just cover dt up with your heel an i be sure and put the
light out oil it as cigarette ashed keeps moths out of the rugs but you don t
want to sett his house on fire.
After you have been to a post quite a while everybody wil cone around
to call on you# If you should happen to be undressed when they knowks it is the
proper thing not to answer the door as it might be just ^ th e maid and again it
might not and they’d have tne Irrdgh on you# If you don t go to the door they
will lrave there cafds on the door mat and that mean3 just the same as if you
had let them in and now its your turn to call on them#
These obligashuns which you have to pay out theirs no use <utumeu
about it. They may be a lot of people you have to call on but just think you
will finda lot of them not at home or not answering the ioor anyhow and you can
genrully kill a'bunch of calls in oneni&ftt this way* A good way to get rid oi
a lot of calls li ke this when you don't want to really see the necple is to gc
Sunday afternoon when they is all at the polo game and you will get to leave ah
bunch of car is without finding none at hone 'Then theys another way where you d
don’t even have to go if you have an intane.it freni which you can trust to do
it this way ani that is to give then a stack of your cards and then when they
go around calling a?very place thsy Ion t fini nc one at home "they vill leave
your cards their to ani that fixes you up on a lot of calls. Thi3 is done a
lot at receptions where they cant possibly check up on you they is so man'/ T.hej
and all your frends have to io is drop your cards on the silver plate as they
goes in the reception room.
Thys lots of formations which is called seni-offisul sosial funcshuns .
where youhave to go or you are considered horse de combat by the 4)0* Inis is
for inst a respshun by The commanding cffiser where he says th9 commandmg
offiser desiBS that you be present ac such and suen a place and tnat desires
don’t mean maybe* You better go to this formation. It is genrully resepshuWa
and dances that is gi ven in ho nor of sonebc dy from Washington.. _
Then they isthe Tuesday afternoon bridge ani na jongg club which all the
ladies goes to and that ain’t such a nice custom either aa they takes turns at
entertaining and when its your turn it knocks a big hole in your pay as ohe la
dies is jklicways trying to outdo each other on the refreshments. iia Jongg xs
a new kind of game that everybody is get Ghg nuts about* It is a kind of hin
ese dominoes but there aint an/thing much to it except saving up one kind of
V ov er