LETTERS: CCC worker responds
(Following is a letter Helen Beckham recently received from a former CCC worker in Kansas.)
To the Editor:
I read with interest and nostalgia your recent CCC letter to the editor of the Burlington paper (Coffey County Republican). It was very informative to me in many respects.
I joined #1709 at Lake Fegan near Toronto when I was 20 years old in 1934. I was working for Woodson County helping the county engineer mostly, but wanted the change.
I started as a clerk in the headquarters but wanted to be outside as a truck driver and got reassigned. Shortly after, the truck tipped over on an incline and I wound up in Ft. Riley hospital, then reassigned to the headquarters unit for the state in Ft. Riley.
There I became familiar with the locations of all the units in Kansas, as I was working in quartermaster where all records of material assigned to units were kept. The jobs as drivers of the two sedans we had that enabled the "big boys" to visit the units periodically were the most sought after, but they never came open while I was there.
The headquarters was as different from life at Toronto as day and night. It was a small company, maybe 60 or less, housed in a military barracks. We took our meals at the "Baker's and Cook School." The school's primary reason for being was to teach soldiers from the 7th Corps the art of cooking. They could use us as guinea pigs, I reckon, but the food was delicious.
We had to furnish a KP per day as I recall. On weekends we "hitchhiked" to Topeka, Salina, and other places closer. Three of us went to Marysville, found girls, dances, something to while away the weekend.
It was a learning experience and may have been helpful in my future dealings with the Army for 23 years. I doubt if very many who were in the CCC that early are still around. I didn't realize until I read your letter that the CCC went until 1942.
I was around so many officers that when I went into the service, I aimed to become one. I did, survived the war, stayed in the Guard or reserves, and retired as a major. I get by Fegan quite often and it all comes back. I am now 89, going for 90 in July. Lady Luck smiled on me several times.
Glenn A. Shaw
Yates Center
