Jan. 19, 1918
My Dear Dad: -
The package containing Chemistry & Helmet rec O.K.
What do you think I rec. this morning? A letter from Guy Meade. It is the first time I have heard from him since I left.
I dropped my fountain pen this morning and broke the point (pen point). Owing to the quarantine I can't get it repaired in the city so will mail it to you as soon as possible.
Nothing new of importance. They are going to issue each one a pair of those big Hob-Nail Shoes. They will be the only shoe we will take with us when we leave the country(?).
I understand that Francis DeHaven has left for the Officer's Training school in Texas., where our fellows went.
Feeling Fine
Howard
At first, I thought that the quarantine was referring to the Spanish Influenza Outbreak of 1918, but the first case of Spanish Flu wasn't reported in Alabama until September 28 following this letter. I tried to do a search to see what the early 1918 Montgomery quarantine would have involved. Unfortunately, my search just yielded endless results about the Spanish Flu outbreak - too many to comb through for today. My guess is that it was relating to the measles outbreak Howard wrote about in November 1917.
Sadly, the next most exciting thing to research was Howard's pair of "Hob-Nail" shoes. I found a surprisingly specific webpage devoted to nothing but World War I soldiers' boots. Howard's boots were likely the Pershing boot or "Little Tanks" style (so name because that's what they looked like). They definitely seemed to be built like tanks. The soles were three separate sheets of leather - sewn, screwed, and nailed together. They were studded on the bottoms with hobnails, as well as on the toe cleats. They were built especially thick to withstand water and mud in the trenches, but were, understandably, so rigid that they made bending the foot difficult. I can't imagine those suckers being your only pair of shoes for months on end!
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