C.S. Ala
May 15th
My Dear Mother: -
Your letter received yesterday and Marion's the day before.
We are head over heels in our work of getting ready to leave. Just how many more weeks, (or days) we will remain here, we do not know.
They did not place a quarantine over the entire camp, so we can still go to town.
The strap on my wrist watch became rotted from perspiration so I bought one of those web (cloth) straps for it. Will get it tonight.
Well dinner is being served so will go to eat.
Feeling great.
Love to All
Howard
The watch above may very well have been the same model that Howard had, although we can't be sure. The Elgin Trenchwatch was sold at post offices or military bases. Wrist watches may seem like a regular part of life in this day and age, but Howard was most likely wearing a watch because he was a solider. According to Wikipedia, the military made the practical switch from pocket watches to wrist watches at the end of the 19th century, but the civilians who wore them were mostly women who considered them more as bracelets. That all began to change as World War 1 made wrist watches among military men more common place. Watchmaker H. Williamson Ltd. said in 1916 that, "It is said that one soldier in every four wears a wristlet watch, and the other three mean to get one as soon as they can." By the time Howard wrote this letter, it would have been standard for most soldiers to wear a watch, which helped the general public see wrist watches an manly.
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