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September 26

This webpage reproduces a section of
The Collected Works
of Ducrot Pepys

by
Ronan C. Grady

Newburgh, N. Y., 1943

The text is in the public domain.

This page has been carefully proofread
and I believe it to be free of errors.
If you find a mistake though,
please let me know!

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October 24
This site is not affiliated with the US Military Academy.

 p30  October 10, 1941 . . . .

Monday. My other wife forgot to straighten his legs this morning when he arose and as a result was late to reveille. He says he believes he is possessed of a devil. This is a very foolish idea but I will not give odds against it. History is causing us all quite a bit of trouble, the maps especially. My sane wife has worked so hard he has lost all ability to distinguish between colors. My other wife just colors the land red and the sea blue. To drawing again where we did take up free hand drawing. No matter how I try every sketch I make ends up as a barn with a large weather-vane. I am not a little worried.

Tuesday. Math today. My other wife just discovered he has been studying the same book for both Calculus and Philosophy. He probably would have happily continued to do so if his Calculus instructor had not started wondering why all his answers came out in foot-pounds. My sane wife wore through his A‑squad breast plate yesterday evening and this afternoon he buried it in back of barracks with a very touching little ceremony. Although I do think his having us drink a toast in noxon​a was a bit extreme.

Wednesday. Drawing today. The only change in my sketches is that now there is a cow leering out of one of the windows of the barn. My other wife extremely excited over a rumor he has heard to the effect that the class of '44 is to be sold at public auction at an early date. I take no stock in it but it is true that they have been feeding us more meat than usual. There was a great and beautiful display of the Aurora Borealis tonight. Our enjoyment of it was marred by my other wife's noisy prayers and shrieks of fear. It is very wearing to live with a person who either screams at or bites anything he does not understand.

Thursday. My sane wife made a speech in English class today on the care and brightening of the back of breast plates. There is a growing faction that wishes to see him stoned. Tonight my other wife severely vexed by a visitation of white blurs, has retired in a huff to his locker where I hope he stifles. What a beautiful day to be dead on.

Friday. Another Drawing period. The cow has been joined by an obviously drunken horse. I fear me my eyes are getting strained. I wonder if I can re­quisition a seeing‑eye dog.

Saturday. My other wife came there is Inspection in all‑white today. When asked "Why?", he said "that after all it was one fifteen, wasn't it?" One of these days I am going to psychoanalyze him with an ax.


[image ALT: A drawing of a young man with pointed ears, sitting on the ground facing us with his knees drawn up; he holds a matchbook in his left hand and a lit match in his right, and the most peculiar smiling expression. To his right, seen from the side, a man wearing a similar yellow uniform — trousers made distinctive by a wide stripe down the leg, and a T‑shirt — advances on him vigorously wielding a huge axe, on the blade of which can be read 'FIRE ONLY'. It is a cartoon of a West Point cadet failing to under his roommate.]

"One of these days I am going to psychoanalyze him. . ."

Third classmen sat at ease in the Mess Hall today.


Thayer's Note:

a Properly Noxon, capitalized: the brand name of a metal polish, still sold today. It is currently manufactured by Reckitt Benckiser; see their webpage.


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Page updated: 16 Aug 12