“…you can tell when a fellow has something from home by the look on his face…”

Miss Millie Dobbs,                                                                                  France, Sept. 30, 1917

25 Howland Avenue,

Toronto, Ont., Canada

Dear Sister,

I’ve been trying for about a week to get an opportunity to write you, without success but here goes for a start and who knows when I’ll get it finished.

First of all I must thank you for the parcels I received…for which I believe you are responsible. They both arrived in first-class shape, the tobacco box not even being dented, and the delicious biscuits surely “hit the spot.” There were only a few broken ones but that only served to make more and there wasn’t a crumb wasted. As a coincident, the night I received the parcels I seemed to have a special craving for cake of some kind…aggravated by several of the boys coming into the “dugout” with “healthy-sized” pieces of cake which they had bought at the canteen and I was just going out to buy me “a hunk” when I collided with the mail Sgt. and he had your parcels in his arms. It wasn’t long before I had them all “sitting up to take notice” and as for the tobacco, I’ve nearly smoked myself to death since I got it. We have been fortunate though in getting tobacco here lately. We now get a free issue every week and of very fine quality too…We also received a couple of boxes from different tobacco funds in Canada and I now have a supply sufficient to last me nearly a month, so you see, this isn’t such a bad old war after all. You can’t imagine just how much a parcel from home is appreciated here…“treats” from home have an altogether different flavor than anything you can buy here and you can tell when a fellow has something from home by the look on his face before you see the parcel.

Well I suppose you had a great time in Winnipeg. I have been expecting a letter giving a full account of your adventures and impressions. I sincerely hope you behaved yourself and didn’t “imbibe” too freely and often. I had a very nice letter from Lil while you were away and you surely left a good understudy to do the work. She writes so nearly like you that I didn’t discover the “culprit’ until I had started reading the letter and noticed the different phrasing.

…Yours ever, Garn xxxx

Selection from the letter collection of Sergeant Dobbs, to his sister Millie and his brother Walter
CWM 20050153-001
George Metcalf Archival Collection
© Canadian War Museum