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the shell, the trajectory pattern, corrections for wind current and weight of the ball needed to hit a ship, say ten miles out. We’d take apart and reassemble Springfield rifles left over from the Spanish-American War, but not shoot them.
When the war started they took away the artillery and Springfield guns, and replaced them with wooden stocks. Mainly we marched, jogged cross country, climbed over obstacle walls and jumped barriers, two to three times a week.
I sometimes hitchhiked home and tried to insure a ride by wearing the ROTC uniform and putting a big Alabama A on my suitcase so the drivers would know I was a college student and not a bum. You’d take a streetcar to a certain corner in Northport where everyone was hitchhiking, and start ahead of the bus schedule so that if you didn’t get a ride, or got dropped off short of Hamilton, you could still catch the bus along the way.
I joined the Kappa Alpha fraternity the start of my second year. It was known for being the most Southern of fraternities, but the main thing I got out of it was meeting my wife, Mary, on a blind date. A friend picked up the sisters and I was supposed to go with Mary’s twin, Betty. At the last minute Mary chose me be-