April 14/44

Dear Mother and Dad,

I am still a mess man here and I will be on it for a week or two I guess. The work is not bad and we can get lots to eat. I had about 5 or 6 plates of ice-cream for dinner today. The food is really good here, the best I have ever had. We get off duty watch while we are on mess work. There are at least three movies a night here and they are the latest films too. I have been to a different one every night.

We get week-end leave every third week, and I am going to Montreal when mine comes up. I have not gone to see the town here yet but I will one of these nights. The water is drying up fast and the mud should be gone in a week or so. The barracks here are more healthful than Chippawa because we get outside a lot more, and at Chippawa we were inside all day. I will add more to this letter later.

Taylor and I went down town at noon today to look the town over. It is a nice little city of around 15,000. There seems to be a lot of construction going on and you can here nothing but French. I took some pictures of a cathedral and then we went to the market. This is the maple syrup season and the street was filled with booths. They were selling the maple syrup and sugar in blocks and chunks of the maple syrup candy. I bought a big piece for 5¢. It realy is good and and hard as a rock. We had a hard time talking to the vender but at last we got what we wanted. We would point and say “Combien pour cela?” and he would give us the amount in French. We went to the K. of C. hut and then back to the ship in time for supper. I am going to the show tonight, I have been to a different show every night.

I am going to go to Morse Pool at night starting Monday, so I will have a start when we begin our course.

Your loving son,
Malcolm.

vive la Quebec.