"In Italy..." Part 2

"They shipped us to three different outfits before we found one that had room to keep us.  I ended up at the 58th Service Squadron at Grottaglie, making parts for B-24s.  Our job was to repair combat damage when it was greater than could be repaired by Bomb Group routine maintenance.

We ended up on the hill with only on tent available.  It was an empty tent, except the women who were grazing their sheep on that hill used the tent to get out of the hot sun, so we ended up in their resting place.  Now there was no latrine anywhere near, but on top of that hill they had dug a hole, buried a barrel, and put boards on top of the barrel--that was our latrine.  You would sit there with a braced sheet, and there you were with your coveralls pulled down when you went to the latrine.  Now that was during a snow storm!  And it's kinda cold on top of a hill with your coveralls pulled down, but that was the only latrine we had when we first arrived.  So some of my first memories of being at Grottaglie, was being at the top of a hill in the middle of a snow storm with my coveralls down around my ankles!

Now the women grazing sheep on the hill had eating habits that would turn your stomach.  They would pick greens for their meal in the same area that the sheep were grazing.  I didn't want any of their greens!

When we were in this camp there were 8 men to a tent.  After a while, we learned of space available in another tent elsewhere in the camp, so we moved off the hill.  Now while in Grottaglie, there was a 10 year old Italian boy named Louigie who would come through the camp each day with fresh eggs.  We didn't know where he got them.  He would trade these fresh eggs for candy.  We were rationed one bar of candy and one beer a day, and I didn't need the beer, so I would trade the beer for candy.  The other guys in the camp were glad to trade their candy for my beer.  Well, I would then trade the candy for fresh eggs, so I always had eggs, at least one a day.  But I didn't have a frying pan, so I would go down to the mess hall and get a cook to fry the eggs for me.  I had eggs when nobody else in camp had any.

In 1998 during a trip to Italy, I located where the base had been.  At a bar nearby, I spoke to a man who said he was 10 years old when we were there.  It turns out that he was Louigie--I had found him again." 

To be continued...