This assignment was one of the better ones that we had. We were sent to a college for additional formal education in various subjects that we needed as shown by the testing that we had undergone. I was assigned to two months at Southwestern University in Memphis, Tennessee.
The buildings were English style stone and were very attractive. We were billeted six men to a room and I was very lucky to have five amiable roomates. Practically all the students there were females for most all of the males were in the service some where. We all thought that this was going to be one of the finest assignments that we could possibly have but shortly after we arrived one of the guys came down and died of spinal menningitis. One other got sick very soon afterward so we were all quarantiened. We had to march to class. No girls were in our classes so we could not talk to them for the duration of the quaranteen.
We were again split into two groups. One of the groups had classes in the morning and physical training (PT). Then in the afternoon we flew with an instructor in Taylorcraft planes. This was a breeze for me since I had already soloed oin this type of plane. We were not allowed to fly solo since the program was not set up that way.
We finally got out of quarantine. One of the things that had been happening was that the upper classmen had been hazing us. (This was still legal at this time and I thougt it was a good thing) They would ask you some funny question, you smiled, you had to wipe off the smile and put it in your pocket. It was your duty to remember how many smiles you had and when they reached a given number, you had to take them out of your pocket on the drill field and march them around giving them orders. Visitors would look at their son out there by himself giving orders to an unseen squad and would shake their heads. I am sure they thougnt that their son had cracked under the pressure.
The other thing that happened was that as soon as the quarantine was over, a dance was arranged for the next time we had an "open post" which meant that we were free to do some of the things we had wanted to do. I elected to go down town in Memphis for I had heard of Beale street among other things. When I got there, I was amazed at the music that was being generated from various things that were not thought of as musical instruments. The kids were taking a pan or anything that would make a sound and were using their elbows and fingers on their hands alternately to make rythmic sounds. Of course, I had also been offered some whiskey drinks and had accepted. When I got back to the college, I heard music off in the distance so had to investigate. The dance was going on in the gymnasium and there were lots of girls there. The guys were standing drooling over a girl that Sgt. Fabrizzo was dancing with. She was a beautiful girl. I looked at the guys and asked. "Why don't you cut in?" The Sgt. was in charge of a lot of things we did including inspections of our living areas. The guys looked at me and said, "You cut in if you are brave enough." The whiskey was talking to me so I went over, tapped Fabrizzo on the shoulder then cut in. The girl and I danced around to a door on the other side of the gym and went out. We were gone for about a half hour. When we got back, Fabrizzo met us and said, "Hinkle, you are in trouble!" The next Saturday I made sure that everything in our room was spick and span. Fabrizzo came in, inspected every thing and could not find a thing wrong. He then picked up one of my shoes and found a spot on the heel of one about as big as a dime so he roared, "That is 2 tours mister!" A tour meant that you walked at "quick time" for an hour. Fabrizzo did not know that I had made a date with Ann (the girls name) for 2 o'clock Sunday afternoon. I was devistated for she was going to come to the college then we would go from there. I started walking my two tours at one o'clock so would be done at three o'clock. Ann came, saw me walking the tours and sat down on a bench to wait till I had finished. Fabrizzo came by and told her that she should go with him for I would not be done until 3 o'clock. She made me happy even though I knew it meant more trouble for she told him that she would wait for me.
I finished up my studies in the two month time period and then went to Classification at San Antonio, Texas.

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