Congratulations on your graduation from high school, Ernest! I see the that your summer following graduation (in 1917) has been filled with work on the farm. (Longfield Farm was a 40-acre property across Walloon Lake from Windemere - the Hemingway summer house. Longfield was purchased by the Hemingways, and as a teenager Ernest worked on the farm during summer holidays and frequently camped out there by himself and with friends.)
Good for you for taking full advantage of the opportunity to enjoy your summer hunting, fishing, and working on the farm - all activities that you love. Congratulations also on getting a job with the Kansas City Star as a cub reporter. It's great that you were able to connect with one of your summer buddies, Carl Edgar, to room together in Kansas City. What a break! And what a great way to ease into the pace of city life and a full time job. Don't forget to thank your Uncle Tyler for helping you get the position. Jobs aren't always easy to come by and you pretty much fell into this one!
Like many young men of the period, you're getting your first taste of life at a boarding house. Carl Edgar, your roommate, sounds pretty interesting. Besides being a summertime buddy of yours, you describe him as a 28 year old manager of the California Oil Burner Company. I'm thinking he might possess the know-how and savvy of someone older and perhaps wiser and might be able to help you as you adjust to your new life in the "big city."
In your letter (dated October, 1917) to your sister, Marcelline, you share that, "Carl Edgar and I jazz forth with Frequency...In truth it is the life at this place." It seems that your life has picked up speed and is "full steam ahead." In a letter dated November 1917 you share with your siblings that you have joined the Missouri Home Guard. Little do you know how quickly things will accelerate from this point. Being a cub reporter at the Kansas City Star carries no foreboding of being in the thick of war and at the front in Italy within a year. You, Ernest, who feel the pull of war calling you, "I intend to enlist in the Canadian Army soon but may wait till spring brings back Blue days and Fair. Honest kid I can't stay out much longer."
You, Ernest, the 17 year old man-child who romanticizes the Canadian forces, "They are the greatest fighters in the world...I may even wait until the summer is over but believe me I will go not because of any love of gold braid glory etc. but because I couldn't face anybody after the war and not have been in it." Ernest, my heart aches for you and what you don't know. Your naive exuberance will be crushed on the killing fields of Italy. You will carry both psychological and physical wounds with you, from what is coming, for the rest of your life. No young man should know what you will learn.
Setting that aside, it's obvious from your letters that you're really enjoying digging into the politics and public life in Kansas City and scribing about people and events.It sounds like there's plenty of craziness in the news room, with lots of young guys milling about trying to make a mark for themselves. You're in the thick of it alright - just where you like to be.
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