[Ewen B]

All this talk about black beauties and the green self inflating mattresses remind me on one ex that I was in at Valcartier. We arrived in the rain and they rolled out two tarps for the regiment to sleep in and under. No poles, no bivy bags in those days either. It was a good sleep other than we woke with a thousand pounds of rain sitting on the tarp laying on us. Glad a deuce didn't mistake us for a dirt pile in the rain. The next day it snowed and everything was frozen, and then the next day we were running around in the afternoon with sleeves rolled up. Only in Canada they say...bloody pity. I acquired a few of the black beauties a couple of years ago. Too bad the rubber is all hard and cracked up. I remember my grandfather telling me that he had to sleep on the hard floor at home for almost a year after sleeping on the hard ground in WWI . Wasn't used to a soft bed. E