The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Hinds Smith Page 1
Arab Alabama
September 11, 1942
To Herbert, my brother,
Through all the years of a boy's life he dreams of a time when he might do some good,
great thing. Because of it he will be loved and praised and honored by all who deep in their
hearts cherish the four freedoms our fathers strove to attain through other days of "blood and
sacrifice, sweat and tears".
That time has come for you. Tomorrow you go to camp and ah! How proud of you we
are. Yours is a privilege as well as a duty. Make well of it. Only the best you can do is
enough for the country that has mothered you from babyhood to manhood, straight and
strong, God-loving and true to the ideals of this our America.
There will be bright, beautiful days ahead; dark ones too. But on those days you will
have these memories always with you: the orchard in bloom; the big trout you caught; the
harvest moon about wide hay fields; white cranes on the lake, your arrowheads, framed; your
bird hooks in rows, the autumn painted ridges; the winter's first snow; blazing logs on the
hearth; the hound dog, Gal, possum hunting with you; fresh plowed fields and the trees first
green; the smell on your hands of fresh, warm milk; the old turkey hen's nest under the
gnarled rose bush; Twilight, yo ur trumpet and you and "Star Dust" or "Concerto in B
Minor"; a mother's goodnight kiss to her only son.
All these and more are the dear, close things you have known and will come back to and
in the years to come, in your heart you will feel: - These things I have loved and fought for,
they are mine and my sons' who will come after me - my God, my home, my country.
Your most devoted sister
Flora Ann S. Hinds
