Me And My Uke

So, how did the ukulele get it's name?  Well, I've got two stories on that one, and  the first is the better known of the two.  Ukulele is from the Hawaiian and it roughly translates as jumping flea.  One would normally think that because the instrument is so small  and the strumming movement so fast that it would recall the insect, and that is part of it.  But, there is just a hint of British imperialism that goes along with that version of the story.  It seems that King Kalakaua employed Edward William Purvis, one of those ubiquitous Englishman, imperialist adventurer turned mercenary, in his officer corps.  Unlike the rest of the King's retainers, Purvis was a very small person, and full of nervous ticks.  He was also a lover of the instrument, and played rapidly.  His Polynesian comrades liked to make fun of him behind his back.  He was the jumping flea, and the name got transferred to the instrument.  The other story is a lot less interesting, and much more likely to be true.  It comes from Queen Lili'uokalani, the last monarch of Hawaii.  According to her, the name comes from two Hawaiian words, uku, which translates as gift and lele, which means to come.  Therefore ukulele means the gift that came here.

 And while we're on the subject of Hawaiian rulers, the next time a Texan says, "Well, after all, Texas was the only state that was once an independent country, and that's why we're so special," remind them of Hawaii.

So, even though the ukulele is thought of as an Hawaiian instrument, it's origins are actually Portuguese.  It was very popular with Portuguese whalers and they may have introduced the uke to the islands. (There was also a wave of Portuguese immigration to Hawaii in the late nineteenth century, an alternate explanation.)   In the nineteenth century, the Hawaiian Islands were at the center of the world's whaling industry.  With the Atlantic hunting grounds all but exhausted, European and American whalers were forced to seek their prey in the Pacific Ocean.  The waters around Hawaii were teaming with whales, and unfortunately for the native Hawaiians, they were rather friendly and welcoming of strangers.  The Hawaiians got the ukulele from Portuguese sailors, (Or settlers.) as well as a whole host of western diseases, land taken and carved up among sugar interests,  an overthrow of their government, and a certain amount of cultural corruption.

Fun fact about Hawaiian music.  In 1929,  Hawaiian born Yukihiko Haida went to Japan, his parents homeland, and formed The Moana Glee Club, a band that played Hawaiian music.  Their popularity soared and ukulele music became very popular in Japan.  During World War 2, the Japanese government attempted to suppress American music.  Jazz, big band, and Hawaiian music were targeted as degenerate forms of expression.  Despite the imperial government's best efforts, Hawaiian music retained it's popularity throughout the war.  In 1959, Haida, still living in Japan, formed The Nihon Ukulele Association.  Today, Japan is a hotbed of Hawaiian music and culture.

And finally, I have to recommend one of my favorite bands, Janet Klein and Her Parlor Boys.  Klein, the chanteuse of the ukulele, performs and records songs from the twenties and thirties with the occasional klezmer tune thrown in.  Type her name in your favorite search engine and bring up her website.  She posts a number of old, vaudeville related photos that are worth seeing.

Written on the back of the photo, "Me and my uke."  I'm thinking cabin in the Adirondacks rather than Hawaii.

Mother and Son

I should have put this one up yesterday.  We're supposed to be patriotic on inauguration day, and we do equate the military with patriotism.  Every time I see an image of a soldier with his mother,  I always wonder if he came back alive.

Life Among the Ruins

I really, really hope that someone out there recognizes the city in the background.  I've been doing Google images and haven't found a match.  Wherever it's from, it's a great picture.  If it were an 8x10, I'd think it a news photo or the work of a fine art photographer.  But it's not.  It's just a bit above wallet size.  A lucky snapshot.  My best guess is eastern Europe after World War 2.

71 Years Ago Today, Pearl Harbor

All I know about these photos is that they were taken in Hawaii in 1942.  I've written about this before, and it's time to bring it up again.  My father believed that the great depression and World War 2 were good for the average American.  Not the New Deal or the money of a booming war economy, but how the disruption of those two great catastrophes forced Americans to move from their small towns or the old neighborhood, to go out and mix with people not like them, to go out into a greater world.  I doubt the men in these photos would have ever seen Hawaii if it hadn't been for the war.  Many would loose their lives, and that doesn't make for the better life that my father talked about, but for those who survived....it's one of those things that's impossible to prove, but I tend to agree with my father.  

Now, to move on to a bit about Pearl Harbor.  This week, I had a rather one sided discussion with a couple of young men about Pearl Harbor.  One sided because I felt that what I was hearing was so irrational that it was pointless to reply.  And yes, what they told me is something that many Americans believe.  It was that old saw of the Franklin Roosevelt conspiracy to get America into World War 2.  Once again I had someone tell me that FDR new all about the coming attack and let it happen so that he could get a reluctant America into a pointless war for personal gain.  In the past I used to point out that a failed attack by the Japanese would have been just as effective in getting us into the war.  That if Roosevelt knew in advance, surely we would have set a trap for the Japanese fleet.  In the end though, I got tired of people telling me that I was an idiot.  Didn't I know that FDR and his friends made more money rebuilding the fleet?  That's why he wanted all of our ships sunk.  So he could get rich.  Sadly, that's not the stupidest thing I've heard from one of my fellow citizens about the war.  That honor goes to the young man who told me that we and our German allies beat the Russians and the Japanese.  When I tried to tell him who were actually our allies and which countries were our enemies,  I was told that that was my opinion, and that no person's opinion was any more right than any other person's opinion.  And this is what we fought for.

Camera Woman

I love pictures of people with cameras.  This one is dated "JUL 4 1946" a year or so after the end of World War 2.  It's inconceivable the lady in this photo didn't know a number of people who went off to the conflict.  The camera looks like it's from the thirties.  I have a number of them in my collection, and it probably uses 620 film.  That's six exposures per roll, and she must have gone through a lot of rolls of film taking pictures of her friends, now out of uniform.  But who was the photographer of the photographer?  The 620 format gives a long narrow image.  This image could have been cropped, or it could have been from a newer 120, or even a 35mm.   Perhaps a war souvenir.  Both the Germans and the Japanese have a long history of making fine cameras.

For anyone interested, lots of old, folding 620 cameras from the thirties still work and give a nice, sharp negative.  To use one, you'll need two 620 reels. If there aren't any in the camera, they can be found on EBay.  Go into a dark room, strip off the film from a roll of 120 film and respool it onto a 620 reel.  Most of these old cameras will have a small window on the back with a red, celluloid cover.  There a numbers on the paper backing of the film.  If they're visible, the frames will be 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11.  If the numbers don't line up with the window, good luck trying to figure out how far to advance the film per exposure.

War Is Dull

Watch a war movie and you'd think World War 2 was non stop hell.  The reality was that most members of the military were support personnel and for them the conflict was more boredom than terror.   My father was a ninth grade drop out who could do complex mathematical computations in his head.  That skill got him four years in a darkened room breaking codes.  He was stationed in England so he was able to get out and about, but he still spent  most of his time on base.  In the Pacific, the island campaigns were about capturing islands with airfields.  The marines would land, fight for a few days, a few weeks, or a few months.  After  the island was taken, the air corp would move in.  For the air crews, there were missions over Japan.  For the ground crew, it was servicing the planes and waiting for the war to end.  If they were lucky a USO show might come through.  If not, they had to amuse themselves.  It looks like these guys decided to put on a show, and in the all male environment of a Pacific island air base, someone had to play the girl.

Nagasaki

This is it.  The last of my nautically themed images...at least for awhile.

No, this postcard was not mailed from Nagasaki by a happy passenger making a first visit to Japan.  It was mailed from the New York offices of The Hamburg-Amerika Linie to the Reading Eagle in Reading, Pennsylvania.  It's a press release.  Pre-printed on the back of the card....

"New York, April 12, 1930

The "Resolute" arrived on time this morning at Nagasaki, as reported by radio-gram.  On the way there were Travel Lectures and a Bridge Tournament.

At Nagasaki, on the Island of Kyushu, Western Japan, the "Resolute" was greeted by the mayor and all other city Authorities, who gave our passengers a Luncheon with an address of welcome and Geisha Dances under the Cherry Blossoms.  This delightful reception was in Suwa Park, where is the Bronze Horse Temple, overlooking beautiful Nagasaki Harbor.

This is the place where resided if fictionally Puccini's Madame Butterfly and Pierre Loti's Madame Chrysantheme and their creators could not have chosen a more charming spot as the locale of their tragic romances.

Here every lover of the romantic and beautiful has felt a responsive thrill.

HAMBURG-AMERICAN LINE.

Printed in Germany."

I'm sure it would be possible to find out if the Resolute actually docked when this card said it did, and whether or not the entire city leadership showed up to celebrate it's arrival or not, but it is a pre-printed card, so I have my doubts.

Hamburg Amerikanische Paketfahrt Actien-Gesellschaft, (I'm glad I won't by typing that again) or in English, Hamburg American Packet Shipping Joint Stock Company,  was founded in 1847 to do one thing...make money from European emigrants headed to the United States.  As it's profits grew, the Hamburg-America Line expanded service to all  continents, excluding Antarctica. It became  the largest shipping company in Europe, and at times, the largest in the world.  In both World War 1 and World War 2, most of it's fleet was wiped out, but the company managed to survive both times.  In 1970, Hamburg-America  merged with Bremen based North German Lloyd to form HAPAG-Lloyd, still one of the world's largest shipping companies.  

Hamburg-America had a number of famous ships in it's fleet.  In 1939, The St. Louis, named for the French saint, not the city,   had a passenger list made up almost entirely of Jewish refugees.  After being denied entry into Cuba, the United States and finally Canada, it's captain refused to return the ship to German ports until he had found nations willing to accept his passengers.  Eventually he manged to get entry visas in a number of  European countries.   All except  England would be over run by the Nazis just a few years latter.

A far less famous ship, but one with an interesting history was The Amerika.  It first saw headlines in 1912.  While making a crossing from Hamburg to New York, it encountered heavy pack ice.  Its captain ordered his ship to come to a full stop, and also ordered a general advisory broadcast on the new Marconi wireless system.  With one exception, the Titanic, ship captains in the area either ordered a halt or slowed their ships to a crawl until daybreak. In 1914, The Amerka was at company docks in Boston when war was declared between Germany and Great Britain.  Realizing that it would be almost impossible for the ship to get back to its home port without being either captured or sunk, The Hamburg-America Line ordered the ship to stay in port.  When the United States entered the war, The Amerika was still in Boston and was immediately seized by the United States Shipping Board for use as a troop transport.  During the war, with its name Anglicised to The America, it carried troops to Europe as part of the navy.  After the war it brought them home as part of the army.  Returned to the U.S. Shipping board, in 1920, it was assigned to The United States Mail Steamship Company and after that companies demise, it was transferred to the United States Lines.  The America was a passenger liner on the north Atlantic run until 1931, when it was decommissioned and placed in mothballs.  With American entry into World War 2, it returned to service as a troop transport for the army with a new name,  The Edmund B. Alexander.  The ship survived the war undamaged, and continued in service ferrying troops,  and their dependents home, until 1949.  Returned to mothballs, it was scrapped in 1957.  I'm sure that the ship's designer saw his handiwork as an elegant and comfortable  way for passengers with a certain amount of money to get from Europe to the United States and back  Instead, his ship spent a large part of its life as a troop transport, dodging torpedoes in the north Atlantic.

Now, take one last look at this postcard.  In 1945, Nagasaki became the second city  (so far) to be destroyed be an atomic weapon.  Old photographs and postcards are a way of seeing a world that has disappeared or, sadly, been destroyed by one of the many wars of the past 100 years.  I don't think we're an admirable species.

Grace Arrives Safely

Postmarked, "NORFOLK, VA MAY 11, 12:30 PM 1931"  Addressed to "Mrs. Mattie Richardson, 4 Judson St., Haverhill, Mass."  And the message, "Mon. 7-45 A.M.  Dear Sister & Barbara, Just arriving at Norfolk.  Have had a nice trip.  A little rough & foggy.  Have been able to eat 3 meals a day which is more than most can say.  Grace"  Sounds like an adventure.

The Merchants & Miners Transportation Company was founded in 1852 providing passenger service between Boston and Baltimore.  Eventually, it would push routes south, beginning service to Miami in the twentieth century.  In 1926, the company bought three sister ships from the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company.  I've found a photograph, on the net,  of the particular ship design and it matches the illustration at the top of the card.  The Fairfax, The Chatham, and The Dorchester were used for the Florida run, they carried 314 passengers and 90 crew.  A few automobiles could be carried in the ship's hold for an extra charge.

With American entry into World War 2, the entire fleet of the Merchants & Miners was taken for use as troop transports by the U.S. Army.  The Fairfax survived the war, and after the war's end was sold to a Chinese company and  renamed the Chung Hsing.  The Chatham was torpedoed and sunk of Belle Isle Point, South Carolina,  in 1942.   It was the sinking of The Dorchester that made the news.  On the night of February 3, 1942, the ship was hit by a German torpedo 100 miles from Nassarssauk, Greenland. 675 people out of 906 on board died.

Among the dead were four army chaplains, Father John Washington (Catholic), Reverend Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed), Rabbi Alexander Goode (Jewish) and Rev. George Fox (Methodist).  The four chaplains gave up their life vests to others, and linked arms as the ship slid beneath the surface.  The captain also died.

After the war, the company didn't have enough capital to buy back or replace lost ships.  In 1948 they began liquidating assets and went out of business in 1952, 100 years after the founding of the company.

Because this card is a half tone, lots of little dots, I was unable to get a usable scan with out using the de-screen setting on the scanner.  That's why the images are a bit out of focus.

Little Gerhard In New York

As a rule I don't like to publish the backs of postcards, but my German is just too week to try and translate this message myself.  Limited to one term in college, almost forty years ago, I can make out Dear Mother and Dear Father, something left behind in Hamburg(?), the Zeppelin seen flying over New York.  If any actual German speakers would like to leave a reliable translation in the comments section, have at it.

I was able to find Gerhard Hansen's obituary in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.  He was born September 30, 1921 in Flensburg, Germany.  His parents were Hans and Frieda Hansen.  He arrived in the United States when he was five years old, so 1926 or 1927.   He would have been fourteen when he sent this postcard to his parents in Wickliffe, Ohio.  After his military service, presumably in World War 2, he became a math teacher, married and fathered several children.  He died on May 10, 2011.

Scant information on a life that lasted 89 years.  I'd love to know why Hans and Frieda took their young son to the United States in the mid twenties.  After World War 1, Germany went through a period of economic disruption, including a period of hyper-inflation.  And of course,  that led to the rise of a number of fringe political parties including the Nazi party.  Were Hans and Frieda just looking for a better life, or were they political and saw the hand writing on the wall, and got out while it was still possible?  Perhaps they were right wingers who flirted with the German American Bund.  I'd love to know.  And what about Gerhard himself?  Had he made a visit back to Germany? Was he returning through New York?  If so, was he happy to be back in the USA, or did he long for the Germany of his early childhood?  And what about his military service? As a German speaker, he could have been in military intelligence, translating documents and interrogating prisoners, or he could have been just another grunt.  I'd love to know.

The RMS Queen Mary made her first voyage in 1936, the year this post card was mailed.  She was built at the John Brown & Company ship yard in Clydebank, Scotland.  Her first captain was Edgar Britten, seen on the  card.  Her owners were The Cunard White Star Line.  In 1940, The Queen Mary was requisitioned by the British government for use as a troop transport.  She was returned to her owners in 1946, and resumed the north Atlantic run in 1947.  By the late 1950s, few people were using ocean liners to cross the Atlantic. Jet airliners had become the favored means of travel between the United States and Europe.  The Queen Mary's last voyage was in 1967.  Put up for sale, the city of Long Beach, California outbid a scrap yard.  The ship has been used as a floating hotel and tourist attraction ever since.  In her final few years of service, the crew would often out number the passengers.

Interesting story about how the Queen Mary got it's name.  The ship's owners wanted to name it the Victoria.  As a courtesy, they approached King George V to ask his permission.  "Your majesty, we'd like your permission to name our newest liner after England's greatest queen."  "My wife," he replied, "would be delighted."   I have no idea whether the story is true or not, but it's a good one.

France, 1940

Written on the back, "Aout 1940 au Bosquet Ales"  Translated from French, "August 1940, the grove, Ales."  Ales is a town in the Languedoc-Roussillion region of southern France.

One of the things I've learned is that life goes on. By August 1940 France had been conquered by the Germans.  The country had been divided between the occupied north, including Paris, and free France in the south, a fascist dominated government more concerned with pleasing Nazi Germany than the welfare of it's own citizens.  Despite that, there was time for these two ladies to stroll in a garden and pose for a picture.  Life goes on.

At Home and On Occupation

There's a famous story.  Douglas MacArthur,  newly appointed military governor of Japan, arrives at his post, sees the devastation and sends a telegram to President Harry Truman:  "Send food or send guns."

As we've found in the last decade, winning the war is one thing, winning the peace another.  After World War 2,  the United States, Great Britain, and France took an enlightened approach to winning the peace.  First, there was the deNazification program.  While the out right war criminals and major government figures found themselves in the dock, we decided that the minor officials, cultural figures, teachers, and members of the working classes, no matter how enthusiastic they were in their party activities, were dupes, and were allowed to go on with their lives.  And then there was the Marshall Plan, America's commitment to rebuild Europe, no matter the cost.  Any threat of a resistance movement ended, and our post war occupation went smoothly.

The occupation of Germany began right after the war.  Germany was originally divided into four zones of occupation.  The Soviet, British, French and American zones of occupation.  In 1947, the British and American zones were merged, quickly followed by a merger with the French zone.  In 1949, the first post war German government was formed, and the military governors were replaced with a Civilian High Commissioner.  Technically, the Commissioner had governance powers and could over rule the new German parliament, but, by and large, the Germans were allowed to run their own affairs.  On May 5, 1955, the occupation of Germany officially ended.  There are still American military bases in Germany.  

The first four pictures in the column are not labeled in any way, but appear to show our subject through his military training.  The fifth photograph is labeled, "Camp Kilmer, N. J. April 1951."  Camp Kilmer, named for the poet killed in World War 1, was never used as a training camp, but as a mustering point for troops being shipped from the port of New York to Europe.  It opened in June 1942, and closed in the 1990s.  Note that our subject is standing by a car with a Tennessee license plate. Could be coincidence, or could be his home state. The next picture, "Tompkins Barracks, April 1952, Swetzingen, Germany."  This is a misspelling.  Tompkins barracks is outside the town of Schwetzingen, and is scheduled to close in 2015.  The color photo is labeled, Fike Park in Wiesbaden, Germany."  It's also stamped, "THIS IS A KODACOLOR PRINT MADE BY EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY T.M. REGIS. U. S. PAT. OFF. Week of June 2, 1952."  Was their a photo lab on base for the troops?  Too, I think Fike Park might be mislabeled.  I've run a search for public parks in Wiesbaden, and nothing by that name came up.  And the last picture, "Wurzburg-Germany  Bahnhof-train station.  July 3, 1952."  I  wish there were some people's names listed. It's nice to have place names and dates, but being able to identify a person by name is always special.

I wonder what was going through the mind of this soldier.  Was he living the great adventure of his life, using his leave time to explore Europe?  Did he take trips to Paris, the Alps, Berlin, Basel, Switzerland?  (Go back  one post to see a ticket stub from the tramways of Basel sold to American service men on leave.)  Did he learn German or French? Or did he stay close to base, home sick, just putting in time until the end of his service, and a ship's berth back home?  I hope he saw it as an adventure and not a duty to be endured.

The American zone of occupation included Bavaria, Bremen, Hesse, and Wurtemberg-Baden.

The Tramways of Basle

 When I first saw this image, I thought it was a postcard, but when I turned it over I found that it was a ticket stub.  Printed on the back,

"Welcome in Basle!  Switzerland, now being honored with your visit, is but a small spot on the globe compared with the size of  your country.  Yet she has been lucky enough to preserve her freedom and independency  during the war.  Her democracy has been deeply rooted in the people for centuries.  This has always fostered friendly relations with all democratic countries.

We wish all Americans on leave the very best for their trip through this country, which offers lots of beautiful things in a narrow space.

TRAMWAYS OF BASLE,  The Manager.

Ticket Fr. 1-  Serie Ii  No.  8916"

I won't go into the history of Basel, spelled Basle in German.  If anyone wants to delve into the 1600 + year history of the city, they can go online or check out a book from the library.  I will note that the city is located where the German and French borders intersect with Switzerland.

Basel is serviced by the Basler Verkerhs-Betriebe, The Basel Transport Service, the BVB, owned by Basel-Statdt, the city of Basel.  The system operates both trams and buses.   Of course, ticket stubs picturing American soldiers would not be printed on a postcard sized stub for everyday use.  The service must have been offering tours for members of the American occupation forces.  I'm sure, before 1945, they were also offering tours for German soldiers on leave. After all, tourist money is always welcome.  I keep thinking that American G.I.s probably found bits of German graffiti on their tours.  Maybe a Swastika, maybe a bit of pro Hitler doodeling, or perhaps even some anti-Nazi scrawls.  No doubt, the American soldiers left a few choice remarks of their own.

Ted Fio-Rito

Two dates. I'm impressed.  It must have been the uniform.

It's been awhile since I've posted one of these souvenir photo folders.  Unlike the others I have, this one is more about the artist, rather than the venue.  Ted Fio-Rito was born in 1900 in Newark, New Jersey as Teodorico Salvatore Fiorito and had his first job as a professional musician in 1919 for the Columbia recording studios in New York City as a keyboardist.  He would work with a number of bands and also began composing.  In 1921 he moved to Chicago and joined the Dan Russo Orchestra.  A year latter, he was the co-leader of  Russo and Fio-Rito's Oriole Orchestra.  In 1924, they became the house band of Chicago's Edgewater Beach Hotel.  Russo left in 1928, and the band would eventually be known as Ted Fio-Rito and his Orchestra.  In the 1930s, Fio-Rito was a major presence on American radio.  In 1934, he had two number one hits.  My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii, and I'll String Along With You.  By the 1940s, the group had lost a lot of it's popularity but still did well enough to stay in business.  Eventually, Fio-Rito would abandon the big band for small combos, and had a second bout of success in Las Vegas.  He died in 1971.  There is a lot more info on Fio-Rito out there, for anyone willing to comb the web, including some YouTube videos.  And if you're like me and own a 78 rpm turntable, with a bit of effort, one can find plenty of recordings.  I own a couple.

The Sacramento Memorial Auditorium opened in 1927 and is still going strong.  It's on the National Registry of Historical Places.

Printed on the back of the folder,  "Additional prints are $1.25 each.  Address: Capital Enterprises,  Photographic Dept., 921 K Street, Sacramento, 14 Calif.

Describe picture thoroughly, mentioning number of people in photo, all points of identification possible and date or name of Band featured."

I'll bet a lot of people had trouble getting their prints without some sort of number.  Dated "DEC 16, 1944"

Click on night clubs or souvenir photo in the labels section to bring up a number of other photos, including one from The Edgewater Beach Hotel.

Nurses and Nazis

Well, there is a certain amount of guess work on this one, so if anyone wants to make a correction, feel free to leave a comment.

This photo was printed on Agfa Lupex paper, manufactured with an identifying logo, in Germany, from 1935 through the end of the war.  With it's German origins, I decided to start a search of web sites, looking for images of German uniforms, from the period.  And did those Germans love their uniforms!  It seems that everyone from school children to politicians were in some sort of outfit with brass buttons, epaulets and braid.  My best guess is that the two men in this image are wearing SS uniforms.  The man with the soup spoon, the general field uniform of the Waffen-SS, and the other man in the Waffen -SS uniform of the protection squad.  Since the SS had it's own hospitals, it would make sense that these two men, even though they would be from different units, would be at the same place, hanging out with the pretty nurses.

The SS was formed in 1920 as the saal-schutz, as hall protection.  Basically, they protected speakers from attack at party meetings, and beat the crap out of any hecklers that might show up.   Under the command of Heinrich Himmler from 1929-1945, the organization became the Schutzstaffel, the protection squad or defence corps,  providing security for party meetings and personnel.. During the war, the SS fielded military divisions, fighting along side the regular army, but not under it's command.  And of course, the SS had responsibility for carrying out the final solution.  For those who don't know what that means, the final solution was the  elimination of Jews and other threats to race purity.  It's quite possible that the two men in this photograph are war criminals, a nice phrase for genocidal mass murderer.

The famous black uniform with the death's head logo, often seen in movies, was the uniform of the Allgemeine-SS, the political arm of the group.  The SS, unlike the SA, and the regular military, took an oath of allegiance to Hitler, rather than to the German state.  A sorry example of humanity.

Liberty Ship

Another exception to the all photos rule; in this case, two cards sent by the same person to the same person. The liberty ship was based on a British design. Facing growing losses to U-boats and bombing raids, unable to build replacements, the British Admiralty began ordering cargo ships from U.S. shipbuilders. In 1941 The U.S. Maritime Commission began making some changes to British designs. Engines that ran on coal were replaced with ones that ran on oil. Sections would no longer be riveted, but rather welded. All sections and parts would be mass produced and then shipped to shipyards for assembly. At first liberty ships needed an average of 230 days from the laying of the keel to launch. Eventually that average fell to 42 days. The liberty ships were ugly, slow, and occasionally they broke apart. They also allowed the allies to move tons of weapons, ammunition, and food all over the world, something the axis powers were unable to do.

Both cards were addressed to, "Mr. John W. Lenhart, Route 1, Andalusia, Ala." There is a return address written on the liberty ship card, "Junior Lenhart, 155 Adams St., Mobile, Ala." The message on the liberty ship card, "June 1, 1943. Hello Folks, How is everything? I am O.K. just working every night and sleeping every day. I don't do much work. I just stand around most of the time. Nobody works very hard. Why don't you all begin to write? I've been here a week and haven't heard from home yet. Answer soon and tell everybody hello." Postmarked, "MOBILE JUN I 6:30 PM 1943, ALA" Credited, "Mobile Cigar & Tobacco Co., Mobile, Alabama. Photo by McNeely, COLOURPICTURE PUBLICATION, CAMBRIDGE, MASS U.S.A." The second card, "June 30 Hello Folks, I will answer your letters I got yesterday. Everything is O.K. down here except that I have got two cards from the draft board this week. I have to take the preliminary physical exam today at 3 o'clock. Yea, Joseph got here Sunday evening. He sent me a telegram to meet him at the bus station. I went back to work yesterday. We will be home Friday night about 10 or 11 o'clock if nothing happens. I will have more news when I get home. Just Jr." Post marked, "MOBILE JUN 29 7 PM 1943 ALA." Credited to, "U.S. NAVY COMICS. GENUINE CURTEICH-CHICAGO C.T ART-COLORTONE POST CARD (REG. U.S. PAT. OFF.)" Note that on the upper right corner there is a serial number, "USN-11" I would suggest clicking on the second image to bring it up in a bigger window in order to read the poem on the card.

Pals

Two affectionate soldiers? I know there's a modern day obsession with with trying to define people by their sexuality, and yes, there is a very good chance that these two soldiers were gay. But it's also possible that they were two men who faced war together and were pals. Pals who have faced death together and have a strong emotional, rather than sexual bond.

The German American Collection, Until Death do us Part

Written on the back of the first picture, "Our Wedding Day April 18th 1942 Until Death do us Part." I've scanned in the back of the second. Click on German-American in the labels section to bring up more images.

12/2/44

From Pearl Harbor to V-J Day more than 16 million Americans, mostly men, served in the military. Many of them, about to be shipped overseas, rushed into marriage and left behind pregnant wives. (And a few pregnant girlfriends as well.) In for the duration, not given passes home, a photograph was all they would see of their young children until the end of the war. Those who didn't come back would never see anything other than photos. This picture is dated "12/2/44" The Battle of the Bulge was only two weeks away. The invasion of Okinawa was only four months in the future.

Camp Grant

"Social "Mixer"-Service Club, Camp Grant, Ill. Dancing at the Camp Grant Service Club is enjoyed by every soldier. All types of entertainment are to be had here; include books, concerts, amateur shows, radio broadcasts, and impromptu gatherings. The Service Club houses one of the most modern cafeterias in the middle west, and offers a haven for the army man who wants "something to do" or merely wants to sit down and write a letter to the folks back home." Addressed to "Mr. Thomas Schiller, 1201 Meridian, Granite City, Ill." The message, "Dear Tom, Boy is it dead around. I sure miss home and that Good old Beer. Otherwise camp is swell. I think I am going to like the army. your Pal Ralph." Postmarked "2 ROCKFORD, ILL AUG 28 12:30 PM 1943." During World War 2, military personnel had hand franking privileges that allowed them to use the mails for free. The post office put a cancellation, an ad for war bonds, that partly obscures the soldiers name, and it's a shame because I can make out a last name with over twenty letters. This is what I can make out, "Pvt. Ralph Pasyustd (and then rest is obscured.) Co. E Bx T160 SU. U.S. Army, Camp Grant, Ill." Poor Ralph, he's bored, misses home and his favorite beer. But still, he thinks he's going to like the army. Well, it's not like he had much of a choice. In World War 2, once in the military, you were in for the duration.
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About Camp Grant. It was built on land outside Rockford, Illinois in 1917, and was decommissioned in 1921. It was used by the Illinois National Guard from 1924-35, and housed CCC workers from 1934-35. It was reopened in 1940 when the peace time draft came in, and closed after the war in 1945. Today, the site of Camp Grant is now the Chicago Rockford International Airport. From Sept. 23 to Oct. 1, 1918, over 1,000 soldiers died in the great flu pandemic that swept the world. For more info on Camp Grant, go to http://www.campgrant.org/

Steamed Crabs on Fisherman's Wharf, S.F.

Addressed to "Lois & Gil Yorba, 110-Morton Ave., Sierra Madre, Cal." This is the second postcard I have, sent to the Yorba family during World War 2. (Navigate back one to see the other.) The great depression and the war were great periods of internal migration in American history. The Yorba family had either family or friends who, at least, got to San Francisco and New York City. If they were like most Americans they knew people who spent time at a military training camp in some other part of the country, working at a war plant far from home, or overseas in Europe or the South Pacific. My father was born in 1919, dropped out of high school in the ninth grade because of the depression. He and his father ended up living in a dug out. (They dug out a flat spot on a hill side, pounded in some planking as a roof, shored it all up, and had an old rug for a door.) Then he ended up a homeless teenager, spending time with both the CCC and WPA. Then it was into the peace time army, then a few months after returning to civilian life, drafted into the war time army. As a cryptographer he never saw combat. but he did live in Iceland, England, France and then Germany. He thought that that was a good thing, and if it hadn't been for the depression and the war, he may have never got further than a few hundred miles from his small, home town.

"One of the principal industries of San Francisco is fishing, and centers around this point. From Fisherman's Wharf the fishing boats leave each morning to make their catches in shell fish and other sea foods. Here one may partake of the freshly caught ocean delicacies in one of the many outdoor stands or in the fine restaurants adjacent." Post marked, "SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF MAY 31 9:30 PM 1944" And the message, "Hello, We are simply eating ourselves in to a stupor but surely enjoying it. Going dancing at the Mark tonite. C you this weekend. Mary & Steve." And written in a different hand with a different ink, 'STAN HAS A NEW CADILLAC!" Of course since the auto industry had been turned over to war work, Stan had a used Cadillac new to him.