Mon, Mar 22, 1943: Happy Birthday

“Happy Birthday to you!  I suppose Stanley delivered the customary paddling and 'one to grow on' or is he big enough to manhandle you yet?  It was too bad that I didn't get home to be around the supper table for my share of that delicious angel-food cake, that mother not doubt made for the occasion.  But maybe, if you receive this letter in time, you'll save me a piece, which I can eat upon my arrival home next Friday.”

-- Letter from my father, Winfield, Kans., to my aunt, Barbara Brown, Bloomington, Kans., Monday, March 22, 1943.  It was her fifteenth birthday.

Mon, Mar 22, 1943: Victory Queen

“...Thursday night, I went to the box supper which climaxed a bond drive on campus, and during which the Victory Queen, Grace Eckel was crowned.  She was Kappa Rho's candidate, and won by having more stamps and bonds bought in which each penny's worth of stamps counted one vote -- purchases to cast the ballot-- than any of the other three candidates.  You may have seen her picture in Sunday's Eagle...."

-- Letter from my father, Winfield, Kans., to my aunt, Bloomington, Kans., Monday, March 22, 1943.  The Eagle is the Wichita newspaper.  Kappa Rho was the pep club my father joined in college.  (On bond drives, see my earlier post, “Wed, Apr 29, 1942: Victory Concert”).

Tue, Mar 2, 1943: water froze

"If it wasn't so cold here it wouldn't be so bad but it's so cold everybody has the old ‘J. B. hack’  Water froze in our hut last night."

--Letter from Bill Stanley, Jefferson Barracks, Mo., to my father, Winfield, Kans., Tuesday, March 2, 1943.  Bill was a private and fellow college student of my father’s.  “J.B.” must refer to Jefferson Barracks, where Bill was stationed, about five miles south of St. Louis.  In the early morning of March 2, 1943, the temperature went down to about 10 degrees at Bill's army post. (This is based on temperatures in St. Louis.  See weathersource.com).

Winfield, early 1943

My father, far right, with the others of the Kappa Rho (pep club) quartet at Southwestern College, Winfield, Kans., in early 1943.  All four joined the military in World War II.  As my father completed his sophomore year in the spring of 1943, he heard about military life in letters from at least two of his fellow quartet members, who had already begun training: Bill Stanley, far left, and Everett Samuelson, third from left.  My father, himself, entered the Navy in July 1943.

Tue, Mar 2, 1943: long past

“I'm finally getting to writing to all my college 'buds' I ran around with in and during my short college career at good old S.C.  Those were the days but I wouldn't trade any of them for the time I'm heading towards.  So far it's been hell.  Everything has to be clean. We mop our floor and shine our shoes every morning.  Remember when we didn't even make our beds at Sellers.  Those days are long past.  Our blanket on our bed has to be stretched tight as a drumhead….”

--Letter from Bill Stanley, Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, to my father, Winfield, Kans., Tuesday, March 2, 1943.  Bill was a private and had been my father’s freshman year roommate.