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HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE . . . I know we are two days early, but
the Spooks won’t
mind.
Anyway, by the time you get this you may be eating Turkey or Kangaroo—or whatever
it is they cat where you are on Thanksgiving ... Uncle Sam froze all the turkeys
about two months ago... So you fellows would get yours. If you don’t get at least
a drum-stick and some white meat write to YLFH and we'll talk to them about it.
Yes sir, we'll talk turkey to them.
We wanted to say Happy Pheasant Season but we're just a day too late. The season
opened—about 0900—call it 9:00 a.m. with subdued thunder, More birds, longer shooting
hours, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., more territory—13 new counties—longer season, to
December 3rd. Of course, we are short on some things. With you gone, we’re short
on mighty hunters. We’re short on gas—three gallons per coupon and one coupon per
week—and if you’re caught off-base the OPA goblins will get you. Then you’re back
on your feet.
REMEMBER VAN OVER AT MANSON? Runs a store over there and docs some
taxidermy
work. Van advertised shotgun shells at $5.00 a box, was swamped with orders. OPA
stepped in and said “Naughty, Naughty.” Van said, “My shells are all gone and I
advertised them before you put on the ceiling.” Ceiling is now $1.38, but try and
get them. A fellow in Minneapolis woke last Sunday morning. Cars were lined up for
blocks, people were beating on the door, trampling down the grass. Some friendly,
practical joker had run an ad in the paper saying he had shotgun shells for sale.
He had no shells. He had to call the police. He finally hung a sign on the door
saying that he had no shells and went to the country.
FORMER MAYOR, BILL CADWELL is leaving town. Going to Houston, Texas.
Has
a swell life insurance setup. If you’re “deep in the heart of clap, clap,” drop
in.
They’re building a prison camp at Algona, expecting you fel- lows to furnish the
guests. An ad was run the other day for carpenters, 100 of them, to work on the
camp. Pay, $1.15 an hour, 70-hour week, time and a half for all over 40 hours .
. . Despite gas rationing, we still have accidents. Bob Drzycimski, age 16,
was
killed in an auto accident south of Vincent a few days ago. He was riding with Albert
Habhab. They ran into the rear of a truck driven by Shafee Habhab,
Albert’s cousin.
A week earlier Emerson Martin of Vincent had been run into near Vincent by
the Chicago
Great Western. He died the day before yesterday . . . Rationing has come to the
state liquor store system. Last week you could buy only one quart and that had to
be brandy or rum. Gin is not available. One quart of whiskey can be gotten every
second week.
WEBSTER COUNTY BEAT the last war bond quota by $126,000.00, That
was for the month
of September. Iowa was one of the leaders in the nation in the purchase of E bonds,
the little ones that the average fellow buys... 251 will graduate at Fort Dodge
High next June.
ON THEIR WAY TO THE ALTAR are Helen Knack and Aviation Cadet
Fenton Isaacson;
Helen Scheerer and Private Joe Louis, from North Canton, Connecticut;
Dorothy Namen and Irving Dorheim. On their way from the altar last
week were Marilyn Huebsch and John Clements . . . The Greek War Relief
is on in full swing. Clothing and shoes going to 912 Central Avenue.
IN THE HOSPITAL are three members of the bar—Bert Price, Alan Loth,
and John
Mitchell. Price and Loth are at Rochester, John Mitchell is at Mercy. Cameraman
Don Peterson is just back from Rochester and looks fine. Dr. Matt Sanders
went to Iowa City yesterday for an operation ... Last week we got ration book No.
4, All the schools closed for the three days of the ration book distribution and
the youngsters had a swell time . . . We've got lots of corn this year. Corn picking
is under way everywhere. Soy beans are going very high. Some places 35 bushels to
the acre.
IT’S BEEN A BEAUTIFUL FALL. The weather has been exceptional. Examinations
for county
teachers are being given this week . . . There is talk about rationing cigarettes.
Just talk, however. A “Smokes for Servicemen” campaign conducted by the Navy Mothers
and KVFD on Central Avenue recently sold 3,100 cartons for shipment overseas . .
. This is “Eat Potatoes Week.” We have so many potatoes in the country, we don’t
know what to do with them. Seriously, the Government is asking people, even the
stylish stouts, to eat more potatoes and to store what you can’t eat . . . Pete Smyth
of the telephone company is Commander of the American Legion Post ... More about
turkey, I mean the kind you eat. Twelve million pounds, scheduled for shipment to
men in the armed services, 24 million pounds are being plucked for you fellows in
this country.
THE DODGERS WERE THE NOTRE DAME of this part of the country—big,
rugged, fast. Bob
Rankin said “The best team in 25 years.” Bob played on the last state championship
team back in 1929. Dick Woodard, George Knack, and Joe Carpenter
with Howard Hamilton quarterbacking had run their opponents into the dust.
They were set for state championship honors. On successive weekends they beat Boone,
Perry, North Des Moines, East and West Waterloo, by lopsided scores. Then the Dodgers
went to East High, Des Moines. We had a bad day. We looked like a bunch of zombies.
Result—East High 12, Dodgers 7. Anybody here will lay you plenty the Dodgers could
beat ’em any other day in the year. The Charity game is with Estherville on November
12th. They are the champions in the lakes circuit. Haven’t been beaten in two years.
Between now and then the Dodgers plan a little friendly mayhem for Webster City—remember
'42, and Mason City—remember!! Well, pick your own year, as far as Mason City is
concerned.
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THEY MET IN LONDON . . . Lt. Gol. Glen A. Laffer and 2nd
Lt. Nancy Sittig
and had dinner at the Officers’ Club. Naney is with the Army Nurses, Col. Laffer
is with an Army Air Forces Depot unit ... They met in London... The Davis
brothers of Clare, Sergeants Richard and Maurice. They hadn’t seen
each other for eighteen months.
MEN WITH WINGS . . . Lt. Dan Tepfer is an instructor at
Geneva, Nebraska.
Lt. James R. Otto, high school and university grid star, is an aviation instructor
at Midland Field, Texas. Newly commissioned, Lt. Robert LeValley of Dayton;
Lts. Willard Hadjes, Frank Simms, formerly with KVFD, Ray Stone,
Jacob O. Thoreson, Marvin Vinson, Orrin Grant Thompson, Edward
Weiss, Howard B. Johnson, Ronald D. Smith, and Robert Sill,
all of Fort Dodge. Lt. Bruce Hanson, B-24 bombardier, is reported “missing
in action,” He has been taking part in shuttle raids from England to Africa . .
. Still in the Eagle’s Nest . . . Don Tepfer and Gordon Larson at
Wold-Chamberlain Field at Minneapolis; Aviation Cadets Robert E. Enfield,
Route 4; John M. Sweeney, Route 1, and Robert Johnson, 1726 Fifth
Ave. South, all at San Zatonio, Texas. Herbert J. Sayer, Army Air Corps,
Amarillo, Texas . . . Lt. Richard E. Davis, observer for a field artillery
unit, writes from Italy, “The people have treated us swell. They throw apples and
grapes at us as we go by.” Johnny Schaupp, writing from the Southwest Pacific,
says “Mother, I can eat anything that doesn’t bite back at me.”
THE LADIES, GOD BLESS ’EM. 2nd Lt. Mildred Johnson
of the Army Nurses Corps is in England. PFC, Vyva Cavanaugh Kerr,
lady Marine, is at Cherry Point, North Carolina, with the air station. Sergeant
Mary Welsh of the WACS is doing office work at Rattlesnake Bomber
Base, Pyote, Texas. Hi ho, Silver!
HOME ON FURLOUGH . . . Private John Martin, now
in Army Specialists Training Corps at the Citadel taking engineering. Charles
Pessica, engineer with the Army Air Corps at Salt Lake. Corporal William
Hill, with the Marines at Mojave, Calif. Corporal Walt Humphrey,
formerly of the Hi Ho, now at Camp Wheeler, Georgia. Ivan McBrayer,
fireman first class, returning to a new destroyer at Norfolk, Virginia. Dan
O'Connor, with the Navy V-12, home from Missouri State Teachers’ College,
Warrensburg, Missouri. Dick Muhl, home from Navy V-12 at Iowa State
College. Sterling Axness of Badger, home from the Navy on his way
to the Marine Corps. First Sgt. Alan E. Harper, Camp Haan, California.
PFC. Eugene Owen, Camp Joseph Robinson, Arkansas. . . Honorably
discharged Harris Frank Hoag, 32, back home after six weeks in
the hospital.
ONE OF THE FIRST German helmets seen in these parts came from Corporal
A. E. Tolefson. It was sent to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. T.
F. Tolefson, along with another package. The package came from Sicily.
That’s where Bud was and maybe still is. Only other German helmet we have seen came
from Walter “Buck” Vargason, formerly with the radio station, “the
handsome, lonesome, singing cowboy.” Buck is in North Africa, last we heard, in
the hospital with a minor injury. Slow Mail. . . Charles Martin
of Boston, now in the South Pacific, just had 800 letters catch up with him, after
18 months . . . Magnus Notvedt, former pastor of St. Olaf’s Lutheran
Church, is now a captain and a chaplain stationed at the Ordnance Proving Grounds
at Savanna, Illinois.
THE DODGERS HAVE A MASCOT. A fat, white gander, named Roger
the Dodger. Roger will be auctioned off soon to the highest bidder
in War Bonds, Roger parades with the cheer leaders, attired in a Dodger blanket
and harness . . . Just announced . . . Sgt. August Struhar and
Miss Linda Goodman married Aug. 21st. He is stationed at Grand
Island, Nebraska, and in the Army Air Corps . . . Sea dogs. . . Paul Joseph
Halligan, 18, Moorland, Vernon Gordon, 36, Route 3,
have graduated from the Naval training school for electricians mates at the University
of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Dear Joe:
This letter is written for you and all the other good Joes everywhere. For you and
all of those fellows like you who are gone from Fort Dodge and Gowrie and Lehigh—and
all the towns and farms in Webster County. There’s a lot of you gone and still more
going. Many of those going now are young fathers, fellows 28 and 29 with two, three,
and four children. We miss you, all of you. There’s hardly a home now from which
some man or woman hasn’t gone. I know you must miss us too, your family and your
friends, home and Central Avenue, duck shooting and football games. We thought perhaps
you’d like to hear about things like the football team and the city hall, what’s
new on Main Street. Even about the music we hear—"Pistol Packin’ Mama” is the Cinderella
tune of the year—started with a bunch of hill billies and look at it now! They’re
even singing it in Junior High.
We're going to send you a letter every week. We’re going to send it to every man
and girl in service from Webster County whose name and address we have. And daily
over the air we are asking people to send in those names. And that’s the way you
got this letter. Some thoughtful person, maybe your mother or your wife or your
sweetheart, sent in your name.
We're awfully proud of you and lonesome for you. We'll be glad when you are coming
home. You are in our thoughts and in our hearts always. We hope you like these letters
and that you’ll find time to write to us, Tell us what you’d like to hear and we'll
do our best.
This first letter is going to over 600. We hope next week’s will go to twice that
many. Until next week, so long and good luck.
ED BREEN, Your Home Town Correspondent.
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