Category: <span>Genealogy</span>

Christmas Dinner Menu – Victoria Field, 1941

Yet another find from grandma’s scrapbook was this menu that grandpa sent home to her.  He was stationed at Victoria Field in Texas for the Army Air Force, and this was the menu distributed to them for their Christmas meal on December 25, 1941.  An airplane decorates the front and the back has the menu which includes a pretty decent spread as well as desserts, cigars, and cigarettes.  The whole thing has a red cord tied around it and the inside is blank, maybe to save time/ink by just printing on one side of the paper and folding it in half.  Grandpa sent back lots of these, and it’s neat to see meals served to troops training to leave for war soon.

 

Old Postcard – .. and send me home

Grandpa sent dozens of postcards to grandma while he was away with the Army Air Force, and it was neat to watch them go from being addressed to Miss and then Mrs after they got married.  This one was sent July 22, 1942 from Foster Field, Texas and there’s no stamp because postage was (and still is, in some places) free for the military.  Grandpa just wrote “Free” over the stamp box and it got straight to grandma, no problem.  I’m only posting the front of the card, not the back with the message since that feels a little too personal, but the back indicates the postcard was published by “Southern Card Co., Sa. Antonio, Texas.”  It’s a pretty funny postcard and seems to have a number of variations I saw on a quick google search.  The postcard has an image of a donkey and says, “I’m Out On a H.. of a time! When I can’t stand, tie this to my buttonhole, steal my pocketbook, wind my watch, and sponge my clothes, tie this tag to my [ass] and send me home.” There’s a space for name/address, then at the bottom, “Keep this out of the newspapers, and tell my wife it was an old stomach trouble.”

Postcard with a donkey that says, "I'm Out On a H.. of a time!  When I can't stand, tie this to my buttonhole, steal my pocketbook, wind my watch, and sponge my clothes, tie this tag to my (image of donkey) and send me home."  There's a space for name/address, then at the bottom, "Keep this out of the newspapers, and tell my wife it was an old stomach trouble."

Christmas Menu 1943

Another find from grandma’s scrapbook was a series of holiday mess menus grandpa had sent home from various posts.  This one in particular was from 25 December 1943 at Foster Field, Texas and featured a message from John J. Glennon, the post chaplain.  The menu also mentions the mess officer, Lt. Ned N Sweitzer and Mess Sergeant M-Sgt. H. E. Anderson, and there’s what might be a cover design credit to Pvt. Stanley S. Karafin.  It seems like a pretty standard menu with a turkey dinner, vegetables, and desserts, but notably missing from this one, at least when compared with others, is a mention of cigarettes and cigars below the desserts!  Short and sweet today – I have a few more of these to post, but I’ll line those up for future posts.  Click any image to see the full size.

Mothers’ Day Postcard

Every once in a while, I remember I have something in the genealogical stash that lines up with the holiday at hand!  This postcard was found in a box of grandma’s things in a set of postcards that didn’t belong to her or any family member.  I honestly have no idea how she came across them!  I had contacted someone via Ancestry.com who was related to the person most of these were sent to, and neither of us could make a link.  Anyway, today’s postcard was in that set and I only found it online one other place, so I thought I’d share it today.  The front is printed in tones of blue with “Mothers’ Day” at the top, a photo of a woman, and carnations framing a poem that is as follows:

To Honor Our Mothers
Just one such kindly face,
A heart so filled with grace;
Gift of the One above,
A mother, and her love.

The back says it’s No. 212, price $1 per 100 by Meigs pub. co., Indianapolis, Ind.  Made in the U.S.A.  Someone wrote in pen what appears to say, “Compliments of the Epworth League 1934” – the Epworth League being a Methodist association for young adults that existed under that name from 1889-1939.  Grandma was Methodist, so it’s possible this was actually hers or her mother’s, or that the link between her family and the family mentioned in the postcards lies in a connection made through the church.  As far as who that woman on the postcard is, it doesn’t appear to be of Anna Jarvis, the founder of Mothers’ Day, and I couldn’t find anything more about who she might be even after doing a Google Image search and trying to find the author of the poem.  If you happen to know, definitely drop me a comment!!