Leafing Through The Past - Part Funf

[mgc1961]

This is the fifth in a series of posts about the contents of a stack of photo/scrapbooks created by the mother of my brother-in-law. With the possible exception of three of them, they seem to have belonged to Sis and contain letters, photographs, and souvenirs from her years at a South Carolina college (Erskine). They have been posted here in the order in which I have examined them for my sister rather than the order in which they were created.

The following contents are found in the scrapbook with the brown cover.

This album contains a returned V-Mail to Jake. Sis is writing it in her psychology class. The date is 15 Mar 1944, about two weeks after Jake's death. She says, "From now on I'm going to be a good(?) girl and not get in any more trouble!" Sis also mentions her tan "getting blacker every day." At last, the first name of her friend Dugan is in this letter (Frances). She closes with, "Gotta stop now cause the teacher is giving me the evil eye."

July 13-15, 1945 was spent in Atlanta. Sis ate Saturday dinner in Magnolia Room in Rich's shopping center and then went to East Side Lake.

They apparently traveled to Atlanta by rail because there's a Seaboard Railway luncheon menu in here. Baked fillet of fish with espagnole sauce was $1.35, Individual vegetable pie was $1.35, and the cold cuts with potato salad was a pricey $1.40. The coffee was 15 cents.

A photo of the mother and wife of Dick West (Jake's co-pilot) is in here. By the way, I checked bags for the wife of soldier returning from Afghanistan yesterday. He was returning without three of his limbs.

Her friend Clyde Boy married Velma Truesdale.

Jake Sr. seems to have been a pilot if the newspaper clipping in this album is enough to go on. The header is Chester Pilot Explains Rule. The subject of the article concerns the Chester baseball team being disqualified from the state tournament for an age-ineligible player. The team reported it's own error and asked to continue playing the remaining games.

There are six (6) returned letters sent to Homer "Cookie" Cook during his imprisonment (March 9 - April 29, 1945). He was a member of the 365th Fighter squadron, 358 Fighter Group. His middle name is Bridges according to his wedding announcement from 29 July 1945.

Robert Moffat Anderson's fate was revealed by a Belgian woman who reported seeing his airplane explode in mid-air killing the entire crew. The graves was discovered by Loyd Boyette and a letter sent to Robert's parents telling them so. Apparently, his death was similar to Jake's friend Charles "C.C." Young.

Sis went to the 1945 Clemson vs Presbyterian football game. The program and ticket stub are in this album. Cost of admission: $1.20. She also attended the Clemson vs. Wake Forest game. Again, the ticket stub and program are here. The cost was higher that the Presbyterian game ($2.40.) Clemson lost 13-6.

There's an AP article about 62,000 servicemen returning to New York. Sis wrote below it, "Chester (Martin) came home on Dec. 14, 1945."

Chester's Tom White returned home from Europe after spending 157 days in combat and receiving two wounds to die in car wreck near Pineville, NC at the age of 20. He was preparing to attend the University of North Carolina as a journalism student and had begun writing a book about his combat experience.

Claus Busch, Jr. joined the Navy.

I counted the names of the deceased service members in the Clemson Memorial Service bulletin from the Dec. 7, 1945 service. There are 349 of them.

Her friend, Page Robinson, joined the naval reserve and was called up. He served on the fuel tanker U.S.S. Genesee. There's a long, well written letter from him dated Sept, 15, 1945. The letter was sent from Japan. It outlines his travels and experience during his part of the Pacific war. It's an interesting letter. He closes with, "The Genesee was not without faults. There were gripes and groans; troubles with the engines, guns, radios, water, chow and many other things too numerous to mention, yet these growing pains were overcome. We called her many bad names, but now that she has been tempered in the heat of war, in the roar of the typhoon and the pounding of the sea, we can say -- and proudly too -- Mission accomplished, Mighty G. Let's go home now!"

There are three (3) well written love letters in this album to Sis from Dwight L. Barker.

In addition to her employment application, Sis was closely following Delta Airlines growth in the southeast. There are several newspaper clippings concerning the addition of routes and a large order of DC-4's.

The Dean of the Erskine Theological Seminary, William W. Boyce, sent Sis a graduation letter wishing her well in "the wide, wide world." It's dated Jan 10, 1946.

Page sent Sis an RCA Radiogram on 11 January 1946 saying he will be in San Pedro, CA on the 20th and will call her when he arrives.

The last 6-7 pages are empty with the exception of a few personal photos and cartoons clipped from a magazine.