"Brother it sure is hell"- Letters From WWII

The 5th Division, from it's landing in Normandy on July 9, 1944 to the last Division Headquarters in Vishofen, Germany, had traveled 2,049 miles and had been engaged major campaigns including Normandy, Northern France, the Rhineland, Adrennes-Alsac, and Central Europe.(from https://sites.google.com/site/fifthidhrs/home/history)

My father-in-law Herman Bekofske kept letters and postcards from friends who served in WWII.

Two letters were from PFC Robert Stanley Morris. In his letter dated June 12, 1945 Bob stated that he had worked at the Fisher Body Plant in Flint, MI as a foreman and a steel dispatcher. (After the death of her husband, Herman's mother worked at the plant. She supported the sit down strike and she was a proud member of the union.)

I have transcribed the letters as they were written.

April 7, 1945
Germany 

Hello Herman--
Today I received a letter from you with the heading of Hello Robert Stanley I like that very much especially the Stanley part, cute says I. 

I need not say how much I enjoyed this letter of yours being the first in almost two years that we have written one another. I usually say in my letters please excuse the writing as I am sitting in a fox hole but I guess it is me that is to blame and not the fox hole as right now we have just taken this town, that is yesterday, and I am sitting at a very large desk in one of the best hotels in Germany writing this letter to you- see it must be me and my sensibility, huh. 

Oh yes by the way it may be doesn't sound so exciting to you but last night I slept in a very good bed with clean sheets for the first time since I have been over seas almost a year and believe me I really did sleep. (Quote) (alone of course). 

Your Joe Hubie joke stunk- since I have been over here I have heard some very good ones but I don't think it would be very nice to put on paper so we will have to save them till I get home again. (Home what the hell is that) 

No, Herman I haven't lost my sense of humor, if we didn't laugh over here I do believe we would all go nuts and I do mean nuts- this is one hell of a war--people over here in Europe are starving not only in France and Luxembourg but here in Germany. But in England they do fairly good- it is a shame to see these people fight for a crust of bread
I see you have received your 1-A and Herman if you can, stay out of this damn Army at least try to get into the Navy- people that have not been on the front lines do not know what Hell it is and brother it sure is hell. 

You will never know the feeling when we walk up a hill to take a position or a town and you can see the damn Germans looking down your throat- you get weak all over and the skin creeps up your spine then things start popping and the first thing you know it is all over and you try to remember what you have done and simply can't. At night you are so tired that you try to sleep but so help me you simply can't for thinking o hell what a war.
We get all the wisky [sic] we want to drink over here in Germany that is one think that these people have. Well my friend I must close for now. Will write again soon
your friend Bob 

PS Say hello to Snider for me also Jack. Thank you. 

June 12, 1945
Germany Annsdorf 

Hello my friend:
Well will wonders never cease. I received a very good two page letter from you that you wrote on May the 29th very good to says I -as you know the War is over here in Germany. This Germany stinks believe me altho parts of it is very pretty. 

This letter of yours is very newsy Herman old Boy. I did and am really enjoying it I am glad to hear you didn't make the Army don't feel bad about that is one exam in your life that you are glad you didn't pass I'll bet- and I am glad for you and your wife 

So you cannot picture me in a fox hole huh Well old Boy who in the Hell wants to picture anything in a fox hole with those damn 88s and flying box cars and screaming meanies going over and I might say not all of them going over- all a man can think of is digging deeper -I have scratched up more dirt here in Germany, Luxembourg-France and Czech. than there is in the United States and I want you to believe most of it I was digging like a dog with my paws and you know what a dog digs a hole for- Well I dug them for protection but when the things became hot the boys and I dug the holes for the same purpose-sounds funny huh- it is funny by gosh -But by God it is the truth and now I laugh at the things I have done 

We reached a small town in Germany just after we crossed the Rhine River and we took the town Plus about 200 Germans just when everything was nice and quiet the Jerries came over with about twenty planes and straffed [sic] us but get this I was so damned scared that I stuck my head in a corner of a building took my steel helmet of and put it over my backside -can you picture that -but then a man does a lot of funny things at times like that 

I have been very fortunate while I have been here with the third Army fifth Div, the Germans called us the red Devils you see we wear or an insignia a red Diamond -well as I was saying I have been very fortunate of the hundred fellows that came in with me there are only two left besides me -I have thanked my lucky stars a thousand times that I liked hunting so well for years, these Jerries and pheasants are about the same target they both jump and hollar about the same only the pheasants jump higher-Oh well now the war is over in Germany I am wondering if the Japs jump now, all I want to do now is to get home for a few days before finding out if they jump or not. 

You mentioned about German Wiskey [sic] well Herman I have sampled plenty of it and about those Wolf Holes you talked about I sure as hell didn't want any Dutch Gal in a hole that was only three or four inches deep I had a hard enough time taking care of myself let alone any lady else anyway I was always to [sic] scared. 

You mentioned about Jokes yes the ones I have heard over here are Gems I will pour a few into your ears when I get home and your joke I thought was really cute and so did a lot of the fellows all in all this letter of yours is a dilly. Keep it up old Boy and I hope this but of scratching doesn't take as long as the other one to get to you. I am also writing a letter to Jack this evening I a glad to hear about Gary He is one of my favorite boys you mentioned about me being an ex steel dispatcher by all means Herman don't forget I am also an ex foreman of the Great Fisher Body my my how I chatter on Well I will close for now 

With lots of luck
your friend as always
Bob

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A family tree on Ancestry.com shows a Robert Stanley Morris born 2/16/1907 and died 4/20/1985.

On July 8, 1929 Robert entered the US at Detroit from Canada. He was 19 years old and living in Windsor, Canada; he was born in Walthamstow, England, and worked as a Bookkeeper. He was going to his Aunt Mrs. Carl Carlson of Flint, MI. It was his first entry into the US, passage paid by himself. The document also says that on January 28,1919 he entered Halifax, Nova Scotia, under the "British Quota."

The 1930 Census in Flint, MI shows he was working as a taxi cab driver, living with his parents Henry and Mae Whiting; Henry worked for the electric company.

The 1940 Census shows he was a steel dispatcher in Flint, MI, with three years of college, living with his wife Ethel M. and their daughter Sandra J. who was 2 years old. In a 1941 city directory he was listed as steel dispatcher in Flint.

His mother was Mae Fitzgerald born 10/9/1888 in India and died 6/19/1964 in Port Huron. She was the second wife of Henry William Whiting born 2/14/1885 in London, Ontario, Canada and died in 1950. Henry worked for Consumers Power and they lived in Flint, Lansing Grand Ledge, and Port Huron MI.

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The Red Devils

Notes: On September 25 there were 1400 Red Devils killed taking Moselle. With the surrender of Japan the Red Devils were deactivated on September 20, 1946.

To read about the Third Army Fifth Division, The Red Devils:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5th_Infantry_Division_%28United_States%29
http://www.combatreels.com/5th_infantry_division_europe_dvd.cfm

Land of Enchantment by Liza Wieland

A moving and beautifully constructed novel, Land of Enchantment explores the relationship between art and life, mothers and daughters, women and men. After I had finished the book, I turned back to the beginning to study how the author developed the story and its themes. It's that kind of novel.

Brigid Long Night's language is color and form. After the tragic deaths of her Navajo/German parents she is employed by Georgia O'Keefe. New Yorker Julian Granger visits O'Keefe he and Brigid have a brief affair. Father Edgardo helps Brigid find a home for her baby and Brigid goes to New York City to start an art career that culminates in an installation at the World Trade Center.

Sasha Hernandez has lost her adoptive parents. She knows her mother is the famous artist Brigid Schulman. A film student in New York City, she captured the falling bodies from the World Trade Center on 9-11. She meets Rodney, a psychologist whose friend Henry Diamond has been searching for information about his sister Nancy who jumped from a collapsing building.

Wieland's book comes at the story from multiple viewpoints, utilizing first person and third person narratives, weaving the characters together in a complex interrelated web.

At times I was so moved I shuddered and turned away and inward, remembering that day, those images, the shock and resulting disassociation.

Art is compulsion for these characters: Brigid the painter, Sasha the film student, Nancy Diamond the playwright, Henry Diamond artist. It is how they process life.

I was greatly impressed by this book.

"We have art in order not to die of the truth." Frederich Nietzsche

Syracuse Press through NetGalley provided me the e-book for a fair and unbiased review.

Land of Enchantment
Liza Wieland
Syracuse University Press
Publication Date March 15, 2015
ISBN: 9780815610465
$24.95 hard bound

Show Boat Hanky

I have long wanted this vintage handkerchief. Finally got one!

http://www.broadwaymusicalhome.com/shows/showboat.htm
http://www.npr.org/2014/06/05/319095991/1936-show-boat-a-multiracial-musical-melodrama-now-out-on-dvd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9WayN7R-s

Album Quilt Blocks from 1876

My new Clawson quilter friend Theresa Nielson brought in antique album blocks given to her. Two of the blocks are printed with the maker's signature. Our best guess is the signatures are that of  Mrs. G. O. Williamson, Macon GA and Mrs. A. E. Johnson 1876.

They are just wonderful!

Two More Little Quilts

I made two more small quilts for the quilt guild silent auction. I have been finishing odd blocks and incomplete projects.

CAMEO quilt guild's show will be held June 5 and 6, 2015 at The Madison Place Conference Center in Madison Heights, MI. This is my first year with the guild.

This applique block didn't make it into my Jacobean Rhapsody quilt. I took a class with Gabrielle Swan with the Capital City Quilters and the block I started that day turned into a whole quilt! I have 'lost' my better photograph of the finished quilt, which is hand appliqued and hand quilted.

Next is a quilt I designed a few years ago with an Easter Bunny giving a fox a basket of eggs. It's about getting along.

I think I am done with the silent auction quilts. Instead I am gathering fabrics for a pattern by Bunny Hill Designs I have long admired and purchased on sale a few weeks ago her Pumpkin Pie Quilt.
I haven't gotten it out of my head since I first saw it.

An Antarctic Mystery by Jules Verne

No doubt the following narrative will be received with entire incredulity, but I think it well that the public should be put in possession of the facts narrated in “An Antarctic Mystery.” The public is free to believe them or not, at its good pleasure.

Thus begins Jeorling's narrative of An Antarctic Mystery.

I follow Garrison Keiler's A Writers Almanac and learned that Sunday, February 8,  was the birthday of Jules Verne. I had read Verne as a kid but have not read him since I was perhaps 13. It was about time to revisit Verne.

I checked around for free e-books and came across An Antarctic Mystery. Being a sucker for polar exploration stories I settled on reading it.


I was happily surprised to learn that it was based on Edgar Allen Poe's 1837 novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, using the story and characters in a kind of 1897 version of fan fiction.

Pym was inspired by a news story of a ship that sank. The subtitle is tells it all: Comprising the Details of Mutiny and Atrocious Butchery on Board the America Brig Grampus, on Her Way to the South Seas, in the Month of June, 1827. With an Account of the Recapture of the Vessel by the Survivors; Their Shipwreck and Subsequent Horrible Sufferings from Famine; Their Deliverance by Means of the British Schooner Jane Guy; the Brief Cruise of this Latter Vessel in the Atlantic Ocean; her Capture, and the Massacre of Her Crew Among a Group o Islands in the Eight-Fourth Parallel of Southern Latitude; Together with the Incredible Adventures and Discoveries Still Father South to Which that Distressing Calamity Gave Rise.

Verne imagines the captain of the Grampus has a brother who searches for him, and several characters whose deaths were erroneously reported. It would help to read Poe's novel first, but if you don't (I had not read Pym since I was in junior high) Verne offers enough information for the reader to understand the story.

Captain Guy's ship has come into port. American Jeorling is weary of the Desolation Islands and wants to board with the Grampus to get out of town. Guy won't agree to taking him on until he learns that Jeorling is from Connecticut and was familiar with Pym's narrative. Jeorling believes Poe's novel is fiction, although Poe in the novel refers to the story as a history. Guy argues it is fact.

"Captain! Why, that story is due to the powerful imagination of our great poet. It is a pure invention.”
“So, then, you don’t believe it, Mr. Jeorling?” said the captain, shrugging his shoulders three times.
“Neither I nor any other person believes it, Captain Guy, and you are the first I have heard maintain that it was anything but a mere romance.”
“Listen to me, then, Mr. Jeorling, for although this ‘romance’—as you call it—appeared only last year, it is none the less a reality. Although eleven years have elapsed since the facts occurred, they are none the less true, and we still await the ‘word’ of an enigma which will perhaps never be solved.”

It takes a while for Jeorling to change his mind, but he becomes as ardently monomaniacal about finding Pym and Len Guy as the captain. That way lies...shipwreck, mutiny, death, and lurid discoveries. I won't give away the story.

So then it was all true? Edgar Poe’s work was that of an historian, not a writer of romance?

I had great fun reading this book. I remembered my love of Verne's Journey To The Center of The Earth as a kid. The science is inaccurate, sure. The South Pole was not reached until 1911, so Verne in 1897 could imagine a polar world where summer reached 34 degrees and open water ran trough the continent of Antarctica. There is a dramatic rescue of a man overboard. No one would actually jump into the Antarctic sea, or could survive it. Critters and birds abound.


There is racial prejudice typical of Verne's time. The mysterious and heroic 'half-bred' from Indiana is very strange in physic and seemingly impervious to the elements. He has super sharp vision and a gruesome secret. The black cook's teeth shine white, and he is not very intelligent--typical of his race. (Poe's racism is also evident in Pym.)

I sped through the book in two sittings and enjoyed it very much. I loved the idea of Verne's writing a sequel to Poe's book.

To read about Poe's story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Narrative_of_Arthur_Gordon_Pym_of_Nantucket
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2149/2149-h/2149-h.htm
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/24/arthur-gordon-pym-nantucket-edgar-allan-poe-100-novels

To read about Verne's story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Antarctic_Mystery
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10339/10339-h/10339-h.htm

World War I Quilts by Sue Reich

World War I Quilts by quilt historian Sue Reich new book looks at quiltmakers response to the Great War, including Red Cross and fundraiser signature quilts and quilts made to honor veterans, set in perspective against pre-war early 20th c. quilts.

Chapters include "Quilting Through the 1910s"; "Loyal To The Cause: Quilts for Soldiers"; "Under the Red Cross Flag"; and "Afterward: Poppy Quilts: The Fields of Flanders".

The book's full color photographs of quilts, vintage illustrations and photographs, vintage textiles and ephemera make a visual feast. (The pages were slow to load on my e-reader because of the many photographs!) Along with chapter introductions and a foreword, Reich includes related newspaper articles about quiltmaking from across the country.

There is a wealth of information in this book. It is not a book you will causally flip through, looking at the quilts, and call it 'done.' You will want to take it in small pieces, enjoying the details, returning to it again and again. I laughed when I read advice to cut the worn feet off old socks and use the tops as quilt batting. Another article suggested sewing channels and inserting padding into the channels as an 'easy' quilt.

Early 19th c. quilts incorporated printed flannel pieces given away with tobacco. After crazy-quilting's ruling late Victorian culture, a patchwork 'revival' invigorated quiltmakers. There seemed to be a competition for quilts with the most pieces. Quilters had new products available. The availability of electricity meant electric sewing machines could be employed for quilting. Nationwide quilt competitions began in 1910. Signature quilts and embroidered quilts continued to be popular. Women's magazines abounded with quilt patterns. Quilt designers like Marie Webster and Ruby McKim arose to offer patterns for modern tastes.

Quilters rallied to support war efforts. Signature quilts raised money. We find Red Cross quilts, Ladies Aid Society quilts, and quilts featuring textiles with patriotic and political themes. The Biscuit or Puff Quilt was created without batting to "conserve wool for our soldiers in the battlefield.'

The 1918 flu epidemic was devastating. Preventative measures included the burning of bed linens, including quilts. Post war quilts included Poppy quilts to commemorate veterans.

Quilters have traditionally responded to current events and needs: Abolitionist quilts; the Sanitary Fairs during the Civil War; fund raising quilts for church building and missionary work; Temperance quilts; and for WWI war efforts and the Red Cross. Quiltmakers continue their response to this day. Michigan quilter Ami Simm's Art Quilt Initiative raised $1 Million dollars for Alzheimer Research; recently a member of my Clawson quilters group attended a ceremony where her son received a Quilt of Valor for his military service.

Quilt historian Sue Reich has published a series of books. Her forthcoming book of Presidential and Patriotic Quilts, also from Schiffer Publications, will include the Presidential Quilt Project created last year--including my John Quincy Adams quilt. Sue's books include WWII Quilts; Quiltings, Frolics, and Bees: 100 Years of Signature Quilts; Quilts and Quiltmakers Covering Connecticut; Quilting News of Yesteryear: 1,000 Pieces and Counting; and  Quilting News of Yesteryear: Crazy As A Bed-quilt. 

Some of the quilts in her new book can be seen at
http://www.coveringquilthistory.com/quilts-of-world-war-i.php

I received the free ebook through NetGalley for a fair and unbiased review.

WWI Quilts
by Sue Reich
Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
Publication: Dec 28, 2014
ISBN:9780764347542
176 pages, all full color
$39.99 hardcover

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I have several WWI era handkerchiefs in my collection. They were sent or brought home to sweethearts and family members, often made of silk and embroidered. The embroidery thread was not colorfast! These were for 'show' only.