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'Tea for Two' at Air Base Chapel
McCook watched 1942 end and 1943 begin in a variety of ways.
Several McCook churches were having "Watch Night" parties. The last hour of the watch at the Methodist church was a worship service with Denton Snyder and Dorothy Converse in charge.
The Fox had a New Year's Eve Jamboree starting at 11:45 featuring Gildersleeve, Freddy Martin and Les Brown and their orchestra and movie, "Seven Days' Leave" with Lucille Ball and Victor Mature. The Rutt Hall in the 400 block of West B Street was having a dance and the Junior Chamber of Commerce was sponsoring a dance at Memorial Auditorium. Strangely enough, it seemed that it 1942 the dances were bigger and more elaborate on Christmas Eve than on New Year's Eve.
Ida Grace (Peg) Smith wrote me a little remembrance of the McCook Army Air Base chapel that was pictured in last week's column. She and Wally Sandberg, Joe and Doris Barclay had a mixed quartet that sang at the chapel on Sunday mornings. Joe mentioned one time during rehearsal that he could pay anything ... movie tunes, opera ... whatever, during communion and nobody would recognize what he was playing.
Peg continued, "I don't remember what the bet involved, but you can be sure it was a bet! On Sunday morning, as we sat in the balcony located at the rear of the sanctuary, Joe was softly playing the organ while communion was being served. All of a sudden I caught a melody drifting in and out of what he was playing, and finally identified it as 'Tea for Two'! I alerted the other three and by the time Joe finished playing we were all rolling in the aisle with laughter (muted of course!)
He was playing it in a minor key, and using a different rhythm but if one listened very closely one could identify the tune. Am glad to know that the chapel still exists!"
In February 1943, McCook was moving into high gear for the expansion of the new Army Air Base. The chamber was again assuming the role of "clearinghouse" for accommodations for workers. With the local restaurants having so much trouble with obtaining sufficient rations and finding workers, the Army Engineers planned to feed as many of the workers as possible on site at the base.
Capt. Carson and G.L. Burney of the local rationing board were meeting to work out increasing the local supplies of meats and other foods for the augmented McCook population.
Some of you might remember this next event that I ran across in the January 25, 1943, Gazette. The armed forces were in need of knives for jungle hand-to-hand combat. The post office was the official collection point for the knives that were then offered to our troops.
Those collected in McCook included one knife confiscated by local officers that was enclosed in a leather case printed with, "Taken from a hobo."
Some had pearl or bone handles, other handles were deer horns or deer feet. The Gazette reporter was wishing that he could interview some of the original owners to see exactly what the history was on some of these lethal weapons. A photo appeared in the Jan. 29, 1943, Omaha World-Herald of Police Chief Lou Meissner, L.J. Woodward, William Hanke and Postmaster R.B. Sommerville displaying some of the 84 knives donated by Red Willow County residents.
Hometown boy Leland Sterr was assigned to the new ship U.S.S. McCook in January of 1943. Leland was employed at the Gazette as a sterotyper before he joined the Navy.
Young Tech. Sgt. Reinhardt Roth, formerly a Gazette carrier in McCook and Stevens, Dr. Pepper employee, was what was known as an Air Force "cannibal."
An article in the Jan. 8 1943, Gazette detailed exactly how these skilled mechanics would take parts from other planes to repair those they were charged with rebuilding. Roth was a sheet metal expert, working in North Africa.
I was rather shocked when there was an article about an Illinois mother who let her 14-year-old son "fib a little" to get in the Marines. He was killed in action a year and 13 days after he enlisted.
It seems like someone might have noticed that he was a little younger than the rest of the men.
"The Bystander" was talking about Southwestern Nebraska weather in his Gazette column of January 23, 1943. We all know that it goes up and down wildly and appreciate the balmy breezes when we get them. The Bystander wrote of Elmer Drake's thermometer showing a variation of "only 91 degrees this week." They had gone from nice weather such as we have had in the past few months to about -34 degrees.
I think this was a serious entry in the Gazette Personals... "Rev. Mr. Good and Rev. Cecil Swindle of Indianola were business visitors here yesterday." What a pair!