Rudy

Last week I opened my big mouth and said I would have something to post for Sepia Saturday this week, especially if the theme was World War II, cooking, kidneys or strange outfits. Well, guess what? It seems I got my wish. So, here's the story of Rudy, the uncle-in-law I never met. I'm not sure if you can accurately call a person an uncle-in-law, but it seems less cumbersome than 'the brother of my father-in-law.'

Rudy was born in Binghamton, New York in about 1920. Here he is as a toddler.

 Here's another picture of him (on the left) with my father-in-law, John.

Rudy was in the army during World War II, stationed in England.  Here's a letter he wrote home in 1944.

Rudy worked as a cook in the army.

Does this picture say something about his cooking?

Later, Rudy ended up at the 127th Station Hospital. In the letter below, it sounds as if he is working at the hospital, but this is about the time he became sick and had to be hospitalized. For a long time, they couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. Finally, they discovered he was suffering from kidney failure. The story I have heard is that they went to remove one kidney, but found that he only had one. I don't know if that detail is right, but I do know that it's true that he only had one kidney. There were no kidney transplants at the time and dialysis was in the early development stages. Poor Rudy died at the age of 27.

Here's a letter Rudy sent to his brother John, who was also in the army. I'd love to know what the censors blocked out here.

Be sure to stop by Sepia Saturday for great stories and photos, which may or may not have anything to do with cooks, kidneys, or World War II.

Orlando, Florida

I wonder if it's just nostalgia that makes me like these cars more than modern ones?

Corporal Eveline Lapan, a WAC stationed in Orlando during World War II, writes home to her parents:

November 4, '45

Dear Ma + Pa,

Got here O.K. at 1:30 P.M. Had a nice trip. Will write letter later. Everything  is different here. The girls only need 25 points to get out now, so plenty are leaving. Going to Lakeside with Marcello now.

Love, Evelyn

Note that she spells her name as Eveline at the top of the card and Evelyn at the bottom. I'm not sure why. As much as I love stamps, There's something pretty fun about military personnel being able to send a card with "free" in place of the stamp.

Does anyone have an explanation for the 25 points to get out?

Camp Upton, N.Y.

The picture above is a real-photo card of Camp Upton, on New York's Long Island. Camp Upton isn't there anymore; in its place you will find Brookhaven National Laboratory. Camp Upton was built hastily in 1917 as an induction and training center for World War I soldiers. One of the soldiers at Camp Upton was Sergeant Irving Berlin who wrote Yip, Yip Yaphank while he was there. The commanding officer at the camp wanted to build a community center at the camp and thought that Berlin could help raise $35,000 to build it with a musical revue. The Yip, Yip Yaphank production included the famous song, Oh! How I hate to get up in the morning, and made $80,000 for the Army, which never built the community center.

The camp was deactivated after World War I, and the land was designated Upton National Forest and  reforested by the Civilian Conservation Corps. With the advent of World War II, the camp was reconstructed and put back into service. Camp Upton was then declared surplus on June 30, 1945, but it was decided that the base would not be dismantled.  Instead, it was converted into a research center for the peaceful uses of atomic power. These are all world War II era cards.

Save That Boy!

One thing in particular strikes me about this card, sent in 1943. It's the boy in the second row on the very left. His pants are pulled up high by suspenders. He looks like a skinny farm boy, who has fed the chickens, milked the cows, and is now being sent off to war. His family misses him already. I want to send him back home, but it's decades too late.
The message on this card reads:

This is what I looked like 4 months ago.

Love, Charles

Veteran's Day Postcard

The picture on this card was originally an advertisement for Gruen watches.  Gruen then made a postcard out of it, which served as both a patriotic message and an advertisement.