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| Dad's envelope art, 1945 |
As a kid, I was always in awe of the little envelope drawing. Kinda still am.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Seeing As It Is Still August...
I feel okay posting this.
Mom and I were going through old photos and whatnot this evening and I came across the drawing above. This drawing was done by my dad and decorated the envelope of the first uncensored letter that he sent home to his parents. The postmark is September 2, 1945. In the letter he relates the jubilant atmosphere aboard ship with both radio and jukebox blaring simultaneously, the rumors of the voyage back to the states, and the anticipation of going ashore in Japan the next morning after 66 consecutive days at sea with no anchorage. He also mentioned that the bugler was so ecstatic that when he played reveille that morning, he put a little swing into it and was immediately thrown into the brig! My dad was an original crew member of the USS Alabama, thus a plank owner. He served on the Alabama as Chief Fire Controlman.
As a kid, I was always in awe of the little envelope drawing. Kinda still am.
As a kid, I was always in awe of the little envelope drawing. Kinda still am.
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5 comments:
A real - and very personal - piece of history there, Deb.
The letter has a lot of other interesting details. Particularly his description of sailing through a typhoon, watching three of their ships roll completely over on their beams and capsize, and seeing the bow of the cruiser Pittsburgh break off during the typhoon.
Good grief!
If there isn't a museum out there that would proudly display such a treasure, there should be.
Somewhere around this place there are some from my uncle Hughie. Hughie was killed in the mountains of Idaho on a training flight...Army Air Corps. Of course he drew airplanes on the envelopes!
I think the artwork, collected from many, would make a very interesting traveling exhibit.
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