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Memories
Of Christmas During
WWII And The Year Of 1950
I believe
that most people have heard the saying "you can take the
boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of
the boy." This saying proved to be very true during the
Christmas season of 1942 for this country boy from Liberty, Casey
County, Kentucky, when I made my first time visit to Danville,
Boyle County, Kentucky. I was 13 years old at the time, and I
had never been out of the town of Liberty, except to visit relatives
in other parts of Casey County.
I had heard people talk about Danville, and I had hoped many
times that someday I would be able to visit this city. Now my
dreams had come true, and I was shopping in Danville during the
Christmas season of 1942. I do not know how I got to Danville,
but I do remember crossing the railroad tracks (on old State
Route 35) at Shelby City and seeing a large "Coffee Pot"
on the right hand side of the road as we traveled north through
Boyle County. This "Coffee Pot" was a thing of beauty
to me, and I can remember seeing a man go through the door into
it. I believe the "Coffee Pot" was later torn down,
but this was my first memory of Boyle County, Kentucky.
I only had 35¢ to spend on Christmas presents for my family,
but I was able to walk the streets of Danville see the large
number of business establishments at no cost to me. I remember
Marshal's Restaurant on the street coming from Hustonville and
Moreland. I was able to visit this restaurant on future trips
to Danville, and I remember they served delicious hamburgers
with lettuce, onions, and tomatoes for only 5¢. Liberty
did not have a bus station, but I can remember a large Greyhound
Bus Station in Danville. Many passengers were inside the bus
station on this day waiting to board buses for destinations outside
of Danville. I believe Trailway Bus Lines were later permitted
to pick up passengers outside the bus station.One business place
in Danville that will always hold a precious spot in my heart
was the Brunswick poolroom. There was a young man by the name
of Whitey who worked in the poolroom, and he sold the best hotdogs
that I have ever eaten. It wasn't the wiener that was the real
treat, but it was the chili that made the hotdog so delicious
to eat. For years to come, members of my family (including my
mother) always enjoyed eating these hotdogs on their trips to
Danville. I have always wondered if Whitey is still alive, and
how I could get the recipe for making this chili.
One thing which had caught my interest in a hurry on this trip
was the two theaters in Danville. The two theaters were the State
Theater and the Kentucky Theater. I remember the bright lights
from the marquis, and I could only imagine how nice these theaters
were in the interior. The fact that I worked at the small Allen
Theater in Liberty only added to my interest in them. I was later
able to patronize both of these theaters, and I can say that
I was not disappointed in my visit to either of them. I believe
the Kentucky Theater had the larger seating capacity of the two.
The largest store I visited in Danville on this Christmas trip
was a large department store called the Hub. I do not know whether
this store has closed since WWII, or if it is still open for
business, but I can remember it was a very nice store. I indicated
earlier that I only had 35¢ to buy Christmas presents for
my mother and seven brothers and sisters. This proved to be quite
a problem, but it was solved on my visit to a local "Five
and Ten" store (I believe the name of the store was McCroy's
or Woolworth). I purchased a 10¢ necklace as a gift for
my mother, and I bought 25¢ worth of chocolate drops for
my brothers and sisters.
Famous country music singer, Loretta Lynn, sings the words "A
lot of things have changed since way back then" in her 1970
number one hit of Coal Miner's Daughter. I can say the same about
Liberty and Danville after the Christmas season of 1942. Liberty
now has a bypass that misses the main part of town. The same
is true of Danville, and the highway between the two has been
changed from State Highway 35 to US 127. This same highway had
many dangerous curves in 1942, but now the curves have been eliminated,
and the drive between Liberty and Dan-ville is a quicker and
safer trip. The highway no longer goes through Shelby City with
its famous "Coffee Pot." (I believe if the Coffee Pot
were still standing today, it would be considered a historic
landmark.)
I want to deviate in my writings to say that we were not the
only poor family during the Depression and WWII. Everyone in
this country was affected by the Great Depression, and many of
them were just as poor as our family. Many of them, like our
family members, were able to attain success in later life. I
am a great fan of traditional country music and some of its greatest
stars came from humble beginnings or were very poor. It would
be impossible to name them all, but I do want to list some of
their names. These names may bring back a few memories to a lot
of people. Some of the female country stars would be Dolly Parton,
Tammy Wynette, and Loretta Lynn. My favorite three male country
music stars were Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, and Johnny Cash.
All three of these stars were affected by the Great Depression,
and they all saw bad years and Christmas seasons during the Great
Depression. Johnny Cash says that his family had a lot of lean
times at Christmas, but he goes into detail about one Christmas
Eve when he was growing up as a boy in Dyess, Arkansas. He stated
that they knew that their family members were not going to get
very much for Christmas that year, but he also says there were
others who were just as poor as his family. He recalls it was
way past dark on Christmas Eve, and they noticed there wasn't
a light in one of their neighbor's homes. He and his brother,
Jack, took a jar of coal oil, along with some peanuts, and knocked
on their neighbor's door and set their precious cargo down on
the front porch. He said a little old lady opened the door and
said in a low voice, "I sure do thank you." Johnny
said about halfway back to his house, he and his brother looked
back and saw a light coming through the window of their neighbor's
house. He concluded by saying that even though he didn't get
much for Christmas that year, he believes it may have been the
brightest time of his life. He experienced the feeling that it
is better to give than receive. The little old lady had used
the coal oil to fill the lamp and this brought a lighter, brighter
Christmas for her.
The next Christmas I want to mention came for me and my brother,
Ray, at Camp Stoneman, California, in 1950. My mother had been
very fortunate that her three sons were too young to serve in
the military in WWII. This was not to last forever, as suddenly
without warning North Korea attacked its neighbor, South Korea,
on June 25, 1950. My brother, Ray, and I had gone to Cincinnati
to seek employment that summer, and the thought of going into
the military was one of the furthest things from our minds. We
never thought about a Korean War, but President Harry Truman
said aggression could not be tolerated. He ordered the American
Army into Korea under the auspices of the United Nations. When
I went back to Liberty in early September, I found a letter in
our mailbox from the Selective Service Board. I figured it was
a letter telling me to report for the draft, so I didn't open
it. I told my mother that I was going to enlist in the United
States Air Force as I did not want to be drafted into the Army.
Ray said he wanted to enlist with me in the Air Force, as he
figured it would only be a matter of time until he received his
draft notice. Two other boys, Carl Smith and Nelson Grider, from
Liberty enlisted in the Air Force with us, and we were sent to
Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas, in September 1950,
for an accelerated basic training program. In late October, Ray
and I were shipped to Tyndall Field, Florida, for Air Police
training. I remember waking up on Thanksgiving morning and hearing
all this commotion going on outside our barracks. I got out of
my bunk and went to the window, and when I looked out, there
was about an inch of snow on the ground. The Floridians were
screaming and yelling like crazy, as most of them had never seen
snow before. This was a Thanksgiving weekend to remember as Kentucky
played Tennessee in football at Knoxville, and many people could
not get back to Lexington because of the heavy snow. There were
no interstate highways in 1950. US 25 was the main highway leading
north from Knoxville to the Kentucky line. US 25 was a two-lane
highway with hills and many dangerous curves all the way north
to Lexington. When Ray and I came north on a bus a few days later,
most of the snow was off the highway. Snow was still in the fields
along the road, but higher temperatures and road crews had made
the highway alright for travel.
The inch of snow that we got in Florida was gone by noon as the
temperature warmed up, and Ray and I headed north a few days
later. We had our orders to report to Korea, but they were giving
us a furlough at home before we were to go to Camp Stoneman,
California, shortly before Christmas 1950.
We ran into the snow on our way north, and there was snow on
the ground when we arrived in Liberty. It snowed several times
while we were home on furlough, and Bluegrass Field in Lexington
had large piles of snow pushed to the side on the day we flew
out on our way to Chicago and then Los Angeles. We were supposed
to fly out of Chicago about 8:45 a.m., but the flight was delayed
several times that day because of blowing and drifting snow.
Finally, about 4:45 p.m. that day we took off for California,
and I remember it was snowing so hard we couldn't see the airport
as we took off down the runway.
We arrived in Los Angeles to brilliant sunshine, and the bus
ride north to Camp Stoneman near San Francisco was uneventful.
We were just two country boys on our way to Korea, and we did
not know what the future would hold for us. We did know that
once we got to Korea, the Army would separate us as they did
not permit two members of the same family to serve in combat
together. (This was because of the five Sullivan brothers perishing
when their ship was sunk in WWII.) The military was very nice
to us after we arrived at Camp Stoneman, but a few days later
a sergeant came into our barracks and said he had an important
message for us. He said that we all knew we were going to Korea,
and they had decided to give us a three-day Christmas pass into
San Francisco. He said there would be a few of us who could not
go, as we would have to serve KP on Christmas Day. He told us
to check the bulletin board, and if our names were on there it
meant we could not go into San Francisco, as we would be doing
KP (kitchen police) at the camp on Christmas Day.
The first two names on the bulletin board for KP on Christmas
Day 1950 were the Overstreet brothers. I sort of expected this,
because my attitude during this period was whatever will be will
be. Ray and I were wakened by the sergeant at 4:00 a.m. Christmas
Day for KP duties at Camp Stoneman. I can remember they were
playing Christmas carols over the loudspeaker on the base, and
these carols made me wonder what the family would be doing back
in Liberty, Kentucky, on Christmas Day. The mess sergeant was
in a bad mood when Ray and I arrived at the mess hall for KP
duty. He was one of the unlucky mess sergeants that was not given
a three-day pass for Christmas. After assigning us to the work
we were to perform, he offered us a drink out of a fifth of whiskey
that he had hidden behind the kitchen counter. We refused the
drink, and the rest of the day went fairly uneventful. The Christmas
present for Ray and me did not come until the day after Christmas.
The sergeant called our squadron together at 8:00 a.m. that morning
(Ray and I were supposed to board ship for Korea that afternoon).
He said that he had some good news for us. He said that he had
a directive from the President of the United States that said
"All military personnel assigned to Korea should have been
in the service for at least 90 days." This directive went
on to say that military personnel on their way to Korea would
be sent back to the states and reassigned stateside. The directive
had been signed before Christmas by President Truman, but as
there weren't any troops boarding ship on Christmas day, the
directive was held until the following day. Evidently, some mother
had complained to President Truman that her son was in combat
without the proper training. President Truman took the corrective
action, and Ray and I were the beneficiaries of this directive.
The sergeant started reading bases in the United States, and
the name of the airmen who would be assigned to them. He eventually
said the following airmen will be assigned to Godman Air Force
Base, Fort Knox, Kentucky. PFC Fay Overstreet, PFC Ray Overstreet,
and he then proceeded to read eight other names. I could not
believe this was happening, and to be quite honest about it,
I had never heard of Godman Field, but I would be fine.
Fay D. Overstreet
404 Fenwick Plaza
Fairfield, OH 45014
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