Tuesday, December 25, 2001
Christmas from patriot's past
Sampling of letters sent to The Enquirer
Click a card for a larger image & description:
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Dear Editor, My family was sitting around the day after Thanksgiving drinking coffee and reading the paper at my parents house, when I ran across you call for Patriotic Cards of the past. We were immediately reminded of the card my grandfather, Howard Ling, sent my mother, Flora (Ling) Woellert, during WWII when she was 4 years old. After digging up the card, we all reread what we had read many years before. My sister-in-law, Pam Woellert, pointed out how funny the card's text was. There were line like "the food is great and there's plenty of it', and ' I get plenty of sleep and how I love it.' All of these things, of course, along with the cute little puppies dressed in army uniforms on the front were no doubt to make the horror of war more palatable to a four year old girl. My sister-in-law was reminded of how she recently had to explain to her son, my nephew, Owen Woellert, how a " Very bad man had done bad things to our people' on September 11.
Although there is no date on the card , we think it was sent near Christmas time, as Grandpa makes reference to coming home for Christmas. The text inside the card that my Grandpa wrote is as follows:
"Hi there, Pigtails! I sure wish I could be home with my cute little pigtailed daughter-The cutest little 4-year-old girl in the whole wide world. Please remember to say a prayer that your daddy will at least be home by Xmas. Please remember that you art to be a very, very, good little girl for your daddy. P. S. Write soon!!
My grandfather was a cook at an army training camp in Louisiana when he sent that card to my mother. She remembers the day she, my grandmother, Loretta Ling, and my uncle, Jerry Ling, went to Union terminal in Cincinnati , to greet my grandfather when he came back from the war. Uncle Jerry remembered the day in my grandfather's eulogy when he recalled how a young serviceman coming home handed him a carved airplane with the date 1945 inscribed in the side, as they were standing there waiting for Grandpa. Grandma remembered the parade Grandpa marched in Latonia, Ky., down Decoursey Avenue, and how happy everyone was that the war was finally over-cheering, throwing their hats up in the air , and singing.
We are honored to share this bit of patriotic family history with the Enquirer.
Dan Woellert.
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