Keeping warm

 I didn’t intend to let an entire week go by. But we are experiencing a severe cold snap. This morning it was -8 in Dummerston; tonight it’s supposed to go down to -15. Normally, I go up to the church to do a blog post.  But we are staying  pretty close to home, sitting by our wonderful fireplace.

  I am reading in preparation for Torah study tomorrow. The text is Exodus, chapters 18-20, which includes the 10 Commandments. It should be an interesting session.

 I’m also working on another project: A course on Hymnology which I am doing with Andy Davis that we will be offering on Zoom. More on that later. 

We signed up for Covid vaccines this week. Our appointments are in mid-February. 

Be safe and warm wherever you are.

40 years ago this weekend

40 years ago this weekend, just minutes after the Inauguration of Ronald Reagan, the Iranian government released the 52 hostages it had seized at the U.S. Embassy in November of 1979. The Iranian Hostage Crisis, as it was called, cast a pall over the final year of the administration of Jimmy Carter, who did everything he could to win their release before he left office. There is lingering suspicion, never proved or fully disproved, that Reagan secretly entered into some kind of deal with the Iranians before his Inauguration - a deal in which the Iranians would delay the hostage release until Reagan was president, in return for an arms sale from the U.S. 

The release of the hostages took place on January 20, 1981, but their actual return to the U.S. was a few days later. It was celebrated locally in a way that left behind a special artifact: a photograph. Here is the story: a local man, 85-year-old John A. Bullock of Guilford, decided that it would be appropriate to ring the bell at the Meetinghouse in Guilford Center to mark the return of the hostages. He notified some other Guilford folk in town government and the Guilford Historical Society, and they gathered at noon on Sunday, Jan. 25th. Present was photographer, and Guilford resident, Irene Kirchheimer, who made a portrait of John Bullock pulling on the bell rope. The photograph, with a little story, was published in the Brattleboro Reformer on Monday, Jan. 26, 1981. 

Irene and her husband, Arnold, were both deeply involved in photography. Arnold had  been a filmmaker in Germany, but since he was Jewish, he fled and eventually found a home in Vermont, first in Dummerston, then Guilford. His first wife, Elfriede, had cancer, and Arnold needed work he could do in the home so he could care for his wife. He decided on negative retouching - a highly skilled work but one that could be done in a small space. He did work for famous photographers, especially Lotte Jacobi. When Elfriede died, Arnold met Irene, who shared his love for photography. I met Arnold first when I was the minister in Dummerston and needed advice on how to conduct a Seder meal which I wanted to put on for the Youth Group. We became good friends. I was privileged to be asked to conduct Elfriede's graveside service when she died. Later, our family would share a meal with Arnold and Irene when they settled in Guilford and Arnold would sometimes show his reels of silent movies of Charlie Chaplain and other silent film comedians. When Shirley and I retired in 1997, Irene presented to us her portrait of John Bullock ringing the bell as a retirement gift during our last Sunday service. I've had it all these years since and share it now. It's interesting that no one on TV or radio (that I have heard) has referred to this anniversary.

The original portrait of John Bullock ringing the bell

The Guilford Center Meetinghouse

The article in the Reformer

 This evening we are having a Zoom "supper" with Mary Cay and Manny - they'll be eating at their house, and we at ours, but we'll be connected by Zoom. They've done this many times; it will be our first supper in this way. 

Obviously this has been a big week! I haven't posted about the Inauguration - we are much relieved and applauding what President Biden has done thus far. We liked his simple, straight-forward address, the Memorial of COVID victims the evening before, Lady Gaga's rendition of the National Anthem, and of course Amanda Gorman's moving poem and her expressive hands. Much to be glad about, but I'm sure there is a rough road ahead. I'll share a couple of images that have gone viral:

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and his now famous mittens at the Inauguration 

The mittens up close

Stewart Letter #28

Letter #28

                                                                CAMP KILMER

                                                                                                                                    20 January  46

Dear Family,

We left Camp Pickett at about 1300 and arrived at Camp Kilmer, NJ at about 2400.1 We were not issued any blankets or sheets so we slept in our sleeping bags which have the warmth of two woolen blankets. We are about 30 miles from New York City. When we got here there was a mild wind blowing, but the temperature must have been close to zero.

When we went through Washington D.C., we could see the Capital dome, all lit up. The only stops we made, of course, were for coal and water. At Richmond, Virginia, the Red Cross had hot coffee and doughnuts ready. We had two meals on the train, each consisting of two sandwiches and some canned orange juice.

Don't write to me at this address, because it might not get to me. We shouldn't be here over five days before we get on a boat. Wait until I get my APO No., and I will write you.2

                                                                                                    Your loving son, 

                                                                                                                  Stewart

1 I was wrong to think the previous letter (#27) was from Camp Kilmer - obviously it was from Camp Pickett. Located in Central New Jersey, Camp Kilmer is a former United States Army camp that was activated in June 1942 as a staging area and part of an installation of the New York Port of Embarkation. The camp was organized as part of the Army Service Forces Transportation Corps. Troops were quartered at Camp Kilmer in preparation for transport to the European Theater of Operations in World War II. Eventually, it became the largest processing center for troops heading overseas and returning from World War II, processing over 2.5 million soldiers. It officially closed in 2009.

2 The next letter in the series is from Homberg, Germany, dated February 22nd.

View of Camp Kilmer, NJ

Layout of Camp Kilmer

 

Stewart Letter #27

                                                                             U.S Army

                                                                                                                           17 Jan 46

Dear Family,
We finished our processing last Thursday.

On Monday we started training. We fired rifles that were
issued to us for our stay here, and also had some classes on safe- guarding military information, and walking guard duty.
On Tuesday we had a road march and learned something
about the military government. We also learned the
location of military divisions in Germany. Tuesday
night all the replacements whose last names begin
with A-D turned in their rifles and bayonets.1 On
Wednesday we signed a document which was read to us
that concerned going AWOL. We were put on the
alert for shipment to a P.O.E.,2 so an AWOL would be
classified as a deserter now. We transferred to another
platoon in the same company.

We had one shot Wednesday morning, for what
I do not know. We will carry our combat packs on our. backs and carry our cargo packs, in which we will have our personal items, a raincoat, and a towel. We had a sudden 4-inch
snow last night, but this morning the sun came out and it is warming up.

                                                                                                                                                18 Jan 46 

This morning we are having a C&E (Clothing &

Equipment) inspection and perhaps a colonel will do the inspecting. We have a display of all our GI equipment on the floor and all our clothing on the bed. We ought to ship within 24 hours, because men aren't alerted until their orders come down.

Incidently, my upper left wisdom tooth has broken through the gum on one side, however, it doesn't bother me at all.

I saw "Spellbound," with Gregory Peck and Ingrid

1 Some of this training involving rifles, etc., doesn't seem to be quite in touch with the fact that the war is over.

2 POE = Point of Embarkation. We know that after Camp Pickett, Stewart was sent to Camp Kilmer, NJ before getting on a ship bound for Europe. This letter could be from Camp Kilmer: this reference to a POE and to the 4-inches of snow in the next paragraph suggest maybe it is.

Bergman last Saturday night.3 I received Mother's letter of the 16th, and of course Dad's a few days ago. I received a letter from Becky too. I wrote to her when I was waiting in Tyler, Texas for the bus on 20 Dec.

I hope the piece of glass in mother's eye doesn't cause any serious consequences.4

We got new field jackets, overcoats, woolen underwear, new flannel shirts with larger sleeves. We got new packs, handkerchiefs and a tie.

We sent. off our duffle bags this afternoon,

                            3 This is one of Alfred Hitchcock's more famous movies. Starring Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman, it is a psychological thriller, in which Bergman plays a psychiatrist and Peck is both her lover and patient. He is dealing with a suppressed childhood trauma which has rendered him an amnesiac and also potentially violent.

4 I have no memory of what this was about or how it happened. Whatever it was, I don't think it caused any permanent damage.

A scene from Spellbound

so we don't have a thing left to do.5

                                                            Your son,   Stewart

P. .S. The sun is shining brightly and the sow is melting fast.

5 The next letter after this one from Stewart is from Germany, a month from now. It is all about his assignment there, so we have nothing in his letters about his boat trip to Germany. However, in my interviews with him in 2007, which became Remembering ...with my brother Stewart; In Honor of his 80th Birthday (Dummerston: June 25, 2007) he did talk about his trip to Germany:

"That trip (overseas) was really a revelation. It was an Army troop ship. It wasn't the Navy--the Army owned these troop ships. They were just cargo freighters that had been converted so they could put 2000 people on them. It was as many people as the Queen Mary carried, but a much smaller ship because they stacked up the bunks about five high in the hold and there wasn't that much space between them. But just think--they had to have enough food for ten days for that many people on a little ship like that. It was a revelation to me because it was cold when we left in January; but when we got out to the Gulf Stream it turned to summer. It was a direct experience of what the Gulf Stream is. They put out a little newspaper that told how many miles they had come the previous day. We were all by ourselves. We weren't in a convoy. We were just a little ship by ourselves--they didn't have to worry about submarines, the war was over. It was an experience to see what wildlife there was. Birds and things---would follow us, garbage was thrown overboard. I did get seasick. It didn't do any good to take seasick pills unless you took them before you got sick. But you got over it, and once you were over it, you were okay the rest of that voyage. There were no tables. You stood at something to eat. And the ship would roll. They had showers, but it was salt water. You had to use special soap because regular soap doesn't lather in salt water. It was interesting to be on deck--and you could be wherever you wanted to be during the day. We got into some heavy weather. The keel was numbered from the bottom up several feet, when the weather was rough, the prow would go so low it seemed to be at the water's edge, and then when it came up, the keel came out of the water. But it was a sea- worthy vessel I guess. We landed at Le Havre, FR. We took a train across France into Germany. The first night in Germany was at a Hitler Youth Camp. It was a newer installation but very stark and spare. There were straw ticks on the beds and nothing else. We just stayed there one night. People ended up in different places. I was sent to Homberg."

No Power!

We had a wet, heavy snow Friday night that weighed down the trees and caused a power outage that started early Saturday morning and did not end until this afternoon (Sunday). This was unexpected and caught us a little unprepared. We have the wood stove for heat, as well as the propane fireplace insert, so we were fine that way, but flushing and refrigeration were an issue. Actually we only lost a couple of food items. We cooked on the wood stove. I usually take shower before bed to warm up my feet, so I had cold feet Saturday night. Our cell phones were pretty low Sunday morning so we postponed church and I gave up Torah study. Otherwise we made out ok. I was glad when we got out power back. Not the robust pioneer I used to be, I'm afraid.

Looking out at the storm past the Christmas tree (which is still up!)

The Loss of a Friend

I learned that Luther Durgin, whom I have known since 1956, died on December 15th and his memorial service was held yesterday in Pittsfield, MA and "Live-streamed." I learned of the service too late to watch it live but was able to watch it on YouTube after the fact. Luther followed me after my summer as the pastor of the Dummerston Church in 1956, and then I followed him when I returned after graduation from seminary in June, 1957 and became the regular pastor in Dummerston and also the Assistant Pastor of Centre Congregational Church in Brattleboro. He served the South Church, UCC, in Pittsfield for 12 years in the '70's. After his retirement, Luther and his wife, Diane, lived in Winchester, NH and Ellen and I visited them there, and also occasionally met them for lunch in Brattleboro. They attended the 60th anniversary of my ordination in Dummerston back in October of 2017. About a year ago, they moved to Lenox, MA, and we had every intention of visiting them there, but the pandemic made that unwise. Now he is gone. He was a wise and gentle man whom I enjoyed talking with. We're hoping to visit Diane when we are able to do so safely - maybe when we are all vaccinated. 

The Rev. Dr. Luther Durgin

Stewart Letter #26

Letter  # 26: January 9, 1946. 

                                                                                9 January 19461Camp Pickett, VA

Dear Family:

I haven't had time until now to write even though they did bring us right out to the camp when we got to Blackstone.2 We were an hour late at Louisville but the train waited for me. We were just as late into Cincinnati but the second section waited, so I didn't get in a Pullman car, but slept in a day coach.

There are fellows here from quite a few different camps, but I have seen only 5 fellows from my company at Fannin. I met the boy from Chelsea, Iowa that was on the same orders with me when I first left home for AST. He trained with a tank destroyer unit at Camp Hood, Texas, and went to active duty about 3 months before I did.3

Last night we checked in, got our travel pay, were assigned to units for our stay here, and had a quick physical exam.

Today we are having a check of all our clothing, with a lot of new 

                                                                                    Page 2

equipment being issued for old clothing that we had.

1 Camp Pickett is today Fort Pickett and home of the Virginia National Guard. It was founded in 1941; by 1943 there were over 1400 buildings including 1,000 enlisted men's barracks, 70 officer's quarters, 12 chapels, and a population of 60,000.

2 Blackstone, Virginia, which is about 50 miles SW of Richmond, is the nearest town to Camp Pickett, where Stewart was waiting to be shipped to Germany when he wrote this letter. Stewart's last letter (#25- see my blog post for September 3, 2020) was written from Camp Fannin in Tyler, Texas, where he was in Basic Training.. Between Sept. 3, 1945 and January 9, 1946, a great deal happened in our family. Dad returned to the states from France, and came home to Minneapolis in September, 1945 for a couple of weeks. He was then sent to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, for a short time and then to Camp Chaffee, Arkansas. Mother and I almost joined him there, but at the last minute he was transferred to Camp Breckenridge, Kentucky, and we left Minneapolis to be with him there, settling eventually into a room in the Methodist Parsonage in Morganfield, KY. Stewart completed his Basic Training in December and was able to join us there in Morganfield for Christmas. The war had ended in August, 1945, so he is now on his way to Germany to be part of the Army of Occupation. He had probably gotten a train in Evansville, Indiana - the nearest large city to Morganfield, KY. This was, by the way, a very chaotic time in my life: e.g., I attended two different schools during the few months we were in Kentucky, and I spent several weeks in the army hospital at Camp Breckenridge on suspicion that I had rheumatic fever.

3 This is Raymond Flynn, whom Stewart mentions in Letter #18 (see blog post for Dec. 5, 2019).

Last night I also raised my bond allotment from 7.50 to 18.75, and made a Class "E" allotment of twenty dollars a month to be sent directly to F and M Bank in Minneapolis.4 Perhaps you had better write them and find out if they will need the passbook to record the deposits. Both the new bond allotment and the voluntary allotment will begin on March 1. We will stay here from 48 hours to one week.

I am feeling fine and sleeping well, especially since we have sheets to sleep between.

P.S. I will have to send some stuff home such as civilian shoes, etc. Don't send the radio until I get overseas because it might be broken in a duffle bag.

                                                                                                Your loving son, 

                                                                                                            Stewart

4 In Letter #7 (cf. blog post June 30, 2019), Stewart mentions opening a savings account in the Farmers and Mechanics Bank of Minneapolis. It sounds like he has been saving on a regular basis and buying Series "E"  U.S. War Bonds.

5 I wonder if Stewart got a little radio for Christmas! 

A marker noting that the creation of Camp Pickett displaced 263 families from their farms! 

A scene from Camp Pickett, VA as it might have appeared in 1946

Happy New Year!!!

Gosh, we are already four days into the New Year! Today is cold, bright and sunny, but we had a snow/ice storm a couple of days go. I'm glad I got those new snow tires!  We are getting up and down the driveway just fine.

We've had a pretty quiet start to the New Year - but not John and Cynthia. Cynthia somehow injured her left shoulder and is in a lot of pain; and then yesterday she learned that her older brother, Danny, in his 70's and with other health issues, has tested positive for COVID-19 and is in the VA Hospital in White River Jct., VT. Much concern there! We are holding them in the light!

New Year's Eve we watched the Amidon/Tracy/Bode annual Last Night concert - wonderful as always, but this year live-streamed, of course. You can find it on YouTube. We went to bed early. Saturday we got our CSA, Sunday was a wonderful Epiphany service at GCC plus we watched Ray Feinland give a talk to his Jewish War Vets org. on the history of chemotherapy - on Zoom. Very interesting! A WW2 bombing attack on a fleet of U.S ships near Bari, Italy actually led to the first treatment of cancer with chemicals! Who knew? Here is a clip from the History channel about this event:

By dawn, the patients had developed red, inflamed skin and blisters on their bodies “the size of balloons.” Within 24 hours, the wards were full of men with eyes swollen shut. The doctors suspected some form of chemical irritant, but the patients did not present typical symptoms or respond to standard treatments. The staff’s unease only deepened when notification came from headquarters that the hundreds of burn patients with unusual symptomology would be classified “Dermatitis N.Y.D.“—not yet diagnosed.

Then without warning, patients in relatively good condition began dying. These sudden, mysterious deaths left the doctors baffled and at a loss as to how to proceed. Rumors spread that the Germans had used an unknown poison gas. With the daily death toll rising, British officials in Bari placed a “red light” call alerting Allied Force Headquarters (AFHQ) in Algiers to the medical crisis. Lieutenant Colonel Stewart Francis Alexander, a young chemical warfare specialist attached to Eisenhower’s staff, was dispatched immediately to the scene of the disaster.

Despite the British port authorities’ denials, Alexander quickly diagnosed mustard gas exposure. Convinced that preoccupation with military security had compounded the tragedy, he doggedly pursued his own investigation to identify the source of the chemical agent and determine how it had poisoned so many men. 

After carefully studying the medical charts, he plotted the destroyed cargo ships’ positions relative to the gas victims and succeeded in pinpointing the John Harvey as the epicenter of the chemical explosion. When divers pulled up fragments of fractured gas shells, the casings were identified as being from 100-pound American mustard bombs.

On December 11, 1943, Alexander informed headquarters of his initial findings. Not only was the gas from the Allies’ own supply, but the victims labeled “Dermatitis N.Y.D.” had suffered prolonged exposure as a result of being immersed in a toxic solution of mustard and oil floating on the surface of the harbor.

The response Alexander received was shocking. While Eisenhower accepted his diagnosis, Churchill refused to acknowledge the presence of mustard gas in Bari. With the war in Europe entering a critical phase, the Allies agreed to impose a policy of strict censorship on the chemical disaster: All mention of mustard gas was stricken from the official record, and Alexander’s diagnosis deleted from the medical charts."

A book, The Great Secret, by Jennet Conant, tells the full story. I think Ray’s talk is based on that.