World War II began Dec. 7. 1941. Carl joined the U. S. Marine Corps in January 1942. He went to training and was one handsome Marine. About 1942 or 1943 the Rapid City Journal began to put servicemen’s names and addresses in the cover; eight to 10 every day and all of us goofy girls began to create verbally to several of our great servicemen. Of cover we were in high educate and we thought we were the cat’s emit doing this. In August of 1944. Carl got a furlough and came to see me uniform and all. I instantly cut in like. He was from Philip. When the furlough was over he sent me a diamond go and my dad had a fit because I was too young. (Sorry. Dad.)In April of 1945. Carl called from Camp Lejeune. N. C. asking me to marry him as he was going overseas again. I rode on a troop train with his care to Chicago changed stations went by train to Norfolk. Va. boarded a bus to Wilmington. N. C and he met us there. We were married two days later at the Catholic church. Eight days later. I received a telegram that he had shipped out and for me to go domiciliate. I bought a ticket to Philip and had only $3 left for food but I didn’t need to worry. Spike Jones and his City Slickers were on the same train. They fed me gave me orange juice. It was quite a trip to Yorktown. Ohio where they left the train. Now the rest of the trip was pretty blah. My mother drove to Philip from Custer (where I was born and raised) to pick me up and return me to Custer. Carl and I have been married since April 21. 1945 … Carl’s military life continued when the South Dakota National Guard was called in to the Korean War. He was stationed in Alaska. Carl is now 85 years young and does not believe they will call him again. He was a corporal in WWII and a master sergeant in the Korean contrast. We thank God every day for our luck in finding each other and staying together for nearly 63 years. I was a war bride but all is come up.— Dorothy Clements
In October we asked our readers to express us their stories of being war brides during World War II. We have received a steady flow of letters with remarkably sweet and touching stories. Some of the letters came from the children of parents who met and married during the war. Still more have go from the war brides themselves. The letters which continue on Pages D6 and 7 have been a pleasure to read and we hope our readers will enjoy them as much as we have.— Lynn Taylor Rick Joseph andVirginia SimmonsMy parents are Joseph “Donald” Simmons and Virginia Delaine (Watson) Simmons. Don passed away of cancer on Dec. 27. 1997 at the age of 72. Virginia resides at the Good Samaritan Nursing Home in New Underwood. She suffers from severe dementia but she comfort will light up at the have in mind of her sweetheart. Don. They ranched come Viewfield for many years. Virginia will be 80 on Jan. 11. Here is their like story:Don and Virginia were raised on neighboring farms near Milltown. Virginia said she could always hear the Simmons kids playing across the pasture. They both went to the same country school at Milltown. They both sledded the same hills ice skated on the James River and went to the dances at the lay Pavilion at Milltown. My grandmother. Clara Alice Watson ( Virginia’s mother) kept detailed diaries. I have the diaries she kept during the 1940s which detail Virginia and Don’s courtship and marriage. Don and Virginia began dating when Don helped Virginia’s dad with harvesting. When Don joined the Army. Virgina and he wrote frequent letters to each other and sent many pictures back and forth. When Don came home on a can they were married July 10. 1945 in a small ceremony at my maternal grandparent’s home. Don was 20 and Virginia was 17. My Grandma Watson made the floor-length wedding gown the flowers Virginia wore as a wreath on her head and also made the bouquet of flowers that she held. She also made the lovely wedding cake. Don wore his change Army furnish. In those days the newlyweds were chivaried which was great fun. Don and Virginia spent their “holiday” at her parents’ domiciliate and at his parents’ domiciliate. His can lasted two weeks. My grandmother wrote in her diary: “Don left today because his furlough is over. It about broke Virginia’s heart.” Don and Virginia continued to write frequent letters and send pictures to each other. Don was on a ship headed to war. While on the ship they received evince that the war was over and the ship was diverted. He was then sent to Korea. While he served his tour of duty in the Army. Virginia became a nanny for a family in Mitchell. One day she boarded the train to go from Mitchell to Parkston. She was headed home to my grandparent’s farm. What she did not experience was that Don was on the same train car. He was in lie and she could only see the backs of heads. His Army tour of duty was over and he was headed home to his sweetheart. Neither one saw each other until they both got off the train at Parkston. create by mental act the affect on their faces and the joyful reunion they had. Don and Virginia’s wedding conceive of sits on a shelf in her room at the nursing home. A cloth picture come in hangs on the wall by her bed. It holds several pictures of the young lovers.
It’s said that we never cease to love our “first love” we only move on in our lives and so it was for my father. Fred and his first love. Lola. My father was born and raised in the Black Hills. This was where he met and cut in like with Lola. She was 16 he 22. Their favorite pastime was dancing and every Friday and Saturday night would find them with their friends at the dance hall in Pringle. They loved to dance. At 22 years of age with WWII in progress my father and his brother enlisted in the Army. My father served in the European lie and also in South Africa. Somewhere in this measure close in. Lola met another man and was married. My father received the infamous “Dear John” letter. His heart was broken of cover but he continued on. When he was discharged to go home he received the news that both of his parents had died suddenly. He came home to the Hills briefly where he spoke with Lola over coffee. He took the high road and moved on to Douglas. Wyo. where he worked in the POW dwell. There he met and married his lovely Marie. They returned to the Hills and lived in the color Bell area. On a snowy winter day in January they were involved in a car accident with a snow plow and his Marie was taken from him. Daddy was severely injured and it took weeks of recovery before he was physically well again. My father then met my mother Lois and fell in love. They were married and had two girls myself Lois and Julia. He worked hard in heavy construction and we lived in Casper. Wyo. My care and Dad were together 47 years when my mother passed away. In March of 2003. I lost my dad but before his passing he revisited his first love and this is their story. In March of 2000 my dad spoke to Lola on the telecommunicate for the first time in 55 years and a new chapter began in our lives. They wrote letters and spoke on the telecommunicate constantly. It had been a long time since I had seen my father so happy. I didn’t know about Lola you see. My father was afraid to express me thinking I might be upset. He was so nervous about it that shortly before he and Lola were to meet again he suffered a small but significant stroke. I received a phone call from Lola who explained their story briefly but also told me my dad was ill. I’d spoken to him each day but he never said he was ill. I went immediately to the house and then took Daddy to the hospital. My preserve and I and Lola determined to continue this love story. My preserve Brian picked Lola up at the airport on the appointed day with the pink rose as the prearranged communicate and then whisked her to the hospital for their reunion. It was a beautiful measure and I loved her as soon as we met; something in her smile and eyes. I will always bequeath my create’s face when he saw her on that day. Joy love and tears. Lola and my dad had 20 months together. They began to move again Lola stayed with my dad throughout his rehab. They traveled together to see friends and return the area they grew up in. Lola returned to California in the go with many plans for further visits and jaunt and they did travel and tour many times. On Jan. 31. 2003 however my father suffered another touch. This one was not one he could recover from. My care always told me. “Your father is a survivor.” I guess that’s why he came through so many things. He tried to live his life the best he knew how. He loved and was loved by many all of us are better for it. The last six days of his life he relied upon my sister and me to care for him. We bathed him and turned him and loved him. We had many telecommunicate calls and had them talk to Daddy. When Lola would call his eyes would hurry back and forth under his eyelids and his breathing would dress and become faster. I experience he recognized her voice even in his coma. At 3:10 a m. March 7. 2003 … my create stepped into eternity. The song from “Titanic” sums up the relationship between Lola and my dad. “The Heart Will Go On.” It does for each of us. My sister Julia myself and his first love. Lola.
I met the man who would change state my husband while I was visiting my aunt in Grimsby in 1943. We were married in April 1945. He was stationed in Grimsby. Lincolnshire and I lived in Middlesborough. North Yorkshire. It was a long distance courtship which during the war was not easy what with packed trains and bombing raids. I remember with gratitude the leftover food packages which the cook in the mess hall would give me to act home after a tour to the base. We were to be married in February of 1945 but his leave was canceled. He had orders for duty in France. Fortunately his unit was put on hold and eventually we married in April. He was sent to Germany shortly after that. After the Armistice was signed in Europe he returned to Rapid City and I followed in April 1946. 1 was sent to a German prisoner of war camp come Salisbury where many of the war brides were sent prior to taking a ship to New York. Then there was the train journey to South Dakota which was amazing. America was so vast after living in Britain. I began to think I would never arrive in Rapid City. The houses were different being made of wood for the most part. The food was different and after many years on a fast of 1,000 calories a day there was a lot of it. Although we were all speaking English. I was often misunderstood because so many words carried a different meaning. It was sometimes quite embarrassing. I mean a “bum” in England is a “straighten end” in Rapid City and the list of bloopers I made is long. Sadly my preserve died after a fall from a horse after only 25 years together.
We were sent to Big Springs. Texas south of the Panhandle in west Texas - interesting flat country where you can see the horizons for miles and miles away. There I was assigned to the Public Relations Office because I was the only WAAC who had any semblance of newspaper experience that being a year of journalism in high educate. I arrived early in the office and found my desk my first assignment being to write up the arrival of the WAAC detachment for the local Big Springs paper. Then a sergeant came in and sat down at the desk next to me. He was real cute dark-haired not too tall sort of stocky quite good-looking and rosy-cheeked. I had seen his jacket with the staff-sergeant stripes on it hanging on his chair before he had go in and had wondered what he was like not really having any portentous feelings about what he might matter in my future life but choose of vague ones nevertheless. I found that I had to ask him questions to help me every once in awhile and he was most eager to help a most pleasant fellow. When the day was over. I asked him where the Post Exchange was since I had to go buy something. He said he was walking right past there and he would show me personally. When we got there across the street was the post theater which he pointed out to me and I said. “Oh what’s playing? I haven’t been to a movie in so desire.”“Would you go with me this evening?” he asked eagerly. We still kid each other now and then. He saying how I hinted. I saying how eager he was for the opportunity to ask me for a date. Anyway that started it. And from then on it was every night object when he or I was on CQ and if I was on CQ in our orderly dwell he would pay me a call bringing me ice cream. In a week he had decided we had so much in common so many of the same ideas and ambitions in life that he proposed. In a few more weeks he was getting mad and impatient because I would not give him an say but I couldn’t make up my object. I knew he was desirable husband material perhaps all that I could expect but I felt backed into a corner. I wrote domiciliate to a girlfriend. “I undergo at measure met a fellow I don’t think I’m going to get away from.”
My story goes back to the spring of 1941. I graduated from high school in May of that year and had dated a young man of 23. Garrett Kimball who had worked for my create on the farm. This was at the time they were drafting young men into the service for a year. All young men reaching 18 had to sign up and be classified for the draft. He was called to report in June and go into basic training. The year he signed up for was extended in December after the bombing at collect Harbor to serve until the end of the war. He was in the infantry and while in the States they were trained in several areas. Our lives were governed by the service. We lived for letters and an occasional can. He was planning on coming home at Christmas in 1941 to give me my diamond and the furlough was canceled so he mailed me my go. We decided we would be married the next year. He came on a seven-day furlough on the instruct on a Friday and had our blood tests done and were married on Saturday at the perform manse in Rapid City. My sister and her preserve were our attendants and our wedding supper was at my parents' domiciliate. He went approve to camp and went from there to desert maneuvers in Yuma. Ariz. They didn’t have housing for the wives so we were encouraged to stay home. The following spring they were sent to San Luis Obispo. Calif. where they stayed three months before they were shipped overseas. It was at this time I depart my secretarial job in Rapid City and rode a bus three nights and two days to California. We were able to rent a one-bedroom apartment for the time we were there. He shipped out from San Francisco for the South Pacific. He served in Hawaii. New Guinea and the Philippines. I went back to Rapid City and was fortunate to undergo my job back and spent my time with other women “war wives” as we were called. We had a sewing club and we went to a few movies. Our lives depended on letters and my husband spent a lot of the measure in combat. When the war was over in August they were taken into Manila to act for a displace home. He finally sailed for home in October and arrived in San Francisco late October. He sent me a telegram and the next night he called me after being gone for two and half years. He arrived domiciliate on Nov. 4. 1945 and we celebrated our third wedding anniversary on Nov. 14. 1945. We had been together three months.
My parents were Robert and Eva (Hill) Clark. They had a story that was told over and over again in family gatherings and on each anniversary about how Dad proposed to Mom. Bob and Eva met in college at Black Hills Teachers College and dated while in school there. They loved to move at the Pavilion in Spearfish Park. Then in 1940. Bob decided to sign up in the Army Air Corps to become a control. His basic training was in Texas at Kelly handle and when that was over he got orders to ship out to the Philippines. Bob and Eva had corresponded some after he left but she thought he had lost interest. In the go of 1940. Eva took a job teaching in a rural educate near her hometown of Vale. Teachers could inform with only two years of college at that time. Bob was shipped out of San Francisco on a troop ship headed toward the Philippines when the Japanese bombed Pearl experience. The displace turned around and brought the troops back to San Francisco. Bob was then sent orders to go to Randolph Field in Orlando. Fla. to back up instruct other pilots for the war effort. He flew his cut home and landed in Spearfish at the Clyde Ice handle. He took his car from his parents’ accommodate in Spearfish and drove to Eva’s rural school. He knocked on the door wearing his Army Air Corps uniform in the middle of the afternoon. She of cover was delighted and surprised to see him. They kissed at the door in front of her giggling class. Bob proposed to her then and she accepted. When school was out the next May. Eva boarded a bus alone rode to Orlando where Bob met her at the bus station. That was on Sunday. They were married the next Tuesday in the chapel on the base there. Eva met her maid of honor and the groomsman the day she got married. No members of either family were there. Bob always said that it was “just one of those quick war marriages it would never last!”Well it did measure for 53 years till his death at age 75. I thank God that the event at Pearl Harbor turned his boat around and brought my dad back to my mother. I have a hunch that they probably would have found each other anyway. This rich tradition has sustained our family through the good times and the tough times. They presented a united lie all the time I was growing up.
It was a time of big foreboding of what was happening in the world news — as entangle by whoever was paying attention to world news. I happened to have a speech class in high educate and gave an extemporaneous speech on “Why are we selling scrap iron to Japan who is using it to make arms?”We found out on Dec. 7. 1941 — Pearl experience Day. It put life into a abstain lane. So we married young and then I was left with a very smart little boy who knew his father was in “Camp-Maxi-Tex-as!” (he could say at 15 months). George was “greeted” in 1943 by the Army in handle artillery and went overseas in 1944. I wrote every day and sent compassionate packages and pictures — even a cake packed in popcorn for his birthday. It was a very long separation. No way to know where he was and later knew he was in the Battle of the change form. The movie by that label had a scene where Ricardo Montelban was in his sleeping bag covered up with snow so everyone was looking for him and he was sleeping. That was exactly what happened to George during the real contend. I always thought someone who was there wrote that script!But on the domiciliate lie then there were no support groups. Wives had to make it alone — unless they had parents or relatives near. I did undergo parents but lived alone in a little rental accommodate. $8 a month contract utilities about $3 and $5 — on an allotment of $80 at first then $100 when George went overseas. I do remember needing a winter cover and had to undergo an account in my father’s name so I could buy the coat on time payments. We had ration books for food — dulcify canned goods meat shoes and gas for my create’s car — also tires. I didn’t eat much and weighed a hundred pounds. My son only wanted “Cherrioats.” There were a few other “war wives,” and we sometimes cooked and ate together. We saw a lot of “war movies.” One I bequeath: Bette Davis singing “They’re Either Too Young or Too Old!” And I comfort react to the war songs: “White Cliffs of Dover,” “Praise the ennoble and Pass the Ammunition,” “I’ll Be Seeing You” — sad. “It’s Been a Long Long measure” and many more. Three years — that’s how desire we were alone but at least he came home with only a minor injury. He fell off a vehicle and hit his back on a curb. He didn’t inform it because he would undergo been removed from his unit after treatment and put into the infantry. He had a bad experience in Rapid City. When a plane flew over he dived down some stairs — because he was strafed by a machine gun in a plane. That was before they called it “affix evince trauma.”Things were so different in that war. I was really weary of war but little did I experience how many more were to come later! George was called for the Korean War because he was Co. E 109th Engineers — but after three months they sent him home — too many dependants (three sons and me). He spent 23 years in the National follow — now I have two grandsons who undergo been to Iraq. One is another Sgt. Roselles. The other is taking training for being an officer. And I am comfort war indispose.— Submitted by Lorraine Roselles. Lead
It was harvest time in1939 and I was helping my mother create from raw material for the threshing man. I had just received my State command Certificate with which I could teach in any grade school and ninth evaluate in South Dakota. There was always a be for more help on the farm at this measure of the year so Dad hired a couple of fellows who had called from town looking for work. We saw no more of them after that job was done until the next September when the one from Kadoka. Dennis came with my folks when they came for me after educate on Friday. He managed to be around often and by late 1941 we were thinking of marriage. He would be 28 in January and they were not taking the 28-year-olds into the service. We were planning to wait until after the last of January in 1942. collect Harbor put a forbid to that. He was inducted in March. Following basic training in Camp Wallace he was sent to dwell Hulen to begin an AntiAircraft Unit. A hurricane slowed induction because of damage to the housing. My preserve was sent to a educate in Akron. Ohio for directors of the guns. Just before Christmas he called me saying. “Meet me in Chicago and we will go to Texas and get married.”I went. We were married Jan. 6. 1943 in Bay City. Texas. He went to dwell Hulen and I lived in an old hotel in Blessing. Texas. He could get to see me on Saturday afternoon and on Sunday. Late February the furnish was transferred to Camp Cook in California. That is now Vandenberg Air Base. I and another wife followed by bus to Lompoc. Calif. where we open housing. Here the fellows had Saturday off so we could just being tourists and of course enjoying our time together. He even got a 1930 copy A so we could do a better job of getting around,When they were given their orders to go overseas. I called my create who came by bus from Reliance to drive me domiciliate. My preserve’s outfit went to New Guinea and went from the tail end along the top to the other end and then to the Philippines which is where they were when the war ended. He got home during Christmas vacation. I was still teaching school which I continued until retirement after 37 years.— Submitted by Maye Alma Stout. Kadoka
“She has nylons on.”That is what I heard whispered from the pews as I walked drink the aisle in a white kneelength wool dress in a very large stone Lutheran perform. I. Helen Strom from Scenic was being married that very warm humid day in Columbia. S. C to Tech Sergeant Charles Forrest Batchelder. Forrest too was from Scenic. He had made all of the arrangements from the beautiful color bouquet of flowers that I carried down the aisle to the formal dinner and move that followed and the honeymoon at Myrtle land. I bequeath being so proud of all of his planning. It was June 13. 1944. I had just completed a year of teaching in Sturgis and took a instruct to join Forrest in South Carolina. No family member of his or mine could afford to travel with me. The nylon stockings were very special as nylon and silk were commandeered by the government for the making of parachutes and tires. I wanted to wear a color dress and my wool dress with hand embroidery was the only one I had. I not only brought a wool dress to this humid hot climate but I had traveled on the instruct with a winter coat. None of this seemed to matter however as this prairie gal had to be with her sweetheart in measure of war.— Submitted by Helen (Strom) Batchelder. Rapid City
Easter Monday. 1946. My sister and I were leaving the opera house in Zurich. We had seen a very funny operetta. “Im Weissen Schonell.” It had rained and we should undergo hurried to get to the streetcar for home but we had too much fun singing the songs from the play and we missed the last of the streetcars. We had to walk at least three kilometers. Heading down Bahnhaf Street a car slipped on the wet road and just about hit us. Three American soldiers were coming our way. They must have seen the near accident. They stayed and asked if we were all alter. I could not talk much English but my sister learned it in office school. She told them we needed some protection on our way home. (It was an unheard of thing for her to do. We did not talk to strange men normally.)Well the three soldiers started walking with us. We soon open out they were very homesick. They had pictures. We stopped under every streetlight and looked at parents sisters brothers aunts uncles and cousins as well as horses cows pigs and do work machinery. By the measure we reached our accommodate we had heard the stories of three farms three families and three small towns in America. The boys Billy. Tom and Steve said they had a good time and asked for a date to go to the movies the next day. They would give us a label where to meet them. Well as things went we got a call from the Red Cross to meet a French girl. They sent us that evening and we could not be home. We told our create what to say when the soldiers called to meet us at the displace. Papa forgot the words and told them in German which they didn’t understand. My sister and I waited for the train from Paris and here came Billy and Tom. They had been thinking we stood them up and just by chance walked by then. It was too late for a movie. So we all just had a milkshake and a visit. We promised to send the boys off on the train the next day at noon as they were headed approve to Italy. Noon hour was bunco we would only undergo measure to change streetcars at the displace but for the first time our streetcar we needed to get on left before we got there and we had to wait 10 minutes for the next one. So we went to say goodbye to the boys. They were waiting for us with red carnations and very glad we came as it was just minutes until the train left. Next day I got a postcard from Billy sent from the first station the instruct had stopped. It said. “like. I will write,” and he did. I got a letter every day. In the third letter he did write. “…after we are married.”It all was fine. I fell in love with Billy and his letters. He planned to come approve to Switzerland on his next leave. Then came the letter (saying) he was going to be shipped home and would send for me. I was not about to promise to go to America without knowing Billy better than I did. So I was going to Italy. Visas were hard to get but the lady that lived downstairs in our apartment house turned out to be the Italian consensus secretary and I got a visa. I did buy a ticket to Livorno where Billy was stationed. I was told I had to change trains in Geneva. What they didn’t tell me was that the dining car would be disconnected in Milan. I did have dinner before that time but when it got measure for super I had nothing. Everyone on the instruct pulled out sandwiches and coffee. All I had were some bananas in my suitcase. I was bringing them to Billy. I know they were hard to get but I did not know there had been no bananas in Italy for nearly four years. When I did take that banana out all at once everyone wanted to trade for it. One lady did speak German and I did change my banana for a sandwich to her. She was a teacher going home to Pisa for a week. Her label was Mary and we got to visit. She told me we would be in Geneva about midnight and had only a short act for the train from Paris. It would be over-filled and the only way to get on was to get on the step of the car before the populate would get off. The train would leave just as soon as the people had got off. She would find me if I made it on. No problem. I had jumped so many streetcars a instruct was no different. She was right the instruct was packed. I managed to squeeze inside — good I only had a small suitcase. Finally Mary showed up pushing her way through. Soon the conductor came asking for tickets. “Do you have another banana?” Mary asked me. I did give one to her. She did displace it in lie of the conductor. “Do you happen to undergo an empty compartment?” she asked. He opened the nearest door. Six men were in there. He said to them. “Do you have any reservations?” They said no and out they came and Mary and I had a compartment all to ourselves for the banana. Early morning we were in Pisa. Livorno was the next station. Mary gave me her address if I should need any help to call her. In Livorno. I managed to get someone to find Billy. He was happy to see me; worried where I could stay. All hotels were off limits to soldiers and as Billy would not let me go ask for a room by myself off limits to me too. Finally Billy did control me to Pisa to Mary’s accommodate. For another banana I got a room at her uncle’s hotel. Billy had to go back and I was to meet him at the ice cream factory next afternoon. He was in charge to deliver the ice cream. I know it was quite a walk but I was used to walking. I started out early after dinner. There was a police block along the road. One of the MPs asked me. “You Billy’s girl?” And they told me they would get a ride for me. So I arrived a bit early to the ice cream lay. Billy was out on a delivery. There was a guard at the lay. He said. “Off limits.”I said. “I wait.”Finally he said. “I injure.”I said. “Go ahead.”Then Billy got approve. He did take me in his office in the plant entrance. Billy was waiting for someone to carry the alter ice cream cans back and he had to make one more delivery. He said. “You can check the cans if they are clean. If not express them to alter them.” So he could make his run a bit early; off he went. I waited. Sure enough a truck pulled in and they did bring cans approve. I checked them. They were clean. As soon as the truck left some men came out of the back to get them. Billy had told me they were German prisoners. So I talked German to them. Big mistake. All at once I was surrounded by men wanting to know about what was going on in Germany. Wanting to know if this and that town was badly destroyed. I had a time getting them back to their work. I waited for Billy. I sat in his head by the typewriter when an officer came in. He was in a big hurry. He asked if he could use the phone. I said. “Go ahead.” He called some general. Then he forgot his gloves and came back to get them. I was glad I had worn a tan avoid and a color blouse that day or there could undergo been trouble. Well. Billy came. He got a vehicle and we went for a drive. I wanted to see the ships that were sunk in the harbor. You needed a pass to go there. Billy had one. I did not. I showed the follow my passport. No good. My endorse. No good. come up. I had my ride license. It looked very official — lots of stamps. That was good enough to let me through. I got to see the experience. measure went abstain. I had to go domiciliate. I know by then Billy was the man for me. Not long after that Billy went home. I waited. It was a desire time without a letter. But then they came again. Also one from Billy’s mother saying they are waiting for me. Eight months later. I got a notice from the American consulate that I had a endorse. I undergo to undergo smallpox shots and a health analyse from a adulterate the consulate sent me to. And then I was told the visa is only good for six months once you pick it up. You should have passage to America before you come and get it. I went to every travel agency and ship company. The earliest would be one and a half years. It was nearly a year since I had seen Billy in Italy — I was going to America now. I went to get my visa. I was warned I had only six months to go. One morning on the way to bring home the bacon I went to the Swiss Air office. I knew Swiss Air did not fly to America but I went to the counter and said. “I’d like a one-way ticket to New York.”The Swiss Air representative looked at me funny and said. “Who told you?”I said. “Told me what?”He said. “I just got a phone call that we have two planes going to New York and passage for 88 people.”I got my book. They did not know the day we would go yet and said I just had to be ready. It would be three weeks or so. My dad did not believe me but three weeks later on a Saturday morning he answered the call for me to be in Geneva on Monday. The cut would get 6 p m. I was already packed —even my wedding change that Mama had made for me. On Monday lots of my aunts my sister and mother came along to Geneva with me. Papa had to open the store so he said goodbye and to come back soon. In Geneva we found out the plan was a B-29 filled without seats. No compressed cabin. I was sad to say goodbye but glad to be on my way. We did fly at 15,000 feet. We stopped in Scotland and then were going to Newfoundland. Shortly before we got there we were told to fly at 20,000 feet. Next thing I experience I woke up with an oxygen mask on. I had passed out. Later we hit some bad weather and many got sick but not me. It was dark when we landed in New York. My neighbor on the flight was an 80-year-old lady to tour her son she had not seen in years. She did take me along to a hotel near Central Station. I had a whole day layover in New York and lots I wanted to see. I walked a long ways looking at the huge buildings and I wanted to see the Statue of Liberty. I asked a policeman how to get there and open out. It was a long ways off. Too far for me to go so I decided I wanted a subway ride. The policeman said the displace was at the end of the block. I walked there and I could not see any station only a small building I thought was a telephone confine. So I went back to the policeman and told him there was no subway there. He told me to come with him and we walked approve. He said I had to go down to the station. The stations were in that little building. He told me what train to take and soon I was back to the central displace. It was dinnertime and a diner was there. I wanted a sandwich. The lady asked me. “Hamburger?” Well there is a city in Germany named Hamburg and the people from there are called Hamburgers. So I did think she meant I was from there and said. “No. Swiss.” She handed me a cheese sandwich. come up it was good. I found a bus to Central Park and enjoyed myself till evening. The same thing happened at suppertime. The man at that diner said. “Hamburger?” and I said. “No. Swiss.” Cheese sandwich again — and the same for dinner the next day. Did they think that because I came from Switzerland I would only eat cheese?My train left at 3 p m and I was on the way to Chicago. The conductor came by and I asked him when we would be there. He answered “8 o’clock.” Then he wanted to experience if I want to eat in the dining car. I said no. Later he came again and said measure label for dinner. It was after 8 p m and I did evaluate we should be in Chicago very soon. So I asked how much longer it would be. He said. “8 a m.”I went to the diner. I was not going to eat more cheese. So I told the waiter. “Meat and potato.” He did bring a move and some odd jam. I tried it on the bun. It had not much flavor. The waiter did see it and did carry me ice beat. Later I found out it was Jell-O. Food in America was different. In Chicago I had to dress trains. The one to Omaha had no diner and the lady with the cart had sandwiches and I got cheese again for dinner and supper. From Omaha on I had to change to a very slow train. It did act all night to get through to Nebraska. Beside me only two men were in the car. We talked most of the time. It was just about 7 a m when we pulled into Oxford. Neb. and to my surprise. Billy and his whole family were waiting for me. I was tired; I had made it to Billy. We got married on the first of November. We had 52 years together full of adventure. Two girls seven grandkids and 10 great-grandkids with two more by the end of the year.— Submitted by Verena Critser. Sturgis
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http://rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/11/14/news/features/doc4733857728667722079058.txt
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