Day: July 27, 2018

In continuation of the Dreaded Boxes Project …

Dean and Paul 

An earlier entry introduced you to my mother and her younger brothers, Dean and Paul, at early ages, roughly 5, 3 and 1, respectively.  Somewhere around the mid 1920s.

Today’s exploration of the Dreaded Boxes reveals a series of photos of Dean and Paul, mostly taken in World War II years.  Both of the brothers joined the Navy in about 1942 (remember that Pearl Harbor triggered the war in December 1941, an event I only dimly remember as a 7-month-old infant from my crib).

As I grew through childhood, I had little enthusiasm for most family gatherings.  But after Dean and Paul returned from the War, their presence was something very special to enjoy.   Each uncle had a memorable sense of humor, Dean’s tending to the dry and understated, while Paul was more sardonic, as I recall.  Both seemed to have a strong sense of the absurd.  My brother and I revelled in the tales they would tell and the pranks that they engineered.  One of Dean’s favorite stories was about someone who, driving on a road trip, would announce that he was tired of driving and, without slowing, removed the steering wheel and passed it to a passenger, asking him to drive instead.  I recall that Dean even re-enacted the event while seated with us kids in his old Plymouth (but not while in motion).  Almost everything that Dean and Paul did or said seemed hilarious to us.

(I should add that Dean’s sense of humor and playfulness never left him, as when I saw him during a visit to his Omaha home in the 80s, he showed me a faux golf ball of the type that he would use to surreptitiously place on a rival player’s tee — only then would it disintegrate into grains of a sand-like substance when struck by a golf club.)

Dean

Dean was stationed in Hawaii during the War, where he worked as a Naval mail clerk (foreshadowing his later career with the US Postal Service).  Here are some photos from that time period.

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And this set of photos seems to be upon his return to the States, with some perhaps taken by my mother.

Paul

Paul was trained as a Radioman, and after serving during World War II in Guadalcanal, re-enlisted for a career in Navy radio operations.  Included in the Dreaded Boxes were a couple of pieces of V-Mail from Paul to my mother, in which he mentioned little direct action but some occasional bombing and listening to friendly anti-aircraft fire at night.

Some pictures from Paul’s camp in the Guadalcanal jungle.  We think these date from about 1943.  Unfortunately, nothing is annotated and we lack descriptions and commentary on what must have been a fascinating, unique experience.

In continuation of the Dreaded Boxes Project …

Wash.  George Washington Lukehart, Jr.  But “Wash” was what his old friends called him.  He was my mother’s grandfather, who lived for 106 years.  Born in 1856, he had claimed, according to one of my uncles, to have seen Abraham Lincoln as a child, perhaps at a political rally in Kansas before or during the Civil War.  I rarely spoke with GW, as he tended to terrify us kids by his ominous-seeming presence.  But in reality he rarely interacted with any of us, and kept to himself, reading his newspaper by the winter stove and manually cutting the summer lawn with a scythe (think Grim Reaper) until two or three years before he died.  My brother and I would sometimes sneak into his workshop and inspect his curious, antique tools.

Some local newspaper accounts include descriptions of his 104th birthday celebration, including this excerpt:

He was in a tornado once and the blizzard of 1888. Has been in severla floods and has saved people from drowning several times, including his two young sons, at the time who were eight and twelve years old, when the he and the boys were in capsized. He swam to shoare with both boys. He has been in numerous accidents, but has never been seriously injured. Until the past two years he has been quite active, taking long walks every few days. He still enoys good health, but does not get out much as his eyesight is dimming and he is growing deaf.

Another news clipping tells us how he was congratulated by the White House for his birthday:

He received congratulations and best wishes from President Eisenhower:

Please accept my sincere congratulations upon your birthday. May good health by yours through many more happy years.

– Dwight D. Eisenhower

The White House – Washington
August 29, 1960

Dear Mr. Lukehart

I am delighted to send you my sincere congratulations as you celebrate your one hundred and fourth birthday on September third. Your special Day observance will be another pleasant occasion to add to your collection of happy memories of the years, I am sure.

Sincerely,
Mamie Doud Eisenhower

Some photographs, much as I remember him from my childhood:

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Here is a photograph of GW’s children at much earlier ages. (l. to r. top: Maurice and Roy; l. to r. bottom: Dora and my grandmother Maude).

 

 

This is a photograph of my grandmother, Maude, said to be when she was about 17 or 18 years old.