“Family Archaeologist” explores a century of family letters, diaries, and artifacts, and how they illuminate history and our shared humanity. To get an overview of the blog, click: “Welcome to Family Archaeologist”
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Promotion
The Garfieldian (local paper of West & perhaps East Garfield Park, Chicago); Article on Frank's promotion to Private 1st Class Frank is promoted to Private First Class, but the first his family hears of it is in this blurb in their local paper, The Garfieldian. Older brother Will is now teaching and, as all in the family do, downplays his [...]
The Rebel and the Yank—among 30,000 others
The army brought together young men from all over the nation, giving each a chance to learn about guys from vastly different backgrounds and culture. Frank responds to his mother's rather defensive worry in one letter that perhaps he is "ashamed" of his mother. [Note again: I've spaced out several letters written all bunched together, so each is not appearing [...]
3,000 sick soldiers
A close family, The Gartzes probably at North Ave. Beach, Chicago: L-R Will, Josef (Pa) a young Ebner, about 14, Ma, Fred Frank's mom pulled together all the mothering she could muster to help her son, more than 1,000 miles away from her maternal care, on how to protect himself against the diseases that were attacking him and [...]
A star of a gift
A gift from your child—always a treasure, especially when he is thousands of miles away. Frank's mother makes the most of it. My guess is (given it's a "star") is that it's a version of his Army Air Force Patch shown here. As always, I keep a lot of my grandmother's misspellings to give a sense of how hard she worked to communicate with her son despite her struggles with English.
We even had meat!
Home front news in 1943 included meat shortages, car break-downs, nights out for dancing and drinks [rhumba-ing and cocktails still figure into my parents' fun], and a couple of movies, all reported in my mother's breezy style. She and Dad are still having lots of fun despite the long hours they work during the war. The characters reported on here are Kenny and Arlyne (Kenny was my dad's best friend, and both were in my parents' wedding party]. Gert was my mom's best friend at the time (also in wedding party). Since this year Easter falls on March 31, I thought I'd post a photo of my parents, authors of this letter, on their first Easter together.
Plenty of goodies
Frank Von Arx, spring 1943Chanute Field, IL "Oh, what a mother!" Ebner's best friend, Frank Von Arx gets home on furlough, visits the Gartz household, and discovers all the goodies Frank Gartz's mother has been sending him. Hence the high praise and asking for a report back on the treats from Burny Bros.—that was our West Madison Street [...]
Trench Mouth!
Army Air Corps Radio School sleeve patch-given to each student at the Army Technical School, Sioux Falls, SD Trench Mouth. The word conjures up images of soldiers languishing in World War I rat-infested trenches. But this disease, an extreme form of gingivitis, also affected trainees at the Army Technical School, including my uncle, Frank Gartz. In fact the [...]
Everybody jittery
Boys are disappearing, this neighbor reports, heading to war. No wonder everyone is "jittery."
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