“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”
LATEST BLOG POSTS
The girl’s a grease monkey now!
Bethel Ev. Lutheran ChurchWest End and Keeler Boys were disappearing from neighborhoods in the 1940s as if aliens had come and snatched them away, and in this letter we get a first-hand view of the effect on the girls left behind. Women had to take over men’s jobs during the war, and again we see evidence of that [...]
Let’s review the rules
Do you have a sibling who is, well, a bit of a know-it-all? Maybe an older sibling??? Who can’t seem to help chastising, advising, informing, correcting? Does it drive you crazy, even you though you love this person? Well, you’ll find that character in Will, the practical oldest Gartz brother who finds it difficult, if not impossible, [...]
Morse Code!
Freezing temperatures, streets slick as glass, timed Morse code tests. The pressure is on this 18-year-old kid to concentrate harder than he's ever had to before. A lots at stake. This letter from Private Frank Gartz shows us the world of a young, wannabe Army Air Corps private, hoping to make cadet training and not the alternative. Read to find [...]
Radio Days Devotion
A radio similar to the one on which my grandmother set Ebner's photo to greet Morning and Night A shrine set atop a radio the the one posted here. In the center, their son's high school graduation picture. On each side, two green lights. Each morning his parents say, "Goot morning, Ebner," and each night, before bed, "Goot [...]
The wartime work schedule
Lillian Gartz executive secretary to Mr. Gibney,president of The Bayer [aspirin] Company Working seven days a week up to twelve hours a day was common for my Dad during the war years. My Mom, Lillian, had long hours too, working as the executive secretary for the president of the Bayer Company [think: Bayer Aspirin] in downtown Chicago. She was [...]
What’s the pitch? What gives?
Frank Von Arx, Frank Gartz’s best friend Fun 1940s Lingo crops up throughout this very first letter written to my Uncle Ebner BEFORE he was even drafted. That's because his best buddy, Frank Von Arx, had already been inducted into the military the previous December (1942). Here Von Arx chides Frank Ebner Gartz for not writing to him. (Seems [...]
I’d hate for you to go haywire
Frank's former science and division teacher at Austin High School, Miss Hartley, was a regular correspondent, not only to Frank Ebner, but to many of his buddies from his high school class. Harvey Duck was in Frank's same division (see photo), and his name comes up in this letter as Miss Hartley is keeping all the boys apprised of their classmates doings and whereabouts (See 3/3 posted letter from Frank's Mom.) Miss Hartley also mentions that Cookie, Frank's girlfriend, took over Duck's job.
Zero Dark Thirty below
Frank Gartz left Keesler Field in Mississippi and arrived on February 27th, 1943, at the Army Technical School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for an 18-week stay. His long days of classes, studying, and drilling in a frigid wind will toughen him up. Here's a good description of the town and the first serious courses for an airman in training. He probably wrote this letter before receiving the one his mother wrote to him on March 3rd too, so I'm posting this a little after the date it was written.
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