Voices from the Past

I decided to break out the box of letters written to my dad when he was away at boarding school in the 1940s.  There is something to be said about opening a piece of paper on which a letter was written 70 years ago and seeing the handwriting of the author or the mistakes typed over or crossed out.  Little drawings on the outside of the envelope charm me as do the doodles in the margins and the swirl of the signature.  I love the feel of the onion skin paper and looking at the 3 cent stamps.  This is all lost, I fear, with our digital age, but that is a story for another day.

Dad left at age 14 for freshman year at Campion High School in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.  He came home at Christmas and for summer.  I am about halfway through the first group of letters from 1946, and I've been picking and choosing ones from my grandmother and grandfather to my dad.  My grandmother mostly typed hers, and my grandfather wrote in fountain pen, which has blurred over the ages.  I've read some letters from Dad's brother, Bob, and his sisters, Nanette and Marie.  It is fun to read about things that would never occur in our lives---getting a gas furnace for the first time, flying to Europe instead of taking the steamer, or praying for a boy who had contracted polio.  I had no idea there was a meat shortage in 1946, much less a shortage of soap and toilet paper.  It was truly a different time.

I wanted to share some excerpts that struck me as poignant, interesting, and insightful.  In several letters, Dad is urged to conserve paper and stamps.  Write on the backs of the pages.  Put two or three letters in each envelope and just send mail twice a week.  It is a recurring theme, usually just a sentence.  I only put one specific entry below, but I thought it worth mentioning because it was such a common thread.  It is all so interesting to me.  I have left the grammatical errors and misspellings because I feel like they also give insight to the author.  My grandmother, for example, was a native French speaker, and English was not her second language, but her fourth, as she spoke Spanish and Catalan second and third.  My dad's name was spelled "Johnny" and "Johnnie" by everyone, sometimes both ways in the same letter.   I have not figured out why.   I am sure there will be more excerpts as I read on, but this is a start...

Louisville  Aug. 29/46
You have been gone 2 days already and I still cannot believe it.  I hear your friends playing outside and, somehow, I can hear your voice mingled with theirs...Affectionately yours, Mother


Louisville  Sept. 5, 1946
Glad to hear that the food is excellent and plentiful.  You ought to feel satisfied with so much milk, - I know how much you love it.  Our milk order has been reduced from 10 to 8 quarts since you left...Very affectionately yours, Mother


New York  September 7, 1946
As the Commander in Chief is again on the move, the "family broadcasts" are being resumed, copies of this one going to Bobby and to Johnnie...I imagine Mama has sent you a little cash, but nevertheless am enclosing a dollar bill that I did not know what to do with...P.S. Discovered when I removed the first page from typewriter that carbons were in the wrong position.  Nevertheless am sending Johnny a copy that he can read by getting some light behind it...Dad


Louisville  September 8, 1946
Are you going out for any sports?  I hope so.  And, I'd try to concentrate on basketball and baseball if I were you.  After having played football, I find that I had a swell time, but I don't think its worth the chance you have to take.  Basketball and baseball offer the competition without the opportunities to get your knee pulled out of joint or a shoe in your face...Bobby, Mary Louise, and Jimmy


Louisville  Sept. 9, 1946
Do not use so much paper when you write,-but write on both sides to save it...About returning by plane, _with your pals,-at Xmas time, we'll see about this later on,-there is plenty of time to decide on this, don't you think so?  With much love from everyone here, yours affectionately, Mother

Louisville  12  Sept. '46

The movies of Aline's return to Louisville were fine, also the other movies of Mother & Dad.  You'll be glad, I know, to see these reels when you return.  By that time, we may have to add your own picture.  Maybe we can take pictures of you as you get off the train in Louisville next Xmas!  Your ole pal, Marie

Louisville  Sept. 16, 1946

Well, I got a great surprise last night, when we got a cable from Daddy from PARIS...We did not know he was going to fly at all, but he got disgusted waiting in N.Y. for the strike to end, and he suddenly made up his mind to get a ticket for Paris.  He left Saturday at seven p.m. from La Guardia Field, and into Paris 20 hours later, that is about 2 p.m. our time, but 8 p.m. Paris time...It was almost a shock to me, and I'm glad I did not know about it, for I would never have slept the night...Affectionately yours, Mother

Louisville  Sept. 25/1946

I have some bad news to give you about Bert Cohen,-he is at Kosair Hospital with polio,-he has been there for 4 or 5 weeks,-it is in his throat that he has it, and he is in a serious condition, also a cousin of his, from whom he got it,-they were together over a weekend, and both became sick at the same time. Pray for the poor little fellow.  Affectionately yours, Mother

Louisville  Oct. 3, 1946

Your old friend Bertha came to see me this noon.  She would like to work for me, I think, but the poor old soul has trouble with her feet (flat feet) and a sprained hip and back, so I am afraid Bertha could not help much.  She inquired about you and talked about when you were a baby...She said she would love to see you.  She surely was a loyal servant.

The meat situation is getting from bad to worse, but it does not worry me at all, for we can eat all we need with vegetables, fruit, salads, and cheese or eggs, fish and an occasional chicken...What about the thousands of people, all over the world, who would feast with what we are able to get here...And to think that so many do complain yet...and so many make the line everyday for hours to get a few ounces of red meat...what a loss of precious time indeed.  Usually they are the same bunch of women who, day after day, go to the stores waiting for meat...Soap is again very scarce with us, guess some do hoard and hoard, the same with toilet paper and margarine.  Butter is now 89 cents a lb...One cannot get margarine at all, nowhere.  Much love, Mother

Louisville  October 8, 1946
Your report card came too, with 2 Bs and 2 Cs, -there is cause to be glad at these marks too, and I feel sure that if you work a little harder and apply yourself a little more to your studies, also doing some reading, you will most probably get many more Bs and, who knows, you might surprise us with one or 2 As. This would be wonderful. You have the intelligence to do so, and I know that you will endeavor to do your very best, your utmost, in order to get higher marks...With love again, affectionately yours, Mother


Louisville  October 23, 1946
All the trees around us are gold and brown, and the wind of yest. and to-day has brought large quantities of leaves down, and the ground is littered with them, it is very beautiful indeed, but one has to rake them off quickly and burn them, as they are dangerous when they get too dry.  I made a wire basket with the piece of high fencing we had in the yard, and in this manner leaves can be burned  off without danger, even when it is windy...Your affectionate mother


Louisville  Nov. 3/46
Wish I could drive to Campion to see you too, perhaps when Daddy returns, if the weather allows it...we might take a trip...although he will be very busy upon his return to the office with piles of accumulated work...We have an extension phone upstairs since yesterday, -it is a great convenience, as it will save our steps...Burt Cohen is well again he was very fortunate in getting over his troubles...Well, the furnace is finally installed and working, but the weather is so mild that we do not need any heat a present....It works automatically, so no more ashes to take out, no more shoveling coal- no more dirty hands fixing the furnace...no more dirt in the basement and less dust in the rooms...Affectionately yours, Mother


Louisville  November 15, 1946
How many girls do you write anyhow?  Jane said you told her she didn't write the kind of letters you thought she would write.  Please explain yourself...Do they make you write book reports up there?  As I just said we have one every month.  I hope they do because I really don't believe you know how to read...Oodles of love, Nanette


Louisville  December 4, 1946
As you surmised, we had a very good Thanksgiving dinner, with a beautiful roasted turkey, tender and juicy, with all the trimmings.  The entire family were on hand, including Hugh, also Joey, both of whom came home for the weekend, the only absentee being yourself, and naturally we all missed your smile, not to mention the valuable assistance that you have always rendered on such occasions.

I imagine that mama has told you that the new gas furnace is functioning very well, so you can realized how much the work of keeping the house warm has been reduced, in fact work has been entirely eliminated, and besides that everything is cleaner, including the air in the house...Affectionately, Dad

The VAMC...Changing the Conversation

Zachary Taylor National Cemetery Annex...Hopefully coming soon to a field near you!

Three years ago, Veterans Affairs decided that a parcel of land by my house would be a great place to build a new hospital.  It is a 36 acre undeveloped piece land-locked farmland, bordered on one side by the Watterson Expressway, another by US 22, and two sides by existing residential neighborhoods.

Nobody in his right mind would look at this property and think, "Wow! That is a great location for a hospital!"  The fact that NOTHING has been built there, on one of the last remaining empty pieces of land in one of the most developed, expensive locations in the county, should have been a clue that there are issues with this location.

But I digress.

So, the VA told the community that they thought this site, over all the other sites, was the best one for its new hospital.  I won't go into detail on all of the reasons why it is an awful, poorly chosen location.  I will mention briefly that it is further away from the hospitals where veterans will need to go to get specialty treatment.  I will mention that traffic is HORRENDOUS before the anticipated additional 3,000-4,000 cars a day according to the VA's traffic study.  I will mention that these cars entering and exiting the property will all use one exit at two-lane Highway 22.  Can we say "gridlock"?   I will mention that there is no room for expansion.  I will mention that the planned complex does not fit into the surrounding community.  That currently there are no 8-story parking garages any closer than downtown (this will have two).  That the current infrastructure cannot support a project of this size.  That the initial designers of the plan said it would not have been their choice of location for a new hospital and that it will be "interesting" to get it all into this spot.  "Cozy" is one word they mentioned to describe it.  I could keep going, but that's not the point of this entry.

What I want to write about today is that regardless of what happens with this proposal, I am really, really proud of what we have accomplished.  And I hope my kids see that no matter the odds, there is value in standing up for what you believe in, in continuing the fight when things look bleak, and in speaking the truth over and over and over because someone will finally listen to what you have to say.

When this whole thing started, and we began voicing our objections, the main response we got was, "You are a NIMBY! ("not in my backyard")  Support our veterans, you rich, east end, SUV driving snob!  Just deal with a little traffic for all the veterans have done for your freedom.  It's the least you can do!"  Over and over and over again, for many, many months, that was the response we got whenever we shared the objections listed above.

But we kept talking.  We kept writing.  We kept giving interviews to anyone who would listen.  At times, it looked like things were fizzling out, but we kept plugging away.  Two neighbors on their own, and my tiny board of myself and 3 other people.

We met with Congressman John Yarmuth, with representatives from Senator Rand Paul's office and with members of our Metro Council.  We called the offices of any elected official who we thought could help and talked to their representatives, including Senator Mitch McConnell, KY, Congressmen Jeff Miller, FL, Mike Coffman, CO, Tulsi Gabbard, HI, and Hal Rogers, KY.  I spoke to members of the House Veterans Affairs Oversight Committee and developed an email correspondence with them.  We filed Freedom of Information Acts and became a 501(c)(3).  We wrote op-eds for the newspaper and taped an op-ed for a news channel.  We met with reporters, organized neighborhood meetings, and encouraged the Kentucky Medical Association to pass a resolution supporting a downtown hospital.  We met with leaders of the University of Louisville, the director of the Louisville VAMC, with city councils, with lobbyists, with anyone who would give us 20 minutes.

We kept telling the truth, sharing the facts, ignoring the negative.  We tried to be positive.  We suggested alternative uses for the land, which has already been purchased by the VA.  We pointed out that the families of our local veterans have to drive at least an hour away if the veteran wants to be buried in a military cemetery.  This land is 1/4 mile from Zachary Taylor National Cemetery, why not make it an annex?  We could honor nearly 30,000 veterans for the next 100 years if we use this land for a cemetery.  Hospitals can go lots of places.  Cemeteries can't.  We finally started getting people to listen.

And we changed the conversation.

When discussion turns to the proposed hospital, no longer do we hear, "NIMBY!"  Instead, we hear, "That is a terrible location!  Why aren't our elected officials speaking up?"  When an article on the hospital is printed in the paper, the responses are, "This hospital needs to go downtown where all of the specialty services are!  Why does the VA think this is a good site?"  When people learn we are the ones who have been working to have our new VA hospital located near downtown's medical campus, they thank us for being a voice for the community.

This whole thing has been empowering.  It has shown me, and hopefully my children, that when you have the truth on your side and you believe in something, there is value in standing up, speaking out, and being counted.

Regardless of the final outcome---and I have much faith that one day we will see the "Zachary Taylor National Cemetery Annex" located in this spot instead of a hospital---I am very proud of what we have accomplished.

We have made a difference.