Post by gato on Sept 22, 2021 6:08:47 GMT -5
Read an article in the WP this morning about people who stumbled across messages from the past in the homes they now own. Previous owners left little notes on wood framing in the attics. Or statements on walls that had been later covered by wallpaper. Many of them found the handwritten messages poignant; someone writing a note during the second world war, about rationing or food prices, someone long dead. Ever find something like this in your place? Maybe penciled growth marks on a door jamb for a child, made long ago?
I experienced something like this: during Basic Training in 1968, my entire company had been transferred from Fort Ord, in Monterey, to Camp Roberts, in a dusty area further south in California. Camp Roberts had opened in 1941, and saw the training of who knows how many soldiers during WWII. Our time there was spent being trained by National Guard members ... never found out why. In any case, one of the members of my platoon discovered that by standing on his upper bunk, he could push against the boards of the ceiling in our barracks. One of them was loose, and when tipped, a half dozen old wallets fell out. They held no cash, of course, since they had obviously been stashed after being stolen, but they were a treasure trove of information about soldiers who had trained at Roberts in the 1940's. Being good little maggots (the Army's endearing term for us trainees) we turned the wallets over to our drill instructors. Never heard any more about them. I've always wondered if any of the wallet owners survived the war.
I experienced something like this: during Basic Training in 1968, my entire company had been transferred from Fort Ord, in Monterey, to Camp Roberts, in a dusty area further south in California. Camp Roberts had opened in 1941, and saw the training of who knows how many soldiers during WWII. Our time there was spent being trained by National Guard members ... never found out why. In any case, one of the members of my platoon discovered that by standing on his upper bunk, he could push against the boards of the ceiling in our barracks. One of them was loose, and when tipped, a half dozen old wallets fell out. They held no cash, of course, since they had obviously been stashed after being stolen, but they were a treasure trove of information about soldiers who had trained at Roberts in the 1940's. Being good little maggots (the Army's endearing term for us trainees) we turned the wallets over to our drill instructors. Never heard any more about them. I've always wondered if any of the wallet owners survived the war.
