ANDOVER NEWSLETTER, Vol.3, #6.

Sponsored by the Democratic Town Committee.

Andover, Connecticut,

December 1945.

To the Service Men and Women of Andover, Greetings!

Merry Christmas!

For the first time in five years, we can send out our glad greetings without a twinge of conscience.  We are aware that many of you are still thousands of miles from home, but the very fact that the war is over gives us more hope that events and circumstances will hasten the day when you will have all come back to spend the holidays in the old home town.  So it’s Merry Christmas! and a Happy New Year--with all our hearts.

Mysterious packages are hidden in strange places; the children are counting the Christmas bulbs left over from last year; green wreaths are appearing at windows; the women are checking lists; the men are wondering if they’ll have time to go out into the woods and chop down a tree or whether they’d better pick one up in town; and Charlie Friedrich, even ably assisted by Morty, finishes his mail route a couple of hours later than usual.  It must be Christmas!

The girl scouts have trudged the highways and byways to collect money for the Community Christmas tree, which will be surrounded by a throng of hopeful children at the Church on December 21.  The Christmas plays will be presented at Center School on the afternoon of December 20.  The Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, The Mother’s Club, The PTA, The 4-H Club, the Grange, and every other group with half an excuse, are holding Christmas parties.  The Girl Scouts will take a straw ride in the back of Connie Schatz’ truck on December 22, to sing carols at homes of residents all over Andover.  Yes, it’s Christmas!

Even the weather is providing the season with appropriate decorations.  We’ve already had three snow-storms, and we are having a cold spell to beat all December cold spells.  It takes an optomist to stand New England weather, anyway, and some of us are in hopes that, with all this weather packed into December, we may get a break during the months when it is officially winter.  There’s no telling how many tidy floors have been ruined by tracked-in snow already, or how much extra sweeping has had to be done to keep the wood and coal ash situation well in hand.  All is not beer and skittles, for there are a lot of youngsters who are ill with one thing or another, including chicken pox.  In fact all of the eleven first graders have been out of school for nearly two weeks.

We found out at long last the name of the new baby at the Goss homestead.  She is Linda Diane, and her proud father will be home for a four-day visit with her at Christmas time.  He is a patient at Uncas-onThames.

Mr. and Mrs. George Platt are the parents of a baby boy, who was born on November 24.  Gaining nicely, thank you!

Lois and Husky Palmer had a baby girl named Avis on November 17, and Grace and Fred DeMers have a baby boy named Raymond Earl DeMers, who was born on December 6.

The stork has been granted a short furlough.

Andover welcomes a new minister, Lt. Frederic Broad, and his wife and two small children, Peter and David.  They moved here late in November.

Corp. John Bausola is still in France, where he has been spending the past 14 months.  He hopes to be home early in 1946.

Eddie Sheehan dropped his title of T/S for just plain Mr. on December 10, after 27 months in the South Pacific.  He is still busy catching his breath and looking the old home town over.

Captain Joe Gasper breezed in during the past week, with two years of Army Transport flying in the Pacific to his credit.  We are sorry to say that his mother was in the Hartford Hospital when he arrived, but she will soon be home to join in the fun the family is having because Joe is home.

Julian Krzewski is home for good, after a year in the Pacific and a tour of duty in the ETO. His LST enjoys the distinction of being the only ship in the U.S. Navy that has ever fired upon the U.S.S. Missouri.  Yes, ‘twas an accident, and there will be no congressional investigation of the accident.

Carol (Monk) Wright has been discharged, and has brought his wife and son to live at River Knoll (better known locally as the Newton Place)

Major Bertram Wright hopes to get home soon.  He is now located at Kyoto, HQ for the 6th Army.  He is engaged in writing a History of the Occupation of Japan.

Lt. Charles Johnson is at Camp DeLuz, California, assigned to duty with a redistribution regiment.  He is in charge of unloading troop ships at San Diego, getting the men to Camp Pendleton, pay, feeding, housing, clothing and transferring them to separation centers nearest their homes.

S 1/c Stanley Gasper is at Gunnery School, Jackson, Florida, and his best score to date is 129 out of 150 clay pigeons.

Link and Lina Bathrick have sold their home on Long Hill, and Link has accepted a new position in Woonsocket, R.I.  Lina hopes to continue living in Andover for a while and join Link in R.I. when the school year is over.

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas McManus have sold their home on Hartford Avenue, and have moved to New Jersey, for “home is where your job is”.  Houses swap hands around here like wild fire, and we don’t know yet who the new residents of the McManus home will be.

Betty Shepherd has taken up nursing duties at the Hartford Hospital, but we suspect the job won’t last long.  A very special member of the U.S. Navy is on his way home from the Pacific War Theatre, and Mrs. Shepherd is making tentative plans for a wedding in January.

Pfc. Don Parks sent us a good letter from Leyte, P.I., which reached us soon after the November Newsletter left our hands.  We quote, in part:  “…I miss that little town of Andover more than anyone knows…I would like to get back there so I could be going to see that gal of mine in Mansfield…We have to contend with chickens, dogs, and monkeys running through our tents all day long…”

The AFD did a neighborly stint in Columbia last week, and kept a nice house from burning to the ground.  It’s cold enough around to here to appreciate a good fire anyway you can get one.

There seems to be a great scarcity of news this month.  Won’t you who are still doing Uncle Sam’s work for us write and tell us all about yourselves? We want to year from you.

Happy New Year!  and

Safe home!

Vera Cross Taylor, Editor.

Andover, Connecticut

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