Light the tree but dim the headlights

Bradshaw

The skies weren’t safe even for Santa at Christmas 1941. Pearl Harbor had been bombed on December 7, the U.S. had been pulled into World War II, and a jittery citizenry was afraid that their town might be in enemy sights.

The Crowley Post Signal warned that rice mills, warehouses, and nearby oil fields were “all objects which enemies seek to destroy.” In Abbeville, mayor J. E. Kibbe said three hundred men were needed “to be trained in fire fighting in the event Abbeville is bombed.”