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.”
Kibbe was just one of the south Louisiana officials who set up sites where “all men who are not eligible for military service and all women who want to do their part … [could] register for voluntary service in some phase of civilian defense.”
Editorials and news stories reflected the confusion brought on by a war at Christmas. Messages extolling goodwill to all appeared next to those proclaiming everyone’s patriotic duty to help destroy the enemy.
“America is at war,” the Meridional editorial said, “but don’t let that fact cast a gloom over the Yuletide season.” It and other newspapers carried side-byside promotions urging readers to buy War Bonds but also to buy Christmas Seals.
The Teche News front page of December 19 was just one of many that reflected the dichotomy. One story urged homemakers to pledge that “as a consumer in the Total Defense of Democracy, I will do my part to make my home, my community, [and] my country … ready, efficient, and strong. I will buy carefully, take care of the things I have … [and] waste nothing.” On that same front page was a call for more donations for St. Martinville’s doll and toy fund for needy children.
That day’s edition of the Rayne Acadian Tribune invited everyone to the community’s annual Christmas party and tree lighting but also gave detailed instructions on how to mask a car’s headlights with blue cellophane because “blue light is least visible from the skies” and enemy pilots would be less likely to see them.
That was one of the few places that even mentioned blackouts designed to hide targets from enemy bombers.
The Banner Tribune announced that, “Despite the existence of war, Franklin is again … representing the wholehearted Christas spirit … [with] lights all along the neutral grounds, the courthouse square, and other public places.”
The Church Point News thanked the Louisiana Power and Light Company for providing free electricity to light a community Christmas tree and “a beautiful Crib on the grounds of the Presbytery.”
Several newspapers announced the imminent arrival of Santa Claus but also a Christmas week tour by Marine Corps recruiters to “afford Teche country patriots just another chance to avail themselves of the grandest privilege … of fighting to defend his fatherland, his life, and liberty.” The Coast Guard was also conducting an urgent Christmas season recruiting campaign for seamen and especially for radio operators to keep our coastline safe.
Still, despite the war news that filled their columns, newspapers in practically every community tried to take the Meridional’s advice to make it a merry Christmas.
The Ville Platte Gazette devoted its entire front page to a largetype, illustrated rendition of the famous “Yes, Virginia. There is a Santa Claus,” editorial, and the Eunice News used as its Christmas edition editorial the full text of Longfellow’s “Christmas Bells.”
In that poem the sound of cannons in another war drowned the merry peal of Christmas chimes, but “Then pealed the bells more loud and deep; ‘God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; The wrong shall fail, The right prevail, With peace on earth, good-will to men!’” It took a while, but eventually the right did prevail, and for a brief time there was hope for peace and goodwill across the earth.
Maybe someday we will see that wish come true, a Merry Christmas to all and peace on Earth every day.
You can contact Jim Bradshaw at [email protected] or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.
