The Greatest Christmas There Ever Was

QuintessentialAmerica

by DAVID RUTTER The Greatest Christmas There Ever Was

he cold and snow seized Barrington that Christmas Eve Monday, but nothing could stop the joy. It rose up like a tidal waveT of unimaginable happiness. After holding its breath in fear and apprehen- sion for four years of global war that took 80 million lives and drained the world of happiness, Bar- rington could breathe again. The war could not break its heart. Life began again. The village could face the fu- ture confident in itself and its ambition. Could be happy and content. In fact, could be so happy that nothing could contain the joy. The kids were coming home. And after endur- ing four miserable, dark Christmases, the world was ready for happiness on that Dec. 25, 1945. Bar- rington was oh so ready. And so it was decided without a vote or a marketing plan. You could hear that everywhere you went that December. This would be the greatest Christmas that ever was. The nation craved it. Bar- rington craved it. President Harry Truman tossed the switch on the nation’s official Christmas tree that Christmas Eve. Thousands of lights burst and sparkled. He suggested the nation had earned a party. And so it came to pass.

Home is where the food is Army Sgt. Eugene Frieders had special reason to celebrate. Not only was his war over after three years trudging through Africa and Europe, he was

Jewel Tea Co. educated homemakers on how to shop for and serve meals, and how to care for the home. This 1933 marketing campaign was stopped in its tracks when rationing affected food and everything after the war broke out.

42 • Quintessential Barrington | QBarrington.com Barrington Boy Scouts raised funds to help buy a bomber for World War. (Barrington Courier-Review)

home and in love. He spent the Christmas week at the Pacific, but he was home now. soldiers and sailors home from posts around the the Cecil Ryner family home on Coolidge Avenue. Pfc. Melvin Schoeder was home, too. His world; 350,000 GIs were pouring back through He had come home to fiancée Adele Ryner. dad Fred left the family home on Wood Street American ports on each coast every month. There would be a giant dinner and presents and and went to the military hospital in Cambridge, Some—maybe dozens, though records are bright lights. Ohio that week, where his son was recovering incomplete—would not ever come home to Bar- The December newspapers were filled with from yellow fever. They had not seen each other rington. Lake County lost more than 350 in the those stories of reunited love, all told in gentle, in more than two years. They came home for war. quiet respect so as not to intrude on personal mo- Christmas together. The human toll was enough to demand this ments that would become the bedrock of their But nothing quite beat the party at the Paul Christmas be special. It had to be. Every church lives. The years had been hard on some Barrington Dewitz home on West Main. Three of the fam- was filled all of Christmas week. Full house for families, and the children deserved their privacy. ily’s four soldier sons were discharged and came midnight Latin High Mass at Saint Anne Catholic Soldiers who only months before had been home to stay that Christmas. The fourth son— Church. hunkered down in deadly crossfire on Iwo Jima Cpl. Paul Dewitz Jr.—got a surprise furlough. It Downtown was brimming and bustling all now shared gentle backyard snowball fights with was the first time in four years he’d slept in his week with a feverish enthusiasm everyone had cousins and secret kisses with the girls who had own bed. missed. Even though winter had descended hard filled their dreams. That was the theme. The boys were home. on the town, people moved with light feet and They often came home to mom and dad. To And the girls in uniform, too. Or would be lighter hearts. soft music on the radio. And quiet. soon, if the massive military mobilization that Bright, colorful lights dangled from every Walter Witchie had not seen his Barrington launched in 1941 now could be reversed. The lo- storefront. Mechanically animated Santas waved mom and dad for three years. He was a sailor in gistics were even more daunting to get 8 million at passersby. People smiled and waved. They had

QBarrington.com | Quintessential Barrington • 43 pleaded. Gary Cooper in “North West Mounted Police” was the hot ticket that week at the Catlow Theater. But not on Christmas Eve. The theater was dark. Everyone stayed home with the family that night. Barrington High School closed for two weeks and all 350 employees at Jewel Tea Company took a four-day weekend off, after a giant company- sponsored turkey dinner. Christmas dinner was a sumptuous feast everywhere people sat down to share the moment. Some returning soldiers were gently insistent that the celebration not include Spam, the ubiquitous salted pork shoulder canned meat-for all-seasons- and-all reasons. Allied troops consumed 15 million cans per week. It was a culinary love affair born of neces- sity. It spawned both grudging admiration and gentle ribbing. Although strict ration on most consumer goods had been frozen for four years by federal decree, towns close to the food belt—and that included Barrington—still fed themselves in a way Europeans would not experience for a full decade. American food cost in 1945 roughly what it had cost in 1941. Both day and mood demanded turkey, and Barrington took its toll on the feathered beasts. Sebby’s IGA in Lake Zurich offered 20-pound- ers for 49 cents a pound. The Barrington IGA did them one better: Any turkey bigger than 20 pounds would go for 45 cents a pound. A dozen eggs were 64 cents. They’d toss in a one-pound fruitcake for 29 cents. Stores were jammed with nuts and fruits. Jaeger’s Pastry Shop promised every delicacy possible. Butter and sug- ar were emancipated from the ration list. Sweet tooths were legal again. Parents splurged that Christmas in a way the war had denied them. No metal toys had been made since 1941, nor had most home electri- These recipes might have been used for the Christmas that followed the end of World War II. This page is from the cal appliances. The big consumer announcement “Mary Dunbar Cookbook” that was first introduced by Jewel Tea in 1933. of Christmas week was the arrival of brand new Maytag washers with the promise that new refrig- not bustled anywhere for four years or had reason celebrants pick out their Balsam Christmas tree erators might arrive by the New Year. to. Christmas had turned very somber during the early. “We have them in all sizes up to 12 feet. No passenger cars had been made after the Day war. Smiles were rationed, too. We’ll hold it for you,” they said in advertise- of Infamy, but that was not an impossible burden But everyone was shaking off the glum grey- ments. Plagge Flowers promised home delivery because there was no gas to be pumped except for ness. Happiness was the order of the day. of cut flowers and holiday wreaths. W“ e deliver, work travel, and that was tightly regulated. There Shurtleff Company on Hough Street suggested but please do not request an exact hour,” they was no rubber for tires.

44 • Quintessential Barrington | QBarrington.com driver to take them to Dallas, then another to drive four of them on to Atlanta. In Chicago, where rail lines converged from east and west, the Tribune reported that 15,000 impatient passengers stampeded at Dearborn Sta- tion, police descended, and the New York Central System temporarily refused to sell tickets on east- bound trains, an action with repercussions across the nation. The governors of Illinois and Indiana called out the state militia to drive veterans home. On the East Coast, trains filled to capacity and ci- vilians waited in lines at airline terminals for the rare open seat. A strike affecting Greyhound buses in 18 states made it worse. Fifteen thousand troops spent Christmas Day in New York City, marooned but relieved after days at risk in rough seas. Jewel Tea helped feed American service men and women while they were away fighting in World War II. Jewel used Only partway home for Christmas, stranded its distribution centers to pack and ship a wide variety of rations that included everything from food and toiletries servicemen and women gratefully settled for to cigarettes. long-distance telephone calls to their families. After two or three years at war overseas, the re- As December turned toward Christmas, to the corner grocer in Barrington knew there unions could wait another day or two. All over, breathless word came that Ford was rolling new would be a monster Christmas celebration if passengers missed connections, had no choice but cars off the line in Detroit. Nash, Studebaker, and only the nation could get its soldiers and sailors to camp in stations. Plymouth were rumored to have hot new prod- safely home. And the sooner the better. But America didn’t mind so much that Christ- ucts being primed for car-hungry commerce, too. The greatest Christmas ever was going to re- mas morning. Bing Crosby was singing “White Ponds Beauty Set including “Cold Cream, quire the greatest global military demobilization Christmas” on every radio station. Humphrey Bo- Vanishing Cream, Face Powder, Lipstick, and even attempted. gart turned 46 that day. In Chicago the headlines Rouge” in gift box went for $1.32. In the days before Christmas, naval vessels hailed: “Red Wings tie Blackhawks 4 to 4 before In 1945, the country had fewer than 5,000 tele- loaded with thousands of American sons and 19,055.” At the Mississippi-Alabama Dairy Show that vision sets. By 1946 it was 17,000. Three years later daughters battled hurricane-force winds and week, a 10-year-old from Memphis sang “Old we were buying 250,000 sets a month. 80-foot waves in the Atlantic, aiming to deliver Shep” and won a $5 runner-up prize. His name But the focus was not the pending consumer the troops home in time for the holidays. Sailors was Elvis Presley. prosperity of 1946; it was how to bring the soldiers shored up buckling bulkheads with timber sup- The kids came home. The nation’s party was home. The federal government called it O“ pera- ports to keep their ships afloat. just beginning. tion Santa Claus.” Half a world away, more ships moved in calmer seas, but they carried an even larger The grand logjam force—179,000 in all—from Pacific battle zones Christmas 1945 was the grandest, loudest, angri- to ports on the West Coast. est, coldest, snowiest traffic jam in world history On Christmas Eve alone, 40,000 men and David Rutter is a and nearly achieved national chaos achieved de- women returned to the United States from duty frequent contributer to Quintessential spite a car shortage, a gas shortage, a tire shortage overseas. The crush of military travelers over- Barrington. and, more profoundly, a shortage of drivers. whelmed ports and railroads. It was a mess. Twelve million Americans, mostly men, were According to Time magazine, 53,000 service- in uniform and half of them were still overseas men were stuck in San Francisco, where local when the war ended. They were strewn from Asia residents invited them home for Christmas din- Quintessential America is a recurring series of to Europe. Even those who had made it to San ner. In Los Angeles, the president of the Union stories reflecting American values and community Francisco or New York weeks before Christmas Pacific Railroad turned over his private rail car achievement. Some will be big stories. Some will be small. They’ll all be about Americans doing what we still were thousands of miles from home and stuck. to 12 Army nurses bound for home in the East. do best — sharing, helping, living. But everyone from President Harry Truman Five sailors in San Pedro, Calif., convinced a taxi

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