Veterans Day again, and thinking about that reminded me my grandfather's diary would tell me what he and grandmother were doing that day. I will begin today with the lead up to 11//11/1918. Grandparents lived in Berwyn, a Chicago suburb, and had married in early January of the year. Grandpa was an engineer at Western Electric where he spent his entire career; grandma had just taken a new job with "The Burlington RR" where she liked the work but the office was dirty and apparently the arrangements for lunch were terrible!
"11/7/18 XXXXXXX [# of x's often told the importance of the day] Well, the War is over, practically speaking. That is it ceased at 2pm today. (See under Nov 11) Whistles started blowing around 12:00 and continued to blow for about 2 hours. The Western whistles began at about 12:27pm and that was just when I sat down to dinner. When I got back to the departments, I thought whole bedlam had broken loose, nothing but noise & din. The employees became so unruly that the whole plant closed down and we went home. Everywhere I noticed rejoicing and flags waving. All schools were let out. Mothers marched thru the streets. This was only here around Cicero, it must have been great in Chicago"
The next day was Friday and they did not go to work, but to church where a talk was scheduled but the speaker failed to show so they went home. Grandpa ends his telling of that with "The peace of yesterday was only a rumor."
November 9th, Saturday they went downtown to shopping where Grandpa bought his father-in-law a "dandy 'umbershoot'". I'm sure that word is Dutch for undershirt!
Sunday the 10th they went to Church and Sunday School.
Sunday the 10th they went to Church and Sunday School.
Nov 11, 1918: "Went down to work and so did Naomi but neither of us worked as we were sent home. We arranged to meet at the Fair and we did. We paraded up and down the Loop, saw as much as we could and then had dinner, taking in a movie after. When we got out it was still going full blast. This day will go down in history as the "Great Day" or "Der Tag". The thing started about 2 this morning when the whistles started to blow. They kept blowing the whole day long, never once letting up. Berwyn too had its share in the celebration. Mr. & Mrs. S [grandma's parents] also went down in the PM & returned about 4:50pm. We got home about 2pm. Fighting ceased at 11AM. The Kaiser and his friends have fled to Holland. The War is now really over. Mr. Reloubet & Raab went into a saloon as soon as they got off the "L". " This last comment is typical of our very Dutch very strict grandfather Vander Meulen. He did not drink and viewed it as a sinful thing. And it's very typical of grandpa to write about a life-changing event then end the entry with a mundane, really unimportant comment.
A later entry tells more about the environment after the war was over - December 19th he writes "Warmest 19th of Dec in 41 years [global warming is apparently not new] Naomi was notified that she would have to give up her position at the C B & Q because of drafted men returning & claiming their jobs."
Also strewn through these weeks of 1918 of course are comments of people who were missing work or dying because of the Spanish Flu epidemic. 1918 was not a good year in that regard, but the end of the war 100 years ago today certainly was a blessed relief to the world. Interestingly to me, at the end of World War II grandpa comments that the dropping of the atom bomb will likely "end war for all time"... I am glad he did not live to know that prediction on the part of so many did not materialize.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE TO ALL VETERANS, LIVING AND GONE FOREVER.
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