From Where Do We Find Such Men: On December 4, 1941, William Hasenfuss dashes off a routine letter home to his parents on Amsterdams Northampton Road from Hickam Field, near Pearl Harbor in the Territory of Hawaii, and sends it airmail. He has a surprise for them, but it can wait. Looking forward to his first Christmas furlough since entering the service, he has been delighted to learn that an Army reclassification of technical positions had resulted in a forthcoming promotion to staff sergeant. Airplane mechanic had been a natural fit for Hasenfuss. Hed been tinkering with them for a while at the tiny Perth airport, just north of Amsterdam, even logged thirty-six hours of solo flight from there. He likes fiddling with radios, too, even built several sets himself. “He comes from the wide open spaces,” it says next to his high school yearbook picture. But the furlough is starting to look iffy, what with tensions increasing between the United States and the Empire of Japan. Indeed, only a few days earlier a local Hawaii paper had carried sensational headlines of an imminent Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Those fears proved groundless, of course. Back in Washington Secretary of State Cordell Hull has been demanding clarifications from Japan about various troop movements. A Chicago newspaper charges that President Roosevelt has a secret plan to send five million American troops to Europe by July of 1943, a revelation that is widely denounced by the politicians in Washington, with words like “treason” bandied about lightly. The Soviet Union, meanwhile, is striking back at the Nazi invaders and by all press accounts has the Germans on the run. One pundit confidently predicts that there will be no trouble with the Japs until it became clear whether their buddy Hitler is winning or losing. The Polish government in exile has struck a deal with the Soviets to jointly fight the Nazis, with assurances of Polish independence after the war. (Two years later, when evidence is discovered of the Soviet execution of the Polish Officer Corps in the Katyn Forest, the Polish government cancels the arrangement). And in Amsterdam, New York, PEACE flows like the lovely Mohawk River on which it stands. The downtown stores are decked out in their Christmas best and geared up for the hordes that descend every Friday night. The Thursday Evening Recorder runs over thirty pages during the shopping season. A childrens serial Christmas story, Santa and the White Rose, appears six days a week. Sam Fariello on Lincoln Avenue supplements his hot fudge sundae trade with Christmas trees, “The Largest Assortment in the City!” The three downtown movie theaters are getting ready for the new features coming in on Sunday. The Rialto on Market Street has the blockbuster Birth of the Blues scheduled, with Bing Crosby, Mary Martin, Brian Donlevy, Carolyn Lee, Rochester and J. Carrol Naish, replacing Wallace Beerys Barnacle Bill. Down the street the Regent headlines the Marx Brothers in The Big Store along with James Cagney and Pat OBrien in Devil Dogs of the Air. The much racier Strand, down near St. Marys Church on East Main Street has another Brian Donlevy movie upcoming, South of Tahiti, also with “Brod” Crawford, Andy Devine, Maria Montez and “50 Sarong-Clad Goddesses of Love.” Daring Days! Exotic Nights! In a Forbidden Pagan Paradise! Over on the South Side, Lanzis restaurant features “pizza” on Friday nights, the strange delicacy being so new they feel they have to put it in quotes. Up on Hibbard Street, the Krupczak Pharmacy, decades ahead of its time, offers movie rentals of Castle Films for those people lucky enough to own an 8mm or 16 mm projector. “Amsterdams Only Rental Library,” they proclaim. On the sports pages, the major league baseball owners are holding their winter meetings in Jacksonville, Florida. Baseball has just finished an epic season, with Joe DiMaggios never-to-be equaled hitting streak and Ted Williams still amazing .406 batting average. Plans are already being made locally for the Yanks to come to Amsterdam in July to square off against the Rugmakers. Dom Salamack, a local booster of the New York Giants, notifies the area that he has available for viewing a National League film recounting the recent season, including clips from the World Series between the Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers. Hank Greenburg, legendary slugger for the Detroit Tigers, is released from six months of active military duty (due to an act of Congress exempting draftees over the age of 28) and greatly looks forward to rejoining his team and getting his Army service behind him. (He next picks up a bat professionally in July of 1945). The Recorder emphasizes in an editorial the importance of the annual fund drive of the Amsterdam Community Chest. And Jack Lanny and his orchestra announces that there will be dancing at Mohawk Mills Park. Admission for men, fifty cents. For women, thirty-five cents. Women arriving before 9 PM get in for a quarter! Come one! Come all! This Sunday night, December 7! Early morning in Honolulu is mid-afternoon Eastern Standard Time. Nineteen year old Frank Going does what he ordinarily does on a Sunday after Mass and dinner with his mother: he meets up with some friends and heads for the Strand Theater and takes in the latest features (they go with the 50 sarong-clad goddesses of love over the Marx Brothers or Bing Crosby). While they sit in the dark watching the fantasy land of the southern Pacific, the news flashes across the Associated Press teletype machine in the downtown offices of the Recorder, and from there quickly spreads across the city. The Strand is not spared. The movie stops, the radio news is piped in, the theater empties, and dazed teenagers wander into the streets. On “Dutch Hill,” up at Sanford Field on Locust Avenue, the mighty Bigelow-Sanford Uniteds soccer team hosts the First German FC in the first round of the State Cup tournament. The home town boys are having the time of their lives on this bright, crisp day. One of the greatest teams ever assembled in the fifty year history of the club, they lead 5-0 at half-time. And then the news. The boys play effectively, but quietly, for the rest of the contest, then walk silently from the field. There are no post-game celebrations. Within hours veterans groups assemble and offer their services, and on their own organize ham radio operators into listening posts to monitor the short waves for signs of subversive communications. Governor Herbert Lehman issues orders to all the states mayors, including Amsterdams Mayor Arthur Carter, to take all steps necessary to prevent sabotage of strategic facilities within their jurisdiction, and to protect the safety of Japanese citizens. The Amsterdam Clubs Association, a loose knit confederation of leaders of the Bigelow Weavers Association, St. Johns Club, Polish National Alliance, Group 113, St. Michaels Club and Sacred Heart Club, met on short notice at the St. Michaels Club on Reid Street, in the dark, narrow clubrooms on the second floor. There they hear a stirring address from their counsel, Attorney Frederick A. Partyka, urging the organization and their member groups to be devoted to true Americanism. While the papers dont mention it, it is highly doubtful that anyone shows up for dancing that night at Mohawk Mills Park, not even Jack Lanny and/or his orchestra.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 14:06:55 +0000
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