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Re: Two Questions



OK, it is Friday (and payday) so my inhibitions are a bit down.

 

Sharon, writing about German and Italians in Tennessee wrote: 

 

I recall especially the efforts made by the camp commander to do such things as serve foods that the prisoners would like. Obviously, the Italians preferred pasta and that sort of the thing, and the Germans wanted meat and potatoes. I suspect such an environment would have made for some great psychological studies, but I don't think much of that was done.

 

I grew up in Cleburne (between Bono and Rock Tank) in Johnson County, Texas.  Johnson County was a “dry county” (i.e. the only sources of alcohol were the bootleggers, moonshiners (mostly in Somervell County), and trips to Tarrant County along a winding, two-lane road.  As a boy in the 1950’s some of the tee totaling adults were still indignant that during WWII the Army brought in beer for POW’s working in the county. 

 

For all I know this may have all been an urban (well, that may be the wrong adjective for the community) myth.  Some said that the POW’s were Germans, others Italians.  And I have the impression that they were in a fairly remote area (maybe closer to Ft. Spunky or Goatneck than Cleburne) in a temporary work camp, but I can vouch that no matter what the facts may have been there were citizens who were outraged a decade and more after the fact that the Army violated our local option law.

 

Paul (who does imbibe from time to time) Scott

Records Management Officer

Harris County, TX