Forest City Courier, May 25, 1939

This morning I heard our young son whistling as he started off to the river to draw in his trot line. Incidentally this morning had all the ear marks of a swell day for fishing, hence the whistle; even if it was slightly off tune. From last year he has graduated from a bamboo pole and can of worms to a rod and reel and tackle box. A great deal of the time the pole and can of worms is much in evidence, and the fancy fishing paraphernalia is left at home. While anticipating a strike at every cast, and often disappointed, he comes home still whistling, a happy care free way to end a perfect fishless day. While our youngsters here in America spend their spare time in healthful recreation beneficial to their moral and physical growth, we think of the youth in other lands being deprived of the rightful heritage in a happy boyhood by the influences of war. Militarism plays a big part in their education. War in all its horror is at their very doors ready to separate and destroy families and friends. As war clouds hover over many lands, and the daily papers give us accounts and pictures of war in all its cruelty we visualize those mothers with bleeding hearts watch their sons march off to war. We mothers of teen age sons dare not look too far into’ the future lest we, too, see everything that we hold dear seriously threatened.

Reprinted with permission from The Daily Courier. Copyright owned by The Daily Courier.