World War I, Thanksgiving, and one Buffalo Grove Family
Thanksgiving Far From Home
A big disruption to early Thanksgiving celebrations for many Americans was World War I. World War I occurred between 1914 and 1918. The United States was involved from 1917 to the end of 1918. One Buffalo Grove resident, Bernard Raupp, was sent to fight in the war during this time. Bernard and his cousin, Josephine Raupp, shared many letters while Bernard was away in Texas and Europe. They updated each other on family, the war, and holiday celebrations. In one of his letters, Bernard tells Josephine about his Thanksgiving in Texas, where he was stationed before being sent overseas.
Transcription:
Dear Cousin Josephine,
I am all well and hope the same of you. I received your card yesterday was glad to hear of you. Well did you have good luck at the fair this year? I wish I could of taken that in too. We had some times here Thanksgiving. We had turkey, cranberry sauce, and butter. That is something I didn't see for quite a while. We had pie too. Yesterday each one got a can Velvet Tobacco. Now we can smoke-ha ha . We had mass here Thanksgiving. There weren't very many in though we have a nice priest here. He looks much like Father Mattes. He hears Confession in his tent Sat nights. He has mass every day in his tent. We have two masses on Sundays now.
Sunday is always a long day here. We don't drill on Sat here in the morning, we always got inspection. The rest of the day we got off always. We always do our washday on Sat. Have to get used to everything in the army. It ain't so dusty now we had few little rains this week. How is the weather up there? Suppose it gets pretty cold up there now. We have hot weather the last few days. Yes it sure was hot out in the drill field. That was the hottest day we had for a long time. The nights they are always cool. A person gets cold easy down here. I have a little cold. Almost all the boys have a cold. The hospitals are just full of sick people. I wish that war was over soon. Let us hope so any way. This here wouldn't be so bad as long as we didn't have to go across. We might not have to go. I hope not. Is Andy still at ? Will close with love to all.
I am, as ever,
Cousin Bernard