Arlington Archives ! from Arlington Historical Society AUG/SEPT 2012 P. 2 What did you do in WW II (continued from page 1) What did you think about the Italians? They were sort of

What did you do in WW II, Neil Tucker? Part 3 of 3

(as told to Rebecca Tucker, AHS Board Member)

Note: The following is Part 3 of an oral history of Cooper Neil Tucker during WW II, as told to his wife, Rebecca Tucker. Neil was a lifelong resident of Arlington, Texas, and a descendent of Arlington pioneer James Daniel Cooper. Neil passed away April 21, 2010. This document was part of a history assignment while Rebecca was attending Dallas Baptist University during the mid-1990s. The assignment was to obtain an oral history of WWII experiences. Neil was nine years old when America entered the war.

What did vou think about Mussolini? Oh, I hated old Mussolini. Hirohito, Mussolini and Hitler - they were the bad guys.

What did you think about the Germans and the Japa-

nese? We heard a lot about the atrocities being carried out by

the Germans. Stories coming out of the German prison camps. We had a lot of flyers shot down during the bomb-ing raids out of England over France and Germany - wher-

ever the German troops were at that time. I was scared of the Germans and the Japanese; they were the enemy and

therefore bad and I hated them too. The Japanese were portrayed as sneaky rotten bastards and I hated them. I didn't know any Japanese people so what I heard was

all I knew.

(continued on page 2)

1616 W. Abram St.

(at the Historic Fielder House)

Arlington, TX 76013 817-460-4001

Geraldine Mills, Director

[email protected]

www.historicalarlington.org

Hours: Fielder House: Tues. through

Sat. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (or by appointment)

Knapp Heritage Park: Sat. & Sun. 1-4 p.m.

Newsletter Editor—Tom Dodson at [email protected]

Newsletter — AUG/SEPT 2012

Stories from the

Arlington Archives !

In this Issue

How well do you know your Arlington History?

1. What is the name of the Arlington man who served in WWII and was awarded the Medal of Honor, the na-tion’s highest award for valor?

2. What was the name of the popular restaurant on E. Division that was sold in 2011, having become an Arlington icon, serving three generations (from 1957)?

3. What ever happened to the huge metal “V” that was in front of the new (in 1967) Vandergriff Dealership on the NE corner of E. Division & Collins?

4. What ever happened to the five large granite mega-lithic “Caelum Moor” stones that, for a long time, were on the north side of I20, designed to be the cen-terpiece of an office park that never materialized?

5. What was name of the Presbyterian minister/surveyor who (in the mid 1870s) platted the route of the T& P Railway through eastern Tarrant County and laid out the original half-mile square town of Arlington?

6. From the 1950s to 1985, when Arlington State Col-lege’s football came to an end, one man announced the football games. Who was that?

Arlington Archives – What did you do in

WW II, Neil Tucker?

1

How well do you your Arlington History? 1

A fitting memorial to the more than 40

young Arlington men who lost their lives

during WW II

4

New Fielder Exhibit coming mid-August—

”Bankhead Highway through Arlington”

4

Front Street Festival—2012 will be on Sat-

urday, September 29—Mark your calendar

4

Annual Preservation Celebration— at the

Howell Family Farms—a big hit !!

5 & 6

Arlington Steak House designates August 19

as Arlington Historical Society Day !

6

Old Timers and Gardens Club schedules

into 2013

6

News from Arlington Historical Society AUG/SEPT 2012 P. 2

What did you do in WW II (continued from page 1) What did you think about the Italians? They were sort of a joke. They didn't have much of an army; it would be sort of like Mexico putting together an army. The Italians were ineffective; they were part of the Axis. We didn't hear any positive things about the Italian effort in the war.

What did vou think of FDR? He was just a notch below God. I think the whole country felt that way. You just did not say anything bad about FDR. Now I

don't know how it was in states where you had Republicans; there weren't any Republicans in Arlington then, at least not that I knew of. Nobody, or at least I never heard anybody, said anything bad about FDR. He was as close to a king as we

ever had, I guess. Actually he was re-elected to a fourth term right before he died; he served 12 years and probably could have declared himself king if he had a mind to. I don't think anybody would have cared; not in Arlington anyway. Every-

body thought he was about the greatest thing there was.

Why did everybody think he was so wonderful?

Well, the word was that those “rotten old” Republicans caused the Depression, so when FDR became president he started the New Deal, and the CCC camps and the WPA. There are still a lot of things around they built. They built the Union Hall

where we meet - the plaque is right by the front door. Arlington State College football field used to have a rock fence all the way around it that was built by the WPA. They were building anything just to put people to work. FDR's programs put

America back to work. I am sure there were people who thought his programs were a waste of taxpayers’ money but I did-n't know any of them. They were people with jobs and money and didn't need any help. All I heard about his programs was good and as it turned out they were good for the country. Water conservation was born because of the Tennessee Valley

program. It was the war effort that made FDR into a Superman; it turned him into the leader of the free world - FDR and Winston Churchill.

What did you think, at the time, about Churchill?

Oh, I thought Churchill was great. He was a very outstanding individual; he always smoked a big cigar. He was, next to FDR,

the greatest world leader ever, the champion of democracy.

What did you think, at the time, about Hitler? I hated Hitler, because he was the one that caused it all. I didn't realize as a kid, but I realized later, when I got grown just

how much the movies changed during the war. There was a lot of war propaganda in the movies. The Three Stooges would do skits where one would be Mussolini and one would be Hitler. Curly would always be Mussolini and Moe would always

be Hitler. I didn't really know at the time what propaganda was but I enjoyed the movies and skits because I believed we were right and they were wrong - there was no in-between.

What did vou think about the dropping of the A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

I remember being tickled to death when it happened. You have to look at it from our point of view. My Daddy had been fight-ing the Japanese for several years, he was wounded, and he could have died. We lost thousands of men taking one island and then the next one, and the next one. We were all tickled to death when they dropped the bomb because that ended the war, and everybody would come home. I know it is terrible to think about it like that, but it was saving our guys lives. How-ever, the decision to kill hundreds of thousands of people had to be a very difficult one. People going to school, going shop-ping just going about their everyday activities - they were warned; they dropped leaflets warning them about the bomb. I don't know what they expected the Japanese people to do, run for the hills or what. I doubt if the warnings helped save any lives because I'm not sure anything could be done.

(continued on page 3)


What did you do in WW II (continued from page 2)

Do vou remember where vou were when vou heard about the death of FDR?

No! I remember people could not accept his death. It went on for years that he was still alive and in the basement of the White House. People just couldn't

believe he was dead. I thought - well maybe he might be alive!

Were jobs plentiful after the war?

As far as I know everybody who came home had a job, my friend Nomi's Mother stopped working at Consolidated, I don't really know if she got laid off or quit of if some guy came back from the service and bumped her out of her

job or what. I really don't know if they had unions or not, they probably did have but since no one in my family worked there, I wasn't aware of how all

that worked.

Did most people stay married after their loved ones came home from the War?

Oh, there were a lot of marriages that fell apart because when a guy is gone 3 or 4 years a lot happens. I am sure there was

unfaithfulness on both sides and I am sure there was some trouble adjusting. Uncle Johnny and his wife didn't last a month after he came home. My Mother and Daddy got a divorce by mail while he was in the South Pacific. Why? I'll never know what that was all about. I know Daddy was not faithful - he ended up marrying the nurse that took care of him after he was

wounded in the South Pacific. Maybe that was why. He may have written and asked her for a divorce so he could marry his nurse, I don't know. He never came home, he stayed in California. I didn't see him again until he had his heart attack when I

was 18, Aunt Beatty and I went out there at that time.

Is there anything else vou would like to add that I haven't covered?

There are probably all sorts of tales I could tell you. I remember one of my big heroes was Hopalong Cassidy, and the day he came to town to sell war bonds. You know a lot of the movie stars went around the country selling war bonds during the war. Anyway, they had a big Hopalong Cassidy Day in Arlington and closed Main Street for the occasion. They didn't have big

auditoriums back then, so people gathered in front of the movie theater or in front of a flatbed truck or something. When Hoppy came to town, I was so disappointed because he didn't bring his horse with him. He had his red-headed wife, not his

horse, and I was furious. I wanted to see the horse, not the wife! That just shows how kids think.

During the war, Arlington had a lot of side shows and medicine shows that came to town, you know The Biggest Man in the World, The Skinniest Man in the World, that kind of thing. After I went up to North Texas State College (now the Univer-

sity of North Texas), John Wayne and Jeff Chandler came there selling bonds. I was mad because Jeff Chandler was bigger than John Wayne and that really ticked me off; I thought John Wayne was the biggest and toughest man alive. Dale Robert-

son was another star who came to North Texas, he was an extremely handsome guy and all the girls were crazy about him. He was reciting poetry and when he turned around and looked at the girl that was standing right next to me, she hit the floor - passed out like a light. I got the hysterics, I thought it was the funniest thing I had ever seen; I had never seen any-

thing like it - he just dropped her with a look and I thought "I wonder if I could do that!"

To sum it all up, the years before the war, my childhood years I am talking about, were just so blissful for a kid, the United

States was the power of the world I guess; Arlington was the center of the world; and I was the center of Arlington. There I

was! It just couldn't have been a happier time for me. After the war I had to grow up.

**********************

FDR funeral procession leaving

Union Station, Washington, D.C.,

April 14, 1945


MARK YOUR CALENDAR - DON’T MISS IT !!

Front Street Festival 2012—September 29—10 to 4

Vendors already signed up (it’s not too late to register!):

Arlington Alumni Association, Arlington Conservation Council, Arlington Goodtimes Chorus , Arlington Historical Society, Arlington Preservation Foundation, Everything Succulent, Freddie’s Burgers, Friends of O.S. Gray, Gary’s Woodturnings, Good Will Flutemaker, Gourd Society, Green Mountain Energy, It’s for the Birds, Knapp General Store, Kreme Kones, LDC T-shirts, Lone Star Comics, Rockin Rotisierre, Steve’s Pulled Pork, Top Dawgs, Wood Art by Sandy and Don

SMALL TOWN COURAGE ARLINGTON, TEXAS IN WORLD WAR II

During World War II, young men and women from small towns

across America answered the call to arms. Arlington, Texas,

with a pre-war population of approximately 3,500, was no ex-

ception. Its young men served in all branches of the armed

forces, participating in every major theater of the global con-

flict, from Pearl Harbor to the Battle of The Bulge and beyond.

Almost everyone had a family member or loved one serving,

and for others the war was as close as the family next door.

More than forty Arlington hometown servicemen lost their lives during the war years.

The Arlington Historical Society has proposed a plan to enlarge the Neel Kearby Memorial at the Downtown Library to include the other Arlington boys killed in WWII. We are partnering with the City of Arlington Parks Department to apply for a grant to make this a reality. UTA has made a gen-erous donation, and we have already received contributions from individual donors. The Society has also made a contribution. This is a fitting tribute to the young men who gave their all and to the families and town that loved them. We are so proud to be a part of it. If you would like to be a part of this memorial, send your contribution to the Arlington Historical Society (address on page 1), marked "Arlington WWII Memorial."

New Fielder Exhibit coming -

“Bankhead Highway in Arlington”

(opens mid-August!)

City Urban Design Center Rendering


Thanks for making it a it a great success !!

At Howell Family Farms 6/9


OLD TIMERS SPEAKERS Old Timers meets

at the Fielder House on the 3rd Thursday each month at 2 p.m.

Old Timers is where long-time Arlington residents (and other speakers) tell stories (and spin yarns?) about Arlington in days past. Everyone is invited to attend these informative and entertaining sessions. Dates and speakers for the balance of this year are:

August 16—Ethel Glazner September 20—Phyllis Forehand October 18—Dan Dipert November 15—Carmen Elliott Gooden December 20—no meeting January 17, 2013—Bud Kennedy (Star- Telegram) February 21, 2013—Julette Hiett March 21, 2013—to be named April 18, 2013—The Ross Brothers—Albert, Hugh, and Martin

Thanks to Barbara Kight for coordinating this effort!

Answers to “How well do you know your

Arlington history?”

1. It was Col. Neel E. Kearby, a 1928 graduate of Arlington High School. He attended NTAC in Arlington and re-ceived a business degree from UT Austin. He was an outstanding flyer of the P-47, in the Pacific Theater. Be-sides the Medal of Honor, he also earned two silver stars, four distinguished flying crosses, five air medals, and the Purple Heart. He was killed in action in 1944. A statue of him and a Texas State Historical Marker was placed on the grounds of the Central Library in 2009.

2. It was the Candlelite Inn, at 1202 E. Division. 3. The “V” is now in Vandergriff Park, between Matlock and S. Center Streets. 4. The “Caleum Moor” art work is now in the Richard Greene Linear Park, 1601 E. Randol Mill Road. 5. It was Andrew Hayter (pronounced “High’-ter”) one of the earliest settlers in the area. The T&P Railway of-

fered to name the town “Hayter,” but he declined, and instead gave the town the name of Arlington, after Robert E. Lee’s Virginia estate. There was already a tiny town nearby named “Hayterville,” after the Rever-end, but it was soon abandoned in favor of the new railroad town.

6. It was Tom Vandergriff, who was mayor of Arlington from 1951 to 1977.

GARDEN CLUB EVENTS

The Garden Club meets

at the Fielder House on the

3rd Friday each month at 10 a. m.

September 21—Meet & Greet & Bring a Friend ! October 19—Anita Garmon—Plants: The Good, Bad, and Beautiful November 16—Urban Design Center’s Fielder House Landscape Plan December 21—Christmas Party at Lavine Horton’s January 18, 2013—to be named February 15, 2013— Grace Darling, Arlington Conservation Council March 15, 2013—Kevin Donovan & Bob Ressl— History of O.S. Gray Park April 20, 2013—Fielder Flower Festival (tentative) May 17, 2013—Julia Burgen-Monarch Butterflies

Arlington Steak House, 1724 W. Division, has designated Sunday, August 19, as

Arlington Historical Society Day!

Thanks to owners Dick and Lynn Brink, who have pledged 10% of that day’s receipts as a donation to AHS!

————————————————————- Plan to have a meal at this historic restaurant on that day!!

“ K eepers of our History ” Awards Presented at the

2012 Preservation Celebration at Howell Family Farms

Richard Aghamalian Wanda Marshall Clete McAlister Beverly Reynolds Beverly Reynolds Tom Dodson Scott Howell Doland Maner

CONGRATULATIONS !! AND THANKS !!

Arlington Archives ! from Arlington Historical Society AUG/SEPT 2012 P. 2 What did you do in WW II (continued from page 1) What did you think about the Italians? They were sort of

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