 |
| Dear Folks: Letters Home |
I am reading the most interesting book published by Sandy Geib Benson. The title is: Dear Folks: Letters Home 1943-1946 World War II
George David Geib, the father of Sandy Benson, joined the Army Air Force in 1943 and was stationed in several places across the country. Some of his letters were also written overseas, in London and Paris. He wrote letters home to his parents and his sister almost every day. When the war was over, he found that his mother had kept every single letter he wrote.
Fifty years later, George edited and compiled those letters and made about thirty books at the Quick Print. He gave them to family members including Sandy. George is gone now and Sandy, his daughter who is an author and journalist, formerly published this book with photographs, maps, certificates, and diagrams that help the reader understand what this young man was doing as he learned to fly airplanes. He had an interesting life and we read about it in his letters.
I particularly like page 2 of the Foreword. George tells how he gained weight so he could meet the required number on the scale. This part was written fifty years after the letters were written.
We follow this young man as he leaves home in California and travels by train across the country to Nebraska, where he was first stationed for training. The tone of the letters goes from happy curiosity and enthusiasm to days when he seems homesick, but he doesn't dwell on it. They are written in the voice of a nineteen-year-old, and I can see him as I read his words to his mother and father. I can imagine how much those letters meant to his folks. When George came home in 1946, he could not believe how many letters he had written until he saw them all in a large paper bag.
This book reminds me of my cousin, Henry, who was in the Army Air Force. Henry didn't come home. He died while in training when his plane was shot down by friendly fire over the Gulf of Mexico. And I remember my older brother, Ray, just out of high school joined the Navy. I can still see my mother and father weeping and holding each other the day my brother left. Everyone was overjoyed when he came home to stay.
Sandy Benson did an excellent job with this book. She says it was not easy and I can imagine with all the graphics included that formatting this manuscript was a tough task. But what a special outcome for not only her but for anyone who reads it. It is available on Amazon.com.
.jpg)
