Well, V-E-Day has come and gone; everyone is now recuperating, myself included! What a hectic time nearly everyone had. The official period for celebrating Victory-in-Europe was 48 hours starting at about noon on Tuesday, May 8th.
I didn’t really do much of anything, but it took all of Tuesday night and the early hours of Wednesday to do it! Shall I tell you about some of it? I’m going to anyhow. Our original plans about going to the Victory Dance at the Red Cross didn’t work out—later in the evening we decided we would go to a dance hall out near one of the parks, but somehow we didn’t get around to it.
After posting on Tuesday afternoon, I finished up some work, got completely cleaned up, and took an Army bus to Belfast, arriving there just past six o’clock. I had supper some place along in there too. Well, Belfast was all decorated up like a Xmas tree. I was actually surprised. It is usually so dull-looking. There were thousands and thousands of British flags (and a few American ones) hanging from all the homes and buildings. I’ve never seen anything like it in the U.S., not even on the 4th of July. Although there was bunting and such, the endless number of flags was the outstanding feature of decked-out Belfast on this Victory Day. And the people!!!—they were all over the place.
My first problem was to find a bus to take me out to Jane’s place. Yeah, just try to find one! The transportation was a merry mix-up; the busses couldn’t get in to their usual stops in the city center because of the crowds, and there weren’t many running any way. I did finally make it, though, even if it did take over an hour.
Jane welcomed me at the door and introduced me to what seemed like everyone in that part of the city: her mother, aunt and uncle, younger sister (who is Bonnie’s age), her best girlfriend, her sister’s best girlfriend, all the folks next door, etc. etc. Her mother fixed me up with some tea and cake (naturally!) and then what does Jane do but drag me off to church. She is a Presbyterian and I am just a Protestant, so there is no difficulty there. We walked to the Fort William Park church. I must say it had a very fine service, something on the order of good old Dr. Thompson’s services in Colfax. I had the distinction of being the only American in the church, which fact was very interesting to some of the Irish. The Yanks are more famous for their carousing around (wine, women, and song) than for their church-going. Ha Ha ! On our way to the church, one of the neighbors said, “Put in a good word for me, will you?”.
At about ten o’clock, as it was getting dark, we lit the large bonfire on our block. There were hundreds of these fires all over the city, some of them taking up most of the width of the street. Old and young joined in the games and the dancing in the street; it was a wild party. By midnight, we were ready to take off to see what was going on down in the city center.
Down town it was much as it had been that afternoon, only more so. Lots of people! The City Hall and Albert Memorial Clock were nicely lit up. They weren’t the only ones! On the whole though, it was a well-behaved crowd. There seemed to be fewer drunks than usual, perhaps because the liquor supply had to be stretched further than usual. Many of the stores had boarded up their display windows. Everyone was in a festive mood—they were carried away by the joyousness of the occasion. Any unescorted girls were caught and kissed time and again—they may have had a better time than those with fellers! It is hard to explain exactly what was going on and why everyone was having fun, but they were—that was clear enough. I know that I certainly enjoyed myself throughout the evening. Jane said that if I didn’t, I gave a marvelous impersonation. If you had seen me, you probably would have thought I had had something to drink. But I didn’t—didn’t have a chance! Ha Ha !
At a quarter to five I was back at the Red Cross, ready to go to bed. There weren’t any! Not even a soft chair, but I didn’t care. I stretched out on six hard wooden chairs I found up where the dance had been held. After an hour’s rest (?!?), I got up and had an early six o’clock breakfast of two fresh fried eggs and three pieces of toast. By eight I was back in camp on my bunk, resting. Some night, eh? I got a bang out of it. Out of the ordinary for me.
At noon I got up and had a nice dinner: roast beef, potatoes and gravy, asparagus, peas, tomatoes, bread and butter, lemonade, ice cream and cake.
I have told you only a fraction of what was cooking that night. I hope you get a general idea at least of how I spent V-E-Day night! But that wasn’t all. Jane called up long-distance three times Wednesday to try to get in touch with me and have me come in again that night. Our office was locked, so I didn’t get together with her. It was just as well, for I was absolutely exhausted. But I hear that the Wednesday night celebrations in Belfast were more riotous than on Tuesday, if that is possible.
[letterstohome copyright 2008]