Ziggy was sent to Iceland and here he is outside his"living" quarters.
As he calls it, "ye, old Home"....this was just his style of humor. No doubt
Alveda's letters helped to keep him warm.
Meanwhile, back in the Village, Ziggy was not the only young man away from his family and sweetheart during the war. Here is Alveda with my Uncle Edward (Eddie), the youngest of the Souza clan. She shared this photo with Ziggy. WWII was a catalyst for villagers to start trending away from the Village as they saw new places and often met their sweethearts. Eddie would be stationed in far-off Texas and meet his lovely wife, my Aunt Grace there. They would live there and bring up their children in Texas their whole lives.
Here is a another photo: this time of my Grandmother Delphina and her great friend, Mrs. Correia who lived with her son and his family on Bennet St. I regret I never knew her first name only, respectfully, Mrs. Correia. She and my grandmother spent hours chatting in our living room or out on the front porch. I never knew if they were both from Madeira.
They are on either side of an unidentified soldier but clearly since Alveda sent this to Ziggy, he would have known him. I hope he fared well.
As we talk of young men like this, including Ziggy, I have to include
a young man from nearby Fall River, MA.
This was my husband's Uncle Leo Pineault in his
Durfee High School football gear.
This is quite a football history photo.
It is the only photo we have of him/
Uncle Leo was sent to the Pacific. The day after Pearl Harbor the ship he was on was sunk and he and a few others managed to get on a life boat safely, only to fall into the hands of the enemy on a beachhead where they were executed. Later one of Loe's grandnephews did some research and found out that Leo's remains were located and he is at rest in the national cemetery in Hawaii.
Just a reminder of the perilous state all of our troops were in during that terrible war.
Norm also had another uncle who was in the Merchant Marines during WWII
and survived after many treacherous voyages across the N. Atlantic
to England and Russia as well as other countries.
...............................
There is of course, more to tell of the Village in wartime which is anchored in the
love story of my Aunt Alveda and my Uncle Ziggy and some very exciting historical photos.
There is more to tell of the saga of Camp Myles Standish, too.
Stay tuned.
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