European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 26, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Home towns in wartime by Hyman Goldberg yank staff writer Long ago a Large number of bitter complaints poured into the new York City health the depart ment of the department of and several other City about a terrible plague that was being visited upon the it seems that some kind of vicious beast was attacking people by leaping on them from Trees and biting them and Goring them with two sets of All the complaints came from and a very Small part of Brooklyn at what investigators found was that some Trees in the Bensonhurst Section were infested with a spiny Caterpillar that is Apt to cause a rash when it comes into Contact with human a Short time later a subway train prosaic ally started out from bound for the West Side of but to the amazement of the Motorman and several Hundred bewildered Moll cant to Pulton strut it Eft Nowod without ii and what is the Star without burlesque wound up Way Over on manhattans East Side after following a route that still has to be charted or satisfactorily Brooklyn ites recently were enraged almost to not Noel a sort of British unfavourably compared the fortitude of soldiers from Brooklyn with that of soldiers from Texas and at Coward he had seen Brooklyn soldiers weeping because they had been hospitalized with such trifling disabilities As Bullet wounds and broken for to the acute embarrassment of Brooklyn Indig nation was shared not Only by the Continental but even by at the close of the baseball the Brooklyn dodgers were 42 games from the Brooklyn ites who have been away from Home for a Long time can see that the spirit of Brooklyn Hast not in any of the the Brooklyn say students of the would go on despite famine and a Little global War Hast even made a Dent in the Brooklyn Eagle and other newspapers in the Borough Over the River from Manhattan Are still getting letters from indignant Brooklyn ites who say it was a great mistake for Brooklyn to have become part of new York City in some of them say that Brooklyn will never receive its just recognition until it secede new York City or changes its not Long Park commissioner Robert Moses did a restoration Job on Grants Tomb on River Side drive in Manhattan and decided that a statue of the civil War general on a horse was needed to make the memorial he looked around and found just what he had in mind in Grant near the Public he duly asked permission to move the statue to screams of rage in the Borough of Homes and where the for for some reason or is the official Why the said Brooklyn with one raucous should we give Manhattan any thing let them move Grants Tomb Over the Park usually a dauntless retired in although the spiritual Quality of Brooklyn remains the physical changes have nevertheless been the City fathers of the Borough and its business leaders have great things in store for acres la the entire downtown shopping Center is to be reconstructed and made into a Flossy civic with Grassy parkways and Beautiful Public buildings done in the classic Brooklyn a Start toward this dream has already been the Myrtle Avenue Al Doest go Over the Brooklyn Bridge to Park Row in Manhattan any the entire Section of the Al leading from the Bridge to Myrtle and Jay Street has been torn All the steel and Iron in the Structure went into War and Brooklyn is justly proud of this the Els that were torn Down in Manhattan All went to the says but the Only Al that was torn Down in Brooklyn is being turned into bullets for our boys to shoot at the Good citizens of who have Long been enraged because the world thinks that the Only Industry they have is the Brooklyn Are More intense than now that the Borough has been making War on the Axis for More than three Brooklyn ites who Are making such varied materials for War As surgical and battleships number More than the entire populations of such cities As and new in the Navy Yard alone some persons were employed at last Here Are some other War statistics that the aggressive citizens of Brooklyn throw at you if you give them less than half a Chance fort five percent of the War plants in the Borough have been awarded the army and Navy e or the maritime service about half the penicillin produced in the country is made at the Pfizer company Plant on Bartlett and Borough president John with a Chest As proudly inflated As any sweater Points out that More than Brooklyn men and women Are in the armed and says without any apparent fear of successful Contra diction that that More soldiers and sailors and marines than any of 39 entire states have Given to the most any hour of the Day or night there Are a lot of uniforms in not Only on native Brooklyn ites Home on leave but also on a lot of service people passing through on their Way to do a Job on the of most of the strangers in service head first for times but the next thing most americans want to see when they hit new York for the first time at least in summer is Coney and guess where that the Niland in 1944 had the busiest season in i its and the Way to the Ocean from the Beach was just As hard to find As there was a big fire at Luna and about on third of the amusement Center was burned that didst close the place the burned area became one of the big attractions of the and the owners announced plans for its reconstruction As a bigger and better Luna it was never very hard for enterprising Young Fellows to make new friends at Coney Island since Brooklyn decided Long ago that nothing is too Good for a Only a dope need be without the companionship of the other the dim out didst Hurt business at Coney was really dark and what with the benches All along the a fellow and his girl didst have to get Sand in their in behalf of their Joes who have been called to a higher Many Brooklyn girls have gone into War work and some have become Junior hostesses at the numerous canteens in the Borough or like a group of Flatbush girls who Call themselves the organized their own can these girls earnestly stands for girls american morale it also Means girls and they ask with modest Are a bigger morale builder yank army Ufa Fely ims but if you left a girl behind you when you marched off to Camp Upton and subsequent Points North or you can be pretty sure that Shes still there waiting for you because theres hardly a Marriageable native male left in and you know what Chance a Guy from the Bronx has of grabbing her because you know what a Brooklyn girl thinks of a Guy from the she thinks he for some time the strange Little men who had answers to All the problems of the world and who came every noon to spout their ideas from the Steps of Borough Hall have the Only meetings held on the Steps nowadays have something to do with the like War Bond drive meetings and blood donor in a stretch of 14 months Brooklyn ites bought More than a billion dollars Worth of Bonds and gave More than a Quarter of a million pints of the old men still come around to Borough Hall to play checkers on the Steps and sit in the and the kibitzer still crowd around and old Bill Pierce still rings the Borough Hall Bell every and the Angelus whose Mem Bers Are the politicians and businessmen in the still Rise and stretch during the 40 seconds it takes him to ring the Bell 12 Bill Pierce says someone accused him of ringing the Bell 16 times one Day last but he says its a Damn he says he rang it 17 and it was on the for and if anybody didst like it they could go take a flying leap for and he says that when the peace comes hell ring that old Bell till me Arm Falls Brooklyn for the most part is still a 9oclock but theres plenty of Gayety Well after that hour in the downtown Section of at there still Selling double shots of the few Well known brands of liquor and that still a better buy than drinking them the controversy that raged for a while about whether girls should be served at the bar has quieted most places will serve the Young dears at the bar if there with a but some of the neighbourhood bars that stick to the old like Vogels at third Avenue and 68th Street in Bay wont serve a woman a drink at the bar even if she has an escort when she comes if a Dame wants a shot at she has to come in through the family Entrance and sit Down at a table like a and she better not be loud about it either or Shell get Trun out on let us for a Long time the Only burlesque houses open in new York were in and All the Art lovers in new York City used to make pilgrimages but some time ago mayor Laguardia looked Over and saw what was going and he shut the Brooklyn burlesque houses that added fuel to the argument about theres a shipyard once More at the foot of Calyer where the the first of the ironclad was built during the civil that a change in the Brooklyn you left but dont be too unhappy about How different Brooklyn Gowan us canal still stinks and so does Newtown