European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 20, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse By James Oneill yank staff writer was a hot june even for the clean streets of Abilene were Siz the streets were empty except for a few kids who were putting Las minute decorations on the Post there were signs in every shop window and they All said the same thing Welcome Jonah Callahan drugstore was the busiest place in so Many people were drinking cokes that Jonah had run out of Back in a Corner a Bunch of men sat in their shirt sleeves chewing the i Hope it dont rain said de head of the Parade and yet it int too hot that All it would have to Sam Heller everything else has the chamber of Commerce ordered pictures of Ike and the damned Kansas City printers sent Down of them with Ike Only having four Dwight wont Jonah Callahan he was never one for the men at the All of whom had known Ike As a started Phil the 74yearold postmaster who had had a big hand in sending the Young Eisenhower boy to West told about the time Ike came in to see about going to the i was running the town paper then and one night after supper a tall boy dressed in a Light Gray suit came into the in Dwight Eisen he 1 want Togo to West someone told me that you might be Able to help me As it Joe Bristow from Salina was our senator that Joe was a progressive and so was in some of you might re i was the Only blasted progressive in i tried to disillusion Young Eisenhower be cause i knew Joe had about 10 Fellows up for the Academy but the boy he just let me rave on and on and when i he grinned and i still want to go to West he was an ambitious kid and likable even if his father want on my Side so i put his name i found out that he was a pretty smart student and a hard so when Joe Bristow asked me which boy i thought should get the appointment i named Young the Way i remember Dwight is Down in the Furnace room of the said Paul Hoff whose father was a partner in the Belle Springs Creamery where Ike once he always had some kind of a Book in his i was about four years younger than Dwight and always thought it funny that a football player read he didst have the Book with him at left recalled Orrin an Abilene Farmer who had coached the High school football but he sure was the grinning St football player i Ever he grinned when he grinned when he got grinned All the on the Green Lawn of 201 South 4th Johnny aged was doing Ike lives said and ikes com ing Home tonight and Hes a five Star youd better Stop showing off and get off the Eisenhower said Mary johnnys 9yearold the Eisenhower Home is a two Story Frame House with a Roomy it is similar to Many other Abilene in the front living room there Are a comfortable two easy an old fashioned Bookcase and a Morris the furniture in this like most of that in the other is the same As in the Days when the six Eisenhower boys were chasing each other around the there Are no Best Sellers or Book of the month club selections on the Book next to two fat volumes of the Standard Book of knowledge stands a volume of Cowper then come Uncle Toms the essays of Marcus Aurelius and gunns new family physics or Home Book of health on the top shelf Are three volumes of the Library of electrical science and six volumes entitled a treatise on refrigeration and ice making Machin David Eisenhower and his son Dwight studied those beyond the living room there is a comfortable room where ikes Mother likes to sit and knit and where once the Eisenhower boys did their in one Corner stands an old upright piano and on top of it Are pictures of the six several old song books and a family Bible presented to the Eisenhower in the picture of Ike was taken when he was a Onestar Gen on the Bottom of the picture the general had written to my parents with love and affection for their devoted in the dining room was a table piled High with boxes and most of them addressed Gen eral some were just addressed general there have been Over 300 letters in the past two said a neighbor who was looking after the House until Eisenhower returned from her meeting with her son in Kansas this Tillotson they sent a Swanky car with an army chauffeur Here to take Eisenhower to Kansas i was Jok ing with her and i youre a big shot Ike in Abilene in in just a boys she said the generals train was due to arrive in Abi Lene at that but by 8 Oclock the Sta Tion platform was crowded and the maps had formed a human rope to keep the people Back at one end of the platform was the Abilene town in Cowboy two pretty Young drum majorettes flipped their Batons in practice twirls and one Freckl faced bands Man rattled his drum by the whole town had gathered at Iho there were a few minutes of waiting and then from somewhere near the Edge of town a whistle was heard Over the babble of the crowd and a newly painted locomotive rumbled there were eight cars and the people had a Clear View of All of them but they wheres Ike several voices called out of a window in one of the rear an offi cers Cap appeared above a grinning the whole crowd must have spotted the general at the same for suddenly a loud yell went up and the band started the gangs All Here and the drum majorettes began prancing and twirling their As soon As Ike hit the platform two dozen maps formed a cordon around him and made for the Swanky car that was to take him to the but Ike spotted Orrin Snyder and Jonah Calla Han and went Over and Shook their you got a Little Orrin Snyder cant say the same for the Eleft tackle to his Well padded Strowig handed Ike a huge wooden key to the City and the maps started again to escort the general to the but Ike spotted one of the pretty drum majorettes and gave her a and somehow Little Johnny Wilson managed to slip through the my cordon and tug at the five stars coat Wanna see me do a Ike Johnny Wilson for answer Ike Bent Down and kissed the top of johnnys head by now he had walked far past the official car and started Down Buckeye the maps tried 10 usher him Back to the car but the general didst want to this aint London or new somebody yelled into the my officers this is ikes Home and he wants to go Ike went he walked Down turned left on second Street and then walked slowly Back to the station he kissed the Shook hands with everybody in sight and grinned from ear to then he went Back to the train and they moved it Down to a Ike was in bed and asleep by at 10 the next morning the general climbed into a open car and started for the lamer hotel on third on the Way he spotted Walter a fellow citizen of Abilene who had been a platoon Leader with the 5th division in France and climb in Ike this is your the sergeant got into the front seat and the Allied supreme commander made the a platoon Leader stand up and take the the reviewing stand on the second floor of the lamer hotel was pretty different from the re viewing stands that Dwight Eisenhower had been on in Washington and new York there want any other brass except the generals and most of the people on third Street had known Ike All their As soon As the Eisenhower party was a gun boomed and the Parade it want a military it told the Story of a Barefoot boys Rise from fishing jaunts on nearby mud Creek to command of the Allied expeditionary Force that Defeated fascism in Western there were floats to show ikes Early school his High school football his years As a Cadet the general Hod seen welcomes in Paris and London and Washington and new but he got the warmest reception of All when he hit his boyhood Home Little yank the army weekly july 1945 at West Point and his latest military triumphs on the battlefields of the Parade told the Story of the Days when the town was the Railhead for the Chisholm of the time when wild Bill Hickok was it ended up showing Abi Lenes agricultural contributions to this Eisenhower reviewed this Parade As he never had another he clapped his marked time to the music with his feel and saluted everybody in the Parade but the prize Bull thai was led when the float with the members of the 1909 football team went he Rose to his feet and there seemed to be a Lump in his Throat As he called out to his former by noon the Parade was Over and the crowd moved out to Eisenhower was City Park but got its new name last the general made a Short for the first time the Grin left his i am not a he i am merely a Symbol of the heroes you sent across the sea take the soldiers to your heart As you have taken after the several Eto veterans with purple hearts climbed up on the platform and the general hugged the first one up and Shook hands with the when his car arrived Back at the a pretty girl broke through the lines and started toward the said a state you cant see general Eisenhower i dont want to see said the i want Tosee my her husband was Walter she ran to him and they embraced and including the state on the Mezzanine of the lamer hotel the Eisenhower clan gathered for a there were 33 members of the family on Ike sat at the Center of the he said to his brother Earls Young move your seat closer to the table so you can get a Good look at your a waitress brought in a huge cake decorated with 48 Little american Ike Cut the cake and handed the first piece to his son All tenseness was gone from the generals tanned face and his eyes were he lets the old Man was finally
