Henry Hansen Story
We moved (my family) into that neighborhood, SE McKinley Road, when I was 13, so was Hank. He was 6 months older than me. The first time I saw him was when my Dad hired him to plow our garden--he and his mules. He was tall and skinny (really) and had beautiful wavy hair and I was not interested. I began high school and became friends with his sister Anna. His older brothers were gone from home, most in the service, and also Ida was in the military W.A.C.'s. Had 5 brothers serve in WWII. About that time his brother Fred died. I never had a chance to meet him. He was married and had a daughter--had been in an accident with a tractor which rolled on him, and complications from that, I believe, caused his death. He was the oldest of the boys.
When Leonard Nodland moved into the neighborhood, he and I began to date. He was a cute and fun young man, but even then I knew that I would not like being married to him, while we 'talked' about marriage, it never got very serious--he was Hank's friend also and we used to do things together--the 3 of us. Then Leonard's family moved to Tigard--we tried to keep up the relationship but without a car between us, that was pretty difficult. We did go to a movie--at the Joy theater in Tigard, and Hank drove me over--once was enough of that, for all of us I guess. Leonard and I gave it up and pretty soon Hank invited me to a dance.
At that time there was in the community (Pleasant Valley) a dance hall--a BIG "Springers" dance hall, and close enough we could walk if we wanted to. It was a popular and frequent event for all of us. Live music and lots of fun. We never used alcohol--and those who did kept it in their cars--so we didn't have 'problems'--just fun. My parents never danced, but we were allowed to go as often as we wanted. Hank, having lived there all his life, knew everybody--and that dance hall was the center of our social life (Leonard didn't dance). Hank did have a car, a 1934 Chevy Coupe which he bought at age 16. But later on he loved to tell anyone and everyone that the reason he married me was because he didn't have a car and that my house was about as far as he wanted to walk. Well it wasn't long before we were 'dating' and he was serious--about a lot of things--he wanted to get married, he had no home, was living with the Boccies and working on the farm as well as the shipyards.
WWII was going on all this time--began in Dec. 1941--we lived with rationing, including gas, so one walked whenever possible. Because we lived on (small) farms, we raised our own meat, milk, eggs, vegetables etc. and didn't suffer much from a lack of things but thought we did. Sugar was hard to get and the good stuff, Hershey bars and good gum among all the other goodies teens like, went to the military and we went without. Hank turned 18 on July 4, 1945 and that summer the war ended. Europe first (May 8, 1945) and Japan surrendered in August, after "taking" 2 atomic bombs.
We had expected the war to last for many more years in Japan--or with Japan. They could not honorably just quit--but the 'bomb' made it possible. It has become very fashionable to trash President Truman (Roosevelt had died) who had to make that terrible decision--but for those of us who went through that period, there was little or no doubt about the 'rightness' of it. Hank was processed into the Army and fully expected to be in it. Then suddenly it was over and the world rejoiced and the boys came home and Hank left! His training was first Fort Lewis, Washington then Camp Roberts, California. Just after he finished basic training at Ft. Lewis, he was put on a train to California. Troop trains were not quite what AMTrack is now. Anyway, that train had to go right through Portland and in fact ran right along that truck farm where he had worked those several years and as he slowly passed by he could see his old friends the Boccies out in their fields. He was not allowed to open a window so had to watch and could make no contact--it nearly killed him--he was 'homesick' anyway--never liked Army life and could see no end in sight.
While at Camp Roberts, just as he had finished training, which by the way was in tank-destroyers (small fast tanks that have the sole purpose of destroying tanks), his mother died after all those years of being sick. He was given emergency leave and came for the funeral and was home one or two weeks--can't remember--but while he was home his unit was shipped to Japan--for the occupation--and he was reassigned to Germany and a new unit.
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He was assigned to a special ship. It was either the Queen Elizabeth or the Queen Mary, I've forgotten which, but they were carrying prisoners of war home--well not back to Germany but to England where they were sold to the English for one dollar apiece. The Germans loved America but hated and feared the English and were not happy with the arrangement. I believe they were used in the clean-up and reconstruction of England. Hank became acquainted with some of the prisoners (they had been assigned to farm labor while in the USA). He was sea-sick (something he never got over) and suffered mightily. He said he used to hand his rifle to them while he hung over the side--he was assigned to guard them but didn't care! He didn't want to eat anything--but had to have his meal ticket punched, which was done for an apple' and crackers so he said that was all he ate for 2 weeks and that they all came up! He was one miserable homesick soldier. He was in LeHarve, France for a while in the camps that were named after cigarettes--Lucky Strike, Phillip Morris, etc. He couldn't bear the conditions around him. Any scrap of food a soldier might throw away was snatched up by the locals who were starving. It was so pitiful and there was little he could do. At that time, it was possible to 'join' the Army after you were drafted--that was a guarantee for getting out--and knowing when. So he joined for the minimum, 1½ years, and settled down to a life he hated and never adjusted to.
While he was home on his emergency leave, his frequent proposal to me for marriage was finally accepted and he gave me a diamond ring. He spent much time writing letters home and trading his cigarette ration (which they all received) for an accordion and taught himself to play. Also he had a guitar or two. He never figured out the guitar but enjoyed his accordion (actually it was just like the one his Dad had and had played happily and easily for every occasion--in fact in his later years he nearly drove everyone crazy with his music--he didn't want to miss a conversation, so would move his chair closer and keep playing!)
The occupation of Germany immediately after the war was a very disturbing assignment for anybody and certainly for this 18 year old, right off the farm. He was sent to 3 areas, as I remember. Hamburg, Kassel and Frankfort-Main. He worked on trains, guarding food supplies and ater on driving truck. He was an M.P. and earned one stripe (Private). He had a few stories and some things I learned from his letters--but he never really cared to remember the Army. When it was over he just put it behind him.
It was a scandalous thing to be dating German women at that time--yet most of the boys did. I can assure the reader that Hank did not. He fussed and stewed because his roommate did and he came 'home' one evening and found the guy in the room with the girl and Hank threw them both out. He had no tolerance for that business at all. The girls who would date American soldiers were all dirty and diseased as far as he was concerned and he wanted no part of it.
The German people were starved and cold and winter was terrible. The Army took over whatever housing they needed and the poor Germans had to move on. Not that there was much 'housing' left standing. Their cities had been bombed almost level. Of course that was corrected in a short time--we helped rebuild those cities but the first year or two was real hardship on everybody.
Hank had some wild train stories--they had to be very alert whenever the train slowed down, like on curves or hills--the Germans would jump on and throw out food. So the M.P.' s learned to take over the train controls--Hank actually did this-- demand the control at gun-point and then race like mad for the hills and go as fast as possible up and over and around the curves. They felt the German engineers deliberately slowed down to give their people a chance at the food. As a truck driver he had some bad experiences--was loaded with food and had to reach a place across a train track that had a train sitting on it, steam engine and steam boiling up everywhere. He didn't dare stop (or he would be robbed) so he went through and when he came out into the clear he had a hat on his hood! He jumped out and found a German man on the ground. He brushed him off and gave him food and that seemed to satisfy the poor man. Somehow later on the more that story got told the funnier it got!
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