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CONTINUED FROM 1ACumberland, who borrowed the newsletters from one of the women who created them, Virginia Vance, of Artemas, Pa. ‘i laughed, I cried. They’re just really, really neat.Tucked in the back of a clos et for decades, the newsletters, called “Chit-Chat,” surfaced not long ago when Vance was searching for some reading material for a friend who “liked old things.Vance was Virginia Fazen-baker when she and several friends came up with the idea for the newsletter shortly after the U.S. entered the war in 1941. The man who would later become her husband, Guy Vance, served for 2 1/2 years in the Pacific.“It started out more or less as a family newsletter,” said Vance, now 87. who lived in tiny Carlos during the war. “We just thought it would be nice for everyone to keep up with the news in’the family. It just grew and grew.The ladies, who met once a month at Vance’s house, initially hand copied a handful of newsletters for folks around town. By the time the war ended, they were using amimeograph — paid for by contributions from townspeople — to crank out more than 100 copies sent “to all parts of the world, almost.”Among servicemen, the newsletters were a hit.“Me and my buddies get a great kick out of reading it. Pfc. Gerald Morgan wrote in the April 1945 edition. “...Keep writing the Chit-Chat and we'll keep shooting the enemy planes down ... I have seen some beautiful scenery since I've been in France, but I still wish I was back in good old Maryland. ”Vance said editors tried to keep the newsletters “upbeat,” but the the ravages of war are evident on almost every page. A poem by Mrs. Frank Gray of Midland in theApril 1945 edition was in memory of her nephew. Staff Sgt. George W. Hitchins, and his two cousins, Pfc. Ray Middleton, and Cpl. John Hitchins, all of Carlos.“In a quaint little town/ Not far up the way/ To the door of three homes/ Came a telegram one day.A heart-rending message /Telling only too true/ Ah, yes, three brave good boys/ Had given their all forthe Red. White, and Blue.Gamble, who travels to Artemas to do Vance’s hair every six weeks, believes the newsletters will interest area residents.Vance now edits a newsletter — using a computer — for the Chaneysville Senior Center. Her husband died in 1989.“To me, it’s not anything except a youthful endeavor,” she said of Chit-Chat, for which she did ink drawings, including a rendering of the parade that took place in Carlos on the dav the war ended.%/It shows a woman playing a trumpet, a child waving a flag, and a man ringing hand bells. The scene wasdescribed by Marguerite Adams, who wrote:“Tin tubs and tin canswere bent flat by the banging of clubs. A bass slide and coronet were played by inexperienced musicians. American flags were carried on the shoulders of the participants. Sleigh bells and cow bellsmade the most cheerfulsounds. The paraders inarched around the entire town as far as MidlothianHiU...”Contact Kristin thirty Barkley at khartyfi times-news.com
Newspaper Details
Cumberland Times News
Cumberland, Maryland, US
Mon, Oct 05, 2009
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
AL, USA 10 May 2018
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