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This newspaper page contains 12 articles. Subscribers can read the full text of each article.
Newspaper
Whitewright Sun
Location
Whitewright, Texas, United States of America
Date
Mar 20, 1941
Page
16
Draftees learn terms like wire city for jail and ruckus juice for whisky. The piece lists slang meanings from goofing off to cracker box for mechanized vehicle and puddle jumper for pickup truck, with several terms such as shave tail and GI noted.
Soldiers describe weapons with quirky slang and refer to meals with playful code. The gunner is dubbed a Santa-claused, a machine gun a bean-shooter, and other arms called pieces while flapjacks become saddle blankets, yet no insult seems to bother the army cook.
Texas A and M will implement position based numbering for football players per Advisory Committee rules. Backfield players will be wingback blocking back fullback and tailback with numbers 10 to 49 and linemen assigned 50 to 89. Even numbers sit on the right of the center while odd numbers sit on the left.
A dialogue unfolds with Mose boasting a large amount of money won last night and the emphasis on cash as the worst part. The men discuss using an enemy's weapon and sting a wasp, exposing a sharp, humorous exchange in a colonial or rural setting.
A Texas item profiles Homer Leonard publisher and McAllen printer who serves as Speaker of the House praising impartiality and service to Texas. It also mentions William Dee Moore and his prized possum dog, which vanished briefly this season and was later found gaunt and hollow-eyed.
The Texas city founded in 1845 by Price Solms of Braunfels gears up for a centennial celebration. Its streets, stone houses, central park with a Confederate monument, and the First Protestant Church bell tower frame a century of history. The town boasted the first tax funded public school in Texas and earned the nickname city of metal roofs after 1893 fire policy reforms. A mix of local humor and civic notes follows with anecdotes on salaries, tenants, and everyday life, including a niece in Jefferson seeking chewin seed gum.
Jersey milch cow offered for sale by Dr C C P Johnson with a young White Face heifer calf. Local buyer contact details not provided.
St. Charles Missouri constable Edward Giesemenn quit his elected post rather than evict a farm family for $75 in unpaid rent. He refused to place the eviction with the family left with no place to go despite a justice of the peace order.
Texas supplied 18,752 of the 196,560 men enlisting in the regular Army for three year terms from July 1, 1940, to January 1, 1941, the most of any state. Pennsylvania was second with 14,567, New York 13,860, Illinois 9,972, and Kentucky 7,563. Total Army strength reached about 1,003,500. other state totals listed including Louisiana 4,288 and Oklahoma 6,657.
A sergeant tests an Irish soldier with a tricky password. The soldier quips about his father a miller and his uncle a coalman. Later, when challenged, the Irishman blurts out Bags, illustrating the humorous exchange.
Foreman accuses a bricklayer of doing a carpenter's task as they joke about sharpening a pencil. The light exchange shows workplace chatter and humorous role mixups on the job site.
A bill introduced by Representative Young of Ohio would lower the draft minimum from 21 to 18. The proposal would amend the selective service to require registration and service for men aged 18 to 35 instead of 21 to 35.
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