1- I do not question the patriotism of anyone this
list (I, my Dad, our daughter etc have or are serving)
2- I too exchange a variety of patriotic,
inspirational and/or 'wow, look at this" emails with
friends & family
3- That said, this list is for CB&Q related
info, period. I never send a blanket email to everyone
on my 'list' except the time I changed email addresses.
I never send unsolicited emails beyond the scope of the
relationship of I have with the recipient(s). Hopefully
we can all do the sane with CBQ yahoo.
Now to segue to CB&Q & WWII. The AAR
issued posters and blotters with patriotic messages(I
believe one of the latter was used by Dave for a Zephyr
Collectible column) Other federal and commercial
agencies did like-wise as the "40's lacked TV &
Internet. Thus radio, newspapers and colorful posters
were how mass communications were done,
As to what was displayed in a depot, shop or office
depended on the local officials. Pics I've seen of
depot & shop interiors of the era usually had the
AAR posters but not the others.
WWII meant a lot of 'rules' were bent. Hours of
service on occasion were lifted, officially or
unofficially with troop trains and the like. The big
change was for railroaders not governed by hours of
service: Engineering (track) and Mechanical (Shops). My
grandfather was working in the ex-CB&N car shops at
No. LaCrosse while his 2 sons served in the Pacific. I
have one of his hour books and invariably he worked far
more than 8 hrs a day or 40 hrs a week. So did all the
other guys. If track needed to be maintained or
cars/locos needed servicing, it was done - we were at
war.
Many men delayed retirement (my grandfather) or
came back to the shops to help out. We indeed salute
all the men & women who served both 'at the front'
and at home. The Q even had special humorous signs made
for employees' Victory gardens, Ralph Budd headed up
the Federal programs to put RR'ers into Army RR
battalions.
Gerald