By RJ Crowley, Standard Correspondent
On Sunday, Aug. 27 at 2 p.m., all those in attendance at the East Barnard Church will be graced by a chorus of voices connecting today’s community members with the men and women — also from East Barnard — who fought so valiantly during World War II.
The program, “Letters From Home,” is the brainchild of Paige Gibbs, president of the Barnard Historical Society and a retired Librarian from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
“Calvin Coolidge once famously said: ‘We may have all come over in different crafts, but we’re all in the same boat now,’” said Gibbs in an interview with the Standard earlier this week. “That’s what this program is all about. East Barnard has always been a close community, and we have many new people who have moved into the community. So, I thought this would be a way of acquainting people who live in East Barnard now with the people who lived in their houses during World War II.”
But first, a bit of historical context: Sometime around 1943 a man named Donald Wesbrook, a retired Civil Engineer, had relocated to East Barnard from Minnesota. The East Barnard Grange was right next door to Wesbrook, and he immediately became involved in the Grange’s activities. Wesbrook, under the auspices of the Grange, began sending out a monthly newsletter to men and women of East Barnard who were in the armed services and stationed all over the world, including locales such as France, Italy, and New Guinea.
It was a concerted effort by The Grange and Wesbrook intended to keep East Barnard’s servicemen and women informed as to the goings on back home. The newsletter itself contained mostly the local “news of the day,” along with a small comic section intended to lift spirits.
Wesbrook also encouraged the servicemen and women to write back with any thoughts they cared to share, and many times they did. Wesbrook would then incorporate the replies he received into the subsequent newsletter. All of this in an effort to connect our servicemen with their hometowns as well as their “buddies” who were stationed in other locations.
Wesbrook wrote, published, and sent off a newsletter each month for three years. And it is those very same newsletters that will be featured in the “readings” being done at the East Barnard Church next weekend.
This historically significant presentation will consist exclusively of current residents of East Barnard reading selected excerpts from the newsletters that were written almost 80 years ago, during one of the most uncertain periods in our nation’s history.
“Each person that’s going to be reading a quote from these letters will not see it until they get up to read it, because it’s going to be like somebody getting a letter from home and reading it to their buddies that are stationed somewhere overseas,” said Gibbs.
Furthermore, in a remarkable twist of fate, one of the recipients of those letters (80 years ago) is going to be reading a portion of it himself!
Floyd Van Alstyne, now 103 years old, will be on hand at the church and will read a portion of a newsletter that he received while in the service during World War II.
“Floyd considers himself only 25 and one-third years old since he was born on a Leap Day,” joked Gibbs,
Newer residents of East Barnard are going to be reading also, and they’ll be reading portions of letters that were sent to men and women who used to live in the houses that the newer residents now inhabit.
In this way, the current residents will gain a greater understanding of how they are also a part of the history of the home and are connected to those that lived there before them.
Gibbs, who is essentially a one-woman show, says of the impetus for this ambitious theatrical-historical event: “My process was, when I retired, I knew about these newsletters and I knew that eventually they would be turned over to the Woodstock History Center so I thought ‘retirement project.’ I would scan all those newsletters before they get turned over. I scanned them, then I made an excel spreadsheet of people’s names and what pages they appeared on. Then I started transcribing them using a speech recognition device, so I now have 25 pages of script.”
Gibbs continued, “It’s important because my generation is the last group that knows these people that are mentioned in the letters. Anybody 10 years younger than I won’t remember these people. People that are my age and older, not only remember them, but have even more stories about them, so I wanted to make sure they could come alive to people living in East Barnard now.”
“Letters from Home” comes alive on Sunday, Aug. 27 at 2 p.m., at the East Barnard Church. There is no admission fee and, in the true spirit of keeping with the thematic throughline, refreshments will consist of Pancake Cake and water — standard fare during the war effort.
The Barnard Historical Society is also enthusiastically accepting all inquiries regarding membership and volunteers. If interested, please email them at: [email protected]
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