1940 - 1941
college bound
So things got real for Carl and Nila. Carl's work and planning was paying off as he set off for Whitewater Teacher's College in Whitewater, WI.
There was not much time to do anything except what needed to be done.
Nila continued at Kilbourn still making $200.00 a month.
Click Images to Enlarge
Aerial view of the main campus building complex - ca 1940
Wisconsin Dells Events, Sep 12, 1940
Old Main - ca 1930 Old Main was destroyed in 1970 by a huge fire which damaged many of the adjacent buildings.
View the 1941 Yearbook "Minneiska" for Whitewater Teachers College
Is that Carl on page 58 on the bottom of the page sitting center in the room with his face partially covered? That picture has 36 people but only 35 names.
Familysearch.org
Note: To view the yearbook you will need to open an account with Familysearch.org. Might not be a bad thing!
I find this sequence of events...
Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune Sep 17, 1940
...interesting.
Wisconsin Dells Events, Sep 26, 1940
Edward R. Murrow describing the first night of the Nazi Blitz on London, Sep 7, 1940.
What In The World Was Happening
September 1940
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The large-scale air battle known as Battle of Britain Day was fought. Believing the RAF was near its breaking point, the Luftwaffe mounted an all-out offensive, sending two huge waves of about 250 bombers each to bomb London and surrounding areas. The RAF managed to scatter many of the German bomber formations and shoot down 61 planes while losing 31 in return, inflicting a clear and decisive defeat on the Germans. [5]
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Canada introduced conscription for men between the ages of 21 and 24. [6]
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Hitler sent a letter to Francisco Franco asking for Germany to be granted naval bases in the Canary Islands and other places. Franco would reject the request a week later by asking for an excessive amount of compensation in return. [7]
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Lieutenant Colonel Bernhard von Lossberg prepared the Lossberg study on the planned German invasion of the Soviet Union.
References above courtesy of Wikipedia.
And of course the holidays came and there was always family time.
Wisconsin Dells Events, Nov 28, 1940
Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune - Nov 30, 1940
1941
Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune Jan 4, 1941
Random Harvest is a novel written by James Hilton, first published in 1941. Like previous Hilton works, including Lost Horizon and Goodbye, Mr. Chips, the novel was immensely popular, placing second on The New York Times list of best-selling novels for the year, and it was published as an Armed Services Edition during WWII.
Though set in the years immediately following World War I, the novel featured the timely subject of combat stress reaction, or "shellshock." World War II, which was being fought as the novel was written, provided extensive case studies of the condition.
A theme common to this and James Hilton's other novels is lost innocence – here, the destructive effects of two world wars on England – and a concomitant yearning to return to apparently simpler times. Charles Rainier's complex, pressure-filled business and political life and his outward sophistication are contrasted with the happy simplicity of his time with Paula; similarly stark contrasts are drawn between the grimness of London and the idyll of Beachings Over. Hilton draws parallels between Rainier's ability to sense impending doom but inability to do anything about it and British governmental paralysis in responding to Hitler's manoeuvres preceding the outbreak of the Second World War.
Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune - Apr 23 1941
Thursday, April 10th, 1941
The first US combat action against Germany occurs - this being the USS Niblack destroyer firing on a marauding German U-boat violating the US security zone.
Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune - Sep 11, 1941
Carl got a job during the summer break from Whitewater. There was school to pay for and many other things a young man needed.
There was Nila.
He was focused.
I believe he always was.
As Summer came to a close, Whitewater was waiting for Carl to return and Nila continued on at the Kilbourn Inn Hotel.
But as Nila would often say:
"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley.”
"To A Mouse" by Robert Burns
Summer, you old Indian Summer
You're the tear that comes after June time's laughter
You see so many dreams that don't come true
Dreams we fashioned when summertime was new
You are here to watch over
Some heart that is broken
By a word that somebody left unspoken
You're the ghost of a romance in June
Going astray, fading too soon
That's why I say,
Farewell to you, Indian Summer!