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Pages of History
The weather from the first of March through the middle of May, 1944, was so cold and rainy that the Advocate called it “the year with no spring.“ During that interval more than 11 inches of precipitation fell in Laurel.
Farmers could not get in their fields to plant small grain or to plow for corn. “It is two weeks until corn planting time and hardly a furrow has been turned,“ said the Advocate of May 3, 1944. “No labor is to be had and machinery is inadequate for the emergency.“ The second week of May brought major flooding throughout Northeast Nebraska. The Logan overflowed its banks west and south of Laurel, flooding low lying farm ground. Because the creek had been dredged and straightened in 1925, the channel north of town was able to contain the flood and Laurel escaped damage. Other towns were less fortunate.
Norfolk was especially hard hit when the Elkhorn River left its banks. A wall of water estimated between three and six feet high swept through the business district filling basements and flooding the first floor of many stores. Other towns downstream from Norfolk suffered severe damage as well.
Later in the month, the rain stopped and temperatures soared into the 90s. Like swallows returning to Capistrano, the old geezers collectively known as the “sit and spitters“ because of their fondness for chewing tobacco, returned to the benches on Main Street where they passed time chewing, chatting, and watching the girls go by.
With the return of summerlike weather, the ladies shed their winter garments and began showing bare legs. “We are relieved of looking at those terrible socks draped about the legs at half mast with wrinkles here and bulges there,” commented the fashion-minded editor.
Another romance was blossoming that might result in trouble. “Both are old enough to know better,” said the editor. “We are watching with a great deal of anticipation. It is not hard to find this romance most any Wednesday or Saturday night.”
May was graduation month. Eighth graders from 18 rural districts received their diplomas in the Laurel City Auditorium on Saturday May 20. Exercises were held in other towns as well.
County Superintendent J. Mike McCoy said there were only 160 eighth grade graduates that year — the lowest number in county history. McCoy attributed the low numbers to the war.
The war seems a rather unlikely cause since the eighth graders of 1944 were born around 1932. It would seem more reasonable to attribute the decline to the Depression.
The impact of the war would be felt after love-starved solders began returning home in 1945. The result was the post-war baby boom which extended from 1946 through 1964.
In war-related news: a B-17 Flying Fortress on a training flight out of the Sioux City airbase caught fire near Carroll. Crew members bailed out. Before abandoning ship, the pilot set the plane on auto pilot. The burning plane managed to make it another hundred miles before crashing near Denison, Iowa.
No one was killed, but a few crew members were injured when they hit the ground.
The Advocate learned of the mishap when an ambulance from the airbase stopped in Laurel to ask how to get to Carroll.
The status of Kenneth Harper of Belden, previously listed as missing in action, was changed to prisoner of war. Harper‘s plane had been shot down during a bombing raid on Germany.
Sergeant Tommy Lott, who spent several years of his childhood in Laurel, also was taken prisoner after his plane was shot down during a bombing raid over Germany. Both men survived the war and were released in 1945. They were fortunate to have been captured by German soldiers and not German civilians. An article stated British and American planes recently had made more than 6000 bombing runs over Germany and occupied France in just one 36-hour period. Many planes were shot down. Downed airmen were not always treated gently by enraged German civilians whose homes had been destroyed and whose wives and children had been killed.
After the war Germans who killed downed Allied airmen were considered war criminals. Allied airman who killed German women and children were considered heroes.
