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“The Fourth of July was mighty quiet in Laurel,“ said the Advocate. Due to wartime restrictions there was no fireworks of any kind. “All the sweet young things who could find a sucker headed for some celebration. The rest of us stayed home.“ Celebrations were few and far between in 1944. Hartington was the only town in Cedar County that had anything going on. Despite the shortage of gasoline and tires, a crowd estimated at up to 6000 jammed the streets and fairgrounds to see a rodeo. According to the Cedar County News, the crowd included many car loads of people from adjoining counties as well as South Dakota.
With the Fifth War Loan drive approaching an end, Cedar County was still more than 40 per cent short of its $563,000 quota. As of July 5, bond sales totaled $343,172. Only three towns – Hartington, Coleridge, and Laurel – met or exceeded their goal.
The drive was supposed to end on July 8. The deadline either must have been extended or there was some last minute arm twisting. The Advocate of July 26, reported that the county had “gone over the top“ with a total of $575,000. “This is the first time in all the war drives that Cedar County has reached its assigned quota,” said the Advocate.
People may have grown tired of the constant begging for money but another fund drive was on the way. Plans were in the works for the Sixth War Loan drive slated to begin on November 11 (Armistice Day) and end on December 7 (Pearl Harbor Day).
Thursday, July 6, brought another downpour. Laurel was not badly affected but an 8-inch rainfall caused record flooding in Ponca. Around 2:30 AM on Friday, July 7, a wall of water estimated at up to four feet high rushed down Main Street flooding the basements and first floors of houses and business buildings.
Then, at the height of the flood, the downtown was shaken by an explosion in the Hart & Knerl Ford garage. The entire front of the building was blown away. One man who was in the garage with O.N. Knerl and his son was killed. The Knerls both suffered severe burns and had to be rushed to a Sioux City hospital by ambulance.
The explosion was caused when flood waters filled the underground tanks, forcing gasoline up through the pumps and into the garage. The explosion resulted when one of the men struck a match to light his pipe.
The next day area fire departments drove to Ponca to assist in the cleanup.
On July 18, lightning from a severe electrical storm set fire to a barn on the farm occupied by the Axel Jacobsen family west of Laurel. A fire truck was sent but it was delayed by muddy roads.
By the time the firemen arrived, the barn and everything inside was destroyed. “The loss is heavy and it will be impossible to replace the barn due to government restrictions on building,” said the Advocate.
An article in the national news section of local papers reported Nazis were using unmarried women between the ages of 18 and 30 for slave labor in northern Italy.
Another article reported that German prisoners of war were being forced to work in the sugar beet fields near Scottsbluff. Some prisoners had been refusing to work after their pay had been cut from a flat rate of $.80 a day to a piecework rate of $.30 for each quarter acre thinned. Thinning beets was hard work usually done on hands and knees. Thinning a quarter acre could take a full day or more.
The commanding officer of the camp said prisoners who refused to go back to work would be disciplined. In other words, Germans forcing civilians to work with no pay was considered a war crime. Americans forcing German prisoners to work with almost no pay was fine and dandy.
News of area servicemen: Bill Embick, son of Dr. and Mrs. Frank Embick, was home on leave after seeing action in the South Pacific. Embick was a Marine attached to the cruiser Portland.
