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Rural Kansans & World War II
Buford Brodbeck, Edwards County, recalled the Sunday morning
when he and his friends heard the news of the Pearl Harbor attack over the radio. "Boy, right quick, all three of us were
going to go enlist," said Brodbeck. "We were still 15 or 16. You had
to have your parent's permission. We all went home, and the next day we
all said we had to stay in school. Our parents wouldn't let us."
Brodbeck was part of Patchwork of Dependency: The Effects
of World War II on Edwards County, Kansas, an oral history project
conducted by the Kinsley Public Library. The library invited Edwards County residents to share their experiences as farmers, soldiers, sweethearts, and teenagers in rural Kansas during World War II.
Bea
Basgall Coats remembered the troop trains that traveled through
Offerle. "They went with the windows wide open, and some of the soldiers
would throw out their addresses hoping some girls would write to them."
For soldiers, like Jack Miller, the war reminded them that there's no place like home. "I
went all over the world in the army, and in my travels," said Miller. "I have never seen a place I liked any better than Edwards
County."
"The
interviews found that Edwards County was indeed a patchwork of small
closely knit communities that took care of each other," shared Joan K.
Weaver, director of the Kinsley Public Library.
Visit the Kinsley Public Library website for links to the video and audio interviews and interview transcripts.
Patchwork of Dependency was supported by a Kansans Tell Their Stories grant.
Image: Joan K. Weaver and Bob Stach view Stach's interview for the Patchwork of Dependency oral history project. Photo courtesy of The Hutchinson News.
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