Cavendish Christmas Memories: Carmine Guica WWII

Carmine autographing copies of his book.

The following is from "The Story of My Life" by Carmine Guica, who died in 2016 at the age of 95.  This excerpt describes his holiday after the war ended and he was on his way back to Cavendish.

I left Okinawa on the 1^st of December of ’45 and it took just 12 days when we landed at Fort Ord in California. On all the ships that I ever was on I would always volunteer to work in the galley (kitchen). It made time go by faster and I was always treated good by the Navy personal.

We stayed in Fort Ord either 10 or 12 days and we sure did have a great time and then a day or two before Christmas we boarded a troop train that took us to our nearest place to home. I did go to Fort Devens, Mass as that is where I started from.

The trip on the Troop Train was so much different to when we went over. We were on first rate Pullman Cars and we had the best of service including food and we have regular bunks in sleep on and the Porter would make our bunks in the mornings and we lived in style. On Christmas Day we were not forgotten, as I said in some of my other writings. It was the best Christmas I ever had. I got at least 8 or 10 presents from the high schools and colleges and different organizations. They were all useful gifts. In fact, I still have a small hand case that is real leather, nothing like that junk you get now-a-days from China or Japan. And then of coarse with the thought of going home after nearly four years was something to make us happy. The thing when we stopped through  a town we didn’t see the crowds as when we were headed to war. It was cold and we didn’t open the windows to talk.

Carmine on the farm in Cavendish 

 

After three or four days we pulled into Fort Devens, my starting point, and we were greeting by German Prisoners of War. They carried the duffel bag and every thing that had to be carried. They sure were helpful to us and always good natured. In Fort evens we were briefed more on the changes of civilian life and what to expect. The meals were fit for a king.

It was New Year’s Day of ’46 when I started for home a free man and as I was getting all my stuff together once more the German prisoners came and helped me pack my stuff for home and they even carried the duffel bag and everything I had to carry with me to the train. The German prisoners of war seemed even happier than we were that the war was over. After a train ride of 4 or 5 hours I finally hit Cavendish Depot.