Christmas in Oak Ridge, Tennessee - 1944

Santa detained at the Elza Gate guardhouse,
December, 1944.
Photo by Ed Westcott.
See the original photo plus many more here.

The first hurdle to be overcome by anyone out to spread a little holiday cheer in Oak Ridge, Tennessee back in 1944 was ...simply getting into the place!

I imagine that the communications between the Elza Gate Guardhouse (ELZA) and Head Quarters (HQ) went something like this:

ELZA: HQ, this is Elza.
HQ: Elza this is HQ, go ahead.
ELZA: Sir, we've got a guy down here trying to enter the area with no papers.
HQ: Who is he?
ELZA: We're not sure. He doesn't have any ID. Just claims he's from up north somewhere.
HQ: Not another one from Ohio I hope!
ELZA: No sir, farther north than that.
HQ: How much farther?
ELZA: The North Pole.
HQ: Say again Elza?
ELZA: The North Pole...somewhere near Siberia he says.
HQ: What does he look like?
ELZA: He's an old fart with a long white beard. He's wearing a red outfit with white fir trim, He has a matching hat too. Also gloves and big knee-high boots. Oh yeah, he's dragging a big poke.
HQ: He's dragging a big what Elza?
ELZA: A big poke sir, you know, ...a big sack.
HQ: A big sack? What's he got in it?
ELZA: Don't know yet sir, we're still searching it. Everything in there is all wrapped up like presents.
HQ: Keep him there Elza and don't let him out of your sight. Sound's like a Ruskie spy to to us. We're reporting this situation straight to the top.
ELZA: Who would that be sir?
HQ: You don't need to know that information Elza. Don't ever ask that question again!
ELZA: Yes sir! Sorry sir.
HQ: That's better.
ELZA: Yes sir.
HQ: Just one more thing Elza.
ELZA: Sir?
HQ: Good job.
ELZA: Thank you sir!
HQ: You're welcome Elza.   Oh, and have a Merry Christmas!   HQ out.

A little Spike Jones anyone? Go ahead, push the play button. I dare you.

Off to See the Wizard

Southern Railway's mighty "Tennessean"

On or about August 2, 1944, Claudy F. Osborn left Colbert County, Alabama, determined to find her Oz. 

Claudy Osborn,
1944 Senior Picture,
Colbert County High School.

Earlier that summer Claudy had graduated from High School and was eagerly looking for a job. She was lucky and she knew it. In ordinary times good jobs for young women were hard to find. But these were not ordinary times. The country was at war and most of the young men were now in uniform serving in the army or navy, including at least three of her brothers, Gilbert, Randolph and Ellis. All kinds of job positions usually done by men were now being filled by women.

CEW newspaper ad 

for electricians, 

The Anniston Star,

Anniston, Alabama, 

26 June 1944.

Somehow, possibly through a newspaper ad similar to the one at left, Claudy learned that a company called Clinton Engineer Works (CEW) was hiring new workers for a war related project in Tennessee. The best part was that they seemed especially interested in hiring young women who were recent high school graduates from rural communities in Tennessee and Alabama. The pay they offered was good too, better than anything she could get in Colbert County. The curious thing though was that the job recruiters wouldn't tell anyone exactly what the jobs were about. They only said that it was important work for the war effort that would help bring all the soldiers and sailors back home. That was good enough for Claudy. But first she had to get there.

Claudy had never been as far away as Knoxville, Tennessee, before, although she had been to Chattanooga once when she was fifteen. Now, in the dark early hours of August 2, 1944, Claudy Osborn found herself in the Tuscumbia Railroad Depot waiting for the 2:40 AM arrival of "The Tennessean", the shiny emerald train that would carry her to Knoxville. She brought with her a single small suitcase that contained all that she owned. It would take "The Tennessean" ten hours to reach Knoxville. The first stop would be in Decatur. Alabama at 3:46 AM. After picking up passengers the train would leave the Decatur Railroad Depot at 3:56 AM and immediately cross the Norfolk Southern Bridge over the Tennessee River. Claudy could clearly see the full moon reflected in the waters below. It would be almost another hour before the train briefly stopped in Hunstville, then pushed on through the darkness towards Scottsboro, Stevenson, and ultimately Chattanooga. At 7:28 AM the rising sun would allow Claudy to view the green rolling hills of north Alabama and southern Tennessee, as the cotton fields of Colbert County receded further and further into the distance. Crossing the mighty Tennessee River once again at Tenbridge, the train arrived at Chattanooga's Terminal Station at 8:30 AM.

Terminal Station, Chattanooga, Tennessee

The stop in Chattanooga would last over an hour, giving passengers time to walk around a bit and explore beautiful Terminal Station. Opened in 1909 and Terminal Station was owned and operated by Southern Railway. It was designed by architect Donn Barber, in the Beaux Arts style. With its arched main entrance and eighty-two foot high ceiling dome with skylight it was undoubtedly the grandest building Claudy had ever seen.

Southern Railway Terminal, Knoxville

I'm sure Claudy would have liked to venture down Market Street towards downtown Chattanooga but there would not be time for that. With mixed feelings of excitement and fear of the unknown she boarded the train in time for its 9:50 AM departure for Knoxville. It would take almost three hours to make the trip as the train passed through Cleveland, Athens, Sweetwater, London, and Lenoir City before finally arriving at the Southern Railway station in Knoxville at 12:40 PM. She had been told to report to a certain address in Knoxville when she arrived. She would then be given transportation to "the site", that is, to Oz itself.

Brief YouTube video homage to "The Tennessean"

Route of "The Tennessean" from Tuscumbia/Sheffield to Knoxville

Chattanooga Choo Choo

Chattanooga Choo Choo clip
from Sun Valley Serenade

On May 17, 1941, a new passenger train called "The Tennessean", jointly-operated by the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) and the Southern Railway (SR), went into service. The route ran all the way from Washington, DC, to Memphis passing through many towns and cities along the way, including Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Sheffield/Tuscumbia, Alabama. The "Tennessean" was a "streamliner" designed by industrial designer Otto Kuhler and featured stainless steel clad Pullman coaches. It was an instant success.

That same year the Glenn Miller Orchestra recorded an arrangement of a song by Harry Warren (music) and Mack Gordon (lyrics) which was featured in the film Sun Valley Serenade and released on August 21. The film was a big hit, as was the song, which received an Academy Award nomination.

I was introduced to swing music at an early age. In fact, for the first few years of my life it was the only form of music I knew existed. It flowed out of our radio every day like water from a spring. My mom's favorite band leaders were Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey. Our next door neighbor Jim Cole, a trumpet player from Brooklin, New York, favored Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Woody Herman, and Artie Shaw.

Among my possessions is a small torn photograph of my mother with the inscription "1941" on the upper left hand corner. On the back, written in my mother's hand are the words "Claudia, Chattanooga, age 15". In the photo she is wearing a light, summer weight blouse embroidered with Mexican imagery including a man in a very large sombrero.

I cannot prove it, but I think it is very likely that my mother made the trip to Chattanooga in 1941 inspired, at least in part, by the inauguration of the new "Tennessean" train service to Chattanooga as romanticized by her favorite swing band. After viewing the "Chattanooga Choo Choo" segment from the film, what young girl with a hankering to see the world wouldn't want to take a ride in a gleaming Pullman coach and see what lay beyond the cotton fields of home.

The Little Rock Nine

How nine men in black robes, one U. S. president, a flock of screaming eagles, and a handful of brave high school students in Arkansas changed America forever.

United States Supreme Court

On May 17, 1954 the United States Supreme Court ruled in the case of "Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas" that racial segregation in the public schools violated the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution which, among other things, forbids states from denying any person of "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Gov. Orval Faubus

At that time, racial segregation in the South was not only common, it was the law of the land. In September of 1957 one southern governor, Orval Faubus of Arkansas, decided that he would defy the Supreme Court ruling. When nine African American students tried to attend the all-white Little Rock Central High School the governor called up the Arkansas National Guard to surround the school and block the students from entering.

Arkansas National Guard
blocking a colored students
from entering the school

I was only ten years old at the time and just starting the fourth grade. I remember seeing the shocking images on television of the governor's troops preventing the students from going to school. I was confused. I thought American soldiers were good guys whose job was to protect us. What had these students done wrong? The answer was simple, they had done nothing wrong at all.

The President of the United States at the time was a former soldier named Dwight David Eisenhower. When he entered the armed forces as a young man, and again when he took the oath of office as President of the United States, he swore to "defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic". It was an oath he took seriously.

Dwight David Eisenhower

During World War II as Supreme Allied Commander, General Eisenhower helped defeat the forces of Nazi Germany in their attempt to subjugate Europe and North Africa. Now as President of the United States he saw Governor Faubus' act for what it was, an assault upon the Constitution of the United States and an affront to the principals of fairness and equality that our country stood for.

When Faubus refused to withdraw the Arkansas National Guard from the school President Eisenhower federalized the entire Arkansas National Guard, effectively removing it from the Governor's authority and transferring it to his. But he didn't stop there. He ordered the US Army's 101st Airborne Division to Arkansas from their base in Kentucky. The paratroopers acted swiftly and decisively.

101st Airborne Division Insignia
The "Screaming Eagles"

Upon receiving orders from the President, the commander of the Division dispatched 1000 paratroopers from the 327th Infantry, 1st Airborne Battle Group to Little Rock. They wasted no time in getting there. When the sun rose over Arkansas the following morning the citizens of Little Rock woke to find paratroopers with "screaming eagle" patches on their uniforms and fixed bayonets deployed around the school. An angry crowd yelling threats and racist slurs began to move toward the soldiers. As they did so an officer ordered the soldiers to assume the "guard" position, left feet forward, bodies leaning slightly forward with the point of the bayonets aimed straight at their opponents. Then the soldiers began moving steadily towards the mob, their left feet stomping the ground loudly in unison as they advanced. It was clear to everyone that they meant business. The mob backed off.

In the meantime a small detachment of soldiers who had been dispatched to pick up the nine students arrived on the scene and escorted them through the crowd to the front doors of the school. The Arkansas sun shone down brightly on the nine teenagers as they quietly entered the building ready for their first day of class. As they did so they taught us all a lesson in courage.

The Little Rock Nine

Morehouse College Glee Club, Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA.

Brief documentary about the "Little Rock Nine" by Marquette University.

President Bill Clinton reflects on his childhood memories of the event.

One of the original nine students remembers the 101st Airborne.

An officer of the 101st Airborne remembers the morning when they confronted the angry mobs.

"Little Rock Nine" students face-to-face with their former tormentors on Oprah.

Remembering the 101st Airborne Division in World War Two.

Pictured above is General Dwight David Eisenhower speaking to paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division shortly before their jump into France in the dark morning hours of D-Day. This short video tribute contains no scenes of violence.

Mrs. Harris and the Red, Red Robin

I don't remember very much about my first day back at Woodland Elementary for the 1957/1958 school year. I was ten years old, almost eleven really, and was now entering the Fourth Grade. My best guess is that I wasn't too happy about being there. For me, the first days of school had always been a mixture of excitement and dread. The excitement came from the idea of being with my classmates again. The dread came from not knowing what complicated and confusing tasks the teachers would impose on us. All too often my difficulty with school assignments left me feeling stupid and humiliated in front of my classmates.

When I walked into my Fourth Grade classroom I immediately spotted something different. It was something that none of my previous classrooms had. Sitting right next to the teacher's desk was a great big piano. Huh? Did that mean our teacher could play the piano? What would it sound like? I quickly got an answer to my question when our teacher, Mrs. Erma Harris, an older lady with white hair, big glasses and a kind expression sat down at the piano and launched right in to a peppy version of "When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along". It was her way of welcoming us all back to school and giving us a taste of what the school year in her class would be like. The singer Doris Day had recorded a hit record of the song a couple of years before and I remembered hearing it on the radio.

OK, our Mrs. Harris was no Doris Day, but she was pretty darn good. Actually, she was great! As I looked around the classroom I saw that the other kids liked the music as much as I did. Everyone was smiling and having fun. Some of my friends from last year were there, and I was glad to see them. I spied some pretty girls too! As I sat back in my chair gazing out the window at the robins hopping around on the playground I thought to myself, "Maybe the Fourth Grade won't be so bad after all".



Not all American students had such a pleasant first day back at school as I did. In Little Rock Arkansas nine young African American students were turned away when they tried to enroll in Little Rock Central High School. What happened next would change America forever. I tell their story in my post entitled The Little Rock Nine.

Some great songs that really rang my bell in the Fourth Grade

Factoid: The Everly Brothers lived briefly in Knoxville and attended West High School in 1955.

1939-08-25 Over the Rainbow

Claudy Osborn
Colbert County, Alabama, circa 1939.

In the summer of 1939 a twelve year old girl named Claudy Osborn sat transfixed in a hot, crowded, north Alabama movie theater as Judy Garland* sang these words:

Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby

Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true

Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then, oh why can't I?

If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why, can't I?

Claudy must have felt that "Dorothy", the farm girl from Kansas, was singing just for her. Claudy was the youngest of eleven children born to Columbus Allen Osborn and wife, Nancy Isobel Romans, She had known no other life than one of poverty in the midst of the greatest economic depression the world had ever known.

The Ritz Theatre, Sheffield, Colbert County, Alabama.

She loved her family and her many aunts, uncles and cousins. Her roots in the red sandy soil of Colbert County, Alabama, ran as deep as cotton in the fields surrounding her home. But she knew that the world was bigger than North Alabama. The movies had shown her a world she could only dream of. But someday, somehow, she knew she would find that world.

It would be sooner than she ever imagined, and she wouldn't need to follow a yellow brick road to get there. When the time came to leave she just boarded a train in Sheffield that would take her to Chattanooga, Tennessee and beyond, to a place she could even not find on the map. Along the way she met others who, like her, were making the journey to this mysterious place in hopes of a better life. All they knew was that this "OZ" was hidden somewhere over the rainbow in the hills of East Tennessee.

Judy Garland on "Over the Rainbow"

"'Over the Rainbow' has become part of my life. It's so symbolic of everybody's dreams and wishes that I'm sure that's why some people get tears in their eyes when they hear it. I've sung it thousands of times and it's still the song that's closest to my heart." – Judy Garland, in a letter to composer Harold Arlen.

The Munchkin from Colbert County

Claudy Osborn may not have known it, but one of the Munchkins in The Wizard of OZ came from Tuscumbia, another Colbert County town only a few miles west of Claudy's home. She was a fifteen year old named Margaret Williams who played the role of one of the "Flower Pot Munckins", as well as one of the "Sleepy Head Munchkins". You may get a glimpse of her at minute 1:21 in the video below. She's wearing a pink dress with a light blue flower pot on her head. The nest of Sleepy Head Munchkins can be seen at minute 4.07.

Margaret Williams
Flower Pot Munchkin

Sleepy Head Munchkins

Alabama Tornadoes

Tornado Map for Colbert County, Alabama.
1953 through 2015, plus the big tornado of 1874.

In The Wizard of Oz Dorothy Gale and Toto were transported (along with the farmhouse of Uncle Henry and Auntie Em) to the Land of Oz by a giant tornado. As fantastic as such a thing may seem to us, it must have struck young Claudy Osborn as completely plausible. That's because Alabama and Oklahoma historically have more category F5 tornadoes (Fujita Scale) than any other states in the Union, and the Northwest part of Alabama where young Claudy lived was the worst area in the state. When I was a small boy I remember that my mother was always scared of large black thunderstorms out of fear that a tornado might form and blow us all away.

1892 train wreck on the same bridge
destroyed by the tornado of 1874.

The earliest reported tornado for the area where my mother grew up that I have been able to find occurred at 6:00 P.M. on November 22, 1874. It developed 5 miles South of Tuscumbia and traveled 23 miles in a Northeasterly direction to "Brickville". It had sustained winds of over 200 miles per hour which destroyed many, many homes and "mansions". Over one third of the entire town of Tuscumbia was leveled. Some passengers were injured when the train they were riding was derailed as it hit what was left of a railroad bridge that had been destroyed by the giant twister only minutes before. You can read the November 28, 1874, New York Times article about the disaster here.

Of course Claudy had not yet been born at the time of that monstrous storm. However, she was ten years old in 1936 when a category F3 tornado formed on the Mississippi border near Red Bay and traveled Easterly 25 miles leaving a path of destruction across the Alabama counties of Colbert and Franklin. Try to imagine what went through Claudy mind as she watched a very terrified Dorothy and Toto carried away by the twisting, roaring, tornado that filled the screen of the Ritz Theatre on that summer evening in 1939 only two years after F3 storm described above.

Meet Mr. Case

Forest Neil Case.
Mansfield, Ohio, circa 1941.

The shy unassuming fellow on the right is Forrest Neil Case. If you read my prior post titled "Baby Boy Case", and examined Exhibit "A" (my birth certificate) closely as you were instructed to do, you should instantly recognize the name. Mr. Case was, to use a phrase from today's vernacular, "a real piece of work".

He was the youngest of four boys born to Mary Elizabeth Au and William Ernest Case of 241 Franklin Ave (now 241 South Franklin St.), Mansfield, Ohio. Being the youngest he must have been doted on considerably. He was constantly told by his parents, relatives, neighbors, and teachers how handsome and bright he was. Unfortunately he believed them. Low self esteem was never an issue for Neil Case. However, inflated self esteem did make his life more difficult at times, and in ways that he probably never understood as we will see in later stories.

At the time this picture was taken young Mr. Case was set to conquer the world, not to mention the heart of Miss Kathryn McLean Johnson, his high school sweetheart, whom he would marry on Saturday, September 26, 1941. Two days earlier, on September 24, Japanese Naval Intelligence ordered their agents in Hawaii to send reports concerning the disposition of American warships in the harbor at Pearl Harbor. Nine weeks later on December 7, 1941, "a day that will live in infamy", events at Pearl Harbor would change his life forever.

But of course Neil didn't know anything about Japanese Naval Intelligence or a place called Pearl Harbor. He was at that wonderfully scary point in life where he must soon leave home and "seek his fortune". Tomorrow would bring whatever tomorrow would bring, but tonight all was joy and happiness 'cause he was stepping out with his "baby" in a "new set of threads". Just like the couple in the video below.

1947-11-07 - "Baby Boy Case"

Oak Ridge Hospital circa 1945.
Photograph by Ed Westcott.

I was born at a very early age on November 7, 1947, in the maternity ward of the Oak Ridge Hospital, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Oak Ridge is sometimes called the "Secret City". There are many reasons for this which I will tell you about in the future, when we are both older and wiser. For now though I just want to tell you about my birth. Not because it was so remarkable, but because it seems like a good place to begin. The stories I will tell you will not all be about me. But my story is the story I know best so we might as well start there.

1947 "film noir" movie poster.

Do you like detective stories? I do. One of my favorite movie genres as a boy were called "film noir". The leading male characters in  "film noir" were usually private eyes with tough cases to solve which they always managed to do by asking the right questions and a lot of good detective work. My birth took place many years ago and of course I don't remember much about it. In fact there are no living witnesses who we can question. But there are clues. Let's take a close look at the clues and see what we can learn.

Exhibit "A"

On the left is Exhibit "A", a Tennessee birth certificate. It is in fact my birth certificate. I know it looks small, but you can "click" it to see it larger. You can learn a lot from reading birth certificates. Let's take a closer look at mine to see what we can discover. It states that I was born on November 7, 1947. Hey, I already knew that but there it is in writing. It doesn't say what day of the week it was but with a little investigating we can quickly find that out. Turns out, I was born on a Friday. Oh boy, just in time for the weekend. I wonder what the weather was that day? With a little more sleuthing we learn that the high that day was 59 deg. and the low was 43 deg. with 0.30 inches of precipitation, which was three times the average amount precipitation for that time of the year. In other words, the day I came into the world was cool and damp.

"Baby Boy Case"

It was also dark. The lower right hand corner of the birth certificate says I was born at 12:40 AM. I don't know about you, but that must have been way past my bedtime. It looks like I came into the world sleepy, and between you and me I've been kind of sleepy ever since. I think my Mom was even more tired and sleepy. It says on the birth certificate that she had been in the hospital for 52 3/4 hours before I finally popped, slithered, or was just plain squeezed on out. I don't remember any of those details, probably because I was so sleepy. At any rate, Mom's labor apparently went on for more than two days. She must have been more than ready for that project to come to a conclusion. Did you see my name on the birth certificate? It says "Baby Boy Case"...BABY BOY CASE?! Huh? My Mom told me later that when I was born she and my father had not yet picked out a name for me. Can you believe that? I mean after all, they only had nine whole months to think about it! Talk about the mother of all  procrastinators. Have you ever tried to get a passport using a birth certificate that did not even have your real name on it? I mean, come on Mom!

Claudy, er, uh, I mean, "Claudia" F. Osborn.

But here I go talking about my Mom without properly introducing her to you. She taught me much better manners than that, so let's make things right. Her name was Claudia F. Osborn. Actually, it was Claudy F. Osborn but she hated the name "Claudy" and told everybody that her name was "Claudia". I know why, but I will save that story for another day. I'll also tell you what the "F." in her name stood for. She hated that name too. But I digress. Anyway, here she is in the photo on the right. This picture may have been taken in the very early stages of my mother's pregnancy...before I started to show up as a little round lump in her belly. As you can see, she was very pretty. You might even say she was beautiful. I always thought so and I know others did as well. She was also very young at the time this picture was made. As it states in the birth certificate, she was only 21 years old when I was born.

The photo was taken in the living room of a duplex at 205 Vermont Avenue, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. That is where I lived for the first three years of my life. I don't remember much about those years so they must have been pretty uneventful...at least for me. Incredibly I do remember two things from those years which I will tell you about in a later post. I will also tell you more about my mom and dad. But you can already learn a few things about them by taking a close look at the birth certificate. Let's see how well you do. Here is a quiz:

1. What did the "F" in my mother's name stand for?
2. What color or race was she?
3. Where was she born?
4. What was her usual occupation?
5. How many months had my mom been pregnant when I was born?
6. What does the birth certificate say about my dad?

One more task for you...find "Vermont Ave., Oak Ridge, Tennessee" on a google map. Our duplex at 205 Vermont Ave is not there anymore. In fact almost all of the duplex apartments in that part of town are gone now. If you look closely at the picture of the hospital you can see that at one time there were them. Our duplex was right across the street from the present day Family Clinic of Oak Ridge and just a couple of blocks from the hospital. As you can see, I was born very close to my first home.

The music of the times

The world I was born into was filled with music, mostly flowing out of radios like the 1947 Bendix model 115 shown above.

You are listening to "Near You", a very popular song written and originally recorded by Francis Craig in 1947. The Andrews Sisters released this version on October 3, 1947 and it peaked the 1947 best seller charts at number four. I heard it many times as a child.