Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

FRIENDLY INVASIONS 199 Buckden girls can jitterbug now… Picture Post was a pioneering and hugely successful British weekly news magazine which ran from 1938 to 1957. It was famous for its striking use of photography and its mix of hard and soft stories. The issue of 22 September 1945 is typical. A report on a war crimes trial is accompanied by shockingly brutal illustrations of concentration camp survivors, while a few pages away is the following example of another, gentler strand, celebrating the essential decency of everyday life in town and country – in this case, Buckden. © IPC Syndication TWO AMERICAN SOLDIERS SAY GOOD-BYE A year and a half ago there were 2,000,000 Americans in England. All but 150,000 have gone, and many English homes have lost a foster-son. NEARLY two-and-a-half years ago the first American trucks, as we’ve learned to call them, rumbled through sleepy English village streets, hell- bent on bringing materials and men to supplement construction gangs working at top speed on airfields, army camps and Nissen hut hospitals. In the evenings, the locals began to overflow with hefty, khaki-clad fellows, whom most of us immediately mistook for officers on account of their brass buttons and “fruit salad.” It took us quite a time to realise that “fruit salad” is the irreverent G.I. term for campaign ribbons and even longer to realise that “G.I.” (Government Issue) covers every article, individual, routine and suggestion that emanates from the American Army. Yes, we were in for a liberal education, both of ideas and vocabulary. The Yanks were here—and when we had recovered our breath following a hearty back-slap from over- sized Texans and a “Hiya Butch” from Bronxian drugstore cowboys, we had to learn to understand and finally to enjoy this invasion by thousands of gay, brash young crusaders, bent on liberating Europe in the shortest possible time. This is the story of two of these New World crusaders, medical corps soldiers at a military hospital in East Anglia, who have made lasting friendships with the English people in the neighbouring village of Buckden. Since they have become an integral part of the community, it is almost as if the sons and brothers of the English families were leaving, now the time has come for farewells. T/4 (Technician 4th Grade) Norman Van Horne of Saco, Maine. and Pfc. Albert Tetrault of New Bedford, Mass, have been stationed at the hospital for two-and-a-half years now. “This village looked pretty good to me.” said Van Horne recalling his first visit. ‘Al and I took off the first free evening we had and walked until we hit the nearest town. Buckden didn’t look much like my idea of a town, but somehow I never got much further. I’d just come down from Iceland and when I first saw the trees in Buckden, I wanted to climb right up one of my own and stay there !” Tetrault immediately took his new buddy in to meet Mr. and Mrs. King, the landlords of the Vine, where he had already made friends with the little daughter, “Tiger”. The first thing I noticed about England was the warm beer—and I didn’t like it” explained Tetrault. “I guess all the boys complain about that. But at the Vine the beer is really cold— and the welcome is warm !” The Kings’ younger daughter, Beverly, was christened after Tetrault’s own baby daughter. He “sweated out” the arrival of Beverly II with the anxious father, and attended the christening ceremony. ‘Van and Al both call us Mum and Pop,” said Mrs. Peacock. “And do you know that on Mother’s Day they brought me a beautiful flowering plant. They had to tell me what Mother’s Day was— I’d never heard of it.” “The look on her face just slayed me,” grinned Van Horne. You never saw a Yank who wasn’t surrounded by little English kids—and in Buckden they’re remembered for many more things than the traditional “gum chum.” Small boys are eager to be- come good pitchers and a few cherish a secret ambition to get with the Brooklyn Dodgers instead of “playing for England.” The G.I.s bring bats, balls and catchers’ mitts from their athletic stores and take their coaching job very seriously. Another person who will miss them is Mrs. Atkinson, the wife of the Vicar of Buckden. She is an active member of the W.V.S. and takes groups of volunteers to work up at the hospital. “I have worked on the wards with both Van Home and Tetrault,” said Mrs. Atkinson. “Nothing is too much for them to do for a patient. If we’ve been able to give them and their friends anything in the way of home life and family affection in our village, they’ve certainly given us gaiety while our own boys have been away.” There is scarcely a phase of village life in which these two and their buddies have not taken part. Every week they go to the dances in the village hall. Buckden girls can jitterbug now. They go to the village charity fetes, and help with cocoanut shies. They have attended church