Below are the lyrics of the chorus to the WWI era song, "I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier":
I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier,
I brought him up to be my pride and joy,
Who dares to put a musket on his shoulder,
To shoot some other mother’s darling boy?
Let nations arbitrate their future troubles,
It’s time to lay the sword and gun away,
There’d be no war today,
If mothers all would say,
I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier.
My mother-in-law used to sing the song. My father-in-law was a doughboy in World War I. We have a photo of him in his full uniform. When the war was over, he brought home his army blanket, which is now a remnant, due to the moths having dined on it for years, and his rifle and three helmets, one American, one French, and one German. The German helmet has a bullet hole clear through one side of it.
We also have an old French sword which my father-in-law said was given to him by a French woman whose husband had died in the war. He was single when he was in the war, and we wondered if there was a romantic story behind the gift of the sword, but he never said.
Grandpère grew up to be a soldier of sorts, but not a fighting soldier. During the 1960s, he joined the Army Reserves and served six months active duty and 5 1/2 years as a reservist. During the Cuban missile crisis, he came within a couple of hours of being called up, but the crisis eased. That's his war story.
Here's a link to an old recording of the song at History Matters.
Thanks to the Weird Rabbit for the link to the song.
World War I recruiting poster from Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
I like reading this because the song reminds me that not all those in the past glorified war.
ReplyDeleteAnd such memories in your family... the helmets, the blanket, the sword.
My father was in the Air Force, Pacific Theatre in WWII and when alive (he died in 1970 at 50)he would regale one and all with tales of it, as if it were a party. My half-brother (21 years older than me- he is 71 now) was in the Army in Korea, immediately after the conflict. He hated every minute of it, yet remains a pro-war Bushie. His youngest son, aged 40, is nearing the end of his second Iraq tour in the Army.
I worry for my 11 year old step daughter... will there be a draft? Will she have to face this?
Fran, I also took comfort that way back when, in 1916, Americans were writing anti-war songs. Grandpère's older cousin, my mother-in-law's nephew, died in World War II, and I wonder if that was why she sang the song.
ReplyDeleteThe Lord only knows what your step-daughter and my grandchildren face in the future.
Yes, I've often thought to how great an extent timing--a few years older or younger--would have made a great difference to me. "Rat Tich Vay" or "Sorry about that" were our catchwords.
ReplyDeleteJohnieb, Grandpère came between the Korean War and Vietnam, which had not yet really got going in the early 60s, although the "advisors" were already there. Timing was all.
ReplyDeleteYour comment about your grandfather bringing home helmets reminded me of my childhood on Okinawa, where some of the worst fighting of the Battle of the Pacific in WWII took place. I lived there from 1961 through 1970, and in the 1960's WWIi was still very real to everyone there. I attended a school adminstered by Evangelical Christians (which haunts me to this day) and it was built on a ridge. During the battle for Okinawa, the Japanese soldiers were on the ridge and wiped out the U.S. soldiers trying to take it. Okinawans would not build on the ridge because of the obake, or spirits of the dead, so, our school, being an evangelical Christian school, built on the ridge to make a statement. The area where we played during recess had many bones of soldiers and we used to find helmets and things. We had all been taught that when we found unexploded ordinances we were to contact an adult immediately. I remember the bomb squad coming up the ridge at least once a week when we would find unexploded grenades and bullets. I was in the fourth grade, and I remember the sixth grade boys were trying to assemble a skeleton from the bones we found in the forest.
ReplyDeleteOne day my friend Kazuo hit the baseball over the ridge and went to find it. The bell rang and the rest of us returned to class. About five minutes after class had started, Kazuo appeared at the door, holding a skull and said, "Teacher, I found someone's head!" Al the girls screamed but the boys though Kazuo was kakue, or cool.
I hate all war.
Padre Mickey, that's quite a story. I think the Okinawans were smarter than the Christian evangelicals to pay attention to the obake.
ReplyDeletePlus, the presence of human bones and unexploded ordnance in the schoolyard seem pretty undesirable to me.
I'm glad to read the words of that song. I've vaguely heard of it but never knew the words. What a true song that mothers want to sing. I like the image of your mother-in-law singing that. I'd sing it, too. I don't want a draft, especially as I think of my lovely 18 year old daughter MJ.
ReplyDelete3871 US service people killed by tonight -- and countless numbers of Iraqis. Lord Have Mercy.
ReplyDeleteJan, if we're going to fight all these wars, I think we should have a draft with no exemptions for the able in mind and body. Then, if the sons and daughters of the president and the Congress and prominent people were serving in the military, our leaders might not be so quick to get us into war.
ReplyDeleteAnn, Lord have mercy, indeed.
A draft! Fearless Leader's poll figures are at Nixon's lowest level and far lower than LBJ's ever were WITHOUT a draft. Can you imagine where he'd be if kids from across the social spectrum were being unwillingly maimed and slaughtered over there?
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see him at zero approval.
ReplyDeleteBush's low poll numbers don't seem to give the Democrats in Congress the courage to do the right thing. That puzzles me.
Think there are two factors - first, that their control of the Senate is so slender as to be non-existant, particularly given that one of the senators is the Joe Lieberman (who, forget the Democratic/Connecticut business, is Independent/Israel). The other factor is that many of them are scared to death that if they take any strongly anti-war action they will fall flat on their faces if there is a repeat performance of 9/11. They fear that if this happens, Bush and Cheney will wipe the floors with them, and that we'll be stuck once more with a solidly Republican legislature and executive twelve months from now. They're almost certainly right in thinking this. Politically, it's very awkward. But the major factor is that for all effective purposes, on matters relating to the War, they do not control the Senate.
ReplyDeleteLapin, much of what you say is true, but they should take note of their own approval numbers which stand at 22%, or thereabouts, much lower than Bush's.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see the Democrats fight, even if they lose the battles. They're operating out of fear, and they look spineless. I haven't given one dime to a politician this year, and I usually give some, and I won't until they show courage.
You're absolutely right, of course. I did like the way that Reid kept Congress technically in session through the Thanksgiving break to preclude Boy George's making any recess appointments.
ReplyDeleteLapin, I agree. That was smart on Reid's part. Using more of those sorts of tactics is the way to go.
ReplyDelete