Dear Editor:
I’d like to add a fact or so about history. (In response: ‘Serving the military: Blue Star flags,? The Citizen, Sept. 20, page 20).
The article tells of Alice Marsh, and her project of giving Blue Star Flags to families of our lads who are ‘off to the war.? The little flags date back to the days of World War I.
WWI was a very bad war. It was the worst and most far-reaching war our nation had ever experienced, and our loss of lives was staggering. A few years ago, I had occasion to do a presentation to some friends, and I titled it, ‘The Serenades Of World War I.? I selected several original discs from my record collection, and played them, showing how musical trends had gone in those years. In my research for the show, it developed that more songs had been written about that war than about any other war, before or since. Understandably, many of the tunes were poignant, and a bit too strong to make the presentation enjoyable. I steered away from them for that reason.
One such song was titled: ‘Our Home Is A Blue Star Home,? referring to their little window banner. As mentioned in your article, a gold star meant that the son/daughter would never be back. In some homes, there was more than one blue star, denoting several members of that household in service. One of the tunes, fortunately not in my collection, was shown as the cover on the sheet music. It showed a little girl saying her bedtime prayers, and the title of the song was: ‘Please change Daddy’s gold star back to blue.? Had I the record, it would have been a bit too tough for me to use.
The only disc I did use along that line, was titled: ‘My Dream Of The Big Parade,? recorded in 1926 on the Victor Label. It was a look at the war in retrospect. ‘The Big Parade? was the war. Part of the lyrics went:
?… I saw gold star mothers, sisters and brothers, what a sacrifice they made. I saw one-legged pals, coming home to see their gals, in the dream of the big parade.?
We can only hope that very few of the little flags described in your article will have gold stars, and that the need for any of them will soon come to an end.
Doug Houston