Remember When

Excerpt from Milepost Zero by Benita (McNeeley) Hanson

World War II affected Paradise in many ways. Troop trains were commonly seen passing through town. Lena Minear, who kept a daily diary without fail, records the troop trains began to pass through town on March 1, 1941, months before Pearl Harbor.

The Plainsman reported on February 26, 1942, that there were now 4 boys in the Armed Forces. They were Merle Steel, Army, and Richard Steele, in the Philippine Islands, sons of Mr. & Mrs. Howard Steele; Frances Hermes, Army, son of Mr. & Mrs. H.B. Hermes; Gust Dickson, Coast Guard, son of Mr. & Mrs. Olaf Dickson; Herman Benson, Army, son of Mr. & Mrs. Dave Stout; William Raney, Army, son of Mr. & Mrs. Joe Raney; Jack Hermiston, Army, son of Mr. Walter Hermiston; Jack Harwood, Army, son of Mrs. Fred Harwood; Miles Willcutt, Army, son of Mr. & Mrs. C. Willcutt; Eugene Walls, Army, son of Mrs. Clara Walls; Darwin Hardenbrook, Army, son of Mr. & Mrs. E. W. Hardenbrook; Henry Lozeau, Navy, son of Mr. & Mrs. James Lozeau; Capt. Clifford Hauge, Army, son of Mr. John Hauge; and Bill Starling, Army, son of Mrs. Nathan Smothers. Many others would join and see service before the war ended.

Later young women from Paradise joined up as well. Betty Steele (Meyer) was one of them. Other women trained to be spotters for enemy aircraft with models made of balsa wood. They were organized into teams and there was a team surveying the skies in every daylight hour throughout the war years. Everetta Proctor was one of the spotters who earned a 1,000 hours pin. If they should spot anything suspicious, spotters were to call in their information using the code “Fox Charlie 12 Black.” Spotters sometimes worked in teams. Everetta tells of her mother, Clara Walls, Maude Johnston who was deaf, and Betty Meyer’s mother, Magdalena Steele, who was legally blind, working together as a spotter team. Maude would say, “I can see it but I can’t hear it.” Magdalena, “I can hear it but I can’t see it.” Together they could do both.

Rationing of strategic materials and commodities was a national program to support the war effort and Paradise residents were issued, for example, 272 sugar rationing books. The school faculty was to handle their registration and distribution. Many other things were also rationed with gasoline being very high on the list.

Nearly everyone planted “Victory Gardens” to provide themselves fruits and vegetables so those produced commercially could be used in the war effort.

Scrap metal was collected and turned in to be processed to become the guns and machinery needed by the troops.

The Plainsman reported that the Sanders County monthly quota for War Bonds and Savings Stamps was $9,100. From July 1941 to January 1942, Sanders County purchased bonds and stamps in the amount of $6,132 monthly. It was reported that the people had done well, but they were admonished to do more to meet the quota. Some men had $25 or more taken out of their monthly pay checks for war bonds.

After the war ended and the men returned home, life began to return to normal. In 1948 Minnie Harwood, only daughter of Martin and Fannie Quinn, built and opened the Harwood House with her two sons, Jack and Dick. The Harwood House was a combination restaurant and bar and part of that original construction survives today as the shell around which many additions and remodeling has been done at the site of Martin Quinn’s Paradise Quinn’s Hot Springs.

In 1949 after they had returned from World War II, a group of 14 men joined together to form Post 129 of the American Legion. They were Edwin O. “Coop” Willcut, Delbert Noel, Kenneth D. Wagenius, Edson W. Hardenbrook, Robert A. Kangas, Darwin O. Hardenbrook, William A. Parrish, Herman W. Warbrick, Oliver Mercier, Clifford J. Hauge, Keith M. Corbin, Jack L. Hermiston, Severin S. Olson and Ervin E. Day.

The American Legion and similar veteran’s mutual aid, non-profit organizations such as the VFW an Am Vets are nationally chartered by the Congress of the United States to benefit veterans who served during a wartime period as defined by Congress. The charter is governed by Title 36 of the U.S. Code. The liquor laws and gambling regulations tend to be different from those governing state established facilities and tend to be somewhat less stringent.

So, on August 22, 1949 this veteran mutual-aid Post was officially established within the town limits under its Congressional charter within the parameters allowed by federal law regarding approved activities of such posts.

The Post is the basic unit of the Legion and represents a small area such as a town. Activities tend to center around that geographical area such as community events and celebrations. The members and their auxiliary run civic training programs for high school students known as Boys and Girls State and Boys and Girls Nation, teaching those students through participation how government works at those levels. It is also not uncommon for the Post to operate a bar, open during limited hours on their premises. Posts are also politically active as they lobby on behalf of the interests of veterans and service members. They were actively involved in Veterans Affairs hospitals, pensions and in creating the U.S. Veterans Bureau which later became the Department of Veterans Affairs. Besides these activities, the Legion also sponsors a national youth baseball program.

Many of those whose names appear on the charter were also former Northern Pacific employees in Paradise. Ken Wagenius of Hayden, Idaho and Bob Kangas of Paradise are the two surviving members of those listed on the original charter.

Post 129 carries on those callings and traditions in the Paradise community and remains one of the few viable main street businesses today.