By Mrs. Catherine “Grams” McGuire Straus
Info Mrs. H. Thorkelson. American recordings will enliven Berlin visit Credit: Andy Plofchan
Info Peter, Mrs. Thorkelson, Nikki. First phase of an exciting journey to join Dad Credit: Andy Plofchan
Info Mrs. Thorkelson and bedding. She’ll have to take along almost everything Credit: Andy Plofchan
When Peter was four years old, he, his little brother Nicky (it’s misspelled in the news clipping) and his mom (my daughter Ginny) packed up to join her husband (and Peter’s dad, of course), Lt. John Thorkelson in Berlin—where Lt. Thorkelson was serving with the American Army of Occupation after World War II.
The clipping was a feature story the Detroit Free Press did on Ginny, Peter and Nicky’s departure. I thought it might interest you, and so I’m using it as Chapter Two of my life story of Peter. Next month, in Chapter Three, I will take you to Berlin, where you will join Peter and follow him on a series of marvelous adventures! See you next month!
Don’t miss the September issue of 16 magazine—on sale at your favorite newsstand July 20!
GI’s family prepares to join him in Berlin Permalink
Free Press Photos by Andy Plofchan
Wife and 2 sons pack for life in broken reich Permalink
By Patricia Bronte
Free Press Staff Writer
Mrs. Virginia Thorkelson, 26, of 4711 Second, will be among the 1,000 American wives and children who will sail in April to join their Army of Occupation husbands in Germany.
She and her two sons, Peter, 4, and Nicky, 15 months, were excited at first.
But after they received “Circular No. 46, Accommodations for Dependents in Berlin” from the War Department, they were just busy.
The army’s “planning guide” relates that “families arriving in Berlin can expect to be quartered in houses containing… tub, toilet, basin, sink, electric lights and ovenless stove.”
It also says that “Issue-type folding cots, mattresses, pillows, and blankets can drawn from the Quartermaster.”
But you can bring your own[…]
