A Few Jeep Stories from 1943

3 Comments

1. Joe in MesaJanuary 3, 2021 at 3:30 PM

   Great article, Dave. I assume you noticed the ads on the page... have you seen "ALASKA HIGHWAY" America's Victory Boulevard with Richard Arlen and Jean Parker? ..perhaps as part of you Alaska or Rust adventure research?
2. Allan J. KnepperJanuary 3, 2021 at 10:16 PM

   Joe......that Alaska Highway caught my eye as well. I did find that it is available out there, so I may give it a try. My engaged parents left Iowa and went out to Portland Oregon in the early 1940's to stay with relatives. My dad continued north to work on the Alaskan Highway. We still have remnants of his "adventures"......a few black and white pictures of catching huge fish......hunting elk.....standing in deep mud next to a bulldozer on the job site......HUGE wool lined sleeping bags brought back from Alaska.......an original wooden trunk with my dads name and address stenciled on it that contained all he was able to bring up to Alaska to live in the camps......etc. We kinda took a lot of this history for granted, but are now trying to put the pieces together. Mom and dad moved back to Iowa in 1944 and I was born in late 1945.......and the rest is history !!
3. David EilersJanuary 4, 2021 at 4:01 PM

   Joe: I did notice the movie from the article, but then remembered there was a poster of the movie at the museum in Dawson Creek. I've posted the movie today. Allan: that's some cool history. I tried to get Dad to talk about his history, but he either couldn't remember stuff or didn't want to tell me things. Eventually, it was me telling him about the history of our family. Right before, and during hospice, I read portions of my SLAG book to him. There was lots of, "huh, interesting" and "I am not familiar with that"; to be fair, he was never much of a story teller anyway, except for a few stories he liked to tell over and over ....