If they’re gone...
How can they "talk" to us?
It’s the real stuff. And it seems like these figures will talk to you.
Local soldiers from WWII are being honored in the coming holidays in Vince Cockriel’s “Cannon Falls Military History Museum” a couple miles southwest of Cannon Falls at 33504 Warsaw Trail. Their uniforms and memorabilia have been donated by their families.
It might be a good idea to bring a collapsible camp stool along with you to the museum because there is so much to see that it’s overwhelming to stand and contemplate it all.
New exhibits from local families.
For starters, the walls are filled with $3000 worth of new posters showing the ideas and activities going on in WWII.
And there are 25 mannequins displaying uniforms and memorabilia of soldiers from WWII donated by their families. Fourteen are local: Bill Daniels, John Burch, Melvin Eckstrom, Donald Richardson, Robert Anderson, Randall Hughes, Edgar Olson, Loren Steenblock, Dorothy Daniels, Richard Dierke, Arthur G. Malon, Robert Midness, Arnold Sibbers and John G. Pasch.
Memories…
And there are scrapbooks made by relatives or the soldiers to keep their mementoes and thoughts.
One is by Arthur G. Malon, the father of Joyce Malon Smith of Red Wing, MN. He was on duty from Sept. 22, 1942 to April 6, 1946
Written in 1983... “As I Saw It...” Malon recalls his first day as a Marine. “...there were plenty of minutes when you prayed to God you were working back at Johnson’s Drug Store...”
In his first letters home to his wife he thought he must have sounded like they were convicts, “but way down deep we liked the stern attitude and businesslike order in which we were taught.”
And although he planned to write more about his later war experiences, T/Sgt. Arthur “Art” G. Malon never told about his tour of duty in the South Pacific and occupation at Tsingtao, China. He died of a brain tumor in 2008.
A smidgen…
But we do have a smidgen of his memories. His monthly pay was $119.70. He played catch on deck of his ship with Ted Williams - who became a major league baseball player!
His “Worst memory: Start of War. Best memory: War Over.”
They almost "talk"…
As you view the uniforms and mementoes, they almost become alive again. I was surprised that at 5 feet 6 inches I was taller than some of them. They seemed so much bigger in the old war movies!
And you can almost hear their stories... like when I saw the receipt one soldier had to fill out when he was being discharged. He found out he would have to pay or reimburse the military unit he was in if he couldn’t account for his carbine, pistol, poncho, the pins for his tent or even a whistle!
I could almost hear him spouting off, “I’ve been living in a hole for a year and now when I’m getting out you expect me to pay for my whistle?”
Maybe by studying these keepsakes the soldiers really are “talking” to us.
More information is requested.
If you have information relating to local military persons please contact Vince Cockriel. He would like information to fill in the stories of these war veterans.
This is the last year the museum will feature WWII mementoes.
The Cannon Falls Military History Museum is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Memorial Day Weekend, July 4th, Labor Day and Veterans Day Weekends or by appointment 507-263-3698.
