This branch of the Austrian Hesch family is descended from Johann Hesch and his wife Marya (Schlinz) Hesch, who came to America from Oberschlagles, Bohemia with three sons: Paul, Mathias, and Anton. +++Johann & Marya settled in Buffalo County, Wisconsin but moved to Pierz, Mn in about 1885. .+++Mathias settled in Waumandee, Wisconsin and moved to Pierz in 1911. +++Anton never married but farmed with his dad in Agram Township, where he died in 1911.+++And Paul, my great grandfather, settled five miles away, in Buckman, Minnesota. He died there in 1900.

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Sunday, December 26, 2010

Reddy was Ready

It's interesting to remember that our history books made it seem like America was totally blind-sided by Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in November 1941.

This ad ◄ was in the same newspaper in Kansas as the Pierz kids photo (August 1940) 15 months earlier...but of course THAT was war related prep, too.

I think there must have been a sense in the US that we hadn't been really prepared for World War One...or that we could have been much better prepared.  According to Wikipedia, so many men were killed in WWI "due largely to great technological advances in firepower without corresponding ones in mobility".  America was intent on preparation this time, since  WWI hadn't solved the problems that caused it, either.

(Besides, I still think wars are the "legal" way to test new weapons.  Think of the officers' reactions at the beginning of the first Gulf War--"Wow, it worked better than we ever expected it to!")

So, by 1940, the wording in this ad is belligerent without saying why--"our freedom" was being threatened, so Reddy Kilowatt was gearing up to provide more consistent power to Americans?  People understood even if it didn't actually make sense.
Posted by Marlys Hesch Sebasky at 9:59 AM
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