"Mood During Armistice Day Varied After World War I" by Patty Benoit.Temple Daily Telegram:

VINTAGE TELEGRAM NOV. 11, 1940

Mood During Armistice Day Varied After World War I

reprinted from November 11, 1940

by Patty Benoit

Temple Daily Telegram - November 11, 2012

The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

Ever since 1918, Bell County residents joined the rest of world in Armistice Day

observances, commemorating the peace signed between the Allies of World War I and

Germany at Compiègne, France, to end World War I.

The front page of Nov. 11, 1940, told it all - Fascist Italy was waging bitter

campaigns against Greece. German bombers pounded London. The quiet of the western

front, hammered out in 1918, now was unsettled and noisy with gunfire.

In contrast to previous observances in other years, Temple’s Armistice Day in 1940 had

a sense of foreboding. As was traditional, all schools and businesses were closed.

A large group converged in the Municipal Auditorium, on the fourth floor of the Temple

City Hall, to hear keynote speaker Maj. Gen. Claude V. Birkhead, commander of the Texas

National Guard.

World War I veteran, Dr. Marcel Wesley Sherwood, former department commander of the

Texas American Legion, introduced him.

Temple Armistice Day Parade was planned to be among the largest in the city’s history.

Following that, the Reagan-Central Junior High football game kicked off that afternoon.

A huge fireworks show and street dance capped off the day.

By Armistice Day the next year, Temple and Bell County residents were seeing

preparations for another world war.

pbenoit@tdtnews.com

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Temple Daily Telegram.
All credit for this article goes to
Patty Benoit and the Temple Daily Telegram