HUSBANDS’ JOY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21963, 6 March 1946, Page 5

HUSBANDS’ JOY

BRIDES’_SHIP IN WELCOME AT ’FRISCO BOOGIE WOOGIE & FLOWERS (10 a.m.) SAN FRANCISCO. March 5. The liner Monterey has arrived with 562 New Zealand and Australian war brides and 253 children. The voyage from Sydney occupied 15 days. ~ , . The Monterey was greeted by two official San Francisco welcome ships, vay with bunting and emblazoned with the slogan: “Welcome Home!! Well Done!!” , . , The shins earned many husbands. On one welcome ship a W.A.C. band conducted by a trim lieutenant played boogie woogie tunes, breaking the jitterbug monotony periodically to express the waiting husbands’ feelings by blaring the currently popular ditty: “It’s Been a Long, Long Time.” Huge Boxes of Blooms

Although the husbands from points outside California were warned by the authorities not to come to the city to

meet their wives, there were scores on the dock when the liner berthed. True to the reputation they have established as the world’s greatest flower givers, nearly all the husbands clutched huge boxes of blooms. Jostled about by excited husbands was an elderly man who protested that his" right to be on the wharf was as strong as any husband's. He said that his name was Mr. Ed Ruthberg, of Alameda California. He wore in the band of his battered felt hat the picture of a girl on which was scrawled the words: “Love from Dorothy.” Unknown Granddaughter “She’s my granddaughter,” he told questioners. “I have never seen her and do not know her name. I think she comes from New Zealand. Her aunt sent me a cable telling me she is on the ship. I think I will be able to find her. She has married a boy from Montana. He is still out in the Pacific.” Mrs Winifred Barnum, aged 21, of New Zealand, learned after sailing that her husband had been killed in a traffic accident in Norwalk, Connecticut. Her cabin-mate said: “It was mighty tough for her. They notified her right here. She did not even have a private place to cry.” . , , ~ Mrs. Barnum is visiting her husband s family and then plans to return home.