Notes
Note for: Harold Albert Lincoln Eckberg, 23 OCT 1922 -
(Letter on USO stationery)
Tacoma, Wash.
Jan. 9, 1943
Dear Brother (note--Art):
I guess I owe you a letter so here it goes, it will probably be the
last one from Ft. Lewis the way it looks. We're due to move from here
sometime this month. I've got a pass thats good till tomorrow morning
and it'll be the last one I'll get for a while. I guess I went to bed
last night at midnight and got up at noon today. Thats the only time a
fellow can sleep in the army, is on weekends. I shot the pistol
yesterday. I fired 25 shots and got one bullseye, boy thats shooting.
Ha. It was Sat afternoon so we shot any old place, even at birds when the
louy wasn't looking.
The weather has been nice out here longer than expected according to
the old timers. It gets colder than heck at night. The other day it
snowed a little but not enough to make the ground white. Mt. Ranier is
pure white. This would be a nice state to travel in after the war.
So you're going to move, huh. Whose going to move where your at. Boy
you'll need some help. Get me out of the army and I'll help. Ha. I
thought I was going to help Everett too but it didn't work. How are
things selling on the sales?
Well this is all for now, next time I'll be writing from somewhere
else, I hope. By the way, thanks for the box was sent. I always
appreciate eats, so does the rest of the barracks.
Your Brother Harold
(Postcard dated March 10, 1943, Little Rock, Ark.)
Pvt Harold A. Eckberg
Co. A 58th Bn. 12th Rgt.
Camp Robinson,Ark.
U.S. Army--Platoon #1
Dear Friends:
I haven't time to write a letter so this is the best I can do. Its
been cold here for a week and it started to warm up a little. This
Arkansas isn't as warm as you think it is. Thanks for the card, the only
thing wrong was you had the wrong address and I was told to give you my
right one. Well I'll try to write a letter in the near future. Harold
Landeck, Austria
June 4, 1945
Dear Art & Hazel:
It's been a long time since I've written so I'll see what I can do
about it tonight. For the past two weeks I have been on pass to Lyon
France and the first pass since I've been over here. I left here on the
twenty first and arrived back yesterday morning. It's six hundred miles
each way and rode every mile of it by truck so it was plenty rough. I'm
still tired from the trip in fact I skipped drill call today and slept.
Lyon is a regular 7th Army rest center but as far as rest goes I get more
here although I did have a lot of fun. I was quartered in a big hotel
there with bath and a darn good bed. I hated to leave it, it was so
soft. We ate in a big mess hall and food was served to us by French
madamoselles. Everything was free except what you bought in the stores
and boy you really paid for it. Four of us thought we'd be smart and buy
a meal and we paid twelve dollars for it. France has changed quite a bit
and you can't tell a war had been fought there except a few knocked out
vehicles and buildings. Most of the crops are planted and everything
looks pretty good.
Right now I'm planted at Landeck Germany only a few miles from the
Italian & Swiss borders. There's mountains all around the place and
still alot of snow on them. Just across the street from where I'm
sitting now is a Displaced Persons camp where they keep all the slave
labor that was brought here to work. There's almost every language in
the world represented here.
I got your box with the jam cookies & candy. Thanks a million for it.
How are things coming along on the farm. I wished I was back there
working instead of just laying around. We sure don't do much. I don't
know what will happen to this outfit. I hope we go back to the states
for a while. I have 51 points so no discharge for me. I got my bronze
star medal its pretty nice.
Well it's about time for the show to start and I don't want to miss
that. Last night we had a U.S.O. show and it was quite good. I'll close
for now. Sorry I didn't write you sooner.
As Ever
Harold
(Undated)
SURPRISE BIRTHDAY DINNER PARTY HELD FOR HAROLD ECKBERG
A surprise birthday dinner was held for Harold Eckberg on Oct. 22.
The event was hosted by his children: Mrs. Leland Johnson, Ron and Judy
Eckberg, Mike and Judy Hubbell and Angela Eckberg.
Guests were: Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Eckberg and Mr. and Mrs. Edmund
Eckberg, Walnut; Mr. and Mrs. Everett Eckberg and Mr. and Mrs. Elburn
Swanlund, Princeton; Mr. and Mrs. Vivan Richmond, Mr. and Mrs. Lester
Eckberg and Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Eckberg of Wyanet
Notes
Note for: (none) Huss, 8 NOV 1661 - 8 NOV 1661
Stillbirth.
Notes
Note for: Lester Calvin Eckberg, 12 AUG 1924 -
(Undated, about 1943)
Sgt. Irvin Birkey arrived Saturday from Altus, Okla., where he is
stationed at the Altus Army Air Field, to spend a two week furlough with
his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Val Birkey, residing west of Princeton. Cpl.
Lester Eckberg, son of Mr. and Mrs. Olof Eckberg of Wyanet, came Tuesday
of last week on a twelve-day furlough from Camp Grant. Sgt. Birkey and
Cpl. Eckberg are are former high school classmates and graduated with the
class of 1941 from Wyanet high school.
Wyanet Eagle, Thursday August 2, 1979
After 31 Years
LOCAL POSTAL EMPLOYEE HAS SOLD LAST STAMP
By Bob Maney
Lester Eckberg has sold his last stamp, postmarked his last letter and
tied his last bundle.
Eckberg has been a familiar face to Wyanet residents, but last Friday
was his last day at the village post office. "I've been looking forward
to this day since Nov. 9, 1948," he laughed.
Eckberg was a 24-year-old Army veteran working at a gas station when
someone asked him if he'd be interested in working for the postal
service. " I was happy to get the job," he said. "I didn't see any
real future in pumping gas, and although I was raised on a farm, I didn't
consider myself a farmer."
Since then he's watched a lot of changes in the local post office.
When Eckberg started stamps cost three cents and post cards a penny.
Today, it costs 15 cents to mail a letter and 10 cents to send a postcard.
When he became a postman he worked eight hours a day, six days a week,
and two hours on Sunday. However, because of government cutbacks he's
been limited to just 29 hours each two weeks the past five years.
"When I started we had five mail trains going through the village,"
Eckberg said. "Many times the train would run over a mail sack and I've
walked miles chasing after loose mail.
"The one I remember best is when the train ran over a bag of social
security checks. They got caught between the wheels and were scattered
all over the county. Why, I even received one from from Nebraska."
Eckberg said the post office used to get more parcels than it does
now. "We'd get everything from Christmas packages to crates of live
ducks and chickens," he said. "My favorite was a crate of bees that
broke loose in a mail truck. They had to call a beekeeper to remove
them, but they'd gotten into the bags and we had to be real careful
sorting that batch of letters."
The postman says he's probably handled mail from every country except
Communist China.
The assistant-postmaster also remembers a fire in 1966 that destroyed
the old village post office. "We managed to get all the mail out," he
said. "But we lost all our boxes, so we had to give out mail by hand. We
moved into an old furniture store and worked from there until they got
the office built again."
He hopes to travel to Arizona and is thinking about retiring there. He
also thinks he might do some fishing again. "It's been years since I've
had a Saturday off," he said. "I'm not sure I'll know what to do with
myself."
Wherever he goes, he and his wife will be working with birds. The
couple has been raising Purple Martins for 12 years. "My wife came home
with a birdhouse one day and we've been doing it ever since," Eckberg
said. "This year we raised over 100. In the spring its just like taking
care of a bunch of kids. I'm constantly running around putting the
little ones back in their nests."
Eckberg said the birds winter on the headwaters of the Amazon and
they've been leaving for South America a month early this year.
"You don't suppose they're trying to tell us something about next
winter, do you?" he laughed.
Bureau County Republican, Thursday, March 5, 1981
By Making Wind Chimes
HE TURNS SCRAPS INTO BEAUTIFUL SOUNDS
Wyanet--Take some metal tubes, a resin-poured ball, scraps of wire and
aluminum and what do you have? For most of us it would be a pile of
metal and wire. But for Lester Eckberg of Wyanet, it is a
beautifully-toned wind chime.
Now Lester doesn't make those tinny sounding wind chimes you see in all
the dime stores. He makes a giant sized wind chime which weighs 5 1/2
pounds and emits bell-like tones.
Having originally picked up the idea for the chimes in Arizona, Lester
has altered, changed and measured those plans to his own specifications
until he has come up with a product which produces a most pleasing tone
when blowing in the breeze.
The chimes consist of four metal tubes hung from a square of metal at
the top. The 2 5/8 inch resin ball is attached by a rope from the top
and has a tail about a foot long and 10 inches wide which catches the
wind and moves the ball against the tubes, producing the beautiful tones.
In all, he has made 47 of the chimes for family members and friends and
has sent them to a number of states, including Florida, Texas, Arizona,
Montana and Minnesota.
While the making of the chimes sounds pretty simple, Lester says
"there's all kinds of tricks in making them." Each pipe is cut to an
exact length, sanded and smoothed down to a precise point and then each
balanced exactly from the top where they are hung.
He and his wife, Arlene, make the 2 5/8 inch balls, but--this has
offered the most trouble as glass molds must be used and they are just
about impossible to find. The last balls have been made from Christmas
ornaments used as the molds.
The ornaments have to be scraped free of all paint on the outside and
free of all the silver paint on the inside. This is a time-consuming
job, Lester explained.
When the ornaments are completely clean of paint, the catalyst is added
as well as coloring. It takes about three hours before each ball can be
handled and the mold broken away.
Then the tricks begin, Lester says. He explained he has worked out a
way to put a hole through the center of the ball where the rope is
threaded.
The tone of the chimes can be altered by moving the colorful ball
either up or down, but the best tone has been found by Lester at a
particular spot which has to be measured exactly.
The tail, made of a large piece of tin about 12 inches by 10 inches,
carries a hand-punched design or initial which Lester and Arlene have
made from stencils.
This hobby of making the wind chimes and the spring time enjoyment of
raising Purple Martin birds manage to keep both the Eckberg's pretty busy
at their Sunny Knoll home.