An American Christmas - Kilroy Was Here!

I first posted this piece of “Americana” 2 years ago to great response. It’s the true story behind “Kilroy Was Here”, as well as a story about the Christmas spirit. I hope you enjoy it…
 
“Kilroy Was Here” has been a part of the American vocabulary ever since World War Two. And the story behind it is not often told. In a way, it involves Christmas, so I figured this was a good time to tell the story behind the words.
During the Second World War, when the United States was turning out ships and planes at a rapid rate, "checkers" were required to make the rounds of the shipyards and factories, inspecting the work. When they were done they placed a mark, with chalk, on the item to show that it had passed inspection. The appropriate riveter/welder would then get credit for the work, and hence, paid accordingly.

Soldiers began to see these marks, along with the words "Kilroy Was Here", wherever they went during the war. Wherever they went, they assumed they were the first, only to be greeted by the words that had become a slogan. There were now several Kilroy’s from coast to coast. But only one was the original.

There is even a story about the Potsdam Conference in 1945 which concerns “Kilroy.” A modern outhouse had been built for the exclusive use of Truman, Stalin, and Churchill. The first person to use it was Stalin. When he finished and came out he asked his aide, "Who is this Kilroy?"

At any rate, fast forward a bit to the end of 1946. The Second World War was over and the shipyards were shuttered. James Kilroy was facing a bleak Christmas, with no toys for the kids. That's when he first heard of the search for the real Kilroy!

The photo above, from the Boston American, dated December 23, 1946 shows the Kilroy family with a trolley car in their front yard. They had won the trolley in a radio contest put forth by The Transit Company of America, offering the trolley as a prize to the individual who could prove that they were the "real" Kilroy. Of the forty odd men who made that claim, only James Kilroy was able to produce officials from the shipyard, and even some of his fellow riveters, to prove his claim. Having won the prize, he now had to get it home! And there was a blizzard coming! So, the real story involves how it almost didn't make it on time.

But, with the help of the Transit Company of America, and a local railroad spur, along with a truck and a crane, the trolley was delivered on time, where it served many years as a playhouse for James Kilroy's children. It was a Christmas they would never forget. And that, as Paul Harvey would say, is the rest of the story.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Hope your day is filled with miracles!

 

"Brooklyn Steel - Blood Tenacity" by Frank Trezza

It's unusual for me to review the same book twice. As a matter of fact, this is probably the first time that I have done it. But Mr. Trezza was raised on East 17th Street between Avenue S and T in Brooklyn. I was raised on Avenue R between East 13th and 14th Streets. We both used to eat the Italian bread on the way home from the bakery, while it was still warm and soft. We played in the same streets.

So, you see, I've got to give this book another shout out! It is seemingly short, being less than 200 pages, but packs a wallop that will stay with you even after you have finished reading. It is the story of a young man searching for a vocation and finding it in the shipyards, and later working aboard foreign ships. Mr. Trezza and I have both walked the same streets and made some of the same journeys in our lives. That we should come to meet through this blog fascinates me no end.

The book is at once the story of the early 1970's and making career choices, as well as the story of the implosion of the American shipbuilding trade through the abuses of both the politicians and the Unions themselves. It is also the story of a working man, striving in changing times, to keep pace with it all.

"Brooklyn Steel - Blood, Tenacity" by Frank Trezza

One of the best things about writing a blog are the e-mails you get from people you would ordinarily never meet. They can range from the famous, such as Tommy Chong or Olivia DeHavilland, to some contemporary authors and my main stock in trade, the ordinary reader. And all are of equal interest to me. I love the feedback. So, when I got an e-mail about the Brooklyn Navy Yard from Frank Trezza, I was immediately interested in what he had to say.

Mr. Trezza is the author of the book "Brooklyn Steel - Blood, Tenacity" which deals with the Brooklyn Navy Yard and it's struggle to survive the turbulent decades of the 1960's through the last days of the 20th Century. These are the decades in which shipbuilding took many great blows in an industry that harkens back to Colonial Days, when American made wooden ships plied the waters of the world, forging our new nation into a global trading partner.

At the end of the Second World War, there was no "bigger dog on the block" than the United States. We had just saved the world from a couple of brutal dictators and established Democracy in corners of the earth where it had never existed before.

In New York, at the 23rd Street Pier, sat the SS John Brown, a World War Two Liberty ship that served as a Maritime High School. My father graduated from her in 1948. Mr. Trezza would graduate from the same ship in 1971, as a Marine Electrician, intending, as did my father, to go to sea. Unexpected circumstances diverted them both from their courses.

In the case of my father, it was love which intervened. Having met my mother the year before he graduated from the Brown, he had a decided change of heart concerning leaving my mother alone. And she would not marry him if he went to sea. So that was out. In Mr. Trezza's case it was economics which kept him from shipping out. By the time that he had graduated from the Brown, American shipping had declined drastically, as it would through the 1980's. Shipbuilding was still an option, so Mr. Trezza took a job as an Electrical Engineer at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The two main employers for shipbuilding there were Coastal Drydock, which handled the refit of my ship, the USS Milwaukee, and Seatrain, the company which hired Mr. Trezza.

The author recounts the days of working there in great detail. While recalling the constant safety violations, lack of proper equipment, Union goons who track the "bathroom" breaks of the employees, hazardous working conditions and local politics, Mr. Tezza has also written a vivid account of what it is like to raise a family while working under such harsh conditions.

In the effort to gain work at competitive prices, all pretense of safety and accountability are thrown to the wind by the shipbuilders, as well as the Unions, who are determined to keep the jobs in place that ensure the easy flow of Union Dues to the fat cats who sit at the top of the pyramid. As a former memeber of the National Maritime Union, I can identify with the frustation that comes with the realization that you have been paying dues to the very people who are doing their level best to forfeit your job.

By the time I entered the dry dock in the Brooklyn Navy Yard for repairs in 1980, I was already familiar with the grounds, having been there with my father during the 1960’s. He was like that, taking the odd drive and showing my brother and I the different aspects of the city. We roamed the Fulton Fish Market, which at the time was completely worn down and decrepit. We wandered Battery Park when the remains of the old Castle garden were still there, and rode the Staten Island Ferry, climbed the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. But nothing captured me like the aura of history surrounding the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

From 1801- 1966 this was the place where many of the great ships had been repaired prior to returning to sea duty. It was also the birthplace of countless other vessels, among them the hundreds of "Liberty Ships" that helped to win the Second World War. Located in Wallabout Bay, opposite lower Manhattan, this was where the Battle of Brooklyn was fought. The bay was where the British held Yankee prisoners aboard “prison hulks”, ships that were derelict and filled with rats and vermin. Most of the prisoners never left the “hulks” alive.

Mr. Trezza has a wonderful site for this book that deals more closely with the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Coastal Drydock, as well as Seatrain's history of their time in the Yards. This is the link;

http://brooklynsteel-bloodtenacity.com/default.aspx

In addition, he has posted 20 years worth of photos from the last 2 decades of shipbuilding at the Navy yard. This is the link to those photos;

http://www.brooklynhistory.org/library/search.html

Be sure to reference the Brooklyn Historical Society-Seatrain Collection. Mr. Trezza is currently working to establish a Museum, within the Navy Yard, that will showcase our skills,and history as Americans, of building ships; as well as to cast light upon the political weaknesses and calculated business moves, that came to desroy a once thriving industry. His story is a fascinating tale about one man's struggle to deal with it all, while still putting food on the family table.