A Letter from the Past - November 12, 1918

The following excerpt is from a letter that was written the day after the armistice
ended World War 1, from my paternal grandmother (Alice Lorena Bates) who was
away at Alabama Women’s College to her mother (Alice Alia Cosby Bates). It was
during the Spanish Flu epidemic, and was written on Lorena’s 17th birthday.

Dear Mama,
I want to thank you for the nice letter you wrote me and the box you sent me. I
appreciate the things you said about me; I don’t deserve them but will try to make the
fine woman you want me to be.
Did the schools in Centreville have a holiday Monday? We did, and the people in
Montgomery did (you see we think of ourselves as apart from them - we haven’t been
with them in so long). I will also say here that the quarantine has not been raised this
week as we thought, for there is reported to be a fresh epidemic over the state. You may
be assured that I will let you know as soon as it is raised. But to return to our holiday -
Dr. Swartz stayed in town all night Sunday night, and altho he got the news [of the war’s
end] at 2:00 o’clock would not allow us to be awakened until 5:40. When they heard it
lots of the girls put on bathrobes, got a drum and went marching around singing and
yelling. I didn’t join them until I dressed, which was about 7:45. We marched around and
finally into the dining room where we sang and yelled some more before we ate
breakfast. After breakfast we had a short Thanksgiving service in the chapel. Just after
that the aeroplanes passed over – I think there must have been all of them from Taylor
Field - going to the city to drop flowers on the capitol building and grounds. The people
of Montgomery sent the flowers out to Taylor Field, and when the aviators dropped them,
stacked them around the flagpole and columns of the capitol. They certainly were
beautiful. And now I guess you are wondering how I saw them. We were going to town
in the morning but the state health officer phoned Dr. S. not to bring us, but he was so
anxious for us to go he went to town and got some trucks to carry us. We didn’t eat a bit
of dinner; nobody went to the dining room. It took us some time to get loaded in the
trucks. Dr. S. couldn’t get enough trucks and a few of the girls went in taxis. I was lucky
enough to get in a truck, or ‘bus I think would be a better name for it. They carried us to
town and rode us around for two hours or more. We were not allowed to get out of the
trucks - there were 35 or 40 girls on ours - but we could see everybody and everything
going on.
The capital grounds were covered with people and the streets were jammed. Almost
every car we passed had old tin cans, buckets, or pans tied on behind and rattling merrily.
Many people had on red-white-and-blue hats, and I never saw the like of flags, bells,
horns - anything to make racket in my life. We saw other trucks full of people celebrating
- they were always making racket. We couldn’t get out and buy anything to make racket
so we had to make it with our throat - singing and yelling. I didn’t have much voice when
I got back, for you know I yell myself almost silly when I get excited. Firecrackers were
shooting everywhere. Some were thrown on top of our ‘bus, under it, beside it, and one
“audacious youth’ threw one inside - but it had already been exploded. Dr. S. and the
drivers had a time keeping boys, especially soldiers, off the running boards of the trucks.
We enjoyed it very much and were sorry to get back here at 4 o’clock, but were glad to
get something to eat at 4:30. At 9 o’clock they had a bonfire on the campus and also had
some stunts.

Do you think Leontz can get home by Christmas? Won’t it be just splendid if he can? I
feel sure that Lomax can. We had a beautiful service in chapel this morning. Miss Rohrer,
head of the voice department, sang When the Boys Come Home. Miss Ferguson, head of
the expressions department, read Your Flag and My Flag, and The Service Flag, and Dr.
S. made a splendid talk. Usually chapel service lasts only 1/2 hour but it lasted an hour
this morning.

Bernard said in his letter that when the rumor came last week that the war was
over there was the “proudest bunch of girls and the saddest bunch of boys you ever
saw” at Meridian and when they heard it wasn’t so the next day “it was just the
reverse”. Walter was fuming because the war seemed to be nearly over and he wasn’t
in France. And I suspect the boys in the training camps are about as disappointed as
anybody you can find.

With lots of love for all, Lorena.