Christmas on the Western Front If you've read "(Not) Home for Christmas, Part 1", you've seen this photo, and you also know how Emil and the Augustana bandsmen had spent Christmas of 1917. Christmas, 1918 found Emil "billeted" with the Bougnot family in Doulaincourt, Hte Marne, with Theo Lenz as a roommate. The Armistice had …
So I decided to search "Christmas in Doulaincourt 1918"... At first I was excited to see the name Theodore Lenz in the first result that came up. Hey! Somebody else wrote about Theodore Lenz? This is too cool, I thought. I'm going to learn something more about one of Grandpa Johnson's army buddies. I was …
Grandpa's Book, Part 2 You may remember that at the end of "The Forgotten Bandsmen", I said there were interesting stories about quite a few members of the Augustana Band/123rd Field Artillery. Some of the stories are kind of humorous, like the one about draftee Frank Vasco, who refused to be told when to use …
"Grandpa's Book" Part 1 Most people in my family know that our grandfather, Emil Johnson, was a band corporal during World War 1, and that based on his letters, he was a prolific writer. Perhaps as a result of having been a reporter for the Ludington Daily News as a young man, he most often …
Nana's Whimsical World 