Farmers Traveling Abroad, Again

test

October 4, 1960 postcard: “Going to flight on Bus, then fly Cairo” H. M. Lorang, Genesee, Idaho, U.S.A October 10, 1960 postcard: “To Miss Vidi (Viola) Lorang, 621 1st Ave West Seattle 99, WA USA from Jerusalem, Jordan Dear Vidi, After 3 days here, we’re moving on to Beirut then to Istanbul & on the way home again. We have really seen some thing that I’ve dreamed of since Dad and Ma were here 50 years ago. -Henry”

In 1918, during WWI, Henry Lorang had damaged his lungs while working in a 90 degree room as he was coating the fabric wings of “aeroplanes” with stiffeners called “dope”. In WWI the Army had supplied all soldiers on base with gallons of milk to counteract the damage done to their lungs, but it didn’t help. Henry had to periodically enter the hospital for the rest of his life with several health problems and he never knew when this would happen. Well, it happened again, in Beirut. Henry had been trying to follow his parents’ footsteps into Lebanon, but when he arrived, he took sick. He was brought into the Beirut Hospital and there was a furor. It was a fear that Henry must have Typhoid fever and he was immediately quarantined. Henry was stuck until his son-in-law Stan Sturgill, Joan’s husband, claimed Henry as a dependent in order to move him out of Beirut.

OFFICE OF THE U.S. ARMY ATTACHE AMERICAN EMBASSY

Beirut, Lebanon 26 October 1960 250/6 ITO

Subject: Invitational Travel Orders TO: Mr. Henry Lorang Dependent father-in-law of Capt. Stanley L. Sturgill 1 7879A, USAF 7405 Supp. Sq. Wiesbaden, Germany

1. You are authorized and invited to proceed from Beirut, Lebanon to Ankara, Turkey on or about 26 October 1960. 2 .Travel by United States Military Aircraft is authorized. 3. The government of the United States absolves itself from any blame or financial responsibility for injuries received by the individual listed herein while in transit and any responsibility for personal or property damage. 4. Authority: USAFE Msg SGHP 168443, dated 24 Oct 60.

EARL W. EDWARDS Colonel, GS

~US Army Attache’~

But it still wasn’t over. While Henry was evacuating the hospital in Lebanon on a plane to Germany, the rumor got out that a man with Typhoid fever was flying into the country. The furor finally calmed down after Henry was tested negative as soon as he landed in Germany. Even yet, Henry had an amazing experience again after returning to Germany and staying to tour the country. He and his daughter Mae accidently stumbled upon relatives who had written him for help after WWII. Henry Lorang had received their desperate-

-letters in 1946 and was in the hospital; not able to help at all. Fortunately, these German families did receive Care packages from the States and they were able to survive and reestablish their villages. Here it is in Henry’s words:

“Wiesbaden Airbase Feb 27, 1961 Dear Son, ……... For the past week is has been just like spring and in fact it is spring here. Pussy willows have been on sale, jonquils and daisies are in bloom everywhere and the trees and shrubs are ready to leaf out while the birds indigenous to this area are busily engaged in making their nests. Of course one bird that I miss is the Meadowlark and its throaty spring song. and also the Robin as we know it. There is a bird here that has all of the features of our robin except the red-breast and it hops around & seems to listen at the ground for angle-worms and the locals call it “eine Robbie”.

In the summer of 1959 it was so dry that their crops were really suffering and all crops were short including the grape crop. However this shortage of grapes didn’t reduce that income too much since the wine brought money times more than that which was made from the grapes grown in a wet year. ………The best wines in all of Germany is produced from grapes grown on the lands that drain into the Mosel-river since they don’t have as much rain as they do in the Rhine Valley, and the very best ever produced since they have any record, were made in 1947-1953 and 1959 with the “1949er” in the lead.

Last August Mae and I drove in her M.G. to Trier and visited in the area where my grandparents came from…Mae & I were really in luck as we drove into the small town because it is a problem to find any place by trying to follow directions from an address but as we were driving along, we saw four or five men at work excavating a plot in preparation to put up a new building for their winery establishment. I asked Mae to pull over to the side of the street and stop and I got out with one of the 1946 letters you had sent me and I asked if they knew a family named “Widowfrau Weber-Orth” and they were really amazed to hear an American ask any such a question. They looked at one-another and said “Ya hier” and then I showed them the letter that I had received and the photos that my dad had given them 50 years ago, and they called to a ruddy-faced old lady who was sitting at an upstairs window and looking down at us and Josef Krauss said “Mutter (his mother-in-law) hier ist Herr Lorang von Amerika” and we all went to the house and I showed the letter to “Mutter” that she had written to me during WWII telling me of the hard times they were having since her husband had been killed in the war. At the time I got the letter, I too was having difficult times and was really too depressed to even answer her letter, let alone sending any money. I explained to them the reason I did not write at the time and that as time went on I considered the futility of answering at all because in a letter that I could write in German it would be difficult to make them understand. Needless to say they harbored no ill feeling and we were really welcomed by everyone and they stopped their work and all joined in celebrating the event. They showed us their home – it was lovely and they took us through their winery which was all run by machinery and they had large vats full of green bottles all washed and ready to be sterilized in preparation for bottling whenever that time came.

I said green bottles since all “Mozelle” is bottled while the Rhine wineries use brown bottles…They can justly be proud of their product, that rare “Moselle”, as well as their family… As to the Genesee News that you sent I’ll have to leave them here because they’ll make overweight in my bagge at 80 cents per #. But if you want ‘em I’ll mail ‘em back for Rita sent me important clippings before. Love Dad”

For further adventures of the Lorang family at the White Spring Ranch in Genesee, Idaho, stay tuned to the next Home & Harvest issue and have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Christmas and Holiday Season.

A L I T T L E C R A M P E D A T G R A N D M A ' S H O U S E ? W E ' V E G O T A R O O M F O R Y O U A T T H E H O L I D A Y I N N E X P R E S S I N P U L L M A N !

+ Tax *Valid November 20th, 2021$85 to 1190 SE Bishop Blv (509) 334-4437 J d a , n P u u a ll ry m 7t an h, 2022*

Not valid with any other offer