"MY DAD"

by Robert Stebbins, guest writer

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WWII: WE WILL NEVER FORGET OUR MEN

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My Dad and I

Calvin and Family

My dad, Calvin Stebbins, was born in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 1904. He finished the 10th grade, dropped out of school, and went to work helping cook on a railroad work gang that laid and repaired railroad tracks throughout the area. During the early 1920's, he traveled to Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he went to work as a cashier at a Child's Cafeteria. a large restaurant chain.

In 1927, Mr. and Mrs. W.F. Swartz, his uncle and aunt, offered him a job at the Clovis Steam Laundry in Clovis, New Mexico, which he accepted. The Swartz's had traveled from Pennsylvania to New Mexico by covered wagon in about 1907 or 1908 and established the laundry at the corner of First and Main Streets in Clovis. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway had begun passenger service through Clovis in 1907, and the Swartz's apparently recognized and capitalized on the opportunity to service the Santa Fe's Harvey House restaurants, the railroad's Pullman linens, and to wash the railroader workers' oily and greasy coveralls in steamy hot water. Opportunity knocked, and they seized the moment. My dad learned the trade, working in the washroom, repairing steam pipes, and also delivering laundry by truck throughout Southeastern New Mexico, to restaurants, motels, hospitals, and the railroad until 1939.

In 1939, my dad and his cousin, Jay Lynn Swartz, joined together to establish the Snow White Bakery located on the south side of the 300 block of Seventh Street, adjacent to the alley, and also adjacent to the present site of the Magic Steam Laundry. Somewhere they had obtained individual animated figures about a foot high of Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, which they placed in the front window of the bakery. It became quite an attraction, magnified by the popularity of the movie which had been released about that time. The glazed doughnuts and jelly-rolls were delicious, and I had free access. This became my first test of willpower. But, the bakery business, like the laundry business, was hard work and required long late night and early morning hours, and frequently work on weekends. To succeed meant to work hard.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and World War II began. The bakery continued to operate until my dad volunteered for the U.S. Army and was sworn in at 37 years of age as a private at Santa Fe on April 13, 1942. If I recall correctly, his beginning pay was $21.00 per month. His cousin, Jay Lynn, joined the U.S. Navy at about the same time. A couple of years ago, I discovered that I could access via the internet my dad's enlistment records which are stored in the U.S. National Archives. As it had already been arranged that I would go to Ohio and live with my dad's sister while he was in the army, he swore at his enlistment that he had no family members dependent upon him. As my mother had passed away in 1938, this "little white lie" enabled him to volunteer. Otherwise, he would not have been allowed to enlist as I was an only child and the only immediate surviving family member.

He was sent to basic training in Texas, and in early May of 1942, he was put on a troop train destined for Seattle, Washington. While the train was stopped for water or coal for the steam locomotive at a station south of Clovis, my dad and a lot of other soldiers got off of the train to stretch their legs a little. On the train platform, an old railroader recognized my dad and was surprised to see him there in uniform. My dad told him that he had enlisted, finished a couple of weeks of basic training, and was on his way. The railroader asked him where they were headed, and my dad said that the final destination was secret. However, the railroader knew my dad was from Clovis, and knew if the train continued on that track that they were going through Clovis. He asked my dad if his family knew that the train was coming through, and my dad said no. So, the railroader said that he would telephone the family.

On Sunday morning, Mr. and Mrs. Swartz and I were called out of church. Mrs. Swartz had a couple of hours to bake a couple of apple pies to take down to the train. My guess is that the train had been stopped at Vaughn which is a couple hours south of Clovis. We were able to meet the train at the Clovis depot, much to the distress of the accompanying lieutenant who wondered how these civilians had found out that this "secret train movement" was coming through.

Two years, eight months, and nine days after his enlistment, and after two years without leave on Umnak Island, Alaska in the Aleutians, my dad received his honorable discharge and returned to Clovis to pick up where he left off. He went back to work at the Clovis Steam Laundry and continued there until he and his brother, John Stebbins, bought the Magic Steam Laundry on Grand Avenue from Mil's dad in August of 1945. So, in addition to being fellow graduates of the Clovis High School class of 1951, Mil and I have a laundry connection which goes way, way back.

Calvin Stebbins

Top: Sharpshooter's Medal---Rifle
On left: Good Conduct Medal 

On Right: "Asia-Pacific" Medal with Battle Stars

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For Mil's Place

by Robert Stebbins, guest writer

CHS, class of '51