November 28, 1942 The Thanksgiving Road Trip, The Submarines, Plymouth Rock and The Cranberries

Dear Mother & Daddy,

"Yesterday we got up and left town about 6:20.  We drove to New London and that's where the Electric Boat Co. is, where submarines are made.  The harbor there is supposed to be one of the best and that is where most of the sailors and marines are stationed.  The bridge goes right over the harbor so we saw some of the submarines going out to sea.  They are real narrow and long and remind you of an eel or snake in the water.  The harbor is protected by mines and we could see the string of mines across the water.  There is a place in the center just wide enough for ships to go through.  This open place is guarded every night by a big ship.  Two German subs tried to get into the harbor last year but were captured and these are anchored in the harbor but are hidden between some docks so you can't see them.  There were a lot of other boats anchored there--small gray camouflaged boats and mother boats (the ones which carry food and supplies out to the submarines.)

From New London we went to Plymouth Mass. and to get there we had to cross the whole state of Rhode Island.  Rhode Island is awfully rocky but it's pretty.  Laurel is the Conn. state flower and this is quite thick in Conn. and Rhode Island.  It's a low evergreen bush and has big pink blossoms in the spring, they say.  The leaves are long and waxy and deep green.  It's against the law in Conn. to cut one because they have been on the decline in recent years.

Plymouth was certainly an interesting place.  Of course it's right on the ocean because that's where the first settlers landed in 1620.  Plymouth Rock is still in the same place it was at that time.  It has been moved but in 1920 (I think it was) they moved it back to the original place.  It was cracked in the moving, but has been mended with cement.  It is just a big smooth boulder with 1620 carved into the top.  A lot of the houses had signs on them saying that on that spot was built the first or second house in the colony and was assigned to certain people.  High on a hill, overlooking the city and Cape Cod bay is a big statue dedicated to the first colonists and the names of the people who came over on the Mayflower are inscribed on it.  It seems so amazing that we walked in the same places and ate our Thanksgiving dinner in the same place that the Pilgrims did so long ago.

You've always heard of Cape Cod cranberries.  All along the bay were cranberry plantations.  They were marshy fields blocked off in squares about the size of your house or smaller with trenches of water running between.  The plants are real tiny and a deep wine color.  Cranberries here are about .19 a quart.  What are they there?

On our way back we stopped in a small town and asked a cop the way to a certain highway.  He laughed and said, "You're from Missouri; got to be shown, huh?"

I must stop because I have about 6 or 8 more letters to answer.  I'll write again next week, probably not Sunday though.  Write soon."

                   Lots of love,

                            B & Bonnie

Enjoy the Great Gildersleeve's Thanksgiving message... Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!