City of Dreams | Memorial Day Weekend | Hoboken’s WWI Rock
City of Dreams is a song that came out in the summer of ‘13. I figured after annotating a ton of lyrics yesterday, it’d be best to just go with some nice house music. Honestly, there is no real connection between this song and Memorial Day Weekend. This weekend kicks off the summer and it feels acceptable to introduce some house music to the 15-second reels.
Memorial Day Weekend
According to the Congressional Research Service, Memorial Day is a day of reflection and remembrance of those who died while serving in the U.S. military. The holiday’s origins date back to the American Civil War when combined more than 600,000 men on both the Union and Confederate sides. Originally the idea behind a day of remembrance for fallen soldiers was called Decoration Day, which was first celebrated on May 30, 1868. This time of year was picked on purpose so that all over the country flowers were in bloom for the graves of soldiers. There seems to be a weird controversy over who and where first created Decoration Day, a bunch of different states and cities make the claim but Charleston, South Carolina might have the best case.
When the Confederate army lost Charleston, Union soldiers that were held prisoners were buried together in mass graves. One of the first things that newly emancipated slaves did was dig up the 250+ prisoners and bury them individually. Next, over 10,000 freed slaves then held a parade to thank the Union Soldiers for their service and named them “Martyrs of the Race Course.”
If on Memorial Day Weekend the first thing you think about isn’t remembrance and honor, that this isn’t something new. Americans have been bar-be-queuing and partying the last weekend of May well before BBQ grills were a thing. As early as 1869, The New York Times wrote that the holiday could become “sacrilegious” and no longer “sacred” if it focuses more on pomp, dinners, and oratory. Fredrick Douglas feared, “We must never forget that the loyal soldiers who rest beneath this sod flung themselves between the nation and the nation’s destroyers.” In 1972, Time Magazine said the holiday had become “a three-day nationwide hootenanny that seems to have lost much of its original purpose.(Source: PBS)
While it for sure is a big party weekend, one of which I’ve done my share of partying, here is just a piece of Stumblin’ Along for Memorial Day ‘23…
Hoboken’s WWI Rock
In US history, World War I typically gets glossed over. The United States didn’t get involved until the tail end of the war. We also didn’t get attacked on US soil like Pearl Harbor, the only threat the United States faced was the Zimmermann telegram from Germany that asked Mexico to invade & reclaim Texas, plus a few German U-Boats sunk American passenger ships. I’ll save the whole Archduke Ferdinand and Trench Warfare pieces for a later date. Hoboken, New Jersey was the Port of Embarkation for World War I so we’ll focus on that.
In 1910, Mile Square City was a German town home to a population of 70,324, and 10,018 of them were German-born. At the start of the war, Germany was still trading with the US and even docked the Hamburg-American liner “Vaterland”, the largest ship in the world at the time which weighed 58,000 tons. Britain eventually would take control of the Atlantic Ocean, putting a blockade over Hoboken and New York City ports, so the Vaterland would eventually be painted over in camouflage and renamed USS Leviathan. The US would end up using a German ship against them, sending over 120,000 American soldiers to Europe, talk about cutthroat. That said, what does kind of stink is that a ton of German Americans during this time faced some unfair treatment based on where they were from. Dock and shipyard workers were fired by the thousands as German, Austrian, and Hungarian workers, including American citizens, lost their jobs. There was even a federal order that prohibited “enemy aliens” from living, working, or traveling within one hundred yards of docks, piers, and waterfronts causing thousands of evictions on Hudson and River Streets. Every German-born or child of German immigrants was required by the US to register as an “enemy alien”, there were roughly 500,000 of German American citizens. As a result, by the end of World War I, Hoboken was no longer considered a German American town as many fled the militarized city. (Source: Hoboken Historical Museum)
WWI American Soldiers were known as “doughboys.” The nickname had a different connotation than what we think today, the American soldiers were not in fact slanging drugs and the Pillsbury Doughboy didn’t start appearing in commercials until 1965. While the origins of the name aren’t exact, the History Channel gives two cases: 1) in the Mexican War of 1846-48, American infantrymen made long treks over dusty terrain, giving them the appearance of being covered in flour, or dough 2) be traced to Continental Army soldiers who kept the piping on their uniforms white through the application of clay. When the troops got rained on the clay on their uniforms turned into “doughy blobs,” supposedly leading to the doughboy moniker. (Source: History Channel) Great nickname if you ask me compared to the French who were known in WWI as “poilu” (“hairy one”) because of their mustaches and beards. The British also had a solid nickname, “Tommy”, not because of Tommy Shelby, but as an abbreviation of Tommy Atkins, a generic name (along the lines of John Doe) used on government forms.
One of the first moves the United States made after declaring war on Germany on April 6, 1917, was seizing and converting German-owned shipping piers of Hoboken into the port of embarkation for the U.S. Expeditionary Forces. Roughly two months after the US declared war on Germany, the first convoy set sail from Hoboken to Europe on June 14, 1917. Hoboken drew a bit of national fame for being the port of embarkation, although I do not think the rent skyrocketed. US General John J. Pershing famously promised the soldiers, that by Christmas of 1917, the Doughboys would see “Heaven, Hell, or Hoboken.” All in all, Hoboken was the beginning of 936 voyages to Europe and over 2 million Doughboy Americans passed through Mile Square City between the spring of 1917 and the fall of 1918. Another little-known fact is that Prohibition actually began a bit earlier in Hoboken, New Jersey, as all the soldiers who had begun to make up most of the population were prohibited to drink. Apparently, the Army successfully shut down all but 60 of the city’s 338 saloons in the City. (Source: World War I Centennial) Google says that Hoboken has about 120 bars today, which I think might be an overestimation, but with 338 spots to get a Pint, wow I might not have had to leave Hoboken to do #GuinnessChallengeSeason.
Hoboken wasn’t just about the Doughboys in WWI, women also were affected by Mile Square City unofficially being turned into a military base. One negative effect was the women found walking the streets after dark faced arrest for prostitution. (Source: Hoboken Historical Museum) Obviously, this was an extreme measure. At least during the day, some positive effects of WWI in Hoboken for women occurred. Women in the Salvation Army were known as Lassies and some would even join the men on their trip to Europe where they would be given another nickname “Doughnut Girls.” Doughnut Girls would bake apple pies and donuts for the Doughboy on the front lines. Stella Young, the young lady pictured above, became the poster girl of the Doughnut Girls and even had a song written after called “My Doughnut Girl.” It was written in 1919 by composer Robert Bertrand Brown and lyricist Elmore Leffingwell, with Stella Young being graced on the cover of the sheet music. As a doughnut girl, Stella was committed to doing her part to provide a touch of home and comfort to the soldiers. Often, this meant doing so in the midst of shelling and with the horrifying results of war within earshot and plain sight. On one occasion, while she was mixing a batch of doughnut batter, a shell exploded sending shrapnel into the shelter. Stella had just gone to get some sugar when a piece of shrapnel landed in the frying pan near where she was just working. She kept that piece of shrapnel as a souvenir for the rest of her life. (Source: Everett Independent) Unfortunately, @Zuck doesn’t have that on his Instagram playlist so I couldn’t use it as the 15-Second Reel. Women Also played a key role in operating early 1900s phone lines during the war. They were nicknamed “Hello Girls.” As I mentioned before, the largest ship that was German turned American, women were responsible Leviathan for painting it camouflaged. (Source: Unwritten Record)
After armistice was declared on November 11, 1918, Hoboken then became the spot of celebration and mourning in the US. The Doughboys started making it back to Hoboken on December 2, 1918. General Pershing wouldn’t make it back to Mile Square City until September 8, 1919, and the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, so the President at the time, Woodrow Wilson, didn’t dock back in Hoboken until July 8, 1919. He was met with celebration when Wilson paraded down Washington Street in a car wearing a tophat. Lastly, the bodies of the fallen soldiers of the first world war started coming home on November 13, 1919. Over 50,000 Americans died in combat, and thousands died from disease, the main being the Spanish Flu that they brought back with them. After we’ve all just been through one Global Pandemic, I don’t think we need to really touch base on that today. On May 24, 1921, Warren G. Harding came to Hoboken to hold a ceremony for the dead.
To wrap this Stumblin Along on Memorial Day Weekend up, I just have to say that it is pretty badass that a Rock with a plaque is used as a symbol for the Port of Embarkation of World War I as it relates to the United States. “Heaven, Hell, or Hoboken” also is a tough saying. Both the symbol and the saying were simple but cut straight to the point. Admittedly, for someone who in years past didn’t really do much reflecting of Remembrance and Honor all that much on Memorial Days in the past, it’s pretty cool to feel obligated to do a bit of research to learn about Doughboys, Donut Girls, Hello Girls, and the people who make this a National Holiday. @YouTheReader I hope you enjoyed the read on the World War that gets glossed over and wishing you a Happy & Safe Memorial Day Weekend!