vintageads | Christmas Travel is Unpatriotic, 1943 (Reply)

"We are not coming to visit you this Christmas because Dad says it would be unpatriotick.

"He has to travel some, you know, on account of his war business. So he knows what it's like on trains. They are so crowded now, he says, that we wouldn't have near as much fun traveling as we used to. Besides, we would be taking up room that other folks need lots worse than we do,

"I see what he means by that because if my brother Tom was in training camp instead of on some island I can't spell -- and if he could get a furlow-- I'd hate to think some 12 year old like me was doing him out of a place to sleep on his way home.

"Or, if Dad has to go to the munishuns plant again during the hollidays, like he says he might, it wouldn't be fair for someone just going to their Grandmother's to have got Pullman beds and maybe none left for him -- so he would have to sit up all night and get there too tired out to do a good job.

"So I have just rapped up your present to mail and you will get it and this letter instead of me on Christmas.

"Incidentally, my present from Dad is going to be the best ever and I already know what it is. He figured out what the whole train trip would cost -- Pullmans and everything -- and is taking that money to buy me and mom and him each a whopper of a War Bond!

"Isn't that keen? Won't I be proud? Bet you it's a bigger one than any of the other kids have got!

"Well, Grandma, I must close now, so lots of love and Merry Christmas and Sport just licked my ear to say the same for him."

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With thousands of servicemen on furlough added to the 20,000 who go Pullman on mass troop movements every night, trains will be doubly crowded. So it is doubly important to ask yourself: "Is my trip necessary?"

If it is, try to go Pullman, by all means, for you'll not only get the sleep going you need to keep going at your essential job, but you'll leave coach space for those who can't afford the privacy and comfort you'll enjoy.

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