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A Season Of Spirit

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By GARY R. MORMINO

Tribune correspondent

Published: December 21, 2008

Christmas 1941 was special. The 18 days between Pearl Harbor and Dec. 25 marked a time of tenderness and coarseness, hope and anxiety.

Readers of the Christmas issue of the Tampa Daily Times opened their afternoon paper to a seemingly timeless holiday photograph: children in pajamas waiting to unwrap presents at their grandma's home. But 1941 was no ordinary time.

Under the caption "Where Will the Army Take Daddy by Next Christmas?" the photograph showed two boys under a Christmas tree. The children are sitting next to a photograph of their father, Lt. Brown Boykin. One boy is holding an American flag.

Four years later, John Timothy Boykin and Robert Lee Boykin welcomed home their father, Capt. Brown Boykin. He had served with the Florida National Guard as an artillery officer in the Pacific.

In 1949, the Boykins left Tampa for Evergreen, Ala. Brown sold jewelry as a traveling salesman. He died in 1980.
John Timothy Boykin now lives in Leeds, Ala., having retired from the military's special forces. His brother also served in the Army and lives in Colorado Springs, Colo. The Boykin brothers had never seen the photograph.

The late Willie Garcia was a wonderful storyteller. Ten years old in 1941, he recalled hearing President Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" address while a student at A.L. Cuesta School.

"I cried like hell," he remembered. His brother Max had been drafted.

Willie's father, Manuel, operated the popular Atlanta Restaurant in West Tampa. Willie remembered the establishment crowded with nervous war workers from the Cuesta-Rey cigar factory across the street.

One of the casualties of war was a bottomless cafe con leche, lavished with spoonfuls of sugar, a necessity cherished by Tampenos and tabaqueros. Rationing severely limited the consumption of coffee and sugar. Willie recounted his father's creative solution to the Cuban coffee crisis:

"My father supplied coffee to Cuesta-Rey's 400 to 500 workers three times a day. He was allotted a certain amount of coffee and sugar each month. By the end of the month, we would run low on sugar and coffee. One day, he announced, 'The cafe is not going to be as sweet.' So the workers brought in their ration coupons so my dad could supply sugar and coffee 'for the duration.'"

Sugar may have been in short supply in 1941, but patriotism wasn't. Bradenton received a much-needed boost in morale when C.B. Watson enlisted in the Navy. Watson, 47, was the father of C.B. Watson Jr., who had died at Pearl Harbor.

Even Santa Claus got into the American spirit. In Bradenton, Santa canceled his 1941 plans to visit children in the hospital after discovering that his stylish red suit was made in Japan.

The Bradenton Herald explained, "Santa, being a real patriot will forgo the pleasure of his hospital visit."

Gary R. Mormino is co-director of the Florida Studies Program at USF St. Petersburg. He invites your letters and stories. Reach him by e-mail at gmormino@stpt.usf.edu or in care of the Florida Studies Program, Snell House, 140 Seventh Ave. S., St. Petersb

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