VA Medical Center hosts Homefront!

It was a time when the price of a daily newspaper was only 3 cents, a loaf of bread was 15 cents, and the songs "White Christmas" and "On the Sentimental Side" were popular musical renditions. The film classic Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart would win the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture in 1943. And it's a time that can be recaptured, if only briefly, at the USO! Saturday, September 15th, SDPB hosted a mini-USO show in the auditorium of the VA Medical Center in Sioux Falls. The event was attended by over 100 people, and the VA used its closed-circuit system to feed the show to all of the rooms in the hospital complex. Click on the link to watch the show we presented. (more)

The show included the Sioux Falls Big Band, directed by Mark Isackson, which played a number of songs from the 1940's. After a rendition of "Thanks for the Memories," our own "Bob Hope," lovingly portrayed by Professor Charles Thatcher, took the stage with his homage to Old Ski Nose. We were entertained by dancers from the Sioux Falls chapter of USA Dance, and a musical rendition by Doc Walker. The evening included laughs and good memories. Afterward, John Fiksdal, Past President of the South Dakota Humanities Foundation, spoke about the publication of their book On the Homefront: South Dakota Stories. We were also joined by Vernon Brown, Marketing and Member Relations Manager for SDN Communications, which underwrites SDPB's airing of THE WAR, along with Black Hills Power.

Earlier in the day fourteen veteran and homefront stories were collected. Because the VA Medical Center was hosting a reunion of POW's the same weekend, many of the stories collected are poignant retellings of the experiences of men who served out their duties from behind bars. The stories of their captivity were harrowing, and at the same time life-affirming. Among the activities the former POW's experienced during the weekend was the TRACES Bus-eum. TRACES is a non-profit educational organization created to gather, preserve and present stories of people from the Midwest and Germany or Austria who encountered each other during World War II. The Bus-eum is a traveling exhibit which contains accounts of prisoners held in camps across Germany and the European Theatre of War. Learn more about it here: (more)

A special thanks to Shirley Redmond, Public Information Officer, and Matt Schwartz, for his technical assistance during the USO show and screening. SDPB was made to feel welcome, and we appreciate the quality medical care and information that they provide to our veterans. We are also in debt to the hard work of the Sioux Falls Big Band, the dancers from the Sioux Falls chapter of USA Dance, led by Mary Lou Steib, to Doc Walker for his vocal rendition of "Like Someone in Love," and Professor Charles M. Thatcher, of the USD School of Law, portraying Bob "Army Camp" Hope.