HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2011-11-10, Page 13THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2011. PAGE 13. Book celebrates local’s military letters home
Cook passes passion
to grandchildren
While writer and high school
teacher John Weber’s first love is
fiction, it was a raw and honest non-
fiction compilation that has brought
him his greatest literary success to
date.
Letters Home is a compilation of
letters written by Weber’s late uncle
Warrant Officer Class 1 Willis
Machan of Brussels who died on
Dec. 21, 1943 at the tender age of
21. While Weber has gone on to sell
nearly 500 copies of the book, it had
rather humble beginnings when
Weber initiated work on the project
as a gift to his mother.
Shortly after completing his first
work of fiction, Weber visited his
mother and discovered a cedar chest
full of letters from Machan through
his time training with the Canadian
Armed Forces.
“There were close to 150 letters in
that chest,” Weber says. “I thought
somebody should type these letters
up and preserve them and as soon as
I said those words, I knew it was
going to be me.”
At his home in Orillia, Weber then
spent an entire winter converting the
letters to digital memory as a gift to
his mother and her two sisters.
However, the more he typed, the
more he realized that a “great piece
of history” was unfolding at his
fingertips with every letter he
read.
“I thought the letters were really
great,” Weber said. “They are a real
time capsule of that era.”
The first thing that struck Weber as
he worked through Machan’s letters
was the difference between a young
man in the 1940s and now.
Weber, who is a high school
teacher, says he sees 17- and 18-
year-old men on a daily basis and
their activities and interests are a lot
different than men that age in the
1940s.
“Back then young people were
concerned about church, agriculture,
politics, the farm, the economy,”
Weber said, “they just had a realsense of community.“They didn’t sit in their parents’basement and play video games.”
In addition to a difference in
attitude and activities, Weber says
many young men would typically
drop out of school in Grade 8, Grade
9 or Grade 10 in the 1940s, but
judging from Machan’s letters, and
other letters he has read from that
era, the literacy level was very high.
“Things were grand back then, you
could call something gay, there was
a sense or propriety that doesn’t exist
now,” Weber said. “In the 1940s they
were young men in every sense of
the word.”
After completing work on the
book, Weber printed between 20 and
50 copies. He said they were given to
his immediate family members to
start and then there was a growing
interest at family reunions and get-
togethers, he said.
However, it didn’t take long for the
word to spread past his family,
Weber says, and soon he was
printing hundreds more copies of the
book.
Weber attributes the buzz to word
of mouth. Soon he had copies of the
book in several Chapters locations
and at several independent stores
throughout Huron and surrounding
counties.
Machan’s letters chronicle his time
being sent to Toronto’s Canadian
National Exhibition grounds for the
early stages of basic training before
being shipped to western Canada for
further training.
Machan was eventually sent to
England and then finally The
Azores, which would be his final
stop. During a training exercise,
Machan was in an aircraft on a day
the area was experiencing extremely
foggy conditions. The aircraft
clipped the top of a mountain and
crashed.
Because these were training
exercises, Weber says, Machan
wasn’t allowed to write back about
what went on during his training.
The letters mainly deal with the timeperiod and the concerns of a youngman who had been sent off toprepare for war.
“The letters are about the farm, the
community, what they were doing
and how they spent their time,”
Weber says.
Willis was the son of Stanley and
Ivah Machan of Brussels. He had
three sisters, Glenna, Lois and Jean.
Weber was recently in Brussels to
present a copy of the book and
pictures of Willis to the Brussels
Legion on its 80th anniversary.
Weber says he learned a lot about
his late uncle through the letters,
considering he was never able to
meet him.
“[Willis] died 15 years before I
was born,” Weber said.
One thing Weber says he learned
about Willis was that he was
extremely ambitious and always
striving to be the best.
“He always tried to score 100 per
cent on his tests. He was always
trying to be the best,” Weber says.
“He was a bright, capable guy.”
Machan was the top marksman in
his group, Weber said, and even with
that prestigious title, he still felt
there was room for improvement.
“Hunting and shooting was such a
big part of the culture back then,”
Weber said, “so when Willis saw
how many targets he had missed, he
said his dad would have kicked his
butt.”
Weber has considered approaching
several Legions about carrying the
book and local school boards about
incorporating it into the curriculum,
but he hasn’t followed up.
Weber says his passion is fiction
writing and he’s currently working
on the sequel to his first novel, so he
hasn’t put as much work into
spreading the word about Letters
Home as he should, he says.
Anyone interested in the book can
contact Weber by e-mail at
johnweber2@bell.net or visit either
of The Citizen’s offices where the
book will be sold.
Continued from page 12
his war stories, Cook took great
pride in serving his country. He
passed away on April 28, 2010.
Clearly, Cook’s beliefs have been
instilled in his grandchildren. He has
three grandsons serving in the
military: Major Shane Loder,
Corporal Nathan Loder and Private
Derek Cook.
“My grandfather was a proud
Canadian,” says Derek. “He did
what he felt was necessary for his
country and I hope I can do the
same.”
Derek was born and raised in
Blyth. He has been a Weapons
Technician at CFB Petawawa (2nd
Service Battalion) for the past four
years. Derek has not been called
overseas but he did assist at the G8
event in Huntsville in June 2010, the
biggest domestic security operation
in Canadian history. He is furthering
his education by taking additional
university courses to become a
social worker within the military.
Cpl. Nathan Loder says, “My
grandfather didn’t speak much about
his experiences as a soldier in World
War II. However, the few stories that
he did share with me put into
perspective the amount of sacrifice
that has been made for our country
and I know how lucky I am to live in
this time and place. When I think of
what he must have gone through, it’s
what gets me through the rough
times.”
“Dad was a quiet man,” says Linda
Loder, Cook’s daughter, “a man who
loved his family dearly. He would
pile all seven of us kids in the car for
summer camping trips, which
always included some fishing and
taking in the beauty of our
wonderful country. His faith in God
made him the man he was, a man
who loved to help others. He
frequently could be seen around
town gathering someone’s mail or
getting their groceries for them.”
“When Mom was alive, they
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Passing the torch
After the release of his book, Letters Home, John Weber, right, presented the Brussels Legion
with a copy of his book, which details letters sent home by Warrant Officer Willis Machan
during World War II. Accepting the book and framed pictures of Willis were Legion President
Deb Cann, centre, and Comrade Paul Machan, left. The presentation was held late last month
as the Legion celebrated its 80th anniversary. (Jim Brown photo)
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continued on page 16