1919

Jan. 18: Back from the front, bronzed of face and hard as nails, yet withal merry as sandboys to be home in the old town once more, 1100 veterans of the 143rd and 145th Field Artillery arrived in San Francisco yesterday and marched through to the Civic Center and thence were taken in streetcars to the Presidio. The skies were grey but there was summer in thousands of hearts and here and there along the line a mother broke through the throngs about her and hugged a son in the ranks, or a wife or a sweetheart gave a cry for Bill or Jim, and the khaki ranks marched on while Bill or Jim fell out for a moment and was smothered in kisses.

At Folsom Street an entire family sprang out from the sidewalk and pounced on one sturdy soldier. In a second he was near strangled in embraces by mother, wife, sisters, brothers and a baby. The baby was a big hulking buster of a boy in khaki, with an officer hat — three years old if he was five minutes — but he was daddy’s own boy for all that. The crowd cheered as the private took the little fellow in his arms and thus encumbered — with his kit and tin hat jangling on his back — fell into the ranks again and all the way to City Hall men and women cheered the private with the baby and the proudest family in San Francisco who marched by his side.

Johnny Miller is a freelance writer.