 |
| Jack, about five, took an early interest in smoking, filling a pipe with dirt. |
Now, after smoking all through high school, the day after we
got outta high school, Merve Utman and I decided we’d quit
smoking. We both quit that same day, the day after we graduated in June 1939.[1]
 |
| Jack's graduation photo, Santa Rosa High School, The Echo 1939 |
 |
| Merve's graduation photo, Santa Rosa High School, The Echo 1939 |
A Nighttime Train
Trip through England
Jack’s squadron
history continues his WWII story: “The morning of December 22, 1943 we debarked
from the Queen Elizabeth onto a ferry which took us to the docks of Gourock,
Scotland. Our train was right at the dock and in a short time we were aboard
and moving south.”[2]
Here we were on this train going down into southern England.
It was kind of scary because everything was blacked out on the trains. There
were no lights shining outside or anything. (We had lights inside.) The
conductor came through and pulled the blackout curtains back a little bit, and
he says [with Jack’s British accent], “Oh, it’s a clear night tonight,” he
says, “Jerry will be out.” I said, “Well, what’s this ‘Jerry will be out’
stuff?’” He says, “Well, the Germans will be bombing us tonight.” We’ll be
bombed tonight, someplace here, in England. Boy, I’m telling you, that’s not a
very safe feeling. In fact most of us were pretty . . . well . . . scared! Let’s face it: we were scared.
Jack knew about the
Germans' bombing of England but he had yet to see it in person. He could only
imagine.
 |
| “Two bewildered old ladies stand amid the leveled ruins of the almshouse which was Home until Jerry dropped his bombs February 10, Newbury, Berkshire, England”[3] |
 |
| “Blandy and Blandy [business] and St. Laurence’s Church after the 1943 bombing” Courtesy of Reading Museum[4] |
K-Rations for Supper
So anyway, we had some K-rations on the train that night.
That was a small box about the size of a Cracker Jack box. It had four crackers
in there, usually a can of cheese and bacon, and four little cigarettes. That
was about it. After we got through eating, “Why,” I thought, “I’ll just try one
of those cigarettes.” So I tried one, and it was pretty good, and I tried
another one, and it was pretty good, and so that night I smoked all four. The
next day we got down into Bath, in England, where we were bivouacked for a
while, and I bought a pack that day, and the next day I bought a carton, and I
was off smoking again.
 |
| K-ration supper unit[5] |
Jack smoked for twenty years. He smoked when his children were born. He smoked until they were nearly teens, enchanting them with his smoke rings. He smoked in the house, much to Alice’s chagrin, in the kitchen, the dining room, the living room, and the family room. He filled ashtrays that Alice dutifully emptied and cleaned. He smoked Lucky Strikes and Pall Malls. It was part of what he did, of who he was.
The Strength of Jack’s Will and the Strength of Cigarettes
I smoked for about twenty years, until 1962, in November of 1962, when Dr. Huntington told me I should quit smoking, and I quit at that time.
Jack was through with
smoking. He kept a pack of cigarettes in his glove compartment and a partially
full carton at his desk. They must have been reminders to him of what could
have been. His will power was stronger even than these occasional reminders,
stronger than any temptation. Forty years later, in 2002, his history of
smoking came back to haunt him with suspicious physical symptoms.[6] A second episode frightened him enough to see
a urologist, who diagnosed bladder cancer. The doctor asked Jack several questions
about smoking. When asked when he started smoking, Jack replied, “I was
thirteen.”[7]
Jack was devastated by
the diagnosis, as he fully expected to be in good health into his nineties. He
insisted, “I didn’t do anything to cause this,” not realizing at the time that
well over sixty percent of bladder cancers are attributable to smoking.The longer the period of smoking and the
greater the number of cigarettes smoked per day, the more likely the bladder
cancer outcome.[8] In all, Jack had smoked for about twenty-five years and often a
pack (twenty cigarettes) a day.
Fear for his life, of
being a bombing target, had inspired Jack’s return to smoking in 1943. He had
no idea that the cigarettes he turned to for comfort and pleasure would ultimately
hasten his death.[9]
We got on a train going down into southern England. And
that’s the night I did something that I wished twenty years later I had never
done.
 |
| Immediate Cause of Death: Bladder Cancer |
[1]
Unless otherwise noted, all roman-font text is
from Jack J. Kellar, “Autobiography,” 1998; two ninety-minute cassette tape
recordings; held and partially transcribed by the author. Also, Jack J. Kellar,
interview about his first years after high school by Judy Kellar Fox, 12 April
1993; cassette tape recording and transcription held by the author. Excerpts from
both interviews are here combined and edited.
[2]
380th Fighter–160th Tac. Rcn. Squadron
History, February 1943–August 1945 ([unknown place]: [unknown publisher], printed
by A. Roßbach, Eschwege, Germany [1945]). Probably written by the squadron
historian, this account of the 380th Fighter Squadron (later the 160th
Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron) of the U.S. Army Air Force, was written right
up until the squadron was about to return to the U.S.
[3]
“Two bewildered old ladies,” photograph, 11
February 1943, National Archives Catalog
(https://catalog.archives.gov/id/531162
: accessed 6 April 2018); U.S. National Archives, > Record Group 111:
Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, 1860–1985 > Photographs
of American Military Activities, ca. 1910–ca. 1981 > Two bewildered old
ladies stand amid the leveled ruins of the almshouse which was Home; until
Jerry dropped his bombs. Total war knows no bounds. Almshouse bombed February
10, Newbury, Berkshire, England, 2/11/1943 > National Archives Identifier
531162.
[4]
“Blandy and Blandy and St. Laurence’s Church
after the 1943 bombing,” photograph, after 10 February 1943, Reading Museum
(https://www.readingmuseum.org.uk/ : accessed 6 April 2018) > Our Collections > History >
Search by “photograph,” “St. Laurence’s Church,” “1940s” > “Reading Bombing
1943,” Museum object number REDMG : 1988.9.79.
[5]
“K-ration supper unit,” digital photograph, Wikimedia commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KRation_Supper.jpg
: accessed 5 April 2018). As a work of the U.S. federal government, this photo
is in the public domain.
[6]
Jack J. Kellar, telephone conversation with Judy
Kellar Fox re his attendance at a 14 October 2002 memorial service for Louis D.
Owens at University of California Davis.
[7]
Joanne Kellar (Santa Rosa, California), telephone
conversation with Judy Kellar Fox 5 April 2018.
[8]
Ibid. For bladder cancer causes, see “Causes,” Mayo Clinic (https://www.mayoclinic.org : accessed 31
March 2018) > Patient care and health information > B > Bladder
cancer. Also, “What Increases Your Risk of Bladder Cancer?” City of Hope (https://www.cityofhope.org : accessed 31
March 2018) > Patient Care > Conditions and Treatments > B >
Bladder Cancer > Facts. Also, IARC Working Group on the Evaluation of
Carcinogenic Risk to Humans, IARC
Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, vol. 83, Tobacco Smoke and Involuntary Smoking
(Lyon, France: International Agency
for Research on Cancer, 2004); digital image, U.S. National Library of
Medicine, NCBI, National Center for Biotechnology Information (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3441175/
: accessed 30 March 2018) > Journal List > HHS Author Manuscripts >
PMC3441175.
[9]
Sonoma County, California, Certificate of Death,
3-2006-49-001443, Jack Junior Kellar, 19 May 2006; Recorder, Santa Rosa.
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