Courier Tribune
Monday, July 17, 1939
Page 3
Sabetha
Loyd Dirst Home
Loyd Dirst, who was graduated form Sabetha high school in 1934, is visiting his mother, Mrs. Arthur Bestwick, and Mr. Bestwick in Hiawatha, his aunt, Mrs. Jimmy Drolet and family and other relatives and friends in Sabetha. Loyd is a corporal in the Marine Corps of the United States. He has been stationed at Honolulu for twenty-eight months and is on a thirty days furlough. In October he will have completed a three years enlistment in the Marines. He has not decided whether he will reenlist.
Loyd took the commercial course in Sabetha high school and evidently applied himself – to study for he was assigned to clerical work and now does stenographic and shorthand work most of the time. His first assignment was a court matrial which required twenty-two pages of typing after he had taken notes. No errors are permitted and the task was a real test of his ability.
Loyd says Honolulu has the climate California talks about. The temperature seldom varies more than ten degrees. Once during the time he was there the temperature rose to 95 degrees and the newspapers carried big headlines about the extreme heat.
There are eight separate army divisions on the island and the navy has a fleet stationed there also. The enlisted army men live in barracks and homes are provided at the quarters for some of the officers. Other officers live in the city.
About forty per cent of the population is composed of foreigners, mostly Japanese and Chinese. Many of them are in business. The pineapple and sugar plantations are mostly company owned. These require considerable care. The work is done by cheap foreign labor. It takes eighteen months to raise a sugar crop. The pineapple is canned on the islands but the sugar is sent tot he states for refining.
The tourist seasons are the harvest seasons for hotels, amusement places, and many others on the islands. The seasons seem to be controlled by vacations seasons in the states and other countries. Most of the time, passage must be booked weeks ahead.
There are several Kansas and Missouri boys in the Marines and they find now and then that they have mutual acquaintances in the home state.
When Loyd returns to his company, he will be stationed at Sn Diego, Calif., and will not return to Honolulu.
