Book Image Not Available Book Image Not Available

See inside

View Back Cover

The Poppa and The Punkin

A WWII Romance Told in Letters (1939-1946)

Overview

This is a memoir of a young married couple who fell in love under the shadow of World War II.  It uses over 600 letters between them from 1939-1946, to tell the story of their separation in the U. S., their attempts to create a home life in dusty army air corps bases in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas, and a final year of isolation and loneliness when Dad inspected air bases across the Pacific while Mom held up the Homefront with her own parents and her in-laws.   The letters were the strength that held this family together and so many others across the country


Read more

Description

Meet Don and Jeanne Dunn, Poppa and the Punkin.  Falling in love as the Nazis invade Poland in 1939, they marry in July 1940 in spite of their families' objections.  Their 'honeymoon' cottage in Berks County, PA with their veggie garden and faithful hound, Kurt provides the background of the ups and downs of their first two years.  Skies darken as the Germans run roughshod over France and their dreams are shattered when the Japs attack Pearl Harbor in 1941.  Separated by officer training in Miami Beach, posting in the dust bowl of Oklahoma and Jeanne's growing anemia, they grow apart in 1942.  Their letters keep them together until they meet up in Garden City, Kansas, Army Air Corps training field, where they have a calm 1943 and 1944, making life long friendships and growing ever closer.  They are now ready for what they know will come in 1945:  Don's year long sojourn in the Pacific flying inspection runs from Manila, Hollandia and Brisbane and tiny atolls - logging over 2000 miles over lonely waters each week.  Their lifelines are the 600 letters they write to each other and receive from Don's Mom and Jeanne's brother.  News of the war's major events, their longing for each other and their separation are softened by their loving words to each other until they all meet stateside in April, 1946.  

Read more

About The Author

Tim is a retired educator, living with his husband, John in their restored 1856 Farmhouse in Provincetown, MA.  Having developed experiential social studies curriculum at alternative high schools in Philadelphia and in Wilmington DE Friends School in 3rd and 4th grade during his first decade in education, he spent much of the rest of his career in developing research-based social and emotional curricula and school counseling and psych services at the district, state and federal level. 

His avocation during this 30 year career, was to focus on a variety of historical projects:  Spent a number of years working as a docent and archaeological staffer at Plimoth Plantation, restored their 1856 Farmhouse home on Cape Cod, and created a geneaological study of his mother's family. -(Czyka) on site in Poland. and a similar study of his father's Irish (Dunn) roots in Dublin (18th century) and English roots (Fones) in Devonshire (16th century). His first book was a visual summary of this research using family records, pictures and antiques.

Read more

Book details

  • Genre:biography & autobiography
  • Sub-genre:Personal Memoirs
  • Language:English
  • Pages:208
  • eBook ISBN:9781098315016
  • Paperback ISBN:9781098315009

Also available at

Book Reviews

to submit a book review
Eileen
Lyrical Love in a WWII Time Read the book in one sitting. Fascinated by how little (Iknew of the personal struggles created my uncertainty, a crazy armed force pattern, and the fear of war. You'll love Tim's Dad, POPPA, who is a romantic at heart and Punkin (Tim's Mom) who struggles to hold it all together when separate by thousands of miles. And it is ALL TRUE. Enjoy Read more
Philip
True Love During War Phil Did you ever wonder what your mother and father said to each other when they were falling in love? When they thought about getting married and were making plans for the future? What if they were doing this during a time of war? What if they had written all of this down? Tim Dunn was fortunate to have inherited a box containing more than 600 hundred letters, most of which were exchanged by his father (Poppa) and mother (Punkin) between 1939-1946. They fell deeply in love, got married and articulated their emotions beautifully in these letters. Tim has written The Poppa and the Punkin which contains a number of the letters interspersed with enriching information about the rest of his family, the situation in the U.S., and the major events of WW II. The letters themselves, although short, reveal what a soldier and his spouse experienced and how they felt about each other during training and when he was sent out to complete his service (non-combat) in the vast Pacific theater. The subjects of the letters are general enough that they could have occurred in many other wars. They might even apply to our current pandemic experience because both spouses constantly mention the loneliness of physical separation from loved ones as well as distance separation. One of the beauties of the book is that both the male and the female points of view and experiences are so clearly expressed. Also, at least some of those questions which so many children of WW II veterans wanted to ask their mothers and fathers about what they really felt during the war but were afraid to ask or were told that they (the parents) just couldn’t talk about, are addressed. The book also includes a third character, Bill, brother of Punkin, who was serving in Europe at the same time. He is hospitalized and afflicted with what we now call PTSD. Various family members write about what he has, how it came about, and how well he really is because he is physically fine. How he will get over his problems quickly and that it's really nothing to worry about. The discussion is interesting to read about as it goes on today with many of the same arguments. There is also a considerable amount of information about how important mothers were in holding things together back home. Finally, it was fascinating to see how immediately an argument developed around the dropping of the atomic bomb. I recommend that you read this book for its thoughtful writing from the perspectives of both genders, the haunting loneliness of soldiering, and certainly how love and marriage develop, have their ups and downs, their challenges, and how they strengthened the “Greatest Generation”. At the end, however, you may leave wishing you had a bit more information about Punkin’s side of the story. That lack seems to be due to the number of letters that were lost as Poppa moved about the Pacific. Read more
Judy
Wonderful read! What a wonderful read! The story of a young couple separated by WWII portrays the experiences faced by many families, my own included. The letters tell of the hardships of the times as well as how people lived. Communication was mostly by letter, phone calls were rare; travel was by train, car or bus. The letters are poignant and personal, and the historical commentary gives them context.This humanizes the impact of the war on a typical American family. The story flows smoothly and held my interest throughout. Read more
Ashley
Love Letters and More This book touched my heart because it looked at my parents’ generation, The Greatest Generation, and gave a thorough accounting of life during World War II, both on the homefront and out in the war theatre. I am in my 70’s now and my parents went through what the book is all about. “The Poppa and The Punkin” does not only include love letters, but also letters of anger, frustration, bitterness and depression. Tim Dunn did a wonderful job in weaving in a historial time-table of pre-war and progress of the war to follow along with the letters. The letter that affected me the most was one from Jeanne, the wife, who is very ill with a liver ailment and is expected to pack up a house and drive cross-country solo in an unreliable car to live with her husband. She was just too sick and tired and finally said,”Enough, I can’t handle this right now…...doesn’t anyone think of me and how I am coping?” She was so angry and also angry at herself for not being able to handle it. I also loved the short note from Poppa’s brother Ned who wrote him a blasting note and Poppa’s selfishness in that he couldn’t even take 5 minutes to wire their mother a birthday wish. The overall correspondence brings alive the loneliness, fear and longing from that War. The entire book is beautifully arranged and flows through the history of pre-war and war and finally to a reunification. Bravo, Tim Dunn for reminding us again how it felt to go through the war, both from the homefront and warfront perspectives. The book brought me closer to my departed parents and that wonderful generation. Read more
Frank
A lesson in Love and Patience The Poppa and the Punkin details the love between two people deeply in love. The book is an easy read containing the many letters between these two people. Initially they are separated due to their work being in different locations and later due to events in World War 2. These separations make their love for each other stronger and eventually love prevails and they are united again. In today's day and age people often complain about things that are really not important. This book shows the true importance of love in difficult situations. You will definitely enjoy reading this collection of letters between these two love birds. Read more
John
The Greatest Generation LIVES !!! Both of my own parents lived through WWII - my dad with the Corps of Engineeers in Italy, my mom as a WASP (Women's AirForce Service Pilot).). If they had met before the war, fallen in love AND committed to sharing in letters the daily challenges, joys and anxieties of those war years , they might have passed along something like this rare record of a romance lived under the shadow of "for the duration". This book is a gift for all of us who longed to hear the real stories of "The Greatest Generation" . This thoughtfully edited seven year correspondence between Major Donald Dunn from raining bases in the US and across the Pacific , and his wife Jeanne Dunn , managing the rationing , scarcity and existential uncertainty of life on the home front keeps that generation alive for us today . As the pandemic silences the voices of more and more of this cohort , these letters are a living witness to their experience. John McDargh professor Boston College (retired) Read more