Carl Franco

New Canaan Man Unearths Photographs from Sept. 30, 1919 Parade Welcoming Home WWI Soldiers

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Carl Franco’s first thought on unearthing the stash of curled, cracked back-and-white photographs 15 years ago was that they must’ve been taken during a long-ago Memorial Day Parade. He’d been cleaning out his house—which has been in the Franco family since the 1940s—in preparation for a renovation, and came upon the photographs in the attic. 

Then he saw that they were dated. “So I knew it wasn’t May,” Franco said. “It was in September 1919. So I looked it up, wondering what parade would it have been.”

The photos were taken in downtown New Canaan on Sept.

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Soldier, Writer, World Traveler, Guy Who Brought Home That Grenade: Meet Patrick Smith

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As soon as we jumped into No Man’s Land, the German machine guns crackled out and a row of men went down like corn. As they went down, another row of men took their place. And on and on we went toward the German line, 750 yards away. —Patrick Smith’s personal papers, Jan. 21, 1921

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New Canaan’s Patrick Smith was 46 when he applied to join the U.S. war effort on Sept.