Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
'Kilroy Was Here'
It took only a little over $160 to buy this "Kilroy was here" bank. The 5-inch-high plaster bank was painted red. The bottom had the words "To open, cut hole in bottom." It is a very rare souvenir of the Second World War.
Remember hearing "Kilroy was here"? Kilroy is a famous "doodle" seen during World War II. No one is sure exactly where it began, but in about 1939, the comic man looking over a fence while poking his nose and hands over it with the words "Kilroy was here" started to appear. The doodles were found in strange places where soldiers were stationed. The character may have been inspired by an earlier bit of graffiti used by Australians during World War I with the words "Foo was here." He reappeared in the next war from 1941 to 1945. Kilroy graffiti was found in barracks, inside submarines, and, it is claimed, on the beaches at Normandy when the troops landed for the famous battle.
"Kilroy was here," with or without the doodle, still is part of American slang and has appeared in TV shows, movies and even songs in this century. The face over the fence has been made into inexpensive three-dimensional, carnival chalkware figures and even banks. A red plaster bank was one of several Kilroy pop-art items featured in a Hakes auction in 2016. It sold for $168.37, probably to someone who remembers seeing a Kilroy message years ago.
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