WW 2 'Kilroy Was Here' Button

A number of 'Kilroy Was Here' souvenirs appeared at wars end this Japanese-made vegetable ivory button was among them.
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from google
There was one person who led or participated in every combat, training or occupation operation during WWII and the Korean War. This person could always be depended on. GI's began to consider him the "super GI." He was one who always got there first or who was always there when they left. I am, of course, referring to Kilroy Was Here. Somehow, this simple graffiti captured the imagination of GI's everywhere they went. The scribbled cartoon face and words showed up everywhere - worldwide. Stories (some even true) abound.
The Legends of Kilroy can be searched on google!

Button poem My Hobby

A hobby in such troubled days
Can pep you up in many ways.
Your worries seem to fade away,
If at a hobby you can play.

Now antique buttons interest me,
All sizes, shapes and kinds I see.
Flowers and birds and ships and trees,
Cats and dogs and bugs and bees.

The story buttons are quit rare,
Historic scenes they sometimes bear;
Or fairy tales or knights of old,
Or moats and castles edged with gold.

The hand carved pearls and rich inlays
And sparkling jewels laid out on trays,
Or fastened neat to card board white,
Are surely an attractive sight.

I find in grandmothers button box,
The calicos that trimmed her flock,
And dainty glass ones which she said
Came off the dress in which she wed.

In boxes old and attic dark
To look for buttons is a lark.
And what a joy it is to find
A button of some rare old kind.

My family thinks I'm somewhat queer,
I'll snip them off their clothes, they fear;
But then they should be very glad
That safety pins can still be had.

Marie Hicks, Just Buttons, Oct. 1944