Charles Eyck herdacht op een geheel eigen wijze de gealieerde inzet tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Hieronder zijn emotionele inleiding bij deze uitgave:
Amidst a lot of work I volunteered to do for my friends from across the ocean I took a walk through our good old town of Maastricht. You will find the result bundled in this booklet. It is not very much. There is so little we can offer our oversea friends. The shops demonstrate an enormous emptiness, because there is NOTHING of which we can make SOMETHING. Only the good Lord is able to make SOMETHING out of NOTHING, but we we are just poor little people, with hands still tied, just our hearts are free. In the saloons there is not even beer. Just coffee! And what a coffee!!! An old Scotch with soda is a fatamorgana in these hot days! From long ago I still remember the taste of very old gin, mixed with vermouth and grapefruit juice. We are completely out of all these good things. But at home, in the attic, I had still some prewar paper. Why not try and make something out of it? Something that is worth taking overseas, to Missouri, or Alabama, to Kentucky, Oregon, Ontario, Arizona and the other States the names of which are singing through our heads when we see you all walking through our streets. Believe me, I am an old globetrotter and maybe I feel as much homesick to the Gulf of Mexico, the mountains of Montana or Labrador as one of you who likes to see the Eternal City. This booklet is unpretentious. Maybe it is not! Maybe I am hoping in silence that whenever I make a travel from South Carolina to Washington, from Texas to Port Nelson, I find my booklet with some host in Frisco or a sweet hostess near St. Laurence Bay, as a proof that there is a tie between our good old town of Maastricht and your far countries overseas.
J u n e 1945. C H A R L ES E Y C K
Deze publicatie is verlucht met 12 tekeningen van Charles Eyck zelf.
Uitegegeven in eigen beheer en gedrukt door Alex Kuckelkorn, Maastricht.
