I'll Hold You in My Dreams
by William S. Phillips

The American Homefront Series (below), an episodic look at home during World War II, comprises some of William S. Phillips’ most popular and sought-after works. Now, for the first time in over ten years, Phillips has created a new painting in the series: I’ll HoldYou in My Dreams, set on a warm winter day just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Our young Army Air Force Lieutenant stands out from the crowd as he bids his girl goodbye.

Locomotive 4443 of the Noon Coast “Daylight” slowly eases to a stop at Santa Barbara Station.The next stop is San Luis Obispo, 119 miles up the line. With a scheduled ride time of two hours and eighteen minutes, a passenger might have time for dinner in the dining car—if he wanted to spend at least ninety cents on dinner, or splurge on the fresh mountain trout at $1.50. In the air over the station are two P-38 fighter aircraft on their first test flight, a mere day after rolling off the assembly line in Burbank. Full production of operational aircraft has begun and will continue around the clock.

Young soldiers departing for war after Pearl Harbor faced the unknown road ahead with patriotic and passionate commitment and they held their heads high as they bid their loved ones farewell.

Arriving January 2008

The American Homefront Series by William S. Phillips
If Only in My Dreams by William S. Phillips Canvas	A Christmas Leave, When Dreams Come True by William S. Phillips Print
Summer of '45: And All Creation Rejoiced by William S. Phillips Canvas	The Dream Fulfilled, Where the Love Light Shines by William S. Phillips Print

Then as Now
Phillips’ inspiration for I’ll Hold You in My Dreams was the famous “Kid in Upper 4” advertisement, a WWII poster for the New Haven Railroad.The poster explained the temporary scarcity of amenities on the trains due to troop movements and asked travelers to be patient, patriotic and sympathetic to the young soldiers who occupied the seats and sleeping berths. In the midst of war, the poster served as a reminder to those on the home front to keep our young people, in harm’s way on the other side of the world, in their thoughts and prayers. Today, it is impossible to pass through any airport without witnessing a similar scene. I’ll Hold You in My Dreams is a timeless portrait of sacrifice, duty and hope for the future.

"The Kid in Upper 4" "It is 3:42 a.m. on a troop train. Men wrapped in blankets are breathing heavily. Two in every lower berth. One in every upper. This is no ordinary trip. It may be their last in the U.S.A. till the end of the war. Tomorrow they will be on the high seas. One is wide awake ... listening ... staring into the blackness. It is the kid in Upper 4. Tonight, he knows, he is leaving behind a lot of little things - and big ones. The taste of hamburgers and pop ... the feel of driving a roadster over a six-lane highway ... a dog named Shucks, or Spot, or Barnacle Bill. The pretty girl who writes so often ... that gray-haired man, so proud and awkward at the station ... the mother who knit the socks he'll wear soon. Tonight he's thinking them over.There's a lump in his throat. And maybe - a tear fills his eye. It doesn't matter, Kid. Nobody will see ... it's too dark. A couple of thousand miles away, where he's going, they don't know him very well. But people all over the world are waiting, praying for him to come. And he will come, this kid in Upper 4. With new hope, peace and freedom for a tired, bleeding world. Next time you are on the train, remember the kid in Upper 4. If you have to stand enroute - it is so he may have a seat. If there is no berth for you - it is so that he may sleep. If you have to wait for a seat in the diner - it is so he ... and thousands like him ... may have a meal they won't forget in the days to come. For to treat him as our most honored guest is the least we can do to pay a mighty debt of gratitude. The New Haven R.R."