I was thinking recently about some of my memories of the war years during the early 1940's. Living in a small college town in Georgia we were in no real danger and never felt afraid. You have to know that back then we were not as mobile a society as we are now. If we traveled it was usually either in the car or on a bus. Airplane travel was not an ordinary occurrence as it is now. People on both the west and east coast of the US were more aware of the threats from the enemy. In small inland towns we felt safe.I was 12 years old when the war started and 16 when it finally ended.
My three brothers were drafted. One saw overseas duty in Northern Africa with Signal Corps and one served in England, the Netherlands and later Germany. The third had "tough" duty in the Navy in Hollywood, Florida and then he was sent to Seattle, Washington in preparation to being shipped overseas when the war ended. They all three came home safely.
On the home front we went about our lives in a normal fashion but always concerned about those close to us who were away in the service.
A brief rundown of war time memories:
"December 7, 1941.the day that will live in infamy"
Ration Books, air raid wardens, saving foil from gum, High School volunteers picking cotton, V.E. mail, gas rationing,and rationing of sugar, coffee, News reels at the picture shows, one pair of shoes, no silk stockings, painted stockings with seam drawn on back of legs. VE day, VJ day .Polio, March of Dimes, fear of polio infection from swimming pool and water fountains. There were segregated movies; blacks in balcony and separate entrance. We had blackout curtains, air raid sirens,neighborhood air raid warden, war bonds, . My brother mailed me a silk parachute from Germany,brightly painted wooden souvenir shoes from the Netherlands, English Lavender soap from London. FDR fireside chats, Churchill, December 7 1941. VE day FDR death, VJ day, DDay I wore bobby socks and saddle oxfords, the songs "Bluebirds Over The White Cliffs of Dover", "Nightingale Sang In Berkley Square."
What are some of your memories from this era?
8 comments:
I share almost all of yours except I lived on the Long Island Sound in Connecticut. I was a "Jr. Air raid Warden" and a Boy Scout. We used to read books on guerilla warfare and tried to master killing folks. Nazi Submarine sailors washed up on our shores occasionally and the Coast Guard made sure we were off the waters in our boats before nightfall.
I was born in late 1940, so I have few memories, but I do remember rationing and black-outs. We lived amid several chemical plants, and so we were always afraid that we would be bombed.
Wow roger You were there on the East Coast close to the action.
I shere your memories and might add scrap drives, war bonds, and Victory vegetable gardens. It was also a time when women were hired in factories to replace the men. Remember 'Rosie the Riveter'?
War movies were terrifying and meant to build patriotism. I usually cried when I saw them.
A bad memory is the shameful incarceration of the Japanese. My aunt was a clerk in a gift shop owned by a very nice Japanese family named Nockeye. One day she went to work and the shop was closed, the family was gone and it was a long time before we knew what happened to them.
I was born in 1947 Chancy...so I don't have many memories; but I do remember living in one of those domed Quansit Huts (sp.)the government constructed, when my dad got out of the Navy.
Wow! You really sparked a flood of memories. We lived in St. Louis at the start of the war and I remember my Mom rushing to the windows at the first alert from a siren to pull closed the black-out drapes.
I was born in '51 so just missed this era but I do remember the air raid sirens and drills that took place in our prairie school rooms that lasted into the 50's.
I lived in rural Missouri when Pearl Harbor was attacked (just 6 days before the birth of a younger brother), but Dad built a "mobile home" on the bed of a small flat-bed truck that he had (our only vehicle) and we spent a year traveling around to various sites in Texas so that Dad could find work as a day-laborer at the military camps being constructed. (My elder brother attended 7 schools during 1st grade!)
We settled in Tulsa where Mom worked on A-26 airplanes and Dad worked on bombs.
Remember the war bond stamps that we bought for 10 cents? When the book was completely full, we traded it in for a 25 dollar war bond. Gently, Chancy, I would say that we didn't hear about polio until after the war. Infantile paralysis we knew all about, but polio/poliomyelitis was yet to gain infamy.
I remember nightmares of bombs falling on my school, and Mom trading meat ration stamps for sugar ration stamps so that she could make applebutter.
Thanks, Chancy!
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