Were you a child during WW2 or early post-war years?

[grasswire]

I've been re-reading my great grandfather's diary from 1942. Every day's entry starts with the weather and the breakfast, and details the work he did that day and the goings-on in the large extended family. Then comes what he had for supper.

Then comes the significant war news. My uncle, his grandson, was a prisoner of the Japanese for almost three years -- he was captured when Corregidor fell, in the Philippines. Gramps notes the communication that came when the family got the telegram that Uncle Bob had been wounded in battle. (No one was informed at that time that he had lost his leg to gangrene and an Army surgeon had sawed it off in a tunnel on Corregidor)

So many tidbits in the diary relate to life on the "home front". Going for sugar coupons so the peaches could be canned. Driving at night in town during blackout. Going to see the ship yards. My grandmother christening a Liberty ship with champagne.

And then there are brief notes about the victory at Midway and other milestones.

I was born while my uncle was a P.O.W. Our family life (15 cousins, Grandmother's big old stone house, Uncle Bob's hero status, post-war weddings) was so very American and Norman Rockwell-like. One other uncle was a fireman in the navy, and another was a soldier from Normandy to Battle of the Bulge to Africa -- almost five years of fighting.

I don't personally remember the war years. But I do remember the aftermath, and I remember how different life was then. So different. Much less materialistic. Much more emphasis on thrift, and honor, and family strength and civic community.

Anyone have any memories of that time?

[Cleita]

1. Yes, I was born in 1940.

I actually have lots of memories even though I hadn't learned to read yet. I post about them every now and then when the memories are relevant to today.

[monmouth4]

7. I was born in '40 also and remember rations and other things I thought was normal life.

It seems to me when I started school in '45 everything loosened up but prior to that, after dinner was radio/news time. Many relatives were soldiers, marines and one sailor..

[Cleita]

10. I remember that too.

My mother and I got stranded here. We came up from South America, where my father worked for an American mining company, to visit my grandmother and Pearl Harbor happened. My dad had to go back, but we couldn't rejoin him until after the war ended. We lived with my grandmother in Los Angeles. She was an old farm woman from Arkansas, and started keeping chickens so we could have eggs. You weren't supposed to have farm animals in the city, but no one reported her because she provided the neighborhood with eggs and fresh chickens.

The talk was always about the war because just about everyone on our block had someone that was at one of the fronts. Most of the kids I played with had a daddy, or uncle or older brother overseas. I had a cousin fighting in the Pacific theater. I have posted before about watching companies of GIs march down to San Pedro to be loaded onto ships to go fight in the Pacific.

It was very different than subsequent wars, wasn't it, where you didn't even know there was a war going on except on the news?

[grasswire]

22. yes, and this makes me recognize anew what a racket the wars are now

Conjured up in order to squeeze money from the U.S. treasury (or loans from China) to line the pockets of profiteers and ghouls. Conjured up on lies or faulty premises.

Can you imagine if WW2 had been run that way? Out of our sight? Nothing asked of the citizens, not even their permission. A volunteer or mercenary armed forces, no photos of caskets returning.

Crazy.

[Thinkingabout]

2. I have who was just a young girl at the beginning of WWII, they lived in the country and

Says everyone was poor so they never noticed. She had older brothers the war and communities pulled together to help everyone.

[virgogal]

3. Born in 1934 here -I remember the war years quite well.

I was a Junior Commando and we collected scrap metal etc.

I remember the air raid drills,both at school and at home. The man across the street was an air raid warden.

My grandmother used to make something she called War Cake. It had no sugar or butter.

We had war cards instead of baseball cards, They had tanks and planes on them.

Lots of memories.

[indepat]

39. We too. I remember the shortages of life's necessities, such as Fleer's double-bubble gum,

once seeing a quarter and a penny exchanged for a piece of this gum. I remember rationing cards and my daily bike ride to the grocery store with rationing coupon in hand to get the loaf of bread allotted to my family. My grammar school had war drives for scrap metal, rubber, et al. A friend's father was taken prisoner at the Battle of the Bulge, but returned home unscathed by that experience. There are hundreds of memories, but these come readily to mind.

[REP]

4. Not directly

My mother grew up then; my uncle was a navigator over Germany. Her memories were a lot less "Norman Rockwell" (who, by the way, knew he was painting propaganda and didn't like doing it) and more dark. Community? Family strength? Well, my family was pretty good about not gussying up the past too much.

[onecaliberal]

5. My father fought in WWII.

I was born much later in his life. He has passed on, I would love to hear more about that time. He never talked much about it. He was a strong man, a very hard worker and NEVER bought anything on credit in his entire life.

[grasswire]

28. you could probably find out more about his service

As his descendant, you have the right to that information.

[Thirties Child]

6. Born in 1935, in the 1st grade when the war started

Remember Pearl Harbor as you do the Alamo. (We lived in Texas.)
Ration stamps, sugar, meat, gas.
My father working in war plants, first in San Antonio, then Texarkana.
My father an air raid warden in San Antonio.
Air raid drills in school.
Blackouts, again in San Antonio.
Getting into a small Japanese submarine that was on tour.
President Roosevelt dying.
Getting called inside to hear the announcement of the atom bomb.
Getting called inside to hear the announcement that Japan had surrendered.

Eenie, meenie, minie moe.
Catch old Hitler by his toe.
If he hollers make him say,
I surrender to the USA.

[JustAnotherGen]

14. I like these memories

[grasswire]

26. yes, remember Pearl Harbor

My uncle who was a P.O.W. of the Japanese Imperial Army on Corregidor, always told us "Never Forget". And I try not to do so.

He had a particular way of signing his name, and when the few postcards that were allowed to him to send home during his imprisonment came home to his mother, the family knew it was really him who had signed them, because of that particular signature. He always put a little happy face in the cursive A of his last name.

And when I sign my nickname to family, I always put a little happy face in it, just a remembrance for Uncle Bob, a hero.

[IphengeniaBlumgarten]

8. Yes, born in early 1939

I remember blackout curtains and the neighborhood warden yelling at us when we opened the fridge and a little light escaped though a crack in the curtain. (This in the DC suburbs, so probably extra care needed.)

I remember ration books and paying taxes with red and green plastic mils (all metal was diverted to the war effort) for items we purchased.

I remember saving tin foil and other things for the war effort.

I remember an elderly lady walking down the street and crying when Roosevelt died.

I remember that there was no bubble gum at all until the war was over, possibly because it was diverted for the soldiers.

I remember a lot of spam (the food).

[RebelOne]

35. I was born in January of 1939

I remember the blackout curtains and air raid drills and my mother planting a victory garden.

The spam food I ate at that time was Scrapple since we lived in Philadelphia.

I also remember my parents telling me that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. I said, "Poor Pearl," because I thought they were talking about a little girl.

Not long after the war started, we moved to Miami Beach because my father had bought a trucking company in Florida.

[grasswire]

43. I feel like I remember blackout curtains...

.....but I couldn't. It must be a false memory brought on by hearing stories from others who were older.

[Spazito]

37. After reading your post where you remember paying taxes with red and green..

plastic mils, I realized the connection to the current usage of "mill rate" evolved from those mils. Fascinating, I had no idea that 'mils' had ever existed in physical form and thought it was simply a formula.

Thanks for your post, all of it was educational.

[northoftheborder]

9. Yes

I remember nothing before Pearl Harbor, because I was too young to understand the concept of war; I remember that day because our radio was nearly always on, and the news consisted of a lot of frantic reporters talking about "Japs" this and "Japs" that, and I had never heard that word before. Our family was not directly affected with military service, but I certainly remember the rationing, keeping our old car until the war was over, and never driving over 30mph even on the highway, to conserve gas. My mother made all our clothes, and I remember the difficulty she had even finding fabric to sew. My parents were always frugal, anyway, because of having grown up in the depression. Housing was very scarce, no new building was going on, and we lived in a bungalow with our landlady who occupied the front bedroom of our house. I remember teachers at school with maps of Europe showing us where the troops were.

Things were very simple back then, and the country was unified in the effort to defeat the Nazi's and their allies. However, it seemed to me that the nation eventually went back to the same strife between various parties and entities over economic and social policies as in the early FDR days, and so it has remained.

World War II changed the nation in many indirect ways; young men and women who had never traveled outside their own town or state, saw the world, and different ways of doing things, learned to know different kinds of people and cultures. Many women had to work for the war effort, and to fill vacancies from so many men being away in the military, and learned confidence in themselves. I remember the confidence and pride we all felt in our country's successful efforts to right the wrongs of war and destruction.

I no longer have the same pride in my country. I see our government in the clutches of wealthy selfish powers and organizations, and self righteous, demagogic, ideologues. I hope change comes in the span of my life. There are plenty of good, hopeful, helpful people everywhere, but it seems their voices have been dimmed.

[justhanginon]

11. I was born in 1936 and remember a lot of everyday

life back then. My father had a deferment I guess as he had three kids or it may have been his job. I do remember him being an air raid warden and having a gas mask and helmet and would have go to meetings. .
My uncle was a Lt Commander in the Seabees and was in some action, I believe in Tunis, and I know he had some shrapnel still in his back. We used to listen for war news on the radio a lot. I was too young to know of my parent's worries but I am sure they had many.
One day after his return, we were at my Grandmother's house with my Uncle shortly after the war and a car went by and backfired and I remember he was on the floor immediately, just a reflex action. I also remember the food ration books and stamps, saving aluminum foil from gum wrappers and cigarette packs making it into balls for the war effort and buying stamps for war bonds.
We had a big impromptu parade of neighborhood kids banging garbage can lids etc. at the wars end. I know it was a very sad time for so many even as the memories fade.
We owe those brave men and women so much it is unimaginable.

[JustAnotherGen]

13. Thank you for sharing this

[grasswire]

23. the term for your Uncle was "shell shocked"

I was with my uncle who had served at Battle of the Bulge -- we were at a movie theater watching "How The West Was Won". A scene began with a canon fired loud and unexpected. He was on the floor. Now it would probably be called PTSD. That incident was what -- close to 20 years after the war.

[JustAnotherGen]

12. Not me

But my father in law and late mother in law's stories as young kids in Italy are mind blowing.

[Duval]

15. Yes, I was born in 1939

and I remember Mom using rations, the radio always on and the little light in the bathroom so I could find the way at night. My Dad was a physician, and had a TB in med school, so he was exempted. His brother, however, did fight. I also remember something kind of funny...my Mom was caught speeding while I was in the car, and as the patrolman began writing the ticket Mom started crying. I asked
her if he was a "German or a Jap". I can only imagine what that patrolman thought of me! We were visiting my Grandmother when the war ended and I well remember the sound of honking car horns and Church bells ringing. People were getting out of their cars to hug each other.

[MrsMuir]

16. My father served on Guadalcanal.

That's one of those Pacific Islands that we had to fight the Japanese for. After the fighting was over, they settled in to occupy it. One of the things he remembers most, was that the American public supplied them with fresh fruits and fresh meat. He said he realized that the people at home were rationing and sacrificing so the GIs would have everything they needed to win the war. He knew that gasoline, meat, sugar, rubber, so many things were being rationed at home, yet the American people accepted it with so much selflessness and determination, so that they could be a part of winning the war and getting the GIs home. He was grateful to his countrymen and they were grateful to the GIs. That's how a country should behave in time of war.

[lpbk2713]

17. I was born in 1944.

My earliest memories go back to the time of the Korean War. Both my
older brothers served. They made it back without any outward scars.

[mainstreetonce]

20. That was my birth year

I remember my mother waking me up all upset because we were going to war again.
My father had come home early from WWII because of a serious injury. She was scared he could be called up again.

Every single house on our street had Daddies who were home from war.

I remember being kept home from school to watch our new TV when MacArthur
came home.

My father in law ( who I met when I was 15) was home from the war and signed up for the AF reserves. He went to Korea. His mother never got over that.

I remember Memorial Day being the biggest holiday of the summer.

Some of my friends were raised by single mothers because daddy didn't come home.

The woman next door had a Gold Star in her window. We all knew what it meant.

[zeemike]

18. I was born in 43

And one of my first memories was of the end of the war and all the partying that went on to celebrate when my two older brothers came back...one was in the Merchant Marines and the other in the Army.
It is funny the things you remember...I remember a musical group that called themselves Joe, Ted, Johnny and Jay ho that were friends of the family and used to practice outside a little store we owned...don't remember what kind of music they played but an accordion was involved...why that stuck with me I do not know.

[kiranon]

19. Born in 1941. Dad and uncle in the war - one navy other army. We had a

victory garden and my mom took kitchen grease to the butcher shop for the war effort. Remember all the uniforms and all the dads being gone. Even our dog was in the service but couldn't make the transition back to civilian life. He jumped out a second story window.

[Thespian2]

21. Born in '38

Lots of memories of living in government apartments in Marietta, Georgia. Mother and Father worked for Bell Aircraft assembling B-29's. No gas=lots of walking and bicycle riding. Rationing stamps. Fake butter. Brother in the Navy on a destroyer in the Pacific. Listening to war news on the radio. Getting into the movie theatre by donating scrape metal. Growing as much food as you could on your own property. Mostly, the end of the war, and my brother coming home.

[grasswire]

24. oh, fake butter!

You mean the margarine that came in a plastic bag or something -- the margarine was white but there was a "button" of yellow dye in the package. You had to pop that button and massage the dye all through the margarine til it looked like butter.

[Thespian2]

29. Oh, yes

I think the white part was mostly lard. I remember squeezing, moulding, pounding...to get it to look a little like butter.

[Arugula Latte]

34. I just posted something about that.

My grandma continued to refer to butter and margarine as "oleo" for decades after the war ended.

[RebelOne]

36. My grandmother used to use the button to dye the margarine blue. n/t

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

25. I was 1 1/2 when it ended. Two uncles fought in the Canadian Army.

My brother-law was in the US army and guarded Japanese internees until he get a transfer to Idaho and guard Italian and German POWs. Another brother in law was in the Navy in the Pacific.

I never talked to my two Canadian Uncles but heard that both had been at Normandy. My BIL in the Pacific never talked about it. The other told about how much he hated guarding the Japanese internees because he know some of them from high school and regaled us with the stories about the Italian POW's who "fraternized" rather closely with the local Idaho farm girls. The German POWs were mostly Afrika Korps and arrogant and hated the Italians.

[clydefrand]

27. Born in Jan. '35

My more vivid memory was hearing FDR saying on the radio: 'the only thing we have to fear is fear itself'.
Next was just before end of war when found out an uncle had died in combat. I had another uncle in the army, but I believe he was lucky enough to not be in combat. My dad turned out to be 1 DAY too old to volunteer.
Of course, there was VE day and VJ day. Horns honking for hours ( and this in a small town in Va.)

[whistler162]

30. My mom was born in '36

and grew up mostly in Brooklyn NY, summers in Warren Pa. with her mom's parents. Her father, too old for the military by many years, worked at the Brooklyn Navy yard and her mother worked at the Fort Hamilton post exchange. What she has related is the number of military personnel that came through the house after church on Sundays and how much she learned to hate leftovers. She also told me about her grandmother taking her down to the local department store in Warrne and getting burlap bags and making her dress out of them.

[mainstreetonce]

31. My father

Worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard when he came home from the war.

[frogmarch]

32. My family and I

lived in Tokyo from 1946 –1950. My dad was in the Army. We lived in a military housing complex, and I remember that when I was four, some of the neighborhood military kids used to stretch out their arms and run back and forth on the common green pretending they were airplanes, yelling, “Bombs over Tokyo!” As I said, I was four at the time, but even then I thought wtf...although not in those words, because I didn’t learn the F word until I was seven.

[Arugula Latte]

33. My parents told me a bit about their childhood war memories.

A few things I recall.

- Women would draw fake seams on their legs because they didn't have nylons (I'm not sure what kind of ink they used)
- My mom recalls mixing yellow coloring into the "oleo" to make it more butter-like...Yeeech.
- My dad was in Union Square in San Francisco the day the war ended. He always remembered the raucous celebration, and that he saw his first naked woman -- cavorting in a fountain -- which apparently made a big impression on him.

[Spazito]

38. This is a fascinating thread to read, thank you for posting the OP...

I was born 8 years after the war ended and very little was talked about regarding the war. My Dad served in the Canadian Army and was in the Normandy invasion, landing on Juno beach. We knew as children not to ask Dad any questions about the war, he had been traumatized by what he saw, what happened to his mates and would never talk about it. The little we did learn was from Mom and never when Dad was around.

My Mom would talk about 'oleo', I had no idea it was margarine. No matter how tight money was, and it was very tight at times, we only ever had butter, never, never margarine.

[grasswire]

42. my uncle the P.O.W. never spoke of his experiences either, to the family.

We can only understand what happened through the accounts that others have shared over the years. I do know that he weighed less than a hundred pounds when liberated after three years. (And he was a tall fellow.)

My other uncle (who had been chasing Nazis for five years in Europe and Africa) spoke to me about some things, in the late 1990s. He told me about pitching camp in Tunisia, and how the valley filled with G.I. tents (and recently I found on the www a photo of that very camp). He said that Tunisia was the most beautiful place he ever saw.

He was briefly captured by Germans in Germany. Wounded three times.

Another uncle, Canadian born, who was in the USAF in the Pacific, told all the usual stories about eating grubs with the natives and seeing snakes as large as trees across the road, and finding an old Japanese plane in a tree with a skeleton in it.

[UTUSN]

40. One of my earliest memories was Mother bathing me & HST was on the radio

and family lore is I said, "I *like* him!1" I have good taste, what can I say?!1

[grasswire]

41. I love that bit of family lore.

Smart kid!

[Blue_In_AK]

44. I'm an early boomer, born in 1946,

so I don't remember WWII years, but I do remember Korea since my favorite uncle was a soldier.

[GoldenOldie]

45. Born 1935. Lots of memories !

Born in Pennsylvania, and then moved to New Jerseyin 1940. Although my Dad had 4 children and age 35, he worked at an airplane factory as a mechanic that had gone out on strike, Striking during a War meant immediate induction into the Army Air Corp and so he lost his righ
Ya to deferment. He was the oldest member of his Squadron, with the next one, turning 21 on their first mission. They were stationed in Italy and he was the Navigator on their Bomber. They were shot down over Turkey, yet they all made it back to their basein Italy.

I remember sitting next to our Radio listening to FDR's Firside Chats.
The blackouts during the Air Raids.
The crowded Train Cars, filled with the Troops, when we traveled to visit family in NY and Penna.
I remember the horror when my Aunt received notice that my very favorite Uncle Bill, had been killed and missing during the landing in Normandy. Peeling the silver paper from the gum wrappers and rolling in balls, collecting metal, paper for the war effort. Wrapping shoebox size packages for our Dad...toothpaste, combs, soap, and a very special candy bar.
All the children were well aware of what was happening and it was fully displayed in the Newspaper and during the Saturday Movie newsreels.

[grasswire]

47. I remember a few years later in the early 50s.

....making shoe boxes for children in Europe. We were to fill one with necessities like soap, socks, toothpaste, etc. They would be sent overseas from Red Cross or something. Each student made one. Now I see that the rude Duck Dynasty guy is conducting that very same kind of campaign. Shoeboxes to send overseas.

[kelliekat44]

46. Yes. nt

Last edited Mon Nov 24, 2014, 09:40 AM - Edit history (1)

[madfloridian]

48. Remember squeezing a clear tube with dab of orange dye to make "butter"?

Or something that looked like it. Of course there was no real butter for a while.

I remember my parents and grandparents wanting real coffee again.

[WhiteAndNerdy]

49. My parents were both born during WW II.

One of my grandfathers fought in Europe and was wounded twice. I have a copy of his discharge, which lists the medals he earned. Unfortunately, I didn't know him -- I only knew one of my grandparents, and that one didn't talk about the war.

[ladyVet]

50. Thanks to all of you for sharing these memories.

I'm a late baby boomer, born long after the Korean conflict in 1958, so I only remember the sixties!

I just recently learned that one of Daddy's brothers was in WWII, but he's been gone for many years so no idea what his experiences were like.

My parents were born in the thirties ('30 and '39), and they've talked about things over the years, mostly about the Depression, but also what their life was like during the war.

I do know that during those years, things were better for my mother's family, as they owned their home and a bit of land (probably about two acres, as I remember it). They raised chickens, cows and pigs, had fruit trees and put in a huge garden. So they ate well. Money my grandfather earned at his textile mill job went to other needs. He was a staunch Democrat, and they all loved FDR.

My father's family had it very hard, and they didn't eat well. Judging from some things he's said, I think there were days with very little or no food. His father was an alcoholic and didn't work much. Most of his wages went for booze.

[steve2470]

51. this is a great thread, thanks for posting it

My dad was in the war, but I was born way too late for this thread, 1958.

[nitpicker]

52. My mother was in England

And got bombed out of her home.

I checked on her claims on rationing and how long it lasted.

This is what Wikipedia had to say about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing_in_the_United_Kingdom

According to that, the last of the rationing ended in 1954 (AFTER the Korean armistice).

[Lars39]

54. There was a really good episode of Supersize Me about this time period.

The things they ate as food! Veggies grown, of course, but so much of everything else was "mock" in a very bad way.

[cwydro]

53. My mom and dad lived it.

Dad was about 12 and in London during the blitz. Mom in Wales, a bit older. Bombs falling ...she can still make the sounds of them falling. Later, they had a German POW living there. His name was Gunther.

[Arugula Latte]

60. Wait, did they house him while he was still a POW?

Or was that after the war?

Were POWs ever kept in private homes?

[tularetom]

55. I was born 3 months and 3 days before Pearl Harbor

By the time I was a year old both my parents were serving and my sister and I had been sent to my maternal grandparents to live. My dad was with the 1st Marine Division and my mom was a nurse in San Diego.

I spent the war years on my grandfather's farm in Sumner County Tennessee and didn't see my parents until October 1945. We stayed there on the farm for a year or so and then moved 50 miles or so to Bowling Green KY where my dad attended college and I started school.

I don't remember very much about WWII but I often recall life on the farm and things like the first time my grandparents took me fishing. Oddly enough I don't have any memories of my mom and dad coming home but I do remember one of my uncles returning from France where he'd been injured during the Normandy invasion.

[abelenkpe]

56. My grandparents were alive then

Wish they were still around. These stories are great! Wish I could have asked them about those times. All I know is my grandparents all loved and respected FDR. You guys think we'll ever have another president like him?

[Frustratedlady]

57. I was born in 1938 and remember my brother leaving for the navy.

His twin brother couldn't go and was very angry. Since my father was a farmer, the govt. considered that an essential occupation and my brother was given a deferment to help Dad. He didn't want to be separated from his twin, so he felt like he wasn't important to the war effort like his brother was. I remember the sad trip to the train station late at night. Mom was crying, lots of hugs all around and a long quiet trip home.

The brother in the navy was in charge of payroll...not sure what they called that...so he wasn't really involved in combat. He was my favorite, so when he came home on leave, I was so excited when he brought me Hershey bars. While he was home, I remember him giving me a dill pickle to take a bite of. As it turned out, I had come down with the mumps overnight and that was a method of checking if you had the mumps or swollen glands. My scream pretty much verified I had the mumps.

I remember being so sad when he returned to his ship, but we later got a call from him to let us know he was in quarantine with some of his shipmates and thanking me for giving him the mumps. Pretty nurses. I don't know if there were really pretty nurses or he was trying to make me feel important for putting him in that position.

I remember Dad loading up rusty barbed wire/fencing and other old parts of machinery for the scrap drive. We saved foil in a ball and string, although I don't recall the string having anything to do with the war effort. Since Dad was a farmer, he was allowed a certain amount of gas. That created a huge problem of guarding the gas tank from youngsters who would drive in late at night for a few gallons.

I still have some of the ration books, war bonds, cookbooks with recipes that didn't need much, if any, sugar or other rationed staples. I think it was Mondays that were to be meatless. There was also what they called Living on the farm, we didn't buy many groceries since we had a huge garden, beef/pork/chicken to butcher, etc. I remember a 100# bag of sugar they said was from the black market. Of course, my first thought was that it was also black sugar. That was toward the end of the war when lots of rationed items were becoming available through the black market. That came from my aunt's husband who worked in a govt. facility and didn't do many things that were honest in those days. Since it was summer and Mom was in need of sugar for canning, she turned an eye from the illegal part of the deal. That surprised me, as Mom was as honest as could be. With that exception, she certainly did without a lot during the war. Made our clothes out of feedsacks or patched what we already had. My grandfather was a cobbler, so our shoes weren't a problem. Everyone worked together to fill whatever void there was.

[grasswire]

59. black sugar hah!

I recall that as a child I expected navy beans to be blue.

[Tracer]

58. Born in 1940.

I don't remember anything about the war years, but one of my first memories was the day the war ended, the neighborhood built a big bonfire in the street and there was a great celebration.

However, when I was about 10, me and the neighbor boy across the street spent the entire summer in his basement playroom watching 16mm films of the war (that belonged to his father).

I can't begin to describe how that affected me, since it was my first exposure to the horrors that people do to each other.

[OxQQme]

61. Born in Los Angeles, 1940

Fondest memory from when I was about 5 yrs old.....fried SPAM sandwiches with sliced onions and tomatoes out of the 'Victory garden' on Grandma's homemade bread.