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From: wlg <gonefishin@thelake.com>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.rolex
Subject: Pearl Harbor Day
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Date: Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:56:56 +0100
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You are probably too young to remember, but I remember 12/7/41: it was
a Sunday, like today, and as the news came over the radio in the
afternoon, the whole family sat around glumly, silently, taking it all
in. I was too young to understand much of what was happening, except I
knew it was not a good thing. Not long after came rationing books,
blackout curtains, and my father became the Block Warden, with a tin
hat, flashlight and bucket of sand to put out incendiary bombs that the
Japanese (or Germans) might drop on Spokane, Washington. The children
all became adept at spotting enemy aircraft from silhouettes furnished
in small books, along with bird, tree and insect identification (not in
the same books, however), and when the air raid sirens sounded, we dove
under our desks to save our lives from falling debris. We saved tin
cans (smashed flat to conserve space), fat and drippings that were
somehow supposed to be turned into munitions, and for reasons I've never
understood, we had massive paper drives. Of course we were constantly
bombarded with appeals to buy Savings Stamps, which would then be turned
into War Bonds, probably the worst dollar investment even conceived,
because they were paid out in post war devalued dollars at about 1/3
original face value. But what is new? Happy Pearl Harbor Day.
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