On Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:56:56 +0100, wlg <gonefishin@thelake.com>
wrote:
>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.
And to you as well.
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