Rememberances of WW2 by a then boy....

AZ Jim

AZ Jim

R.I.P. With Us In Spirit Only
Location
SURPRISE, ARIZONA
Just got to thinkin' about my misspent youth. WW2 came to mind as a time that forged most of us into a team. Many feel that war was fought only by men in the trenches in the European theater or fighting off mosquitoes on some island known only to God and the Japanese who at that time were one of our enemies. Not true at all.

On the home front we all sacrificed. Instead of a boy in Los Angeles looking out the living room window at the yellow street lights, had he been able to see through the blackout shades he would have seen no streetlight at all as they were off due to an air raid drill or an actual alert.

While both his parents worked in the defense industry, he went to his school, had his war bond quarters with him so he could get another stamp in his book which would eventually yield a War Bond. After school he might join a few friends and prowl the neighborhood alleys in search of scrap for the collection day pickup. We saved everything from twine to tinfoil. Most on our block had a victory garden in which we grew vegetables for the supper table. Now we hear of “exciting” ways to prepare and eat “Spam”. During the war you could usually not get meat in the cities and SPAM was its readily available alternate. To this day I can’t even look at a SPAM can once alone eat it.
As a kid I just accepted that we couldn’t get some things that all kids love as a fact of life. Simple things like Fleer Bubble gum. Something in its recipe was a vital war time commodity used to make aircraft fuel tanks self-seal if hit by a bullet. Stick with me now to about 6 months after the war.

Dad came home from work and summoned my younger bother and I with an announcement. He held out his hands and we each had the shock of a lifetime as he dropped two pieces of Bubble gum into our hands. We chewed that gum till it lost all flavor, saving it over the night to be chewed the next day. I still remember that as actually being the end of WW2.
:nospamhere:
 

Touching? Touching? I never touched you!! You take that back or I'll tell teacher.:playful:
 

Rationing was in effect throughout the war. During one summer I was a camper at a wilderness camp in the Adirondacks and each camper was given an envelope with his sugar ration for the week. I had just been given my weeks envelope at breakfast and was in the process of pouring a little sugar on my oatmeal when another boy accidentally bumped me and my entire weeks worth of sugar spilled on the floor (dirt) and so I went sugarless for the whole week.:(:(
 
Periodically during the war someone would organize a scrap (metal and rubber) drive. After several of these drives most of the low hanging fruit had been brought in, but there was a large swamp near where I lived. Catching frogs and turtles in the swamp was a passion of mine so I was aware that there was a large steel hot water tank partially immersed in the swamp. It took me two days mostly up to my waste in the swamp to drag the tank onto the shore and eventually roll it half a mile to the collection station. My little bit for the war effort,

I guess most of our UK regulars are too young to remember the war, but the minor inconveniences we experienced here in the US were like nothing compared to your sacrifices.
 
I don't know but those in England lived IN the war They suffered terrible losses. The were tough though and were very brave.
 
I was a child living in Germany with loving grandparents at the time: Starvation, lack of heating, clothes and shoes mended over and over again, most nights spent in the Luftschutzkeller (air raid cellar), many hungry refugees (food and lodging was shared with them)-----pretty much a "living hell" which I can't erase from memory.
(Have never talked or written about it before--very unpopular subject for obvious reasons!)
 
Susie said:
I was a child living in Germany with loving grandparents at the time: Starvation, lack of heating, clothes and shoes mended over and over again, most nights spent in the Luftschutzkeller (air raid cellar), many hungry refugees (food and lodging was shared with them)-----pretty much a "living hell" which I can't erase from memory.
(Have never talked or written about it before--very unpopular subject for obvious reasons!)
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I understand Susie. Thanks for posting.
 
Thank you for sharing, Susie. My Dad wouldn't talk about Iwo Jima for years. He has only opened up the last few years and I can see why he didn't want to bring it up to relive.

I can remember closing all the shades during a mock drill. I often wondered why the enemy would attack our little town. We did have scrap metal drives and would gather what we could and take to town. We also had a large Victory garden.
 
Susie said:
I was a child living in Germany with loving grandparents at the time: Starvation, lack of heating, clothes and shoes mended over and over again, most nights spent in the Luftschutzkeller (air raid cellar), many hungry refugees (food and lodging was shared with them)-----pretty much a "living hell" which I can't erase from memory.
(Have never talked or written about it before--very unpopular subject for obvious reasons!)
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I'm not speaking from experience, because I've never experienced anything approaching the hardship and fear you must have experienced, but somehow my gut tells me that sharing your experience with at least one close understanding friend would be a healthier alternative than trying to bury these memories and take them unconsidered to the grave. Ideally it would be nice if the person you shared them with had also experienced something on the order of what you experienced. I suspect there are support groups on the internet for people who have shared a childhood not unlike your own. I wish you all the good fortune in the world. You took a big step in adding a comment to this thread.
 
Other than air raid whistles and street lights out, I do not remember any of the things you all remember about the war years.
Prior to the war my mother brought me back and forth, between Italy and the states. Do remember that last trip, after war broke out in Europe... traveling the North Atlantic, to avoid submarines...and being very sea sick.
Also, remember bringing metal, to be admitted to the movie theatre. And begging a neighbor to let me color her margarine (it was basically lard with a "pill" of yellow coloring...that you squeezed into it). And feeling deprived because we had to eat butter vs that "wonderful" margarine. LOL
Remember bringing a packet of food to bed every night. Hiding it under my pillow. "In case the Germans came" during the night LOL. Never the Japanese, only the Germans.
And, leaving a theatre in Times Square....when the end of the World War was declared. With everyone kissing and hugging everyone else. And being seperated from my aunt...in all the confusion.
 
I spent the WW11 years at the Hobbs Army Air Base in Hobbs, New Mexico. That was a base that repaired shot up bombers, B-25s, B-17 Flying Fortress and Super Fortresses. My dad worked in the Fire Department/Crash Department. I remember they would have blackout drills and the windows would have to be covered in some black fabric so than no light could be seen on the outside. You could be fined for not complying.
 
My memories: ah, the bubble gum! Next to my ele. school was Mike's corner store where we would get some candies and basic school supplies like those pink erasers. When the word would go out that a box of Bubble gum arrived, we'd line up all down the street for our one piece. Mike was a good guy, would just charge a penny for one piece, didn't try to take advantage of the kids. again saved, chewed, rechewed. We collected tin cans, bacon grease, and even milkweed pods, were told the fluff was going to fill life vests. Girls knitted afghan squares to make blankets for wounded soldiers. Trying to make the strings of xmas tree lights to last through the war. those all went out if one bulb went out, no replacement bulbs available. Pop would rearrange them on the tree. The last New Years eve, 1944, before the war ended, the last one went out. Pop said that meant the war would be over the next year & it was. Rationing coupons and tokens, still have a few in a drawer some place. The three young men next door that I idolized as a little girl all came home alive! One of them even wrote me little letters & post cards during the war .
 
ndynt, That's amazing, I well remember mixing the yellow dye with the margarine by squeezing the plastic bag until the color was uniform throughout. I'm sure that memory has been sitting unrecalled in my head for seventy years and would have gone with me to my grave without being retrieved had you not described your ww2 era recollection.

BYW ndynt, I don't know if you saw AZ Jim's thread today about frustratingly forgettable usernames. I'm afraid I put "ndynt" in that catagory.
 
Pearl Harbor was three days after my tenth birthday. I remember getting an atlas out to see how long it would take for the Japanese to get from California to New York. Even before the war we had "War Cards", which were packed in bubble gum. They were comic style illustrations in the bloodiest style possible of the Japanese slaughtering the Chinese, etc. No PG ratings in those days. This is life kid. Get used to it.

I well remember the scrap drives, Victory Gardens, rationing, etc. My buddy and I used to go up to the roof of our apartment house during the air raid drills wearing captured German helmets my cousin had sent home and watch the search light drills.

We used to play war in Bronx park, throwing bottles for hand grenades. I had a cardboard machine gun, and we used to take turns shooting down "Banzai" charges. Whoever "died" the "neatest" got to be the next machine gunner.

Comic books had articles teaching you how to tell a Japanese from a Chinese by the spread of their toes from wearing sandals. I learned how to identify the silhouettes of every aircraft from playing cards. If those bombers ever come, they won't get past me!

The music from the period stills moves me when I hear it. It was so deeply human. Mostly about lovers forced to part, or hope for tomorrow. "I'll Be Seeing You", "We'll Meet Again", Blue Birds Over the White Cliffs of Dover", etc. I was only a kid, but they still touch me. Just about everyone had someone at risk. Uniforms were everywhere. Families with someone in the service hung little flags with a blue star in their windows. A gold star meant that you had lost someone.

Then there were the VE and VJ day celebrations. There is no way to describe the joy and pandemonium everywhere in the streets. All of humanity giving one huge sigh of relief at the same time. I have not witnessed anything like it since. I hope there will never be an occasion for it to happen again.
 
Underock1 said:
Pearl Harbor was three days after my tenth birthday. I remember getting an atlas out to see how long it would take for the Japanese to get from California to New York. Even before the war we had "War Cards", which were packed in bubble gum. They were comic style illustrations in the bloodiest style possible of the Japanese slaughtering the Chinese, etc. No PG ratings in those days. This is life kid. Get used to it.

I well remember the scrap drives, Victory Gardens, rationing, etc. My buddy and I used to go up to the roof of our apartment house during the air raid drills wearing captured German helmets my cousin had sent home and watch the search light drills.

We used to play war in Bronx park, throwing bottles for hand grenades. I had a cardboard machine gun, and we used to take turns shooting down "Banzai" charges. Whoever "died" the "neatest" got to be the next machine gunner.

Comic books had articles teaching you how to tell a Japanese from a Chinese by the spread of their toes from wearing sandals. I learned how to identify the silhouettes of every aircraft from playing cards. If those bombers ever come, they won't get past me!

The music from the period stills moves me when I hear it. It was so deeply human. Mostly about lovers forced to part, or hope for tomorrow. "I'll Be Seeing You", "We'll Meet Again", Blue Birds Over the White Cliffs of Dover", etc. I was only a kid, but they still touch me. Just about everyone had someone at risk. Uniforms were everywhere. Families with someone in the service hung little flags with a blue star in their windows. A gold star meant that you had lost someone.

Then there were the VE and VJ day celebrations. There is no way to describe the joy and pandemonium everywhere in the streets. All of humanity giving one huge sigh of relief at the same time. I have not witnessed anything like it since. I hope there will never be an occasion for it to happen again.
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Thanks Underock1, for your recollections. Not too many of us are old enough to remember as much as you, I remember never ending games of war among the neighborhood boys. It was "bang bang you're dead" all day long.

I remember being told of the atomic bomb attacks and the announcement of the Japanese surrender was celebrated by the building of a huge bond fire on the shores of the lake.
 
Josiah said:
Thanks Underock1, for your recollections. Not too many of us are old enough to remember as much as you, I remember never ending games of war among the neighborhood boys. It was "bang bang you're dead" all day long.

I remember being told of the atomic bomb attacks and the announcement of the Japanese surrender was celebrated by the building of a huge bond fire on the shores of the lake.
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Its amazing how quickly something as major as a world war slips from the collective memory as the new generations come up.
How few know anything about WWI, which was an even greater horror. Maybe a good thing. Better to work towards a better world than argue over the errors of past generations.

Josiah, I see your dealing with your wife's Alzheimers. My wife was in the early stages of Dementia due to hardening of the arteries, as well as complications from forty years of Diabetes. I was fortunate that she only had a few episodes of confusion until very close to the end, when she became unable to communicate. Being physically seperated and making those visits, only to be mentally separated is the very worst. There is no good thing that I can say to you except to extend my sympathy for your troubles.
 
AZ Jim said:
I don't know but those in England lived IN the war They suffered terrible losses. The were tough though and were very brave.
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It wasn't only in England, Jim. Scotland got bombed as well. My DH's maternal uncles have told stories about how as kids they were sent away from Glasgow to the safety of the farms of people who offered their homes to them for protection. My DH's dad was in the RAF throughout the war.

Rationing went on the UK after the end of the war. It took them until 2006 to pay off its debt to the US for WW2.

When I told my husband we were poor as kids he asked me - did we have a car, central heating, our own bathroom, a tv, a telephone? Yes to all. So we were rich.
 
I can remember grandma playing the war tunes on her piano. We would all gather around and sing our hearts out. Some I recall are:

Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer
Over there
Anchors Aweigh
The White Cliffs of Dover
And a few more that slip my mind.
 
Underock1 said:
Its amazing how quickly something as major as a world war slips from the collective memory as the new generations come up.
How few know anything about WWI, which was an even greater horror. Maybe a good thing. Better to work towards a better world than argue over the errors of past generations.

Josiah, I see your dealing with your wife's Alzheimers. My wife was in the early stages of Dementia due to hardening of the arteries, as well as complications from forty years of Diabetes. I was fortunate that she only had a few episodes of confusion until very close to the end, when she became unable to communicate. Being physically seperated and making those visits, only to be mentally separated is the very worst. There is no good thing that I can say to you except to extend my sympathy for your troubles.
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Thank you very much for your kind words. I envy the touching communications you enjoyed with your wife at the end. That's the way everyone hopes it will be.
 
Pappy said:
I can remember grandma playing the war tunes on her piano. We would all gather around and sing our hearts out. Some I recall are:

Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer
Over there
Anchors Aweigh
The White Cliffs of Dover
And a few more that slip my mind.
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Yes, Pappy there were a lot of great WW2 songs. Here are a few more

I'll Be Seeing You
Don't Get Around Much Anymore
Till Then
I'll Walk Alone
Sentimental Journey
Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree
 
Everything was rationed. Gas, oil, tires, soft drinks, candy bars, some grocery items. If you blew a tire and didn't have a tire stamp you were out of luck. Except there was operating everywhere, a black market. If you knew the right person or someone of some importance would recommend you, you might be able to get a tire without a stamp on the black market, provided you were known to be somebody who could keep his mouth shut. A tube in a tire might have a dozen patches on it and it was not unusual to see tires on anyone's care without any sign of tread. Most service stations had cold drink machines outside their businesses, the kind of machine that held ice to cool the drinks, but they were always hot because you couldn't get ice. If they had any soft drinks at all (because they were rationed)it was Dr.Pepper. We called them hot docs. It was a difficult time for some families, because of limitations on the number of stamps available to a family and how you went about getting them.
 
Double Posted. Too bad, so sad, but let me add, this is National Poetry Month someone said, but I haven't seen much of a race or even a trace of anyone trying to post even though we have a host and a place to post, have you?
 

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