OK - one more "personal" question - to give everyone a chance to finish the book - and then, we'll get into the book itself.
Even though some of us are "older than dirt," we're all too young to "remember" WW2. However, there are things I'm sure that we have been told by relatives related to the war. What are some of these family memories?
Several "family memories" were triggered by reading this book. In Bernice 3: Bird on a Wire, Bernice thinks about Amelia Earhart who won the "Bendix Air Race in 1938." My mother went to work at Bendix during the war. I think it was the first time she had worked since she was married. There is supposed to be a photo of her in the Bergen Evening Record (local paper) related to "women working for the war effort."
My sister told me about one of her girlfriends - a Japanese-American - who disappeared from school one day. My sister heard that she had been placed in a "camp" and was upset.
Finally, I remember my mother disliking Eleanor Roosevelt bc she encouraged women to give up their silk stockings. My mother always had great legs & hated Eleanor Roosevelt forever bc of that.
I was born just before WWII and have some real memories. My handsome Uncle Stan in dress blues. Looking like a Viking warrior. My Aunt Lil squeezing orange tablets thru the white oleo, sitting outside in a black out watching the sky.
I was 5 when Roosevelt died and remember being scared that we were going lose the war. Remember listening to the radio about the Big Bomb that blew up half an island some where?? A few years later my Dad kept us home from school to watch tv of a live A-Bomb test in WhiteSands Nev.....that had to be after '48 which when we got our 1st tv.
I remember rationing and the damn cards. My mom bought a fur coat to stay warm.....it was skunk dyed a pretty black...felt wonderful and looked marvelous until it got wet! PHEW! And never in my life have I hankered for a fur coat!
I remember saving tin foil in big balls and any scrape metal. The scrape guy came every other Mon after the iceman in the summer. We lived to listen to the radio....woke up in Rambling with Gambling, learned about love with Stella Dora and One Man's Family. I had alot of family still in Denmark and worried endless about them.
Yes, I remember being told by my sister about the oleo and yellow dye or tablets or whatever they had to mix in it to make it butter-colored. Also, that with rationing, they apparently ate a lot of canned meat products, and once the war was over, my father wouldn't allow canned meat in the house again. I guess he'd had his fill of it. I discovered Spam when I was in college and living in the dorms - we would slice it thin and fry it up in crispy slices and make sandwiches with mustard. I LOVED it! I asked why we never had it at home and was shushed by my mother - we don't EAT that; you don't KNOW what may be in it. Horse meat, maybe. That dampened my enthusiasm a bit - I had a part-time job giving riding lessons at a residential school for emotionally disturbed kids while I was in school. I grew up riding, and the thought of eating horse meat was pretty awful. I remember watching a lot of war movies on television - soldiers being seen off at train stations by their wives and girlfriends - and I remembered being referred to as the "baby boomer generation" - the post-war spike in the birth rate with all the troops coming home.
I'm afraid my addiction to Gone to Soldiers has kicked in again - I'm reading every available minute.
TTFN,
Z
I was 5 when Roosevelt died and remember being scared that we were going lose the war. karen3
Karen, I was born the day before Roosevelt died. My big brother (12 years older) used to tease me that President Roosevelt heard I had been born & dropped dead!
It was late in the war when we hadn't had much sugar or butter and a patient gave my father a pound of butter. He gave it to my Aunt Lil and he cried when she mixed it with 5lbs of oleo to stretch it. Oleo tasted like Crisco.....greasy lard. They had to sell it white so that it wouldn't be taken for butter. Butter was shipped to Russia and the rumor was that the Russians used it to grease the wagon wheels......Rumors OMG they were always flying.
We lived in an area that was settled by Germans (1700's) and some towns changed their names....Germantown,NJ became Oldwick.
My Uncle Christian in Denmark told of laying outside at night and clapping his hands silently when the US bombers flew over.
I have the local church ladies cook books with recipes making things like sugarless eggless cake....even a chocolate sourkraut cake......any takers? karen3
My grandmother went to work in a sheet metal factory during the War, on the line, and stayed there until she was 70-years-old. She only left because they were laying people off. She was shocked to find they intended to keep her and let go the young man with a family who worked beside her, so she told them to lay her off and keep him. They did.
Last edited by Phillygirl2; 02-24-2008 at 04:53 PM.
This isn't exactly a "memory," but a thought that reading this book has triggered.
BC of a cousin's genealogy, our family found out that our grandfather and his parents were Jewish. While our parents (my mother, my cousins' father) knew this, they had died without telling us. I was pretty judgmental about this and angry at our parents for hiding their ethnicity and not telling us about about our heritage. My feeling was that they were living here from the late 1800's, so they didn't have to worry about what was going on with European Jews, so why would they hide who they were.
Reading this book is giving me some understanding of the fear that Jews in this country were going through. That they could have expected horrible things to happen to them even though they didn't live in Europe.
Hmmm, I was born in January 1945, so really have no memories of the war itself. My dad was in the National Guard, so did not go overseas. I still have a ration book in my name!
I grew up in Berkeley, CA. One of my earliest memories is sitting in the dark (black-outs) because of Japanese subs having been spotted off the west coast. My dad was a professional photographer and he used his black light blocking fabric to put over the windows. I can rember the smell of the eucalyptus trees in the fog. The damp from the fog dripped off the tips of their leaves.
In later years, my parents told me that I couldn't possibly remember this because I was too young. Not so - I remember. Especially the trees in the fog.
I remember the oleo margerine with the color capsules. I used to want to do the squeezing, but I always gave up after a couple of squeezes. I wonder now, why bother mixing all that color in. It didn't make it taste any different.
I remember being given the ration books to play with after the war was over. I got a big kick out of tearing the little stamps out of the book. I thought they were something valuable.
My maiden name was Hildebrand. The family claimed that they were of Dutch rather than German origin during the war. They didn't want anyone to associate them with Hitler or the ****s by virtue of being of German heritage.
My dad always listened to the news in the morning. I remember the news caster's speaking of the "****S". I heard the word **** as "not see". I wondered what it was that someone was "not seeing". I was a pretty clever little kid! The first time I saw the word **** in print, I had no idea what the word was or how to pronounce it.
I remember my mother taking me along while she helped another lady to learn how to drive. The woman's husband was in the war, so she needed to be able to drive so she could take care of her needs.
I remember the postman was a lady! That was a great source of fascination to me. Today, ladies can be postmen and presidents! Quite a few things have changed, haven't they?
Hey all..i just orderd this book so i could read what all the talk was about.. im an avid reader so am excited to read this..my dad fought in ww 2 he was a captain ,pilot of a p38 bomber and he flew cover for the yalta convention..i have his miltary records..his brother was shot down and never recovered over tokyo bay.. his mother kept a scrapbook about him and theres the origial missing in action telegram and newsclippings about him..i still have that..also my fil was a navigator for a B-24 Liberator and was shot down over germany and was in a prisoner of war camp there for 18 months.. we have cassette tape telling of his experiences..he just received the distiguished flying cross for this last april.. my mil accepted the award for him as he passed several years ago( shes 86 and going strong and has lots of stories about the war) to say the least we are a very patriotic family..after i read this book i can discuss the questions too..im happy to join in.. thanks rosey ps..oh and i remember oleo..my sisters and used to argue who got to mix the yellow dye!
I taken a long time to answer this question, trying to dredge up a memory about the war. I have very few. we lived in the country, and had cows, so we had "real" butter. The food rations didn't affect us, we grew almost everything we ate. The only real memory I have is my greatgrandma, who was German, telling us "we speak American, we're Americans". She had a very thick accent. I don't know if they were afraid of being discriminated against. There was a large population of German imigrants in that area. They must have had very torn feelings, having family in Germany. I wish I had know to ask more questions. I'm sure my grandma would have known, and she just recently passed away. And with here all the things I would have liked to have known.
We have a DF who enlisted in the army and was sent to Africa early in the war. 3rd day in Africia got separated from troops and ended up captured by Romeys men. Spent rest of the war first in POW camp in Italy and then in Germany. Was NCO and was not sent on work details. So played cards all day. Food was limited and mainly vegie soup....turnips mostly. When released from camp walked across Germany just to stay ahead of Russians. When he got home mother made him hugh meal of vegetable soup. He still suffers from chilbains and even with electric socks is uncomfortable in the winter.
"Gone to Soldiers" - DQ #3
ps..oh and i remember oleo..my sisters and used to argue who got to mix the yellow dye!
