Remembering Pearl Harbor

[ezdays]

I'm old enough to remember that speech. I heard it but I didn't understand it. It took a long time before I did realize we were at war, but I still didn't know what that meant. I remember the air raid drills and the blackouts. I remember the long lines of cars waiting for gas, and just about every gas station had a "no gas" sign in their driveways. I remember rationing stamps and the empty shelves at the grocery stores. When I was old enough to read, I remember thinking what it would be like not to see the headlines each day talking about things that were happening with the war. I still didn't understand that we were not immune to having the war come onto our shores. I still remember the headlines when they caught some saboteurs with plans to blow up several railway stations. It kind of hit home since one of those stations was in Newark, New Jersey, one I was familiar with since it was just a few miles from our home.

There was no TV, just radio and the newsreels at the local movies. I'd go to the Saturday matinée and see pictures of the war and it all seemed the same until once, for a brief moment, I saw a picture of my uncle on board a ship that was in a battle. He made it through the war, but passed away a few years later. Those that are still with us are dwindling each year on this anniversary, but there are still those that still have vivid memories of this day 71 years ago because they were there. They and all the others are all heroes in the true sense of the word and have every right to be proud of the service they gave to save our country.

I suppose I was fortunate that my age sheltered me from the horrors of that day and the ones that others endured in both Europe and the Pacific and I have to ask myself, why? No one gained anything as a result, and it's still true of what's going on in the world around us today.........

That's my first hand remembrances of went on here at home during those times and my lasting impressions of the results.