FORTIES

I was young during WW2 but remember how we all cried when the teacher told us Pres. Roosevelt died. I also have a clear memory of driving by neighbors houses and seeing the gold or silver stars in the windows hanging on what looked to be a velvet tapestry. One color meant they had a son in the service another color meant a serviceman had been killed. Can't remember which color told which, do you? I remember crying myself to sleep when there were " blackouts".thinking we would all be killed when planes flew over. I lived in Nebraska then and came to Ar. in 1950. I remember Pearl Harbor, we called the Japenese "Japs". I know there were no nylons available as they used the nylon for parachutes. Ladies put on hose make up on their legs to make it look like hose. They even put a "seem" up the back, in those days hose had seems and ladies had to be sure their seems looked straight. We had rationing stamps we had to use to buy tires, shoes, gas,suger and other stuff. Even if you had money, which no one did, you still were just allowed so many stamps. I didn't think we were poor as every one we knew were just like us. Dad was a farmer. Our intertainment was gathering around the radio and listening to Red Skelton, Lux radio theatre, and best of all the grand ol' opry on Sat. nights on W.L.S. Nashville. Gee! Didn't mean to ramble on, so will quit. ~~~~~

I was 9 years old in 1943. Not only do I remember all of those things I still have my own ration books. Mother saved everything and I am so glad. I scanned some pages and made a scrapbook page about them and some clippling from news papers of 1943 she had saved. My brother was born in Dec of '43 and she saved the papers. My kids and grandkids look at the clippings about rationing in wonder. Did your family every have the radio that you hooked up to a car bttery that sat outside the window and had to be charged often. Then the thousand hour packs came along. Well I lived in the country and no electricity. Never missed any of those old programs. We listened to KWTO Springfield, Mo on the radio too and later some of those early enertainers ended up in Nashville

I remember listening to "Mystery Theater" with Jack, Doc and Reggie, "The Shadow" and "The Lone Ranger", Fibber McGee and Mollie, Jack Benny, and so many others. Margarine (butter) was white and had a small packet of yellow powder that you had to mix in the white stuff to make it look real. You could go to the movie and see the main feature, short subjects, the news, and a serial for 10 cents. Popcorn cost a nickel and so did a Coke. And the Hershey bars were big and much better then. They also cost a nickel. We saved aluminun cans and foil and had contests to see who could bring in the most. Schools practiced bomb drills just like fire drills. Oh, these memories. so you didn't miss Sky King and ordered the decoder ring so you would know what would happen next. You girls, the new look and your first pair of nylons for 8th grade graduation, still no lipstick. No high heels yet either. Not in my school at least. That was the late 40's. playing jacks at recess using rocks sometimes for the jacks. All you needed was a ball. I bet kids don't even play jacks anymore.

I remember most of the radio shows some of you mentioned but I guess my best memory is of some of the toys we played with back at the time.. Most of them we made by ourselves.. The first one that comes to mind is a kite. Mine was always made with flour paste, newspapers and tall weeds for sticks. We used the string from feed sacks. I remember a kite flying contest in grade school that I was in and about the time I had that dude way up there, lo and behold, I had this sudden urge for a BM. After getting that kite up there so high, I wasn't about to bring it down. So I made this terrible mess in my pants. Another homemade toy I remember was one what we called a rubber gun. It was cut from an old board of just about any kind shaped like a long barrel pistol. We would take an old innertube and cut rubber bands off it. We would have a clothespin fastened to the handle end and stretch the big rubber band fron the end of the barrel to the clothespin trigger. They worked very well and could raise a whelp on you if the barrel was long enough (3ft).

1940. My folks had gone to the pub. A landmine hit our street.The bottom storey of our house was gone. Only the stairway was left intact. We were in bed in the upper storey and unhurt.

A few days later I was on a train to the countryside as an evacuee.

I was put into a home for strange children. Well they were strange to me! Mostly deformed youngsters. I was fairly quickly moved to a farm.

My father brought us back to a new home outside the city. But inline with the route of the flying bombs from France to London.

We would watch the Spitfires and the Hurricanes diving in at an angle to tip the wings sending them earthward before they got to London. Only the Mustang was fast enough to keep up with them in level flight.

Evacuated again!! This time to South Wales. I had just passed the "scholarship" and attended a grammar school with the boy of the family that took me.

We moved again, further south to Hastings and I rejoined the family again. Unfortunately minus Dad, who disappeared from our lives.

I attended a grammar school as the first non-paying pupil. Mum got a grant for my uniform etc. It went on food. My stay at the school was rough. I didn't fit in.

In 1947 at the age of 14 my mother signed me into the army.

It took me 20 years to get out!.