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Father was stationed in NYC during WWII and I was born on an army base in the harbor. Mother described driving thru the blacked-out city at night to get to the ferry and having to peer at the traffic lights with tiny X’s cut into black tape to navigate the streets.

When they were stationed at a seaside city in New Jersey, she said they could stand on the beach and watch tankers hit by Japanese submarines on fire. The fuel from the ships would cover the beach and water and it was always a job to clean off my older brother if he went into the water.

I was raised in Chicago, which she said was hardly aware of there being a war on, as no blackouts, etc.