We were fortunate to have grown up with those who served in WW II and were willing to talk some. That generation is disappearing rapidly and nothing will be left except what we have now. When I was a kid there were still Civil War stories about relatives being told. Just a few years ago one of the old men in the orchestra, who had served in the Navy, in the Pacific and Atlantic in WW II, asked me in all seriousness if our conductor was Japanese: it mattered to him.
I am 64, so I still have a ration book issued in my name in 1943. We are the bridge to the baby boomers. I can recall serving on the USS Iwo Jima [LPH-2] taking the 1/26th Marine Battalion to Vietnam. On the way over we stopped by the island of Iwo Jima and held a ceremony in honor of the battle on the flight deck with the Marines on deck including two Gunneys who had been in the battle. A moving moment and a real life link to the past.