Where were you December 7, 1941?

Memories | Uncle George

[Uncle George]

Dec. 7, 1941 I was 10 years old and having fun running my toy putt-putt boat in the bath tub, you remember those steam boats you put a candle under the boiler and they run around making a loud putt-put noise. My mother came in very excited and told me Japan had bombed us at Pearl Harbor. I ran out in the front yard and many neighbors were outside loudly talking of the attack and we kids were scanning the skys for enemy airplanes because there was talk of Japan invading California and we were in the center of California. Everyone was frightened just as we were September 11, 2001. I have seen the "Sleeping Giant" awakened for the second time and I pray the Country will respond as it did in 1941. We had many less fifth column cells then but they were curtailed quickly then as our President is attempting to control these now. I remember the first soldier killed that was close to our family was my sisters boyfriend who enlisted quickly and died in battle early in the war. I remember her playing a little phonograph record he sent her as he left the U.S. We would all listen to him laughing and telling jokes and the tears would flow as we realized he and thousands more were dieing to protect this Country. Many Americans felt as we did because we took the loss of our loved ones, rationing of everything, around the clock war defence jobs without grumbling or complain. My father worked as a boiler fireman in a sawmill, lumber was a very essential product for defence. I witnessed an awakened giant in 1941 that that drew a Country together into an unbeatable force of all races and creeds that was to be my America for the rest of my life. I pray this Giant of today is the same that awakened on December 7, 1941.

[geege]

December 17th, 1961.......not even a dirty thought in my parent's head!!!!!!!!!!!

[MagnoliaMS]

Well, Taxman, we are almost twins.... I was 4 days shy of my seventh month birthday.

[johnny7]

I read about Ploesti... mostly B-25s. German 88s were everywhere.

The name “Killer Kane” comes to mind. I think his plane was a pathfinder or he was a wing commander.

All in all, another meeger result from so many planes and crews lost.

[pbear8]

I wasn't born yet but my mother remembers the Japanese planes flying over her house in Honolulu, she was seven. My grandparents were civilians, they lost civilian friends in the attack.

[MattAMiller]

35 years and 13 days from my first glimpse of sunlight.

On September 11th I woke up and turned on the shower. The pressure was low due to an ongoing plumbing problem. So I just decided to flip on the TV. I was just begining to make sense of everything when the Pentagon was attacked.

I really wanted to stay home, but I had a busy day of school. The campus was deadly quiet. I had a habit of grabbing a doughnut and a coffee before my first class, every single person in the cafe was watching TV in complete silence. It was just erie.

I tried to order a pizza that evening so I could stay home and watch the news, but the wait was 1 hour and 45 minutes.

[Beach_Babe]

My folks were celebrating my oldest brother's 6th birthday ... I wasn't born until 1947.

I received the following in an email from a friend (and hopefully future FReeper) which I'd like to share ...

I know my own Father came to this country from Scotland and I can remember him telling my sister and I about how he and his family could not wait to become Americans ... how he struggled to learn to speak as the other kids in school did (and not with the brogue that was prided in Scotland), wear long pants as the other kids did (and not the knickers that were normal for Scottish boys), celebrate the American holidays as his own etc, etc, etc....

They WANTED to become Americans in every way shape and form, and when the war broke out (WWII) Dad went down to enlist just like every other red-blooded American boy was doing....

Unfortunately, Grandma and Grandpa hadn't gotten citizenship for Dad and his brother when they came over 'cause they didn't understand that they would need to be citizens in their own right and only got citizenship for themselves....

So when the U.S. Navy wouldn't take him, he walked across the Ambassador Bridge into Canada and enlisted in the Canadian Navy which had to take him as he was technically still a British subject...

Then the next day his brother thought that was a good idea so he went over, but the Navy office was closed so he joined the Army (98th Highlanders)...

They wanted to fight for this country and were gonna figure out a way to do it, one way or another... they wanted to be a part of this country... never forgot their Scottish Heritage, but never forgot that they were Americans now....and instilled THAT in us kids ...

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for your ping! Looking at this generation v the one that "lived" WWII, it makes me sad. We've taken so much for granted.

[Taxman]

Then we must remember to wish each other Happy Birthday next May!

[mathluv]

I was born 4 days after Pearl Harbor. My grandson is 10 years old today. Happy Birthday, Zach! - and all others who have this Day of Infamy as a birthday. Those who forget - or want to forget such days as this in history - are doomed to repeat them.

[Calico Cat]

My father was three years old, my mother was four years away from being born and I was happy in my previous life as a middle-aged, exceedingly rich, VERY Tory, High-Anglican British aristocrat. I was puffing a cigar and sipping a whisky in the library when the news of the attack came. "I say--it's sad, but now maybe we'll win this bloody War," I said to my butler. "Russian blood, British resolve and American money. Now maybe we can get rid of the horde," I said, referring to the dozen or so London Blitz-escapees who had turned my Devonshire manor into a Camden Town kindergarten.

[MWS]

Well, I was long from being born... but my grandpa was at a certain base when the event happened... heard explosions and thought that they were doing blasting for construction or something...

I am very glad he survived, because he is such a great man (he is not my biological grandfather, but I am proud of him all the same)...

[Capt. Tom]

I was 6 years old sitting in my grandmothers kitchen with one of my uncles who was on military leave.

They didn't say Pearl Harbor had been attacked but there was a repetative message coming from the radio that said:" All military personell regardless of your present assignment report back to your last duty station immediately."

The kept saying this over and over and my uncle left and I didn't see him for 5 years. - Tom

[Uncle George]

My sisters husband was in the Air Force, stationed in England. He was a member of the ground crew that maintained the bombers that bombed Germany(Twelve oclock high movie). He did not like to tell of the wounded and frozen bomber crews he he helped remove from the tattered planes after they returned from their missions.We laid him to rest two years ago. These heros who are passing away did this Country such a service, they will be remembered always.

[Uncle George]

Well its 2003 now, anyone remember where they were Dec.7, 1941?

[Uncle George]

Bump

[scan58]

In Richmond, VA - you would have been taking your "afternoon" nap. :-)

I'm not old enough to have been even a sparkle in my Dad's eye, but he has told me about that day. He paid a quarter to watch a western - "Heroes of the Saddle" starring "The Three Mesquiteers" at the Strand Theater in Great Bend, KS.
He said the movie stopped and the house lights went up then the manager came in and told everyone. Some got up and left. Dad said he thought about leaving, too, but he didn't want to waste his quarter.

[Taxman]

LOL! Forgot about the 6 hour time difference, but then, I was 7 month old. What did I know?

[calawah98]

I was 2 months shy of 10 years old. I was with my dad cutting wood, along with the rest of the family, and some guy stopped and told my dad. We headed home, had a battery radio and listened to the news.
I remember a pack train of mules going by the school loaded with supplies for the Coast Guard at Lake Ozette. They dug fox holes behind the school, and we had air raid drills.
We seen convoys of army trucks all the time headed to Neah Bay or Lake Ozette.
We did not have electric lights, just kerosene lights, but still had to black out the windows at nite.

The books were called ration books, there were stamps for sugar, gas, shoes, one pair a year, if I remember right. I still have a couple of the ration books stuck away somewhere.

We had an out door toilet, with two holes, and I was sitting there kicking my feet, and one of my shoes came off and went right down the other hole!!! My dad had to fish it out, but I always was doing some dumb thing, or so I have been told. ha
I remember getting my shoes soaking wet, and sticking them in the wood stove oven, and forgot to check on them. Needless to say they curled up into a ball, so I was in trouble again.
We lived on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington State, not far from Neah Bay, right on the tip of the Olympic Peninsula so we seen a lot of traffic from the military going by all the time.

[Uncle George]

For all the Freepers out there, I post my yearly Dec.7 rememberance.

Uncle George

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for sharing your memories and your tribute! Hugs!