Growing Up During World War II
When President Roosevelt gave his radio message about the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor, I listened with my family. I was 8 years old and lived with my father, mother, and sister in Los Angeles. We had black-out curtains on our windows, and an inner room (hall) where we could have a small light and we had a stash of food and board games to play. There were air raids--at night all lights had to be out including headlight on cars. If you were driving during an air raid it was quite an adventure--at least we kids thought so. Food and gas were rationed. My father rode his bike a long, long way to work to save gas stamps so we could go on vacation in the summer. We had air raid drills at school--no under the desks, but on the first floor of our two story brick building. (Not safe at all.) Our family went to the movies nearly nearly every Friday night, watched all the war movies and horrible news reels--which got worse and worse as the war came closer to the en...