The War Years

My elementary years were the years of the Second World War. Without TV to show the gruesome realities of war, my sister and I were ardent patrits. The war added a dimension of excitement to our sleepy litte town. Because the landscape of Murfreesboro was similar to landscape in parts of Germany, it was chosen as the site for war maneuvers. Soldiers and convoys were suddenly everywhere. One morning we woke up to find tents in our front yard and even a soldier sleeping on the glider on our front porch. I strapped on my holster and toy pistol and ran out to greet the soldiers. They stayed in our yard several days, and we got to know them. They named me their little “Pistol Packing Mama.”

Many convoys passed down South Church Street. I remember endless tanks and truckes and jeeps full of soldiers. For some reason, Gloria and I felt it was our patriotic duty to wave at each of them. If we heard a convoy oming, we grabbed a chair and placed it as close to the road as we could, and waved and waved. If the convoy passed at night, we were not deterred. We would open the windows by our bed and lean out as far as we could and wave. I’m not sure what motivated us. I can remember my arm getting very tired, but I’d say to myself, “I must keep waving. It is my duty.”

The war kept me very busy as a child. Another wartime activity that seems archaic now but was deeply satisfying to me was smoothing out the foil from candy bars. First I got to eat the candy. Then for what seemed like hours on end I would run my fingers over the wrinkles and crinklels of the paper until it was completely smooth, watching the colors meld and blend. I didn’t know then and I don’t know now what these papers were used for, but I took it very seriously, and turned in a pile weekly.

Another satisfying project during the war was stripping the wrappings from tin cans and jumping on the cans to squash them. And of course there was the weekly duty to bring a dime to school to purchase a saving stamp to paste onto my stamp book until enough weeks had passed to fill the book and purchase a savings bond.