December 7, 2014 was the 73rd anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
I decided several weeks ago to write about that day. Big Problem! I have no specific memories of that day. I was in first grade and world events were not something I was concerned about. What to do? I decided to ask others what they remembered. This is a compilation of some things that friends and family members remember.*
One of my classmates said that she heard her parents talking about it. The next day at school she could not stop crying. Everyone kept asking her why she was crying and she wasn’t sure why. Finally someone asked if she thought that her Daddy was going to have to go to war. She said, yes, that was why she was crying
A friend who grew up in San Antonio remembers that her family attended a church whose membership included military families from the bases in San Antonio. One member was a chaplain. Her family was home that afternoon when they saw the chaplain walking up to their house. She said her mother immediately said, “Something is wrong.” The chaplain came in and told them about the attack.
A friend from Breckenridge, Maurice Turner, posted this on Facebook two years ago. “I grew up in Odessa and was in the first grade. We were driving around in our car, my parents and brother and sister. The radio said they were bombing our country. In my small mind I thought we could just all lay down and put catsup on us. When they flew over, they would think we were dead and go home.” Her husband Bobby grew up in Breckenridge and was in the third grade. He had a paper route and was delivering the Breckenridge American. A lady opened her paper and told him, “Son this is old news. The United States was bombed today.”
One of my cousins who grew up in a small west Texas town had been to a movie and was walking home when the town’s main emergency siren began to sound. It scared him. He expected emergency vehicles to pass. Soon he began to hear the secondary sirens in other parts of town. When the sirens kept blaring and no vehicles went by, he became even more frightened and started running toward home. When he burst into the house, his mother was sitting in the living room crying. The radio was on. Her emotion scared him even more although he didn’t realize the significance of what she began telling him. His Dad and an uncle were deer hunting. They decided to go into a nearby town and have a meal. His uncle was already in the military. The waiter asked if he was on the way back to his base. He replied no, he had a couple more days leave. The waiter told them what had happened and that all military personnel had been called back to their bases. His uncle immediately returned to Camp Bowie in Brownwood, TX.
We owe eternal thanks to those who fought for our freedom.
*All references used with permission.