Jean Henderson

              Eric Walz History 300 Collection
Jean Henderson – Life During WWII
By Jean Henderson
October 26, 2004
Box 6 Folder 14
Oral Interview conducted by Paige Porter
Transcript copied by Devon Robb March 2006
Brigham Young University – Idaho
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JH: Did she tell you how old I am?
PP: How old are you?
JH: I’ll be 86; my birthday is coming up.
PP: Oh my word! Congratulations!
JH: Oh, that I’ve made it this long. I’m the oldest of five living generations. I have
children and grandchildren and great- grandchildren and great- great grandchildren.
PP: Whoa!
JH: A lot of people do but not too many anyways. Go ahead with your questions.
PP: Where were you born?
JH: Do you want the city or the state? I was born in Ohio, Yellowstrings, Ohio. That’s
not hard to spell. It’s a small town in central Ohio.
PP: How old were you on December 7, 1941?
JH: I was born in 1918, so you can subtract it. I was born November 30, 1918. You said
December 31? Or December what?
PP: December 7, 1941.
JH: Oh, it’s when the war started. I don’t really have time to subtract that right now.
PP: I’m subtracting it right now.
JH: You can do it fast at your age; I used to be able to too.
PP: Were you 28 then?
JH: That sounds about right. I know I was really young during the war. I would have had
two or three children by then and work was hard to get and so I was just concentrating at
that time of my life. Of course, I know about the war and I knew about it at the time, but
a lot of things went on that we didn’t know about. You know, like the terrible camps in
Germany and things like that. But, for some reason or another the general public didn’t
know it. Anyway, go ahead.
PP: What do you remember about that day?
JH: Wait a minute; my washer is acting up. Hold on a minute.
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PP: Okay. What do you remember about that date that the war started, December 7,
1941?
JH: I remember, of course, we had no T. V. at that time, naturally, and I remember them
announcing it on, it was in the morning, it happened in the morning. I just remember
them announcing it on the radio.
PP: What did you think when you heard about the attack?
JH: That the war had started? What did they think? Well, I had never been in a war and
so, of course, it was pretty scary to me. President Roosevelt was the president at the time
and he was very popular. I remember the morning that this happened when he came on
and said his famous speech of ‘ this is a day of infamy’ or something to that effect. At any
rate, yes, I do remember. I don’t remember how I took to it because as I said I had really
small children at the time. My husband wouldn’t have had to go because he was married.
See, in that war, everybody was; we didn’t have a man on the street during all those times
after it started because everybody had to go. Not like the war now.
PP: So your husband didn’t have to go?
JH: No, he didn’t have to go because we had young children.
PP: Did any of your relatives, any brothers, or anything like that?
JH: Yes, my only brother had to go, but he didn’t serve until it started in Japan. First was
in Germany, you know. I think was already through in Germany. At any rate, it started in
Japan and then he had to go when it started in Japan only he left the month that it was
over.
PP: Oh. Lucky.
JH: So he really never served in the hard war. But I knew a lot of people and I had
several friends that were killed and died in that war. Young friends.
PP: Where did they serve?
JH: Yes, in Germany. And France.
PP: Did you make any new friendships during the war?
JH: Probably, but I’m sorry I don’t remember, ‘ cause that was the time, I lived in Ohio,
but in that time I moved to California. This was where the world was really moving was
in California. My husband went to work at Lockheed, here in California, but otherwise I
lived in Ohio. So, I made a lot of friends, yes. But, I don’t remember their names
anymore. They were all young; everybody was young.
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PP: Did you get together with your old friends from home, when the war started?
JH: … Probably not before the war started. No, we have since and I still have one friend
that’s still living, that lives in Texas. He was in the war. He became a, well everybody
became an officer in this war. I don’t know what he was, lieutenant, colonel; or maybe a
major, I’m not sure. Anyway, he’s still living. He lives in Texas. Yes, I still have friends
and my husband’s best friend was killed the very first week that he went to Germany, he
was killed.
PP: Did he have a wife and children?
JH: Yes, he had a wife and a baby.
PP: Oh, sad. Do you have anything else that you would like to say about the family
aspect or what you and your family did when the war started?
JH: You know, it started a long time before we were really involved in it. I lived in the
country in Ohio and I remember my brother’s picture with a star; that’s what everybody
did was, when you had anybody that was serving, you put a picture and a star in your
window. As I say, he didn’t get killed because he went in just when the, he finally had to
serve when the war was over.
PP: What kept him from serving before that? Why didn’t they make him go sooner?
JH: They took first, of course, the single people.
PP: Was your brother married when he went?
JH: No, he was not, wasn’t married at all until after the war was over. He was in his early
twenties. He was going to Ohio State University. When he was called, well then of
course, he couldn’t go on to school for a while. But, then after the war was over he went
ahead and finished. He wasn’t married until a couple years after the war was over.
PP: What was your image of Hitler and Mussolini and Hirohito?
JH: We really didn’t know. When you don’t have T. V. and you just have a newspaper
and they kept everything very much from the public. We were not really aware. All
during the war I never heard of those terrible camps in Germany. We didn’t know any of
that was going on until the war was over and they started taking the men that were at fault
in Germany, and the officials. And, eventually a lot of them were executed. But, this all
happened after the war and why we didn’t know. See we only had newspapers; it’s hard
for you to imagine this, there’s no T. V.; we didn’t even have a radio because we didn’t
have electricity at home. So we had a battery radio. I didn’t live in a home with electricity
or any modern convenience, any inside toilet or anything. I didn’t have that until I was
well into my twenties and I already had a child for several years. As I say I lived in the
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country. Is there anybody, no you don’t know anybody anymore that doesn’t have
electricity and modern conveniences, I guess, do you?
PP: Uh- uh.
JH: Even like a bathroom, you know, we didn’t have any of those things; nothing but a
house. Not running water. We had to get it from a pump and carry it into the house. So
that was the way I lived until I was well into my twenties. When I came to California,
then, of course, we had a modern home. What else did you ask me? As I say what I was
afraid of when you said you needed to know a lot about the war. They didn’t keep us
informed of what was going on. You could hear some of it but it was so, I can’t think of
the word. Anyway, it was kept from the public, we didn’t know.
PP: Do you [ think] that it was kept from all of the public regardless of your…
JH: Pretty much except maybe the high- ups in Washington. We didn’t know anything
about the terrible things that were going on in Germany and never heard of such a thing
until, well quite a bit after the war was over.
PP: When you found out what had happened what was your image of these leaders in the
other countries?
JH: Oh, it’s always been horrible, I mean, Hitler and all of his cohorts and everybody.
Yes, it was horrible. And Americans never heard of such a thing. Of course, I’ve always
thought of the children and the old people. The children and the old people just, well,
they just didn’t live through it very much. They killed them by the hundreds of
thousands, the millions, really. We didn’t know anything about that until the war was
over. It was complete surprise; in fact it was a good many years after the war was over.
And why the public was kept from this, I don’t know. ‘ Cause even people that were in
the service didn’t know it.
PP: That were fighting for our country…
JH: Right, they did not know it, no. They would hear of things but some way or another, I
still don’t understand why the general public wouldn’t know about it. But, we didn’t. I
lived in the country but we always had a newspaper and then, even when I moved to the
city. I came to California during the war, which was 1942, I believe. 1942 and ’ 43 is
when I came to California, and I lived near Lockheed. Do you know where Lockheed is,
have you ever heard of it?
PP: I haven’t. Can you spell that for me?
JH: It’s just the way it sounds, L- O- C- K- H- E- E- D. And it’s in Burbank, California and
it’s still there, I believe. But, anyway that’s where we came when we came to California
and got work. Course, work was hard to find. It was like it is now; work was pretty bad
because all there was manufactured. And, when the war was over, that was in August,
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when the war was over, my husband had finally got the job. He had worked for about a
year, or a year and a half…
PP: Where did he get the job?
JH: At Lockheed, a sub- city area. Lockheed is a huge, well I don’t think it is anymore,
but it was a huge manufacturing, they manufactured airplanes, and parts of course, and
they were very busy. He was too; he had a good job for about a year and a half. But,
when the war was over everything stopped. It just stopped completely. We had no way
to— there were no jobs for at least two months. My husband just made up his mind,
immediately we went back to Ohio and left the mess. We should not have because it took
about two or three months for the world to open up and business started again but
everything had to be converted from wartime to peace; even every store, everything that
was bought and sold. We lived with, during the war; everything was rationed, so many
points for sugar and so many points for gasoline. If you had a car, course you only got so
much gas for your car. But that was for at least two years before the war was over. And
all of this stopped when the war was over. You had to change to peacetime. I was really
young. I was like in my early twenties. It was hard, it was scary for a while. But, business
picked up and they started making, in the big plants, they started making everything
again. And so things picked up in a short minute.
PP: How long after the war ended did it take to pick up again?
JH: Oh, it was about two months.
PP: So, during those two months it was just stagnant.
JH: Yeah, it was because a lot of people just got scared, the men were all coming home
from the war, the soldiers were all coming home and they all needed jobs. And there were
no jobs and manufacturing wasn’t started up yet and for a while it was really bad and, of
course, I was away from home. What I called home was Ohio. I was away from home
and I remember how frightened I was. I had two children at that time.
PP: What were you frightened of?
JH: Just nothing; no place to live and no money. I’m sure you’re not aware of it but that’s
the way it is now. People here are really hurting. Well I think they are everywhere but it
depends on what financial status you’re in. People are really hurting here ‘ cause jobs are
hard to find. My daughter has been out of work now for months. But that’s now and it
was like that after the war, too. ‘ Cause there was nothing going on until they finally could
get things started. And then our president died right during that time too. And he was a
very powerful man, President Roosevelt. He died in August, I believe, of forty- four or
five, somewhere in there. It was just when the war was over. I can remember it really
well but I never was hungry, we just didn’t have any money.
PP: When the war was in progress did you feel like you had more money then?
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JH: Well, my husband was working. As I say, he worked at Lockheed which they were
making war parts, they were making airplanes parts. So, he was busy. So, if you bring in
some money, everything was rationed, it was hard to get good food because there was no
fresh vegetables or anything like that, you just had to get what you could get. This is
something that I’ve never lived before, in a sense, with rationing. You had so many
points and when you used that up and you couldn’t find the products anyway. It was hard.
It didn’t last for a couple of years and then business began to pick up and everything was
fine. Then later on I had two more children. I had four. How many in your family?
PP: I have two sisters and two brothers. And I’m the oldest.
JH: The missionaries that are coming here today, one’s from Logan and I don’t know
where the other one’s from. You know where Logan is?
PP: Yes.
JH: We have girl missionaries now, we usually have men but there are young girls.
PP: I want to go on a mission.
JH: Did some of your families go on missions?
PP: My dad went on a mission but I’m the oldest child and so…
JH: Will you be needed at home?
PP: No. What is your opinion of the Japanese and Germans now?
JH: Oh, the Japanese. I never had a problem with them. The Germans are well, they’re
good people. The Japanese and the Germans are both industrious, hard- working people. It
was just their leadership that was bad. Yes, I have no problems. Are you from Denver?
PP: I am from St. George, Utah.
JH: Well, that sounds like a good Mormon family. I am a Mormon convert. Everywhere I
go are Mormons, my friends are mostly Mormons. But, I didn’t grow up in the Church.
So, I really knew nothing about it until I was forty or fifty. Of course, St. George and
Logan and Salt Lake. My only son, though, is not a member of the church. Most of them,
in fact, none of my family except me are members.
PP: Except for Brittney.
JH: I’m talking about my immediate family; they’re my nieces, nephews, and
grandchildren. I’m talking about my own daughters and son, none of them are Mormon.
Lamont, of course, is. You know him?
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PP: My mother went to high school with him actually. She grew up in Rexburg.
JH: Well I guess it’s nice up in Rexburg now. When I used to go to visit there everybody,
again, was very poor. Not everybody, but all my people were. They were very hard up
and had not much in worldly goods. But anyway, Lamont and several of them got good
educations and that’s the answer to the whole thing. If you get a good education you can
do better, usually well. How old are you?
PP: I am twenty years old. I’ll be twenty- one in August.
JH: Is Brittney twenty also?
PP: She’s nineteen. Yes, I just turned twenty. Do you want me to go on to the next
question or do you want to talk anymore about…
JH: I don’t know if I have told you anything you want to know.
PP: I’m just asking and you’re answering great so you’re doing awesome. When did you
first hear about the German concentration camps?
JH: Not ‘ til well after the war. I can’t even remember how long but it just started to come
out little bits and pieces at a time, for several years, I think. And it was so unbelievable
that none of us in this country could even believe it that this sort of thing could go on in a
modern civilization. It was terrible, terrible, terrible, for the Jews especially.
PP: How did your life change as a result of World War II?
JH: Nothing having to do with the war, but I have struggled my whole life with not
having very much money. And still do, well I don’t struggle anymore ‘ cause I’m retired.
It was mostly a matter of money and having enough to raise my children and educate
them.
PP: You think that being poor was a result of World War II?
JH: Oh no, it was a result of not having a good education. A lot of my friends were
college or university graduates and they continued to do well. But, my husband didn’t
and eventually he died. I had just high school, which I was lucky to get.
PP: Do you think your life changed as a result of World War II; did you look at the world
differently after the war?
JH: Yes, it was more secure. We felt like the bad guys, we had gotten rid of them. Of
course, they’re always there and they’re appearing again at a different spot. That was not
like the war that’s being fought right now. ‘ Cause this war should never have ever
started. But, World War II, it had to be because the Germans were taking over and
intended to take over the whole world and would have had they not stopped. Course, they
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started in England and they would have taken America except that America is a very
powerful place. Once the Germans backed up against us, which was important people,
not sure to say important. Well, people that were, I think they were blessed by God and
they could just proceed. But otherwise, before we got into the war, even England was, of
course, in the war before we were. They couldn’t cope with it at all ‘ cause there just
weren’t enough people. Once the Americans got into the war, well it took some time; it
wasn’t over night. Then, eventually Japan attacked us and so we had that to put up with.
One of my friends, I think he’s still living, was a man that his plane dropped one of the
bombs on Hiroshima. This was right after the war with Germany. Then everybody had to
be moved to Japan.
PP: How did you feel about Hiroshima?
JH: Just so sad for the people. I didn’t feel sorry for the Japanese as a whole. It’s always
the hierarchy that causes the problems; it’s not the general public and the little man. Yes,
that was children. The other city that they bombed, Nagasaki? It’s strange that some of
these things I can remember. Very few people as old as me do remember. Do you have
grandparents? I suppose you do.
PP: I do have grandparents; I don’t have any great- grandparents. My grandparents are
alive.
JH: They weren’t alive in this, though, were they?
PP: No, I don’t think so; they were born in the thirties.
JH: Yeah, I was born in eighteen.
PP: Was there any trauma that stayed with you?
JH: No, I don’t believe so because it wasn’t in our land. I didn’t lose anyone that was
close to me, like a brother or a sister, or even a cousin. I don’t think I even lost a cousin
in the war. My whole life, I always think of as a struggling to have enough money to live
on and to take care of my children and grandchildren and great- grandchildren and great-great
grandchildren. I now have quite a few great great grandchildren. I’m no hero or no
special person but I always like to help the children in whatever way I can, with their
education or their clothes. I’m a seamstress, of course I can’t do it much anymore but I
always could do an awful lot of things and so I’ve been able to help and that’s been a
special blessing for me. The war itself, I don’t think of it as being a trauma, personally.
PP: How did you contribute as an individual and in your community to the war effort?
JH: I don’t recall that I did. I would have to think a while on that one. I don’t think I did
except what we had to do without but this was hard but it wasn’t impossible; nothing
compared to the people that served in the war. I don’t think other than some money or
helping maybe one particular person. It has been too long ago. I wouldn’t like to claim
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that I did anything during that war. See, I’ve lived through quite a few. I was born right at
the end of the First World War, which was at the time of the terrible flu epidemic that
killed tens of thousands of people. Had you heard about that?
PP: I hadn’t heard about that, no.
JH: This was the end. It was the winter of 1918. I’ve been reading about it again lately
because there is sort of a flu problem now. There’s certain times we have flu epidemics.
This was a particular strain where it killed; the only one in my family was my dad’s
oldest sister died and she was pregnant with her seventh or eighth child. It killed pregnant
women by the tens of thousands. When you mentioned something about a World War[,] I
was thinking you meant the First World War, which, of course, I don’t remember but I
was born in that period. I was born in November and the war ended in November; the
First World War, that is. I’ve been around a long time.
PP: What did you do to entertain yourself while the war was going on? What did you do
for entertainment?
JH: I didn’t do anything except take care of my family. I’ve always been a housekeeper
and a mother and this was during the war. As I say, if you had enough money to buy
enough food. No, we didn’t do anything. Well, I’ll take that back, the only place we ever
went, and that’s about all there was to do, they had good movies. In fact, I’ve been
watching them lately on T. V., these old movies that were back in that time and
sometimes through the thirties and forties, it was still in that time. They’re old Clark
Gable and Bette Davis and all of those old people that are long since dead. And that’s the
only thing we could ever do. I can remember going to the movies once in a while. Then, I
think it was sixty cents and that was a lot more than most people would have to entertain
themselves. Sixty cents was a lot of money.
PP: How far away was the movie theatre from your house?
JH: It was in the next largest town, probably ten, fifteen miles; that’s in Ohio.
PP: What kind of food did you eat?
JH: Oh, just like you have now, very much. I, personally, always canned in the summer
and I had the vegetables. We had meat probably once a week if we were lucky and the
rest of the time you had potatoes.
PP: So, you had vegetables then?
JH: Oh, yes but you could never buy vegetables fresh, not at a store. But, in the summer
time you could go to the country and people would have markets along the side of the
road. You could buy green beans and tomatoes and melons in season. This was only in
season. In the winter you would never have anything in the way of vegetable except
potatoes, nothing at all. I suppose there were people that ate squash, but we didn’t. You
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could buy squash, but otherwise, nothing was in the markets except potatoes. Usually you
had your own, like you do in Idaho. You have your own potatoes, at least part of the
winter. That’s about all I could ever remember. You had milk delivered; it was always
delivered to your door, five cents a quart during the war.
PP: This might seem redundant but what do you remember about rationing?
JH: I can just remember, it was the same thing as there always is, in every situation;
people cheat. So, you just struggle to get enough food in the house. But, you know,
potatoes have always been our main vegetable. I think you could always get potatoes.
And then you lived close to your parents, at least I did, all during most of my young life. I
lived near my parents. I was in town but they were in the country. And they shared
whatever they had. Rationing, as I say, you used what you could get and the rest you did
without. I don’t remember except you couldn’t go anywhere because gas was rationed.
Nobody had any money anyway, you just enjoyed going on a picnic or something like
that, but not to spend money or go to a concert or anything like that, no such thing. It
didn’t even exist. When I think of these big concerts they have now that cost more than
I’ve ever had in a lifetime, but they’re nice. I know Brittney and her family have gotten to
go to a lot of lovely things because he makes good money and they’ve gotten to go to a
lot of nice things. And traveled too, they’ve traveled a lot. Have you traveled quite a bit?
PP: Yes, I have. I have traveled. My sister is actually in Europe right now, studying
abroad.
JH: Oh, where is she?
PP: She’s in Vienna.
JH: I made one great trip in my life and it was in 1983, which is over twenty years ago. I
made [ a] great trip and I went to the Holy Land. On the way I went through Vienna. The
plane just came down in Vienna. What’s the name of the main city? I can’t remember,
it’s come to me later. Anyway, we went to Israel by way of Vienna and then the next stop
was Jordan. I watched a thing on Sunday, a woman that was traveling all through Jordan
and Arabia and Israel and all those places. I thought I was very fortunate I got to go on
this one trip. I went with my brother and his wife. He’s never necessarily given me a lot
but he did influence me that I got to go on that one lovely trip. I’ve had other nice things
that have happened but to be able to go to Europe and Asia, that was pretty special. I
went to Cairo. So, yeah, it was great. Thank the good Lord, I can still remember. The fact
that I can remember these places, when we hear the stories of where Jesus, I realize that I
walked where Jesus walked and that’s a great thing, wonderful.
PP: Very, very cool. Do you remember anything about the war affecting the community?
JH: Well, let me think. I did at the time but right off hand, I don’t know. After I get off
the phone I might be able to think of some things. I grew up in an integrated community.
Or should I say segregated. It was very hard on the blacks. I don’t think it directly had
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anything to do with the war but it was the start of the change that they were able to make.
I lived near a small town and my family were very friendly with blacks. That’s mostly
where I remember a whole lot of the segregation and how it was. It was really hard. It
was really hard. Of course, you’re not subjected to that at all. I have blacks in my family
now so it’s been a great blessing to me that I have this experience. Other than that, that’s
[ the] only way I can think of is what it did to he black people. It changed their lives a lot
and it was a step forward.
PP: You think we treated the blacks better during the war?
JH: They gradually became more, there was problems of course, and still are, but people
became more generous. I happen to be blessed with especially with my father. This is not
common up there or a lot of places where I used to go in Idaho. They’re not very
generous to the blacks and there are not many there and that’s the reason I suppose. My
father always said, I would drink out of a cup from anybody and [ it] doesn’t matter, their
color or their creed or anything. Well, a lot of them wouldn’t consider that to drink or eat
after a black person, which is criminal as far as I’m concerned, I think it’s terrible. But, I
feel very strongly about that. There’s not too many things that I feel strongly about but I
feel very strongly about that; the fact that the blacks have not been able to progress as
they should be able to. And eventually they will but it’s slow, very slow. The Church had
done the same thing but that’s the people, it’s not the Church.
PP: Do you remember how families that had young men that died in the war, how they
coped with that? How did they cope with their family members not coming home from
the war?
JH: Well, it was like it is now. It’s just terrible, terrible sadness. Like the people that are
losing their family. Are you exposed to that up there at all? The people that’s losing their
families in this war?
PP: A little bit, like on the news.
JH: But you don’t know anybody.
PP: I don’t know anyone personally.
JH: Well, actually I guess I haven’t either. I don’t believe I do. Although, in Southern
California there’s a large mixture of people and it’s in the paper all the time especially
here with the Mexican and Hispanics, there’s a lot of them that have really served well in
the war. And, it’s terrible for the families but I don’t know anyone personally. But, that’s
always the way it is. This has not changed; it would never change because any mother
that has to give up their son or their daughter for not even a good cause, it’s very sad.
But, you know, that’s the way the world is. That’s not really what you want to hear. I
haven’t, personally, had to cope with that.
PP: What was it like to have all the young men gone off to war?
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JH: I do remember that. I had already gotten married. You couldn’t find a man. If you
were unmarried, there was no way you could find anybody to go out with because all of
the able men were gone. And they were really gone, they weren’t just serving around
close, like maybe serving in the Army. They were gone, first to Germany and then to
Japan. Yes, I do remember. Again, it wasn’t personal with me because I was just a few
years past that; I had a husband and I was raising children.
PP: Did it kind of feel empty in America? Did it seem like you had missing people, an
empty space?
JH: Yes. But, again, it didn’t happen to me personally but I had friends that it happened
to. My husband’s best friend went right at the first of the war. And the very first week,
I’m sure you’ve known somebody like that, a man like that, I say in my own language, it
was just a ‘ screwball’ young man and the very first week he was in a fox hole and stick
his head up, which he didn’t know and there was a marksman that killed him. It was in
the very first week of the war and he had a wife and child too. I don’t know why he had
to go but he did. A lot of people married to keep from going to war so they just didn’t pay
any attention. They got married so they didn’t have to go into the service. Anyway, he
didn’t get away with that so he went into the service. That was very personal because he
was my husband’s best friend and he was killed in the very first week that he went to
Germany.
PP: That’s so sad.
JH: It is. And, I knew that family and, of course, they were just crushed. To lose your
only son, yes. It happens all the time. Do you hear about it up there all the time?
PP: I don’t. I don’t hear much. We are very cut off from the world up here.
JH: I think that’s true. I live in a big city. I can’t think of anybody in my church that this
had happened to but it’s common, very common. It’s in the paper everyday or in the news
of somebody that’s been killed over there. I can remember how it was then but it was
different when you didn’t have T. V. You didn’t hear about it ‘ til quite a while after the
fact.
PP: Did you keep in touch with your brother when he went out for that short period of
time?
JH: He spent some time with me. He was going to Ohio State University and he had to
go, he was inducted into the service. It was when the war was nearly over so he had to go
to Japan. I lived here in California, so on the way to Japan he stopped. He went on a troop
ship and he was back mostly before he started. They shipped him over there. Yes, I got to
see him and I remember his, in the uniform and everything.
PP: Did you send him any letters in Japan?
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JH: Oh yeah, sure.
PP: And he wrote you back?
JH: Oh yes, he’s still a good letter writer. He’s an old man now.
PP: What are some of the most vivid memories of the World War II experience that stand
out?
JH: Well, I hate to say, nothing. But, that’s really true because I’m old now and this was
when I was young. The things that I’ve told you is about the only thing in the way of real
memories that I have of it. I remember some of the wars since then, and people have
gone, even better than this war. I do remember some but, right off hand, I can’t think of
anything that stood out in my mind. It was difficult even being not in the service because
my life has always been hard. I’ve always had to struggle to have enough money and to
get along. I’m not struggling now but I still don’t have a lot. I don’t’ have to now; I’ve
got grandchildren and children that help me. I don’t remember anything that stood out in
my mind. That’s the way it is when you get old, you have these moments when things
come and it’s so plain but over the course of time I probably could come up with some
interesting stories but, right now, no, I really can’t. Sorry about that.
PP: Thank you so much for talking to me.