We lived in a small bungalow home in Springfield, Illinois. There was my mother and my younger brother, and myself. One day when I woke up, my father was not there. I cried and cried and cried when my mother told me that Daddy went off to war! What was a war? All I knew was that I wanted my Daddy. We soon learned about the hardships of War for the civilian population. We had coupons for tires for our old car, coupons for sugar along with many other things. We saved our bacon Greese, which was collected once every few weeks. If we ran out of coupons, we had to go without!
My mother did laundry for Johnny Watts, our local Pharmacists. He would come by our small home to collect his clean, ironed and folded clothes! Another thing my mother did was to plant a garden in our back yard. I remember working in the garden with my mother. But, every time an airplane flew overhead, I was sure we were going to be bombed right then and there! It was a terrifying time for a small girl who missed her Daddy.
Then there were the air-raid sirens. Every time they sounded, my mother would pull the shades down over the windows, turn out the lights inside of the house, and tell us to get down on the floor by a large piece of furniture. The sirens would sound again maybe 20 minutes later. This was to signal us that the "practice" air raid was over with. Light would then go back on all over the neighborhood! We were safe!
The next thing I remember was that my mother told us the war was over! We walked up and down the street, banging on metal pots and pans with spoons! Shortly after that, my Daddy came home. He brought all of us children a small white Bible. He was a Seabee in the U.S. Navy, stationed in the Phillapeans and in Guam! But, now I was happy.
Tucson, AZ