Remember Pearl Harbor

[Henry]

Well, I was 8 years old, 70 years ago when WWII broke out.  I would like to say what I was doing when I heard the news, but communications were quite different back then.  I am not sure whether we even had electricity back then on Fairfield Ridge.  The only early communications we had with the outside world at that time was the telephone and the U. S. Mail.  There were other things like radios and newspapers, but before we got electricity we did not have a radio and times were kind of tough, so we could not afford the newspaper.

I strongly suspect that the first place I heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor was at the little one room school that I attended and probably one of the other things I remember was that I was deadly afraid if I heard an airplane as I thought it was the enemy attempting to do us harm.  It was certainly a different Era for communications, both for the soldiers in the service and the family at home, who just sat waiting at home for some word from their loved ones, which could take several months sometimes to arrive.

We, as farmers were extremely fortunate to have our own food and sugar was a big thing, but like many other mothers in the area learned to use Maple Syrup to sweeten things for baking.  Gasoline was rationed and depending on your occupation, you were given certain stickers for Gasoline that allowed you to get a certain amount of gasoline.  There are many other things that WWII did to change our lives back then, but as I look at it now, we were some of the very fortunate ones.

[Dick Brown]

Henry      I was 5 on Dec. 7 , 1941 and my family was living in Windsor , Vt where my father was working at Cone Automatic ( a large manufacturing plant that quickly changed it's line of production to classified war materials ). All I remember is that the whole winter was a time of apprehension , but my only social contacts outside our house was attending church ( and of course, the local police force...I used to run away a lot to explore. Even learned to untie the rope my mother hitched me with with when she put me outside !!! )
By 1943 , we had moved to Bethel and my father was carpooling to work at Cone and about that time was when I really became aware of wartime activities  ( certain food products lacking , aircraft monitoring by The Civil Air Patrol ( ? ), collecting aluminum foil to meet the country's needs . and town citizens being inducted into the services . My father was classified as an essential worker ( never did find out what he did at Cone  ) and so was not listed to be drafted until 1944 . Just before his date was coming up , he was notified the draft was stopped. My Uncle was wounded in the Pacific and we lost a good friend in the battles in Europe , but we really had no idea of the suffering that took place throughout our country .
With the improved communication devices today , knowledge of the major battles and the subsequent loss of lives at Normandy, Tarawa , Anzio , etc might have really destroyed our morale ....hard to say . What is apparent though was that both the Germans and the Japanese Governments underestimated the will of the American people , and didn't realize ( in my opinion ) how the hardships from the depression had toughened all of the  citizens , men & women alike , to endure sacrifices and bond together .