Mom Remembers Dec. 7, 1941

Pearl Harbor

      Sunday, December 7, 1941, began as a typical Sunday morning - a crisp and sunny December day. After we arrived home from church,
 Buffy (12 years old) and I (11 years old) decided to walk up to John's Drug Store (in Beechview) about a mile away to buy

Buffy and Abbie, 1930s

licorice lollipops, a special treat that we occasionally enjoyed. Licorice lollipops cost a nickel while other lollipops were a penny.  We bought our lollipops, then started home. Just outside the drug store a young  newspaper boy was shouting,

"Extra, extra, read all about it! 

Pearl Harbor attacked by Japan!" 

We weren't sure of the implications, but we knew
it was very serious.

We didn't know that it meant the beginning of a terrible war that would
cost the lives of millions of people all around the world
over the next 4 years. We just wanted to hurry home to the safety of our family. So we ran the whole way home, where our parents were

A radio of their time might have looked like this.

listening to the news on the radio.

And we listened too. We knew that Daddy had spent 4 or 5 months in Hawaii
installing batteries in those ships at Pearl Harbor;
he had gone there in March with a new job with the
Department of Navy
and with the understanding that
we would move there.
He stayed until July, when he realized that this might have been a bigger move than he was willing to make. So he left the job and returned home in the middle of July and
accepted a different job closer to home.
Buffy always said this was one time where his temper paid off. He got mad and left that job and it may have saved their lives.