Memories of Pearl Harbor Day
December 7, 2008 by Mary Emma Allen
Filed under Home & Living
Some of your family members may have memories of Pearl Harbor, the attack on December 7, 1941 that precipitated the United States’ involvement in World War II. Some fought in the war, others worked in war related industries on the home front. Children helped with Victory Gardens, learned about rationing, air raids, and black-outs.
I was a child during those years of World War II and give talks about this era to those who have no memories of it.
“Write down your memories about World War II,” someone told me. So I’ve begun doing this so that my daughter, grandchildren and future generations will have some connection with it. My stories also have been published in anthologies about this era.
If your family members lived during the World War II era, why not ask them about their memories? Write down or capture on tape these memories as well Compile some of these in scrapbooks or photo albums.
I’ve seen memory quilts with photos and memorabilia of a family member’s participation in the war. They make a nice patriotic tribute to anyone who contributed in some way to our freedom.
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Thank you for mentioning my post and encouraging your readers to check it out. Those memories of earlier eras mean so much to a family’s heritage. I need to get more of my uncle’s photos and memorabilia together. He was a bachelor, so if I don’t do it, all of this and his contribution to his country during WWII may be lost.
This year the 7th fell on a Sunday as was the attack. This coincidence made a 91-year old friend of mine recall very vividly hearing the shocking news.
She was a young bride of 24 in Billings, Montana. It would have been about 11:00 a.m. when the first reports came over the radio there.
Marvel recalled hearing the news in disbelief and calling her husband to the radio where they stood in stunned silence as the report repeated over and over.
It gives me chills to contemplate.