These are wonderful and important memories, Randy--thank you for  
sharing them.  They really deserve to be recorded in some way and  
archived, either on paper or as an audio (or video) file.  We've  
rightly made much over the passing of the generation that fought  
World War II and the need to preserve its history (see http:// 
www.loc.gov/vets/), but it's also important to record the memories of  
those who lived through it as civilians, including children.  I hope  
you have done or will do that; perhaps we can brainstorm some  
possible resources for that purpose on this list.

I'm too young to have such memories personally, but in my bedroom is  
a cedar chest that belonged to my grandmother (1890-1973).  I cherish  
it in part because of my mother's vivid memory of coming home from  
school (in Massachusetts) on December 8, 1941, to find her mother  
sitting on the chest, in tears.  When my mother (age 10) asked her  
why she was crying, she explained, "Because now we are going to have  
another world war."  And, of course, we she was right.

--Jurretta Heckscher


On Dec 7, 2007, at 7:47 AM, Randy Cabell wrote:

> As I listened to WETA this morning, the music was interspersed with  
> good words about the holiday season and Hanakuah and shopping.   
> Nothing about the "Day that will live in Infamy."  I was 9 years  
> old living 307 Raleigh Drive (2 blocks down from The Cavalier) at  
> Virginia Beach that week.  The next day, all us kids talked about  
> "The War" not having any idea what it really meant.  The coolest  
> thing was that troops from Ft. Story built sandbagged machine gun  
> nests on the beach at the end of our road, dug into the sand and  
> covered with wooden roofs with sand on top.  I guess they expected  
> the hun or those sneaky Japs to storm ashore and capture the  
> Cavalier Beach Club.  Searchlight drills at night were neat too.   
> The next day after they packed up and left, us kids found a lot of  
> black carbon pieces which generated the bright light, and those  
> things were great to write on sidewalks with.   "My Weekly  
> Reader"  (is it still around?) the next week had drawings of the  
> Japanese aircraft.  With the exception of the dreaded "Zero" (by  
> Mitsubishi as I recall...hm.... wonder what every happened to that  
> company) the aircraft had fixed landing gear and looked pretty  
> outdated, at least to a nine year old.  The week after Pearl  
> Harbor, my father was promoted to Lt. Col. and transferred from Ft.  
> Story and assigned as Army Liason Officer to the 5th Naval District  
> in Norfolk.  He and several other men formed a car pool, and the  
> question arose as to whether the former movie star Richard  
> Barthelmes, now on active duty as a naval officer, who lived down  
> the street would like to join, but all were afraid to ask.  I  
> recall my father saying, "I've been insulted by experts."  He  
> called Richard who was very happy to join -- a regular guy.  The  
> Cavalier Hotel was taken over by the FBI or some intelligence  
> group.  They sawed off the cupolas on top to make it more difficult  
> for German submarines to use it as a reference point.  I road the  
> "Rail Bus" to school.... a mass transit idea ahead of its time  
> which ran along Atlantic (I think) Avenue into downtown Virginia  
> Beach.  I was in Mrs. Wood's third grade at WT Hailey Elementary  
> School which had to meet in the library because of the influx of  
> service families.  I remember air raid drills where he got on the  
> floor under our desks and put our arms over our heads.
>
> Sorry for the stroll down memory lane, and probably mangling of  
> some facts to fit things as I remember them.  We are now seeing Ken  
> Burns wonderful series, and WETA TV has one on Washington during  
> the war.  Maybe somebody out there will put together "WWII from the  
> eyes of Virginia Children."
>
> Randy Cabell
>
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