1942 ... We kids are hearing more about the War every day. In the Newspapers, on the Radio, and in the Newsreels at the Movies.Music of the times includes "Comin’ in on a Wing and a Prayer, White Cliffs of Dover, I’ll Walk Alone, Rum and Coca-Cola, Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree," Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition, Long Ago and Far Away, and White Christmas. We love the Andrews Sisters, Frank Sinatra, Harry James, Ella Fitzgerald, Kate Smith, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Guy Lombardo, the Dorsey Brothers, Vaughn Monroe, and Glen Miller. We are buying savings stamps and War Bonds. We have gas rationing stamps on the car windshields: A, B, & C. We use food stamps at the grocery store. We are now receiving V-Mail from our soldiers and sailors, overseas. In the evening, if you have a good radio and a better antennae on the roof you can get WHAS in Louisville, WLW in Cincinnati and WSM in Nashville. Lowell Thomas, Fulton Lewis Jr., H.V. Kaltenborn, Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid and Edward R. Murrow are giving us the War news from all the battlefronts. The news is not always good and we are all concerned. We see a lot of stars hanging in the windows all over town. There are a lot of war movies coming out of Hollywood with Errol Flynn, Robert Taylor, Lloyd Nolan, John Wayne, and Dana Andrews. They are designed to get us to hate the enemy and it worked. The word was: "If Hitler ever invades this country, he will never get through Perry County." Us kids on Laurel Street spent all last week knocking on doors and cruising neighborhoods collecting aluminum, copper, and rubber. Anything that can be used in the War effort. We made a lot of trips with our wagons. We walked the river banks looking for old rubber tires, digging them up out of the sand and mud. My old Silver King all aluminum bicycle needed parts and repair so I went ahead and tossed it into the pile, too. Yesterday I was walking down Baker Hill and I heard the roar of an airplane over my head. I looked up and saw a P-51 passing over down town making a turn and coming back for another pass as he pulled up he did a barrel roll and went on his way. I didn't know who it was but I knew he was from Hazard.. What a thrill that was for a 12 year old kid. Be sure to click on the above image for a close up view.
Thursday, February 26
1942 ... We kids are hearing more about the War every day. In the Newspapers, on the Radio, and in the Newsreels at the Movies.Music of the times includes "Comin’ in on a Wing and a Prayer, White Cliffs of Dover, I’ll Walk Alone, Rum and Coca-Cola, Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree," Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition, Long Ago and Far Away, and White Christmas. We love the Andrews Sisters, Frank Sinatra, Harry James, Ella Fitzgerald, Kate Smith, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Guy Lombardo, the Dorsey Brothers, Vaughn Monroe, and Glen Miller. We are buying savings stamps and War Bonds. We have gas rationing stamps on the car windshields: A, B, & C. We use food stamps at the grocery store. We are now receiving V-Mail from our soldiers and sailors, overseas. In the evening, if you have a good radio and a better antennae on the roof you can get WHAS in Louisville, WLW in Cincinnati and WSM in Nashville. Lowell Thomas, Fulton Lewis Jr., H.V. Kaltenborn, Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid and Edward R. Murrow are giving us the War news from all the battlefronts. The news is not always good and we are all concerned. We see a lot of stars hanging in the windows all over town. There are a lot of war movies coming out of Hollywood with Errol Flynn, Robert Taylor, Lloyd Nolan, John Wayne, and Dana Andrews. They are designed to get us to hate the enemy and it worked. The word was: "If Hitler ever invades this country, he will never get through Perry County." Us kids on Laurel Street spent all last week knocking on doors and cruising neighborhoods collecting aluminum, copper, and rubber. Anything that can be used in the War effort. We made a lot of trips with our wagons. We walked the river banks looking for old rubber tires, digging them up out of the sand and mud. My old Silver King all aluminum bicycle needed parts and repair so I went ahead and tossed it into the pile, too. Yesterday I was walking down Baker Hill and I heard the roar of an airplane over my head. I looked up and saw a P-51 passing over down town making a turn and coming back for another pass as he pulled up he did a barrel roll and went on his way. I didn't know who it was but I knew he was from Hazard.. What a thrill that was for a 12 year old kid. Be sure to click on the above image for a close up view.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I remember those days. We had these little stamp books that we filled up and when we got enough stamps, we bought a war bond. I remember the rationing of nearly everything that had to be imported. I also remember the scrap iron collections. We even pulled the tin foil of the gum wrapper and made balls of tin foil.
ReplyDeleteWe even had "blackouts" in Hazard during the war just like you would see how it was done in the big cities when you were at the movies. Old rubber tires and such were also collected, and everyone had a ration book to purchase sugar, coffee, meat, shoes, and gasoline. The auto plants stopped building cars for a couple of years or so (as I recall).
ReplyDelete