“The Early 1940’s were almost Like Today”

Mar 18th “The Early 1940’s were almost Like Today”

When there is a WAR… “WWII” going on… it is not the correct time for you to start to look for a place to move to… especially after your house just sold so fast!

During the 1940’s … if you had children… nobody wanted to rent to you… but you would need to rent… since the new buyers of your home… wanted to move in… RIGHT NOW!

So after a couple of months renting… an older house in North St. Louis was found and you see me standing in the above backyard. Elderly people were living in this house and as you can see… no longer had the get up and go to do much yard work.

After some time and some work by all of us… this is Tommy and ME. That is my pose… as I did like to do Somersaults and Cartwheels and dance to a good tune or two as I just had more energy than the law allowed to only one little kid.

This is little Tommy and ME at the entrance to the grocery store that I would be sent to with a list of foods we were in need of. In this time period… a hundred years ago… since some people only received their PAY from work once a month… they ran a charge to your account… so that I did not have to bring money, just received a little slip of paper as to the total of what was added to my Parents’ account.

This is all three us… Denny is on the left… and we are at the “Fairgrounds Park” within walking distance for us to walk and play all day and walk home when we were tired

Nobody drove much as you did need a “Ration Coupon” for Gas for the Car as the WAR was going on and there were only limited amounts of certain things available for us since everything was needed for the WAR EFFORT. So naturally we walked most places and for many miles and it was Fun… as I do not remember anyone complaining as we were enjoying seeing new places and never being in a big hurry.

There was one thing that happened during the WAR YEARS… that I had never thought about after the WAR was over.

In our home all of our windows had and extra heavy drape to cover the window openings so well that no light could be seen outside… when we heard those “Air Raid Sirens”… most lights in our house were immediately turned off and those drapes were pulled shut… tight.

BUT… there was one night when… evidently some light was seen outside by one of the Civil Defense Men working in our area… and they were banging on our front door and hollering to close all drapes or turn off all of the lights! We innediateing got everything closed and all lights off.

After a few minutes of sitting in the dark… I decided to go outside… my MOM said that I could. No one outside I walked to the corner and no “Walnut Park Bus” running… not a vehicle in sight so… I decided to practice my Somersaults and Cartwheels and dance around in the intersection… just as if it was my very own STAGE!

It was Summer and there was enough light from the MOON and STARS to see and I was having FUN.

Some time ago I wrote about this… and began to think, “What planes and from where would they be coming?”

If they were from JAPAN or some other Country over there… having to cross the OCEAN and be filled with as much FUEL as needed for that distance… and then also be able to carry enough BOMBS to drop and drop them in Missouri… I hate to say.. but I do not believe that there were any such planes flying in those days… that could carry such a load!

Needless to say… we were all ready for whatever might come and try to attack AMERICA at night and it was good to see all those lights at NIGHT… moving through the SKY… ready to shoot down anything that did look like the enemy!