Pearl Harbor Day 1941

Well here it is, a day late but...
I guess you've noticed. I changed my web site. Hope you don't mind. I'm still trying to work out the kinks. I'm new at this so bear with me.

Love Gpa G

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Pearl Harbor Day, Dec. 7, 2006
By Gpa Glass

December 7th, 1941. It was a long time ago—65 years to be exact. I was 13. We had recently moved from Juniata, Pa., to Alexandria, Va. Dad was a machinist by trade. He had served his apprenticeship in the PRR. The store Dad and Mom had since I was wee little had not been doing very well. The depression was still lingering on in Juniata and no one was able to pay their bills. Dad had been looking for a job as a machinist. First he had tried Baldwin Locomotive in Philadelphia and then an offer came from the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. He worked there briefly and then was transferred to the Naval Torpedo Station in Alexandria, Va. While dad was doing the job search, Mom continued to run the store.

I don’t recall the specific dates, but our family moved to Alexandria at the end of the school year. I had just finished 6th grade at Noble in Juniata. We lived in a row house—13 Chapman Ave in Alexandria. We were there about a year. Mom was very sick during that time, and I ended up being the family cook. Mom told me what to do and I ended up getting the meals ready. Dad soon purchased a house at 24 E. Masonic View Ave. It was only 2 blocks away from Chapman Street. It was sort of like a bungalow, except it did have a 2nd floor. This became the bedroom for my brother and me. There are a lot of things I could share about my time at 24 E Masonic View Ave. My best friend was John Waggamon. We both played trombone in the HS band. There were four pretty girls lived next door, but they were all too old for me. I retreaded [tried to fasten an old tire on top of another old tire] my bike tires during the war so I could get around, but the tape wore out before the tire tread. I was into chemistry particularly if I could make it explode. I hid my brass knuckles in the rafters above my bedroom, but one day they disappeared. I never asked what happened to them. There were two nice girls lived on Myrtle Street, the next street over.

So, I went to 7th grade for my first year in Alexandria. The school system then had only 11 grades—first through seventh grade and then four years of high school. I was rather slow at getting acquainted that first summer, but I became more involved in band and track and field in high school. I went everywhere on my bicycle. School—GW [George Washington] high school was only a short distance and I usually walked. It was about this time my brother, Dick, dropped out of school.

For a short while we drove back and forth to Juniata for church. Mom was a very fast driver. We used to tease her about it. With those old roads, it was a 6 hour trip. It’s about half of that today. There were no Brethren churches in Alexandria, but there was a large church in D.C. We got involved there. Dad and mom were in the choir. Dick and I were involved in the Youth group. We called it Christian Endeavor.

We always had a big Sunday dinner so while mom was getting it ready, I’d pedal down to the basketball court the guys had set up in a vacant lot. This particular Sunday was no different, except when I got there everyone was just standing around talking. I had no clue. I heard some of the older guys talking about signing up. I wasn’t sure what they were talking about. When I asked, they said Pearl Harbor had been bombed and we were at war with Japan. I headed home right away. Dad and Mom had not yet heard the news so we turned on the old floor model radio. We spent the rest of the day with our ears glued to the radio.

FDR—Franklin Delano Roosevelt, our President, made the announcement on Monday. That was the beginning of the war. Mom and I hadn’t met yet. She was on her way home from Sunday school at the Methodist church in East Juniata. They were walking up the road from the railroad bridge to their home, when Arlene’s friend, Leah, met them and told them what had happened. George was a senior at the time. He joined the “V-12 program” and went into the Navy. This gave him his high school diploma and he was off to war.

During those early days of the war I was a messenger boy in the Civil Defense. That allowed me out at night during black out times. I had an armband, helmet and my bike and traveled from post to post with messages. We kept green blinds on all the windows so lights could not be seen on the outside. The huge search lights that are used for advertising today were not toys back then. They were used to sweep the skies for incoming planes especially in the D.C. area. In school we made wooded airplanes that were used in training men to recognize the silhouette of enemy planes.

Well I guess I could write some more on the subject but that’s a quick look at some of my thoughts from the anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day, 1941.

Gpa Glass