When we look back in time small things or words can jog our own memories
Memory Posted By: Dory
I grew up in Detroit Mich. When i was around 5 years old around 1947, 1948Posted By Mark Layport
I'd like to submit another one of my Dad’s (PFC. Merle E. Layport) war stories.Memory Posted By: Mark Layport
Please remember that The People History is used by kids for homework so no profanity or any thing that you would not want your own chidren or grandchildren to be exposed to
Memory Posted By: Gloria
I remember as a little girl vegetables and other goods being sold from a horse drawn cart. I remember sock hops and Elvis Presley not being shown singing on TV from his waist down. I remember our family going down by the river to sleep because it was too hot in our old apartment building. And most of all I remember dinner on Sunday with my grandparents.Memory Posted By: Norma
My recollection for the first half of the 1940’s when I was a child in Saint John, New Brunswick centre around the fact that my Dad left for service in the Canadian Army in September 1941. I didn’t see him again until late in 1945. Both sets of grandparents and many friends lived near us in Saint John. No one could escape the effects of the war --not even the children.Memory Posted By: INIE
Inie Milton remembers what the 1940’s were like for her in Sackville, New Brunswick. She says, “I was a teenager, living in Sackville. It was (the) World War II years – all the troop trains and convoys went through Sackville on their way to Debert and Halifax to go overseas. We loved watching the truck loads of soldiers go by and also would go to the station to see the trains and talk to young soldiers. On weekends people of our town would have groups of sailors and soldiers to their homes and sometimes girls were invited to their homes to have dinner with them. Also, Moncton had the Air Force based there and they would come to Sackville looking for girls.Part of our Collection of Toys from The 1940's
Vintage Gilbert Electric Train SetMemory Posted By: Webmaster on behalf of World War II Vet
I spent some time talking to a man today in his 70's who was in World War II and this is some of the story he told me , He was 19 and in 1943 he joined the army and was sent overseas to Europe , He went across the Atlantic on the HMS Queen Mary and was landed in Southampton ( they were never told where they were going but could tell it was england due to the bombs and the number of houses that were bombed, he was put on a train and taken from Southampton to Dover where he embarked on a troop ship to be landed in France and thrust into the war , One of his dissapointments was not getting a chance to go back to England as when the war finished he was in Germany and flown directly back to the US. I thanked him for his time in telling me his story and also his fighting for all our freedoms in Europe those many years ago.Memory Posted By: Harper
I was shipped across to England on The Queen Elizabeth and landed in Grenock in Scotland in December 1943 , and from there we were taken to Plymouth , In the last few days of May we were then sent to a tent city where there were thousands of squad tents close to a large bomber field so we could see and hear the bombers landing and taking off , We also saw the german bombers flying over every night and hear and see the bombs landing and exploding in the distance and watch the huge spotlights criss crossing the sky trying to pick them out and train thier ant aircraft fire on them, occasionally we would see a german bomber hit and in flames .Memory Posted By: l.g.,
In 1945, I was 12 years old, we were living on a ranch 40 miles NW of Roswell,n.m. That summer a 2 engine military airplane crashed, killing all the men. about 3 miles north of our ranch house. The Army guys in a jeep came by & my dad took them over there to the wreckage. They covered most of it up with a bulldozer, & later I road my bike over there. The biggest piece I found was about the size of a bread box. Never did hear any thing in the news about it? Strange! & i have never seen a UFO............... ThanksMemory Posted By: gnora
A smog in Donora,Pa. Killed many people and my grandmother was one of the eight legal people killed from the smog. It was during the Halloween season. I was only two at the time and don't have memories other than family members telling me.Memory Posted By: kittman
When the hot August temperatures start to get to me, I think of winter and snow to help alleviate some of the sweaty misery. That led me to remember some of my encounters with snow. I hope you like the story, or more accurately, a remembrance. I was not then, nor am I now an avid fan of winter. Except, ahh, except for the exhilaration of joy I often felt upon awakening after a crisp coldness had descended upon us overnight.Memory Posted By: Tura
I was 21 and my best friend Enriquae was 20. Enriquae was mexican, but none of that matters anymore. We had gone to the drive-in with our dates when Enriquae's mom pulls up out of nowhere. She was crying. She ran over to our car almost tripping on the radio cord. She said that Enriquae's dad, Ricardo, had died. He was a doctor. He had been posted in a bunker, but he saw a man get shot and he had ran out to help him. He ran out and was killed by friendly fire. It turns out there were three German's running towards him and the man missed. We traced down the man later to tell him that we forgave him, he was in an asylum. He had gone into a state of constant panic, sort of like shellshock, but oddly different. Enriquae decided he would go to war. His mother told him not to, but he didn't listen. He was enlisting himself the day after he made his choice. Enriquae died the day before the Germans surrendered. I felt so bad for his mother, she lost everyone she had, her husband and son. I always remember how his mother ran to our car, weeping every step she took, she died in '78. She had gotten remarried in '52. I stayed in contact with the Gonzalez family until '83 when the man she married died. They were all kind, fair, and honest people.Memory Posted By: Tura
I was supposed to be on the U.S.S. Arizona, but I was partying with some friends. I got drunk and passed out on the beach. I woke up to the planes flying over head. I figured it was the guys out traing early, but then i heard an explosion. This was no training, it was the blasted Jap's themselves. They had invaded, and I wasn't there to help my men. I was afraid of coming back to my reunion with my navy buddies because I wasn't sure if they'd think of me as a hero, because I didn't do anything, I just watched her sink. I just watched them all catch fire and explode and sink. I tried to get in my car and drive to the docks, but when that disastrous bomb hit the Arizona, I cried. I cried until night knowing I should've been on that ship. I'm sorry.Memory Posted By: Kathy
Memory Posted By: Chuck
The 40's were great years. Despite all the heartache and heartbreak of war, Americans made the best of it. Movies and radio did their best to bolster the spirit of the country. Everyone pitched in to help the war effort. Rationing was hard but they endured it. My parents bought war bonds and supported the USO effort. Many top stars of radio and the movies gave their time to entertaining the troops. Leading the way was Bob Hope who organized many a tour not to just military bases but went right to where the action was. One of the GI favorites was the beautiful, glamorous songstress Frances Langford. Frances went on entertaining the troops right up to the gulf war. Frances is remembered for introducing the steamy ballad I'm in the Mood for Love, a favorite of homesick GI's Frances said in a 1995 interview with Bob Hope, "I was young enough and girl enough to remind those brave GI's of the girl they left behind." To which Bob quipped "Yeah, and after they saw you most of them didn't want to go back home!" I've written a time travel fantasy novel about Frances Langford called "Will I Ever Know" the title of a song she did in a movie called 'Palm Springs' in 1936 and also recorded commercially. It's about a young man in the present that hears her sing that song on a CD and he just knows she was singing about him even though it was done 70 years ago. He gets a job with a professor working on a time machine and sends himself back to 1945 to meet Frances. It's a story that will appeal to lovers of the 40's and true love. Published by Outskirts Press and available on Amazon. com. I'm Charles Henry and I'm the authorMemory Posted By: W.Hermance
I was born 1930,I remember the fortys and the war years.Memory Posted By: pierrino
In the 1940's, near the end of the war, we would go to large shoe stores and play with the X-ray machine, look at our feet inside our shoes by looking down inside a machine that allowed for feet insertion at the bottom. We'd wggle our green toes, seeing out bones inside our toes, how close they came to the end of our shoes. Looking for long periods with no caution from the shoe clerks about deadly Xrays. Coke cost a nickle and I could get into a double feature matinee at the Luna theatre in Kankakee IL for the 9 cents I might have made selling bacon grease at the Big Bear Market that morning.Memory Posted By: War Baby
Just inherited an estate and the furniture is from the 40's. Best of all, I found the original receipts showing what was actually paid for the furniture in 1942. For example, a Hoosier cabinet with flour mill was $34 and a bedroom suite consisting of full bed, dresser w/vanity stool, chest of drawers, coil spring, cotton mattress and two pillows: $74.45!