MEMPHIS CHRISTMAS 1941

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 THIS BLOG ENTRY BEGINS WITH A POEM BY
      HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.


I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men.
               ******
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound the carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good will to men!
               ******
(last verses)
"There is no peace on earth," I said:
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men!" 
They pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead; nor doth he sleep 
The Wrong shall fail, the Right prevail,
With peace on earth good will to men.
                                                          When I was a child, this was a favorite poem, written about the War between the States in America. Somehow, I think it is how I felt when I realized on 12/7,8/1941, that we were going to be at war!! The house we moved into in September 1939 became a real home by 1941.
 My little brother, Will, turned 4 September 15.
 Somehow, that made me as a big sister feel more grown up, myself. Eight was a lot older than six. He became a real pal that summer; in fact Will, Jay (born later)and I are close to this day. 

Also that summer I began riding my bike and loved the freedom it gave me.On September 3, I began the third grade at my beloved Gordon Elementary School. I appreciated how Mother had found the house when I began first grade, so I would have a quick walk to school. Also,I could go home for lunch every day to eat with Mother and William. Life was so good. Even the possibility that in December, we would be at war, never crossed my mind.

    ***(I know now, but didn't know then,                   that on September 3, 1941, my first day of school, Prussic acid was tested on 600 Russian POWs and sick prisoners at Auschwitz:there was 

general deportation of the Jews.) 

                  (facsimile)

Gordon continued to be a wonderful home away from home.   I loved to read and in fact loved all the subjects. 

 We had enjoyed a blissful summer, school was starting out fine, and there was no reason to think this Christmas would be any different from the others-PERFECT! 


                                                     ***********************
We often saw picture shows.     


Rialto Movie Theater was very close to us. We


went every Saturday afternoon to the movies.


For 12 cents we usually saw a cowboy movie, a


detective story, a series episode like Green 


Hornet, cartoons and previews. When we got in


line to go in, we knew EVERYBODY there!!

One special movie, Sun valley Serenade featured the song 


Chattanooga Choo Choo; my friends and I


sang and danced to it!! WANNABE performers.


 Such fun!!


Surely Christmas would be the way the others had been. Perfect. Same


decorations, Christmas basket, food,


relatives coming. The same!! But something 


caught my family, me, and America totally by 


surprise.
                 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


             


On Sunday afternoon, December 7, 1941, around 


1:30 pm Memphis time, there was a  brief news  bulletin. by John Charles Daly, Jr. on the radio.


"The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor by air,
 President Roosevelt just announced. The attack was also made on all military and naval activity on the principle island of Ohau."






 Monday morning Commercial Appeal told about 4 


Memphis policemen standing guard on Sunday evening 


at the Tennessee end of the Harahan bridge.





 Armed with shotguns, the policemen patrolled the


 bridge while four searchlights illuminated the bridge 


pilings and traffic lanes. 
Police Commisioner, "Holy" 


Joe Boyle announced that the police stood ready to 


meet any emergency with 20 machines, of which 16 


were new, 20 pump guns, four high powered rifles, tear 


gas guns and ammunition.  


The US was at war and Memphis was ready!! 


This front page of another paper gives an idea of what the Commercial Appeal had.                           We had a morning paper and an afternoon paper in Memphis. We took both, and I was so glad I could read.We were not flooded with information the way we would be today with television showing constantly what happened. The newspapers and radio were our only sources.


Monday at noon FDR addressed congress to ask them to declare war on Japan.


                  
It was given around 11 am. Daddy was at work and I was in school. Mother and my little brother heard it on the radio When asked why she was crying, she said that we were going to war!! My little brother didn't know what that meant.WAR!! 


(I have learned my husband was with his family on the way home from Kentucky, when someone at a Paducah gas station told them. He was 9.)


 FDR signing declaration of war against Japan. Then on December 11 Italy and Germany declared war on US.


At this point I saw us as living in two worlds. One would go on the same...at home, at school,and church. Christmas would go on as usual in that world. But we were now also in another world...which we knew only through newspapers and the radio. But Gordon became more and more an idyllic retreat from thoughts of the war.


All the family activities went on as usual on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.


 We heard a wonderful speech on the radio by Winston Churchill, who was at the White House on December 24. They were about to light the 
community Christmas tree.This was the first time it was on White House grounds.
Only weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill led the lighting ceremony and addressed the crowd.
Of course without TV the way we have it now, we would only see pictures in the paper about things like this.And we read this wondeful speech by Churchill which ended this way.




"Let the children have their night of fun and laughter, Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play.Let us grownups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and formidable years that lie before us.
resolved by our sacrifice and daring these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world.
So in God's mercy, a happy Christmas to you all."





So far my family had not had a personal loss. Our family hero Clifford Caldwell, who was a career soldier, was safely teaching at Ft. Benning.  Later he would be in perilous situations, landing by glider in the Normandy Invasion and fighting in France. But not the Christmas 1941. He would live a long life.


So Christmas 1941 came and went and it was almost the same as it had always been for us. But the word PEACE had a deeper meaning even for Will, 4, and me, 8. 
 Love, annie in memphis
                                   

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