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Donald R. Burgett WWII 101st Airborne veteran |
Once, there were 16 million of them, and now they’re dying off at the rate of 1,000 a day.
It’s predicted that they’ll all be gone by 2020.
Not much time left to collect memories from those who were there.
Sad, but true, is the fact that those of us who were too young to fight, but experienced war time America first hand, will be the next large group to go, and the last generation to have lived during the topsy-turvy World War 2 era.
Ellouise had a touching picture from those days on her website that prompted me to realize that the time has come for us to dust off our memories and make our contribution to the historical record.
I’ve found that my memories of that time don’t all come to me at once so it’s easier for me to just jot down a sentence or short paragraph …one at a time. Collecting these thoughts and assembling them is like writing a "term" paper.
And frankly, 12 or 15 years or so of term papers and homework was all I could take….so feel free to do it like I'm going to..... send in your short notes…one at a time….and I’ll add them as they come in.
I think it’ll be fun….plus something you write might show up in a history book…100 years from now.
Ellouise and I will start it off:
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| . Ellouise and sister Lynda - |
"Taken in Granny's front yard at 2308 East Seventh Street - wearing my daddy's over-seas cap - I loved standing by the side of the street to salute the passing convoys of soldiers rumbling through Charlotte - they always laughed and waved back."
Ellouise
"That’s one of my most vivid memories as well. Many of those convoys came down east 5th street as well. I also remember lots of trucks containing German prisoners coming through.
My Mom told me that they were being taken to South Carolina to pick cotton. I waved at them as well…..and they waved back." -Ed
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| Ed Myers, Kathryn Myers, Charles Mateer -1942 (To ADD a memory....Click on the "blue time stamp" and add your comments AND/OR to READ comments the others have made. This also works for all of the "posts.") |
2 comments:
Now this is dangerous if I can type it in myself.
Your wonderful opening and the prompts have brought back more memories. Maybe others will spin off them:
Elizabeth School - first and second grades - kids were urged to participate in scrap drives. You know, bring those "stomped" cans in to school along with other bits of metal you could gather. And, they set up competitions between the classrooms. Inspired by the competition - pulling a red - flyer wagon - I went door-to-door along Seventh Street and the side streets near our house at 2001 Seventh Street. At one house I scored a real prize - an old metal hot-water heater. No way me and my wagon could manage that monster - so my grandmother and her old Ford came to my rescue. Granny and I proudly hauled that rusted out water heater to the auditorium steps of Elizabeth School and two janitors hefted it out of her car. I don't remember whether my class won the competition or not - but I hope we did.
I hope others will "chime in" with their memories. I can't seem to make the "time stamp" say "COMMENTS" instead of the time of my post, but hopefully this will encourage more of our folks to participate.
There is a time lag, however. The comments don't appear instantaneously. It might take a couple of hours sometimes.
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