I remember the anniversaries of it were a big deal when I was in elementary school.
Those who were alive and old enough to remember the attack are today few and far between. It’s no longer a visceral thing.
Today 9/11 is what Pearl Harbor was in the 60’s.
Funny, though - I was sitting around a table today with three women who were old enough to remember it…
12/7/41 was my mother’s 10th birthday. She said all everyone did was sit around and listen to the radio. Worst birthday ever.
StG
You’re lucky. Those stories are a treasure, one I’m afraid my children won’t get to hear.
I had a hospice client many years ago that was installing a radio in his car on December 7, 1941. After much fiddling with the wiring he finally got the radio working and turned it on to test it – and was greeted with the news from Hawaii. He went on to be a medic under Patton in France and was profiled in Time for his medical skills on the battlefield.
Hi, StGermain,
We share some connections to the day: My mother celebrated her 33rd birthday that day (born 1908) and I was three days old myself!
Dave Rushing (aka Zeldar)
That was the event that encouraged my dad to join the Navy, whilst living in Kansas, about as far from the ocean as you can get. He ended up doing underwater demolition (predecessors to the SEALS) in the Pacific. One of the last things they did was to survey Nagasaki harbour after the bomb. Many were sick from the stench. If he were still kicking around he’d turn 100 on the 21st.