THOSE WERE THE DAYS: “Was It That Long Ago?”
Tuesday afternoon May 8, 1945, I was almost eleven years old in grade seven Marlborough Public School, classes were over and I was heading home. We lived a block and a half from school so through playing, running, walking, the occasional fight, it did not take a long time getting there. When I got into the house Dad was home early and I saw my mother and father standing in an embrace by the unlit potbellied stove in the dining room, Mom had tears in her eyes and to my surprise, so did my Dad. What was going on?
Dad leaned down, gave me a kiss on the top of my head and with a smile that curled across his lips he announced, “the war is over.”
It was a few years later as I got older that I fully understood the dates and what happened on those dates. Germany had surrendered on May 8 but the Japanese continued to fight until September 2, 1945 when the atomic bombs finally ended all hostilities. Germany’s surrendering was V-E day, Victory in Europe and Japan’s capitulation was V-J day, Victory in Japan.
My growing up so far was mostly consumed with collecting and donating paper. Weekly paper drives that amassed tons of paper piled at the local park. Metal collections and the rationing of all things from meats to nylons to car tires, all needed for the war effort. Saving pennies to buy 25 cent victory stamps. We were given half a day off school to walk to the bank and buy the stamps and how rich we felt when we had three of four stamps in our stamp book.
Warships were supplied on the Detroit River, unwanted suet and soup bones were free, spare ribs nine cents a pound and unsliced bread eight cents. We ate puffed wheat that came in large transparent bags for breakfast and French toast was a regular dessert at dinner time.
Beyond two streets behind our house and two streets in front of our house was nothing but open fields and bush used for military maneuvers. Tanks, trucks and armed soldiers roared across the fields as parachutes floated from the sky but, as early as 1944, at least five hundred war time houses seemed to appear over night filling every surrounding space.
Three uncles were in uniform. Dad’s brother was wounded in the leg in Italy but two other uncles never left Canada. I heard my Dad say many times that he missed the biggest historical event that ever happened in his lifetime. Dad tried to enlist but they said with all his kids, he was needed more at home. We thanked God for the positive answer to our prayers.
The war was over but frankly, I saw no difference one way or the other, my life included the Great Depression and then six years of war, that was the only life I knew. The most important changes to me were the horrible sirens finally stopped, John Wayne won the war. Hopalong Cassidy was our cowboy hero and Flash Gordon focussed our eyes on the future, that was about all we needed to know.
Russ Sanders
epigram@nexicom.net
