I was born in February of 1942. The Second World War was raging in Europe, Asia, Africa, Japan and practically every nation on the planet. Except for the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, mainland America was untouched by this horrific conflict. But American sons and daughters served, fought and died in lands they never expected to see in their lifetimes. It is estimated that over 60 million people died in the conflict of 1939-1945. All of these lost lives due to the madness of Adolf Hitler.
Since I was an infant during these years, I have no remembrance of the conflict, V-E Day or V-J Day. My father served in the US Navy on a supply ship in the Pacific during the last two years of the war. I vaguely remember my mom and I living in a three room apartment in what is now East Nashville, Tennessee.
My youth was spent growing up in a segregated South. I never attended school with black children. In the 40's, 50's and early 1960"s, black folks were referred to as Colored or Negroes. Many ignorant Whites did use the term nigger. This was the way it was and I knew no better. Regretfully I didn't think much about it, I just accepted it.
During the summer of 2011, I plan to share with any interested readers, my experiences back when I was a boy. The downside of a blog is that chronology the "first" is always the "last". Please join me in recalling those days. Before then you could read Tom Brokaw's THE GREATEST GENERATION.
