Readers Page: Memories 12-03-14

Memories

By PATTY WINTERS

In the fall of 1944, during World War II, Bettys boyfriend, Buford Hull, was stationed at Ft. Hood near Temple. This was our first train ride. Betty, Frances, Lay and I rode the train from Big Spring to Temple to visit him. This was our first train ride. We were all dressed up: hat, gloves, best dress and heels. There were lots of servicemen on the train. Several struck up a conservation with me and one wanted to know where I was going and how old I was. I said, concerning my age, How old do you think I am? When he said 19 years (I was 16, soon to be 17), I was so proud.

FT. HOOD

Another time during WWII, Mrs. Luther Barr along with son Jack and twins Fay and Gay invited us to go with them to see James Buddy Barr, who was also stationed at Ft. Hood. (By this time, Buford was no longer in the picture.)

LAUNDRY

When school was out for the summer in 1940, our first school year at Big Spring from 1939-40, we came back to Vincent to begin work on the two-story house my Granddaddy Carpenter built in 1905. The Barrs had moved to another house so it had been vacant for several months and needed extensive repairs. The second floor had stairs leading to a two-room attic, unfinished and only used for storage. We started cleaning out the dirt accumulated over a period of time. After several days of working, all of our clothes, towels, etc. were in dire need of washing. Now, Vincent had a laundry service and since we were short on water, we took all our dirty clothes to be washed. They told us to come back the next day and pick them up. That night I dreamed of clean clothes, sheets and towels, neatly folded, ready to use. This was one of my first experiences of promises broken and disappointments. When we went to get them, there the laundry sat in its same sorry state as it was the day before. The owners excuse was that his help had run off. He did let us use the laundry facilities, but we had to take our things home, wet and hang them on the line, bushes and fences.

WAR ENDED

On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Three days later (Dec. 10, 1941), Hitler declared war on the United States. Atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945. On Aug. 9, 1945, the Soviet Union entered the Pacific War. A few months earlier, in May 1945, the Nazi regime surrendered.

BLACK CHEVROLET COUPE

See the article here:
Readers Page: Memories 12-03-14