The end of World War II exciting, thrilling
As promised in my Oct. 16 column, I’m going to tell you more of my memories about good old Warren in my 85 years of living here.
Also, again I’m asking you not to criticize my memories too much for their slip-ups on accuracy. I want to tell you the way I remember it and felt about it. For example, how a 9-year-old remembers something and his impressions of a particular event may be way different from how an adult would have seen and felt about the same thing.
On Oct. 16, I left you reading about how Grandma and I were home alone in the dark during World War II, sweating out what we fervently hoped was only an air raid drill and not the real thing.
The end of World War II was probably the most exciting and thrilling time of my 9-year-old life — or maybe at any time, except for the birth of my two sons — later on in my life. It was called VJ Day, or Victory over Japan Day.
It was after dinner in Mid-August of 1945. I was working in the garage on a model airplane project and Dad was sitting on the back porch swing listening to the portable radio. Suddenly, we could hear a freight train unceasingly blowing its steam whistle. Dad turned up the volume.
Lowell Thomas, a famous news commentator of the time, was announcing that the Japanese had surrendered.
The war was over!
Can you imagine!? After four years of fears, struggle, shortages, bond drives, air raid drills — all of this was suddenly over — except for the heartache of the loss of loved ones.
Downtown at Court House Square, citizens of Warren gathered to celebrate. Church bells rang, cars blew their horns, people cheered and wept, and high school band members brought their instruments downtown with them and got together to play some impromptu patriotic music.
Not yet being full grown, I felt walled in by the throng.
I don’t think that anyone who was there experienced a more exhilarating, joyful, tearful time ever. Just think of it! This meant a world free of all those terrible fears! We could look forward to a new world of prosperity and peace.
Oh, well, not all of our hopes for the future would come true. But it was a wonderful, giddy time.
Halloween that fall was quite a bit different. Although things were still a bit scarce, we sometimes could get new costumes, and on what we called Beggars’ Night, we could get real candy bars and other goodies that weren’t available the year before.
The end of the war was my last year at Garfield Elementary. East Junior High was where I would spend the next three years of my education. After the beautiful, Tudor style, immaculate Garfield Elementary with its smooth and beautiful terrazzo hall floors, East Junior seemed dusty and unkempt. The floors were of broken concrete that would trip you up if you didn’t watch your footing.
Our principal, Raymond Glass, was a great guy and friend of the family. He was always kind and thoughtful.
East was a rough time for me in some ways, but I soon learned to get along with the kids who came to East Junior from the other grade schools on the east side of good old Warren.
By the way, the floors at East were refurbished with linoleum tiles my last year there.
Perhaps this is the place to end some reminiscing — at least for a while.
Happy Halloween!
Mumford, of Warren, can be reached at columns@tribtoday.com.
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