Growing up in Louisa –War Years!
Weekly feature . . . by Mike Coburn
The 1940’s represented the first decade of my life and, of course, those were known as the ‘war years.’ We just celebrated Memorial Day last weekend, so I’ve spent the week thinking about the veterans I knew, and some I actually served with in the Air Force. I’ll never forget the day I found I could no longer think of the war as some passed event of my childhood. The Air Force instituted a new rule that said when in uniform everyone had to wear all the medals they had been awarded. There was grumbling from the older guys that I didn’t understand. I thought, “Why wouldn’t they want to wear their metals?” The day came about a week later and I went to the office to find that two of the top sergeants were weighted down with ribbons of all kinds. More shockingly, many of those were high-ranking metals including the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and one Metal of Honor! I had been working and playing around with real heroes and hadn’t known it. None would tell me how they’d earned the awards, but in a couple of cases I was able to find out from their wives. I couldn’t believe the things they had seen and what it took to survive. They felt guilty in some cases, because they survived and others didn’t. That would be a tough thing to carry through life.
My memories that were actually from those ‘war years,’ are immature, after all, I was a very young kid. I heard things, saw a few things, but didn’t fully understand or connect the dots. Also, I have to make a disclaimer that some memories may have come from the history I learned at various times and places along life’s line, or from a movie or TV documentaries, from listening to veterans, or somewhere I can’t place. I have tried to dig out of my mind scenes of real events, but the fog sets in and robs me of the shadowy details. All I have left physically is my ration book that mom passed to me. I surely didn’t use it myself, but it adds a level of legitimacy that shows I was around.
Since I was only a child, my interests in those days were more about my daily necessities and playing with toys. Some play was organized but much was more about local playmates. Billy Elkins lived in the next apartment at the Louisa Inn, and Johnny Bill Boggs lived just across the tracks and up one block. We had sufficient fun to wear ourselves down for a good night’s sleep. We took turns getting measles, or chicken pox, and other childhood diseases. I can remember the metal jeeps, tanks, and airplanes that were soon replaced by plastic models. Some of my playmates were lucky enough to have metal peddle cars that I could use, even if briefly. We explored, went to the movies and saw the film heroes of the day fight in those far away wars. When we got home we dug out play helmets, (or a reasonable facsimile) pretend hand grenades, wooden guns, and cardboard boxes that would become ‘forts’ or ‘tanks,’ I remember that Billy Elkins had a ‘dog tag’ with his name on it. That could be explained because Billy is a junior, (since Billy III has arrived). The dog tag was really his dad’s, a veteran that had just returned with a dog tag no longer needed. He was allowed (I think) to use them to augment whatever we pretended was his battle uniform.
I played war nearly all my days up until the day arrived that I left for the Air Force. That morning I was playing ‘war’ on the banks of the Big Sandy with Harry Richard and others, just north of the bridge and below town. We had dug a ‘pillbox’ into the mud and added a thatched roof made from the tall reeds that grew there. The water wasn’t far away, so we had a good view if an enemy tried to land near us. We pretended we were the last defense for our little town. Well, maybe not. All the weaponry we had was some seed pods from a nearby magnolia that we used for pretend hand grenades.
In those days, I knew little to nothing about money, the cost of living, the politics of war, or little else of importance during those early years. As a protected youth, I knew nothing of the horrors of the ‘Holocaust’ having taken place in Europe, but I have since learned of the horrors. My fairy-tale idea of life changed as I matured. I am now very aware of what went on in those days thanks to museums, films, books, photographs, and those documentaries mentioned. I knew I didn’t like either of the nation’s enemies, whether German or Japs, but by the time I learned about the underlying causes of the war, a police action was already well underway in Korea. Still is.
As I grew older I finally started to really learn about some of the effects of WWII. I saw a number of veterans returning from the war and was witness to patriotic parades and celebrations. I heard some about the Korean War and the firing of General MacArthur by President Harry Truman. I heard the griping from adults that didn’t like the heroic general losing his job, but also from others that understood that the General reported to the Commander-in-Chief and like all soldiers, Generals must to follow orders.
It was also a time when we all heard about nuclear bombs. Some adults even in our little town were building bomb shelters. My classmate, Delbert Caudill from Watermelon Hill in High Bottom, worked with his dad to help on at least one of those. He refuses still to say where it was, so the mystery continues. I remember that my cousin George Chapman and I discussed how hard it would be during an attack to shut the door and keep out neighbors who had less insight and nowhere to hide. Since we didn’t have a shelter, I guess now that I think about it, we were some of those that would be locked out. Threats weren’t exactly at high level, but there were concerns enough. We had to practice dropping under our grade school desks in hopes of surviving a blast. I remember that cousin George didn’t believe in God, but I did. I figured the Almighty would take care of me, but if, even I were to die it would still be in His control. I was okay with that and had peace about it, but my cousin never found that peace. I guess he carried that worry for a time. For that, I am sorry.
I’ve done a lifetime of research about those days and see a lot of stuff is still coming out. I loved the “Band of Brothers” series on TV. Over the years I went to movies, read history books, watched documentaries, and searched the internet for anything I’d missed. The city I have lived in for more than nearly fifty years has a War Memorial Museum that I have visited many times. They have reenactments and tons (literally) of cannon, jeeps, trucks, and even part of a wire fence from a concentration camp. They have displays of the men and women that served and died, including dress uniforms from well-known officers. I have heard stories from vets, a few of which would still talk about their war experiences. Many others who undoubtedly saw some of the worst, still prefer not to revisit the horrors of those events. So many stories have been taken to the grave and lost forever.
I’ve seen the statistics comparing income to expenses in the 40’s as compared to the 50’s. I have lived the rest as an adult, so recollections from that time includes my personal history, as well as information shared by others. While I am not nearly an expert of the era, I did live through those times. All along I was maturing and seeking understanding while learning to live with others, some from entirely different walks of life. I’m sure my perspective changed as I learned more and could process more information. I profess no great insights and perhaps have less awareness of those days than many of my peers. Even after suffering the effects of rationed foods, an economic depression, and recovery years that followed, I was relatively happy growing up when I did. Maybe I didn’t know life could be different, because I certainly knew nothing else. Life was as I found it, so it was ‘normal.’ Such is the nature of this laid back and calm kid who thought the best of the people around him. It would take time for me to see those few times when I was being used, or when someone was perpetrating fraud against me. When I came to see that, I learned to be cautious, but still chose to ‘live on the sunny side of life.’
When Eisenhower (Ike) became President, (remember, I like Ike?) he began to use his knowledge and exposure to the necessities of military logistics (movements) to build better roads throughout America. Those superhighways were meant to insure faster and better mobilization of armed forces. More importantly for the average family, those roads changed lives. We became a nation that went traveling and touring places that heretofore had been totally ‘out of range.’ An average family could see the parks that Teddy Roosevelt had established, and many saw the historical Atlantic coast where the Pilgrims had landed, or where George Washington really slept. Others saw the Rocky Mountains, or even far-away California. We all were introduced to fast food, motels, and a far better network of gas stations. Road maps were free and highways were numbered to help us navigate. The crooked roads of eastern Kentucky were still tough to drive. Those horseshoe curves were dangerous, but North America was building interstate highways that would put us all on the move. Route 66, (once a TV show) is famous for that time of automotive exploration, but even that icon has been replaced by straighter and better highways.
With the new demand for cars, highways, and buildings, the steel industries grew. So did the cement makers, tool makers, and heavy equipment manufacturers. Even the farmers who had to feed all those workers and increase their output. Thousands were employed in the gasoline and oil business, including filling stations that replaced the ‘one-pump’ general stores. Towns sprung up, bridges were built, and barriers to travel were removed. Even our little town saw new highways that avoided the hills and replaced the old routes.
I remember back when the beautiful and charming Princess Elizabeth married the handsome Duke of Edenborough. They were a picture-perfect couple who were the center of a wonderful pageantry of horses, golden coaches, soldiers, and flags. It was the stuff of a Disney fairy tale, only this was real. It would not be long before we saw them again for the Coronation of the new Queen. For the first time, it all happened for the world to see and celebrate. Indeed, when the crowds at Westminster shouted ‘long live the Queen,’ she began the longest rein of any of the monarchs before her. I greatly admired her then and still do. She served in a motor pool during the war and has not forgotten her love for vehicles. Who would think that a Princess would change your oil, or chauffer you around? She did her bit then, and more since.
It was after the war when airlines matured and caught hold for other than rich people. Now, some commoners could afford to travel even further than ever, before. Jet engines soon cut traveling time in half and again, the world figuratively grew smaller. While never cheap, plane tickets became more affordable to the masses. Some, who were soldiers or sailors in the War and had seen the Pacific islands, took their families to share the sites. Others went back to Europe to visit the beaches of D-day, or to see friends they’d made when stationed ‘over there.’ This booming travel market called for more fuel production, more steel and aluminum, trained mechanics, airport workers, and crews that would pilot the skies. The economy was growing everywhere. The depression and the war that followed was over. Life was good.
People of that time had self-confidence knowing that anything could be achieved with effort and desire. More attended colleges, some accomplishing great things. We knew America was the strongest superpower in the world and that there was no end to our ability to invent, apply, learn, and achieve. That may have led to a certain cockiness that others saw as offensive, but conceited or not, it was no less true. In America anyone could become president, governor, a great writer, a musical star, a professional baseball player, or inventor of the next household gadget.
I did some internet research and found that in 1940 that an average family income was around $1,725 per year. By 1949 the economy had grown (as did inflation) so income rose to $2,950 per year. Gasoline in 1949 was .17 a gallon. I remember when it was in the 20-cent range during my school years. Automobiles averaged around $1,500 each in 1949. That wasn’t that cheap considering that this represented nearly half of one’s annual income. I don’t know the figures now, but expect that a car could cost as little as ten percent of one’s annual income, or as much as one hundred percent, depending upon one’s taste, and/or income. Another thing happened, too. Americans began to use credit instead of saving up and buying. Layaway plans were ditched in favor of a mortgage or lien. Debt increased and the lessons of buying on a margin that was a cause of the depression, was lost on the newer generations. They wanted their share of the pie and wanted it now. Today’s youth want to start work as President and CEO. I’m hoping we never have to relearn the history too long forgotten. We still should have our ‘Victory Gardens,’ but maybe that’s another sermon.
The war years were considered to be from 1941 through 1945, but the effects of the war are still felt by families that lost loved ones. Also, there are those who wake in the night with a sweat caused by yet another nightmare. World War II veterans are not necessarily alone in that. Consider our costs of the Korean War, the Viet Nam war, Desert Storm, and the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and all the others that are still raging in the Mideast. Most of the old veterans have passed with only a few remaining. They are in their 90’s now, some carrying the scars of the ‘War Years.’ I served with some of them and knew them to be of a great generation. I thank them with all my heart all the time. Sometimes I see one and have to reach out to shake his/her hand. Usually eyes water, but we feel pride swelling in our chests. Most of these people are humble, but they have cause to be strong in their pride. They have paid the dues owed by so many of us. They allowed me to grow up and I owe them. We must remember our armed forces and those men and women stationed all around the world. Many are very much in harm’s way and still serving this new generation. May God bless th
