"Ickes stops the sale of Us Oil to Japan." In 1941 we were running out of oil
International oil policy. Do you think that might be why they were mad at us?
I didn't see that many oil wells in Japan. Some of what I remember of being
a little boy these years. In the middle of the night people came to our back
door with foreign names and looks different than me. Grandpa said they were
Americans and loved America just like me. But we were at war with Germany, Japan,
and in a cold war with Russia.
The people coming to our door resembled these
people. Grandpa hated no one. So if they came to our door and needed food or
clothing, or especially eggs and milk they took it home and were entered into
a ledger. Someday they would pay us back. Most never could. Some went to camps
and were not seen again. Grandpa hurt for them they were neighbors and friends.
1941 Japanese devastate US base at Pearl Harbor. Those that came for milk and eggs
still got them at our house. Grandpas cars were painted with spray paint. He was
called names and told he was unAmerican. You said something about my Grandpa
and there was a fistfight.
I guarded Grandpas cars with a wooden rifle days. Kathy if you read this you
have seen the picture. Tough little boy with trike and leather hat. I was guarding
Grandpa's truck. At night he had a shotgun Philippines are captured US interns 100,000
Japanese Americans. A dark day in our history. A Irish boy often had a black eye.
My best friend in the first grade was Russian. British fall back as Rommel plunges
60 miles into Egypt. Get along people. In 1945 my father disappeared and Mom bought
a house. It cost $3900. We had no car Mom went to work on buses. Mom would not tell
grandpa we had little money for food. Me and Barney my German Shepard dog went to
school. Other kids were picky and did not like things I brought them home for Sis.
School lunches were our main food source.
Easter Sunday I got a new set of clothes. I wore it every day to school. I was teased
often. Mom washed them every night long into the night. Mom was an Angel. Sis stayed
with a neighbor until Me and Barney got home from school. I was six years old when I
had my first babysitting job. In the second grade I met Jim. We are friends today.
Jim's Father died in the war. We picked wild blackberries sold them door to door. We
caddied, we set pins in the bowling alley, we were the first Spanish farm workers. I
sold garden seeds door to door. I talked the neighbor into letting me have chicken
manure. I had my first garden at seven years old. I sold vegetables door to door. U-boat
sinks ship carrying Italian POW's. Some allies the German's were. I knew nothing of
this I wrote my first poem in school.
"Thousands of stars invade the sky. They are much bigger than you or I." I wrote it
in the bad boy closet. The teacher did not like me. My back was humped from Dad throwing
me against the wall when I tried to defend Mom, I could not see in the back row but would
not sit anywhere that my back was not defended. In 1943 Barney, my stray German shepard
stray and I got our first bicycle. It was a World Bike with huge tires, a light in front,
and a wire basket to hold books. The teacher did not like me. She was fat and only liked
girls. I was reading the sports page, Babe Ruth, and Moby Dick. The class was reading
Golden locks and Mary had some sheep. She tried to have me set back. But I could read
and write and fight. Always in the bad boy closet. The bike was old and tired but
it was the best and worst present I ever received. Dad came back and said he gave up
drinking and found it in the junk yard for me. The next five years I was the envy of
the neighborhood and had a guard dog and transportation. Not true, most of the kids had
three speeds and their windows were not boarded up.
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