The War

To take a little break from my Anatomy class, I read a couple of chapters from one of my favorite books, "The War Comes to Plum Street". I found this book one afternoon several years ago, while wandering around Border's Bookstore at Keystone at the Crossing. The first thing that caught my attention was the book cover. It was dominated by a large picture of a street sign that said "Plum Street" My first thought was, "That looks like the street signs in New Castle." And, as anyone from New Castle can tell you, there is a Plum Street there. I opened the book and found that this was a story of the people of New Castle, Indiana during the depression and World War II. I also found that the main character, Gemma Moles, went to high school with my Mother and my Aunt. I quickly bought the book and headed home for a good read. After a quick call to my Aunt Margie, I found that Gemma and Margie had graduated together and had known each other. The Moles had also lived just around the corner from my grandparents. This book told the story that I had heard many times before from my own parents. It was about "The War".

The War. I never heard it called The World War or WWII. It was "The War". There was "Before the War" and "After the War" and "During the War".

From my dad, I learned that war was an ugly, terrible, but sometimes necessary thing. Men and women were hurt, maimed or killed. This point was brought home one afternoon when I was young, as I talked to Dad as he changed clothes after work. As Dad removed his trousers and turned to put on another pair of pants, I saw a huge, ugly, scar (hole) in his upper thigh that reached to his buttocks. When I asked what  had happened, he simply replied, "I was shot in The War". I eventually learned the whole story. In February, 1945, Dad was fighting on the island of Luzon, in the Philippeans. He and several other men were digging foxholes on a hillside. As they were digging, they came under fire from a Japanese sniper. One man was hit in the head and died instantly. The next man was hit in the back and also died immediately. Dad was bent over digging when he was hit. He fell face first into the foxhole and had thought that man next to him had hit him in the rear with a pickaxe. When Dad came back up to give the guy "the what for", he saw that the man was dead. He then knew he had been hit. Dad spent several months in the hospital fighting his wound and the gangrene that developed. Another man, who had not been hit, was able to kill the sniper and gave the Japanese belly flag the sniper wore around his waist to my dad. It is one of my prized possessions. Dad finally returned to his unit the last week of July, 1945. Within 2 weeks, The War was over.

Mother's experience was, of course, quite different. She was 16 when The War started in December of 1941. She spent most of the next 3 1/2 years like most. Trying to make due with the rationing of everything from gasoline, to meat and canned goods, to nylon stockings. She tried to make the best of things by keeping busy with school and spending time with her friends, Rilla Millikan, Patsy Patterson, and the Sharp twins, Mary and Mart. After graduating in May, 1943, she volunteered at the hospital and waited for The War to be over. However, everyday, there was the newspaper waiting. Who was killed or hurt today? The sight of the Western Union delivery boy riding his bike down the street could strike fear into the hearts of any parent or sweetheart with a loved one overseas.

Eventually, of course, The War was over, and the men came home. One spring day, in March of 1946, Mother had a double date to go horseback riding. Although she liked her date, it was the other man who caught her eye. And Mother caught his. As they all drove back to town in Dad's 1941 Plymouth coupe, Dad  looked around behind his date's and Mother's date's heads and sang "Sioux City Sue" to Mother. It was the beginning. Just a few short months later, On August 4, 1946, Mother and Dad were married at my grandparent's home on South 21st St. Just around the corner from Plum St.