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February 1, 2008 WWII Interview

For my interview, I decided to interview my grandfather, Melvin F. Brown. I interviewed him over the phone from my house on February 1, 2008. I chose to interview him because he is the most knowledgeable and interesting person I know. Also, he has a very vivid memory so he is able to recall things that happened a long time a go. My granddaddy, Melvin F. Brown was born June 4, 1935 in Carlinville, IL. He was 6 years old when WWII began. He has both a VA and JD from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Over the years, his jobs have ranged from picking corn to President of an international finance company. He has a wife named Pamela Brown, 2 sons named Steve & Andy, and 2 stepdaughters named Kim & Tami. He also has 9 grandchildren at the time and he will have 10 grandchildren in 2 months. He LOVES history, likes to read, and spend time with his 3 favorite grandchildren: Me (13), Ben (3), and Sarah (7 months). He also likes to play golf and tennis. Me: What are your most vivid memories of WWII? MFB: Sunday morning, December 7, 1941 approximately 12:00 p.m. I was sitting on the floor in front of my father who was listening to the radio and they interrupted it for a bulletin that said that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. I recall the look of horror on his face because had been very badly wounded in WW1. Me: What happened to him? MFB: He got his kneecap shot off and had to have a brace that went from his thigh to his ankle to keep his leg attached and he was slightly gassed. Me: What was your role in the war? MFB: Well I was just a boy at the time but one thing we did was save tinfoil. Gum used to be wrapped in tin foil so I would peel it off and put in into a big ball so we could give it to the government. Also, we would buy stamps and when you got 18.25 stamps, you put them in a book and gave them to the post office (bought a war bond) and in 10 years, you would $25. It was scary because even though I didn’t know what was going on, all the news was bad and the headlines in the paper were always about bad things. Me: How old were you? MFB: I was 6 when the war broke out and 10 when it was over. MFB: Another interesting fact is that if you wanted to buy a pair of shoes or gasoline, or some other items, you had to use stamps so you had to be very careful about what you bought because you only got so many stamps. This was called rationing. Me: Where were you in the war? MFB: I was in Carlinville when the war broke out but I was living in STL 2 years later because I had to go live with my grandmother when my father died. Me: What were the best things about the time? MFB: Oh, wow, I don’t know. Well I guess, since I was a kid, playing ball was the best thing about the time and doing the things that kids do. Me: Were your mom and brother and dad always unhappy/worried? MFB: Well my dad was always worried because he was always in pain and he was worried about money and taking care of the family. My mother was just a strong person in general and she was very confident. I think even if she was worried, she thought everything would work out. I don’t know if my brother was happy or not. He had enlisted in the Navy when he was 17. At the time, you could enlist when you were 17 with your parents’ permission. I don’t think my brother was very happy in Carlinville. He was teased and suffered anti-Semitic people and my mother later told me that my father was hard on him. Me: How much older was your brother than you? MFB: My brother was 8 years older than I. Me: What were the worst/most difficult things about the war? MFB: Well, the war didn’t really affect the average person very much. Obviously, I didn’t have a car because I was young so I didn’t worry about gas and my mother owned a shoe store so I always had shoes. The worst things were just hearing about people dying and hearing about friends loosing family members. Me: How do you think the war changed our country? MFB: It made us more part of the world. We were somewhat isolated before WWII, we weren’t as intensely involved in the world. An example of that was we didn’t join the League of Nations. For example, before WWII, we didn’t really care what was happening in Africa but WWII made the world metaphorically smaller and we became more intensely involved. Me: What are the lessons a 7th grader in 2008 should take away from the war? MFB: Hmmm, well, I found out through my family that war is hell. It’s barbaric, it’s cruel, it’s inhuman. You know me, I’m very interested in history and out of everything I’ve read, I’ve found that most wars were preventable, but a lot of people didn’t realize the dangers of what could happen as the time. If people had recognized the dangers of someone like Hitler, and stepped in, it all could have been prevented. Another thing is that Hitler wrote a book about what he was going to do but no one believed it and no one believed that a western, civilized, cultured country could let someone like Hitler lead them to such horrible lengths. Me: Anything else? MFB: I could talk to you for hours about WWII (chuckle) but something else is that even though I didn’t understand very much of what was happening, I could tell when something bad happened or something good happened just through people’s reactions. So even if I was confused about what I heard, I always knew if it was good or bad or sad because of my parents expressions. Me: Can you tell me about what happened when the war ended? MFB: Well when the news came over the radio, all of the sudden, cars started honking their horns, people were cheering and screaming, sirens went off, church bells rang. It was kind of like New Years Eve. People were doing everything they could to make noise to celebrate. Me: Who in your family was most connected to the war? MFB: My brother. He was in the war. He was in the navy. He was involved in the war in the pacific against Japan. His ships were landing troops at Okinawa. Me: How/what did you learn from your brother? MFB: I didn’t learn an awful lot from my brother. We didn’t really see each other very much after he joined the navy. After I was 8 years old, we never lived together again. Me: Looking back, now what are your views on how America dealt with the war? MFB: From a peaceful, minimal country that did not have as strong as a navy or army as now, we did very well. We came together as a country in time of need and I think from a military standpoint, we did most things right. However, there are also things we did not do. For example, the Holocaust. That was a terrible, terrible thing that we didn’t do very much to stop. For the most part though, we tried to do the right thing, but we didn’t always succeed in doing the right thing. MFB: Another thing that happened during the wartime was that boys my age developed heroes like Generals Marshall, Batton, Bradley (from MO). They were kind of like baseball players and football players. When we played war games and things, we would choose who we’d want to be but as I grew up, you realized that most of these “heroes” had feet of clay and they weren’t as noble as you thought. From this interview, people should take away what happens to average people during war (rationing, what’s on the news, friends and relatives dying at war), the dangers and hard times that come along with war. Mostly, this interview gives people a first hand look at what happened during WWII. Something very interesting about reading this interview is that even if you are 13 or 31, you are seeing a lot of things that happened in the war through the eyes of a 6 year old.
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