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Natalie February 4, 2008 Mr. Fitz Interview Write-up

It was late Wednesday night when I called my grandma, Maureen Summers, to discuss the events of WW2. Her raspy voice wobbled with age as she described to me what life was like growing up during the war from her warm, cozy living room. Diligently, I took careful note of her account of World War 2 seated upon a hard wooden chair at the kitchen table. I had talked to her before about the war, which was why I decided to pick her brain a second time. The wind howled outside as if it, too, was remembering the tragedies of WW2, as the story began. Before I continue on with Maureen’s (or Nana as I call her) tale, I should explain some of her life other than during the War. She was born in 1932, in Rochester New York, and then moved to Buffalo NY where she grew up and spent most of her life. She lived in Cleveland for six years, Atlanta for one, then moved to St. Louis in ’81. She taught math and science, was a math assistant for a research company, was an accounting salesman, played the piano in Dixieland band for five years, and had many other various jobs. She graduated college in 1954, and then married a year later and had five children. Now she enjoys reading, sudokus, and crossword puzzles. Now, back to Nana’s story: Nana lived in Buffalo, New York on 338 13th St. when the war began. She has a very vivid memory of the first time she found out the US was at war: It was Sunday in 1941, and Buddy (a close relative) came running down the stairs telling the family that he had just heard on the radio about Pearl Harbor being bombed, which meant that the United States was now involved in the biggest war of history. She was nine years old then, and shocked. Another clear recollection Nana has of the war was in 1944 when she was reading an article in Reader’s Digest, and saw pictures of the horrors of the Death Camps. Nana recalls that the best part of World War 2 was an intense feeling of unity. Everyone was all in it together, working as one to end the war, whether it was collecting scrap steel, or buying war bonds, which were very popular. They were loans that the government sold to fund the war that they promised to pay back when the war ended. Celebrities would do adds to try and sell war bonds, which ended up paying for a huge portion of the war. Nana remembers her mother starting a victory garden and making her help out with it, but it was so cold and the soil was so bad that it ended up becoming a dismal failure. Everything was rationed as well—meat, gas, sugar, etc., and all the car companies were producing tanks and jeeps for combat. According to Nana, one of the worst parts of the war was that she knew that she couldn’t do things like take a road trip, because gasoline was being rationed. It was awful knowing that men were over there dying, and there was nothing she could do about it. There was always a tremendous worry for the soldiers. Every so often she’s see a gold star in someone’s window, signifying that people from that residence were in the army, or sadder yet a blue star, which meant that someone from that family had died in action. There was a constant fear of the Germans winning, and Nana prayed everyday for peace and for the soldiers. Nana remembers how much America changed once the war ended—when the troops came home, the government set up GI plans, which enabled them to go to college. There was a new class of people: young men who were getting married, graduating college, and buying homes. New inventions were coming out, like television and dryers, and women were becoming both educated and employed. These were wonderful times, full of innovativeness and positive change. Nana pauses a moment when asked what lessons she would have seventh graders today take away from the war. Eventually she comes to the conclusion to “Speak softly, but carry a big stick.” She says, “The idea is to negotiate…it’s best to know what’s going on and work with people to fix it. War is a last resort.” I hope that people who have read this interview can learn both a little bit about life growing up during the war, as well as the importance of peace, which some of our leaders today seem to have forgotten.