Monthly Archives: October 2011

Mom was probably more a romantic than Dad was, but she dreamed of a vine-covered cottage with a white picket fence, a porch swing and kids everywhere.  I was surprised to see that Mom and Dad wanted to start their … Continue reading →

      Franklin Roosevelt died on April 13, 1945 of a cerebral hemorrhage.  His passing was deeply felt by a nation that had known him as their president for three previous terms, and FDR was in his fourth term, unprecedented … Continue reading →

What fascinated me most about this entry was that Mom and Dad paid $35 a month for their rent and shared a house phone.  Mom became a kind of adviser to one of the wild teenage girls staying with an … Continue reading →

Pratt Theater, Circa 1940s   Mom and Dad enjoyed seeing movies together, and many of those films they introduced to us kids later on in the 1950’s and 1960’s, when those movies appeared on TV. One that Mom particularly enjoyed was … Continue reading →

The Betty Grable poster of her showing off her beautiful legs was iconic during the war.  The image was found in generous numbers in every barracks, and it became a symbol of one of the things soldiers were fighting for, … Continue reading →

   Dickie was the son young son of Dad’s twin brother Eddie and his wife Marge.  Dickie was a bright, handsome kid, who would die of leukemia only a couple of years later, but he was doted on by eveyone … Continue reading →

         It always amazes me how close my mother was to her in-laws, but they were very good to her and treated her as their own daughter.  Mom lived with them for a time, and the first pictures of … Continue reading →

Dad married Bonnie (my mom) on December 26, 1944.  After that he was stationed at the army base in Pratt, Kansas, where they had a little apartment but dreamed of owning a little cottage somewhere with a white picket fence … Continue reading →

1944 was a good year for Dad.  He was made a sergeant, and he finally got to marry Bonnie toward the end of that year.  He continued training other soldiers and working as a mechanic on military vehicles.  When he wrote this letter … Continue reading →