December 7th is probably a foot note in a history book by now. But that is the very first major catastrophe that I experienced and it has had a profound effect on me. I use that date to mark everything else that has happened in my history. I remember
where I was, what I was doing, where I was going,who I was with. That bombing of Pearl Harbor , Dec. 7, 1941 shattered my bubble. The things that effected me, were only things that a 6 almost 7 year old kid could know. I couldn't get bubble gum or Hershey
Bars without standing in line at the candy store. I saved my gum under my dinner plate so that I could use it later. I bought Savings Bonds. $18. and change, and you got a $25 Bond. They made great birthday presents. I couldn't get a new bike, but was deliriously
happy when my Daddy some how got me a ballooned tired two wheeler, second hand. Probably on the black market. We didn't have a car. Gas was rationed. We used rationing stamps for meats. We were stuck in a small apartment waiting to move to the apartment that
I was later married in. My Grandmother became terminally ill and she moved into our apartment so that my Mother could take care of her. We had lights out every so often in preparation for an enemy attack. An assigned man would walk around the neighborhood
making sure that there were no lights leaking so that the enemy couldn't find us. We colored oleo with a yellow gelatin egg thing to make it look like butter. My sister, 8 years older , started dating service men. I knew all of this and I did not know
of the Holocaust. How could that have happened. I still search my memory to try and see what I missed, but I never heard a word , in my house, of what was happening. I just knew that we were at war. And it was serious.