Do any DUers remember the attack on Pearl Harbor?

[Blue_In_AK]

After all of our discussions on the JFK assassination and "where were you when," it would be interesting to hear some personal stories about Pearl Harbor, if anyone here remembers. I think I suggested somewhere that once those of us of a certain age are dead and gone, November 22 will be just another historical date with no emotional content, rather like we boomers regard December 7.

[KoKo]

1. Sadly...I think most are very elderly or have passed on. But...

who knows...maybe there's a few DU'ers who were just barely old enough to remember something from their parents or part of the newscast.

[Blue_In_AK]

2. That's what I was wondering

if maybe someone was 4 or 5 or 6 and has memories of how their parents reacted upon hearing the news.

[CK_John]

3. I don't the beginning but I remember the ending VE day and VJ day.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. What was that like?

[CK_John]

6. We lived in mid town NYC (123st) and we could see all the fire boats in the Hudson River

spraying all the Navy ships which were sounding off sirens and fog horns. The local pub on the corner put out kegs and were handing out beer in card board cups, and that was the only time I ever saw my mother have a drink.

VJ day was nosier, everyone was tearing up the NYC phone book (my high chair) and throwing paper out the windows and bagpipe bands were marching around the neighborhood.

[Boom Sound 416]

10. Mid town (123st)??

[uppityperson]

17. I do not understand why someone would take time to post only snark and edit to add eyerolly. It just

seems a waste of time, energy and adds nothing positive. But then, that is just me.

[Boom Sound 416]

19. I was wondering something too

Still waiting.

[uppityperson]

20. It is good to wonder things. Without wonderment, the world would be a sadder place.

[Boom Sound 416]

23. ...

[rug]

21. The els were still up then and that was about halfway on both the east and west side lines.

Of course, being from Florida you wouldn't know that.

[Boom Sound 416]

22. Of course

Except that I've lived in NYC for the last 15 years.

[rug]

24. It's not the same city by a long shot. Especially Manhattan.

I left 16 years ago.

[Boom Sound 416]

26. The grid is

[rug]

29. Neither the neighborhood nor their names are.

[Boom Sound 416]

36. Yes Hell's Kitchen is now Clinton

And I guess no one says Yorkville anymore, unless you lived in the neighborhood

[rug]

38. Not if you were from Lenox Hill.

[Boom Sound 416]

39. If memory serves Lenox was at 92nd

And Yorkville was the next neigb to the south. 89, 90 somewhere in there was the switch, yes?

I was in Yorkville for a while

[rug]

41. Lenox Hill is in the mid-70s. (The hospital is named after it.)

The old neighborhoods were very territorial. Two blocks made a world of difference.

Yorkville was centered on E. 86th St. The Bund was active there up until Pearl Harbor. There was also a Hungarian neighborhood (St. Stephen's Church on 82nd is an echo of that) close by and a Czech neighborhood about a dozen blocks south.

I grew up on 67th Street between 2nd and 3rd. Last time I was back I counted about six buildings that had not been torn down.

[Boom Sound 416]

42. That's right,

Like I said, if memory serves, but I did remember Lenox hill hospital when reading your response, just couldn't remember which way. Yorkville starts at 79 and runs to Gracie mansion (89) at Carl Shurz park (where i used to hang when young and broke)

You're right their are a lot of little neibs mixed in. Little German district in the east low 80's as well.

Also neiborhoods like say, morningside heights

[CK_John]

31. At that time the 125 Ferry was considered as the middle, since Man. ran up to 212st

before crossing into the Bronx. We were a block from Juliard and about 2 blocks from Grant's Tomb.

[Boom Sound 416]

35. You mean Harlem?

Last edited Sun Dec 8, 2013, 02:01 AM - Edit history (1)

I'll say this:

My inlaws (all about your age) are from Harlem and no one calls or called it mid town.

"Midtown" is one word and its basically the middle of the grid. Though manhattan is numbered to 212 it's not exactly a grid north of Harlem, but it's a true grid to 110 and then begins to fray.


And again, the island might run to 212th, but that's the grid, there is nearly a third to the south below Houston which is the Zero street.

[Cooley Hurd]

5. I worked with a man who was on the USS Helena at 1010 dock...

His description of that morning has haunted me ever since. RIP Harold.

[tblue37]

7. I don't (too young) but my father was there that day. He was a 19-year-old airman

at the time.

[kestrel91316]

8. Anybody born up til 1936 or so will remember it.

My mom was born in 1935 and would be 78 now. If she were still alive and didn't have the mental problems and dementia she suffered, she'd remember it well and still be able to talk circles around people about it, I suppose. Lots of people in their 80s still have all their wits about them.

[Blue_In_AK]

9. Yes, I thought we had some older people here,

but I could be wrong. My family was basically pacifist, being Quaker, although my uncle did fight in the Pacific. My father had rheumatic fever when he was a kid and a slight heart murmur so he was exempted.

I do kind of remember one of my uncles on my mother's side coming home after Korea, but just barely.

[DesertFlower]

11. i was 2 months old.

[scarletwoman]

12. Not me, but my 87-yr old dad would certainly remember.

I don't recall him ever specifically talking about it, though.

When my sisters and I were kids, our parents told us bits and pieces about growing up during the Depression, and what it was like during WWII - rationing, my dad's time in the Navy, etc. - but I don't remember them making any big deal about Pearl Harbor. I think they were both still in high school when that happened; my dad enlisted after he graduated but it was late in the war by that time and he was never involved in any combat.

All I can say is that Pearl Harbor never became fetishisized in our family. I'm sure my parents remembered where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news, but I just can't recall them ever bringing it up as a significant marker in their lives the way the JFK assassination later became for all of us.

[northoftheborder]

13. Yes, although at the time I did not understand exactly what had happened.

We had the radio on most all the time in our home, and what I remember is, one day, the very excited newscasters using the word "Japs" over and over, a word I'd never heard before, nor knew what it meant. But I later learned that that day was the day America went to war, because the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor.

[asjr]

14. Okay, I'm the old lady that remembers hearing FDR make his speech on the radio. My father

father had to explain the reason for the speech, but I knew it must be something very big. And I was 8 years old. I already could not sleep well at night for listening to the airplanes overhead. I was scared to death it was German airplanes coming to bomb us. It was explained to me it was WAACs ferrying plains to Great Britain. My sister's best friend's mother was one of those pilots as we learned many years after.

[Curmudgeoness]

32. That must have been terrifying for an 8 year old.

I can see how the planes all night would worry you. How cool that it was the WAACs.

[LumosMaxima]

15. Not me, but

I had an uncle by marriage who was stationed at Pearl Harbor when it happened. He had horrible nightmares for years that would sometimes make him throw himself out of bed, and once he injured his neck rather badly. He met with a group of other Pearl Harbor survivors once a year for most of the rest of his life. He died about ten years ago.

[RebelOne]

18. Yes, I was almost 3 years old.

When my parents told me that Pearl Harbor had been attacked, I thought they were talking about a girl. I do remember saying, "Poor Pearl."

[William769]

25. I was not alive at the time but am reminded every time I visit the family cemetery.

I lost 5 first cousins at Pearl Harbor and a 6th one Lonnie was on battle ship row. After the battle ship he was on was sinking he moved to another. When that one was hit & started sinking he moved to a 3rd one. When that one got hit he lost it never to be the same again. He was to be put in mental hospital to be taken care of but my Aunt would have nothing to do with that (she had him brought home to King holler) where she took care of him till she died in 1988. Lonnie passed away two years later.

Lonnie relived that day everyday until he passed. If you asked him a question he would answer you & then go right back to that awful day (it was heart breaking to see him like that). On December 7th 1941 he was 19 years & two months old.

To you Lonnie, you are missed.

[Blue_In_AK]

33. That's such a sad story.

It reminds me of a few friends of mine who came back from Vietnam never to be the same. My ex brother-in-law, who had been a helicopter medic, seemed okay for a while, but then he just snapped one day and went completely insane, in a threatening sort of way, scaring all of us half to death (especially me, because I had a brand-new baby). He ultimately went off and lived as a vagrant in the woods in Northern California and did a little jail time. I think finally after about 10 years he came out of the woods and was living a semi-normal life, but even my ex hasn't talked to him in decades. I guess there's a reason they say "war is hell."

But I digress from the topic.

[CFLDem]

27. When I saw the flags at half staff today

I thought it was because of Mandela's death. I thought that was kind of odd because he isn't American but whatever.

Then I read it was Pearl Harbor day and all the pieces came together

Btw I'm under 30 and I'm usually pretty good with history.

[Blue_In_AK]

34. I think the flags ARE at half staff for Mandela

but it could be for Pearl Harbor Day, too.

[Boom Sound 416]

28. My father was 16 and new instantly he'd be drafted at 18 into the Army, so

At 17 he volunteered for the Navy

[TexasProgresive]

30. Not me, but I have my Mom's memory

She was about 16 and dusting in the living room-that's were the big radio sat in its place of honor. She turned on the radio - well the rest is history.

[katmondoo]

37. Yes, I was 12

Came home from the Library and my father was on the floor his ear to the radio. FDR was speaking and I heard part of his speech enough to know war was declared against Japan. My father told me Pearl Harbor was bombed. I didn't know what war would do to us or the country.

[Bonhomme Richard]

40. I'll never forget. It's my birthday.

My mother said that If I was a girl she would have named me Pearl.

[Blue_In_AK]

43. That was my grandmother's name. :)

[Boom Sound 416]

44. Mine too :)

[Blue_In_AK]

45. We must be cousins. :)