My father graduated from Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Mo. which gave him a Reserve Corp Army Lieutenant's commission. So, when the government began ramping up for WWII, his commissioin was activated and he was sent to Fort Ord, which was in the neighborhood of 1940. I had gone to kindergarten and 1st grade in Leavenworth, kindergarten at the 3rd St (?) school and 1st grade at the old Franklin school. So I must have been in 2nd grade and maybe 3rd in California. I was about 6 and my sister 1. My grandmother came along to help my mother get us to California by train. Many service personnel were being shipped here and there via train which made for crowded conditions on old uncomfortable seats. I remember young men in uniform sitting on their bags in the aisles. Those old trains really lurched about. I was born with motion sickness. I remember negotiating the walk to the diner car with my mother carrying my sister. We no sooner got there than the train lurched and I threw up in some stranger's plate. My poor mother and grandmother! Then my grandmother had to make it back alone, which might have been easier.
We found a furnished house in Pacific Grove that belonged to a self-proclaimed Russian countess complete with turbans and shawls. The countess, not the house.
The house was built around a solarium so my sister and I could run completely around it. We loved it. My mother hated it. She swore the furniture had bugs because of the solarium plants. So we found a nice little rambler, newly built, that sat up from the cove a few blocks thus giving us a wonderful view and friendly neighbors, and the opportunity to play on the beach and see the fish from the glass-bottom boat. There were floor to ceiling windows at the front corners of the living room which we had to cover with black paper during the blackouts. There were fire wardens that were stationed on roofs to watch for enemy planes. There were designated safe houses on the way to and from school. Our car had yellow fog lights because you were not allowed to use regular lights at night. You could see lights flashing out to sea from the hills behind Pacific Grove at night. The rumors were that Japanese submarines were out a little way getting and sending messages by flashing light code. One day my mother was bringing us home from town and as she was unlocking our door 2 military planes swooped down just outside our cove. The ground shook from an explosion. Rumor had it a Japanese sub had been destroyed and that bodies later washed up on shore. I have no clue if was true. The next door neighbor's daughter was a Rose princess. She and her boyfriend would take me with them to the movies and sit in the back row so they could smooch through the movie much to my disgust. I wanted to sit where I could see the movie better. One beautiful sunny December Sunday my mother was cooking dinner and my father was out washing the car when the nessages came over the radio for all military persnnel to report for duty. They sent my father to a muddy tent camp near San Luis Obispo and promoted him to Captain because the Westpoint grad in charge could not control his men. They trained in desert warfare. We found a bungalow on the ocean outside of town with our own private beach. It was foggy at night; you could hear the foghorns. My mother must have been terrified because there were alll kinds of rumors about Japs coming ashore. We soon moved into town to a stucco duplex with poinsettias growing in the courtyard and located across the street from my school. They shipped my father's outfit to the Aleutians with their desert gear. He was wounded, thus earning a Purple Heart, and, small wonder, suffered frostbite. The wives left behind banded together for moral support. I don't remember many children other than one family with two boys about my and my sister's ages. One of the wives was very pregnant so my mother took her under her wing. I remember taking her to the hospital and staying in the waiting room until she produced a big healthy boy. All the wives made sure everyone got on their ways home and we eventually came home to Leavenworth via our car, bringing another army wife to Nebraska on the way.
I have so many more memories about that time I think I could write a book.
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