Thinking back, 80 years ago................
Well, few of you were here then, but for some reason I got to thinking about Christmas and New Years back in 1941. Yup, I was there.
Dad had a camera shop in Grand Rapids, and specialized in Agfa films and cameras. With the commencement in WW II, his German contacts ended all commercial business. So the camera shop folded, and we moved back to Detroit where I had been born five years earlier.
Had to move in with my maternal grandparents on Sorrento just south of Foley [[look it up!), where I started Kindergarten at the Parker School. I still have a few memories of those days. I remember at about the third week of school, the little girl sitting next to me suddenly threw up. Well, horse hockey, though I, and started sitting on the other side of the room. A week later, the little girl next to me [[a different one) did the same upchucking. That was Kindergarten. I never liked school since those two days.
Pop landed a job in the Camera Department of Monkey Wards in Dearborn then, so we ended up in an upper flat on Neckel near Ford Road. From then on, life progressed normally, but 1941 and 1942 were years I'll not forget, nor the war years to follow. I became a newspaper junky in those years following the war all over, and never recovered. I just can't imagine a day without my daily paper, even today.
The good news, in case you've not heard, is that we won the war. Well, THAT one, any way; I'm not too sure about some of the Mickey Mouse ones we've had since.
The good: Subsequent years have been wonderful.
The bad: I always fear any girl sitting next to me to toss her beans. :)
