On The Home Front
“Tell me again, JT,”
Brian requested as he downed his breakfast of steamed eggs with multi-grain
toast, “why I’m supposed to go with you to Gino’s Restaurant Thursday – to
entertain Miss Langan and her brother from St. Louis? It might make it clearer
in my mind.”
“I already told you, Brian,” Justin reminded him. “I was coming in a little
after noon yesterday when I ran into Marie and Frannie outside - Marie being
Miss Langan to you because you don’t hardly know her at all – like you don’t
hardly know anybody else who lives in this building…..”
“Do too know Marie, Wise-Guy,” Brian maintained. “I say ‘Hello’ to her every
time I see her – maybe like – 30 times a year – or maybe more. She’s pretty old
for you to be calling her by her first name though. Maybe you should try ‘Aunt
Marie’ or something….”
“Frannie is her brother, Bri,” Justin knowingly ignored the interruption. “He
lives in St. Louis with his daughter but he was in New York last week at a
reunion. He was in World War II. He was even at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed.
He said there were only five other guys at the reunion. That generation is dying
off, Brian – the last bunch that remembers. My great-grandfather fought in that
war and you told me both your grandfathers did – so we should want to know. The
older you get, the more interested you get in history….”
“The older you get, Sweetheart, the more of history you’ve lived through. But
the real truth of the matter is that you like – do remember, Kiddo,” Brian told
him. “You’re always watching the History Channel or the Military Channel. You’re
like – some kind of nut on World War II stuff. I bet you know as much about
Hitler as Goehring did – or Goebbels….”
“That’s the point, Mr. Kinney,” Justin replied. “I told them how interested I
was in that stuff and they asked me if I wanted to see some pictures and
mementos Frannie brought with him – real-life stuff from the war….”
“So you stopped up to their apartment for a while and….” Brian remembered.
“And I was there for like – over three hours, Brian.” Justin pointed out,
“Frannie is a really great storyteller – and he was all over the Pacific….”
“So did he tell you anything you didn’t already see on History or Military, Mr.
Taylor?” Brian wondered.
“I don’t guess he did,” Justin admitted, “but it was really exciting to hear it
direct from somebody who was there – and to be able to ask questions…..”
“Which – knowing you as well as I do - I can only presume you did,” Brian
laughed. “In vast quantity….”
“Yeah I did, BK,” Justin admitted, “and I invited them to have dinner with me at
Gino’s Thursday night - in case I remembered some questions I forgot to ask. I
also told them you’d want to come too – but I told them I didn’t know if you
could come – knowing how you never want to do anything I want to do....”
“Well I guess it wouldn’t be any worse than watching the Military Channel,”
Brian commented.
“You know what was really the most interesting stuff for me yesterday, Bri?”
Justin ignored Brian’s possible acquiescence. “Not the stuff from the war itself
– but what was going on here in the States….”
“That was part of the war too, Baby,” Brian told him. “That war was also fought
on the home front. That was maybe the difference between wars then and wars now.
Everybody was involved back then…..”
“Marie was in high school at the time,” Justin related, “And she spent lots of
Saturday mornings downtown wrapping bandages for the Red Cross. That’s how she
got interested in that stuff and ended up going to nursing school – but the war
was over before she graduated…And they said that every block in town had a
couple of guys overseas. They put little banners in their windows with a blue
star on it if there was a serviceman gone from the house – and gold if….”
“Yeah,” Brian told him. “I knew that.”
“And everybody saved their kitchen fat and turned it in to the grocer – it was
used for explosives,” Justin narrated. “And they took the empty cans from canned
foods and crushed them – and saved them for the scrap metal pick-ups – and kids
made balls of tin foil for the war effort – and string - and collected old
newspapers….”
“And there was food rationing too,” Brian interjected.
“Yeah,” Justin continued. “You had to pay ration points for food - in addition
to money - and there were shortages anyhow. Marie remembers standing in line for
almost an hour with her twelve cents and eight red ration points just to get a
half-pound of butter. And regular folks got just 2 or 3 gallons of gasoline a
week….”
“Things were tough,” Brian observed – mostly to assure Justin that he was still
listening to the prolonged monologue.
“And guys worked sometimes seven days a week,” Justin continued. “And women went
to work - even in the steel mills….”
“My mother’s mother was a riveter for a while,” Brian joined in, “Making armor
plate for battleships. There was a song about ‘Rosie the Riveter’ but my
grandmother’s name was Bridget…..”
“And they bought war bonds every month to help finance the war, Brian,” Justin
went on. “And even school kids could buy a war stamp for a dime – and when they
got enough stamps – turn them in for a bond. And they had blackouts every couple
of weeks – where they had to turn off all their lights – it was like practice
for a potential air raid – so the enemy couldn’t find their targets….”
“Fortunately we never had an air raid stateside, Taylor,” Brian recalled. “But
it was good to be ready….”
“I wonder what people would do today, Brian,” Justin mused, “if they were called
on to do that kind of stuff now. War is so different. Most people don’t even
realize when there is a war…..”
“Well war is different now, Kiddo,” Brian told him, “and people are
different too – but I hope we would be able to do what would be needed – if we
ever had to….”
“Well let’s hope we never have to,” Justin echoed. “And speaking of ‘have to’,
you don’t really have to come to dinner with us on Thursday if you don’t want
to. You don’t. I shouldn’t have even asked them without checking with you first
so…..”
“Now don’t you be trying to talk me out of going, Taylor.” Brian rose and ran
his hand through the kid’s tresses in passing. “You know how much I like Marie –
and I’m really glad for the opportunity to meet Frannie. He’s one of the reasons
we don’t have to put up with what they had to deal with a while back – or maybe
a lot worse…..”
“Thanks, Brian,” Justin smiled at him.
“Think nothing of it, Sunshine,” Brian smiled back, “but maybe we could like -
skip the Military Channel tonight and do something else?”
“I’ll think about it.” Justin’s smile became a grin.
“So will I,” Brian grinned too.