THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING OUR HISTORY

         A few days ago my husband and I re-watched the movie Pearl Harbor (the one with Ben Affleck – I’m sure there are probably older movies with the same theme). Very realistic as far as the history and how the characters behaved, the 40’s clothing, makeup, hair styles, big band music, dances, etc. I know this because I was born 5 months before the war in Europe ended. The war with Japan ended 4 months after that. Of course, being a new baby, I have no memories of actual people and events at that time, but I spent the first twenty years or so of my life hearing people talk about the “big war.” I knew people who were in it, and there was all kinds of literature and numerous movies about it. Also, my father worked in an ammunition/bomb factory in LaPorte Indiana during the war.

     I heard many, many real-life stories about life during WWII, as well as what it was like to work in that bomb factory. It was not just one big building. It was several different buildings, each one for a different kind of ammo or bomb. That was because if one of the buildings blew up, they would not lose the ability to keep manufacturing ammo in the others. The workers wore protective clothing and kept their hair covered because hair carries electricity. Both men and women were not allowed to comb or brush their hair inside the buildings. There were also numerous underground bunkers where bombs were stored, all designed so that enemy airplanes could not detect them from above. 

        We lived in government housing, an area called Kingsford Heights. My mother and I visited the same area about 25 years ago, and we found the house we’d lived in. It made me cry. I’m not sure why because as I said, I have no real memories of living there. I think the tears were for the many lives sacrificed during the war, and I’m sure the many marriages that did not survive the changes in man and wife when a soldier came home from that war, whether injured or not. War changes people, and back then soldiers did not get the kind of leaves they get today. Some were “over there” fighting the war for 2-4 years straight. Man and wife were practically strangers when those men got home, and even the wife had changed. Women had to get jobs during the war, mostly to help the government and our men by helping build war equipment. I’m sure you have heard of “Rosie the Riveter.” Women worked on assembly lines helping build ships, tanks, airplanes, Jeeps, trucks any number of necessary equipment. From those jobs women found a new independence, and they discovered it felt good to earn their own money.

       When mom and I visited Kingsford Heights, it was very spooky, and for me it was a reminder that this could happen again, only today things would be much worse. The spookiness came from seeing all the houses still there but lived in by regular citizens. Many of the buildings where the ammo was built were still there, a haunting reminder of that “big war.” The bunkers are still there, mounds of earth with no purpose. The open land is farmed now. We saw the now-empty government schoolhouse, and I could picture the children playing and laughing, too innocent to realize what danger the country faced.

       My most haunting experience was an abandoned train sitting on a track that led to the buildings. It was obviously on its way to pick up more ammo to be delivered to various storage shelters throughout the country. But there it sat, rusting. It was as though the engineer got word that the war had ended, then stopped the train and got off and never went back. It was very, very spooky. I couldn’t understand why the government just left that train sitting there.

       War changed the world, and it changed America’s most common way of life. I have heard enough real stories about the war, seen enough real pictures of bombed-out cities, wounded civilians, terrified children, starving POW’s, and pictures from Hitler’s concentration camps to feel and understand the horrors of that time. I have a set of books by a war correspondent that is filled with pictures showing scenes from the war from beginning to end. Pictures don’t lie. In one of them, a mother being evacuated from a European city is looking out the train window and holding her child. The look on her face just grabs you, as though leaving her home and friends was like death, and if it happened to you or me, wouldn’t we feel the same way? If my husband was off to war and I had to pick up and leave everything familiar, possibly all of it to be destroyed, I would be devastated. It would be even worse if I had small children to look after and protect.

        I also have two scrap books of letters my mother kept from her best friend in high school, who was an Army nurse during the war and who served in England, France, Italy, North Africa and Germany. She had even nursed soldiers who’d survived the Normandy landing. There is no better proof of what war was like than letters from someone who was really there and experienced all of it, including using her helmet as a bowl to wash her underwear. I also have some of the rationing stamp books the government gave out. People were allowed to buy certain amounts monthly of things like gasoline and certain foods. For a while women could not get nylons because nylon was needed to make parachutes.     

       War is ugly and cruel. People lose homes and family members. The enemy rapes and pillages and flat-out murders innocent old people and women and children. Lives are turned upside-down and never right themselves again. Unbearable memories instill themselves in peoples’ hearts and minds – memories that never go away. And War is ridiculously unnecessary. Why do some men think they have to scoop up every country around them and build empires through murder and rape and destruction? I have great respect for all countries and their unique lifestyles and beliefs. I enjoy learning about other cultures, but I certainly don’t want us to attack other countries and try to claim them as our own. There is never a valid reason for starting a war.

       I feel so blessed to have been born right here in the U.S. I want my grandchildren and great-grandchildren to feel hope for the future, to dream the dream of success. I want them to look forward to the future, not dread it because they fear what lies ahead. I don’t want them to have to give up their fortunes and their lives to fight for freedom, and I hope they never take that freedom for granted.

       We must teach our children pride in our country, respect for our laws and for all religions, and a desire to do their part to protect what would be a tragic loss if we allow an invasion of America, whether from without or WITHIN. We must teach our young people patriotism, and one of the best ways to do that is to bring back solid teaching of AMERICAN HISTORY. Learn it yourselves. Teach it to your children. And insist that history is taught in our schools – ALL OF IT – not just recent history. Knowing our past helps us and our children understand the importance of protecting America’s unique democracy, the importance of strength and bravery and how those things help keep us out of war.

       Too often we hear kids say that history is boring. I think it’s quite the opposite! There are some truly interesting events in our past that are so exciting. All teachers need to do is make history fun and REAL. And it IS real! There is no shame in the mistakes that we made in the past. Every mistake became a learning experience, and learning the why’s and how’s, learning how different habits and ways of life and teachings were a hundred, two hundred years ago, only brings it all more alive. And in learning the truth, our young people can do a good job of taking America into a future of peace and freedom.

      Encourage your children and grandchildren to read books that involve real history, not just America’s history but world history, too. If they are not learning it in school, take them to the library and find books that teach it. Check with the librarians as to which books are the most entertaining for certain age groups. Take your children and grandchildren to historic settings designed for public visits, and let them talk to older people, especially veterans, about life in the past. Take them to antique shops, where they can see first-hand tools, clothing, farm equipment, pioneer kitchens and homes from the past. Some young people can see a telephone from the “old days” and not even know what it is. There are many ways to teach history without it being boring at all. Be excited about it yourself, and that excitement will be born in children’s hearts, too.

       I can’t count how many times in doing my research that I have said, “Oh, my gosh! I never knew that!” Do you or your children know why the strip of wood or steel across the entrance to the front door is called a threshold? Do you know why June became such a popular month to marry? Do you know where the term “It’s raining cats and dogs” comes from? Do you know why railroad tracks are the width that they are? It goes all the way back to ancient Rome, and it even affects the size of our rockets!

       To this day, certain facts, habits and sayings come from history, both recent and ancient. Get interested. Get educated. And bring it alive for your children.