Most of those who have been on RinkWorks for a while have heard my account of Pearl Harbor, but for all of you whippersnappers - - -
I was eight years old when the Japanese bombed the naval base and air field on Oahu. It was early on Sunday morning in Hawaii, but in Kentucky, we had just returned from church. My older sister and I were reading the funnies and my younger sister who was not yet three was pretending to do the same.

Our mother came in from the kitchen and said, "The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor. I'm afraid we are in another war." I remember asking where Pearl Harbor was. We went into the kitchen where the radio was. There was no TV in those days. Mother dragged out a world map and pointed out Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands, then a US territory. She put a pencil point down on the southern shore of the island and said that was where Pearl Harbor was located.

We sat around the table listening to the news for the rest of the day.

Many years later, I went to Pearl Harbor and rode out to the submerged battleship Arizona on a Navy launch. I stood there on the memorial, looking down at the rusting ship and I could almost hear my mother's voice saying,"I'm afraid we are in another war."