Remembering D-Day

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It was the 80th anniversary of D-Day this past week. My father remembers it happening.

He woke up June 6th 1944 to hear on the radio that “the Allies had crossed the English Channel and invaded France.”

He was a senior at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. 

What a moment! How incredible to have been alive at that defining time. I asked him how he reacted. What did he do right after hearing the news?

“Not much,” he said. “We went to school.”

What happened at school?

“We went to class. I had geometry and English.”  

The juxtaposition of the historical and mundane reminds us that day-to-day life goes on even during the Worst of Times.

We are so accustomed to immediate information today it’s hard to imagine such a monumental event occurring without social media, Internet or even TV. 

“I don’t think we knew what a big deal it was that morning,” he said. “It wasn’t clear until later what the outcome was.”

The gravity of the war did became clearer. Dad said the kids who graduated in 1943 got hit hard. Two friends were killed in the Battle of the Bulge. 

Dad said the TV coverage today brought back memories, many of which have been left out of the popular wartime narratives.

In particular, I was struck by the feverish activity on the home front which is rarely discussed today. It gives you a sense of how much everyone was involved.

The fear the Germans would attack New Jersey by air or sea was real.

He said that people painted the tops of their car headlights black to avoid illuminating the roads near the coast where U-boats patrolled.

There were air sirens and when the alarm sounded people sprang into action. Dad’s uncle was in charge of dimming the iconic gas street lights.

Dad said one time the sirens went off during a school dance. Lots of the young men left, but he couldn’t immediately get home.

He was stuck in the dark with a large group of girls. 

“That was fun,” he said.

Dad enlisted in the Navy after graduation and was assigned to study how to become a radio operator. The war ended just as he was finishing training. 

My father’s high school years were bookended by huge historical events.

Early in his freshman year he was called into the school auditorium to listen to a live broadcast of President Roosevelt’s Day of Infamy speech following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. 

D-Day occurred as he was about to graduate. 

In between, there were classes and dances and swimming meets.

Life went on.

BRIEF OBSERVATIONS

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION: DEI mentions by corporations in conference calls have fallen dramatically.

OFF TRACK: The chart of life expectancy in America is sobering.

RELIGION: The chart shows a dramatic change in religion by race in America.

AMNESTY: Sign at my son’s college as he graduated advertising amnesty for any items taken from the dining hall.

TELL ME YOUR IN COLLEGE WITHOUT TELLING ME: Books left on a side table of my son’s dorm by one of his housemates.