(Editor’s note: Ann Woodhouse of Bradford sent a letter to The Era, describing her memories of World War II. We are sharing it in its entirety as we head in to Memorial Day weekend.)

I was playing with paper dolls on the floor when my dad yelled, “Turn on the radio the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor!” People were outside crying and praying, on Monday the men were signing up to go fight, our neighbor Carl said he wanted to be a gunner on a ship, and he became just that!

My dad had a dispensation, as some other men also did. Women worked at railroad shops and factories as men were off fighting. Dad and some others ran the women’s crew. They did all pull together.

We had food stamps due to rationing so our troops were supplied. Blue stamps for sugar, brown for meat, and green for gas. Ladies would swap stamps for what they needed. We put cardboard in the soles of our shoes when they got holes in them, rubber was needed for the war-effort and shoes were poorly made back then.

I forgot to mention about a poster with a pretty picture of a woman on it called “Rosy the Riveter.” She was dressed in overalls, holding a rivet-gun making war planes. It was to encourage women to join the workforce. There were other posters warning people not to discuss anything they heard from their people in the service who may have slipped and wrote something going on that the enemy should not know, some posters said “Loose Lips Can Sink Ships!” There were spies all over America. There were enemy people called saboteurs who were trying to blow-up our shops and planes being built at our shipyards and factories.

We had big plastic bags of oleo, colored white, a red button was pushed to send orange color in it, mom let me push it — siblings fought to do it — the taste was good. I loved it and wish we still had it now.

Kids gathered tin cans, newspapers, glass jars all to be used for the war-effort. Troop-trains came through our town, when the windows were not covered, people were allowed to give treats to the troops — however, if they were covered you did not go near due to secret matters.

People put square shaped flags in windows, white with blue stars representing soldiers they had at war. When you saw a gold star it meant someone had been killed, so sad.

We had black curtains to cover windows at night so light wasn’t seen if we had air-raids in case war came to our shores. Air-raid wardens patrolled at night to make sure windows were covered — it was a scary time.

At school we had air-raid drills, a bell rang and we would go to the coat room, sit on the floor in the darkness, cover our heads with our coats and pray it was only a drill. They discovered enemy submarines in both oceans off our shores so there were always threats.

We had many heroes such as the DeLucia brothers Bib and Elmer, and one other who needs our honor, Augie DeLucia, he was a tail-gunner who was wounded on a mission even giving and losing an eye — Thanks to our vets for serving our nation in all the wars.

I remember the loved ones running alongside the buses as they carried the men off to train, everyone crying and saying goodbye. I remember the happy day the war ended, we celebrated with cars honking their horns, bells ringing, churches open with thankful people praying, us kids pounding pie pans with spoons all over town.

Pray to God we never forget to be thankful for freedom and remember the people and what they gave for it! God Bless America!!

Ann Woodhouse of Bradford