Tales from Oregon Pt. 2

12/16/2008

My grandfather had me a captive audience. In spite of his wife’s persistent warnings stories began to trickle out of him like water from a leaking container, until the stories themselves took on a sort of self-persuasive force and combined they pushed into the open. With little regard for continuity and held together by the slightest of segues, stories begin to flow out of him at an accelerated and exhilarating pace.

He told me the story of his experiences in Hawaii in the months leading up to Pearl Harbor. He told me how he was 17 years old, and was ticketed for taking his dad’s Plymouth down the road at 90 miles an hour with 5 of his friends in the car. He told me how is license was taken away for 60 days, and how he went to the DMV on December 6, 1941 to get it back. He told me how he signed up for the National Guard the on December 8th. He told me how he got rose through the ranks to Staff Sergeant, before being demoted when they realized he was only 17 years old. He told me how, over the next two years he worked his way back up to Tech Sergeant from Private. He told me how, after his contract with the National Guard was up, he signed up for the U.S. Army as a cargo-specialist, routing supplies through Hawaii to the various armies fighting in the Pacific Theater.