A Young Person's View of Life on the Home Front During WWII
byMargaret Walters with Mark Walters
Book Cover & Preview Text
Chapter 3
Mid-December, 1941
The children had always loved the lights downtown. It was sort of a custom, when out at night, for Father to drive up and down Fulton, the main street, very, very slowly. While Mother and Sara studied the brightly lit display windows of the larger stores, Elaine and Billy enjoyed the brightly colored neon lights. A large number of these neon signs made pictures—some even blinked, tricking the eye into seeing movement. Billy’s favorites were the red fire truck, blue car, and yellow tractor that took turns running across the wall above the window of the toy store. Elaine’s favorite was the sign in front of the fur store. On it, a red fox ran up the sign and disappeared, only to magically reappear at the bottom.
“Dragging the Main”, as this custom was called, was especially nice at Christmastime, when every streetlight pole was decorated with tinsel and lights and the display windows had special scenes in them. As far back as Elaine could remember, those lights had signaled to her that Christmas was near.
But this year there were no lights. Dark were the Christmas lights, the neon signs, the shop window lights, even the light on the courthouse dome. Off, too, were the lights in the rest of the city, the streetlights, the Christmas decorations, even the neighborhood porch lights. The top ofthe Tower Theater, just two blocks from the Wests’ home, went dark. From their porch, they had been able to see the last few feet of its elongated, three-sided tower with the starburst on top, dazzling over the dark shapes of the neighbor’s houses. Before Pearl Harbor, the tower had been lighted with every color of the rainbow, each blinking in turn, while the starburst was a golden orb with rays of differing lengths flashing into the night. But now it was dark. Only the traffic lights remained, and they had been fitted with shades so their light, feeble as it was, could not be seen from the air. The whole city was hiding in the dark. The darkness frightened Elaine. The adults thought the Japanese might bomb Fresno, just like they’d bombed Pearl Harbor.
In Fresno, even grownups like Father seemed to be very afraid. Would California be next? Elaine did not understand how the war had managed to leap the ocean and threaten her. Was Fresno in real danger of being bombed?….
Early one evening, Elaine was in the kitchen with Mother, helping her prepare dinner. Usually, this was Sara’s job, but today was Friday and Sara was staying late at school for some reason. As Mother rolled dough for biscuits, Elaine asked: “Do you think we’ll be bombed? Here in Fresno”
“Probably not,” Mother replied, “but maybe. Either way, we should be as prepared as possible.”
“But why? Fresno’s not a naval base.”
“No, but it’s an airbase, a railroad hub, and an electrical power center. Besides, airplanes have to drop their bombs somewhere before they can fly back to their carriers. If the pilots can’t find San Francisco, Oakland, or Alameda because of the fog, then Fresno will be their target.”
“Can’t we keep the carriers away?”
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Book Details
Language :
English
Publication Date :
18/10/2010
Format :
Softcover
Dimensions :
6x9
Page Count :
192
ISBN :
9781452080147
Format :
Hardcover
Dimensions :
6x9
Page Count :
192
ISBN :
9781452080154
About the Book
Elaine West is a young girl growing up in Fresno, California in the wake of the Great Depression. While her family, like all families of the time, has struggled to make ends meet over the past few years, her life is generally happy and free from worry. Free, that is, until the attack on Hawaii's Pearl Harbor plunges the United States suddenly and unexpectedly into a global war.
Now, the only thing standing between the enemy and Elaine's home city of Fresno, California is less than two hundred miles and a vast, unprotected, open sea.
Written in the tradition of Johnny Tremain and Across Five Aprils, When the Lights Go On Again takes you back to California in the 1940s, depicting everyday life and the war that shaped it.
Be there with Elaine as she grows up during the most destructive conflict the world has ever seen. See the lives of the people of Fresno during those dark years-- blackout drills, shortages, food and gasoline rationing.Meet the young men from throughout the nation who came through Fresno, headed for the battlefields of the Pacific. Witness a nation of immigrants harass and imprison their Japanese neighbors, casting their humanity aside amid the terrifying realities of war. Learn, as Elaine did, of such horrors as the Bataan Death March and the Holocaust. Watch the dawn of the atomic age.
See all of this and more, through the eyes of a young girl who is quickly becoming a young woman as she tries desperately to make sense of it all.
About the Author
Margaret Walters (principal author) was born in Fresno, California on December 7th, 1934. She worked for thirty seven years in public education, mostly as a teacher, in California, Illinois and WashingtonState.She and her husband Edward raised three children, including her co-author.Her interest in continuing to inform young people led her to write this book. Margaret and Edward are now retired and living in Las Cruces, New Mexico. An excerpt from this book, The Tea Set, was published in Serape XVIII, An Anthology of New Mexico Authors.
Mark Walters (secondary author and editor) was born in Seattle, Washington. He holds a BA from the University of Washington, an MA from CarnegieMellonUniversity, and a MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh. He has worked as a teacher and a librarian, and is currently pursuing his PhD in Communications and Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He found the information in this book fascinating and desired to make it available to others.
