Nancy Jane Ogden Westerdahl
In November of 1996, when Mandy Westerdahl was just nine years old, she had a school assignment which involved a list of twenty-three questions for her Grandma Westerdahl. The questions were about Gma’s life when she was growing up in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
One question was, “What important event happened during your childhood, and what do you remember about it? Here is Gma’s response in 1996 with some additional thoughts today about life in World War II.
The most important historical event during my childhood (I was only ten.) was the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 1941. That was the beginning of World War II, and it was very scary for me because we had relatives in the military who were stationed in Europe... my Uncle John Strevig and my cousin Ross Lieb.
During the war, we had air raid drills to prepare for the possibility of enemy attacks. When a siren sounded while we were in school, we went into the hall, sat down against the wall with our head between our legs and our hands over our head.
At night during an air raid drill, we had to pull the shades down and turn off all the lights. There was no traffic on the street. My father was an air raid warden, and he had to go outside during a drill and make certain homes were dark. I was worried about him.
Another thing I remember is that food and gas were rationed and the speed limit everywhere was only 35 miles an hour.
For the war effort, we saved tin foil, tin cans, rubber, waste paper and milkweed pods for life jackets. Everybody had a small Victory Garden for growing vegetables.
Here’s a link to a site where you can learn more about rationing during WWII:
Bruce
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