Gordon Leo Short

<p><strong>My Dad was at Camp Bowie for part of his training before going overseas...From http://www.ci.brownwood.tx.us/history/campbowiehist.htm</strong></p><p><strong>&nbsp;______________________________________</strong></p><p><strong>Camp Bowie, located in Central Texas, was a military training center during World War II. The campsite was one and one half miles south and southwest of the city limits of Brownwood, Texas. During the years of 1940-1946 it grew to be one of the largest training centers in Texas, through which a quarter of a million men passed.</strong></p><p><strong>In 1940, the war situation in Europe caused the U. S. Congress to determine that it was time to strengthen the defense system. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was given the power to mobilize the National Guard units. The 36th Division of the Texas National Guard unit arrived at Camp Bowie in mid-December for their year&#39;s training. Before the year of training ended, war had been declared.</strong></p><p><strong>On September 19, 1940 the War Department announced that a camp would be built at Brownwood. Work began at the campsite on September 27, 1940. The Camp was the first major defense project in the state and there was no scarcity of labor when the building work began. At one time more than 15,000 men were employed on the project.</strong></p><p><strong>The land was to be leased from the land owners but this proved to be unsatisfactory. On October 1, 1942 the War Department became the owner of 123,000 acres of land in Brown and Mills Counties. The original plan was for a 2,000 acre campsite, 8,000 acres for the infantry training, 28,000 acres for maneuvers grounds and 23,000 acres for artillery range. Before the War ended the campsite encompassed 5,000 acres, and approximately 118,000 acres was used as the training grounds.</strong></p><p><strong>When someone mentions the construction of Camp Bowie, one event will be mentioned in the course of the conversation, the rains that fell from October, 1940 to June, 1941. The official rain totaled 19.50 inches. With the sixty miles of dirt roads built and the laying of utilities lines along these roads the soil became very soft. The slow rain that fell over a period of days resulted in the camp grounds being very muddy. &quot;Camp Gooie&quot;, so named by the workers, was an appropriate name for the Camp Bowie.</strong></p><p><strong>The expansion of Bowie began in 1940 and lasted until 1945. The Pyramidal tents were the vogue the first year and a half. At one time there were 6,072 pyramidal and 910 wall tents at Bowie. Each cabin or tent was the home of five enlisted men.</strong></p><p><strong>While the living quarters were being built, larger buildings were going up all over the campsite. On March 1, 1941, it was reported that 213 mess halls and 224 bathhouses had been built. The men enjoyed sports and entertainment at the 22 recreation centers. There was one post exchange with 27 branches, three libraries, one 18 hole golf course, a veterinary clinic, three dental clinics and two Red Cross buildings. When completed, the hospital could take care of 2,000 patients. The fourteen chapels broke the monotony of the buildings with the steeples reaching toward the sky. There were numerous other buildings constructed at the campsite.</strong></p><p><strong>Atop the highest and most Olympian hill in Camp Bowie was the Headquarters. Krueger Hill was the hub of the Camp&#39;s activities. General Walter Krueger, formerly the commander of the VIII Corps, was stationed on the hill and his home was built nearby the headquarters. The hill was named for the man who led the Sixth Army in the Pacific.</strong></p><p><strong>There were five commanders at Bowie. Brigadier-General K.L. Berry commanded from November 18 to December 14, 1940 and again from July 29, 1941 to October 25, 1941. Major-General Claude V. Birkhead commanded from December 14, 1941 to July 29, 1941. Colonel Frank E. Bonney took command on November 18, 1941 and left the Camp June 20, 1944. Colonel Alfred G. Brown took command on June 10, 1944 and stayed until January 11, 1946. Colonel K. F. Hunt took command on January 1946 and remained until the Camp closed on October 1, 1946.</strong></p><p><strong>The original plan was a temporary training camp for the 36th Texas National Guard Division. When War was declared the plans changed. Many of the men stationed at Camp Bowie were from Brown and the adjacent counties, arriving in mid-December and departing for Camp Blanding, Florida on February 15, 1942. Soldiers of the Texas Division splashed ashore on the beaches of Salerno on September 9, 1943, to become the first allied soldiers to crack Hitler&#39;s Europe fortress from the west. According to the Camp Bowie Blade, printed on September 14, 1946, the Division suffered 27,343 casualties, including 3,974 killed, 19,052 wounded and 4,317 missing in action. The official figures were 19,466 casualties, including 3,717 killed in action, 12,685 wounded and 3,064 missing in action. </strong></p><p><strong>Finally, in December 1945 the 36th came home as a unit to be discharged. The Division was demobilized on Christmas Day.</strong></p><p><strong>There were eight divisions trained at Bowie, and many other battalions, regiments, and companies came for a short time to use the training grounds. Medical companies, MP companies, and others were here to learn how to survive during the War. During the War Days at least 30,000 men were at Bowie for training and at one time the population was 60,000 men.</strong></p><p><strong>Living quarters for these men and their families was a problem. Men stayed at the camp, lived off the campsite or in tents out in the training grounds. Every available room in Brown County and surrounding counties were rented to the men&#39;s families.</strong></p><p><strong>The first Women&#39;s Army Corps, officially arrived on November 16, 1943 to take over jobs to free the men for overseas duties.</strong></p><p><strong>There were two prisons in Bowie. The Rehabilitation Center that restored men back to duty and the German Prisoner of War Camp.</strong></p><p><strong>The Rehabilitation Center was opened on December 1, 1942. From that date until 1946 there were 2,294 men restored back to active duty. Only 12 percent could not be restored.</strong></p><p><strong>The first German Prisoners of War arrived at Bowie in August of 1943. Most of the men were members of Field Marshall Erwin Rommell&#39;s one proud Afrika Corps. When they got settled at Camp Bowie the 2,700 men were well behaved. The men worked at jobs on the Camp and became day laborers for the farmers and ranchers in Central Texas. They raised their own vegetables and had their own burial grounds near the Jordan Springs Cemetery.</strong></p><p><strong>Dogs were another resident of the Camp. They were loved and well fed by the men. The Camp Veterinarians rounded them up once a year to register and vaccinate them. Flea baths came more often.</strong></p>

<p>Gordon Leo Short</p><p>Serial No.&nbsp; 37173971</p><p>Entered Service on April 4, 1942 at Fort Snelling, Minnesota</p><p>Training Period:&nbsp; April to August, 1942 - Camp Roberts, CA; August to December 1942 - Camp Cooke, CA; December 1942 to March 1943 - Camp Bowie, TX; March to August 1943 - Camp Hood, TX; August 1943 to February 1944 - Camp Ivis, CA</p><p>Promotions:&nbsp; Pvt to PFC, January 1943; PFC to Corporal, May 1943; Corporal to Pvt, February 1944; Pvt to PFC, April 1944; and PFC to Corporal, August 1945</p><p>Transfers:&nbsp; From Company B, 85th Infantry to HQ Company, 815th T/D (Tank Destroyer) Battalion (August 17, 1942); to Company E, 127th Infantry, 32nd Division (November 3, 1944); to Service Company, 127th Infantry, 32nd Division (June 12, 1945)</p>

<div style="text-align: center">Fitzpatrick - Short</div><div style="text-align: center">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: ">Miss Harriet Fitzpatrick, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Fitzpatrick of St. Vincent, Minn. became the bride of P.F.C. Gordon Short of Camp Bowie, Taxas, son of Mr. and Mrs. Homer Short of McIntosh, Minn. in a ceremony read by Rev. Lee W. Heaton in Trinity Episcopal Church, Saturday, February the thirteenth.</div><div style="text-align: ">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: ">The Bride wore a gown of white military twill, white satin shoes with blue hat and matching blue accessories. &nbsp;She carried a three flower bouquet of red &quot;mums&quot;. &nbsp;Attendants were Mrs. H.B. Lucas and Mrs. Vivian E. Heaton.</div><div style="text-align: ">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: ">Mrs. Short will stay with her husband as long as he is stationed at Camp Bowie. &nbsp;They were fortunate to secure house keeping quarters within walking distance of Camp Bowie. &nbsp;Their many friends wish them joy and happiness.</div><div style="text-align: ">&nbsp;</div>

<p><span style="font-family: verdana; color: black; font-size: 7pt"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">FITZPATRICK - SHORT</font></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; color: black; font-size: 7pt"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Miss Harriet Fitzpatrick, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Fitzpatrick of St. Vincent, Minn. became the bride of P.F.C. Gordon Short of Camp Bowie, Texas, son of Mr. and Mrs. Homer Short of McIntosh, Minn. in a ceremony read by Rev. Lee W. Heaton in Trinity Episcopal Church, Saturday February the thirteenth</font></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; color: black; font-size: 7pt"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">The bride wore a gown of white military twill, white satin shoes with blue hat and matching blue accessories.&nbsp; She carried a three flower bouquet of red &quot;mums&quot;.&nbsp; Attendants were Mrs. H.B. Lucas and Mrs. Vivian E. Heaton.</font></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; color: black; font-size: 7pt"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Mrs. Short will stay with her husband as long as he is stationed at Camp Bowie.&nbsp; They were fortunate to secure housekeeping quarters within walking distance camp Bowie.&nbsp; Their many friends wish them joy and happiness.</font></span></p>

<p>Last training camp Dad attended was by Needles, CA, and it was....HOT!&nbsp; More at http://www.militarymuseum.org/CpIbis.html</p><p>_____________________________</p><font face="Arial">One of the World War II camps forming the Desert Training Center, known after October 20, 1943, as the California Arizona Maneuver Area. it was discontinued on April 30, 1944 Camp Ibis was constructed during the period of November 8, 1942-March 28, 1943. The 4th Armored Division, under Major General John S. Wood, was at Camp Ibis until June 1943, when its place was taken by the 9th Armored Division and later the 11th Armored Division, commanded by Major General John W. Leonard. Most of the troops trained at Camp Ibis in desert survival, gunnery, and armored vehicle tactics were destined to join General George S. Patton&#39;s Third Army, far from a desert battlefield. The post was located 15 miles northwest of Needles, close to the point where the borders of California, Arizona, and Nevada meet.</font> <font face="Arial">The camp is located 1.9 miles north of the junction of old Route 66 and US Highway 95.</font>

Dad's War Memories Added by Trishymouse on 2 Sep 2007 I’d say that everything was pretty quiet that evening. Some writing. Some reading. Small testaments and some praying. Sure enough, about 3:15 a.m. The mortars and heavy artillery opened up, and talk about noise! It was something really to behold. Of course, the enemy knew what was coming and they were prepared as much as possible. We had our meager breakfast and put away in packs things we could get to later. At 5:00 p.m. The small mortar firing stopped as we were going to be walking right into it, but the long-range heavy artillery kept up a good pace and did considerable damage. Sure have to give credit to the mortar and heavy artillery spotters and their judgment as to where the firing was supposed to be sent. If they made a slight mistake, it could land on our own troops, and this has happened. We started out on time and mortar and heavy duty artillery companies sure did their work as the going was not that tough, although there were casualties and injuries. It took us two or three days to secure this area. The Japs were very well entrenched and we had to use every bit of our fighting power to make them retreat or seal them up by using bulldozers, whenever we could, and the use of grenades, rifle power, flame throwers and mortars when possible. The casualty rate was not as high as we expected. There were enough of us that lived through the battle to fight another day. Thank God for that! I must tell you of one of the famous hills, number 502, up on a very high mountain. There was a trail on the high hill called Villa Verde Trail and it was cut out of the mountainside by our troops of the Engineer Corps using bulldozers and so forth. They really risked their lives against the sharpshooters of the enemy. I shall describe it to you a little bit. The Villa Verde Trail twists its way twenty-four miles from the [??] Plain to the mile-high mountain peaks of Luzon’s Terra Balo [??] Mountains. They were the Japs chosen ground. Every mountain a fortress, every cave a pillbox. As the Sixth Army pushed its way north, the veteran doughboys of the 32nd Red Arrow Division fought for 119 consecutive days, killing more than 8,000 Japs to secure this approach to Kagayan Valley [??]. Just one more part of the action we’d seen. I drove my six by six truck up this mountain several times hauling equipment, ammo, and kitchen supplies and food. Sometimes us drivers would be alone. Some in small convoys. Sometimes on these lone trips we would stop and pick up men and women to vet [??] the Filipinos in the Army uniform as they look so much like the Japs. You never knew for sure if it was a Jap in a Filipino uniform or not. Many a time we would drive down the hills or mountains just using our blackout lights, and it was very dangerous driving because you couldn’t see very much. Just had to follow the guy ahead of you. Sometimes I would be in the lead driver with an officer in the front with me. And that was worse than ever as you had no one to follow and with very little light I had . . . You had to go by sheer luck and it was sometimes loaded with equipment or personnel. One time we got orders to go up on this trail to the top of the mountain and bring the kitchen and all of its personnel. I had my truck loaded real full with equipment and men. It was a nice day and we were traveling a little too fast I think, but the officer said the enemy was close by so we kept up the pace. Every once in a while, the guys would holler out, “Take it easy on the curves!” We made it okay. Another time we were ordered to haul a lot of troops and the kitchen. It was up to the front lines and it rained to beat the dickens and it got awful slippery. Well, when we got up to the mountain several hundred feet, we had some curves to go around. And one time we were going real slow and the truck ahead of me stopped and it caused me to stop right on a curve and I started sliding backwards. The guys on my truck were hollering like the blazes! Well, the truck behind me came up to me and touched my bumper to stop and held me as I was very close to a few-hundred-foot drop off. We were in a heck of a position until the officer said, “Take a heavy duty chain and put it on the truck next to the last one and chain it to the last one.” He then ordered everyone to start out together and push each other up the mountain. And the ones in front would be pulling also. That way the last truck would not be left alone and slide off the trail. We finally made it and what a relief! The engineers with the heavy duty equipment were a blessing and took some awful dangerous risks with the bulldozers. One time when I was still in the walking infantry, we were stopped on another hill with Japs in front of us and on the side of us. We could see the Japs in front of us quite well and the ones on our side gave us more trouble. They were entrenched quite solid and was really annoying us with the rifle fire and mortar shells. One time I was standing alongside of a foxhole and a round came in, whistled right by me and landed right in the foxhole between two guys talking to each other. What a mighty close call for all three of us. The officer close by called back to the engineer who had a dozer with them. He sent out a patrol and found out where the firing was coming from. The bulldozer he had to chain up and was told where the cave was and as he started forward, the Japs opened up with small ammunition fire. He raised the blade on the dozer and stopped all shells and bullets coming at him. In a short while we got near the cave and sealed it shut. That was the end of that skirmish and we left the next day as the Japs ahead of us moved out during the night. I forgot one of the most important parts of our experiences on the front lines was mail call. We sure loved that! Believe it or not, we had visitations by the Red Cross ladies and some men also would come up and give us some goodies. Bless their hearts! They sure were some brave people, I would say! Some more things that happened while I was a foot soldier was we got to a certain area and we were pinned down as there was quite a concentration of the enemy around us. We soon ran out of water to drink and food to eat. The trees were quite different than the ones we had stateside, and they had what we called elephant ears. Well, when we were pinned down and couldn’t get to water, we would get up early in the morning and lick the dew off the leaves to get some moisture to our lips and tongue. We did this for two or three days and the water carriers were finally able to get through to us. While we were in that situation, we had very little or no rations. I had a real small can of meat and a little portable gas heater I had confiscated from somewhere I won’t say, and I managed to always to get gas form the truckers for it. Well, on the second day my buddy said to me, “Short, you got anything to eat.” And I said, “Yes. Let’s have a one course meal.” So I took out the can of beef meat while he lit this stove and we took our can of meat, heated it up and gouged [gorged??] ourselves on that meat. [??] There was some moisture [??] and we were really welcome then. Finally after the third day without eating more food, we heard a couple of airplanes coming towards us as they started dropping big food packages to us. As the enemy was close by and they were being fired upon, they came in close, dropped quickly and left in a hurry. There was supposed to be enough food in each container to last six men for three days. The Japs never bothered us while we retrieved the containers. There was a big can of sliced ham, a big can of half peaches and a big can of whole beans, some K-ration boxes, matches and cigarettes, chocolate candy bars, several cans of bouillon and several packages of coffee. But I tell you we never had anything but my gas stove to heat up the bacon, beans and bouillon. We were so darn hungry that one guy spoke up and said, “Hell I’m (not)[??] going to eat my share cold,” and the rest of us did the same too. One good thing that the big elephant ear leaves were good for was when it was raining, it covered our head and most of our body, too. Many a time we had to march in bad weather and we would be carrying full pack, ammo with machine gun and other supplies we’d have to have to climb [??] up hill and many a time we’d flip back down and try again. Many a time when we were in our advancements, we had to climb up steep embankments when it was real rainy and muddy. When we weren’t doing that, we were crossing streams in water which was all the way from knee deep to shoulder deep. The hardest part was trying to keep our ammo and guns dry, and of course any K-rations dry also and cigarettes if we had any left. One thing that was taboo on the front line was alcoholic beverages of any kind. Sometimes if we ran out of good drinking water we’d be allowed to fill our canteens with [??] water we had [??] while walking through, but we had to put an Atabrine tablet in it so that it would make it safe to drink and we wouldn’t get sick from it. We were suppose to wait for about a half an hour or so before drinking. But sometimes we would drink some right away as we were so darn thirsty. I remember one time when we were being shifted from one area to another near the front lines, we did not have enough trucks to haul us so we had to walk it, and the distance was some twenty or thirty miles. We were asked if we could make it and how our feet were. Some had infections in the legs and feet. Most of them were okay, but some were lying about their conditions and wanted to walk and be with their buddies. The bad ones were hauled a different route by truck. Well, the ones including myself started out walking and after several miles the bad ones with bad sores and bleeding quite badly sure gave the medics a busy time trying to keep clean bandages and dressings on the sores. Mine never got too bad. Towards the end we were carrying a few on stretchers and had to travel real slow. But we all made it and was glad for that. Another time when I was a litter bearer – this was in daylight – we were ordered to go up to the front lines to pick up wounded. We had to go through an opening in the trees and the Japs had the spot zeroed in on us. The officer at this point halted us and said you would have to make a dash for it while our machine gunners would open fire to our sides and in an angle in front of us. We would be sent off one at a time and run like frightened deer. We made it but we were fired upon, but kept down low. When we got to the place where the wounded were, we helped put a wounded man on the stretchers. He had both of his legs badly mangled and twisted completely around. He wasn’t in any pain at the time as he was given morphine or other kind of medicine to kill the pain. Our sergeant told him he was a lucky guy – you just have a one-way ticket home when you get back to the hospital. The man smiled and said, “Yes, you betcha!” Well, we picked him up and started out with him over some of the harder terrain you ever did see. We had to carry him down steep inclines and up the other side through very dense underbrush and fallen trees. We came to a point where there was another team waiting to take him while we went to get another one. We were very lucky because shortly after we gave him, the wounded man, two without a team came, they came upon a small opening and the Japs seized this opportunity to open fire on them. The wounded man was shot and killed instantly and so was one of the stretcher bearers. In another area we were in action quite a bit of the time, but for a short period of time we were at rest camp. I wasn’t feeling good and wasn’t eating. One day, one of my sergeants walked by me and he turned around and looked back at me again and said, “My God, but you sure look yellow all over, especially your hands and eyes, and you must have yellow jaundice.” And he asked me how I felt and I told him. He said, “I’m going to get on the phone and call the rear medics and send you in to them for a check up.” The medics checked me over and confirmed it and called for a small airplane to take me to a hospital about seventy miles away. Three planes arrived shortly as there was enough patients for the three airplanes. We took off shortly after they arrived and I was assigned a certain cot in the field hospital. Then I started getting shots and other kinds of medicine. The chow lines were doubled. One was for the ones on a liquid diet – that was for me, and another whole food for others. Well, after a few days I felt better. I would slip over into the whole food line. I was in the hospital for one whole month and then returned to my outfit. While I was in the hospital for that month, our outfit was relieved from duty on the front lines, and on the way back to the rest area the Japanese opened up with mortar and other shelling. Well, my sergeant buddy got hit and blew both legs off. He asked to be sat up against a tree. He lit up a cigarette. He took two, three or four puffs on it and threw it away and said, “This is it!” Leaned over to one side and died. The rest of the guys made it okay. This is something I read in the magazine that was published and given out about the combat history of the 32nd Infantry Division, World War II, published by the Public Relations Office of the 32nd Infantry Division… The 32nd Infantry Division fought on places such as Buna [??], [??], Leyte and Luzon. Exotic names for strange places. Invisible points on the map of the Pacific. Places, names have little significance prior to December 7, 1941, now they are in emblazoned on the pages of history placed there in shining glory by the 32nd Infantry Division. Three years overseas as of midnight April 21, 1941. 13,030 hours of combat, more than any other division in World War II, have gone into the record. 543 days of death and destruction, of disease and hunger and thirst, of pain, agony and self-sacrifice. These of glorious victory. These of heroism and valor. 543 days for Tojo’s dream of conquest.” Tojo was a ruler of Japan before and through the war years and was responsible for Japan being in the war. Another quote from the same magazine… Just one bit name given to the heroes of Buna was tagged with the 32nd Infantry Division. The majority of them were Wisconsin and Michigan National Guardsmen inducted in federal service when the 32nd Division was reactivated in October, 1940. They trained at Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, until February, 1941, then moved to the nearby newly built Camp Livingston. Troop trains rolled down from the North, bringing selectees from Wisconsin and Michigan to fill the division ranks. Three months of maneuvers in Louisiana followed by two months in the Carolinas trained and toughened the men and developed the Division into a team. It was necessary. It was ready; the 32nd were ordered to go to a staging camp at Fort Devins, Massachusetts, preparatory to sailing from New York port of embarkation for an unknown destination. Replacements, men from every state in the union, brought the division up to combat strength. This division was also called the Red Arrow division. The Japs called the 32nd Division the “Bloody butchers of Buna.” And although the grim ghastly battle of Papuan jungle may be dimmed in memory by the latter excess of allied to arms, the enemy does not forget that it was at Buna that the Japanese fallacy of invincibility was proven. It was Buna that General MacArthur started his return to the Philippines. It was at Buna that the 32nd Infantry Division helped win the first U.S. Army ground campaign over the Japanese in the war. It was not an easy victory. Casualties numbered more than the total strength of the division when it went into combat. However, nature proved to be the greater enemy. More men were cut down by jungle diseases and tropical fevers than were victims of enemy action. Each day the heat, the humidity, and the disease sapped the strength of those who did not fall, killed or wounded. All through the fighting at New Guinea and at the Philippines, the Australian soldiers played a very important part in most of all battles. They did not know the meaning of fear. Very courageous at hand, brave and very good in everything they went to do, and very friendly to talk to and work with. When they did their duties, they did it thoroughly. I cannot describe each battle too much that we were in, but it was not a pleasant sight to be walking down the trail in the jungle and see the Japanese soldiers and American soldiers dead, lying in some awful gruesome shape because there had not been time to bury them. There was hoards of maggots on their face and bodies. Sometimes you would see a discarded Japanese or American tank with the crew dead inside or around the tank. They had a kind of a tank, when it was hit, the shrapnel hit them and they either died from their wounds or was burnt real bad from the exploding gasoline from the flame throwers that was usually upon them. Towards the end of the war, things began to calm down a bit. I can truthfully say when we got the news that Germany had surrendered we were really happy and thrilled over it, and that we started concentrating on our last enemy, the Japs. On our mop-up duties, there was seldom opposition from the Japanese anymore as they had their food supply cut off and they could only find food from the land, mostly berries, and they got so darn weak they could hardly walk. Not only that, but they got sick with dysentery and really stunk up the trails we had to walk on. One time we came upon some Japanese soldiers by a stream of water. They were to weak to resist or fight in any way. They easily surrendered. We took them back and turned them over to the MP, military police. We thought all along that we would have to invade Japan homeland, and I’m sure glad we didn’t have to, as we heard afterwards that our outfit was scheduled to go in on attack in the ninth wave and they figured that the first fifteen waves would be annihilated by the Japs’ shore batteries, big guns dug in along the shores where the Americans were suppose to land. I’m sure I wouldn’t be here writing and recording all of this if this had come about. I once read that the Japs had over a 400,000 men and boys enlisted for military to protect the homeland if need be. Thank God for the atom bomb that was dropped on the two cities that forced them to surrender and we did not have to invade the mainland of Japan itself. It might have been a cruel thing to do, killing so many civilians, but they never thought or hesitated a moment when they attacked Pearl Harbor. All these people never had a chance. Soon after the bombing, Japan surrendered. And then we were trucked back along with the foot soldiers, and officers went out in the jungles, went only on the roadways [??] and our Air Force dropped leaflets that Japan had surrendered. And of course, the Japs had been notified by their own side. They came from all over, hardly able to walk, and stacked their weapons where they were told. The Japanese soldiers were very obedient to their officers and really minded them well. When we got our trucks full, we would haul them up to a place of security. They were well guarded on the trucks and their place of encampment. General Yamashita was the Japanese field general and later was tried as a war criminal and hanged in the area where we were at for the atrocities he allowed the Japanese troops to do against the enemy. This is the end for now. After the surrender of Japan, there really wasn’t much need for a lot of us soldiers to remain in that zone. So they placed our unit and several others on ships and sent us to Japan for occupational duty there and be there until our number was called for return home to the United States of America. We were placed on big ships and sent to Japan. It did not take long to get there. And before we unloaded into smaller boats, we got a good look at some of the huge gun emplacements – only a few – because the best and heaviest weapons were so well concealed you couldn’t see them. When we were unloaded on shore, we were hauled to our assigned base, and they were really nice. Our duties were minimal and we could relax and do most anything we wanted to do. Along with the good food we got there, we were issued three cans of beer daily, and if we wanted anything stronger to drink, we could buy a Japanese drink called sake, a really strong Japanese alcohol. Well, all went good until one morning at reveille the lieutenant said to us all that if we had any of that strong drink that we should turn it in as they found or was supposed to have found some that was not good and was slightly poisoned and was making some of the troops very sick. We all had some and he told us where we were to turn it in. We all did as we were told and nothing more was said of the issue. Another time at reveille the 1st sergeant said as toilet paper was getting to be of short supply that when we used it we should only used three or four sheets at a time when we went to the toilet. Needless to say, there was a lot of heehaws and some giggling over that remark. As I was still in the truck driving company, I was assigned on certain days to go to the train station and pick up all the mail for the battalion. Of course, a lieutenant always went along and he always had a .45 revolver strapped on his hip. It was military regulations, I guess. Before the train came in, I asked the lieutenant what those openings on the platform were. Well, he said, “You just wait and see.” The train soon came in at quite a rapid pace and when they were at the right place they came to a sudden stop when they applied the brakes. The passengers were packed in solid in the cars, some in seats and a lot of them standing. They started to unload very rapidly and the lieutenant said to me, “Now watch.” The people, mostly the women, and it wasn’t very long before I found out what the opening on the platforms were for. They women got off the train and ran and some squatted over the holes and most of them wore dresses and urinated in the holes. When they finished they put down their dress and went on their way. It was quite a sight for a country bumpkin to see and I turned to the lieutenant and he said, “ Now you know!” I said, “ Yes, sir,” and he laughed. We got the load of mail and went back to camp with it. We would often play tricks on one another like goosing the guy in front of us in the chow line. And when you did this, you would poke the guy in front of him, and when I was right behind a guy who was goosing, I touched him and he socked the guy ahead of him. Pretty hard, too. The guy turned around and said, “What in the hell was that for?” The guy that did the goosing or poked him and pointed at me and I told him I had just stumbled and could not help it. The guy took it good-naturedly and that settled that. One thing a truck driver didn’t have to do was change tires on his truck, as we never had any tire tools. Sometimes I would have all the way from one flat to three flats a day. Not on the same day, of course. It all depended upon the terrain we were driving in. We really enjoyed our short stay in Japan and our long passes to go into town. When we were not on pass or on a driving detail, believe it or not, we did not even have to stand reveille. We could sleep as long as we wanted to, eat breakfast when we wanted to. Most of that day we would clean up, do our bed making, do our laundry, play poker, read books or just shoot the bull. We were not on a strict daily routine. I remember one time when it wasn’t my time to drive for mail. The lieutenant come in our barracks and said to me, “ Short, would you please take so-and-so’s trip for today as he wandered off for certain reasons.” I said, “Sure, Lieutenant!” And he thanked me for it, as he was the one in charge for that trip that day. What the soldiers did in other areas I do not know as I really don’t know why we were even sent there. Guess it was just a staging center for us to wait until our number came up to go home. The ones that were in the service the longest overseas were given the highest number and they were called first. I remember when the highest number was 148 and mine was 44. The numbers were called off daily and as they were called off they would be shipped out the very next day. I can remember when [??] and my number were called in the chow line. One of our lieutenants came in and told us that we were selected. Marvin [Wassing], myself, and some two or three other guys besides were called and told to be ready to be picked up to leave by truck to go to the depot at ten o’clock the next day. We sure had some happy guys. Only thing is, the truck we rode in was driven by another driver, was my truck that I always drove. It was funny to be sitting in the back and not up front driving. When we got to the place, after leaving the trucks we were taken by train to the port where we were loaded on a ship, the USS [??]. It was quite a peaceful feeling knowing that we had some [??] and now we had to cross a large ocean again to get back home. Little did we know that between getting ourselves into [??] when we were part of or halfway home. We ran into a very severe storm and we were ordered down into our compartments. And when we were all down, the latch was locked and we would remain shut until the storm was over. We could get to the mess hall. The doors leading into other compartments until we got to the mess hall [??]. You still had a hard time to keep our mess trays and coffee cups in front of us. At night we would have to tie ourselves into our bunks to keep from falling out. On the second day of the heavy storm, the waves must have been terrific as the ship was listing quite heavily, near to 40-45 mark as it were .... We were locked in and we couldn’t get out. The sailors told us later that any degree over 45 or 47 was close to capsizing. I was told that the captain had ordered all hands back to duty to keep the ship afloat and be ready to launch small boats if they could. It was quite an ordeal. And to us, we were shut up in the holds of the ship thinking that, “Is this the way we would be ending our lives after going through so much in the jungles and other places on the battlefield?” A lot of guys were praying and we were very quiet. Very little sleep that night. I guess the ship crew had their hands full, but they did a superb job and were told so. But they accepted the praise quite calmly and said they were just doing the job and what they were trained to do . Most of the time we had on the last leg of the journey trip was quite uneventful. Nothing but goofing off, reading, writing letters to be mailed later, playing poker or other card games, and play a harmonica or ukulele. Yes, one guy had one [??]. And this is all for now. After a few idle days we knew we were getting close to the States. The captain of the ship came on the loud speaker and said that within forty-eight hours we would be near enough to the West Coast that we would be able to see the coastline. We didn’t know for sure what part we were going to dock at. Soon we knew that it was going to be Seattle, Washington. By that time, we were getting mighty anxious to get there. It was in the late afternoon that we got into the dock, and it was a beautiful day. There was a tremendous amount of people there meeting loved ones and just good friends of the returning soldiers. The Red Cross ladies were there giving out the usual cookies, coffee, milk, and so forth. We did not have fresh milk to drink for such a long time. Boy, it really tasted good! After a certain amount of time spent there, we were taken to the camp to stay overnight. We were assigned to barracks. We were escorted to the mess hall, and what a banquet they set out for us. We could have anything we wanted to drink. Of course, most of us took milk again and a bottle or two of beer if we wanted to. We were also given several choices of food to eat like ham, chicken, cold meats, fresh baked buns, veggies of all kinds and pies and ice cream. And believe it or not, we were waited upon by German workers. We got to talking to some of them and they told us that they did not want to go back home, that they really liked it here. They also told us that they really liked our butter and ice cream as in their country they could not get it or it wasn’t available to them. Well, after a very scrumptious meal we went over to the PX and tried to drink some beer, but that didn’t go over too good as we were to darn full of food and couldn’t get it down. So finally we had to settle for just going back to the barracks and just lie down and dream of being home again. It must have been the next day or so that we were informed that we would be put on trains for our discharge center at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. We were sure was a happy bunch. I don’t know exactly how long it took us to get there but we sure was in a good mood. Upon arriving at the camp, we were soon processed real quickly, getting some mustering out pay, a lot of red tape, of course, even asked if we wanted to stay into the service and would sign up for it again for four years. I did not stay in. Neither did Wassing, my buddy, and a good many others. The next day we were taken to the rail depot, our last ride in a military vehicle. And we all had our tickets bought for us by military to our destination homes. We boarded our train on time. There were soldiers, both men and women, on this crowded train of all ranks and we were just like one big happy family. Needless to say we had plenty of booze. So after a while the whole darn train full was getting tanked. There were also some poker games going and some playing musical instruments, and some just having what we thought was a good time. I guess maybe it was; when we thought it was at the time. Maybe some folks think that this was terrible, but there was those ... some people would do the same very same thing during our years and they could not do it every night. They could do that every night, I meant, they have so many worries about being killed or wounded while some of us was protecting them. What the soldiers did, they deserved to good times when they could find it. Our train was scheduled for St. Paul-Minneapolis. We all were from Minnesota. We were a very sober bunch when we parted after our goodbyes to each other. I know that Marvin and I sure did hate to part. He lived in St. Paul, Minnesota. I continued on to Grand Forks on a coast to coast train and then transferred to a smaller [??]line train to [??], North Dakota. It was the 20th day of December, 1945, that I arrived in [??], North Dakota. My father-in-law, Albert Fitzpatrick, was at the depot to pick me up. Harriet, my wife, was unable to come to the depot as she was recovering from pneumonia and could not leave the house. Naturally we were very glad to see one another. So ends my military career. I’m glad I had the opportunity to serve my country and also to have survived everything we had to go through. Praise God for watching over me at the part of my life I was not a Christian. I was not Christian yet, but I am now. I may add a few more incidents later, as I think of it. Signed, Gordon Short. Addendum: Here is some more incidents that happen on Leyte and Luzon. One day as I was on assignment with my truck, I had to go to a place that had clothing, bedding, and so forth like at the supply depot, with a lieutenant in charge and two other soldiers to help load my truck. When we had finished our loading and on the way home we watched some paratroopers jump in and practice from a low altitude of about 1,200 feet and we witnessed a very sad sight. They usually jump in groups of ten. Well, this group we watched jump, the first nine of their shoots opened successfully, but the tenth one [??] his front and back shoots failed to open all the way and he came down quite rapidly. Even though he was the last one out, he was the first one down of his group. He was killed instantly in contact with the ground. A couple of days later, as we had to make another run to the supply depot, and on the way home we picked up a bunch of paratroopers that had just made a successful jump. And I asked the sergeant about the incident we had seen happen. He told us that the man who’s shoot did not open was squashed together like an accordion and had bled a lot. He said that they were trained for that sort of thing as they lose at times two or three men in the paratroop group, theirs and other groups, but sometimes they know about . . . something they know about when they enlist and train to be a regular paratrooper. I’m glad I was in the branch of service that I was in. Although there was plenty of danger in all branches of service, even in the back line, such as hospitals, kitchens and supply depots. They were all shelled well over, you might say, and some even charged with Japanese banzai attack on these places. And they showed no mercy on any of these units. This is all for recording for now. End tape #1 Interviewee: Gordon Short Interviewer: Patricia Short Date of interview: December 12, 1977 Location: St. Vincent, MN Category: Autobiographical P. Short: Could you tell me some interesting stories that you can remember that maybe had something to do with your grandparents or your mom and dad said about your grandparents or anything? G. Short: The only thing I can think of now that would be interesting would be when we came back from Seattle, I was three years and a half, four years old. And we stayed with my grandparents up at the McIntosh. P. Short: Which grandparents were they? G. Short: Mr. And Mrs. Jorgen Sannes. And the most particular thing I can remember is...was in the fall of the year when we were picking potatoes. Actually, I wasn’t, but the men folks were. But I was out in the potato field too, like all little kids would be. And they gave me the job of standing in the wagon and holding onto the lines of a team of horses that were hitched to this wagon and when the potato pickers would fill their baskets they would signal to me or call to me to make the horses move and bring the wagon up to them so they could dump them. This was alright until the wagon began to fill up a little bit and I was standing in front and they motioned for me to come up. And I seen the men folks slap the horses on the rump with the lines before. So I thought well I’ll go be a big shot to and do that. So I just said giddy up and gave the horses a slap with the line and they jerked a little bit faster that what I thought they would and I lost my balance and I fell forward, head first right down on the double trees and hit my head on what they called a double tree pin. And from there I fell underneath the wagon and my right arm was extended over my head. And one wheel just draped the top of my head and ran over my arm. And of course, my grandpa, he seen this all happen and one of my uncles and he picked me up right away and took me into the house, put me in the car and mother went along with me at the McIntosh. It was a small town just off a mile and a half away and took me to a doctor. The doctor said I was okay and he never checked my arm too much and right to today I know it is not as straight as the other one. Although at the time it didn’t hurt me. And when we come to the doctor’s office, grandpa, he always was a great for peppermint, white peppermints. He always had white peppermints in his pockets. So this time instead of giving me one or two white peppermints out of his pockets, he went to the store and bought me about a dimes worth of peppermints and you could get a pretty good size sack for that in them days. And right then and there, after getting them, I forgot all about my hurt and that peppermint was more of a cure than what the doctor could have given me I think. So, that was the only thing I could remember...that was happening when I was at their home. I can remember further back than that when at the times when we did live in Seattle, one or two incidents, but that will be another story later. P. Short: Uh, Could you tell me anything about your Grandma and Grandpa Sannes. You know, just about themselves? What kind of people they were like? G. Short: Well, my Grandpa Sannes, he...I never knew him when he actually worked in the fields and fell cause all I...Every time I went up there and visited him, my Grandma and Grandpa Sannes...uh, their...One of their sons, Pete Sannes lived at home and he took care of the farming. And I believe Grandpa at this time was retired or semi-retired. He might of help some in the fields at his older age. And the time that I can remember were mostly he was around the place. He would be keeping the lights off or else he would be chopping wood. P. Short: What kind of person was he like though? Was he . . I mean was he somebody that got along well with people real well or what? G. Short: Yeah, he was jolly fellow. He’d always...He was kind of a tease though too. Although it was funny to hear him talk because he had such a Norwegian brogue that whenever he tried to make anything funny it really sounded hilarious because he tried to make it come out right and it wouldn’t, but although it was very interesting. I can’t . . .and my grandmother wasn’t. She was a really down to earth person. I know she would go to all lengths you might say to make you feel at home and she would have her Norwegian dishes and if you didn’t try and sample all of them, I tell you, you’d make her feel bad. Um. I know when I was small and I used to stay there with them. The most interesting place...One of the most interesting places I can remember going into would be what they called the milk room, where they had the pea separated and they had the ...This room always did have a special smell. I mean it always smelled of cream and milk and all of those freshly scrubbed floor and things like that. And one time, I went up there and the...It was lamb feeding time and what I mean by lamb feeding time is because this poor...One or two lambs always gets left out of the mother. . . P. Short: Bum lambs, you mean? G. Short: Yes. They wouldn’t...They were called bottle lambs. Grandma would say, “Gordon, you want to feed the lambs?” Boy, I couldn’t ask for anything better. She’d fill a bottle with milk, warm milk and out to the pasture we’d go right along the fence and boy I’ll tell you every lamb greet was _____[??] breaking. And if you ever seen any young animal nurse from its mother boy it’s sure fun. The same way from the bottle. You just jerk, jerk, jerk, jerk, jerk and I don’t see how they drink so fast, but they sure empty that bottle in a hurry. And when we’d get through with that and they always want more of course only one bottle is what they’ve got to feed until next time. P. Short: Was there ever any relatives or anybody that you seemed to identify with the most when you were a kid, you know, you like being around them or anything? An uncle or and aunt or anybody? G. Short: Well, I . . .When I was . . .I suppose when I got to be around twelve, thirteen, fourteen years old, my favorite cousin was very short and because he knew if he was the one who hired me to come over and for cheap. And I would always have a horse and he had an old saddle. He would saddle the horse up for me in the morning and make me a peanut butter sandwich a couple cookies. And I’d take along a corked taylor[??84] of water and got on my horse. I had a little what we called a feather bed and...but it actually wasn’t. It was just a sack tied at the top and put over the horn on the saddle. And I’d get on this old horse. It wasn’t too old. I guess it maybe was fairly young, but I’d have to go about two miles through this pasture and then I’d let the sheep out and then herd the sheep all day long. And then I would . . There was times when the sheep would lie down in the afternoon and there wasn’t much to do. And I can remember that I got acquainted with another _____[??91]. And her name was...The fellow’s name was Ed [??] and he was plowing. And so I tied my horse to the tree and I got on the tractor with him and pretty soon he said, “Say, would you like to drive?” I said, “Sure!” I never steered a tractor in my life. And I was going along pretty good and pretty soon it started . . The wheels. You are supposed to keep the right wheels in the furrow. Pretty soon the wheels started coming out after a minute. Instead of bringing it back I steered it the other way and it got worse. And he said, “No, you’re going the wrong way.” Now I’d made too many rolls like that. And he said, “Now, hold on. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do . I’m going to get off this tractor and you’re going to make a whole complete going by yourself.” So that’s the first time . . and I had to drive that tractor around the field and I had to trip the paw[??99] at the end. On the ground and push in the ground at the other end. And that was my first experience with plowing with a tractor. I had a rode a horse...I had drove horses in a horse implement much younger than that, but that’s the first experience I had with a tractor. P. Short: Was there a anything that you particularly liked when you were around the farm and you know. . . any chores and stuff you used to do around with the animals or anything? G. Short: Well, I didn’t mind doing chores cause we always did them together. Seemed like in the winter time when we had chores to do, I always got stuck with standing outside in the cold weather dealing with the pump, pumping water for the horses and cows while the others were in the barn where it was nice and warm and doing that kind of work, but I guess I can’t complain too much because I got out of chores a lot of times cause I helped within the house. P. Short: Well, was there any...I know all your animals in here were raised for livestock, you know or for working, but was there ever any animals that you ever, you know, some how got close to some how, like a cow or a horse or anything and you know you just liked them? G. Short: Well, we had the one young horse there and this horse’s name was Brownie and it was a mare and she was awful good at driving in a wagon. That’s what you called a buggy. This buggy had [??] in it and I think all the boys at home took turns driving her. We had her several years. He would hook her up in the morning and after he got her harnessed and fed. And take the hired men out in the field and come back about nine thirty o’clock…about nine-thirty in the morning we’d go out in the field again with fresh water, cool water and then make another trip at noon. And then we just did the same thing in the afternoon. I’d say that little mare had about six trips out to that field everyday and she never complained… P. Short: Did you ever breed her or have any foal sons? G. Short: No, no, but you put her out in the pasture at night and she was a foxy one in the morning trying to catch, I ‘ll tell you. She wouldn’t come in alone. You had to drag the other horses in. She’d come in with the other horses, but she wouldn’t come in alone cause she . . . P. Short: She’s like strange sort of huh? G. Short: Yeah. She’d always know when you were going to try and catch her. And if you tried to catch her out in the pasture alone it’d take three or four to do it cause you had to corner her up to do it. P. Short: Tell me a little bit about your own parents? I mean, what kind of people they were like you know and I don’t know? Anything you can remember about them in particular, any stories or anything? G. Short: Mother and Dad, they liked to go places a lot and we used to go into town together as a family and shop. And well, the trips we used to take weren’t too far away. We lived in Angus and then McIntosh was about fifty or sixty miles away, but that’s about the furthest I went. And we’d go up and maybe [??]. But that was the highlight of our times was going up there by car. And well . . .I can’t...Now, I think that the most interesting times we had was on holidays. Like on Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year’s. And we never did go very much to any other place that were . . .being invited out. And we’d always invite people to our place. And mostly it’d be my uncle and aunt and cousins. And they’d always congregate at our place and after we had a big meal, got ourselves stuffed, then we’d bring out the card table. We had a few good games and two big card table there. And . . . P. Short: So when you were kids did you ever play each other on whole games, like [??]. Just you know, what kinds of things did you do when you were a kid? G. Short: It just seems that you are still on the ground now. It just seems like kids we’d play [??]. That’s the circle game, right. You make a circle and then you make a lines in that circle, like spokes in a wheel and then you had to ... as long as it stayed in the center you were free, but you got out of that circle and you were eligible to be caught and boy. And if you were a good jumper, you could jump from one line or spoke you call it, and catch the other guy. And we played that and we played leap frog and we played fiddly sticks and we played crack the whip and... P. Short: What was crack the whip? What did you do in that game? G. Short: That was mostly done on ice. You get two or three fellows that’s on ice on skates and some that weren’t. And if you were on the tail end without the skate and you got to sliding and pretty soon all of the sudden they let you loose, I mean go! You’d go any amount of . . . P. Short: What was it like, like a big long snake. You all [??] to arms, you mean and you were going like this? G. Short: Yeah and the one right . . .The leader, he wouldn’t be going fast at all , but he guy way out on the end was going quite fast. And I always end up being on the end cause I didn’t have no skates then. And I knew what was going to happen so I had myself free for a good slide whenever they looped. P. Short: Was your mom or dad much for going to church or anything like that? Did you guys go to any sort of church when you were growing up? G. Short: No, I’m sorry to say that I never did have much church bringing up as you’d call it. I had very little church going . . . P. Short: Was your mom more . . .go more to church than your dad? G. Short: Mother was more interested in us going to church. We did go to Sunday school… going to the Presbyterian Church at Angus and we had several Sunday school lessons there and I know Dad would always give us a dime. And nickels was for candy or ice cream and the other nickel was for Sunday school. And we’d come back while we were at the Sunday school. Of course, we’d take in the church service too, which would start. It would be from about nine-thirty, a quarter to ten until noon. And of course, in the afternoon we were free on Sundays. We’d have lots of things to do . We’d either go out horseback riding or we’d go hunting and . . . P. Short: What was your favorite past time when you were a boy? What did you like to do when you didn’t have to do chores? G. Short: Well, it seems like that when I was. . . before I was old enough to work in the fields, I would. . .We had a certain amount of chores to do that was...That we would get up to...that you were expected to do at your age. And when we . . When you got them chores done, you were free to do whatever we wanted to do unless, Mother wanted some garden work done or . . .? P. Short: What did you do though? G. Short: We would go. Well mother would pack us a pack lunch in a tin can. Not a tin can, it’d be a gallon pale. She’d put a sandwich in there, and an apple and we’d have a jug of water with us. Dad had a large old jug that he use to take out in the field with him. Well we’d take one of his jugs and we’d take some traps and a big old water pale. And we’d head out for our neighbor’s pasture about a mile east of our place, which is always loaded with gophers. And there we’d spend the day trapping gophers and if they wouldn’t come up quick enough we’d take and drown them out. We’d pour water down the hole and make them come out. P. Short: Is there anything else you can think of . . .I can’t think of much to ask I mean...Is there anything interesting you can think of...I mean anything about you childhood before you left home? G. Short: Well, I remember when we’d come back from McIntosh, from the West coast and Seattle. We stayed for a while at the McIntosh and that wood was down to . . .His brother’s place, Uncle Grundy...And we lived there one winter. And I remember, it was just right after Christmas and my oldest brother, never get the right man and my cousin and my other brother were getting ready to go to school and I thought to myself, I don’t know why I can’t go to school too. But, I couldn’t, you know, they said I couldn’t go. And I was standing my a slab when my brother was cleaning a melon. And he was shoveling snow out of the sled. I guess he didn’t see me. But anyway, he turned with the shovel and the shovel. He hit me in the lip and cut me real bad, but not bad enough to take me to the hospital or the doctor or nothing. It hurt more than a did cut me cause it was lucky that the tip of the shovel was bent over from banging on the ground or something. And left the sharp end . . .that actually hit me was the blunt end. And but I was only a little five years old at the time and you couldn’t go to school then until you were six years old. P. Short: Is there any teachers that stick out . . .you remember when you were going to school that... I don’t know, sometime people have teachers they remember that they liked you know or something? Was there any teacher in particular? G. Short: There was one teacher that . . She lived on what they called the big ditch road about a mile and a half from school. I can remember her first name real well. Her first name was Lena. And I’m quite sure her last name was Johnson. And she was quite a stout woman. She was short. I would say she was about five foot two or three and she must have weighed all of a hundred and eighty or ninety pounds.. P. Short: Oh, she was quite heavy! G. Short: And she was a very stout woman, but she was a very good teacher. She was a real good teacher. P. Short: She cared about you? I mean, she took interest in you and what you did and everything? G. Short: That’s right. And I remember when I was in the seventh grade, she said , “Gordon would you like to take the eighth grade examination?” I said, “Yes.” Well I took the eighth grade exams and I passed them. I was one of the highest in that. In taking that test I was one of the highest. Although, it didn’t mean anything because I still had to take it next year. I just took it for . . .because I didn’t have anything to do and I had to wait until my turn to come up to take an exam. P. Short: At that time, you didn’t have to stay in school until you were fifteen, huh? G. Short: No, no you didn’t because I . . .one of my best buddies, Lawrence Marek was my same age and when he was in the seventh grade he took all the eighth grade examinations and passed them. So, he didn’t have to come back for his . . for the eighth grade if he didn’t want to, but he didn’t want to stay at home cause he didn’t have anything to do. So, he went the eighth year just for kicks, just to be with us. P. Short: When you got older, you know, like when you started . . .like you said, working in the fields, was there anything that you started doing that you didn’t do before? I don’t know, new responsibilities and stuff? G. Short: Well, now I have to get up and go back to about when I was nine or ten years old. And the first implement I had run when I was that old was keep horses on salty plow. That’s a…a salty plow is a one…is a plow that has one __[??238] board. And its about sixteen inches and don’t take much of a cut, but in them days we had one salty plow and the other two brother had two gang plows. And drove three horses on that and after I proved that I could drive three horses on something like that my dad though well I’ll put him on a…There was an implement in them days called a roller or a coatapacker [??244] And you don’t see them now a days. Its something that after you have plowed and lifted the ground up, you try…You kind of…go over this and pack it and make it smooth. P. Short: Well, it sort of like a harrow then isn’t it? G. Short: Not actually. It has a...A harrow has a points on it, teeth on it. This one here has just a solid roller like. And so and it took four horses on that. And I ran that for a while. And I think I was about ten or eleven years old before I did lifting driving five horses on what they call a gang plow. P. Short: How old were you when you, you know, started going away from home? Hiring out to other places? G. Short: I think…like I said, when I was…before that when I was off herding sheep from my cousin I was oh, ten or eleven years old. And when I was herding sheep for him. And then there was another person about a mile and a half east of our place that hired me one time. His name was Jesse Campion. And I herded cows for him one summer. And the wages were really cheap, but you got twenty-five cents or fifty cents a week, you were given a good wage. P. Short: What year was that probably about? G. Short: Well, I would say that was be in about 19...Let’s see. Oh, about 1929 or ‘30. P. Short: Well how old were you about when you actually left home though? G. Short: When I really left home...to be away from home any amount of time is when I went to the CCC camps up at the Big Forks, Big Fork, Minnesota. P. Short: What’s CCC Camp? G. Short: That was a Civil Conservation Corps. That’s when . . . P. Short: What were you doing in them? G. Short: That...There was a lot of them camps in them days. I was just . . . P. Short: Under Franklin’s New Deal? G. Short: Yes. Under the President’s New Deal where they put boys to work and gave them jobs. That was an education plan. P. Short: What did you do? G. Short: I was in there in the winter time. We would go out in the woods in the mornings and burn teepees. We’d call them teepees because they were teepees that the boys in the summertime would pick up the dead wood, put them in the teepees style shape and them we would go and burn them in the wintertime, which was good cause you could keep warm. P. Short: Did you really feel the Depression that much that you actually had to go to work to make money though? G. Short: Well, I don’t suppose I had to go out and make money cause we got enough…We have enough to go to shows on and a little bit for candy and . . . P. Short: So your family wasn’t really that hard up though then during the Depression? G. Short: We were hard up to the extent that where we didn’t have much money, but we always had plenty of food. P. Short: So you had all the necessities and all of that? G. Short: Oh yes. We had...Mother raised turkeys and she’d take and sell all them turkeys in the fall of the year and all of us would pile in the car and go into town to Grand Forks and do shopping and she’d buy all of our winter clothes with the turkey money that she had. And one thing I can say about my mother, God rest her soul, now . . .She never did spend much money on herself. She always see that us kids got the clothes first, but being that there were so many boys in the family and the age spread wasn’t too far. . . P. Short: You got a lot of hand-me-downs. G. Short: We both had a lot of hand-me-downs. P. Short: What was it like, I mean when you first left home, were you kind of scared or anything or were you kind of excited about getting away? G. Short: I was...I had...I was kind of used to being away from home because I had been away from home for two or three weeks at a time, but being in camp something like this was…more or less of a military style camp where you had to get up in the morning and go outside and flag raising. And they’d have a flag raising deal in the morning and a flag...taking the flag down at night. And this was...This happened oh, just about five days, five mornings and five nights a week. And on Saturday and Sundays it was free. I didn’t…I had two or three jobs while I was in the CCC camp. I was first of all, like I said, I went out in the woods and I helped burn some teepees. And then I graduated to being a carpenter’s helper. And then one time, one of the fellows that was a watchman at night went home on a leave and he got sick and never did come back. So, I got stuck with his job, which really I like better and cause I had more time off to myself. And I really liked the it then, but, you know, its funny how you can be off or on leave. There were so many times that you’d come home when you’re young and this time. I got a ride home. Of course, I had to pay for it. So much for this drive going home and coming back but my folks didn’t know I was coming home. And the fellow let me off down at the...down at the road leading up to our place. And I walked up and ramped on the door early in the morning. Mother didn’t know who it was and my heart was just a pounding because I was so anxious to see everybody and they were anxious to see me too. And then of course, this was on a Saturday morning and a Saturday night. Of course, we all went out to a dance and had a lot of fun. And Sunday of course, this dog came around picked me up and back we went again. So it was just a short stay, but we had a lot of fun just the same. P. Short: So you would say that you weren’t that sad about leaving? You were kind of excite then about leaving home? Did you make many plans when you were going away from home? G. Short: No, I never made any plans, cause I just didn’t know what I was going to be or do when I grew up. I knew that I was going to go into the military service, whether it was war or not because one thing that I can…that always sticks in my mind is when I went to school is a little poem that went something: If you’ll be a soldier boy you may come too! I don’t know what that poem is or what them lines are from what poem. P. Short: You’ll be a soldier what? G. Short: If you will be a soldier boy, you may come too! And I don’t know what poem those lines are from. But they always stuck with me and I thought to myself when I was a little kid going to school that I’m sure going to be a soldier when I go into the service when I get old enough. P. Short: Were you a little bit scared though, when the time came and actual war was going on? Did you ever think about maybe when you got over there that you might not come back? G. Short: Well when we were...When I was drafted into the service, I thought it was kind of an exciting deal and it never...It didn’t never occur to me that you really could get hurt until we were showed movies of planes strafing men and about how soldiers were being unloaded from the barges and making a beach head landing and how the enemy could cut you down with machine guns and rifle and mortars and everything like that. Then the. . .I got to thinking, boy I tell you, this is no kids game! This is for real! And but of course, it was too late to back out then. I was already committed and I had already sworn in. And so I had to take orders and do what I was told, but and then...Finally we did get into he actual phase of fighting. P. Short: How long did it take for basic training? I mean, You were down in...You were in Michigan weren’t you or somewhere in there? G. Short: No. P. Short: No Michigan? G. Short: No, I took my training in California. P. Short: Oh California, yeah right yeah. And that only took about six weeks or so didn’t it? G. Short: Yes, that’s right. P. Short: And then where were you shipped from there? G. Short: Well, I went to...I was in two or three training camps or more in the States before we were sent overseas from.... We were...from...wish that thing should shut off now. I can’t think of it. P. Short: Wasn’t Fort Worth, one of them? G. Short: From California you went to.... P. Short: Well, you don’t have to think of the exact names. That’s okay. I think I got it written down anyway in that family thing anyway. G. Short: I know there were two or three or four different camps we were in before we went overseas, but I can’t think of them in order. I know one was Camp . . .I can’t think of it now. P. Short: Well, anyway where were you shipped to overseas? The first place from the United States? Where did you go to? G. Short: We went to...The first place we would have went to was New Guinea. P. Short: And did you see service there or was that just a stop-over? G. Short: There was some action going on when we got there, but it was just about all cleaned up when we were there. We weren’t there too long until we were shipped to the Philippines. And in the Philippines is where we did our fighting. We were on first on Leyte and the enemy went to Luzon. Both places we did heavy fighting and... P. Short: Were you ever...were you always back ups or were you ever in the front lines too? G. Short: We were in the front lines. Our company went up on the front line at least nine or ten times. And with full strength of a 130-140 men and many a times we came back with just thirty or forty men. They were either killed or injured and put up in hospitals. P. Short: I know you’ve mentioned about being in foxholes. You guys had to dig them and make them yourself huh? G. Short: That’s right . . . P. Short: So is that one of the things they taught you how to do? Or did you just dig a hole? G. Short: We knew how to dig in before...in training you would do that. P. Short: Did they ever tell you what to expect or how to deal with the enemy if you were ever caught? What to say and all that? G. Short: Oh yes. P. Short: What were you told? G. Short: We were just suppose to give your name rank and serial number. That’s all. P. Short: But they never trained you how to withstand torture or anything like that huh? G. Short: Well no, that’s . . .They told you what you should do, but that’s pretty hard to tell you what to do because once . . .one person could stand more physical torture than others. It’s just up to your own individual self. P. Short: Did you ever um...Did you ever see those makeshift medical centers that they ever had? What kind of conditions they had to work in? G. Short: Oh yes. Now in the front lines like that you never had a regular...set up like a regular hospital. P. Short: They did have regular Army doctors and stuff didn’t they? G. Short: They did and . . . P. Short: Was there ever any women nurses that even got up there where it was pretty bad? G. Short: Some yes. Most of...I seen more Filipino nurses than I seen American nurses up on the front lines and one time I walked by and...We were walking back from the front lines after heavy fighting and I seen a doctor and a medic actually insert a tube into a person’s throat, which had been cut by shrapnel, so that he could breath. They were...Cause his windpipe was cut off. P. Short: Um. Could you ever have talked to chaplains? You know, I mean, you know I know there is chaplains in most companies and stuff like that, but did you ever sort of get scared and ever have to talk to any or anything? G. Short: No, the only time I ever talked to the chaplains . . .had anything to do with them was when Harriet got sick and we had to...I had to bring her home. And we had no money, so I went over to the chaplain . . . P. Short: Where was this now? Where were you at the time? G. Short: Uh. We were at, I think it was Fort Worth? P. Short: Texas, right? G. Short: Fort Worth, Texas, yeah. P. Short: Is that the time you guys were on the train? G. Short: Yeah and I told him our situation, that we didn’t have no money and if he would help me get money from the Red Cross. So he did. He went to bat for me and we went to the Red Cross and he... In just a matter of minutes you might say, we had the money and I could bring my wife home. P. Short: You came right here? To St. Vincent? G. Short: Yes. But, from the time we left there until the time we got home there was a lot happening. It’d take quite a while to tell about it. That’s for something else. P. Short: I remember once you were telling me about something funny that happened at a movie theater. Something about there was a rat that crawled up somebody’s leg? Could you tell me about that a little bit? G. Short: Not somebody’s leg, it was my own! This was over in New Guinea. And we were stationed there for a while and we had a portable movie screen set up. And right by . . .opposite this screen was a...some Australians had there camp there. I think it was just one company or a platoon of them were stationed there. And so this night we were...It was a very beautiful night out, moonlight and we were all sitting there watching this movie. P. Short: Do you remember what movie it was? Was it a well-known movie from the States or something? G. Short: It was well...It seems like I can remember one...It seemed like it was... I don’t know what the name of it was, but Deana Durban was in it? P. Short: Who is Deana Durban? G. Short: Uh. I think it was Deana Durban, Frank Sinatra and I can’t think of the other one that was in it. P. Short: Yeah, so what happened? G. Short: It was more or less about....I can’t think of what I want to say. P. Short: Well, that’s okay, just tell me. G. Short: Anyway, the movie was going on and there was a lot of...And of course, around camps like this we were always a lot of dogs. And they were chasing each other around camp and around this movie area and pretty soon. One of the dogs came and stopped by me. And I thought it was a dog cause I felt something against my leg. Then all of the sudden, another dog comes chasing it and pretty soon this what I felt by my leg ran up my leg. And I put my hand down and I felt something a big bunch there. And I just held on and squeezed for all I could. And... P. Short: Didn’t anybody notice this the whole time it was going on ? G. Short: Nobody noticed it and that dog just stood there and pretty soon there was a break in the movie. And the lights came on and a couple of my friends Wassing from Minneapolis and Alabama. We called him Alabama. That was his nickname cause he was from Alabama. Small fellow. They were sitting together about two rows up ahead and I said...I hollered at Wassing, “Hey Wassing, I bet you can’t guess what’s up my leg!” And he started to giggle and everybody started to giggle too, you know. So they took it to mean something different, I guess than what I thought of. And I said, “No, there’s a rat up my leg or a mouse!” “Oh come on Short, you are just pulling our legs!” and so I said, “No sir-ee!” So I hobbled out to where they were and I said, “Feel!” And Alabama, he felt there and by gosh, “Short there’s something there.” So he took his handkerchief out of his pocket and wrapped it around his hand and reach up my pant leg. He said, “By golly, there’s something there cause I can feel the tail!” and he said “I got a hold of it let loose!” And I let loose and he jerked the rat out from underneath my pant leg, but the thing was dead. cause I had squeezed it to death. And he said, “ Boy, you sure weren’t kidding!” And everybody was looking. There was nurses there in uniform and officers and a lot of other guys. And I said...Boy I tell you when that movie started up again, there wasn’t nobody keeps going having their feet on the ground cause everybody put their feet on the bench ahead of them cause they didn’t want no rat jumping up their pant leg. And after we got through one of the Aussies said, “Short you want to come over for some tea and crackers?” I said, “Sure!” Now I tell you if you ever drank tea from made by Australians you have got a treat coming if you ever have them make tea for you cause I tell you, you could float an egg on top and it wouldn’t sink! P. Short: Why is it so strong or something? G. Short: It was strong. They used to take a gallon can and put some tea in there and boil the devil out of it! And you drink about two cups of that and you ain’t going to sleep all night because you’re going be . . . P. Short: Going to the bathroom every time . . . G. Short: Going to the bathroom about every ten minutes and they had some hard tack crackers there too. I ate a few of them. And drank a couple cups of that tea. And boy, I tell you I...That made my night. First having a rat up my pant leg, drinking strong tea and then staying up all night running to the bathroom. The latrine, we call it. I said...The next day I was pretty pooped out. P. Short: Is there anything that you remember about being the battle lines? Something that you remember that stands out in your mind? You know, like once I think you told me you were going across some field at night. And you were walking on top of dead bodies or something? G. Short: Well this was...has happened in the front lines and at night we would be...You’d be in the front...you’d be fighting in the daytime and at night you would be in a foxhole or just laying on top of the ground. Whichever was available. And...Well during the day you . . End Side A G. Short: We’d be fighting and at night then you’d have time to rest. If you weren’t standing guard duty. Uh, you’d probably be on for a couple of hours and then off for a couple of hours or four hours. Depends upon how many there was there to take their turns. And you were subject to call anytime during the night to be ammunition bearer. If you were called upon, if they needed them up on the front lines. And this... And many a times I was called and this one incident were I was called at night and you carry ammunition boxes . . .for I don’t know how far we had to carry them. But anyway, when we got to the destination this one sergeant told us were to put them, but he didn’t tell us what was in front of us. And low and behold, pretty soon, I was stepping on something soft. P. Short: Was anybody with you? G. Short: And there were some other . . .Oh yes, there were several of us. And I asked the sergeant I said, “What am I stepping on?” He said, “You’re just stepping on some dead bodies that were...hadn’t been carried down yet.” And it gives you an awful funny and erie feeling stepping on somebody like that. Even if it is...the party is dead. P. Short: Did you...It seems to me that once you were talking about how you had to be in the foxholes even when it was raining and it was kind of yucky you had to stay under the water and all that? G. Short: My first experience with that is on the first night up on the front lines and it was raining. And we had our trench coats and one blanket. And when we dug in that night, we didn’t have time to dig a very deep foxhole that’s why my foxhole was only about eight or ten inches deep. And I spread my raincoat on the bottom and I thought well I’ll lay on that and I’ll cover up with my blanket and low and behold it started to rain. Well, it had been raining, but it quit and started to rain again. And you wouldn’t believe that you could sleep when it was wet like that, but I was . . . P. Short: Wasn’t your trench coat rainproof or anything? G. Short: Uh. Well, I was laying on it and the blanket I had was just soaking wet and my...The hole started to fill up and I kind of welcomed my chance of my turn to come and stand guard duty. And where we stood guard duty is we had a .50 caliber machine gun set up and you would squat behind the machine gun that was...It was sitting on top the hole and you would be squatting down in the hole. And you had strapped on your belt, you had a .45 caliber pistol and you had hand grenades and you also had small arms rifle alongside the machine gun too. P. Short: Did you ever encounter anybody on your guard duty? G. Short: Not while we were on guard duty but we had...we fired several times when you wasn’t on guard duty. P. Short: When you were fighting, you know, actually you know, like you were saying in the front lines and all that... Did you...I mean, I don’t think I ever heard you mention whether you came very close to the enemy though. Did you ever, I mean, was it ever hand-to-hand? G. Short: We . . .I myself never came into hand-to-hand battle with the enemy. Although, there was incidents on the front line there when I suppose, the enemy was as close as twenty-five or thirty feet away from where I was, but they were just one . . .they were in another foxhole and they were struggling and one of my...One of the fellows in our outfit was killed in this foxhole and this...When the Japs got up and started running away, he was cut down by another gang that seen him run and . . . P. Short: How...Didn’t it get kind of smoke filled in the air and everything, how could you see whether you were shooting at anything or not? G. Short: The only time it’d get smoke filled in the air like that is from your big caliber guns, not from rifle fire. P. Short: Well, yeah, I know, but lots of times there you see grenades a lot and if they fell on the ground that creates a lot of dust and all that. G. Short: Not too often did we ever have to use grenades, except when we wanted to drive the Japanese out of their foxholes or probably if we’d surmised or had a hunch that there was a machine gun nest ahead. P. Short: Did you ever use them yourself? G. Short: Oh yes! We used hand grenades. P. Short: Didn’t you get scared that it might stick on your finger and you wouldn’t throw it in time or something? G. Short: No. I had pretty good luck at grenade practice when I was in the States. P. Short: You mean it wasn’t that easy, I mean, you just didn’t pull it out and throw it? Was it kind of hard or something? G. Short: You...They had so many seconds. They were set so they had so many seconds before they’d go off. And you pull the pin and you had . . . P. Short: There wasn’t any safety____[??613]? G. Short: They had a safety lever that you held down. And you...As soon as you reached that. But, you want to make sure that when you throw it that your . . .that you didn’t raised your, put your arm back and your arm didn’t hit a branch or a tree and then its knocked out . . . P. Short: Its dropped! G. Short: And dropped on him. Otherwise, there were times when not in our outfit, but I knew other outfits where actually men sacrificed them self for their buddies. A grenade . . . P. Short: Throwing them self on it? G. Short: A grenade would come into the hole and they’d see it and they’d pull right on it. And then of course, they’d be killed. P. Short: When was it . . .What year was it about when you went over to Japan? G. Short: That was 194...Let’s see . . . P. Short: It was toward the end of the war. G. Short: Yeah. We didn’t go into mainland Japan until ‘46. Wait a minute. P. Short: ‘45 was when the war ended? G. Short: ‘45 cause I came home in December of ‘45 and we were in Japan for about six weeks to two months before I came home. P. Short: Was it because that was were it was being more intense and they needed more men there than other places? G. Short: No we didn’t go into Japan until the war was over. We didn’t do no fighting in Japan itself on the mainland. P. Short: But you were there on part of it, weren’t you? G. Short: No. Our fighting was on other soil in New Guinea and the Philippines. P. Short: Well, when was it that you went into Japan though? G. Short: It must have been about October, late part of October. P. Short: Well it wasn’t until December though that Emperor…That’s what ended the war. G. Short: Uh. No. P. Short: You may not have done any fighting, but it was still on. G. Short: Well that maybe one of these...I don’t know what they put a sign up. . . P. Short: What did they bother taking you over there for then, if there wasn’t anything to do? G. Short: It was more or less an occupational duties. P. Short: So you didn’t actually do any fighting for a couple of months then? G. Short: No. We didn’t do any fighting there in Japan at all. No. P. Short: So when December came and the war was over and they let you out, where did you go to? I mean, did you just fly over and then take a train home here or what? G. Short: No. We came back on a ship called the USS General Hawes and I don’t know how many days now it took us to come back. I think it was about fourteen days, twelve or fourteen days. And we landed in, I think it was Seattle that we en...Yes, it was Seattle. And . . . P. Short: Did you took a train home? G. Short: And from there we took a train to a camp in Wisconsin. P. Short: Yeah. G. Short: That’s were we got . . .That’s were we got our mustering out pay. And well we . . . P. Short: Don’t they give you sort of suit to wear and all that kind of stuff? G. Short: No we were allowed to wear our Army uniform home and you could wear it for, I think it was for forty-eight hours or seventy-two hours or something like that before you were suppose to change over to civilian clothes. P. Short: So, how did Mom take it when she...Did you tell her ahead of time or did you surprise her? G. Short: Oh, yes. She knew. I called her from Seattle when I got through to her back to the States and she was living at home here in Edinburgh with her parents. She had . . .when I came home on the train and got off and come to Pembina... P. Short: There wasn’t any here in St.Vincent? G. Short: Yeah. Grandpa...Her dad met me at the train, but Harriet couldn’t come because she had just gotten over a bought of pneumonia. So, she couldn’t, she didn’t come out of the house. She sure was glad to see me when I got here. P. Short: Well, when you were nineteen, wasn’t it when you were nineteen. . .Didn’t you, after you were done at the CC camps, come and work for your uncle here? G. Short: Oh, yeah. That P. Short: At the Short’s Café? Was that right after that CCC thing? G. Short: Shortly after yeah. P. Short: And what did you do there? G. Short: Where? P. Short: At your uncle’s, at the café here. Did you just wait tables and stuff? G. Short: I would wait tables and bartending. P. Short: Isn’t that how you met Mom? Wasn’t she...Didn’t she come in there and stuff? G. Short: Yeah. There was each umbrella with a lot other [??660] other girls here in town. And that’s how I met her. P. Short: How old was she at the time when you met her? G. Short: Sixteen. P. Short: When did you start actually going out together though? G. Short: Well, I...We went out two times while I was working here, but I think that uh, when we first started going together . . . P. Short: Seriously? G. Short: Uh. Was when she worked as a telephone operator in Bemidji and I was living in...We were living in McIntosh at the time and... P. Short: Well how in the world did you ever get together when you were that far apart? G. Short: Well, hell its only fifty-seven miles and my brother and I had a car. And we’d drive down there and sometimes our friend, Otto Johnson was his name. He had a car too . .big ole’...And Otto and his girlfriend and my brother and his girlfriend and I would drive down to Midgy. We’d...And I’d wait until Harriet got off of her telephone shift at the telephone office. And we’d go out and have supper, drive around, have fun. And that’s . . . P. Short: Well, where’d you see her? Did you start dating her here at home? I mean, I don’t know, you know. Was it...I mean, you know, it must have been serious enough for you to go fifty miles just to see her? I mean, What did you see in Mom? I mean, Did you like her for a certain thing or what? Was she friendly or pretty or what? G. Short: Its hard to say how...what you see in a person. You just know that this person is meant for you in life and that’s when you’re going to marry her. Uh... P. Short: When did you...Did you know the first time you dated her or did it take a few times to know that you really liked her? G. Short: Well, I don’t know whether, at the time, I worked here. I liked her. And I suppose...but the thought of marrying. Although, she said that I asked her that . . .Let’s get married. I said, on the spur of the moment. Of course, she didn’t say yes because she thought maybe I was just kidding and . . . P. Short: When was this? G. Short: That’s when I was working here. P. Short: Yeah. So what’d she do? G. Short: I don’t know how the things would have turned out in our lives if she’d have said yes and we’d have gotten married then. Maybe it’d kept me out of the Army and maybe it wouldn’t have, but I remember when...Even if the time I was going with your mother when she was working in Bemidji there was other girls that I wouldn’t put to that I liked real well. Matter of fact . . . P. Short: At the same time? G. Short: At the same time. Matter of fact, there... P. Short: Did she ever act jealous for that? G. Short: No, I don’t think I shared...I don’t know if she knew about it or not? P. Short: Oh. G. Short: There was one girl I wrote to when I was in the service at the same time...That was before I was married to your mother yet. And a...At the same time I was writing you mother I was writing to her too. And . . . P. Short: So when was it that you actually did ask her to marry you? When was that? What year was that? G. Short: I think that was in 194-...Let’s see, when was it? P. Short: You had gotten married in ‘41 so? G. Short: I guess it was 19–. Hmm. That was ‘42 . . . P. Short: Well I thought it was anyway! I don’t know. It was after you went . . . G. Short: It was ‘43. Yeah. P. Short: You sure? G. Short: Yeah. I was home on leave. And . . .No. P. Short: Had you been planning . . . G. Short: I can’t remember whether I was in the service yet. I don’t think I was in the service yet. We were at a dance in Bemidji. That’s right! Before I went to the service. My Uncle Grundy and Aunt Ella and Mom and Dad and seems like there was another couple too. We went to the Midgy one night. We picked up Harriet. We went out to a night club and we were doing some dancing and drinking and...That’s when I proposed to Harriet. P. Short: Afterwards you mean? G. Short: No, I proposed to her right on the dance floor. And we . . . P. Short: Funny she didn’t ____[??706] what we are talking about? G. Short: And we come back off the dance floor and the rest of them were sitting on the sidelines then and we told them what we were going to do and . . . P. Short: So what...When was this then? It must have been in 1940 or ‘41 huh? G. Short: Yeah. No. You know, I’m not sure. I’m not sure whether I told them. No, I proposed to your mother on the dance floor, but we held off telling them cause I told Mother in the house the next morning and then I went up to . . . P. Short: You mom? G. Short: Yeah. I went out to the barn and told Dad. And you know, right afterwards. P. Short: So what’d they think of it? G. Short: Oh they . . . P. Short: They’d met your . . .met mom? G. Short: Oh, yeah. Oh they were happy for us! P. Short: So, you were...from the pictures I’ve seen, when you got married... G. Short: I had...I was in the service and I wrote and told her that I was coming. Come down to Fort Worth and we’d get married. P. Short: So was this out of her own money? G. Short: No. I think she came down on her. . . She bought her ticket on her own. And well, that disappointed Mother because they’ve already had a shower planned for Harriet. And . . . P. Short: But you couldn’t possibly make it back though? G. Short: No so, she hopped on the train and come out. And we got married. P. Short: Now, wasn’t it just in a chapel or was it any friends that you had with you or was it just plain witnesses? G. Short: There was just...No, the only witness was the pastor’s wife. That’s all. P. Short: Did you guys ever think of waiting until after the war cause I know I heard a lot about people...Some people didn’t want to get married because they were scared maybe, you know, the guy would get killed or something you know. Did you ever think of that? Or did you care? G. Short: I don’t . No it just seemed like we just want...If something was going to happen to us . . We never talked about anything that I would get killed or anything like that. Uh. Just seemed like that’s something never did enter into mind. I suppose it didn’t. If it did then we never said anything about it, but we just . . .if...I knew it was inevitable. I was going to go overseas and you just wanted all the time we could together before you went. P. Short: So after you got back from the war and...Did you and Grandma and Grandpa move out right away or did you guys live with the here in this house for a while? G. Short: Ah. We lived here for a while and then...Not too long cause...I don’t know whether they moved out in ‘46 or whether it was 1947 when they moved down there and lived and we had the space all to our self. I don’t know. I can’t remember that... P. Short: And didn’t you farm or just keep animals around here for a while or did you go to trade school right away? G. Short: No the first year. The first year is what they call self-employed. I had some cattle and a couple of cows and I inherited them from...Harriet’s P. Short: From her parents? G. Short: No from her brother And I had chickens and I had pigs. P. Short: And the big garden, I suppose. G. Short: And the big garden. And that was in 1946-1947. P. Short: And when was it that you went away to trade school? G. Short: No. ‘47 though, I was . . .1947 I worked on a farm out here. Its about a mile and a half east of our place for a farmer named Warren Griffith. I worked for him for six months. And .... P. Short: And when was it that you went to trade school? G. Short: No. I went, no, 1948. I went to...I started working on the section. I’m the section extra gangs. And I worked on the section for ‘48, ‘49 and ‘50. Not steady, but off and on. And all this time I still had cattle here and raised a big garden. And in 1951 is when I went to Minneapolis to the Gale Institute. P. Short: Wasn’t that on the G.I. Bill? Didn’t you get it paid for? G. Short: That’s right. P. Short: And so was that just a...Was it nine months it took? Or how long did it take? G. Short: Well I went down there in April and came back in November. That was six or...I was suppose to be a six month course. P. Short: Yeah and what did they teach you? How to operate machines and stuff like that? G. Short: No. They taught us how to telegraph, which was quite an art at the time. And they gave you the basic fundamentals of the depot work, what a depot agent had to contend with. P. Short: Well, was this run by the railroad or something? G. Short: I don’t think it was a railroad operated school. I think it was privately owned and operated, but it was a...The teachers were more or less railroad employees that were actually working there on their off duty hours or retired railroad employees, who were working there full-time. P. Short: So after you got out of school, did you get a job right away with the railroad? G. Short: When I...Yes. I . . .At the time I was going to school my brother went to the oilstone[??774] And before we left there, one of the teachers called us in and said that I had two openings for telegraphers at Three Forks, Montana. And they wanted to know if my brother and I would take it. And we said yes. And we had a specified time to get there. And . . .But when I got home my wife was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. So I couldn’t go. P. Short: What from? G. Short: Well, I don’t know. She had a nervous breakdown and... P. Short: Well could you explain yourself a little bit? G. Short: Uh. I didn’t know. I think it was more or less because of the situation where she had to . . .She had the sole care maybe of raising the family while I was at school and we were quite hard up as far as money was concerned. Just several things in general worried her and just kind of wore her down real fast though. And her nerves were on edge. P. Short: Didn’t Grandma and Grandpa help her? G. Short: They did. It wasn’t to the extent where she was so hard up where she didn’t have any food or anything like that, but we...I was just...I don’t know complications of several things. P. Short: So what did you do then? G. Short: Well I stayed home for a while until she got to feeling better and then I wrote down to this teacher and asked him if he had another opening. And he said he did. He said that if I wanted to I could go down to a place called Persia Island. That’s on ______[??795] Milwaukee ______[??]. And this was around the first part of December. So I hopped on a train and down I go. And I got down there and I stayed down there about two or three weeks and it was getting closer to Christmas time and I’d never been away from home at Christmas before and I was getting lonesome I guess. And I thought to myself, I had only had a few dollars left. I didn’t know whether to call home and ask for money or come on home. So I called and we decided I was coming home. So I told the agent that I was staying with. I said, “I am going to bunch it and go home.” So I hopped on the train and I made it home just a day or two before Christmas. And shortly afterwards, Burlington Northern Railroad Company knew I was at home and . . . P. Short: Wasn’t that Great Northern then? G. Short: Yeah. Great Northern. The Great Northern. I guess I contacted them and asked them if they had anything for me. P. Short: Close to home? G. Short: Yeah. Close to home. And they said I could go down to Argyle and break in there as a agent operator. So I went down there for about three weeks and broke in and then I finally got a notice that ____[??811] P. Short: Uh-hmm. So where did you go? G. Short: Uh. It was a place out here called Dearing, North Dakota. P. Short: How many years were you there? G. Short: I wasn’t there years. I was only there two weeks. P. Short: Oh well, where did you go then? G. Short: From, Dearing, I went to a volunteering in this small place out here in North Dakota. It’s south of Grand Forks. Oh jeepers, I can’t think of the name of the town, but . . . P. Short: Then were did you go? G. Short: Oh can’t remember...From then on I looked at as many places as I could. . . P. Short: You just went for those bits of time? G. Short: I just was a relief man. Two weeks here and two weeks there. And so . . . P. Short: Is that what you call an extra board? G. Short: I was on the extra board. P. Short: Well somehow or another you ended up in Grafton though. Didn’t you for a while? G. Short: I ended up there for a...I was at Grafton for a while. I was out at Putnam[??sp], North Dakota for two months. At the time, when I was out there. . . P. Short: Where was that place where you had a lot of flowers and stuff? G. Short: Oh. That’s the first agency that I had was Glaston, North Dakota and I was there for six years. P. Short: So was it first Grafton and then that Glaston or was it the other way around? G. Short: No, I worked Grafton several times just as a relief operator. And for two week jaunts at a time. P. Short: Was Glaston sort of your first regular place though? G. Short: Glaston? P. Short: Yeah. G. Short: Yeah, Glaston was my first regular place. Well I suppose for any length of time. Although before that I had been to Uptham for two months but . . . P. Short: Um. Was it right after Glaston that you ended up here in Noyes?833]? G. Short: No and I left...When I left Glaston, I relieved my uncle out here at St Vincent. For... P. Short: Uncle? G. Short: My wife’s uncle. P. Short: Oh, Uncle Dick? G. Short: Yeah. Dick Fitzpatrick out here at St. Vincent station. And while I was there. I got bumped by another operator. So then I went out . . . P. Short: What does bumping mean anyway? G. Short: Bumping means that you got displaced...You got displaced by an older man with more seniority than you have. And then I got...I went on the extra board. I had to leave home. I was away from home for quite some time until I got a chance to get Noyes?844] All you have to do is submit your name and you rank, you might say that’s your seniority date. And if you’re the older man you get this position. And so this was...This had been the second time now that I had hit in at Noyes and got it. The first time I had been displaced by some body else that had more seniority. Now I had been at Noyes now for fifteen years. P. Short: Do you enjoy it? I mean, this type of work? G. Short: I guess this the work the Lord had cut out for me to do with a minimum on a H case in our hand[??853] . . . P. Short: Does it... I mean, everybody gets bored I’m sure with their type of work, but I mean, all in all, I mean, do you like it? I mean, is it...I mean dies it fulfill what you’d like to do in work? G. Short: It does. I...Well after my two days off I kind of look forward to going back to work again. Although some days it gets pretty darn tedious and tired and aggravating because everything doesn’t go true to form, but I still like the work. P. Short: Um. Can I switch to something kind of different here? What was...Can you describe what it was like when you had your, you know, Sharon when was first born, did it sort of shape you when you knew you had the responsibility of a kid or did it bother you much? G. Short: I think that when you are young like that and you have your first child, you take everything for granted. Responsibility isn’t your main concern right down there. Although, your kind of puffed up, but you say well, I’m married. I got a wife now. I got a child. And so, that makes you feel like well you got to get out and strive. And do better. But, there is sometimes when you get foolish and you spend money on foolish things that your not suppose to and you shouldn’t do. But, I think that there has to . . .There’s never been time that we ever spent anything foolishly when we didn’t have clothes on our back and food in our...in the house. And someplace to sleep. You can’t talk much longer it almost four-thirty right now.____[??878] P. Short: Um. Yeah. What do you plan to do when you retire do you think? G. Short: Well... P. Short: Do you plan on gardening or going and doing anything special? G. Short: No. I barely...I don’t want to just sit around and do nothing because I can’t get up and do ______[??882] that. I have...I say I don’t want to do much gardening. I suppose I will have a little garden and I’ll be mowing the lawn and I would like to work at something that I would...that I like to do, outside of the railroad work, I mean. Hopefully . . . P. Short: Why don’t...You know what you could do is that you could experiment around with doing, you know, any, several different things. Things that you think you’d be interested in and then trying them and seeing how you like them. G. Short: I would like to...I like greenhouse work. If I could get a job in a greenhouse or raise something like this on my own. P. Short: What are you planning to do in your spare time? I mean, what do you like to do? G. Short: I suppose there would be a small job that a person could get. I like painting, inside painting. If someone wanted some painting done or . . . P. Short: What about just things for fun though? I mean, besides work, I mean, would you enjoy going on a vacation and maybe going out in a boat or just fishing for fun, you know. Or going with somebody, you know, sightseeing or something like that? G. Short: Sightseeing is what I’d like to do most. As far as fishing is concerned, I don’t have too much interest in that because well . . . P. Short: I guess you have to learn it younger huh? G. Short: Because of my lacks in not doing any fishing when . . .during my span of life. I don’t know beans from apple butter about fishing. I wouldn’t know what equipment to buy and what I did buy, I wouldn’t know how to use it. P. Short: So what you would like to do is go around the country and see some of the natural wildlife and some of the historic sites and stuff like that? G. Short: That’s what I’d like to do most. P. Short: Um. Could you tell me a little bit about things that are extraordinary that have happened? Like the 1950 flood and things like that you were through? I mean, was there anything that happened that was kind of extraordinary? G. Short: Oh I think we’ll put that off for another time. End of transcription Addendum: go to marker 166, tape 5 H. Short: There are a couple of discrepancies in this tape. Dad said that he proposed to me in a letter from Camp Bowie in Brownwood, Texas and that he’d asked me to come down on the train to Fort Worth. And that’s not true. He came home in January of 1943 on a furlough and he asked me to marry him and I returned with him to Fort Worth, Texas at the end of his furlough and we were married. The other discrepancy is that he said that he was in the CC Camps first and then came up to Short’s Café to work. And that’s not true. He worked at Short’s Café in 1938 and that’s when I met him, when he was nineteen and I was sixteen. And he was in the CCC Camps in the winter of 1940 and ‘41 and that’s when. After he come out of the CC Camps and helped his dad with the crop in the spring, he got his draft notice and he was drafted in April of 1942. Interviewee: Gordon Short Interviewer: Harriet Short Date of interview: January 31, 1996 Location: Truth or Consequences, NM Category: WW II H. Short: This is a little bit of Spanish music and then you’ll hear the tapes by Gordon Short. H. Short: January 31, 1996. You understand. Just go over it and start talking. G. Short: This is my memoirs of World War II in the States and the South Pacific, New Guinea, Philippine, Leyte and Luzon and occupational duties in Japan. This is Gordon Short speaking, of course. When I went into the service we left East Grand Forks by a bus and we traveled to Fort Snelling in Minneapolis. And that’s...in 1942. And we stayed there only a day or two where we got on a train and we went to Camp Roberts, California. That is where I took my training and had a lot of fun times. Then I’ll go into that a little bit later. And as to the training, we had . . .on the way to Camp Roberts we never went to the regular passenger train. We went into a what they call a troop train. And this troop train had kitchens in it and place to sleep and what not. We all took a shot a take at doing kitchen duty, but we didn’t mind it because it was warm. We had the doors to the cars open and we had plenty to eat, good food. And matter of fact, we...a lot of us volunteered for kitchen duty and that was okay with us. But when we did get to Camp Roberts, I remember getting off the train there just as well as could be cause its something I hadn’t done. I’ve had a little bit of experience at military life when I was in the CC Camps and we had a little training there, but when we got off there was the sergeants there. Always heard that the sergeants were the tough ones. But you had to . . .didn’t have to mind the officers so much. It was the sergeants and corporals that you had to watch out for cause they were very, very strict. But they weren’t too hard on us until they once got you inducted. When they once got you sworn in that’s when they put the...applied the pressure to you. Well we got the...They told us to line up and we lined up. And the first thing the sergeant asked us he says, “Do any of you guys know what your left foot is from your right foot?” And...but he said, “Most of you guys will go...When I say go left or go right they’ll do just the opposite.” Of course that got a little burst of laughter from the bunch of them. We still had our civilians. I don’t know if we had our civilian clothes on or not. They briefly made us put our Army uniforms on, work clothes and the whatnot before we left Camp Roberts. Before Camp Roberts I mean. When we got there . . . When we got there the noncoms....That’s what they called the sergeants and the corporals there. They took us off the train, put us on some six by six trucks...Just a minute. I mentioned noncoms there just a few minutes ago and my wife she said, “You better tell . . .say on the tape what noncoms is cause everybody doesn’t know what a noncom is.” An noncom is a non-commissioned officer such as a Private First Class or Corporal, Sergeant up to as far as Sergeant Major is concerned. Well anyway, after we got on these buses, I mean these six by six trucks they took us to the barracks that we were suppose to stay in. And everything of course, was new to us. And we thought it was really exciting. Well they took us in and they assigned us our place where we were suppose to live, sleep. . . right, barracks. And took all we had... Everything we had was in our barracks space. And old clothes, fresh clothes, new clothes and whatnot. We got in there and they gave us a certain amount of time to get things put away. Then they hollered, “Fall out!” We all...The non-commissioned officer, he said that that means, fall out means, get out of here and get outside and get lined up. We went outside and it happened to be right at mealtime and he said, this noncommissioned officer, he was a sergeant. He said, “One or two of the corporals here will take you to the...show you where the mess hall is. There you will be eating until further assigned.” And you got into a formation and then he says “Column Right!” and some guy bumped heads turned the wrong way and some did it right. And the meal we had wasn’t a bad meal at all. I liked it. Can’t remember what we had, but I remember eating it all. And after we got through eating we were told to go back to the barracks. And in the afternoon we had some talks. Our training really didn’t get started until the next day. Then they started putting us through some tough training. Short:. And you had to be...we probably had to last for an hour to have ten minutes off. But anyway, I won’t elaborate on this too much because I have quite a bit else I want to talk about. This training at Camp Roberts took six weeks and during this six weeks you never was...You weren’t allowed off the base. You couldn’t go in to town or nothing. Anything you wanted you bought at the PX. But there we were able to buy most all the accessories we needed. All the way from razor blades, tooth paste, beer, pop and candy bar. Huh? G. Short: My wife just said something. I ain’t going to say what it was that made me laugh. And we did have show halls that we could go to on camp. Sometimes they were good, sometimes they weren’t. But on Saturdays...Saturdays and Sundays was the worst days. We never had training those days. We were just more or less on our own. But, you got to do kitchen work. KP, they call it. That’s kitchen police. That’s setting up tables, waiting on tables, doing dishes, peeling potatoes, oh boy! Bushels and bushels of them! And...but the days went by fast and when you weren’t doing any duties like that, you had plenty of time to write letters and get your clothes washed and whatnot. After the training was over, we didn’t leave for Camp Bowie until a few days after we had our training at Camp Roberts. But we left Camp Bowie by troop train and then we were assigned to a unit. My unit was the . . .that I was assigned to was the 815th Tank Destroyer Battalion, Headquarters Company. And we were...Let’s see...I got marked on my notes here, we went to Camp Bowie by troop train, placed in the 815th Tank Destroyer Battalion. And while I was at Camp Bowie, I came home on a furlough. And I don’t know how...I can’t remember just how long I was home on that furlough. H. Short: It was January sometime. We went back. We went down in January because it must have been two weeks in the month of January, 1943. G. Short: It was the first two weeks in January, 1944 and my wife...when we come back off our furlough we lived in Brownwood, Texas. I had to...a little correction to that. My wife’s just mentioned this now that I came home on furlough. H. Short: January. G. Short: That was before we were married. And Harriet came back with me to Brownwood, Texas. I got a three day pass and we went to Fort Worth, Texas and there we got married on February 13, 1943. And we had lots of fun the day we got married. We went out to a night club and had some fun. A lot of good eating while we were on a three day pass. We had a... We went roller skating. And then. . . Our apartment that we had in Brownwood was a one-room apartment, of course. And we were very lucky to get that. And then I don’t know just how long we stayed there cause...That’s not important anyway. But then, my next note is: we left Camp Bowie via troop train to go to Camp Hood on April 1943. And then we went to Killeen, Texas. While we were at Killeen, Texas...Okay, wait just a minute. While I was at Killeen, Texas we moved to Lampasas, Texas. Harriet was with me then. There was quite a few thing. Short: happened there while we were there. Bob Hope and his troop from the California came out. And he put on a show for us. And while we were stationed there, Harriet used to come out to the guest house. They had a guest house there on camp. And I don’t know how...For a certain amount of money you could...just a weekend and I think there was a little charge for it too, for the rooms. No. Harriet said there wasn’t no charge for it. And I can remember one thing especially that happened while she was out there. We had a big parade and I mean a big parade. The parade grounds was a cement, all cement. And it covered acres and acres and acres. And this was at night cause it was too hot to. H. Short: It was dark. G. Short: It wasn’t dark. It was in the evening. It didn’t get dark until eight, nine o’clock then. And I think the parade started at six o’clock or six-thirty, something like that. And we paraded by units, companies, units and battalions and whatnot. And that whole parade ground practically was covered. We all had to pass in review, pass the grandstand with our banners and it was...I guess it must have been something to behold because they had...I guess they had kind of . . Harriet was up in the stands too. I don’t know whether she was...She wasn’t with the big shots, but she was with where the guests could go and watch the soldiers in their parading. And we paraded to music and I had...We were right in step. Then we...One thing we haven’t noticed in particular that when we went by the reviewing stand the sergeant could call out, holler, call out, “Eyes right!” And everybody would turn their heads to the right. Of course, if you didn’t know where your loved one was sitting, it was hard to pick them out because there were so many darn many people. And. Just...but she said...I don’t know. Did you say you seen me? H. Short: I don’t know, really I don’t. G. Short: Harriet said she didn’t know whether she could pick me out or... H. Short: I saw you company, yeah. G. Short: She said we were all a bunch of sourpusses so she didn’t know which one was which. No, I just made that up. And it lasted for about an hour, hour and a half. I’m sure it did. And then afterward, after the parade was over, when we were dismissed, the sergeant said we could do whatever we wanted to for the rest of the evening. So, I beat it over to the guest house. One thing, even the boyfriends or husbands were not allowed to stay in the guest house over night with a friend, girlfriend, boyfriend whatever. Those or you wife. So we just visited for about an hour and then we...I went back to the barracks. So much for that. ______[??303] We left Camp Ivas, I mean Camp Bowie via troop train again. H. Short: Camp Bowie? G. Short: Camp Bowie. Leave Camp Bowie via troop train to...We went to a camp called Camp Ivas near Needles. H. Short: Stop that. Stop that thing. Correct that. G. Short: I’m going to correct that last part. We did not leave Camp Bowie, we left Camp Hood via troop train to go to Camp Ivas near Needles, California where we took more training in the desert. And I mean to tell you that was really a desert out in that area and it was hot. Boy, many a experiences we went out there. We would do things, which we thought it was a bunch of nonsense. But we still was in the . . .I still was in the 815th Tank Destroyer Battalion and we’d be driving right along and all of the sudden they’d call out, “Stop your vehicles!” We stopped out vehicles and there was about eight or ten guys in my truck plus the system driver and myself. I was the driver of this truck. And they’d call out and say, “Start digging a hole cause we’re going to run our trucks into it and so they’re out of sight.” And when you start thinking about what kind of a hole you are going to have to dig to bury a big six by six truck in it. Well we’d get the thing about half dug and they’d tell us, “fill it in again we’re pulling out.” So we’d fill it in. That was just part of maneuvers cause they said that’s what they had to do overseas. So we did what we was told and...But, we didn’t dig...We soon caught on to that. We didn’t dig very fast because we knew that we were going to have to fill it in again. We wouldn’t dig the whole thing. So we just took our times at shoveling. I think the non-coms, non-commissioned officers, they knew what we were doing, but they didn’t say anything. Anyway, that’s what...We did a lot of other things too when we were out on maneuvers. And a lot of night driving, which...That night driving really helped because where we actually got into a battle, fighting, we did a lot of night driving. And driving without lights, you’d say, “How do you dare drive without lights on going up and down the mountains when you had huge drop offs on each side of the road that you could drop off?” Well, actually, it wasn’t completely without lights. We had night lights on our cars, or not cars but trucks. And we would drive by blackout lights too. And the guy in front, which I took to...I did a lot of the leading because the lieutenant in charge, I don’t know why he did, but he picked me a lot to ride with. We would be the first truck down and we had to drive it just was the blackout lights. And the guy behind us would follow us by just ...by watching our lights at the rear end. Huh? No. And many a times you were wondering if you...You had to gage you distance between the truck ahead of you and your truck cause when you came to that certain spot, if you couldn’t see the road very good you had to guess at most of the time and turn where you though he turned. Everybody must have been pretty good at driving because I never heard a tale of anybody going off. End Transcription Interviewee: Gordon Short Interviewer: Patricia Short Date of interview: July 7, 1990 Location: Sabin, MN Category: Autobiographical P. Short: All right. You can take a look at this Dad as I’m going through it so you can have something to refer to. Now I’d like to ask you some questions about when you were growing up and stuff like that. But first, just to get the ball rolling its kind of nice to start with these questions. What would you have been if you could have been anything that you wanted to be? G. Short: If I could have lived my life over again I would have been a dentist. P. Short: Okay. And what did you like or dislike, both if you can remember both ways, about your own folks when you were growing up? Good things and bad things? G. Short: Hmm. Well, I would say Mother was quite impatient, was very patient I mean with us. And she would just the opposite, I think, of a lot of other women. Other women would crack their child right away, but Mother would always say, “No, I’m not going to crack y’all. I’m going to leave it up to Dad when he comes in from the field. I’ll tell him and he can do the cracking.” And most the times he would. Although, I’ve often thought how can a person crack someone for doing something if he didn’t see it and it happened two or three hours or three or four hours ago. But, he always did. Dad for a while, when I was real small I was told was a very gentle and kind man. But, after he had more of us kids it seems like the burden got on his shoulder was more heavy. P. Short: You said that you were told or did you notice it yourself? G. Short: I noticed it myself. P. Short: You noticed the difference? G. Short: I noticed the difference myself. He would be coming... He would be more . . . P. Short: Belligerent I would say. G. Short: Belligerent, I would say yes. And he would do things more so what he wanted to do without taking suggestions from any of us or Mother. I would say that Dad turned...Sometimes I think he thought thinks...I thought he was...He hated life the way it sometimes did. But, most of the time when...One thing when you’re out working on the farm, out in the field, Dad would never be severe with you. And I . . . P. Short: Did he ever talk about he wished he could he of done something or wished, just wished something that had happened different or anything? G. Short: No. No. Its seems like he never turned[??28] the only thing. He . . . H. Short: He was a wonderer. G. Short: He was just...He just took each day at a time. And but, he always seemed to have money. And very seldom would he ever float a loan. Like nowadays, they float loans to, for farming. In the way in the thousands of dollars. Now they just...In them days maybe if Dad went to the bank and got a six hundred dollar loan to put his crop in that would be something. It was bad. Not bad, but that would be the extent of his loans. P. Short: Anything else you can think of? H. Short: One thing, can I add to what Gordon was talking about when his mother waiting for correction, I always heard Dad that was worst than his banking was waiting all day to see if he got it. I thought that was kind of interesting. G. Short: I...The only time I ever...One time when I could still myself, see myself sitting in the kitchen there right next to the cream separator and Dad was telling something and, I don’t know, all the sudden I popped up and said, “How do I know? How can I believe that? I wasn’t living then.” And Dad said, “Are you.... Do you mean to correct... You don’t believe me or something like that. You’re trying to tell me that I’m not right” And until I blurted it out, I never did feel any fear. As soon as I said it that’s when I feared Dad because I knew how...I wouldn’t say Dad was severe when he punished us, but sometime just his talk would...His tongue was worse than his . . .palm of his hand sometimes. P. Short: Okay, let’s move on to the next question. What were your hurts or disappointments? I don’t know exactly what this question means. I guess you can interpret it yourself. What were your hurts or disappointments as a child? I don’t know whether they mean hurts necessarily physically. It could be something that happened to you and it just kind of was a sad thing or disappointed you when you were a kid or something? G. Short: That...I think the only disappointments I can think of is if we had something planned, like to go to an old mill picnic or something like that. Then it rained the night before. I know and we lived out in the country where we didn’t have no gravel roads. Its just muddy roads and I know one of us kids would be out on that road every fifteen minutes to see if it was drying because the sun was out and low about noon most of the time the road would be dry. I was like, Dad, we’d run in and say, “Dad I think we can get the car out and go now. Its dry enough.” And in the afternoon we’d go up to the old mill picnic and they were giving plane rides up there for a dollar a ride. And them days you’d get a plane ride for a dollar. But, who had the dollar? We’d get up there and if Dad was in a good humor he’d give us probably ten or fifteen cents a piece to spend. That’s about all. But, I never...I can’t say that I never . . .that I had very many disappointments in life or hurts. I think my biggest hurt when I was a teenager is at the time my brother Howard drowned cause we were quite close and when I heard that I was out in the field shocking for the fellow that I was working for. And I just had to quit. I just couldn’t pick up a bundle and put it where it was supposed to be. P. Short: You mean somebody came out to the field to tell you guys? G. Short: Mother and Dad was in the car. They’d already had their suitcase packed. They were on their way out to the road to Wilson was it? H. Short: I think it was. P. Short: They were planning a trip. G. Short: No they hadn’t planned a trip they just got a phone call. H. Short: No. They got a call. P.Short: Oh they went because of it, what happened. G. Short: That my brother had drowned. See. H. Short: Yeah he drowned out there. G. Short: And they stopped. They waved me over and told me to come and over to what they had to say. And they told me. And... P. Short: They got it as a phone call or what? G. Short: They got it as a phone call at home. P. Short: Does anybody know exactly what happened? G. Short: Oh, yeah sure. I know we know the extent of his . . . P. Short: Well was he swimming or was he...What was he doing? G. Short: He was swimming right after eating a full meal. He got the cramps. His buddy tried to save him and there was three other girls. They had swam out to the raft that was out in the lake a little bit. And . . . P. Short: So he made it out to the raft? G. Short: He made it out to the raft and I think they were coming back. And when they were coming back they went by . . .They went past the roped off area. It was roped off area the WPA project. And there was a roped off area and they weren’t suppose to go out to the raft. And the girls had swam out to the raft too. I think I’m getting a little ahead of myself here now. The girls that swam out to the raft and Howard and... P. Short: The _______[??] boy was it? G. Short: No. It was the Evans boy. P. Short: Oh yeah. G. Short: It...I can’t think of his name round the spur of the moment. Gene Evans. Gene Evans was his name. They said, “Oh, that’s too short of swim. We’re going to go out, go down the shoreline further so we can have a longer swim. And when he got about two-thirds of the way out to the raft Howard got a . . .caught a cramp. And . . . P. Short: Oh, so he didn’t make it out to the raft? G. Short: No he didn’t make it out to the raft. The girls were out there. And Gene seen what was happening and he tried to get a hold of Howard. And Howard as a drowning person was fighting and splashing his arms all around and in pain I imagine. And he got a hold of Gene and was pulling him down too. Well, only one of the girls could swim real good. So she jumped off the raft and swam out there and she said she seen right away it was a matter of who to save. She had to save one or the other. P. Short: What she actually had to sort of rip them apart? G. Short: She had to rip them apart and when she got them apart she . . .It was Gene that she helped back to the raft instead of Howard. And Howard drown. P. Short: Nobody was mad at her? G. Short: No. H. Short: I don’t think your folks knew the girls anyway did they? G. Short: No, huh-uh. And I think that would be the extent of my hurts or disappointments cause like I said otherwise as a child I really had a very good childhood life. And all I can remember...I like to remember the good parts instead of the bad parts. Like this. P. Short: Okay how did you usually get into trouble? That’s the next question. G. Short: How did I usually get into trouble? I don’t know. That’s a good question. P. Short: You must have had some downfall. Everybody does. They either talk to much or something. G. Short: I had a temper, but not as bad as my brother Howard. My brother Howard used to have a . . . H. Short: You and Howard must have been like your Dad then. G. Short: ...quite the temper. I got into more trouble, you might say, after it was...Not as a child but after I got...After I was grown up and going to dances, come home and get into Mother’s cake pans a lot of times and cookie pans when I shouldn’t have done it. And . . . H. Short: What did you do the time that she almost broke her toe chasing you? G. Short: I suppose...I think I tipped something over in the kitchen and broke a dish. And there was some stuff in it. And so Mother chased me around the house and I crawled out of the bed I noticed one time she kicked at me and kicked the foot of the bed and hurt her foot. H. Short: Oh that’s what she did! P. Short: Well you don’t remember ever tease...being a bully or a tease or anything like that? G. Short: No. I was one of them . . .[laughs] I don’t say it was one of those golden haired boys, that I was a goody-goody. I had my troubles too, just . . . H. Short: Yeah. They used to play chicken with cars too. G. Short: And nowadays if we did that nowadays as we did then, you’d really catch...get into trouble cause you’d be tracking, what’s called tracking in the house in them days. It was common for us to be outside, no shoes on, come walk around the house though. P. Short: Maybe they didn’t have the same kind of flooring or something? H. Short:: Yeah. But that was because you Dad did it! It certainly wasn’t good training. G. Short: Every once in a while we’d get into a little trouble. Come tracking in the house with muddy boots on. Mother didn’t like that. Snow and water is okay, but not mud. That’s about all I can think about. We can go on to the next thing. P. Short: Shoot. There was going to be something else I was going to ask and I can’t remember now! Oh well. Did you ever have a nickname? G. Short: I had a nickname up until I was about I was seven or eight years old. My nickname was Dad. P. Short: That doesn’t make any sense. Can you tell me the story behind this? G. Short: Cause that for...That was the first one . . .one of my first words that I said when I was a baby was “dad, dad, dad,” which is common I think with most babies, but... P. Short: It’s the first syllables they hear. G. Short: Yeah. But I don’t know. And I think Mother and Dad, they didn’t think too much of it until my cousin Ray, Ray Short. He was the one that kind of dabbed that nickname onto me. He said, “When you were a baby you said dad, dad, dad all the time. So we’re going to call you Dad now as a nickname.” P. Short: Anything when you were a teenager? Did any fellow teenagers call you anything? H. Short: Gordy. Gordy. G. Short: Huh? H. Short: They called you Gordy. G. Short: Yeah, Gordy. H. Short: And Shorty. G. Short: Gordy and Shorty. And Flash Gordon. [laughs] H. Short: The kids here called him Flash Gordon when he drove us. G. Short: The girls used to call me a lot better names than that. P. Short: Okay what did you do on a hot summer afternoon? G. Short: Oh boy. When we weren’t shooing mosquitoes out of the house we usually went to...We had a water hole about a mile east of our place. And we used to go down there and take off all of our clothes and go swimming. And when we didn’t do that we were out hunting gophers. We’d take along a pale and traps. And when we got old enough, Dad would allow us to take the gun. And we’d go trapping gophers and hunting...And there was a grove of trees there. We’d go over to where the crows nests were and in them days you could get five cents for a gopher foot, five cents for a crows feet and...No ten cents for crows feet or five cents for crows egg. And we’d always wait until the egg was just eggs hatched. You go up there and get the bird, the young birds and kill them and get the feet off. Get more money off them. P. Short: Did you guys ever have anything like, your Mom ever make anything cold to drink or anything like that? G. Short: Oh yeah. We had koolaids and I can remember when root beer first come on the market. And Mother would buy root beer in packets and boy. Bring it home. And we always had...The only way we could get something cold is put it down in our well. P. Short: That’s what I was wondering. You must either...The only way if you didn’t have ice cubes, you either have to go well or spring or something. G. Short: And we had a well that flowed all the time. And it was full nearly right up to the top and Mother had, in order to put the things in a pale so it would be cold, she also had to put weights in it. Or if she...Now in them days, they use a lot of gallon cans. A lot of gallon pales. And you’d put something in a pale there and weight it down and then put it down in the water. P. Short: So it would be sealed? Whatever you going to have to drink would be sealed so it doesn’t get water in it. H. Short: Well, they never put it in the water that far. G. Short: No. Like when she picks up a . . .I don’t know if this thing is catching anything I’m saying or not, but it...You know, when you mixed that stuff up you had to...you more or less put it in a jar. She...I have one out in the shed here now, one of them great big jars. I found it in the woods one time and I thought I was going to save it. Its about that big around and about that high. I think its what they call a quart and a half sealer, which you don’t hardly see nowadays. They were a little bit smaller than a pickle jar or something like a pickle jar that you have even that they have on shelves nowadays. And they come up, oh they’re about like that. They stand up about that high. And that’s what we’d have our cool drinks in. P. Short: Okay, What were you afraid of? I guess that means when you were young. Was there anything you were afraid of like the Boogie man or anything? G. Short: No. We never . . . P. Short: Afraid of the dark? Afraid of small spaces? G. Short: I wasn’t afraid of the dark or I wasn’t afraid of no Boogie man stories. I can’t say . . P. Short: Were you ever afraid your parents would be too poor because of the Depression or that you would lose your home or your farm? Or your parents would divorce? Afraid of anything? G. Short: No. In them days, I don’t think kids ever thought of divorces. And its true we...I was raised in the Depression years, but I never knew what it was to be hungry. We always had three square meals a day. We always had lunch in between and . . . H. Short: Everybody in the farm . . . G. Short: Everybody. We raised most of our food. Mother would go into town with maybe 24 dozen of eggs in a cream can. And she’d get all the groceries she wanted to. And no, I think I was very fortunate to live when I did. And even if a lot of people in the cities said they, in them years, it was hard going. But, I can’t ever think of us ever...I suppose for what we had then, according to today’s standards, we were real poor folks and probably we were. But, I never thought of poverty. I never thought of being poor. And I think we just lived one day to another. I just appreciate everything my folks done for us. P. Short: Okay we’ll have to skip the next one then cause I had down: Do you have any of those same fears today? But evidently you didn’t have any, so. Okay. What has been...Now this is talking about your entire life now. What have been your greatest disappointments? Is there anything you wish you hadn’t done or you wished you would have done? Or you wish you could do over? Or whatever. G. Short: Well, every once in a while, I personally think, well if I had to live my life over again I sure do things different, But, I think my . P. Short: I mean did you think.... G. Short: . . .career would have been different, like I’ve said before. I could of...I would have been something else had a better profession than what I did go into. And another thing is: I think when I come back from the service I would have finished my high school education...I would have went to high school and got a high school education because my...Like we talked about this when we was out to Montana. Robert, I think he only went through two grades of high school and then even when he was working on the railroad he took a correspondence course and he finished his last two years. H. Short: Gordon, I want to interrupt you. He was in his senior year when he got expelled from school cause McIntosh. He wouldn’t behave himself. G. Short: Okay. And just found out the truth on that. P. Short: Okay anyway was the...Did you have any disappointments as far as...I don’t know...As far as your plans here at home or with your kids or anything else? G. Short: No. I think everything went well with my work. P. Short: Would you have like to have had a son, for instance? We know you didn’t, but would you have liked to? G. Short: I think that was a disappointment when we lost our first child. Our first child was a boy and so I think...I used to cry. I cry some because when I would think of that because I think I blamed myself for it, losing the child. H. Short: You don’t want to do that. G. Short: And Harriet says I shouldn’t do that because...I think if I hadn’t taken my...I had some time off from the Army when...And I was out on the eight or nine day pass what you call it. And so I had my wife Harriet come out there and she was pregnant at the time and they were just ready to give her a baby shower at the time that I called. And this had to be canceled and I felt that her traveling out there probably caused the baby to be born the way it was. And so, it died. And it’s buried out there in Needles, California now. P. Short: Was the baby premature when it was born or was it full-term when it was born? H. Short: No it was premature. P. Short: It was premature? H. Short: But I think to . . . P. Short: Too much so? H. Short: No, it was long enough. I think that if I’d have been here, I think the baby...They didn’t even try to make that baby live. Gordon, you know that! G. Short: Yeah. P. Short: So you think that if . . . H. Short: The baby... Now other people that we’ve talked to said they have never heard of a dry birth. Its completely dry. P. Short: Oh I have. H. Short: Yeah. And see the other Doctor Wallis and Grandma said that they felt if I carried it full-term, I probably would have been enough fluid to have had the baby. But, both Dr. Wallis and Grandma feel that that baby, if they’d have...If I’d have been here, they would of saved it. Those people felt that its feet wasn’t right. Well it had sat, in the womb, on its feet so that the heels were pushed up into the legs. P. Short: So it had been dry for a while? H. Short: Sure! And the feet was just like it had this front part of the feet. Well, those dumb idiots didn’t know that hey could bend the foot out and bring the heel out. Grandma and them knew all that stuff. Some of those doctor didn’t know their A from a hole in the ground. P. Short: So it wasn’t a still birth? H. Short: No. P. Short: The baby was alive right up until that time? H. Short: They didn’t even try to make that baby live. It was a blue baby and Dad says well it was all dark. Well sure, if the cord was wrapped around its neck and so that’s what a blue baby is. P. Short: Sounds like pretty ignorant people? H. Short: They were ignorant. G. Short: Harriet were you checked by the doctor before our baby was born out there? Was the baby living? He must have been...The baby must have been living when it was born? H. Short: Sure. I just got through saying that! You ought to remember they said that they didn’t...they told you they didn’t think they should make the baby live because they didn’t think it had normal feet. It did have normal feet! P. Short: Well, if that’s the criteria for somebody living, that’s pretty pathetic! H. Short: Damn right it is! P. Short: My Lord! H. Short: Cause I explained it to Dr. Wallis the way it was a she told me those feet were there, all the feet were there. All they had to do was push it out like this. If your foot was like this and you were leaning on it. As a baby the bones are soft. They can mold them. G. Short: Is this being recorded? P. Short: Yeah. H. Short: They can mold those feet and the heel can be pushed right back into the foot. Even club footed babies, Gordon, can be straightened out at the time of birth! G. Short: Okay, let’s continue. P. Short: Okay. Let’s see. How have you handled them. What have you learned from them, what made you learn. Okay, the next question has to do with our last question so try and remember what you said. Says, How have you handled your disappointments? What have you learned from them that you would like, you know, your own kids, like me to learn from? Is there anything...Like for instance, you said you would like to have had a different career. So in other words, would you say, in other words, for an example that it’s important when you’re young enough to make the best effort you can to do what you’d like to do._____[??253] for instance . . . G. Short: Well, I think at the time I was really too young to make my own decisions when I come out of eight grade cause when I come out of eighth grade see I was . . . H. Short: Mention you were going to be a dentist too. G. Short: No I wasn’t...Let’s see P. Short: Yeah. Fifteen, sixteen that would be about right. Fifteen, sixteen, yeah. G. Short: Sixteen. I was sixteen in March. And I come out. I graduated in May. H. Short: He must have been awful dumb. G. Short: Eighth is sixteen. No wait. Sixteen . . . H. Short: Gordon, you would have been fourteen when you graduated from this eighth grade. G. Short: Well you see, I was . . .Yeah, I would have been fourteen plus. H. Short: That’s right. G. Short: When I come out. And at that time, all I could think about, oh boy, I’m through school. I don’t have...I can stay home on the farm now and do farm work and I don’t have to go to school anymore. P. Short: Didn’t the teachers at that time ever encourage you? G. Short: They didn’t push it. No. P. Short: That’s not good H. Short: Gordon, you should explain to Trisha why you were weren’t encouraged. There were no school buses. If you went to school you had to be put in town on a board and room basis and most people did not have the money to put their kids at board and room. G. Short: Yeah. P. Short: So in other words, the school were you’d been going to up until that time didn’t go any further than that. H. Short: No. It was a country school. Little one room school house. G. Short: My brother Howard went to high school. I didn’t. H. Short: If you were lucky like you mother was to live in town where there was a school then you’d go to school. P. Short: If you could live your life over again...Now some of this is you’ve sort of covered, so I don’t know why they have this question here. But, if you had your life to live over again what would you do differently? G. Short: Well, I explained a lot of that already. I think maybe I was always told by Harriet that I didn’t take my rightfully place as a parent when the kids were growing up. That I wasn’t strict enough in discipline. I think maybe I should have done that, but...Like she said, I was gone so much of the time that when I did come home I would baby the kids too much. P. Short: I can’t blame you for that. G. Short: And . . . H. Short: No. That’s why I never stopped him from doing it. G. Short: And I think... H. Short: Sharon and Betty never saw him all week long. G. Short: And I think that when I look back and see what other people did and how they lived, I think I would have wanted to travel more with my family than what I did. We went so little and did things as a family. And although, I know other people around the country here that’s done the same thing now. H. Short: Tell the reason why you didn’t. G. Short: Alfred Loer. They were in the same way. They said they couldn’t go anyplace when they had their kids at home because we had to...I was a person that...I was more dedicated to the family than I was dedicated to traveling and I believed in...I took pride in my place. I liked to keep my place up. Keep it painted. Keep the grass cut and I wanted to keep food on the table. And instead of tobacco and everything like that... H. Short: Heavens to Betsy! You have been lucky if you’d have went anyplace. You couldn’t go anyplace. You had to have food and clothing and shelter. G. Short: That’s what I was saying. I had to have food on the table H. Short: He didn’t have money to go anyplace. G. Short: And I didn’t want to owe my life to the banker in borrowing money. A lot of people in them days took trips and everything on borrowed money and worked their selves off . . . H. Short: I’ll tell you what they did it on. Some of the mothers went out and worked. I stayed home and stayed where I belonged. G. Short: Yes. We were a very fortunate family in that way that I was the only bread winner. And we were fortunate enough that I could make as much as I did. And I appreciated what Harriet did in staying home. When she does do it...When she did choose to go out and work, it wasn’t because she had to. It was just because she wanted to have a change of life I guess. Instead of being in the house all the time she went out to work. P. Short: Okay, who was your best, best, best friend when you were growing up? Did you have one particular person that stands out? G. Short: I had two. I had two if I may put two in there. One was Lawrence Marek. You know how to spell that? P. Short: Huh-uh. G. Short: You know how to spell Lawrence Marek? M-A-R-E-K. P. Short: Okay. G. Short: And the other one was Howard Filipi, F-I-L-I-P-I. And favorite games now, would that would be games when I was a child? Or games after I grew up? P. Short: Both. Well mostly we’re talking about young people. Young people G. Short: [Laughs] I knew I’d catch you on that one! H. Short: Post office I suppose. G. Short: No. We...In school of course in dry weather it was baseball. We called it wasn’t kitten. It was more a kitten ball than baseball in them days. And what was this game called may I? P. Short: Captain may I? I played that. G. Short: That was a game and stealing sticks. That as another game we played in school. And well I tell you there wasn’t much of a variety you could do with. P. Short: Okay. Did you have any favorite toy? Do you remember a toy that you used to really like or a blanket or a stuffed animal or a toy engine or soldier or a little car or anything? G. Short: I had little cars that’s what I . The little cars and you could, I suppose what could be added on to that favorite toy was an instrument, a little instrument you . . .that I got for Christmas. P. Short: What was that? G. Short: A harmonica. P. Short: Well you couldn’t really cuddle up to a car or a harmonica though. When you were real little didn’t you have anything that you took to bed with you? G. Short: No. P. Short: Not really? G. Short: No P. Short: Just went to bed? H. Short: Not when you slept eight in a bed! P. Short: Cuddle up with each other I guess! G. Short: [Laughs] No. H. Short: They put three at the top and three at the bottom. P. Short: Yeah. G. Short: And what special place did you like to play in or go? P. Short: Yeah. Did you have a fort? Or a grove of woods? Or . . . G. Short: We didn’t have...We lived on section one there and Dad planted some trees after a few years, but when we first moved there we never had a not a stick or a stone, you might say. There wasn’t a tree on the place. Not one tree, not even a bush. P. Short: When you went into town, did you have any special place you used to go to? I mean, was there a soda shop or a dance hall or something? G. Short: Oh. You bet ya! In them days they them soda fountains and you could buy them dixie cups for a nickel And for a nickel more they’d put topping on it. P. Short: What town were you near at that time? G. Short: Warren, Minnesota. P. Short: That was Warren, okay. G. Short: And you know when I was a teenager we moved up to McIntosh. We’d have a...They had a drug store there that had a soda fountain in it. And you could buy any kind of ice creams, dips or sodas or floats or whatever you wanted. One special place where we liked to play when I was . . .is in the hayloft. When we was on the farm we liked to play in the hayloft because there was a lot of hay up there and there was a lot of ropes to shimmy up and down [Laughs]. H. Short: Yeah. You want me to tell her why you shimmied up and down the ropes? Just like Danny used to do on the table leg here. P. Short: Yep. I figured that. What is your earliest memory? G. Short: Oh Gosh. I suppose I could remember back when I was...Let’s see...Yeah, I must have been about three years old, a little better than three years old when the misses...I was three in March and I think we went out to Seattle. We went out to Seattle, Washington. After . . .In the spring of the year after we got nice weather. You know, its funny, what the very first thing I can ever remember that happened to me, is my brother Howard taught me how to tie my own shoes. Then when we got out to Seattle, I remember . . . P. Short: That was before you went to Seattle? H. Short: On the way. G. Short: On the way out to Seattle, we used to sit in the back seat there and Mother would say, “Put your shoes on! Howard, show him how to tie his shoes.” And Howard showed me. Finally after a while I learned how to tie my own shoes and . . . P. Short: You went by car? G. Short: Yeah. H. Short: Model T. G. Short: An old Model T. And we got out there, I remember the place where we lived was way up on a hill. And on this hill...The only way to get up that hill is...In them days, you didn’t have cement sidewalks. You had wood sidewalks. You’d have cleats in them. You know, the side walk would be oh, say about that wide and then they had to have a cleat to the wood about every eight or ten inches apart. P. Short: Yeah. I know what you mean. G. Short: So to get a grip on it. And we walked up and down that a good many times. And if you ever took a wagon or a bicycle or a tricycle on them things, you’d go thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump. P. Short: How long were you out there? Couldn’t have been very long. G. Short: No. I don’t think we stayed out there much over a year, year and a half because we come back and...Oh, while I was out there, I remember rolling car tires down a hill into a colored family’s home. And some of our tires went right in the house. The door was open and it went right in. And when we come back, we...I wasn’t five. I was... Must have been...We lived in McIntosh a while and then we moved down to Grundy’s. And I didn’t...I wanted to go to school I know, but then I . . . P. Short: When did you live in Warren? It must have been after you went to Seattle then? Or lived by Warren, I mean... H. Short: Oh heavens yes! G. Short: Oh yes. When we come back from Seattle I was between...I was a little over four years old, four and half years old because when we come back to McIntosh we stayed there that winter. And at...I was five at McIntosh. Then the fall, the summer we moved down to stayed with my Uncle Grundy’s. And I remember as soon as I hit my sixth birthday on the 14th of March, I told Mother, “I’m six years old now and I can go to school!” But they wouldn’t let me got o school because see, this was March and it was too close to the closing of the school year. They wouldn’t let me start, but boy I was all ready to go. I wanted Mother to pack my lunch too and I wanted to go, but I couldn’t go. P. Short: I can see why you though you were fifteen then cause if you started school on the fall after...If you were six, you would have turned seven in first grade then. H. Short: Yeah, but he still would have been fourteen out of eighth grade. G. Short: Yeah, see I was . . . H. Short: My birthday’s in March and I knew I was fourteen when I got out of the eighth grade. P. Short: Yeah. G. Short: Now what was you happiest moments? P. Short: Yep. That’s the last one. G. Short: As a child or as a . . .? P. Short: Well both. You can give me both. Child first. G. Short: Gosh. Let’s see. I have to think for a bit on that. P. Short: Was there some time when you were a kid when you got a gift that you really wanted or a surprise gift or a surprise or something good happened to you? I don’t know. G. Short: Well my...I think my happiest moments was when I would . . .when Dad and Mother would say, “We’re either going to send you,” which they did a couple of times, “or we’re going to take you up to McIntosh to see my Grandma and Grandpa Sannes.” I just loved that place and I really had a good, happy times up there. And . . . P. Short: What was so great about it? G. Short: Well, they’d put me in a ...They’d take me out in the field, put me on a wagon, when I was real small, and told me, “ Alright now when we’re picking potatoes and you’ll...We call to you, bring the horses forward. You say giddy up. And the horses will start up and they’ll walk down the row. You don’t even have to drive them, but you can hold on to the lines anyway,” which I did. And they’d dump their pales of potatoes in the wagon. Well, pretty soon, I got built up higher and higher and higher because at first I could hardly look over the top of the wagon. Like this...you know, have them eyes like this. Pretty soon, I kept building up, building up, building up and I was up to my knees. And one time I thought I would be a little cocky. And they told them bring the horses forward. I had seen my uncles do this. I took a line and snapped it over the wagon, hit one of the horses when I did that. As I did that I fell off the wagon. Right down in front. My...I don’t know if you know what a kingpin . . . P. Short: Yeah, I know. You take it out and its what attaches the . . . G. Short: Your double trees, your double trees. Alright. My head hit there and I rolled underneath the wagon and I landed up like this and the wagon wheel just scraped the back of my head. I then over this arm. And that’s why. Look how straight this one is. Look how crooked this one is. P. Short: What did you do though, to start the whole thing that you did wrong? H. Short: He slapped the horses with the reins. G. Short: I slapped the horses on the butt and they started . . . P. Short: With the reins? G. Short: With the lines. They called them lines. P. Short: Yeah. But that’s what you mean. The . . . G. Short: And they started up with a jerk and that’s what caused it. And of course, they would have started running and trotting, but my uncle was close by and he grabbed a hold of the bridal and stopped them. And of course, they picked me up and took me into the house and Grandpa took me to the doctor to see if what was wrong, if anything was wrong. They pronounced me okay and just told me to take it easy for a little bit and I can remember the best part of it all. Grandpa took me up to the store and he bought me a dime, either a nickel or a dime’s worth of pink and white peppermints. And boy, that was the best medicine in the world. H. Short: Grandpa’s pink peppermints. G. Short: Grandpa’s pink peppermints. But he more or less stuck to white peppermints. But he asked me, “What kind do you want?” I said, “I want white and pink.” [Laughs]. P. Short: So are you saying that you think that you arm could have been fixed if they had had a doctor see to it? G. Short: I can’t remember them doing anything, but that’s definitely a cause from that. Although, my arm has never giving me any trouble. H. Short: Did you tell her this is Grandpa and Grandma Sannes you were talking about? G. Short: Yeah, Grandpa and Grandma Sannes. I don’t know if the cause of my right arm being like this is a cause of me being left handed. I can’t. I’m left handed in most ways. I can eat left handed. I can write left handed. I can throw left handed. I can’t even throw twenty feet and hit a barn with my right hand. P. Short: How old did you say you were then? G. Short: Yeah. Five years old. P. Short: I can’t believe that they would trust you the five year old kid up in a wagon like that. G. Short: Oh yeah. Well they figured, he can’t fall out. H. Short: He was five and half really. Cause if you were digging potatoes it’d be way in the fall of the year. G. Short: Yeah. P. Short: Did you have anybody when you were young who was a real encourager, you know? Some body that really encouraged you or told you that you could be whatever you want to be, that you’re a good person, whatever? G. Short: My cousin Ray. Ray Short. I worked for him ever since I was about nine or ten years old. I would go out and herd sheep and cattle and he . . . P. Short: He’s your cousin you say? G. Short: Yeah. P. Short: Cousin Ray. G. Short: Yeah. And he always give me encouragements. You know, and he says Dad...He said, “Don’t forget that you should have more schooling.” He said...He always told me, he said, “You should have never quit.” When I got so I was old enough when I graduated from the eighth grade and went out to work for him he said, “Dad, you should never quit school. You should have went on to high school. You should have went on to high school.” But of course, when I was nine or ten years old when I worked out there for him, he always told me, he said, “I never went on to school, but you should go on to school.” He said, “You can be anything you want to.” And I can remember when I’d go out herding sheep. And this would be on horseback. We had a regular cowboy saddle. He’d shorten up the straps so that my foot would fit in them. And he...for a few mornings he would make my lunch, then I knew what to fix. I don’t know what I’d take for drinking water. I’ll be darned if I can know that now. P. Short: You said he made you lunch for a few mornings and then you did. Well are you living at his place when you’re doing this? G. Short: Oh yeah, I was staying with him. Shucks when I come in from the herding sheep, I would help him milk cows. I was nine or ten years old and you would milk cows. And peanut butter and honey sandwiches, oh how I loved them! And you know, its funny, I used to eat many when I was a kid, but I still love them. P. Short: Now if you were able to help him at that age, why didn’t you Dad have you stay home and help him? G. Short: Because, it seemed like whenever Ray needed me, just like Gale[??]525 at the time he needed someone to help when I come up here and I met your mother. Dad would never...Dad would let us stay at home and when we got through working some place, you set your suitcase down in you bedroom, hung up your clothes and you put on your work clothes if you didn’t already have them on. And you’d go right outside and pitch in and work. He would never stop you from going out because we . . Dad always knew he had to many at home. He. . . P. Short: So another words, Ray didn’t have enough and you Dad had too many. So your Dad didn’t mind you borrowing you guys out to the family. G. Short: No. That’s right! And when...I can...He could come over and get me any time he wanted to. And I’d got to work for him. Ray wasn’t the . . . P. Short: Was he a single person at this time? G. Short: Oh yeah, he was single at the time. You know, I was . . . P. Short: How...What difference in age? How much...What age would he be? G. Short: Oh gosh he must have been at least ten or fifteen years older than I or more. P. Short: So he was in his twenties and you were just a little boy? G. Short: Yeah. He was probably in his middle twenties or latter twenties. And I would, you know believe it or not, I was only eleven or twelve years old. And Ray would never go out...Unlike his brother Harry, Ray would go out sometimes and go out on a toot, get drunk. Not actually get drunk, but I think he, more or less, was out with a girl. And he would stay overnight and go to . . . P. Short: Okay, I think you can talk. G. Short: How many kids now a days between the age of eleven, twelve or thirteen years old would assume responsibility of taking, doing your chores in the evening, feeding the cows and the sheep, milking, doing the milking, separating? And then in the morning, he, my cousin, if he wasn’t back yet. I’d go out and do all the chores, throw a set of harness on the team of horses, hook on to the _____sled [??563] and clean out the barn and do all that. It’d take me a little bit longer than an adult, but I would do all the chores like that and then I would do chores… P. Short: Did you just do this for...because you Dad said to help him and you get your board and room or did you ever get earning money on top of it all? G. Short: I got my board. Yes. I worked for, one time there, I worked for about three to four weeks and when he went to take me home, I could tell he was fidgeting in his pocket. He always had loose change in his pocket, Ray did. And I knew he, I could tell he was probably counting the coins. I got paid for them three or four weeks over there. I got paid a dollar and a quarter. H. Short: Isn’t that great! G. Short: All them days. Twenty-one days . . . P. Short: What would a regular have earned in them days. Made more than that for that amount of time? G. Short: For probably a dollar a day. P. Short: So he was underpaying you? G. Short: Oh good God, yes. H. Short: A little bit. G. Short: I even worked out in the hay field when it was out in the summertime. I mowed. I raked hay and I pitched hay and stacked hay and everything else, just like a grown up. But in them days, we always had such a good rapport with one another. And that we got along so darn good that I think that’s why he took advantage of me because I just liked to be around Ray and he... H. Short: Ray is dead now. G. Short: I wish I could have been around when he P. Short: When did he die? Not that long ago right? H. Short: A couple years ago. G. Short: Yeah. I wish I could have been around him more because I think I would have learned more than I would have learned from my Dad. P. Short: That Ray isn’t his first name as a cowboy or something that Dad was talking about? G. Short: No it was Grundy that was that. And if I had been around Ray more, he probably would have showed me how to do things more than Dad did. Like I said, I’m not mechanically inclined now. I never was because Dad didn’t never let us kids fix anything. If anything broke, he’d tell us to go do something that we knew how to do and he’d do the fixing. And . . . P. Short: How is this Ray related to you again? G. Short: He’s my Uncle’s boy. Uncle Grundy’s boy. P. Short: Oh! G. Short: I don’t know if you know anything about cowboy. When we were little kids, my Uncle Grundy, he went out to and he worked. He was one of the last of the cowboys that worked on Big Foot [??587] Ranches. There used to be a ranch out, down in Texas called, Hundred and One. I think its was a Hundred and One Ranch. And he worked on that ranch and he did everything and anything. He punched cattle. He branded cattle and well he was a regular typical cowboy and he was good with a rope. I remember one time when we come back. He ‘d come back for a short while and for a visit. And then he went back again. But while he was home he showed us a lot lassoing techniques. And he had four of us run abreast. Not abreast, yeah abreast. And he . . All the time we were running we were close to him all the time we were running. He had that lasso going like that. And he caught. . . At the first throw, he got us all in that loop and stopped us. Now he said, “If you’ll all run and be sure that your feet coordinate. Your right foot or left foot all lefty. We started running and we practiced for a little bit til our left foot or right foot would go out in front. We ran and started swinging that loop and all of the sudden it just zipped out and got, caught all four of us. P. Short: All four of one foot? G. Short: All four of one foot. P. Short: Yeah. G. Short: Now that’s a trick! P. Short: Yeah. That’s quite the timing. Yep. Okay well, I’m kind of done with this sheet. Oh wait a minute. One more question. I knew there was another one. Can you think of the saddest moments in your life? That’s the last one. I guess you covered some of that already. You said one of the saddest things was when your brother drowned. G. Short: Yeah. P. Short: I guess there probably anything else you haven’t covered. G. Short: Let’s see. I think there was a lot of sad things when I was in the service, but you know, there’s a difference being in the service an seeing someone killed or and dying right. P. Short: I guess you kind of expect it when you’re in war. G. Short: Yeah. I seen a lot of sad things in the. . . What was the topic[??610] of the question now? P. Short: Well never mind Dad, but you know you hear some people talk about in war, sometimes you see innocent people hurt. I mean, did you guys ever run into any civilians that were caught in the crossfire that should never have been hurt? G. Short: No. You heard...Very seldom you heard anything like that. H. Short: In World War II, I don’t think you did. G. Short: In World War II, especially in the South Pacific, you might of over in the other area. What was the other area called? H. Short: Atlantic. G. Short: Atlantic. P. Short: Yeah. European theater. H. Short: European theater, yeah. G. Short: European theater yeah. I think there was a lot of innocent people killed over there because of the bombings, but not for in the war theater in the . . . P. Short: So you guys never ran into the thing where you’d be going by a village and you’d see kids or women or anything? G. Short: No. P. Short: Never? H. Short: The only time there was when they dropped the A bomb. And they wouldn’t have seen that. That was over in Japan. P. Short: Yeah. G. Short: I seen a lot of death. P. Short: So the Filipino people, they would evacuate war zone areas so they were way out of the fighting? G. Short: Very little fighting that there was in these little hamlets, that they call it that the Filipinos have. P. Short: Okay, well is there anything else that you want to add. I can’t think of any other questions. These are pretty darn good questions, these ones I have here. G. Short: No. P. Short: Well I’ll tell you what, I’ll stop this. Remainder of tape (not transcribed) contains Patricia Short and unidentified family members discussing family history. End Transcription Interviewee: Gordon Short Interviewer: Narrative Date of interview: Unknown Location: Unknown Category: WWII This is Gordon short speaking. I have been asked by my three daughters, Sharon Hannaford of Darien, Illinois, Betty Thorsvig of Glyndon, Minnesota, Patricia Lewis of Sabin, Minnesota to do my war memoirs and my experiences in World War II. At my departure from East Grand Forks, Minnesota to my induction point to my training center while in the States. My war time experiences in the South Pacific, which includes New Guinea, Leyte and Luzon of the Philippines and occupational duties in Japan. Then back to the States, my discharge and back to my loved ones again. I have a lot to be thankful for even though at that period of my life I was not a Christian, but I know Jesus as His father, my Lord and God. For reasons, I might think of several, he brought me through many of trials and battles while we were on the front lines. Enough of the summary, now down to the real stuff. Some parts there will be laughter and some there will be real . . .it will be real emotional. I got my greetings from the President in March of 1942 and I left East Grand Forks, Minnesota April, 1942 by bus along with a large group of men my age or so. We were driven to our destination, induction center at Fort Snelling, Minnesota and was processed rapidly and sworn in to the military service. We had to take off all of our civilian clothes and put on our military clothes. By the way, while I was on my way to the post office to ship home my clothes as we were told how to salute an officer. I met an officer and I had both my hands full so I set the bag I was carrying in my right hand down and saluted the officer. He returned the salute, then said, “Soldier, I know you must be new in the service as I can tell by what you are on your way to do. You do not have to salute anyone when you have both hands full. Just greet the officer by saying good day sir. And that is sufficient” He was very nice and we had our old chat. And then we both went on our way. We were at Fort Snelling but a short while. Then shipped out by troop train to Camp Roberts, California. This was a very large, beautiful camp and clean. On the troop train we had it very good. Good food, the weather was fine. I got my share of kitchen duty. KP it was called in the military service. Yes, it took us two or three days to get to our destination. Of the fun times was when we stopped in town along the way. Boy, there sure was a lot of young girls out to greet us and plenty of Red Cross ladies giving out milk, cookies, coffee and rolls. Real great! Upon reaching our destination, we were taken off the train and loaded into Army trucks. Six by sixes they called them then. They were called and we were driven to our camp right by our barracks and unloaded and lined up to be dismissed and taken to out barracks and assigned by our sergeants and corporals where we were to stay in which barracks and which beds. When that was finished we were called to the mess hall for a beautiful six course meal. Ha-ha! It wasn’t bad at all though. Our basic training was for six weeks and we had training on how to march, use of rifles and live ammo, hand grenade throwing and use of small arms and what position to be in when we ______[??40], also training with bayonets, which were attached to our rifles and small knives we used in hand to hand battle. Going through the obstacle course was the hardest training, especially when you had to go over six or eight feet walls with a full pack that weighs fifty to sixty pounds on your back. For night training we had to go under barbed wire with a full pack on a crawl. Keeping down low while a .50-caliber machine gun, being manned by an officer, firing live ammo right above us. We had to keep down low or get shot. Some fun aye? There were some times after we finished supper we were told not to leave the barracks or camp grounds. On account there was going to be...The was going to be a special exercise that evening, but would not say just what. Shortly after we would be told to pack a field pack for a twenty-five mile night march after dark. We got several of these trips and sometimes it was doing a fast walk, double time, a trot and so forth around the parade grounds. This went on for two hours or better. Boy, you sure was ready for the showers when we were dismissed. On the weekends when we were in training, we had to stay in camp doing KP duty for ourselves or for someone else who had training over with from another area, but we got paid for these persons for filling in for them. When we off duty we could go to the PX or just bum around camp, going to the movies, write letters or play cards. This camp was sort of down in the valley and the hillside around it was beautiful, green trees, grass and flowers. I would go up to the...on the hillside, under the trees and take along some potato chips, a bottle or two of soda pop and write letters to Harriet and my folks and some other friends. I’m going to proceed on now as I have a lot more to write about and I cannot write too much in one sitting. I have only three pages done now and I just got started on my memoirs. We left Camp Roberts, California in the summer of 1942. Either June or July and went to Camp Bowie, Texas by troop train. And we were placed in the 815th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Camp Bowie was situated on the outskirts of Brownwood, Texas. After some additional training there, I received a few days furlough and went back home to see Harriet and my folks. When I returned to camp from my furlough, I brought Harriet back with me. This was in January 1943. She found a room in Brownwood, Texas until February 13, 1943 I got a special pass and we went to Fort Worth and was married on that date. While we were stationed at Camp...at this camp, Harriet got a job as a telephone operator in this town. She had experience at this work when she worked up in Bemidji, Minnesota. So this company was glad to get her. When I had time off we would go for strolls, roller skating, movies and so forth. Sure can have a lot of fun in a lot of nothing...on almost nothing when you are in love and as young as we were then. We moved from Camp Bowie to Camp Hood, Texas either in April or May, 1943. This camp was at Killeen, Texas. Here we received some extensive training. We had some hard training and some fun times also. While we were stationed there Harriet met a fellow worker at the telephone company by the name of Oleen January. She was a single girl and we became friends with her. One day Oleen and Harriet decided to go out and picnic on my day off. So we had to find a companion for our friend Oleen. And I knew a young single fellow in camp and I told him if you wanted to go on a blind date picnic. He jumped at the chance as he had never been away from home and was terribly lonesome. H. Short: Gordon forgot to mention that I stayed at Lampasas, Texas. I had moved down there via train and found a place to live. And I went to the telephone office there and got a job at Lampasas in the telephone company too. And this is how I met Oleen. Oh. This young man had never been around many young girls before. So when the day came, he came into town on the camp bus and we all went down to this river bank and placed our picnic baskets on the ground. Well, the girls went out for a short walk. We started a fire for the cooking, not paying too much attention in where we started the fire. Soon afterwards...After we started the fire, we started to itch and wondered why. We had built our fire over an ant hill. They really were swarming around the fire trying to get away from it. So we had a real good laugh over that. Sure moved to another spot in a hurry, you can bet your life on that! We finished out the day without any further unpleasant incidents happening. This young fellow went back to camp the same evening and I stayed and went back to camp early on Monday morning. We had other experiences while in this camp, but were just general routine things. While at Camp Hood, in Killeen we had a few spectacular things happen at the entertainment center. We had a troop of celebrities come out to our camp to entertain the troops. We saw Bob Hope and his troop and others too. And start...And I forgot their names already as it has been fifty-three years ago now, but they sure put on a good show. This camp had a very large parade ground and on one evening, we put on a parade show for the public to come in and watch, like our girlfriends or wife or other friends. My wife, Harriet said it really was a beautiful sight to see. Thousands of soldiers marching, everyone doing the same thing. At this camp they had a large guest house where the ladies could come and stay overnight for free. The only stipulation was that the menfolks could not stay at the guest house overnight. After the parade, we were dismissed and I went to the guest house for an hour or so and I went back to my barracks for a good night’s sleep. While at this camp, we had some more training, of course, and lots of recreation and fun times. Yes, we really had fun times. Although, lots of young fellows away from home for the first time really got home sick and could not... And when they did not have to do training whatsoever, they would lie on their bunks and just read or day dream. By the way, I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned what time we had to go to bed and what time we had to get up. We had taps at ten o’clock, ten p.m. and lights out. In the morning was reveille by bugler at five o’clock. We had thirty minutes to get out of bed, make it up, sweep under your bed, scrub under your bed, wash up, shave and get ready for breakfast by six a.m. We learned now to make a good bed, tight bed. When the top blanket is tight enough so that when you toss a quarter on it it will bounce, then its good enough. We did all this before drill time and inspection time at seven a.m. In the same period of time we ate breakfast too, also. At most camps we had a rifle range training with live ammo. It was a tedious training, but fun also. We had hand grenades throwing, bayonet practice, not on the rifle range of course. One day I had a pretty good shooting, hitting targets up to 300 and 500 yards, but that was my lucky day as I never was that consistent. As I never was that consistent. When we received notice that we were going to Camp Ivas, out on the desert, near Needles, California. Harriet and I decided that she should go home as it would cause an inconvenience to both of us if she would stay. Shortly after she went home, our outfit or battalion left by troop train for Camp Ivas, which was a few miles out of Needles, California. We had a large tent that we lived in. There was about six or eight of us fellows in each tent. As usual while on our trip we passed through many a towns and had fun talking briefly with the civilians, had plenty to eat and nothing else to do but play cards and so forth. We had more training out on the desert. And a few times when we were on maneuvers we were told to halt our trucks and start digging a hole to bury our truck. And as I was truck driver then we would have to...We had to hole dug about half way. There was about six or eight of us fellows attached to my truck and we would be told to drive the truck into the hole, which I did. And then we would get orders to back it out and fill the hole up yet again, but what nonsense. During this time of doing what we were told to do, it was hotter than blazes out. Perhaps around ninety-five to one hundred degrees above zero. My rank at this time was a T-5 or Corporal. We drivers made several trips into town driving officers for mail, supplies and so forth. We drove six by six, command cars and jeeps. We were not suppose to pick up or take a girlfriend or wife for a ride also. One time I did take Harriet for a ride in a jeep. That’s another story, which I will get to later. After we had been at Camp Ivas for a while, I received a seven day pass and I could not go home, back home. So I sent for Harriet. A lot of times we would have assignments with our trucks to pick up supplies all troops here and there. And we would not finish until ten p.m. or eleven p.m. at night. And we would put our trucks away and come back to our tents. First we would go and take a cold shower. It wasn’t too bad as we had no way of heating it, but it makes you sleep and feel good anyway. Harriet got sick while we were at Camp Ivas and the doctor advised me to get a pass and take her home. So I did. But on the way home and on the train, Harriet got worse instead of better. I stayed awake taking care of her for over twenty-four hours or so. Finally I decided I needed help. So I asked the conductor on the train if he would inquire if there was a doctor or even a nurse on the train. Soon a nurse showed up and then a doctor. And they asked me what was wrong. I told them both that Harriet...what Harriet had gone through and I thought she needed to be hospitalized and given medication and they both agreed. I could hardly stay awake by then. The doctor gave me some pills to relax and get some rest or sleep. He said they would take care of my wife and he would call ahead to Des Moines, Iowa and have an ambulance at that train station. So they would put her in the hospital. By this time everyone in the coach was very interested in helping. They went and got sandwiches, cookies, milk and water and coffee for us. We sure was treated royally and when we reached the station, sure enough, the ambulance was there and a police car to lead the ambulance on its way to the hospital. I rode in the police car with all our luggage and other items we had with us. Of course, there was all sorts of papers to fill out and so forth. I had an aunt that lives in Des Moines, Iowa. So I called her and she said, “Don’t you leave there to get a hotel room,” as she was coming right over and helped me. And picked me up to bring her back to her home. Harriet stayed in the hospital only briefly. In the mean time we had contacted Barney Johnson, her brother-in-law form Pembina, North Dakota to have him come and help me get Harriet the rest of the way home. As soon as he arrived we took Harriet out of the hospital as the doctor said she could travel. We arrived back in St. Vincent by train. Shortly after then, Harriet was under Dr. Wallis, a woman doctor’s care. She was our family doctor who cared for her. She lived in Emerson-Manitoba as Harriet had lived near the Canadian border. Harriet rapidly recovered from her illness. In the meantime, I put in for a pass extension and received five more days. During the five extra days that I received, I spent or we spent two days as Harriet was able to travel some then at my folks’ place at McIntosh, Minnesota. Then we went to Harriet’s sister’s place in Bemidji, Minnesota. And we spent our last three days of leave, that’s what the military called it, at Bemidji. While Harriet worked at the telephone office at Bemidji she became acquainted with several of the operators there. And some were quite beautiful also. None as beautiful as Harriet of course, but I would joke and kid around with her that I might take one of them as my girlfriend if I had not seen them first. Before I married Harriet, just kidding, well I don’t mind saying that those three days sure went by fast and when it was time to go, I believe one of the girls drove me down to the train station. Another car load of the gals drove down also to see me off on the train. Soon the train came in and after a few days, a few hugs I mean, to the other girls an a long embrace and several kisses to Harriet, I got on the train and a few tears I might say, I waved good bye to them all. As far as the train was visible to them. Harriet was crying too, I’m sure. I was quite sure before I came home on that leave that I had a hunch or knew that our outfit was getting ready to be shipped overseas. So shortly after I got on the train and was traveling along, I met a fellow soldier that I knew briefly and he confirmed our outfits departure. Within the next few days, but none of us knew where we were going. The rest of the trip back to camp was dull and kind of sad. Just doing a lot of thinking and reminiscing and wondering what the future held for us. It was the first part of March 1944 that we left Camp Ivas by troop train, a large one, and traveled to our destination center, at San Francisco, California. Had a very enjoyable trip as much as we could knowing not what we were really getting into. None of our equipment went overseas with us. We thought it might come to us later or we would be supplied with the new equipment when we were overseas, but that wasn’t supposed to be, which I will tell you later. When we reached San Francisco, we were put into six by six trucks and went to out center. We only spent a few days there, but while we were there it was a big beautiful place. We all had to take turns on KP, kitchen police. Believe it or not, but the non-commissioned officers, Private First-Class, the T-5s and Sergeants of all ranks up to the First Sergeant had to pull this duty. They told me that they loved it as we had free access to all the food, drinks and so forth we wanted. Sure couldn’t beat that! Sure was one big happy family, fun time and work of course, also. By this time we knew the area we were going to It was a SWPTO. Southwest Pacific Theater of Operation. Days went by fast at this center and we soon left camp and was hauled by truck from our center to the docks where we were to get on the ship we were going to sail overseas on. The ship’s name was the USS General Hawes[??263], a very large ship. We boarder ship and left San Francisco, April 10, 1944. It was a beautiful day when we left. No rain, sun shining and lots of boat whistles as it was the custom that the other ships anchored would give us a good send off. There was a lot of waving when we left and a lot of soldiers were crying and so forth. I forgot to tell you at that when we were boarding our ships a lot of friends and relatives were on the dock to view at there loved ones a cheerful send off. Going under the Golden Gate Bridge was a wonderful experience and I am sure that lots of the other guys were wondering the same as I. Would we live to see the bridge again when the war was over? Would we be just some of the lucky ones. Guess God only held the future which was in His hands for all of us. While we were on our way to our destination overseas, we had nothing to do as the sailors did all the KP work and so forth. So all we had to do was eat, sleep, read and play cards. When the captain of the boat wanted to tell us something he would blow a whistle and say, “Now hear this! Now hear this!” And he would go ahead and say what he wanted to say. One time he said, “Now hear this! Now hear this,” after he blew his whistle. “You guys don’t worry that there might be enemy subs around or enemy planes close by. All you think of and do is play cards and so forth.” We felt like telling him what else is there to do, but we didn’t dare say nothing. But a few days out the sailors put on a surprise, pulled a surprise on us. They dressed up like Neptune. Had tails on their costumes and poured pales of water to splash on some other guys. We even slowed the ship down and a sailor was tossed over board with his life preserver on him. He went under water then and was pulled on board again. You see, we were crossing the International Dateline on that time and date. They sure put on a good show for us. We did a lot of zig zagging on our trip and we were not escorted, which made our trip that much more dangerous. When we were getting close to our destination, the captain came on the phone and said we may be attacked by enemy planes, that we should be ready to dive below. Sure enough, within a day or so, one came at us and the whistle blew to get below as we seen one coming. He tried to get near us, but one of our own plane, a fighter plane came up on the enemy’s tail and the two of them had a light skirmish and our fighter shot the enemy Jap plane down. We seen this happen as a lot of us disobeyed orders, did a lot of peeking. At night it was pretty hot where we had to sleep in our bunks. We would take our pillows and go up on deck and sleep under the life boats. With the boat making rocking it was quite comfortable and we slept real good. We must have been on the ship for twenty-seven days arriving in New Guinea on April, 5, 1944. Cannot remember the port we got close to and then went in by punt boats or some other kind of small boats as the big ship could not get close to shore. As soon as we were on shore, our supplies were brought in. The beach head had already been established so we’re not in too much danger from the enemy. We went to our area that was assigned to us for a camp. We pitched our tents and made everything as livable and comfortable as possible. Even had to dig holes for latrines and so forth. We did some more training, but mostly light stuff. We got to see a lot of funny sights as the natives, especially the women, were very skimpily dressed. Some had their dress covered and some didn’t. Many a times I seen both women and men go on work detail under the supervision of the Australians who were in charge of them. One time when they got to where they were going and assigned to work, the guard told them to get off. All got off except one man. He would not get off. Finally, the guard said...told him to get off one more time and cocked his rifle and said, “You either get off or I shall drop you with a bullet and pray you . . .” This time the man did as he was told and he was good for the rest of the day. I guess he was just plain ornery. We didn’t have to do much except our exercising, playing outdoor games and just waiting out our next assignment, which we knew were coming shortly. Back to the natives again, the women they’re always does the real hard work. They could carry a bucket or a cardboard box or a wooden box on their head up to probably twenty-five to thirty pounds and walk right along with it. I seen them carrying a lot of big rocks in their containers. It was quite a sight to see the menfolks climb the trees and get the snakes that would be up there. Snakes were a delicacy to them. Sometimes there would be snakes on the roads that the trucks had run over and they would have the driver stop and they would pick it up and have a snake stew meal out of it. One more true story I must tell before we leave New Guinea. One day a buddy of mine and I found a pontoon, which came off a seaplane. Well, we decided to find some paddles and check it out to see if it leaked or not. It checked out okay and we found some paddles of sorts. We found something we could use as seats. We were all sent down trip down the swampy stream. End side A We were all set for a trip down the swampy stream. The only thing we had to worry about we should watch out and not go too far as there was rumors which proved out to be true that there was headhunters on the island. But, we did not know how close they were. We set out and don’t know how far we went. It was so calm and so much greenery with lots of different birds all singing in their own chirping voices. And after a while we thought we went far enough. We turned back hoping our CO, that’s Commanding Officer, or sergeant wouldn’t find out what we had done. We got back and everything went okay. So much for that. [repeat of above narration regarding the pontoon trip] These are incidents that happened while I was in the States at different camps and Harriet was with me. When I was stationed at Camp Hood, near Lampasas, I would come into town where Harriet and I had an apartment and I would stay overnight and go back to camp in the early a.m., about five a.m. on the camp bus. Well, one morning I got up as usual to catch the bus and the bus stop for me as I was getting on the bus. Harriet came running down the sidewalk holding up her arm and yelling, Gordon, you forgot your dentures. Your false teeth!” She had them in her hand. Well you should have heard the guys in the bus hollering and laugh to see Harriet in her night gown and bath robe and barefooted. Some of the guys were half asleep, but they sure woke up and joined in the fun. I was sure was teased on the way back to camp. Another incident that happened was when I was stationed at Camp Bowie near Brownwood Texas, Harriet and I had an apartment there. And also I would come into town at night whenever I could and stay overnight. One morning we either forgot to set the alarm clock or didn’t hear it because I was late getting up. While I was hurriedly getting dressed, I told Harriet to call a taxi cab as I was already missing the camp bus. The taxi arrived and we . . .with a quick good-bye kiss I was on my way in the taxi to camp. But I missed reveille. I sure was one nervous guy. I was wondering what would happen. One of the guys called out my name when roll call was called. We got by with it as it was common for guys to do that for one another in the service that way. I made it for breakfast and changed into my work fatigues. While I was still at Camp Bowie, near Brownwood, I would at certain times when Harriet was free to come into the camp...I would take her in our mess hall for dinner with me. I was in good standing with the mess sergeant and he would really treat me good. I had...He had a special table set up for us. Boy, the guys would sure look when we came in. It was something different and they would call out and say, “You lucky guy!” And it made us feel good, but they were all on their best behavior and the day went well. We had cooking facilities in our apartment, but sometimes we would eat out in our favorite restaurants. Eating out was done mostly on weekends. Living a military life is like living a politician’s life, I believe. Although I never was or will be a politician. If that you pack my bag and you polish my apple and I will do the same for you. That’s the way favors are done for, to each other. I would favor the mess sergeant with things he needed and he would favor me with groceries and so forth that Harriet and I needed. We would get two or three day passes while at Needles, California and go to Boulder City, Nevada and Las Vegas, Nevada. Sometimes we would take a truck or two, if some officers wanted to go and we would have a fun time gambling, eating and so forth. Sometimes at camp we would get orders to send a truck to L.A. where we were stationed at Needles, California, for parts and so forth. Usually a sergeant and one or two other guys would go along to help load. I was lucky to get the assignment to go with my truck. One day when we finished our work in L.A. we went to the hotel to clean up and put on our better clothes. I looked out the window and saw a nice convertible going down the street. And all at once one of the car wheels came off and rolled into a parking lot close by. The sergeant said, “Let’s go and help her out.” So I took the truck, went to the car and fixed it up for her. She was from Beverly Hills. She invited us up for a martini. We accepted and away we went up the hills to a beautiful house and two or three drinks and then the darn sergeant excused ourselves and away we went back to the hotel. Darned his hide anyway! Just when we were beginning to feel good. We went out to eat and put on an uneventful evening and went to bed. The next day we left early and back to camp after picking up our supplies. Another incident that I might mention was when we were stationed at L.A. a buddy and I got a weekend pass and we went to Los Angeles for fun and pass time. That was before Harriet came out to stay for a while. On Saturday as we were walking to the bus stop in town, we had to wait a few minutes for the bus. All of the sudden, a young girl drove up in a white Cadillac convertible and she stopped and asked us where we were going and if we needed a ride. We told her where we were going and we were going to catch a ride on the city bus. She said she would take us to our destination. So we jumped in and she drove away. She told us her name and where she lived. We were most amazed as she was Joy Fleischman[??sp450] daughter of the family that owned the Fleischman Yeast Company. She asked us if we would like to see her place and have a light lunch. And of course we said yes. We asked her how come she picked us up. While we were stationed in New Guinea, we would have movies outdoors. Ones of course, probably two or three times a week. Well one night when we had a real good one, there was a lot of guys and gals there. Yes we had WACS and Red Cross gals and some gals from the hospitals. The movie projector progressed real good. But the reel finished and the fellow that was operating the machine shut it down while he changed and put on the second and last reel. While he was doing this some camp dogs that were civilian owned were playing around camp and by our seats at the movie. Two or three dogs ran up to me as they were chasing something. Yes sure enough I felt something on my leg and I grabbed a hold of it and squeezed it like the devil. My best buddy Marvin Wassing was sitting about three or four rows ahead of me and my friend and I hollered to them and said, “Marvin, I bet you cannot guess what I have up my pant leg?” He started to laugh and everybody around us did the same. He said, “That would be hard to tell Gordon.” I said, “I believe it’s a big rat!” I hobbled up to where they were sitting and ____[??] and Marvin’s buddy pulled out a handkerchief and wrapped it around his hand. Then he said “Let’s go exploring.” So he reached up inside my pant leg and said, “Gordon, you can let loose now.” And I did and sure enough out came a big rat, dead one. I had squeezed it to death. The poor thing. All eyes were upon us and some were quite sober and some were laughing, but everyone put their legs up, feet up on, off the ground to the next seat ahead of them. After the show plus the added addition of the dogs and rat episode, the Aussies, Australian troops invited us, some of us, over for a cup of tea and some C-ration biscuits and some real home made biscuits. Well, I tell you that was the strongest tea I ever tasted. After a long chat with them as they were close by and we were quite friendly with them. We went back to our camp and got very little sleep because we was up every few minutes to go to the john. Yes, strong tea makes a person go like the dickens and we sure did! Every once in a while we would have a drinking party and play poker. We saved up our supply of beer we were issued back at the rest camp, a distance back of the lines. I remember one time taking my truck down to the motor pool and when we got, quit for the night I drove my truck back to the area, but I don’t know how. We got by with it. I was a little under the weather and when the bugler blew reveille in the morning, I couldn’t find my pants. So I grouped about and found a pair of pants. It was a pair of pants worn by Corporal Hadly and he was about 300 pounds. Boy. It had been daylight and the Lieutenant and Sarg who took roll call could have seen me as I must have looked an awful sight. I may have caught a good scolding. But once again I was lucky. Little to say, I was the talk of the camp for a while that day and a few days after. Another thing that happened while we were back at rest camp was that a lot of guys got a case of dysentery from something that the cooks fed us or something we drank. Well, I tell you we spent a couple of days or so getting on over that. Between our sleeping area and our latrine was an incline, which was bad enough when it was dry. But during these days when it was...we were sick, it rained like blazes. Every time we had to go to the latrine, which was an open, narrow pit, which you had to straddle and let it go, wipe and cover and sometimes you had to wait your turn [laughs] as the line was filled with straddlers. Sometimes because of the heavy rainfall we would slip and slide in our hurry to get there and we would fall and we’d go right on the spot. There was plenty of them. Then we would have a mess to clean up. Not only what was on the ground but also on ourselves. It was against Army regulations to leave stool exposed and step in it. Sure was glad when that finally left us. I guess the field hospital gave us something to take for a discomfort feeling. After our stay in New Guinea, we boarded ships for a destination in the Philippines, for combat duty there. Just not sure how long it took us and what the names of the ships were that we were on. Its been a long time. Fifty-three years to be exact and I don’t remember everything I should. I’m not sure of the port we entered, but was on the island of Leyte. We went in on small boats all ready for action. Nothing happened when we made our beach landing. This part of the island was supposed to controlled by our troops as we had secured only one-fourth of the island at this time. Soon after we arrived on Luzon, our outfit the 815th Tank Destroyer Battalion was disbanded as our company was not needed because they had no use for us. Some of us were assigned to service company, some to the 127th Infantry Regiment and some to the _Tugee[??524] company. And some to the Headquarters of the 32nd Infantry Division. I was just...I was put in the infantry from driving truck to walking and the infantry was quite an adjustment you can believe! That and my best buddy Marvin Wassing was placed in the 32nd Infantry Division as a truck driver in Headquarters. Eventually I asked for a and got a transfer to the same office so we could be together. I have so many experience to relate to you all that it would...It would take quite a while to put it down on paper as I cannot write over a few pages at one sitting. I’m going to relate some things at this point in the infantry I was put in the rifle company. We were issued rifles, ammo and all the rest of the equipment we needed. In short time, we went over out on patrols and we were not on patrols we would be called up to be ammunition bearers. This might be during the day or at night. One night as we were called upon to carry ammo to an ammunition depot to be used by the machine gunners and riflemen in a different area where very much fighting was going on. When we had arrived there we were told where to put the ammo. We were not told to watch out for corpse that were placed close by as it was so darn dark. We did step on something soft and it was some corpse that we stepped on that we come in contact with. We deliver our ammo cans or containers and left right away for our camp. Another time when we were on ammo bearers and in our group was a fellow by the name of Alabama. Just a nickname as he was from Alabama. He was such a happy-go-lucky guy, always whistling or humming a tune. We finished our assignment towards the evening and went to our places for the night. Well that night the Japs decided to do some mortar firing at us. Most of us were lucky, but some were injured or killed. One of them was the happy kid, Alabama. The next morning I went around hurried to see what happened and the ones that were hurt or dead. They told me about Alabama and said it was not a . . .it was pretty bad. Sure enough I took a look and it made me shutter as his face had been blown off and he was terribly mangled from the upper part of his body. However, he never knew what hit him. This was the something we were going to have to get used to. Many of the time we would be put on patrol and we would stop to eat our meal such as it was K-rations. Eat right close by to a dead water buffalo, partly decayed. Not the most pleasant place to be to stop to eat. The combat troops and their equipment were water soaked in the first down pour. They never completely dried from then until the division was relieved. Foot travel was on the level part of terrain[??565] was laborious because of the heavy sucking, clinging, knee-deep mud. The slopes and tops of the mountain ridges were boggy as the village, but the infantry men slipped and slid and crawled forward. They slept and ate and fought in a sea of mud while supply troops conquered the same trecherous [??570] footing to give them the wherewithal to continue. Nature and the enemy had done their best, but we kept plugging along. Sometime the enemy won and sometimes or most of the times we gained on them. I was asked in a few weeks, if I would like to be wire man. That is to string wire it was needed. I accepted the assignment. Sometimes I was given an escort to help me in case I ran into a straggling Jap or two. I would have my roll of wire, a carbine rifle, several hand grenades an Army .45 pistol strapped on me and a lot of times I would be stringing wire right along side of the Jap wire. Believe me! I forgot to tell you that the first night on guard duty on the front line went well until it started to rain. I had my foxhole dug and blanket in it. I helped dig the hole for the machine gun emplacement. Needless to say that when I woke up from the rain I was half covered in the hole and really soaked wet. When it was my turn to do watch on the gun we were armed to the teeth you might say. There was so . . .periodically firing during the night, but not too close to our area. The Red-Arrow men embarked from Hollandia and Leyte [??591] __________[??] Entered Leyte Gulf and came ashore on November 14th. Two days later the division of combat troops ______[??] and relieved[??593] elements of the 24th Division in Caragara [??594] Pina Gorra [??594]sector. I shall never forget the sight as we were marching up to the front lines and seeing trucks with corpses stacked like cord wood596] All of them, they were bringing the dead back to the rear echelon for burial. It kind of made one sick knowing that that...fate to fall to any of us marching to what we run into. We had to...had to believe the things you might see or might have happened. One place where we were went into action of battle was kind of at a lull and our commanding officer asked us then to distribute the wire to different areas in the immediate area so they could talk to one another. So we did. And one of the officers asked on the phone if anyone could play any kind of music or sorts. At that time I could play the harmonica a little bit. So one of the guys spoke up and said, “Short had a mouth organ and could play it.” So I had it with me as it was small and the equipment easy to carry. They okayed it and I played what I could and had a good pretty good response from that. And then some other guys did the same as I did. One could...he could sing pretty good. One time when we were up on the front lines I was with the leading units. One of my...lieutenants said, “Gordon I want you to stay here until the rear units catch up. Then you can use your radio to talk to us up front as I will have another wire man spread wire from here to where we stop for the night.” Well I sure do thank him and most in my Lord and savior because while we were waiting it was near evening. The front was digging in and was quite unprepared to what happened. Actually some in our outfit disobeyed orders and did not set up a look out post. And while digging in did not maintain a close watch. They did not set up a machine gun and they placed their rifles by a tree. While some of them had only the small arm weapons on them. The consequences was that the Japs on a hill a small distance away, opened up with rifle fire and mortars forcing our guys to take whatever cover they could. The fox holes were not deep and they went into them without their guns. O ne Jap sneaked up on one fox hole and bayoneted the three men in the foxhole to death. Then he ran away from the hole and he was shot dead before he could go very far. They knew that they could not get back to their own outfit. They were sent out there to do what they could and be a suicidal on the mission they were on. The three guys that were killed in the incident, I knew real well and had played cards with them the night before. One of them was a drill and weapons instructor who had just finished a tour of duty in Alaska and Greenland and had asked for a transfer to the war zone where the action was. The poor guy died one hell of a death. I believe such as the misfortune of war. Some make it and some don’t, but I truly believe that he and the others could have made it if they had used good common sense and prepared for what had happened. After those areas we were attacked also. But with watching for something _____[??651] and hadn’t repelled the enemy. You would know that many a time that we were moving by either small groups or large ones near the front lines. We would come across some small villages and low and behold you could actually smell something real good. And close by that trail we were on was a small bakery in the Philippines. And they had made good doughnuts and they offered doughnuts, coconuts, milk and coconut meat and cut up in small pieces. It sure was good! They got cigarettes and tobacco from the soldiers in the form of K-ration packages in return for their good gesture. One time as our company was moving up the front lines we came upon an opening where there was a stream of running water. And there was evidence of a killing of our soldiers at this point. We heard later on that a few men of another outfit stopped here briefly and went swimming. While doing so, they were attacked by Japs. Some were partially clothed, some were naked. Guess there were quite a few of them that lost there lives there. Another bungled job that happens once in a while. Another time when we went out on patrol we were all told that it was just supposed to be a reconnaissance patrol as the enemy was not in the area. Well it turned out to be quite different. About the middle of the afternoon we ran into a Jap patrol. We exchanged fire at first at one another. Cannot remember how many were hurt, but there was a few on each side I’m sure. Our squad was pinned down in some tall grass and one of our guys was hurt real bad. We hollered for the medics and they had quite a time getting into . . .up to him because he would be plenty exposed to the enemy. They finally crawled to where he was a dragged him on to the side of the hill. All this time and for about two or three hours we were pinned down in the blistering hot sun. And our canteens of water were empty and we were really suffering. Late in the afternoon the officer in charge gave us all orders to rise up and open up with all of our machine guns, fire and rifle fire to and then retreat as fast as possible. We were told afterwards that some of the troops on our side were on a hill close by, but not close enough to help us. We were watching and they were laughing at what they saw. What seemed funny to them was not, that while we were running down the hill on one side, the Japs running down the hill on the other side. On the way down the hill we saw a couple of medics and another person, which I assumed was a doctor, operating on a soldier’s neck. He had been wounded badly and they were removing the bullet and sewing the wound up again. We all got back to our camp okay. We really should not have been on this patrol as it was our last day for a while up on the front lines. We learned from good sources that the Jap patrol that exchanged gunfire with us were almost wiped out the same night and was surprised by another group of our guys from another outfit. Of course, as we raised it them the Japs were in the vicinity and what direction they were in traveling. When we got orders to go to Luzon, we boarded ships for the distance. And we made out okay except that sea was so darn rough our ship was listing about forty-five or fifty degrees and much more than we could have capsized. At meal time after you picked up your tray of food. We ate at a counter standing up because if you sat down your darn chair would be allover the place. Pretty hard to hold on to your tray and cup of coffee and eat at the same time. We were in a small sleeping compartment. And slept in bunk beds. Mine was the fourth one high and I had to rope myself in so I couldn’t fall out of bed. We finally made the rest of our journey safely and unloaded the usual way. We were soon engaged in battle again. One time we were notified that we had to take a hill a short distance on the front line and that we were going to have a rough time of it. Our area chaplain, he was for the Jews, Catholics and Protestants alike. Now he talked to us and told us that he was going to have a short service for us all in a few minutes and anyone wanting to attend may do so. A great many of us did. Here is what he told us. He said that tomorrow I will pull no punches. It will be rough going and some of us will not make it. Perhaps including myself. He said that any letter that you might write home could be given to him or any article that we wanted to be sent home. After his brief sermon and prayer for us and by this time you could hear some of the toughest men in the group weeping. Some out loud. While we were at this open service, our chaplain said to keep your helmets on and your rifles ready as there was enemy close by. Later that day our commanding officer told us that we would be attacking the hill about five a.m. in the morning. The mortar men and heavy artillery would start about three a.m. or three-thirty a.m. to help that much. Anyway, he said this should get most of them, but being that they were well dug in there would be some left for us to contend with. He wished us well and to get a good night’s sleep…

On my Dad&#39;s side of the family, his mother being Norwegian, he attended Lutheran churches as a child, what little he did attend. His mother was the one who saw to it, when she could. His father was a very profane, abusive, and unreligious man, right to the end. He could be somewhat pleasant, but even I, who knew him not that well, was never very comfortable around him. Everyone else who did know him better, including his own son my father, painted a very negative picture of him. At one point, when my Dad was still at home but was a young man, he had to lethally threaten his own father to prevent him from beating his mother to death. My Dad is a sweet guy - he could have been a wife beater himself, but turned out just the opposite - a kind, thoughtful, inquisitive, funny, inspiring man.<br><br>However, I learned later in life that my Dad may have had a dark side.<br><br>My daughter and his granddaughter, Eva came to me in 1989 when she was around 10 years old after kids club at church one night. She slowly told me with great difficulty that my Dad had been molesting her.*<br><br>I supported Eva and gave her the benefit of the doubt from the very beginning. I felt to do otherwise would not only break trust with her, but put her at a very possible further risk. In my heart, I couldn&#39;t be sure, but that said, I couldn&#39;t be sure either way; with my Dad&#39;s family history, it&#39;s quite possible something like this behavior could come out for any number of reasons.<br><br>I reported it to the authorities, and my father was notified by his local county sheriff that my county was aware of the allegations. However, since I was not pursuing a private action, it was not up to me to file charges, but up to the local county attorney where my father lived. They chose not to. <br><br>I did use my church and they used their church, setting up a meeting in Grand Forks midway between us with both our pastors present. We talked many things out, and aired concerns, but I never did get a definitive denial OR admission of guilt from my father. <br><br>Dad cried a lot, wanting to know if I would ever forgive him. He was very broken up about it, and concerned about my love for him. He asked specifically if I had lost my love for him.<br><br>I wrapped my arms around him, and said that even if I never knew the answer, I can live with it. That was my way of allowing him not to have to admit it, right or wrong, I just let him off the hook. &quot;God knows, and you and Eva know. I forgive and yes, I love you.&quot;<br><br>I put parameters on Eva&#39;s being alone with them. For a year or so, she was never allowed near him. Then we visited together. The next two years she spent a week or two alone with my folks during the summer, and she felt OK about that. <br><br>It was very hard for Eva to tell me because we had lived full-time with my folks for 18 months in 1985 to 1986, and had lived near them when she was a toddle, so she feels very close to them.<br><br>Eva has told me long ago that she forgave her grandfather, and she feels similar about her own Dad (another long story, for another time...); I was concerned for her that she may have been negatively affected in a way that would affect the rest of her life. However, so far she has risen above it with her love of learning, excelling academically, and finding a wonderful life partner in her husband Meran. <br><br>She deserves it, God bless her...<br><br>* <font size="1"><em>While it never went to full penetration of any sort, it did involve heavy fondling of the lower body and digital penetration, which was plenty traumatic enough...</em></font>

&nbsp;My father recorded several tapes of his memories of World War II. &nbsp; This was the last one he did, and includes some stories I had never heard before. &nbsp; This transcript will be updated periodically when I have access to a transcription machine and/or time to transcribe it. &nbsp; For now, this is only part of the tape... <p style="border-right: medium none; padding-right: 0in; border-: medium none; padding-: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding-bottom: 0.01in; border-: medium none; padding-: 0in; border-bottom: #000000 1px solid"><font size="3">Dad&#39;s War Memories (Gordon Short)</font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&hellip;<font size="3">It took us two or three days to scare this area. The Japs were very well entrenched; we had to use every bit of our fighting power to make them retreat or seal them up by using bulldozers whenever we could&hellip;.and the use of grenade, rifle power, flame throwers and mortars when possible. The casualty rate was not as high as we expected. There was enough of us that we lived through the battle to fight another day. Thank God for that. </font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="3">I must tell you of one of our famous hills. Number 502 up on a very high mountain. There was a trail on the hill called Villa Verde trail and it was cut out of the mountainside by our troops of the engineer corps. Using bulldozers, etc. They really risked their lives against the sharpshooters of the enemy. I shall describe it a little bit&hellip;The Villa Verde trail twists its way up 24 miles from the Linguam Plain to the mile high mountain peaks of Luzon&#39;s Pera Bella mountains. That was the Jap&#39;s chosen grounds. Every mountain a fortress. Every hill a pillbox as the sixth army pushed its way north the veteran doughboys of the 32</font>^{<font size="3">nd</font>}<font size="3"> red arrow division fought for 119 consecutive days killing more than 8,000 Japs to secure this approach to the Tagion Valley. Just one more part of the action we saw. </font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="3">I drove my 6x6 truck up this mountain several times hauling equipment, ammo, and kitchen supplies, and food. Sometimes us drivers would be alone, some in small convoys. Sometimes on these lone trips we would stop and pick up men and women in uniforms - the Filipinos looked so much like Japs, we never knew for sure if it was a Jap in a Filipino uniform or not. Many a time we would drive down the hills or mountains at night just using our blackout lights and it was very dangerous driving because you couldn&#39;t see very much. Just had to follow the guy ahead of you. Sometimes I would be the lead driver with an officer in the front with me, and that was worse as you had no one to follow and with very little light you had to go by sheer luck and was sometimes loaded with weapons or personnel. One time we got orders to go up on this trail to the top of the mountain to bring the kitchen and all of its personnel. I had my truck loaded real full with equipment and men. It was a nice day and we were traveling a little too fast I think, but the officers said the enemy was close by so we kept up to pace. Everyone once and awhile the guys would holler out, &quot;Take it easy on the curves!&quot; We made it OK. Another time we were ordered to haul a lot of troops from the kitchen units to the front lines and it rained to beat the dickens and it got awfully slippery. Well when we got up to the mountains several hundred feet we had some curves to go around and one time we were going real slow and the truck ahead of me stopped and caused me to stop. Right on a curve. And I started sliding backwards. The guys on my truck were hollering like the blazes. Well the truck behind me came up to me and touched my bumper and stopped me and held me as I was very close to a few hundred-foot drop. We were in a heck of a position until the officer said, &quot;Take a heavy-duty chain and put it on the truck next to the last one and chain it to the last one.&quot; He then ordered everyone to start out together and push each other up the mountain. The ones in front would be pulling also. That way the last truck would not be left alone and slide off the trail. We finally made it and were bloody relieved. </font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="3">The engineers with the heavy-duty equipment were a blessing. They took some awfully dangerous risks to use the bulldozers. One time when I was in the walking infantry, we were stopped on another hill with Japs in front of us and on the side of us. We could see the Japs in front of us quite well and the ones on our side gave us more trouble. They were entrenched quite solid and it was really annoying us with the rifle fire and the mortar shells. One time I was standing alongside of a foxhole and a round came in and whistled right by me, and landed right in the foxhole between two guys talking to each other. What a mighty close call for all 3 of us. The office close by called back to the engineer who had a &#39;dozer with them. He sent out a patrol and found out where the firing was coming from. The bulldozer came up and was told where the cave was. And as he started forward the Japs opened up with small ammunition fire. He raised a blade on the &#39;dozer and stopped all shells and bullets coming at him. In a short while we got near the cave and sealed it shut. That was the end of that skirmish and we left the next day as the Japs ahead of us moved out during the night.</font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="3">I forgot one of the most important part of our experiences at the front lines was mail call. We SURE loved that! Believe it or not we had visitations by the Red Cross ladies and some men would also come up and give us [not sure&hellip;cookies?] They were some brave people I would say!</font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="3">Some more things that happened while I was a foot soldier was we got to a certain area and we were pinned down, as there was quite a concentration of the enemy around us. We soon ran out of water to drink and food to eat. The trees were quite different from the ones we had state-side and what we called &#39;elephant ears&#39;. When we were pinned down and couldn&#39;t get water we would get up early in the morning and licked the dew off of the leaves to get some moisture for our lips and tongues. We did this for two or three days, and the water carriers were not able to get through to us. While we were in that situation, we had very little or no rations. I had a real small can of meat and a portable gas heater I had confiscated from somewhere I won&#39;t say. I managed always to get gas from the truckers for it. On the second day my buddy said to me, &quot;Short, you got anything to eat?&quot; I said, &quot;Yes&hellip;let&#39;s have a one-course meal.&quot; So I took out the can of beef meat while he lit the stove, and we took our can of meat and heated it up and gouged ourselves on that meat. Mind you, there was some juice on it and we really welcomed that! Finally after the third day without any more food, we heard a couple of airplanes coming towards us as they started dropping some big food packages to us. As the enemy was close by and we were being fired upon, they came in close, dropped, and left in a hurry. There was supposed to be enough food in each package to last 6 men for 3 days. The Japs never bothered us while we retrieved the containers. There was a big cans of ham, peaches, beans, some K-ration boxes, matches, cigarettes, chocolate candy bars, several cans of bouillon, and several packages of coffee. But I tell you we never had anything but my gas stove to heat up the beans and bouillon. We were so darned hungry that one guy spoke up and said, &quot;Hell, I&rsquo;m not going to eat my share [can&#39;t make out]&quot;, and the rest of us did the same. </font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="3">One good thing that the big elephant ear leaves were good for was when it was raining we could cover our head and most of our body, too. Many a time we had to march in bad weather, and we were carrying full pack [machine gun, ammo and other supplies we had to have] We&#39;d climb up hill, slip back down, and try again. Many a time we had to climb up steep embankments when it was real rainy and muddy. When we weren&#39;t doing that we were crossing streams of water which were all the way from knee-deep to shoulder deep. The hardest part was trying to keep our ammo and guns dry and of course any K-rations dry also, and cigarettes&hellip;if we had any left! One thing that was taboo on the front lines was alcoholic beverages of any kind. Sometimes if we ran out of good drinking water, we&#39;d be allowed to fill our canteens with the only water we could find while walking but we had to put an anibrant tablet in it so that we&#39;d make it safe to drink and we wouldn&#39;t get sick from it. We were supposed to wait for a half hour before drinking, but sometimes we would drink it right away as we were so darned thirsty. I remember one time we were being shifted from one area to the next near the front lines. We did not have enough trucks to haul us so we had to walk in. The distance was some 20-30 miles. We were asked if we could make it and how our feet were. Some had infections in the legs and feet. Most of us were OK, but some were lying about their conditions and wanted to walk and be with their buddies. The bad ones were hauled a different route by truck while the ones, including myself, started out walking. After several miles, the bad ones with bad sores sure gave the medics a busy time trying to keep clean bandages and dressings on the sores. Mine never really got too bad. Towards the end we were carrying a few on stretchers, and had to travel real slow. But we all made it, and thank God for that. </font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="3">Another time while I was litter-bearer, this was in daylight, we were ordered to go up to the front lines to pick up wounded. We had to go through an opening in the trees and the Japs had the spot zeroed in on us. The officer at this point halted us and said that we would have to make a dash for it while our machine gunner would open fire to our sides and an angle in front of us. We would be sent off one at a time and run like frightened deer. We made it, but we were fired upon, but kept down low. When we got to the place where the wounded were, we helped put a wounded man on a stretcher&hellip;he had both legs mangled and twisted around. He wasn&#39;t in any pain at the time as he was given morphine or other kinds of medicine that killed the pain. Our sergeant told him he was a lucky guy, that he just bought a one-way ticket home. The man smiled and said, &quot;You betcha&hellip;&quot; Well, we picked him up and started out with him over some of the harder terrain you ever did see. We had to carry him down a steep incline and up the other side to very dense underbrush and fallen trees. We came to a point where there was another team awaiting to take him while we went to get another one. We were very lucky because shortly after we gave him to the other team, they came upon a small opening and the Japs seized this opportunity to open fire on them. The wounded man was shot and killed instantly. And so was one of the stretcher bearers. </font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="3">In another area we were in action quite a bit most of the time, but for a short period of time we were at rest camp. I wasn&#39;t feeling good and wasn&#39;t eating. One day, one of my sergeants walked by me and he turned around and looked back at me again, and said, &quot;My God, but you sure look yellow all over, especially your hands and eyes. You must have Yellow Jaundice.&quot; And he asked me how I felt, and I told him. He said, &quot;I&#39;m going to get on the phone and call the rear medics, and send you in to them for a checkup.&quot; The medics checked me over and confirmed it, and called for a small airplane to come and take me to a hospital about 70 miles away. Three planes arrived shortly after as there were enough patients for 3 airplanes. We took off shortly after they arrived and I was assigned a certain cot in the field hospital. Then I started getting shots of medicine. The show lines were double - one was for ones on a liquid diet (that was for me), and the other was for whole food, for others. After a few days I felt better, I&#39;d slip over to the whole food line. I was in the hospital for one whole month, then returned to my outfit. While I was in the hospital that month, our outfit was relieved from duty on the front lines. On the way back to the rest area, the Japanese opened up with mortars and other shelling. Well, my sergeant buddy got hit and got both legs blown off. He asked to be set up against a tree. He lit up a cigarette, took 3 or 4 puffs on it, threw it away, and said, &quot;This is it&hellip;&quot;, leaned over to one side, and died. The rest of the guys made it OK. </font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="3">This is something that I read in a magazine that was published and given out about the combat history of the 32</font>^{<font size="3">nd</font>}<font size="3"> Division, WWII, published by the public relations office of the 32</font>^{<font size="3">nd</font>}<font size="3"> Infantry Division: &quot;The 32</font>^{<font size="3">nd</font>}<font size="3"> Infantry Division fought on places such as Buna, Sagadoor, [can&#39;t make out], Leyte, and Luzon. Exotic names for strange places infinite signal points on the map of the Pacific plate. Place names of little significance prior to December 7, 1941. Now they are emblazoned on the pages of history. placed there in shining glory by the 32</font>^{<font size="3">nd</font>}<font size="3"> Infantry Division. Three years overseas from April 21, 1941 [sounds like this date, but I wonder if it should be 1942???] , 13,030 hours of combat performed, more than by any other division during WWII. They have gone into the record books as having 543 days of death and destruction, of disease and hunger, thirst, of pain and agony, and self-sacrifice. Days of glorious victory, days of heroism and valor. 543 days for Tojo&#39;s dream of conquest&hellip;&quot; Tojo was the ruler of Japan before and through the war years, and was responsible for Japan being in the war. </font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="3">Another quote from the same magazine: &quot;Just one bit name given to the heroes of Buna was tagged with the 32</font>^{<font size="3">nd</font>}<font size="3"> Infantry Division&hellip;The majority of them were Wisconsin and Michigan National Guardsmen inducted into federal service when the 32</font>^{<font size="3">nd</font>}<font size="3"> Division was reactivated in October 1940. They trained at Camp Beauregard, Louisiana until February 1941, then moved to newly built Camp Livingston. Troops trains rolled down from the north for these selectees from Wisconsin and Michigan. The field of division ranks three months of maneuvers in Louisiana followed by two months in the Carolinas trained in and toughened them in and developed the division into a team. It was necessary for the 32</font>^{<font size="3">nd</font>}<font size="3"> to be ordered to go to a staging camp at Port Devons, Massachusetts. Preparatory to sailing from New York the port of embarkation to an unknown destination, replacements came from every state in the union, which brought the division up to combat strength. This division was also called the Red Arrow Division.&quot; </font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="3">The Japs called the 32</font>^{<font size="3">nd</font>}<font size="3"> Division the &quot;Bloody Butchers of Buna&quot;. And although the grim, ghastly battle of Papuan [New Guinea] jungle may be dimmed in memory by the latter&#39;s success of allied arms, the enemy does not forget it was at Buna that the Japanese fallacy of invincibility was proven. It was Buna where General MacArthur started his return to the Philippines. It was at Buna that the 32</font>^{<font size="3">nd</font>}<font size="3"> Infantry Division helped win the first U.S. Army ground campaign over the Japanese in the war. It was not an easy victory. Casualties were numbered more than the total strength of the division when it went into combat. However, nature proved to be the greater enemy. More men were cut down by jungle diseases and fevers than were victims of enemy action. Each day the heat and humidity and disease sapped the strength of the troops that did to fall or were wounded. All through the fighting in New Guinea and in the Philippines, the Australian soldiers played a very important part in all battles. They did not know the meaning of fear. Very courageous and brave, and very good in everything they went to do. Very friendly to talk to and work with. When they did their duties, they did it thoroughly. </font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="3">I cannot describe each battle that we were in, but it was not a pleasant sight to be walking down the trail in the jungle and see the Japanese soldiers and American soldiers dead, lying in some awful gruesome shape because there had not been time to bury them. There were hordes of maggots on their face and bodies, sometimes you would see a discarded American or Japanese tank with the crewmen dead inside or around the tank. They had been with the tank when it was hit, the shrapnel it them, either dieing from the wounds or burnt real bad from exploding gasoline from the flame throwers that were usually upon them. Towards the end of the war, things began to calm down a bit. I can truthfully say that when we got news that Germany had surrendered, we were really happy and thrilled over it and that we started concentrating on our last enemies, the Japs. On our mop-up duties there was some opposition from the Japanese as they had their food supply cut off and they could only find food from the land, mostly berries. They got so darned weak that they could hardly walk. Not only that but they got sick with dysentery and stunk up the trails. We had to walk on that. One time we walked up on some Japanese soldiers by a stream of water. They were too weak to resist or fight in any way. They immediately surrendered. We took them back and turned them over to the MPs. We thought all along that we would have to invade Japan&#39;s homeland and I&#39;m sure glad we didn&#39;t have to as we heard afterwards that our outfit was scheduled to go in on attack in the 9</font>^{<font size="3">th</font>}<font size="3"> wave, and they figured that the first 15 waves would be annihilated by the Japs&#39; shore batteries of big guns dug in along the shores where we were supposed to land. I&#39;m sure I wouldn&#39;t be here writing and recording all of this if this had come about.</font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="3">I once read that the Japs had over 400,000 and boys listed as military to protect their homeland if need be. Thank God for the Atom bomb that was dropped on the two cities that forced them to surrender and we did not have to invade the mainland of Japan itself. It might have been a cruel thing to do, killing so many civilians, but they never thought or hesitated for a moment when they attacked Pearl Harbor. All these people never had a chance also. Soon after the bombing, Japan surrendered; we truck drivers were with the foot soldiers, out in the jungles and the roadways&hellip;our air force dropped leaflets that Japan had surrendered and of course the Japs had been notified by their own side. They came from all over, hardly able to walk and stacked their weapons where they were told. The Japanese soldiers were very obedient to their officers and really minded them well. When we got our trucks full, we would haul them to a place to secure them. They were well-guarded on the trucks and their place of encampment. General Yamashito [not sure of spelling here!] was the Japanese field general and later was tried as a war criminal and hanged in the area where we were at, where the atrocities he allowed the Japanese troops to do against the enemy. </font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="3">After the surrender of Japan, there really wasn&#39;t much need for a lot of us soldiers to remain in that zone, so they placed our unit and several others on ships and sent us to Japan for occupational duty. We would be there until our number was called for return to home to the United States of America. We were placed on big ships and sent to Japan. It didn&#39;t take long to get there. Before we unloaded into smaller boats, we got a good look at some of the huge gun emplacements, only a few, because the best weapons were so well-concealed you couldn&#39;t see them. When we were unloaded on shore, we were hauled to our assigned barracks, and they were really nice. Our duties were minimal, and we could relax and do most anything we wanted to do. Along with the good food we got there, we were issued three cans of beer daily and if we wanted anything stronger to drink, we could buy a Japanese drink called saki, a very strong Japanese alcohol.<br></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="3">All went well until one morning at reveille, when the lieutenant said to us all that if we were having any of that strong drink that we should turn it in, as they were supposed to have found some that was not good and was poisoned, and making some of the troops very sick. We all had some, and he told us where we were supposed to turn it in. We all did as we were told, and nothing more was said of the issue. Another time at reveille, the first sergeant said that since toilet paper was getting to be of short supply, that when we used it, we should only use 3-4 sheets at a time. Needless to say, there was a lot of hee-haws and some giggling over that remark.</font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="3">As I was still with the truck driving company, I was assigned certain days to go to the train station and pick up all the mail for the battalion. Of course a lieutenant always went along. He always had a 45 revolver strapped on his hip. It was military regulations, I guess. Before the train came in, I asked the lieutenant, what those openings on the platform were for. Well, he said, you just wait and see&hellip;The train soon came in at quite a rapid pace. When they were at the right place, it came to a sudden stop when they applied the brakes. The passengers were packed in solid in the cars. Some in seats, some of them standing. They started to unload rapidly, and the lieutenant said to me, &quot;Now, watch&hellip;&quot; The people, mostly the women&hellip;it wasn&#39;t very long before I found out what the openings on the platform were for. The women got off the train, and ran, some squatting over the holes, and most of them wore dresses, and urinated in the holes. When they finished, they put down their dress and went on their way. It was quite a sight for a country bumpkin to see, and I turned to the lieutenant, and he said, &quot;Now you know&quot;, and I said, &quot;Yes, Sir.&quot; He laughed. We got the load of mail, and went back to camp with it. </font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="3">We would often play tricks on one another, like who seen the guy in front of us in the chow line. And when you did this, he would poke the guy in front of him, and when I was right behind a guy that was goosing, I&#39;d touch him and socked a guy ahead of him pretty hard, and he turned around and said, &quot;What in the hell was that for?&quot; The guy that did the goosing or poked him pointed at me, and I told him that I had just stumbled and couldn&#39;t help it. The guy took it good-naturedly, and that settled that.</font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="3">One thing a truck driver didn&#39;t have to do was change the tires on his truck as we never had any tire tools. Sometimes I would have all the way from one flat to three flats a day. Not on the same day, of course, but it all depended on the train we were driving in. We really enjoyed our short stay in Japan, with long passes to go into town. When we were not on pass, or on a driving detail, believe it or not we did not even have to stand for reveille. We could sleep as long as we wanted to, eat breakfast when we wanted to, and most of that day we would clean up, do our bed making, do our laundry, play poker, read books, or just shoot the bull. We were not on a strict routine. I remember one time when it wasn&#39;t my time to drive for mail. The lieutenant came into our barracks and said to me, &quot;Short, would you take so-and-so&#39;s trip today as he wanted off for certain reasons?&quot; I said, &quot;Sure, Lieutenant.&quot; And he thanked me for it, as he was the one in charge for that trip that day. </font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="3">What the soldiers did in other areas I do not know, as I really don&#39;t know why we were even sent there. I guess it was just a staging center for us to wait until our number came up to go home. The ones that were in the service the longest overseas were given the highest number and they were called first. I remember when the highest number was 148, and mine was 44. The numbers were called off daily. As they were called off, they would be shipped out the very next day. I can remember Wassing and my numbers were called in the chow line. One of our lieutenants &hellip; [TO BE CONTINUED]</font></p>

How quickly things change...On June 30th, Mom and Dad called. Mom scared. Took Dad to ER. Had heart attack. Released after testing July 4th. On July 13th, second bad attack. This time, the Cardiologist, Dr. Evans, did an angiogram, angioplasty, and echocardiogram. Dad is in ICU with breathing tube, IV feeding him, catheterized, with a blood pump. Also had to have dialysis for awhile. By July 16th, breathing tube removed. Two days now has has slept, moving around and trying to turn this way and that. Who knows what dreams he dreams? <br><br>Mom cried when Chris and I drove to the hospital. &#39;No more Hawkeye and Chingascook...&#39; was all she could say, over and over. In ER, Dad motioned us over to his bedside, saying if he doesn&#39;t come out of this, he knows he&#39;ll see us on the other side. I&#39;m so glad I took their photos on Saturday, July 7th, as I did. Images of them kidding with each other, smiling at each other, goofing off, holding hands, kissing, or just gazing into the camera naturally. <br><br>As I write this, I am alone in the ICU waiting room except for one solitary woman, and Mom. Mom plays solitaire quietly, across the room on the coffee table. She keeps asking me, when I go over to her, why she&#39;s paying two months&#39; rent for the old apartment. I explain we&#39;re late this month and we need to give notice. Where are we moving to, she asks. I tell her, but a few moments later, she has forgotten and asks again. &#39;Oh yes,...where Dad needs to go...&#39; I smile inwardly as the solitary woman leaves us alone. <br><br>Mom remembers enough of a conversation a few days before when we told her and Dad they had to move to a nursing home. Then, I could see Dad&#39;s face become relaxed and visibly relieved, knowing finally that someone could be there to help them. <br><br>My ears notice that Mom is whistling as she plays cards. Cards and whistling - how appropriate. Two things burned into my mind from my earliest memories that I associate with Mom. <br><br>I hear Mom moan...she says she has eaten too much, and decides to quit playing cards, and lay down for awhile. <br><br>Sharon and Bill, arriving in the afternoon, are with Bill and Betty running errands. <br><br>The hours as this goes by seem surreal. Time passes differently. You don&#39;t acknowledge it. Instead, you ignore it, withdrawing into a safe, emotional cocoon. At one and the same time, you reflect superficially on memories that surface unbidden but don&#39;t surprise you, but you never let them manipulate you into giving way to any emotional release. This is your way, you say. Maybe so. Maybe it&#39;s just your defense against facing mortality head on instead of intellectually, the way most of us most of the time deal with it, if we deal with it at all...&quot;

<font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="3"><br><div style="text-align: "><font color="#333333"><span style="line-height: 14px">My grandfather was a perfect example of a true American Patriot. He had 3 great loves... God, Family, Country. </span></font></div><div style="text-align: ">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: "><font color="#333333"><span style="line-height: 14px">His compassion as a faithful devout christian transfered to his true love for my grandmother, which in was in todays standards simply amazing. They were married 56 years, and his love for her only grew stronger as the days grew longer. Because of that love he was able to raise 3 wonderful dsughters for whom he would do anything for, 2 being my aunts and one my mother. </span></font></div><div style="text-align: ">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: "><font color="#333333"><span style="line-height: 14px">For his country he served proudly for the very reason I&#39;m able to write this today &quot;Our Freedom&quot;. If he were alive today and able he would be the first to stand in line to volunteer to help in any way due to 9/11/01. I know he would be proud the way this country has reacted and pulled together as one. </span></font></div><div style="text-align: ">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: "><font color="#333333"><span style="line-height: 14px">I sit here and reflect and remember when I was little he would take me for walks in the woods holding my little hand to guide me through the brush, his strong confidant hand would hold on and protect mine. That last few months before he passed away I was blessed to share time with him from playing rummy (our favorite game), to sharing about the past, to his WWII stories. I was able to hug him and hold his hand, and then I noticed, It was now my hand, strong and confidant that was trying to guide and protect his now weaker yet distinguished hand through what time we had left together.....</span></font></div><div style="text-align: ">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: "><font color="#333333"><span style="line-height: 14px">Signed with a Grandsons Love--R.L.Thorsvig 10/3/01</span></font></div></font>

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">This is a private recollection that I found recently, written by my mother on a small notepad in her room. &nbsp; I was there to tidy her room and get her up for supper. &nbsp; While she was still sleeping, I found her writings on the pad, thankful I didn&#39;t just throw it without looking closer. &nbsp; It is obvious from the way it is written that she hoped we would find it, part of it addressed directly to us...</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Your Dad meant more than anything else to me in this world. Perhaps I loved him too much, and that is why the Lord took him away from me. Your Dad was a super person I think!!!</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">I remember the first time I saw him at Short&rsquo;s Caf&eacute;. I thought how lucky I&rsquo;d be to have him as a boyfriend. But I also thought that would never be as he was so handsome he could have all the girls he wanted and not pick an ugly duckling like me. Low and behold I was the first and only one he ever dated. When he left without any warning because he had a chance for a free ride home, I thought I would curl up and die. I felt I&rsquo;d never see him again. But God had other plans. </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">I cried myself to sleep every night. Then I got a letter from him saying he was coming to his Uncle Gail&rsquo;s for a visit and wanted a date with me. I never slept for a week just thinking about it. That&rsquo;s when your Dad told me he loved me and wanted to marry me when he could get a job so he could support us. You will never know how excited and happy I was. I could hardly believe it was true. God sure had our lives planned for us as you can see.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Then WWII broke out and he was drafted before we could get married. His furlough home was what clenched it and I was back to Texas with him and the first 3-day pass he could get we got married!</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">He was so good to me; a married man could have leave from base at night with a pass but had to be back in camp at 4:30am!! He was so tired by the time I returned to Minnesota that he was almost glad to see me go! Life was so hectic and everyone wanted to make the most of every minute as you didn&rsquo;t really know if you would have another day together. Hope you never had to go through that in your lives!</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">I just have to write it over and over how much I love you, my dearest Gordon. You will forever live on in my heart. You loved me so tenderly and treated me like a queen. Why didn&rsquo;t God let us live on a little longer? Guess he had other plans for us.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">But God wanted some of your Dad&rsquo;s seed upon the earth so he did return and we had three dear daughters. Your Dad worshiped the ground you walked on. Oh, how I love your father. He was so good to me and worked so hard to support us and give us a home.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">He will always live on in my memory. He will never die as long as I live. Remember him as an honest and true man. May the Lord bless him with many jewels in his crown.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Gordon, I love you truly, truly I do, and always will forever and ever.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p>

<p>Another camp Dad trained at was Camp Hood, Texas - From http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/FF/qbf25.html:</p><p>___________________________________</p><p>Fort Hood is located in southwestern Bell and southeastern Coryell counties in Central Texas. Most of the 218,000 acres owned by the United States Army is located in Coryell County. On January 14, 1942, at the beginning of United States involvement in World War II,<font size="-1">^qv</font> it was announced that a tank destroyer tactical and firing center would be established near Killeen, Texas. Gen. Andrew D. Bruce<font size="-1">^qv</font> was selected as the first commander. The first major unit, the 893d Tank Destroyer Battalion, arrived from Fort Meade, Maryland, on April 2, 1942. As other troops began arriving, some 300 farming and ranching families were required, on very short notice, to give up their land. Camp Hood was officially opened on September 18, 1942, and has been continuously used for armored training ever since. The installation was named in honor of Gen. John Bell Hood.<font size="-1">^qv</font> The mission at Camp Hood was almost immediately expanded to include a replacement and basic training center at North Fort Hood. At times as many as 100,000 soldiers were being trained for the war effort. During the later part of the war some 4,000 German prisoners of war<font size="-1">^qv</font> were interned at Camp Hood. </p>

<p>Dad took advantage of GI Bill in 1951 and took a 6 month course in Minneapolis at the &#39;Gail Institute&#39;. &nbsp;He wrote Mom letters (I have a few of them...) but I just discovered that at least for a time, they tried living as a family in Minneapolis while he was training...</p><p>&nbsp;<span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 14px">Your folks were in the Yesteryears of the Pembina New Era:</span></p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px"><span class="messageBody">60 years ago: September 14, 1951... Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Short of St. Vincent have moved to Minneapolis where they will make their home. Gordonis attending Gail Institure.</span><span style="color: #999999"><span style="color: #999999"><span style="display: inline">Unlike</span>&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;See Friendship&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #999999"><abbr title="Friday, September 16, 2011 at 7:01pm" class="timestamp livetimestamp" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: initial; border-bottom-color: initial">2 hours ago</abbr></span></span><ul style="list-style-type: none; padding-: 2px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-: 0px; width: 398px; margin: 0px"><li style="display: block; margin-bottom: -2px; margin-: 0px; border-width: 0px"></li><li style="background-color: #edeff4; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: #e5eaf1; margin-: 2px; padding-: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-: 5px"><div style="zoom: 1"><div style="display: table-cell; vertical-align: ; width: 10000px; padding-: 1px">You like this.</div></div></li><li style="display: block; border--width: 1px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border--width: 0px"><ul style="list-style-type: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px"><li style="background-color: #edeff4; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: #e5eaf1; margin-: 2px; padding-: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-: 3px; border--width: 2px; border--style: solid; border--color: #a8b2ce"><div style="zoom: 1"><img style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; width: 32px; height: 32px; display: block; border-width: 0px" class="uiProfilePhoto uiProfilePhotoMedium img" src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-ash2/261018_737386832_1757231748_q.jpg" alt=""><div style="display: table-cell; vertical-align: ; width: 10000px; padding-: 1px">Trish Short Lewis&nbsp;<span>Well that IS interesting. They never told me they did that. Mmmmmm...it obviously didn&#39;t last, because my Mom came back and they wrote letters. Either they couldn&#39;t afford it, or Mom was homesick...but hard to say. She would have missed Dad something terrible also...that was when he was under the GI Bill getting training for working on the Great Northern...Thanks for telling me, Jamie! :)</span></div></div></li></ul></li></ul></span><p>&nbsp;</p>

The article below describes one of the aspects of my Dad&#39;s work in a railroad depot as he knew it. &nbsp; Not everything he did, but it definitely is a good snapshot of one of the major duties he performed...<br>_____________________<br><br>Train orders - At one time, trains couldn&#39;t leave the station without them<br>William L. Gwyer <br>May 1, 2006<br><br>The train order, variously called the &quot;flimsy&quot; or the &quot;tissue&quot; - together with its attendant operators, train order offices, and order hoops - has been rendered obsolete by the radio, the computer, and amended work rules. With its passing in the late 1980s, so did a whole concept of railroad traffic control that had been a hallmark of U.S. practice since the 1840&#39;s. <br><br>The train order&#39;s ultimate demise was sealed in 1986 by a national agreement between the railroads and the Transportation Communication Employees Union giving dispatchers the right to issue movement instructions directly to train crews, bypassing operators, in what is called Direct Train Control (DTC) territory. Up to that time the TCEU (previously the Order of Railroad Telegraphers) had jealously guarded its right to such work, and exclusive work rules had for years prohibited the adoption of a more modern system. <br><br>Throughout the 1980&#39;s railroad after railroad adopted either DTC, which depends on verbal instructions only (mostly by radio), or Track Warrant Control (TWC), which uses a preprinted form copied by the crew. <br><br>How train orders developed<br><br>In the early to mid-1800&#39;s, opposing trains on the same track were governed by a timetable, which contained a schedule for most regular freight and passenger train movements. Meets were prescribed, and one train simply waited on the other. <br><br>As traffic increased so did the level of sophistication, culminating in a timetable containing schedules of various classes and establishing priority. Still, there was no way to supersede it, and single-track operation was slow, haphazard at best, downright dangerous at worst. The term &quot;cornfield meet&quot; (for a head-on collision) had real meaning in those days. <br><br>By the time of the Civil War, the train-order system begun on the Erie in 1854 was well established. Train movements were controlled by a dispatcher who used telegraph agents to deliver orders to affected trains. The system remained essentially unchanged for more than a century. <br><br>Typical train-order operations began with the timetable. In it were contained schedules of each train, which were accorded a number and a numerical class. Such trains were called &quot;regular trains,&quot; e.g., authorized by the timetable. First-class trains were superior to or had precedence over second-class trains, which were superior to third-class trains, etc. <br><br>Between trains of the same class, those in the direction specified in the timetable were superior to those in the opposite direction. Inferior trains were required to clear the schedule of opposing superior trains, and they were also required to clear the schedule of following superior trains, although in latter days this meant first-class trains only. <br><br>These timetables, distributed to all employees with duties involving train operation, conveyed the authority for a train to move over a given section of track at a given time; they were the official operating schedules of the railroad. Simpler versions of the timetables, showing times and other information regarding passenger trains, were made available to the public so riders could know when the trains ran. <br><br>Meeting points between scheduled trains were indicated in the timetable, usually in boldface type together with the number of the train or trains to be met. However, such meets were not positive. It was only an &quot;advisory&quot; where such trains should meet if they were both on time. The superior train did not have to wait on an inferior train at a timetable meet. The onus was on the latter to clear the former. <br><br>Train orders were issued by the dispatcher and superseded the timetable. They were used to advance an inferior train against a superior one, establish positive meeting points, create extra trains and sections, annul schedules, authorize work trains, and warn of track conditions and the like. There was an old saying: &quot;What the timetable giveth, the dispatcher taketh.&quot; <br><br>Different shapes, sizes, and colors<br><br>Train orders were of two types: &quot;31&#39;s,&quot; which had to be signed for by a member of the train crew, and &quot;19&#39;s,&quot; which did not. The former were employed when the dispatcher needed to know that the affected train actually had the order, while the latter were used when he did not. <br><br>Train-order forms themselves came in pads printed on a thin onionskin paper, or &quot;flimsy,&quot; which enabled crews to read them over the light of a firebox or against a kerosene lantern. <br><br>There was no standard color. The Pennsylvania used yellow, while the Erie preferred a grayish white for its 19&#39;s and a buff color for 31&#39;s. New York Central and Nickel Plate used green. <br><br>In the era before typewriters and ballpoint pens, operators copied orders using a stylus against double-sided carbons backed by a steel plate. Telegraphers&#39; script, a beautiful, flowing, but legible handwriting, was the trademark of an operator who had learned his trade in the days of the Morse telegraph schools (named for the device&#39;s inventor, Samuel F.B. Morse). <br><br>Most railroads railroads required three copies of an order, one for the locomotive, one for the caboose (or conductor on a passenger train), and the other as the station record. Other roads required five. Of course, the number of copies also varied as to number of pertinent trains. <br><br>Running trains with train orders<br><br>The transmission of a train order was a strict ritual. The names of stations were pronounced and then spelled out letter by letter. So were numbers and time. The dispatcher always addressed an order to the train being restricted first and then each operator repeated the order back to him in the succession in which they were addressed. In telegraph days, the dispatcher wrote the order in the train-order book from the first repetition; with the telephone it was written as it was transmitted. In all cases, it was underlined as each station repeated the order. <br><br>Once it was repeated correctly, it was made &quot;complete&quot; and the time given. An order was never in effect until it was completed; if it had been repeated but not made complete it became a holding order. Once effective, the train order remained in effect until superseded by another order, fulfilled (that is, acted upon), or annulled. <br><br>Along with the orders came a clearance card, called a Form A on some roads. Its purpose was to list all the orders a train was to receive at the station. <br><br>A train-order signal was installed at most stations. These took sundry forms: as basic as a simple rotating lantern, semaphores, color lights, or, as on the PRR, a simple flashing &quot;O&quot; mounted on a signal mast. On a number of Eastern roads a simple red or yellow board supplemented by a lantern at night did the trick. <br><br>Handing up orders was part and parcel of the operator&#39;s job. For many years a bamboo hoop with a metal clip holding the orders was used. Its big drawback was that it had to be returned by the crew, who simply threw it along the right of way. Pity the hapless operator who had to trudge down the track to retrieve the hoop in winter or during an electrical storm. In later years, operators used a fork holding a string in which a slip knot was tied to hold the orders. The crew member simply slipped his arm through the fork, the string slipped out of the springloaded latch that retained it, and the orders were in hand. <br><br>On many roads, permanent order-hoop stands or racks allowed the operator to &quot;load them&quot; and then stand back and inspect the passing train. Regardless of the improvements, delivering orders was not pleasant under any circumstances. Operators had to watch for shifted loads and flying brakeshoes. <br><br>Technology catches up<br><br>The timetable system was replaced by newer methods of operating authority involving radio communications. Under these systems, trains are granted movement authority on a case-by-case basis, not by a standing timetable. Even though a train might run at the same time every day, it is not officially scheduled as far as railroad operations are concerned. For the convenience of riders, schedules are still issued to the public, but, as always, they convey no official operating authority. <br><br>Multiple track and centralized traffic control (CTC) eventually eliminated a large portion of single-track train-order railroading, although on double track and in CTC territory, the need for train orders was diminished but not eliminated. On double or multiple track, operating rules varied, but in the East, with its abundance of interlocked junctions, trains generally ran by signal indication with the current of traffic. As long as you had &quot;proceed&quot; signals you kept going regardless who was following. The timetable meant nothing here. Even into the 1980&#39;s a considerable portion of U.S. route miles were dispatched by timetable and train order. <br><br>In the years following World War II, a number of changes occurred as passenger trains disappeared and branch lines were abandoned. Freights were dropped from the timetable on many roads and run simply as extras. Sections also went out the door along with 31 orders, although today, under certain conditions an order still may have to be signed for. Still, the drama inherent in &quot;31 east Copy 3&quot; is gone. <br><br>The last stand of the train order in busy territory probably occurred on Burlington Northern&#39;s Powder River coal lines in the mid-1970&#39;s, but that was as short-lived as the ability of the signal department to hook up the CTC. <br><br>The 1980&#39;s brought the fax machine, signaling another round of train-order office closures. The end was near. Hard on the heels of the 1986 contract, train orders became history. <br>

<span>The ship my Dad came back on from his duty as part of the occupational forces on mainland Japan was called the U.S.S. President Hayes.&nbsp; He called it the &quot;General Haws&quot; it sounded like, but I figured out (long story) that the Hayes was the actual ship.&nbsp; Some places call the ship the General Hayes, but officially it&#39;s known as President Hayes.&nbsp; It is the ship my Dad came home on in December 1945...I&#39;m listening to my Dad&#39;s memiors recorded on audiotape many years ago and doing research off of clues he gave. There is a lot to work off of that I haven&#39;t explored fully yet...</span><div><div><div>&nbsp;</div>http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-p/ap39.htm</div></div><div><div><div><br> <div>In 1945, President Hayes took part in the Okinawa campaign and performed general transportation duty. During the last four months of the year she supported the occupation of Japan and brought veterans home as part of Operation &quot;Magic Carpet&quot;.</div></div></div></div><div><br><div><div><span>http://ww2troopships.com/c</span>rossings.htm</div></div></div><div><br> <div><span>http://en.wikipedia.org/wi</span>ki/Operation_Magic_Carpet</div></div>

Trish Lewis on Feb 20:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_General_W._F._Hase_(AP-146) The problem with this ship is, it doesn't appear to have operated in Operation Magic Carpet out of Japan...then again, this link - http://www.asbestos.com/navy/auxiliary-vessels/uss-general-w-f-hase-ap-146.php - makes it sound like its main operations WERE Pacific-related...

Trish Lewis on Feb 20:

December 1945 became the peak month with almost 700,000 persons from every service returning home from the Pacific. A fleet of 369 ships including 222 assault transports, six battleships, 18 cruisers, 57 aircraft carriers and twelve hospital ships helped to make the dream of peace become a pleasant reality for those who had brought about ultimate victory. From: https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AUad-szthw6wYWpkeGY1cG5zcjZmXzIxNmZkOTlkeGRm&hl=en

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I first found out that my father had been a soldier when I was a little girl watching television with him one night.&nbsp; The show was Combat, a World War II drama set in the European Theatre of the war.&nbsp; I was in awe of the characters on that show, and learned about the Second World War through it.&nbsp; Dad shared he had been in that war, but in the other main area of it - the Pacific Theatre.&nbsp; <br>&nbsp;<br>Later, as I was growing up, occasions came up where Dad would share a little bit more about what he did in the war.&nbsp; I noticed my Mom was a bit concerned about Dad talking about it, saying it might bother him.&nbsp; I found out when he first came home from the war, he had nightmares, sleepwalked, etc.&nbsp; One dream he would have, Mom said, would cause him to mutter &#39;...no place dry to sleep&#39;, recalling time spent in foxholes during tropical rains.&nbsp; He&#39;d get out of bed sometimes during those dreams and try and get into dresser drawers to sleep, as if it was a dry corner of the foxhole he had found.&nbsp; He&#39;d thrash around during his sleep, waking Mom and she&#39;d try and help him calm down.&nbsp; Even after many years, by the time he was talking about it to me, there were times I could see tears coming to his eyes as he recalled a friend named Alabama having his head blown off in front of his eyes. <br>&nbsp;<br>So learning about Dad&#39;s experiences in WWII came slowly.&nbsp; As years passed, he would talk about them more.&nbsp; I interviewed him in high school when I started being more active with family geneaology (I hope to make available online his oral histories someday, hopefully right here on Ancestry - alas, so far they only let you record by phone or computer audio files, but provide no method to upload existing ones...)&nbsp; During family gatherings, he&#39;d sometimes talk about it with my brother-in-laws, and I&#39;d stick close by to hear what I could.&nbsp; Later, he recorded memories on tape and wrote many of them down on paper.<br>&nbsp;<br>I learned many of his army buddies&#39; names - Alabama, Wassing, Sickles, Stoneroad.&nbsp; I met Wassing - Marv Wassing - a few times when I was a little girl.&nbsp; Later, when Dad and Mom had their golden wedding anniversary, I attempted to invite Marv and his wife to attend, but he was very ill.&nbsp; Dad and I called him on the phone and spoke with him for awhile.&nbsp; It was the last time they spoke - Wassing died a few weeks later. <br>&nbsp;<br>Dad had lost contact with Stoneroad.&nbsp; He mentioned often how he&#39;d love to get in touch with him again.&nbsp; In the late 1990&#39;s, I made it my mission to track him down.&nbsp; I did a lot of searching online, including military reunion groups.&nbsp; After a lot of research and many emails, I located someone who knew how to get in touch with him.&nbsp; I emailed a relative, and soon we had his current address and phone number.&nbsp; I passed it on to Dad, and shortly thereafter Dad called <br>&nbsp;<br>Henry Stoneroad, his old friend.&nbsp; Stoneroad was very surprised - but pleased - to be hearing from Dad.&nbsp; Tentative plans were made for them to meet as soon as they could.&nbsp; Ideas were tossed around.&nbsp; Alas, due to circumstances and Dad&#39;s decreasing health, they never were able to meet in person.&nbsp; They spoke a few more times on the phone, but that was all.&nbsp; I&#39;m still thrilled to have been able to get them back in touch with one another... <br>&nbsp;<br>Dad was in the 127th Infantry of the 32nd Division, or the &quot;Red Arrow Division&quot;.&nbsp; When Dad was with the 127th, they were involved in the campaigns in New Guinea, Philipines, and mainland Japan (occupational forces...) <br>&nbsp;<br>I loved my father for many reasons - he was a loving, gentle man with a quiet sense of humour and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.&nbsp; His humble beginnings and later life may appear unremarkable, but he was anything but.&nbsp; He showed me how a man should love a woman, by the loving and warm way he cared for my Mom (and it wasn&#39;t always easy...but that is ANOTHER story!) I was very proud of him.<br>&nbsp;<br>My Dad passed away on August 8, 2001...Due to an announcement I placed in his unit&#39;s newsletter, I received a letter - see http://trishymouse.net/vet.html<br>&nbsp;<br>Not long after we lost Dad, I discovered the Veteran&#39;s History Project.&nbsp; I sent for their Project Kit, filled out the paperwork, and sent it in with a DVD of his voice and images, plus copies of his written memiors.&nbsp; They are now part of the official record in the Library of Congress...

Randy Thorsvig on May 27:

UUuumm OAT a nice piece to add to your beautifully written article would be the research you did on those reunions led to his grandson (me) attending the Red Arrow Reunion in Albuquerque, NM in place of Grandpa which I count as one of my greatest things in life right there with the birth of my daughter Molly, Grandpa's great granddaughter. That was a pretty amazing event even though I didn't meet anyone that knew grandpa just being in the presence of those great men was truly an honor and they excepted me in place of grandpa as an equal which still makes me speechless. I remember all the things grandpa told me in the same manner as you wrote, over time and only bits at a time. I only regret not pulling a little harder the one story he took to his grave, was how he was awarded the Bronze Star he could never bring himself to telling that one, and yes almost every time he told of his time WWII tears would always roll down his face. I love my grandfather just for that reason he was my grandfather, but I BEAM with pride when I get to tell people of who he was and what he did, he was a soldier and served his country without question and fought for my freedoms. Great Article Aunt Trish (OAT) I tend to ramble when it comes to talking about grandpa and could go on and on about what he did and who he was to me. Randy, Proud Grandson of SSG (E6) Gordon L. Short

Trish Lewis on May 27:

Yeah, I was thinking same,i.e., putting on here about the research I did to find out about Grandpa's 127th Infantry unit group and reunion, etc. I'd also like to put down more about Stoneroad, who was a leader in the Oklahoma Cherokee Nation (yes was full-blooded native american, a HUGE tall guy Dad remembered quite fondly as one of his best army buddies...)

Betty_Thorsvig on May 27:

Not a Memorial Day goes by without thinking of the love and honor I think of my father, my Daddy. We always attended the Memorial services, always. The last one we attended together was in Moorhead, MN. Dad's health was poor but he so proudly stood when they were asked and held his salute with tears rolling down his cheeks - an American hero in my eyes. Yes, Randy, you are so much like your Grandfather. My only regret is why do we wait till our loved ones are gone to think of things we would like to ask or say to them?....Do it now.

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<p>My Dad had several buddies in the Army during World War II.&nbsp; Wassing was one of them, Alabama another...and then there was Stoneroad.&nbsp; Henry Stoneroad was a tall, large man, Native American Cherokee, from Oklahoma.&nbsp; In all the old pictures of the group, Stoneroad stood out.&nbsp; I wish I could remember more of the stories my Dad shared about his old buddies, but they are lost in my childhood memories, maybe to surface again in my old age.&nbsp;</p><p>In the meantime, I wanted to share with my family what I _do_ remember, and that is how once a few years ago, when once again discussing the war years, my Dad said in passing that he wished he could get in touch with Stoneroad again before it was too late.&nbsp; I took that to heart and started to track him down.&nbsp; I went online and found a website feared towards just that thing (it wasn&#39;t easy to find, but I am stubborn...!)&nbsp; I posted a message - see&nbsp;http://trishymouse.net/family/stoneroad.html&nbsp;- in their &quot;FRIENDS LOST&quot; thread in July 1999, hoping for a response, but knowing all too well it was like searching for a needle in a haystack; chances were slim.&nbsp;</p><p>About 6 months later, I got a call from a relative of Stoneroad, who found out about my search (I don&#39;t remember if he saw it himself, or someone else told him about it).&nbsp; I think it was a nephew of Stoneroad.&nbsp; I gave him Mom and Dad&#39;s phone number in New Mexico to pass on to his Uncle, and got off the phone on cloud nine.&nbsp; </p><p>I was thrilled to be able to do this for Dad.&nbsp; They spoke several times as a result of my helping them find one another, and even hoped to visit one another, but it wasn&#39;t meant to be...</p>

I found the information below recently about Parkinson&#39;s disease, and the link between some WWII veterans and the disease. I&#39;ve also heard that persons living in agricultural areas as my Dad did most of his life run a higher risk due to exposure to many chemicals used on the farm. That, and genetic predisposal, and it all comes down to higher likelihood of the disease presenting itself...<br><br>________________________<br><br>The cause of Parkinson&#39;s disease is unknown. Many researchers believe that several factors combined are involved: free radicals, accelerated aging, environmental toxins, and genetic predisposition.<br><br>It may be that free radicals-unstable and potentially damaging molecules that lack on electron-are involved in the degeneration of dopamine-producing cells. Free radicals add an electron by reacting with nearby molecules in a process called oxidation, which can damage nerve cells. Chemicals called antioxidants normally protect cells from oxidative stress and damage. If antioxidative action fails to protect dopamine-producing nerve cells, they could be damaged and, subsequently, Parkinson&#39;s disease could develop.<br><br>Dysfunctional antioxidative mechanisms are associated with older age as well, suggesting that the acceleration of age-related changes in dopamine production may be a factor. Exposure to an environmental toxin, such as a pesticide, that inhibits dopamine production and produces free radicals and oxidation damage may be involved.<br><br>Roughly one-fifth of Parkinson&#39;s disease patients have at least one relative with parkinsonian symptoms, suggesting that a genetic factor may be involved. Several genes that cause symptoms in younger patients have been identified. Most researchers believe, however, that most cases are not caused by genetic factors alone.<br><br>EXPOSURE TO FARM CHEMICALS<br><br>http://www.eap.mcgill.ca/MagRack/JPR/JPR_17.htm<br><br>http://www.iastate.edu/Inside/2002/0118/parkinson.shtml<br><br>WWII VETERANS<br><br>http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_8_155/ai_54062668<br><br>Research into non-genetic risk factors has been extensive but inconclusive. One series of studies focused on the island of Guam, where, after World War II, PD was recognized to occur with high frequency among the native Chamorro population. Some researchers have argued that the source of the syndrome is a &quot;slow toxin&quot;-a deleterious factor whose neurodegenerative effects are expressed only years after exposure-in a food source, the seeds of the plant Cycas circinalis, which had been a staple for the Chamorros during the Japanese occupation.<br><br>From http://www.checnet.org/healthehouse/education/articles-detail.asp?Main_ID=479

<p>September 14, 1951 Issue of <em>The Pembina New Era</em>:</p><p>Gordon Short came back to St. Vincent Friday to pick up Mrs. Short and the children to go back to Minneapolis where he is a student at Gale Institute.</p>

Dad told me the story once of two broncos Grandpa Short had. &nbsp; They were downright ornery - hard to harness and work, but were tireless. &nbsp; One day, somehow, Dad&#39;s younger sister, Edna wandered into the corral. &nbsp; She went right under the one bronco&#39;s belly. &nbsp; Grandpa spotted her, holding his breath...The horse just looked around, sniffed her thoroughly, and waited as she left.<br><br>When Dad was around 7 years old, he went out with his Dad and the hired men during haying. &nbsp; He knew how to handle driving lines, so when they had to tend to a piece of equipment, they asked him to take the lines of the hay wagon. &nbsp; Well, something spooked the team, pitching Dad forward between the two horses. &nbsp; Before he could roll over to avoid the wagon wheels, one rolled over his arm. &nbsp; He still hurt there when the weather was right, the rest of his life.<br><br>Dad remembered one big work horse they had called &quot;Fred&quot;. &nbsp; He was their &quot;calf horse&quot;. &nbsp; If a cow ever had trouble calving, they&#39;d hook up a rope or chain to &quot;Fred&quot;, the other end on the calf&#39;s legs (if it was a breech birth...) &nbsp; Somehow &quot;Fred&quot; always knew when the cow would give, because he always pulled with, not against, the cow. &nbsp; Nine times out of 10 the calf was saved.<br><br>When a county ditch was being made through the farm on Section I, a horse loose in a pasture got bogged down in the mud in the ditch. &nbsp; The ditch was being made through the main pasture, and as the horse was walking on the ridge of dirt formed by the digging, he slipped and fell in. &nbsp; This horse was one of the workhorses on the farm, so Grandpa Short and his sons went out to see what had happened to it. &nbsp; When they finally found the horse, it was so bogged down that they knew they&#39;d have to pull it out. &nbsp; It had been struggling to get out itself out however, and was very weak; they finally had to shoot it...

Billrey74 on Jul 26:

interesting stories. I never heard Uncle Gordon talk about his child hood. Fun to read.It is so hard to think that so many years have passed and so many people now gone. I am so glad I was able to have Aunt Harriet and Uncle Gordon out here for Christrmas and Thanksgiving dinners when I did as it was shortly after that they moved back near you kids. But I have good memories of us all being together here and me being able to cook for them and have a nice family dinner with them and my kids and Lee.

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<p>When I was growing up, there were only a few years that I remember my sisters being around. I was the baby of the family, and my two sisters were much older than I was. Betty was nine years older, and Sharon eleven. I remember fragmented memories of them at home - Sharon&#39;s high school science project of breeding hamsters getting a bit out of control in the old barn. Taking Sharon to the depot to take the train to Illinois where she&#39;d be attending college, Mom and I very sad, crying as she stepped onto the train. Betty dating, and being picked up by her boyfriends. One boy took her to the fair and won her some stuffed animals which I eventually inherited. Another became fairly serious - Charlie was his name - and I was very sad when Betty broke his heart by breaking off with him after meeting Bill (now her husband of over 30 years!) Betty taking out the first new car my parents ever owned, my parents later finding out she had driven it in a farmer&#39;s field. <br><br>After Betty graduated in 1968, I was all alone with Mom and Dad. I was only 9 years old, and just starting to be more social, coming out of a shell where I mostly played alone. Part of that was due to my physical problems when I was younger. Part of it was due to the geographical isolation of where we lived. So, as you might imagine, quite a bit of my growing up was as an &#39;only child&#39;... <br><br>My parents didn&#39;t take vacations like many people would, where you&#39;d go on a road trip across America, or to a Lake Cabin, or to Disneyland, etc. When we did go somewhere, it was usually short trips on the weekend, to relatives living in the county - a &#39;Sunday drive&#39;. You&#39;d enjoy the drive, the country air and nature on the way, and drop in on cousins to visit, have a meal. A clear memory of these journeys were being in the back seat sleeping, awakening to sun strobing through the trees... <br><br>On the rare occasions my father had some time built up - and a bit of money saved up - we&#39;d go on trips to visit other relatives near and far. One relative we visited more often than others was my Mom&#39;s sister and her husband, Aunt Pat and Uncle John Beaudette. Uncle John was a small, wiry fellow, French ancestry, who ran a body shop fixing cars. Aunt Pat was a working woman, always seemed a bit mysterious and glamourous to me. Uncle John smoked pipes, and both he and Aunt Pat were drinkers. My parents had drank alcohol once upon a time, too, but quit it more or less before I showed up. They felt it was the right thing to do when they got serious about their religion. However, when they visited my Uncle and Aunt, inevitably they would end up playing cards, having a drink or two, and laughing the night away in Aunt Pat&#39;s small kitchen. I would be left to myself to explore their house, which always fascinated me. I would always find the licorice in the candy dish, or marvel at the beautiful bedroom set in a hallway side-bedroom.* Sometimes I would sneak down into the basement and snoop around the old trunks and boxes to see what I might find. In the end, Aunt Pat would usually make me a malted milk, which I would eat slowly, then go into the side bedroom to fall asleep listening to the grown-ups talk... <br><br>* Ironically, years later, Aunt Pat gave me that set knowing I always admired it... </p>

<p>The greatest show on earth...<br><br>One of my early memories is one night my father working a late shift at the depot, and calling Mom to hurry and come over there. Very unusual for him to do. Mom didn&#39;t tell me why, wanting to surprise me.<br><br>When we got there, it he took us out back, on a deck by the tracks. It was pitch black, but a clear night with stars twinkling overhead as I looked up. As my eyes adjusted, I looked straight ahead and noticed a stopped train. I could hear the engine down the line idling, and once and awhile I could hear a car shift and bang against the next one. I soon could make out smells like a farm, and colorful pictures on the sides of the cars.<br><br>&quot;It&#39;s the circus train,&quot; my Dad said, a smile in his voice.<br><br>&quot;Really?&quot; I exclaimed, all wide-eyed.<br><br>&quot;Yep...it&#39;s the Barnum and Bailey, Ringling Brothers, too - the <em>Greatest Show on Earth</em> - see it on the train?&quot;<br><br>There it was, in large bold letters, along with pictures of elephants and clowns and horses.<br><br>&quot;Can we go closer, Dad?&quot; I asked.<br><br>&quot;Sorry, but it&#39;s just made a quick stop before going into Canada. You can&#39;t board, and it&#39;s too dangerous to go closer.&quot;<br><br>I was disappointed, but that passed quickly. Just to get a chance to see the train was magical. I knew it even then...</p>

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">I&rsquo;d say that everything was pretty quiet that evening. Some writing. Some reading. Small testaments and some praying. Sure enough, about 3:15 a.m. The mortars and heavy artillery opened up, and talk about noise! It was something really to behold. Of course, the enemy knew what was coming and they were prepared as much as possible. We had our meager breakfast and put away in packs things we could get to later. At 5:00 p.m. The small mortar firing stopped as we were going to be walking right into it, but the long-range heavy artillery kept up a good pace and did considerable damage. Sure have to give credit to the mortar and heavy artillery spotters and their judgment as to where the firing was supposed to be sent. If they made a slight mistake, it could land on our own troops, and this has happened. We started out on time and mortar and heavy duty artillery companies sure did their work as the going was not that tough, although there were casualties and injuries. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">It took us two or three days to secure this area. The Japs were very well entrenched and we had to use every bit of our fighting power to make them retreat or seal them up by using bulldozers, whenever we could, and the use of grenades, rifle power, flame throwers and mortars when possible. The casualty rate was not as high as we expected. There were enough of us that lived through the battle to fight another day. Thank God for that! I must tell you of one of the famous hills, number 502, up on a very high mountain. There was a trail on the high hill called </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>Villa Verde Trail</u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">&nbsp;and it was cut out of the mountainside by our troops of the Engineer Corps using bulldozers and so forth. They really risked their lives against the sharpshooters of the enemy. I shall describe it to you a little bit. The Villa Verde Trail twists its way twenty-four miles from the </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??] Plain to the mile-high mountain peaks of Luzon&rsquo;s </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>Terra Balo</u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"> [??] Mountains. They were the Japs chosen ground. Every mountain a fortress, every cave a pillbox. As the Sixth Army pushed its way north, the veteran doughboys of the 32nd Red Arrow Division fought for 119 consecutive days, killing more than 8,000 Japs to secure this approach to </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>Kagayan Valley</u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"> [??]. Just one more part of the action we&rsquo;d seen. I drove my six by six truck up this mountain several times hauling equipment, ammo, and kitchen supplies and food. Sometimes us drivers would be alone. Some in small convoys. Sometimes on these lone trips we would stop and pick up men and women </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>to vet</u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"> [??] the Filipinos in the Army uniform as they look so much like the Japs. You never knew for sure if it was a Jap in a Filipino uniform or not.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Many a time we would drive down the hills or mountains just using our blackout lights, and it was very dangerous driving because you couldn&rsquo;t see very much. Just had to follow the guy ahead of you. Sometimes I would be in the lead driver with an officer in the front with me. And that was worse than ever as you had no one to follow and with very little light I had . . . You had to go by sheer luck and it was sometimes loaded with equipment or personnel. One time we got orders to go up on this trail to the top of the mountain and bring the kitchen and all of its personnel. I had my truck loaded real full with equipment and men. It was a nice day and we were traveling a little too fast I think, but the officer said the enemy was close by so we kept up the pace. Every once in a while, the guys would holler out, &ldquo;Take it easy on the curves!&rdquo; We made it okay.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Another time we were ordered to haul a lot of troops and the kitchen. It was up to the front lines and it rained to beat the dickens and it got awful slippery. Well, when we got up to the mountain several hundred feet, we had some curves to go around. And one time we were going real slow and the truck ahead of me stopped and it caused me to stop right on a curve and I started sliding backwards. The guys on my truck were hollering like the blazes! Well, the truck behind me came up to me and touched my bumper to stop and held me as I was very close to a few-hundred-foot drop off. We were in a heck of a position until the officer said, &ldquo;Take a heavy duty chain and put it on the truck next to the last one and chain it to the last one.&rdquo; He then ordered everyone to start out together and push each other up the mountain. And the ones in front would be pulling also. That way the last truck would not be left alone and slide off the trail. We finally made it and what a relief! The engineers with the heavy duty equipment were a blessing and took some awful dangerous risks with the bulldozers. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">One time when I was still in the walking infantry, we were stopped on another hill with Japs in front of us and on the side of us. We could see the Japs in front of us quite well and the ones on our side gave us more trouble. They were entrenched quite solid and was really annoying us with the rifle fire and mortar shells. One time I was standing alongside of a foxhole and a round came in, whistled right by me and landed right in the foxhole between two guys talking to each other. What a mighty close call for all three of us. The officer close by called back to the engineer who had a dozer with them. He sent out a patrol and found out where the firing was coming from. The bulldozer he had to chain up and was told where the cave was and as he started forward, the Japs opened up with small ammunition fire. He raised the blade on the dozer and stopped all shells and bullets coming at him. In a short while we got near the cave and sealed it shut. That was the end of that skirmish and we left the next day as the Japs ahead of us moved out during the night.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">I forgot one of the most important parts of our experiences on the front lines was mail call. We sure loved that! Believe it or not, we had visitations by the Red Cross ladies and some men also would come up and give us some goodies. Bless their hearts! They sure were some brave people, I would say! </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Some more things that happened while I was a foot soldier was we got to a certain area and we were pinned down as there was quite a concentration of the enemy around us. We soon ran out of water to drink and food to eat. The trees were quite different than the ones we had stateside, and they had what we called elephant ears. Well, when we were pinned down and couldn&rsquo;t get to water, we would get up early in the morning and lick the dew off the leaves to get some moisture to our lips and tongue. We did this for two or three days and the water carriers were finally able to get through to us. While we were in that situation, we had very little or no rations. I had a real small can of meat and a little portable gas heater I had confiscated from somewhere I won&rsquo;t say, and I managed to always to get gas form the truckers for it. Well, on the second day my buddy said to me, &ldquo;Short, you got anything to eat.&rdquo; And I said, &ldquo;Yes. Let&rsquo;s have a one course meal.&rdquo; So I took out the can of beef meat while he lit this stove and we took our can of meat, heated it up and gouged [gorged??] ourselves on that meat. </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??] There was some moisture </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??] and we were really welcome then.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Finally after the third day without eating more food, we heard a couple of airplanes coming towards us as they started dropping big food packages to us. As the enemy was close by and they were being fired upon, they came in close, dropped quickly and left in a hurry. There was supposed to be enough food in each container to last six men for three days. The Japs never bothered us while we retrieved the containers. There was a big can of sliced ham, a big can of half peaches and a big can of whole beans, some K-ration boxes, matches and cigarettes, chocolate candy bars, several cans of bouillon and several packages of coffee. But I tell you we never had anything but my gas stove to heat up the bacon, beans and bouillon. We were so darn hungry that one guy spoke up and said, &ldquo;Hell I&rsquo;m (not)[??] going to eat my share cold,&rdquo; and the rest of us did the same too. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">One good thing that the big elephant ear leaves were good for was when it was raining, it covered our head and most of our body, too. Many a time we had to march in bad weather and we would be carrying full pack, ammo with machine gun and other supplies we&rsquo;d have to have to climb </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??] up hill and many a time we&rsquo;d flip back down and try again. Many a time when we were in our advancements, we had to climb up steep embankments when it was real rainy and muddy. When we weren&rsquo;t doing that, we were crossing streams in water which was all the way from knee deep to shoulder deep. The hardest part was trying to keep our ammo and guns dry, and of course any K-rations dry also and cigarettes if we had any left. One thing that was taboo on the front line was alcoholic beverages of any kind. Sometimes if we ran out of good drinking water we&rsquo;d be allowed to fill our canteens with </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??] water we had </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??] while walking through, but we had to put an Atabrine tablet in it so that it would make it safe to drink and we wouldn&rsquo;t get sick from it. We were suppose to wait for about a half an hour or so before drinking. But sometimes we would drink some right away as we were so darn thirsty. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">I remember one time when we were being shifted from one area to another near the front lines, we did not have enough trucks to haul us so we had to walk it, and the distance was some twenty or thirty miles. We were asked if we could make it and how our feet were. Some had infections in the legs and feet. Most of them were okay, but some were lying about their conditions and wanted to walk and be with their buddies. The bad ones were hauled a different route by truck. Well, the ones including myself started out walking and after several miles the bad ones with bad sores and bleeding quite badly sure gave the medics a busy time trying to keep clean bandages and dressings on the sores. Mine never got too bad. Towards the end we were carrying a few on stretchers and had to travel real slow. But we all made it and was glad for that.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Another time when I was a litter bearer &ndash; this was in daylight &ndash; we were ordered to go up to the front lines to pick up wounded. We had to go through an opening in the trees and the Japs had the spot zeroed in on us. The officer at this point halted us and said you would have to make a dash for it while our machine gunners would open fire to our sides and in an angle in front of us. We would be sent off one at a time and run like frightened deer. We made it but we were fired upon, but kept down low. When we got to the place where the wounded were, we helped put a wounded man on the stretchers. He had both of his legs badly mangled and twisted completely around. He wasn&rsquo;t in any pain at the time as he was given morphine or other kind of medicine to kill the pain. Our sergeant told him he was a lucky guy &ndash; you just have a one-way ticket home when you get back to the hospital. The man smiled and said, &ldquo;Yes, you betcha!&rdquo; </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Well, we picked him up and started out with him over some of the harder terrain you ever did see. We had to carry him down steep inclines and up the other side through very dense underbrush and fallen trees. We came to a point where there was another team waiting to take him while we went to get another one. We were very lucky because shortly after we gave him, the wounded man, two without a team came, they came upon a small opening and the Japs seized this opportunity to open fire on them. The wounded man was shot and killed instantly and so was one of the stretcher bearers. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">In another area we were in action quite a bit of the time, but for a short period of time we were at rest camp. I wasn&rsquo;t feeling good and wasn&rsquo;t eating. One day, one of my sergeants walked by me and he turned around and looked back at me again and said, &ldquo;My God, but you sure look yellow all over, especially your hands and eyes, and you must have yellow jaundice.&rdquo; And he asked me how I felt and I told him. He said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to get on the phone and call the rear medics and send you in to them for a check up.&rdquo; </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">The medics checked me over and confirmed it and called for a small airplane to take me to a hospital about seventy miles away. Three planes arrived shortly as there was enough patients for the three airplanes. We took off shortly after they arrived and I was assigned a certain cot in the field hospital. Then I started getting shots and other kinds of medicine. The chow lines were doubled. One was for the ones on a liquid diet &ndash; that was for me, and another whole food for others. Well, after a few days I felt better. I would slip over into the whole food line. I was in the hospital for one whole month and then returned to my outfit. While I was in the hospital for that month, our outfit was relieved from duty on the front lines, and on the way back to the rest area the Japanese opened up with mortar and other shelling. Well, my sergeant buddy got hit and blew both legs off. He asked to be sat up against a tree. He lit up a cigarette. He took two, three or four puffs on it and threw it away and said, &ldquo;This is it!&rdquo; Leaned over to one side and died. The rest of the guys made it okay. This is something I read in the magazine that was published and given out about the combat history of the 32nd Infantry Division, World War II, published by the Public Relations Office of the 32nd Infantry Division&hellip; </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><em>The 32nd Infantry Division fought on places such as Buna </em></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><em>[??], </em></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><em>[??], Leyte and Luzon. Exotic names for strange places. Invisible points on the map of the Pacific. Places, names have little significance prior to December 7, 1941, now they are in emblazoned on the pages of history placed there in shining glory by the 32nd Infantry Division. Three years overseas as of midnight April 21, 1941. 13,030 hours of combat, more than any other division in World War II, have gone into the record. 543 days of death and destruction, of disease and hunger and thirst, of pain, agony and self-sacrifice. These of glorious victory. These of heroism and valor. 543 days for Tojo&rsquo;s dream of conquest.&rdquo; </em></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Tojo was a ruler of Japan before and through the war years and was responsible for Japan being in the war. Another quote from the same magazine&hellip;</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; margin-right: 0.5in; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><em>Just one bit name given to the heroes of Buna was tagged with the 32nd Infantry Division. The majority of them were Wisconsin and Michigan National Guardsmen inducted in federal service when the 32nd Division was reactivated in October, 1940. They trained at Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, until February, 1941, then moved to the nearby newly built Camp Livingston. Troop trains rolled down from the North, bringing selectees from Wisconsin and Michigan to fill the division ranks. Three months of maneuvers in Louisiana followed by two months in the Carolinas trained and toughened the men and developed the Division into a team. It was necessary. It was ready; the 32nd were ordered to go to a staging camp at Fort Devins, Massachusetts, preparatory to sailing from New York port of embarkation for an unknown destination. Replacements, men from every state in the union, brought the division up to combat strength. This division was also called the Red Arrow division.</em></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">The Japs called the 32nd Division the &ldquo;Bloody butchers of Buna.&rdquo; And although the grim ghastly battle of Papuan jungle may be dimmed in memory by the latter excess of allied to arms, the enemy does not forget that it was at Buna that the Japanese fallacy of invincibility was proven. It was Buna that General MacArthur started his return to the Philippines. It was at Buna that the 32nd Infantry Division helped win the first U.S. Army ground campaign over the Japanese in the war. It was not an easy victory. Casualties numbered more than the total strength of the division when it went into combat. However, nature proved to be the greater enemy. More men were cut down by jungle diseases and tropical fevers than were victims of enemy action. Each day the heat, the humidity, and the disease sapped the strength of those who did not fall, killed or wounded. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">All through the fighting at New Guinea and at the Philippines, the Australian soldiers played a very important part in most of all battles. They did not know the meaning of fear. Very courageous at hand, brave and very good in everything they went to do, and very friendly to talk to and work with. When they did their duties, they did it thoroughly.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">I cannot describe each battle too much that we were in, but it was not a pleasant sight to be walking down the trail in the jungle and see the Japanese soldiers and American soldiers dead, lying in some awful gruesome shape because there had not been time to bury them. There was hoards of maggots on their face and bodies. Sometimes you would see a discarded Japanese or American tank with the crew dead inside or around the tank. They had a kind of a tank, when it was hit, the shrapnel hit them and they either died from their wounds or was burnt real bad from the exploding gasoline from the flame throwers that was usually upon them. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Towards the end of the war, things began to calm down a bit. I can truthfully say when we got the news that Germany had surrendered we were really happy and thrilled over it, and that we started concentrating on our last enemy, the Japs. On our mop-up duties, there was seldom opposition from the Japanese anymore as they had their food supply cut off and they could only find food from the land, mostly berries, and they got so darn weak they could hardly walk. Not only that, but they got sick with dysentery and really stunk up the trails we had to walk on. One time we came upon some Japanese soldiers by a stream of water. They were to weak to resist or fight in any way. They easily surrendered. We took them back and turned them over to the MP, military police. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">We thought all along that we would have to invade Japan homeland, and I&rsquo;m sure glad we didn&rsquo;t have to, as we heard afterwards that our outfit was scheduled to go in on attack in the ninth wave and they figured that the first fifteen waves would be annihilated by the Japs&rsquo; shore batteries, big guns dug in along the shores where the Americans were suppose to land. I&rsquo;m sure I wouldn&rsquo;t be here writing and recording all of this if this had come about. I once read that the Japs had over a 400,000 men and boys enlisted for military to protect the homeland if need be. Thank God for the atom bomb that was dropped on the two cities that forced them to surrender and we did not have to invade the mainland of Japan itself. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">It might have been a cruel thing to do, killing so many civilians, but they never thought or hesitated a moment when they attacked Pearl Harbor. All these people never had a chance. Soon after the bombing, Japan surrendered. And then we were trucked back along with the foot soldiers, and officers </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>went out in the jungles, went only on the roadways</u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"> [??] and our Air Force dropped leaflets that Japan had surrendered. And of course, the Japs had been notified by their own side. They came from all over, hardly able to walk, and stacked their weapons where they were told. The Japanese soldiers were very obedient to their officers and really minded them well. When we got our trucks full, we would haul them up to a place of security. They were well guarded on the trucks and their place of encampment. General Yamashita was the Japanese field general and later was tried as a war criminal and hanged in the area where we were at for the atrocities he allowed the Japanese troops to do against the enemy. This is the end for now.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">After the surrender of Japan, there really wasn&rsquo;t much need for a lot of us soldiers to remain in that zone. So they placed our unit and several others on ships and sent us to Japan for occupational duty there and be there until our number was called for return home to the United States of America. We were placed on big ships and sent to Japan. It did not take long to get there. And before we unloaded into smaller boats, we got a good look at some of the huge gun emplacements &ndash; only a few &ndash; because the best and heaviest weapons were so well concealed you couldn&rsquo;t see them. When we were unloaded on shore, we were hauled to our assigned base, and they were really nice. Our duties were minimal and we could relax and do most anything we wanted to do. Along with the good food we got there, we were issued three cans of beer daily, and if we wanted anything stronger to drink, we could buy a Japanese drink called sake, a really strong Japanese alcohol. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Well, all went good until one morning at reveille the lieutenant said to us all that if we had any of that strong drink that we should turn it in as they found or was supposed to have found some that was not good and was slightly poisoned and was making some of the troops very sick. We all had some and he told us where we were to turn it in. We all did as we were told and nothing more was said of the issue. Another time at reveille the 1st sergeant said as toilet paper was getting to be of short supply that when we used it we should only used three or four sheets at a time when we went to the toilet. Needless to say, there was a lot of heehaws and some giggling over that remark. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">As I was still in the truck driving company, I was assigned on certain days to go to the train station and pick up all the mail for the battalion. Of course, a lieutenant always went along and he always had a .45 revolver strapped on his hip. It was military regulations, I guess. Before the train came in, I asked the lieutenant what those openings on the platform were. Well, he said, &ldquo;You just wait and see.&rdquo; The train soon came in at quite a rapid pace and when they were at the right place they came to a sudden stop when they applied the brakes. The passengers were packed in solid in the cars, some in seats and a lot of them standing. They started to unload very rapidly and the lieutenant said to me, &ldquo;Now watch.&rdquo; The people, mostly the women, and it wasn&rsquo;t very long before I found out what the opening on the platforms were for. They women got off the train and ran and some squatted over the holes and most of them wore dresses and urinated in the holes. When they finished they put down their dress and went on their way. It was quite a sight for a country bumpkin to see and I turned to the lieutenant and he said, &ldquo; Now you know!&rdquo; I said, &ldquo; Yes, sir,&rdquo; and he laughed. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">We got the load of mail and went back to camp with it. We would often play tricks on one another like goosing the guy in front of us in the chow line. And when you did this, you would poke the guy in front of him, and when I was right behind a guy who was goosing, I touched him and he socked the guy ahead of him. Pretty hard, too. The guy turned around and said, &ldquo;What in the hell was that for?&rdquo; The guy that did the goosing or poked him and pointed at me and I told him I had just stumbled and could not help it. The guy took it good-naturedly and that settled that.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">One thing a truck driver didn&rsquo;t have to do was change tires on his truck, as we never had any tire tools. Sometimes I would have all the way from one flat to three flats a day. Not on the same day, of course. It all depended upon the terrain we were driving in. We really enjoyed our short stay in Japan and our long passes to go into town. When we were not on pass or on a driving detail, believe it or not, we did not even have to stand reveille. We could sleep as long as we wanted to, eat breakfast when we wanted to. Most of that day we would clean up, do our bed making, do our laundry, play poker, read books or just shoot the bull. We were not on a strict daily routine. I remember one time when it wasn&rsquo;t my time to drive for mail. The lieutenant come in our barracks and said to me, &ldquo; Short, would you please take so-and-so&rsquo;s trip for today as he wandered off for certain reasons.&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;Sure, Lieutenant!&rdquo; And he thanked me for it, as he was the one in charge for that trip that day. What the soldiers did in other areas I do not know as I really don&rsquo;t know why we were even sent there. Guess it was just a staging center for us to wait until our number came up to go home. The ones that were in the service the longest overseas were given the highest number and they were called first. I remember when the highest number was 148 and mine was 44. The numbers were called off daily and as they were called off they would be shipped out the very next day. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">I can remember when </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??] and my number were called in the chow line. One of our lieutenants came in and told us that we were selected. Marvin [Wassing], myself, and some two or three other guys besides were called and told to be ready to be picked up to leave by truck to go to the depot at ten o&rsquo;clock the next day. We sure had some happy guys. Only thing is, the truck we rode in was driven by another driver, was my truck that I always drove. It was funny to be sitting in the back and not up front driving. When we got to the place, after leaving the trucks we were taken by train to the port where we were loaded on a ship, the USS </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??]. It was quite a peaceful feeling knowing that we had some </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??] and now we had to cross a large ocean again to get back home. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>Little did we know that between getting ourselves into</u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"> [??] when we were part of or halfway home. We ran into a very severe storm and we were ordered down into our compartments. And when we were all down, the latch was locked and we would remain shut until the storm was over. We could get to the mess hall. </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>The doors leading into other compartments until we got to the mess hall</u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"> [??]. You still had a hard time to keep our mess trays and coffee cups in front of us. At night we would have to tie ourselves into our bunks to keep from falling out. On the second day of the heavy storm, the waves must have been terrific as the ship was listing quite heavily, near to 40-45 mark as it were .... We were locked in and we couldn&rsquo;t get out. The sailors told us later that any degree over 45 or 47 was close to capsizing. I was told that the captain had ordered all hands back to duty to keep the ship afloat and be ready to launch small boats if they could. It was quite an ordeal. And to us, we were shut up in the holds of the ship thinking that, &ldquo;Is this the way we would be ending our lives after going through so much in the jungles and other places on the battlefield?&rdquo; A lot of guys were praying and we were very quiet. Very little sleep that night. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">I guess the ship crew had their hands full, but they did a superb job and were told so. But they accepted the praise quite calmly and said they were just doing the job and what they were trained to do . Most of the time we had on the last leg of the journey trip was quite uneventful. Nothing but goofing off, reading, writing letters to be mailed later, playing poker or other card games, and play a harmonica or ukulele. Yes, one guy had one </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??]. And this is all for now. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">After a few idle days we knew we were getting close to the States. The captain of the ship came on the loud speaker and said that within forty-eight hours we would be near enough to the West Coast that we would be able to see the coastline. We didn&rsquo;t know for sure what part we were going to dock at. Soon we knew that it was going to be Seattle, Washington. By that time, we were getting mighty anxious to get there. It was in the late afternoon that we got into the dock, and it was a beautiful day. There was a tremendous amount of people there meeting loved ones and just good friends of the returning soldiers. The Red Cross ladies were there giving out the usual cookies, coffee, milk, and so forth. We did not have fresh milk to drink for such a long time. Boy, it really tasted good! </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">After a certain amount of time spent there, we were taken to the camp to stay overnight. We were assigned to barracks. We were escorted to the mess hall, and what a banquet they set out for us. We could have anything we wanted to drink. Of course, most of us took milk again and a bottle or two of beer if we wanted to. We were also given several choices of food to eat like ham, chicken, cold meats, fresh baked buns, veggies of all kinds and pies and ice cream. And believe it or not, we were waited upon by German workers. We got to talking to some of them and they told us that they did not want to go back home, that they really liked it here. They also told us that they really liked our butter and ice cream as in their country they could not get it or it wasn&rsquo;t available to them. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Well, after a very scrumptious meal we went over to the PX and tried to drink some beer, but that didn&rsquo;t go over too good as we were to darn full of food and couldn&rsquo;t get it down. So finally we had to settle for just going back to the barracks and just lie down and dream of being home again. It must have been the next day or so that we were informed that we would be put on trains for our discharge center at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. We were sure was a happy bunch. I don&rsquo;t know exactly how long it took us to get there but we sure was in a good mood. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Upon arriving at the camp, we were soon processed real quickly, getting some mustering out pay, a lot of red tape, of course, even asked if we wanted to stay into the service and would sign up for it again for four years. I did not stay in. Neither did </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>Wassing</u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">, my buddy, and a good many others. The next day we were taken to the rail depot, our last ride in a military vehicle. And we all had our tickets bought for us by military to our destination homes. We boarded our train on time. There were soldiers, both men and women, on this crowded train of all ranks and we were just like one big happy family. Needless to say we had plenty of booze. So after a while the whole darn train full was getting tanked. There were also some poker games going and some playing musical instruments, and some just having what we thought was a good time. I guess maybe it was; when we thought it was at the time. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Maybe some folks think that this was terrible, but there was those ... some people would do the same very same thing during our years and they could not do it every night. They could do that every night, I meant, they have so many worries about being killed or wounded while some of us was protecting them. What the soldiers did, they deserved to good times when they could find it. Our train was scheduled for St. Paul-Minneapolis. We all were from Minnesota. We were a very sober bunch when we parted after our goodbyes to each other. I know that Marvin </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">and I sure did hate to part. He lived in St. Paul, Minnesota. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">I continued on to Grand Forks on a coast to coast train and then transferred to a smaller </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??]line train to </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??], North Dakota. It was the 20th day of December, 1945, that I arrived in </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??], North Dakota. My father-in-law, Albert Fitzpatrick, was at the depot to pick me up. Harriet, my wife, was unable to come to the depot as she was recovering from pneumonia and could not leave the house. Naturally we were very glad to see one another. So ends my military career. I&rsquo;m glad I had the opportunity to serve my country and also to have survived everything we had to go through. Praise God for watching over me at the part of my life I was not a Christian. I was not Christian yet, but I am now. I may add a few more incidents later, as I think of it. Signed, Gordon Short.</font></font></font></p><p style="border-right: medium none; padding-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding-bottom: 0.01in; line-height: 99%; border-bottom: #000000 1pt solid; widows: 0; orphans: 0; border-: medium none; padding-: 0in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Addendum: Here is some more incidents that happen on Leyte and Luzon. One day as I was on assignment with my truck, I had to go to a place that had clothing, bedding, and so forth like at the supply depot, with a lieutenant in charge and two other soldiers to help load my truck. When we had finished our loading and on the way home we watched some paratroopers jump in and practice from a low altitude of about 1,200 feet and we witnessed a very sad sight. They usually jump in groups of ten. Well, this group we watched jump, the first nine of their shoots opened successfully, but the tenth one </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??] his front and back shoots failed to open all the way and he came down quite rapidly. Even though he was the last one out, he was the first one down of his group. He was killed instantly in contact with the ground. </font></font></font></p><p style="border-right: medium none; padding-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding-bottom: 0.01in; line-height: 99%; border-bottom: #000000 1pt solid; widows: 0; orphans: 0; border-: medium none; padding-: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p style="border-right: medium none; padding-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding-bottom: 0.01in; line-height: 99%; border-bottom: #000000 1pt solid; widows: 0; orphans: 0; border-: medium none; padding-: 0in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">A couple of days later, as we had to make another run to the supply depot, and on the way home we picked up a bunch of paratroopers that had just made a successful jump. And I asked the sergeant about the incident we had seen happen. He told us that the man who&rsquo;s shoot did not open was squashed together like an accordion and had bled a lot. He said that they were trained for that sort of thing as they lose at times two or three men in the paratroop group, theirs and other groups, but sometimes they know about . . . something they know about when they enlist and train to be a regular paratrooper. I&rsquo;m glad I was in the branch of service that I was in. Although there was plenty of danger in all branches of service, even in the back line, such as hospitals, kitchens and supply depots. They were all shelled well over, you might say, and some even charged with Japanese banzai attack on these places. And they showed no mercy on any of these units. This is all for recording for now. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 2.5in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">End tape #1</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; page-break-before: always; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Interviewee: Gordon Short </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Interviewer: Patricia Short</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Date of interview: December 12, 1977 </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Location: St. Vincent, MN</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Category: Autobiographical</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Could you tell me some interesting stories that you can remember that maybe had something to do with your grandparents or your mom and dad said about your grandparents or anything?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: The only thing I can think of now that would be interesting would be when we came back from Seattle, I was three years and a half, four years old. And we stayed with my grandparents up at the McIntosh.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Which grandparents were they?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Mr. And Mrs. Jorgen Sannes. And the most particular thing I can remember is...was in the fall of the year when we were picking potatoes. Actually, I wasn&rsquo;t, but the men folks were. But I was out in the potato field too, like all little kids would be. And they gave me the job of standing in the wagon and holding onto the lines of a team of horses that were hitched to this wagon and when the potato pickers would fill their baskets they would signal to me or call to me to make the horses move and bring the wagon up to them so they could dump them. This was alright until the wagon began to fill up a little bit and I was standing in front and they motioned for me to come up. And I seen the men folks slap the horses on the rump with the lines before. So I thought well I&rsquo;ll go be a big shot to and do that. So I just said giddy up and gave the horses a slap with the line and they jerked a little bit faster that what I thought they would and I lost my balance and I fell forward, head first right down on the double trees and hit my head on what they called a double tree pin. And from there I fell underneath the wagon and my right arm was extended over my head. And one wheel just draped the top of my head and ran over my arm. And of course, my grandpa, he seen this all happen and one of my uncles and he picked me up right away and took me into the house, put me in the car and mother went along with me at the McIntosh. It was a small town just off a mile and a half away and took me to a doctor. The doctor said I was okay and he never checked my arm too much and right to today I know it is not as straight as the other one. Although at the time it didn&rsquo;t hurt me. And when we come to the doctor&rsquo;s office, grandpa, he always was a great for peppermint, white peppermints. He always had white peppermints in his pockets. So this time instead of giving me one or two white peppermints out of his pockets, he went to the store and bought me about a dimes worth of peppermints and you could get a pretty good size sack for that in them days. And right then and there, after getting them, I forgot all about my hurt and that peppermint was more of a cure than what the doctor could have given me I think. So, that was the only thing I could remember...that was happening when I was at their home. I can remember further back than that when at the times when we did live in Seattle, one or two incidents, but that will be another story later. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Uh, Could you tell me anything about your Grandma and Grandpa Sannes. You know, just about themselves? What kind of people they were like?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well, my Grandpa Sannes, he...I never knew him when he actually worked in the fields and fell cause all I...Every time I went up there and visited him, my Grandma and Grandpa Sannes...uh, their...One of their sons, Pete Sannes lived at home and he took care of the farming. And I believe Grandpa at this time was retired or semi-retired. He might of help some in the fields at his older age. And the time that I can remember were mostly he was around the place. He would be keeping the lights off or else he would be chopping wood.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What kind of person was he like though? Was he . . I mean was he somebody that got along well with people real well or what?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah, he was jolly fellow. He&rsquo;d always...He was kind of a tease though too. Although it was funny to hear him talk because he had such a Norwegian brogue that whenever he tried to make anything funny it really sounded hilarious because he tried to make it come out right and it wouldn&rsquo;t, but although it was very interesting. I can&rsquo;t . . .and my grandmother wasn&rsquo;t. She was a really down to earth person. I know she would go to all lengths you might say to make you feel at home and she would have her Norwegian dishes and if you didn&rsquo;t try and sample all of them, I tell you, you&rsquo;d make her feel bad. Um. I know when I was small and I used to stay there with them. The most interesting place...One of the most interesting places I can remember going into would be what they called the milk room, where they had the pea separated and they had the ...This room always did have a special smell. I mean it always smelled of cream and milk and all of those freshly scrubbed floor and things like that. And one time, I went up there and the...It was lamb feeding time and what I mean by lamb feeding time is because this poor...One or two lambs always gets left out of the mother. . . </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Bum lambs, you mean?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yes. They wouldn&rsquo;t...They were called bottle lambs. Grandma would say, &ldquo;Gordon, you want to feed the lambs?&rdquo; Boy, I couldn&rsquo;t ask for anything better. She&rsquo;d fill a bottle with milk, warm milk and out to the pasture we&rsquo;d go right along the fence and boy I&rsquo;ll tell you every lamb greet was _____[??] breaking. And if you ever seen any young animal nurse from its mother boy it&rsquo;s sure fun. The same way from the bottle. You just jerk, jerk, jerk, jerk, jerk and I don&rsquo;t see how they drink so fast, but they sure empty that bottle in a hurry. And when we&rsquo;d get through with that and they always want more of course only one bottle is what they&rsquo;ve got to feed until next time. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Was there ever any relatives or anybody that you seemed to identify with the most when you were a kid, you know, you like being around them or anything? An uncle or and aunt or anybody?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well, I . . .When I was . . .I suppose when I got to be around twelve, thirteen, fourteen years old, my favorite cousin was very short and because he knew if he was the one who hired me to come over and for cheap. And I would always have a horse and he had an old saddle. He would saddle the horse up for me in the morning and make me a peanut butter sandwich a couple cookies. And I&rsquo;d take along a corked </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>taylor</u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??84] of water and got on my horse. I had a little what we called a feather bed and...but it actually wasn&rsquo;t. It was just a sack tied at the top and put over the horn on the saddle. And I&rsquo;d get on this old horse. It wasn&rsquo;t too old. I guess it maybe was fairly young, but I&rsquo;d have to go about two miles through this pasture and then I&rsquo;d let the sheep out and then herd the sheep all day long. And then I would . . There was times when the sheep would lie down in the afternoon and there wasn&rsquo;t much to do. And I can remember that I got acquainted with another _____[??91]. And her name was...The fellow&rsquo;s name was Ed </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??] and he was plowing. And so I tied my horse to the tree and I got on the tractor with him and pretty soon he said, &ldquo;Say, would you like to drive?&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;Sure!&rdquo; I never steered a tractor in my life. And I was going along pretty good and pretty soon it started . . The wheels. You are supposed to keep the right wheels in the furrow. Pretty soon the wheels started coming out after a minute. Instead of bringing it back I steered it the other way and it got worse. And he said, &ldquo;No, you&rsquo;re going the wrong way.&rdquo; Now I&rsquo;d made too many rolls like that. And he said, &ldquo;Now, hold on. I&rsquo;ll tell you what I&rsquo;m going to do . I&rsquo;m going to get off this tractor and you&rsquo;re going to make a whole complete going by yourself.&rdquo; So that&rsquo;s the first time . . and I had to drive that tractor around the field and I had to </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>trip the paw</u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??99] at the end. On the ground and push in the ground at the other end. And that was my first experience with plowing with a tractor. I had a rode a horse...I had drove horses in a horse implement much younger than that, but that&rsquo;s the first experience I had with a tractor. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Was there a anything that you particularly liked when you were around the farm and you know. . . any chores and stuff you used to do around with the animals or anything?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well, I didn&rsquo;t mind doing chores cause we always did them together. Seemed like in the winter time when we had chores to do, I always got stuck with standing outside in the cold weather dealing with the pump, pumping water for the horses and cows while the others were in the barn where it was nice and warm and doing that kind of work, but I guess I can&rsquo;t complain too much because I got out of chores a lot of times cause I helped within the house. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well, was there any...I know all your animals in here were raised for livestock, you know or for working, but was there ever any animals that you ever, you know, some how got close to some how, like a cow or a horse or anything and you know you just liked them?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well, we had the one young horse there and this horse&rsquo;s name was Brownie and it was a mare and she was awful good at driving in a wagon. That&rsquo;s what you called a buggy. This buggy had </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??] in it and I think all the boys at home took turns driving her. We had her several years. He would hook her up in the morning and after he got her harnessed and fed. And take the hired men out in the field and come back about nine thirty o&rsquo;clock&hellip;about nine-thirty in the morning we&rsquo;d go out in the field again with fresh water, cool water and then make another trip at noon. And then we just did the same thing in the afternoon. I&rsquo;d say that little mare had about six trips out to that field everyday and she never complained&hellip;</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Did you ever breed her or have any foal sons?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No, no, but you put her out in the pasture at night and she was a foxy one in the morning trying to catch, I &lsquo;ll tell you. She wouldn&rsquo;t come in alone. You had to drag the other horses in. She&rsquo;d come in with the other horses, but she wouldn&rsquo;t come in alone cause she . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: She&rsquo;s like strange sort of huh?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah. She&rsquo;d always know when you were going to try and catch her. And if you tried to catch her out in the pasture alone it&rsquo;d take three or four to do it cause you had to corner her up to do it. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Tell me a little bit about your own parents? I mean, what kind of people they were like you know and I don&rsquo;t know? Anything you can remember about them in particular, any stories or anything?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Mother and Dad, they liked to go places a lot and we used to go into town together as a family and shop. And well, the trips we used to take weren&rsquo;t too far away. We lived in Angus and then McIntosh was about fifty or sixty miles away, but that&rsquo;s about the furthest I went. And we&rsquo;d go up and maybe </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??]. But that was the highlight of our times was going up there by car. And well . . .I can&rsquo;t...Now, I think that the most interesting times we had was on holidays. Like on Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year&rsquo;s. And we never did go very much to any other place that were . . .being invited out. And we&rsquo;d always invite people to our place. And mostly it&rsquo;d be my uncle and aunt and cousins. And they&rsquo;d always congregate at our place and after we had a big meal, got ourselves stuffed, then we&rsquo;d bring out the card table. We had a few good games and two big card table there. And . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So when you were kids did you ever play each other on whole games, like </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??]. Just you know, what kinds of things did you do when you were a kid?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: It just seems that you are still on the ground now. It just seems like kids we&rsquo;d play </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??]. That&rsquo;s the circle game, right. You make a circle and then you make a lines in that circle, like spokes in a wheel and then you had to ... as long as it stayed in the center you were free, but you got out of that circle and you were eligible to be caught and boy. And if you were a good jumper, you could jump from one line or spoke you call it, and catch the other guy. And we played that and we played leap frog and we played fiddly sticks and we played crack the whip and...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What was crack the whip? What did you do in that game?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: That was mostly done on ice. You get two or three fellows that&rsquo;s on ice on skates and some that weren&rsquo;t. And if you were on the tail end without the skate and you got to sliding and pretty soon all of the sudden they let you loose, I mean go! You&rsquo;d go any amount of . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What was it like, like a big long snake. You all </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??] to arms, you mean and you were going like this?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah and the one right . . .The leader, he wouldn&rsquo;t be going fast at all , but he guy way out on the end was going quite fast. And I always end up being on the end cause I didn&rsquo;t have no skates then. And I knew what was going to happen so I had myself free for a good slide whenever they looped.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Was your mom or dad much for going to church or anything like that? Did you guys go to any sort of church when you were growing up?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No, I&rsquo;m sorry to say that I never did have much church bringing up as you&rsquo;d call it. I had very little church going . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Was your mom more . . .go more to church than your dad?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Mother was more interested in us going to church. We did go to Sunday school&hellip; going to the Presbyterian Church at Angus and we had several Sunday school lessons there and I know Dad would always give us a dime. And nickels was for candy or ice cream and the other nickel was for Sunday school. And we&rsquo;d come back while we were at the Sunday school. Of course, we&rsquo;d take in the church service too, which would start. It would be from about nine-thirty, a quarter to ten until noon. And of course, in the afternoon we were free on Sundays. We&rsquo;d have lots of things to do . We&rsquo;d either go out horseback riding or we&rsquo;d go hunting and . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What was your favorite past time when you were a boy? What did you like to do when you didn&rsquo;t have to do chores? </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well, it seems like that when I was. . . before I was old enough to work in the fields, I would. . .We had a certain amount of chores to do that was...That we would get up to...that you were expected to do at your age. And when we . . When you got them chores done, you were free to do whatever we wanted to do unless, Mother wanted some garden work done or . . .?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What did you do though?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: We would go. Well mother would pack us a pack lunch in a tin can. Not a tin can, it&rsquo;d be a gallon pale. She&rsquo;d put a sandwich in there, and an apple and we&rsquo;d have a jug of water with us. Dad had a large old jug that he use to take out in the field with him. Well we&rsquo;d take one of his jugs and we&rsquo;d take some traps and a big old water pale. And we&rsquo;d head out for our neighbor&rsquo;s pasture about a mile east of our place, which is always loaded with gophers. And there we&rsquo;d spend the day trapping gophers and if they wouldn&rsquo;t come up quick enough we&rsquo;d take and drown them out. We&rsquo;d pour water down the hole and make them come out.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Is there anything else you can think of . . .I can&rsquo;t think of much to ask I mean...Is there anything interesting you can think of...I mean anything about you childhood before you left home?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well, I remember when we&rsquo;d come back from McIntosh, from the West coast and Seattle. We stayed for a while at the McIntosh and that wood was down to . . .His brother&rsquo;s place, Uncle Grundy...And we lived there one winter. And I remember, it was just right after Christmas and my oldest brother, never get the right man and my cousin and my other brother were getting ready to go to school and I thought to myself, I don&rsquo;t know why I can&rsquo;t go to school too. But, I couldn&rsquo;t, you know, they said I couldn&rsquo;t go. And I was standing my a slab when my brother was cleaning a melon. And he was shoveling snow out of the sled. I guess he didn&rsquo;t see me. But anyway, he turned with the shovel and the shovel. He hit me in the lip and cut me real bad, but not bad enough to take me to the hospital or the doctor or nothing. It hurt more than a did cut me cause it was lucky that the tip of the shovel was bent over from banging on the ground or something. And left the sharp end . . .that actually hit me was the blunt end. And but I was only a little five years old at the time and you couldn&rsquo;t go to school then until you were six years old.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Is there any teachers that stick out . . .you remember when you were going to school that... I don&rsquo;t know, sometime people have teachers they remember that they liked you know or something? Was there any teacher in particular?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: There was one teacher that . . She lived on what they called the big ditch road about a mile and a half from school. I can remember her first name real well. Her first name was Lena. And I&rsquo;m quite sure her last name was Johnson. And she was quite a stout woman. She was short. I would say she was about five foot two or three and she must have weighed all of a hundred and eighty or ninety pounds..</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Oh, she was quite heavy!</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: And she was a very stout woman, but she was a very good teacher. She was a real good teacher. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: She cared about you? I mean, she took interest in you and what you did and everything?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: That&rsquo;s right. And I remember when I was in the seventh grade, she said , &ldquo;Gordon would you like to take the eighth grade examination?&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo; Well I took the eighth grade exams and I passed them. I was one of the highest in that. In taking that test I was one of the highest. Although, it didn&rsquo;t mean anything because I still had to take it next year. I just took it for . . .because I didn&rsquo;t have anything to do and I had to wait until my turn to come up to take an exam. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: At that time, you didn&rsquo;t have to stay in school until you were fifteen, huh?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No, no you didn&rsquo;t because I . . .one of my best buddies, Lawrence Marek was my same age and when he was in the seventh grade he took all the eighth grade examinations and passed them. So, he didn&rsquo;t have to come back for his . . for the eighth grade if he didn&rsquo;t want to, but he didn&rsquo;t want to stay at home cause he didn&rsquo;t have anything to do. So, he went the eighth year just for kicks, just to be with us. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: When you got older, you know, like when you started . . .like you said, working in the fields, was there anything that you started doing that you didn&rsquo;t do before? I don&rsquo;t know, new responsibilities and stuff?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well, now I have to get up and go back to about when I was nine or ten years old. And the first implement I had run when I was that old was keep horses on salty plow. That&rsquo;s a&hellip;a salty plow is a one&hellip;is a plow that has one __[??238] board. And its about sixteen inches and don&rsquo;t take much of a cut, but in them days we had one salty plow and the other two brother had two gang plows. And drove three horses on that and after I proved that I could drive three horses on something like that my dad though well I&rsquo;ll put him on a&hellip;There was an implement in them days called a roller or a </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>coatapacker </u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??244] And you don&rsquo;t see them now a days. Its something that after you have plowed and lifted the ground up, you try&hellip;You kind of&hellip;go over this and pack it and make it smooth. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well, it sort of like a harrow then isn&rsquo;t it? </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Not actually. It has a...A harrow has a points on it, teeth on it. This one here has just a solid roller like. And so and it took four horses on that. And I ran that for a while. And I think I was about ten or eleven years old before I did lifting driving five horses on what they call a gang plow. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: How old were you when you, you know, started going away from home? Hiring out to other places?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I think&hellip;like I said, when I was&hellip;before that when I was off herding sheep from my cousin I was oh, ten or eleven years old. And when I was herding sheep for him. And then there was another person about a mile and a half east of our place that hired me one time. His name was Jesse Campion. And I herded cows for him one summer. And the wages were really cheap, but you got twenty-five cents or fifty cents a week, you were given a good wage. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What year was that probably about?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well, I would say that was be in about 19...Let&rsquo;s see. Oh, about 1929 or &lsquo;30.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well how old were you about when you actually left home though?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: When I really left home...to be away from home any amount of time is when I went to the CCC camps up at the Big Forks, Big Fork, Minnesota.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What&rsquo;s CCC Camp?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: That was a Civil Conservation Corps. That&rsquo;s when . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What were you doing in them?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: That...There was a lot of them camps in them days. I was just . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Under Franklin&rsquo;s New Deal?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yes. Under the President&rsquo;s New Deal where they put boys to work and gave them jobs. That was an education plan.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What did you do?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I was in there in the winter time. We would go out in the woods in the mornings and burn teepees. We&rsquo;d call them teepees because they were teepees that the boys in the summertime would pick up the dead wood, put them in the teepees style shape and them we would go and burn them in the wintertime, which was good cause you could keep warm.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Did you really feel the Depression that much that you actually had to go to work to make money though?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well, I don&rsquo;t suppose I had to go out and make money cause we got enough&hellip;We have enough to go to shows on and a little bit for candy and . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So your family wasn&rsquo;t really that hard up though then during the Depression?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: We were hard up to the extent that where we didn&rsquo;t have much money, but we always had plenty of food. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So you had all the necessities and all of that?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh yes. We had...Mother raised turkeys and she&rsquo;d take and sell all them turkeys in the fall of the year and all of us would pile in the car and go into town to Grand Forks and do shopping and she&rsquo;d buy all of our winter clothes with the turkey money that she had. And one thing I can say about my mother, God rest her soul, now . . .She never did spend much money on herself. She always see that us kids got the clothes first, but being that there were so many boys in the family and the age spread wasn&rsquo;t too far. . . </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: You got a lot of hand-me-downs.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: We both had a lot of hand-me-downs. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What was it like, I mean when you first left home, were you kind of scared or anything or were you kind of excited about getting away?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I was...I had...I was kind of used to being away from home because I had been away from home for two or three weeks at a time, but being in camp something like this was&hellip;more or less of a military style camp where you had to get up in the morning and go outside and flag raising. And they&rsquo;d have a flag raising deal in the morning and a flag...taking the flag down at night. And this was...This happened oh, just about five days, five mornings and five nights a week. And on Saturday and Sundays it was free. I didn&rsquo;t&hellip;I had two or three jobs while I was in the CCC camp. I was first of all, like I said, I went out in the woods and I helped burn some teepees. And then I graduated to being a carpenter&rsquo;s helper. And then one time, one of the fellows that was a watchman at night went home on a leave and he got sick and never did come back. So, I got stuck with his job, which really I like better and cause I had more time off to myself. And I really liked the it then, but, you know, its funny how you can be off or on leave. There were so many times that you&rsquo;d come home when you&rsquo;re young and this time. I got a ride home. Of course, I had to pay for it. So much for this drive going home and coming back but my folks didn&rsquo;t know I was coming home. And the fellow let me off down at the...down at the road leading up to our place. And I walked up and ramped on the door early in the morning. Mother didn&rsquo;t know who it was and my heart was just a pounding because I was so anxious to see everybody and they were anxious to see me too. And then of course, this was on a Saturday morning and a Saturday night. Of course, we all went out to a dance and had a lot of fun. And Sunday of course, this dog came around picked me up and back we went again. So it was just a short stay, but we had a lot of fun just the same.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So you would say that you weren&rsquo;t that sad about leaving? You were kind of excite then about leaving home? Did you make many plans when you were going away from home?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No, I never made any plans, cause I just didn&rsquo;t know what I was going to be or do when I grew up. I knew that I was going to go into the military service, whether it was war or not because one thing that I can&hellip;that always sticks in my mind is when I went to school is a little poem that went something: If you&rsquo;ll be a soldier boy you may come too! I don&rsquo;t know what that poem is or what them lines are from what poem. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: You&rsquo;ll be a soldier what?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: If you will be a soldier boy, you may come too! And I don&rsquo;t know what poem those lines are from. But they always stuck with me and I thought to myself when I was a little kid going to school that I&rsquo;m sure going to be a soldier when I go into the service when I get old enough.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Were you a little bit scared though, when the time came and actual war was going on? Did you ever think about maybe when you got over there that you might not come back?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well when we were...When I was drafted into the service, I thought it was kind of an exciting deal and it never...It didn&rsquo;t never occur to me that you really could get hurt until we were showed movies of planes strafing men and about how soldiers were being unloaded from the barges and making a beach head landing and how the enemy could cut you down with machine guns and rifle and mortars and everything like that. Then the. . .I got to thinking, boy I tell you, this is no kids game! This is for real! And but of course, it was too late to back out then. I was already committed and I had already sworn in. And so I had to take orders and do what I was told, but and then...Finally we did get into he actual phase of fighting. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: How long did it take for basic training? I mean, You were down in...You were in Michigan weren&rsquo;t you or somewhere in there?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: No Michigan?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No, I took my training in California.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Oh California, yeah right yeah. And that only took about six weeks or so didn&rsquo;t it?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yes, that&rsquo;s right.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: And then where were you shipped from there?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well, I went to...I was in two or three training camps or more in the States before we were sent overseas from.... We were...from...wish that thing should shut off now. I can&rsquo;t think of it. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Wasn&rsquo;t Fort Worth, one of them?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: From California you went to....</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well, you don&rsquo;t have to think of the exact names. That&rsquo;s okay. I think I got it written down anyway in that family thing anyway.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I know there were two or three or four different camps we were in before we went overseas, but I can&rsquo;t think of them in order. I know one was Camp . . .I can&rsquo;t think of it now.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well, anyway where were you shipped to overseas? The first place from the United States? Where did you go to?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: We went to...The first place we would have went to was New Guinea. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: And did you see service there or was that just a stop-over?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: There was some action going on when we got there, but it was just about all cleaned up when we were there. We weren&rsquo;t there too long until we were shipped to the Philippines. And in the Philippines is where we did our fighting. We were on first on Leyte and the enemy went to Luzon. Both places we did heavy fighting and...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Were you ever...were you always back ups or were you ever in the front lines too?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: We were in the front lines. Our company went up on the front line at least nine or ten times. And with full strength of a 130-140 men and many a times we came back with just thirty or forty men. They were either killed or injured and put up in hospitals. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: I know you&rsquo;ve mentioned about being in foxholes. You guys had to dig them and make them yourself huh?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: That&rsquo;s right . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So is that one of the things they taught you how to do? Or did you just dig a hole?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: We knew how to dig in before...in training you would do that.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Did they ever tell you what to expect or how to deal with the enemy if you were ever caught? What to say and all that?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh yes. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What were you told?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: We were just suppose to give your name rank and serial number. That&rsquo;s all. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: But they never trained you how to withstand torture or anything like that huh?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well no, that&rsquo;s . . .They told you what you should do, but that&rsquo;s pretty hard to tell you what to do because once . . .one person could stand more physical torture than others. It&rsquo;s just up to your own individual self.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Did you ever um...Did you ever see those makeshift medical centers that they ever had? What kind of conditions they had to work in?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh yes. Now in the front lines like that you never had a regular...set up like a regular hospital.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: They did have regular Army doctors and stuff didn&rsquo;t they?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: They did and . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Was there ever any women nurses that even got up there where it was pretty bad?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Some yes. Most of...I seen more Filipino nurses than I seen American nurses up on the front lines and one time I walked by and...We were walking back from the front lines after heavy fighting and I seen a doctor and a medic actually insert a tube into a person&rsquo;s throat, which had been cut by shrapnel, so that he could breath. They were...Cause his windpipe was cut off. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Um. Could you ever have talked to chaplains? You know, I mean, you know I know there is chaplains in most companies and stuff like that, but did you ever sort of get scared and ever have to talk to any or anything?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No, the only time I ever talked to the chaplains . . .had anything to do with them was when Harriet got sick and we had to...I had to bring her home. And we had no money, so I went over to the chaplain . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Where was this now? Where were you at the time?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Uh. We were at, I think it was Fort Worth?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Texas, right?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Fort Worth, Texas, yeah. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Is that the time you guys were on the train?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah and I told him our situation, that we didn&rsquo;t have no money and if he would help me get money from the Red Cross. So he did. He went to bat for me and we went to the Red Cross and he... In just a matter of minutes you might say, we had the money and I could bring my wife home.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: You came right here? To St. Vincent?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yes. But, from the time we left there until the time we got home there was a lot happening. It&rsquo;d take quite a while to tell about it. That&rsquo;s for something else.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: I remember once you were telling me about something funny that happened at a movie theater. Something about there was a rat that crawled up somebody&rsquo;s leg? Could you tell me about that a little bit?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Not somebody&rsquo;s leg, it was my own! This was over in New Guinea. And we were stationed there for a while and we had a portable movie screen set up. And right by . . .opposite this screen was a...some Australians had there camp there. I think it was just one company or a platoon of them were stationed there. And so this night we were...It was a very beautiful night out, moonlight and we were all sitting there watching this movie.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Do you remember what movie it was? Was it a well-known movie from the States or something?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: It was well...It seems like I can remember one...It seemed like it was... I don&rsquo;t know what the name of it was, but Deana Durban was in it?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Who is Deana Durban?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Uh. I think it was Deana Durban, Frank Sinatra and I can&rsquo;t think of the other one that was in it.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Yeah, so what happened?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: It was more or less about....I can&rsquo;t think of what I want to say.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well, that&rsquo;s okay, just tell me.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Anyway, the movie was going on and there was a lot of...And of course, around camps like this we were always a lot of dogs. And they were chasing each other around camp and around this movie area and pretty soon. One of the dogs came and stopped by me. And I thought it was a dog cause I felt something against my leg. Then all of the sudden, another dog comes chasing it and pretty soon this what I felt by my leg ran up my leg. And I put my hand down and I felt something a big bunch there. And I just held on and squeezed for all I could. And...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Didn&rsquo;t anybody notice this the whole time it was going on ?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Nobody noticed it and that dog just stood there and pretty soon there was a break in the movie. And the lights came on and a couple of my friends Wassing from Minneapolis and Alabama. We called him Alabama. That was his nickname cause he was from Alabama. Small fellow. They were sitting together about two rows up ahead and I said...I hollered at Wassing, &ldquo;Hey Wassing, I bet you can&rsquo;t guess what&rsquo;s up my leg!&rdquo; And he started to giggle and everybody started to giggle too, you know. So they took it to mean something different, I guess than what I thought of. And I said, &ldquo;No, there&rsquo;s a rat up my leg or a mouse!&rdquo; &ldquo;Oh come on Short, you are just pulling our legs!&rdquo; and so I said, &ldquo;No sir-ee!&rdquo; So I hobbled out to where they were and I said, &ldquo;Feel!&rdquo; And Alabama, he felt there and by gosh, &ldquo;Short there&rsquo;s something there.&rdquo; So he took his handkerchief out of his pocket and wrapped it around his hand and reach up my pant leg. He said, &ldquo;By golly, there&rsquo;s something there cause I can feel the tail!&rdquo; and he said &ldquo;I got a hold of it let loose!&rdquo; And I let loose and he jerked the rat out from underneath my pant leg, but the thing was dead. cause I had squeezed it to death. And he said, &ldquo; Boy, you sure weren&rsquo;t kidding!&rdquo; And everybody was looking. There was nurses there in uniform and officers and a lot of other guys. And I said...Boy I tell you when that movie started up again, there wasn&rsquo;t nobody keeps going having their feet on the ground cause everybody put their feet on the bench ahead of them cause they didn&rsquo;t want no rat jumping up their pant leg. And after we got through one of the Aussies said, &ldquo;Short you want to come over for some tea and crackers?&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;Sure!&rdquo; Now I tell you if you ever drank tea from made by Australians you have got a treat coming if you ever have them make tea for you cause I tell you, you could float an egg on top and it wouldn&rsquo;t sink!</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Why is it so strong or something?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: It was strong. They used to take a gallon can and put some tea in there and boil the devil out of it! And you drink about two cups of that and you ain&rsquo;t going to sleep all night because you&rsquo;re going be . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Going to the bathroom every time . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Going to the bathroom about every ten minutes and they had some hard tack crackers there too. I ate a few of them. And drank a couple cups of that tea. And boy, I tell you I...That made my night. First having a rat up my pant leg, drinking strong tea and then staying up all night running to the bathroom. The latrine, we call it. I said...The next day I was pretty pooped out.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Is there anything that you remember about being the battle lines? Something that you remember that stands out in your mind? You know, like once I think you told me you were going across some field at night. And you were walking on top of dead bodies or something?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well this was...has happened in the front lines and at night we would be...You&rsquo;d be in the front...you&rsquo;d be fighting in the daytime and at night you would be in a foxhole or just laying on top of the ground. Whichever was available. And...Well during the day you . . </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">End Side A </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: We&rsquo;d be fighting and at night then you&rsquo;d have time to rest. If you weren&rsquo;t standing guard duty. Uh, you&rsquo;d probably be on for a couple of hours and then off for a couple of hours or four hours. Depends upon how many there was there to take their turns. And you were subject to call anytime during the night to be ammunition bearer. If you were called upon, if they needed them up on the front lines. And this... And many a times I was called and this one incident were I was called at night and you carry ammunition boxes . . .for I don&rsquo;t know how far we had to carry them. But anyway, when we got to the destination this one sergeant told us were to put them, but he didn&rsquo;t tell us what was in front of us. And low and behold, pretty soon, I was stepping on something soft. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Was anybody with you?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: And there were some other . . .Oh yes, there were several of us. And I asked the sergeant I said, &ldquo;What am I stepping on?&rdquo; He said, &ldquo;You&rsquo;re just stepping on some dead bodies that were...hadn&rsquo;t been carried down yet.&rdquo; And it gives you an awful funny and erie feeling stepping on somebody like that. Even if it is...the party is dead. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Did you...It seems to me that once you were talking about how you had to be in the foxholes even when it was raining and it was kind of yucky you had to stay under the water and all that?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: My first experience with that is on the first night up on the front lines and it was raining. And we had our trench coats and one blanket. And when we dug in that night, we didn&rsquo;t have time to dig a very deep foxhole that&rsquo;s why my foxhole was only about eight or ten inches deep. And I spread my raincoat on the bottom and I thought well I&rsquo;ll lay on that and I&rsquo;ll cover up with my blanket and low and behold it started to rain. Well, it had been raining, but it quit and started to rain again. And you wouldn&rsquo;t believe that you could sleep when it was wet like that, but I was . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Wasn&rsquo;t your trench coat rainproof or anything?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Uh. Well, I was laying on it and the blanket I had was just soaking wet and my...The hole started to fill up and I kind of welcomed my chance of my turn to come and stand guard duty. And where we stood guard duty is we had a .50 caliber machine gun set up and you would squat behind the machine gun that was...It was sitting on top the hole and you would be squatting down in the hole. And you had strapped on your belt, you had a .45 caliber pistol and you had hand grenades and you also had small arms rifle alongside the machine gun too. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Did you ever encounter anybody on your guard duty?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Not while we were on guard duty but we had...we fired several times when you wasn&rsquo;t on guard duty.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: When you were fighting, you know, actually you know, like you were saying in the front lines and all that... Did you...I mean, I don&rsquo;t think I ever heard you mention whether you came very close to the enemy though. Did you ever, I mean, was it ever hand-to-hand?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: We . . .I myself never came into hand-to-hand battle with the enemy. Although, there was incidents on the front line there when I suppose, the enemy was as close as twenty-five or thirty feet away from where I was, but they were just one . . .they were in another foxhole and they were struggling and one of my...One of the fellows in our outfit was killed in this foxhole and this...When the Japs got up and started running away, he was cut down by another gang that seen him run and . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: How...Didn&rsquo;t it get kind of smoke filled in the air and everything, how could you see whether you were shooting at anything or not?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: The only time it&rsquo;d get smoke filled in the air like that is from your big caliber guns, not from rifle fire. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well, yeah, I know, but lots of times there you see grenades a lot and if they fell on the ground that creates a lot of dust and all that. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Not too often did we ever have to use grenades, except when we wanted to drive the Japanese out of their foxholes or probably if we&rsquo;d surmised or had a hunch that there was a machine gun nest ahead.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Did you ever use them yourself?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh yes! We used hand grenades. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Didn&rsquo;t you get scared that it might stick on your finger and you wouldn&rsquo;t throw it in time or something?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. I had pretty good luck at grenade practice when I was in the States.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: You mean it wasn&rsquo;t that easy, I mean, you just didn&rsquo;t pull it out and throw it? Was it kind of hard or something?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: You...They had so many seconds. They were set so they had so many seconds before they&rsquo;d go off. And you pull the pin and you had . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: There wasn&rsquo;t any safety____[??613]?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: They had a safety lever that you held down. And you...As soon as you reached that. But, you want to make sure that when you throw it that your . . .that you didn&rsquo;t raised your, put your arm back and your arm didn&rsquo;t hit a branch or a tree and then its knocked out . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Its dropped!</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: And dropped on him. Otherwise, there were times when not in our outfit, but I knew other outfits where actually men sacrificed them self for their buddies. A grenade . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Throwing them self on it?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: A grenade would come into the hole and they&rsquo;d see it and they&rsquo;d pull right on it. And then of course, they&rsquo;d be killed.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: When was it . . .What year was it about when you went over to Japan?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: That was 194...Let&rsquo;s see . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: It was toward the end of the war.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah. We didn&rsquo;t go into mainland Japan until &lsquo;46. Wait a minute.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: &lsquo;45 was when the war ended?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: &lsquo;45 cause I came home in December of &lsquo;45 and we were in Japan for about six weeks to two months before I came home.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Was it because that was were it was being more intense and they needed more men there than other places?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No we didn&rsquo;t go into Japan until the war was over. We didn&rsquo;t do no fighting in Japan itself on the mainland. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: But you were there on part of it, weren&rsquo;t you?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. Our fighting was on other soil in New Guinea and the Philippines.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well, when was it that you went into Japan though?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: It must have been about October, late part of October.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well it wasn&rsquo;t until December though that Emperor&hellip;That&rsquo;s what ended the war.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Uh. No. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: You may not have done any fighting, but it was still on.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well that maybe one of these...I don&rsquo;t know what they put a sign up. . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What did they bother taking you over there for then, if there wasn&rsquo;t anything to do?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: It was more or less an occupational duties.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So you didn&rsquo;t actually do any fighting for a couple of months then?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. We didn&rsquo;t do any fighting there in Japan at all. No.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So when December came and the war was over and they let you out, where did you go to? I mean, did you just fly over and then take a train home here or what?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. We came back on a ship called the USS General Hawes and I don&rsquo;t know how many days now it took us to come back. I think it was about fourteen days, twelve or fourteen days. And we landed in, I think it was Seattle that we en...Yes, it was Seattle. And . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Did you took a train home?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: And from there we took a train to a camp in Wisconsin.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Yeah.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: That&rsquo;s were we got . . .That&rsquo;s were we got our mustering out pay. And well we . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Don&rsquo;t they give you sort of suit to wear and all that kind of stuff?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No we were allowed to wear our Army uniform home and you could wear it for, I think it was for forty-eight hours or seventy-two hours or something like that before you were suppose to change over to civilian clothes.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So, how did Mom take it when she...Did you tell her ahead of time or did you surprise her?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh, yes. She knew. I called her from Seattle when I got through to her back to the States and she was living at home here in Edinburgh with her parents. She had . . .when I came home on the train and got off and come to Pembina...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: There wasn&rsquo;t any here in St.Vincent?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah. Grandpa...Her dad met me at the train, but Harriet couldn&rsquo;t come because she had just gotten over a bought of pneumonia. So, she couldn&rsquo;t, she didn&rsquo;t come out of the house. She sure was glad to see me when I got here. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well, when you were nineteen, wasn&rsquo;t it when you were nineteen. . .Didn&rsquo;t you, after you were done at the CC camps, come and work for your uncle here? </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh, yeah. That</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: At the Short&rsquo;s Caf&eacute;? Was that right after that CCC thing?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Shortly after yeah.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: And what did you do there?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Where?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: At your uncle&rsquo;s, at the caf&eacute; here. Did you just wait tables and stuff?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I would wait tables and bartending.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Isn&rsquo;t that how you met Mom? Wasn&rsquo;t she...Didn&rsquo;t she come in there and stuff?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah. There was </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>each umbrella with a lot other </u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??660] other girls here in town. And that&rsquo;s how I met her.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: How old was she at the time when you met her?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Sixteen.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: When did you start actually going out together though?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well, I...We went out two times while I was working here, but I think that uh, when we first started going together . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Seriously?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Uh. Was when she worked as a telephone operator in Bemidji and I was living in...We were living in McIntosh at the time and...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well how in the world did you ever get together when you were that far apart?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well, hell its only fifty-seven miles and my brother and I had a car. And we&rsquo;d drive down there and sometimes our friend, Otto Johnson was his name. He had a car too . .big ole&rsquo;...And Otto and his girlfriend and my brother and his girlfriend and I would drive down to Midgy. We&rsquo;d...And I&rsquo;d wait until Harriet got off of her telephone shift at the telephone office. And we&rsquo;d go out and have supper, drive around, have fun. And that&rsquo;s . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well, where&rsquo;d you see her? Did you start dating her here at home? I mean, I don&rsquo;t know, you know. Was it...I mean, you know, it must have been serious enough for you to go fifty miles just to see her? I mean, What did you see in Mom? I mean, Did you like her for a certain thing or what? Was she friendly or pretty or what?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Its hard to say how...what you see in a person. You just know that this person is meant for you in life and that&rsquo;s when you&rsquo;re going to marry her. Uh...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: When did you...Did you know the first time you dated her or did it take a few times to know that you really liked her? </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well, I don&rsquo;t know whether, at the time, I worked here. I liked her. And I suppose...but the thought of marrying. Although, she said that I asked her that . . .Let&rsquo;s get married. I said, on the spur of the moment. Of course, she didn&rsquo;t say yes because she thought maybe I was just kidding and . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: When was this?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: That&rsquo;s when I was working here.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Yeah. So what&rsquo;d she do?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I don&rsquo;t know how the things would have turned out in our lives if she&rsquo;d have said yes and we&rsquo;d have gotten married then. Maybe it&rsquo;d kept me out of the Army and maybe it wouldn&rsquo;t have, but I remember when...Even if the time I was going with your mother when she was working in Bemidji there was other girls that I wouldn&rsquo;t put to that I liked real well. Matter of fact . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: At the same time?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: At the same time. Matter of fact, there...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Did she ever act jealous for that?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No, I don&rsquo;t think I shared...I don&rsquo;t know if she knew about it or not?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Oh.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: There was one girl I wrote to when I was in the service at the same time...That was before I was married to your mother yet. And a...At the same time I was writing you mother I was writing to her too. And . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So when was it that you actually did ask her to marry you? When was that? What year was that?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I think that was in 194-...Let&rsquo;s see, when was it?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: You had gotten married in &lsquo;41 so?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I guess it was 19&ndash;. Hmm. That was &lsquo;42 . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well I thought it was anyway! I don&rsquo;t know. It was after you went . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: It was &lsquo;43. Yeah.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: You sure?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah. I was home on leave. And . . .No.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Had you been planning . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I can&rsquo;t remember whether I was in the service yet. I don&rsquo;t think I was in the service yet. We were at a dance in Bemidji. That&rsquo;s right! Before I went to the service. My Uncle Grundy and Aunt Ella and Mom and Dad and seems like there was another couple too. We went to the Midgy one night. We picked up Harriet. We went out to a night club and we were doing some dancing and drinking and...That&rsquo;s when I proposed to Harriet.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Afterwards you mean?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No, I proposed to her right on the dance floor. And we . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Funny she didn&rsquo;t ____[??706] what we are talking about?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: And we come back off the dance floor and the rest of them were sitting on the sidelines then and we told them what we were going to do and . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So what...When was this then? It must have been in 1940 or &lsquo;41 huh?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah. No. You know, I&rsquo;m not sure. I&rsquo;m not sure whether I told them. No, I proposed to your mother on the dance floor, but we held off telling them cause I told Mother in the house the next morning and then I went up to . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: You mom?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah. I went out to the barn and told Dad. And you know, right afterwards.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So what&rsquo;d they think of it?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh they . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: They&rsquo;d met your . . .met mom?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh, yeah. Oh they were happy for us!</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So, you were...from the pictures I&rsquo;ve seen, when you got married...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I had...I was in the service and I wrote and told her that I was coming. Come down to Fort Worth and we&rsquo;d get married. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So was this out of her own money?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. I think she came down on her. . . She bought her ticket on her own. And well, that disappointed Mother because they&rsquo;ve already had a shower planned for Harriet. And . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: But you couldn&rsquo;t possibly make it back though?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No so, she hopped on the train and come out. And we got married. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Now, wasn&rsquo;t it just in a chapel or was it any friends that you had with you or was it just plain witnesses?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: There was just...No, the only witness was the pastor&rsquo;s wife. That&rsquo;s all. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Did you guys ever think of waiting until after the war cause I know I heard a lot about people...Some people didn&rsquo;t want to get married because they were scared maybe, you know, the guy would get killed or something you know. Did you ever think of that? Or did you care?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I don&rsquo;t . No it just seemed like we just want...If something was going to happen to us . . We never talked about anything that I would get killed or anything like that. Uh. Just seemed like that&rsquo;s something never did enter into mind. I suppose it didn&rsquo;t. If it did then we never said anything about it, but we just . . .if...I knew it was inevitable. I was going to go overseas and you just wanted all the time we could together before you went. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So after you got back from the war and...Did you and Grandma and Grandpa move out right away or did you guys live with the here in this house for a while?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Ah. We lived here for a while and then...Not too long cause...I don&rsquo;t know whether they moved out in &lsquo;46 or whether it was 1947 when they moved down there and lived and we had the space all to our self. I don&rsquo;t know. I can&rsquo;t remember that...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: And didn&rsquo;t you farm or just keep animals around here for a while or did you go to trade school right away?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No the first year. The first year is what they call self-employed. I had some cattle and a couple of cows and I inherited them from...Harriet&rsquo;s</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: From her parents? </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No from her brother And I had chickens and I had pigs.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: And the big garden, I suppose.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: And the big garden. And that was in 1946-1947.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: And when was it that you went away to trade school?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. &lsquo;47 though, I was . . .1947 I worked on a farm out here. Its about a mile and a half east of our place for a farmer named Warren Griffith. I worked for him for six months. And ....</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: And when was it that you went to trade school?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. I went, no, 1948. I went to...I started working on the section. I&rsquo;m the section extra gangs. And I worked on the section for &lsquo;48, &lsquo;49 and &lsquo;50. Not steady, but off and on. And all this time I still had cattle here and raised a big garden. And in 1951 is when I went to Minneapolis to the Gale Institute.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Wasn&rsquo;t that on the G.I. Bill? Didn&rsquo;t you get it paid for?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: That&rsquo;s right.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: And so was that just a...Was it nine months it took? Or how long did it take?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well I went down there in April and came back in November. That was six or...I was suppose to be a six month course. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Yeah and what did they teach you? How to operate machines and stuff like that?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. They taught us how to telegraph, which was quite an art at the time. And they gave you the basic fundamentals of the depot work, what a depot agent had to contend with.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well, was this run by the railroad or something?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I don&rsquo;t think it was a railroad operated school. I think it was privately owned and operated, but it was a...The teachers were more or less railroad employees that were actually working there on their off duty hours or retired railroad employees, who were working there full-time. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So after you got out of school, did you get a job right away with the railroad?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: When I...Yes. I . . .At the time I was going to school my brother went to the oilstone[??774] And before we left there, one of the teachers called us in and said that I had two openings for telegraphers at Three Forks, Montana. And they wanted to know if my brother and I would take it. And we said yes. And we had a specified time to get there. And . . .But when I got home my wife was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. So I couldn&rsquo;t go.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What from?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well, I don&rsquo;t know. She had a nervous breakdown and...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well could you explain yourself a little bit?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Uh. I didn&rsquo;t know. I think it was more or less because of the situation where she had to . . .She had the sole care maybe of raising the family while I was at school and we were quite hard up as far as money was concerned. Just several things in general worried her and just kind of wore her down real fast though. And her nerves were on edge.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Didn&rsquo;t Grandma and Grandpa help her?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: They did. It wasn&rsquo;t to the extent where she was so hard up where she didn&rsquo;t have any food or anything like that, but we...I was just...I don&rsquo;t know complications of several things. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So what did you do then?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well I stayed home for a while until she got to feeling better and then I wrote down to this teacher and asked him if he had another opening. And he said he did. He said that if I wanted to I could go down to a place called Persia Island. That&rsquo;s on ______[??795] Milwaukee ______[??]. And this was around the first part of December. So I hopped on a train and down I go. And I got down there and I stayed down there about two or three weeks and it was getting closer to Christmas time and I&rsquo;d never been away from home at Christmas before and I was getting lonesome I guess. And I thought to myself, I had only had a few dollars left. I didn&rsquo;t know whether to call home and ask for money or come on home. So I called and we decided I was coming home. So I told the agent that I was staying with. I said, &ldquo;I am going to bunch it and go home.&rdquo; So I hopped on the train and I made it home just a day or two before Christmas. And shortly afterwards, Burlington Northern Railroad Company knew I was at home and . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Wasn&rsquo;t that Great Northern then?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah. Great Northern. The Great Northern. I guess I contacted them and asked them if they had anything for me.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Close to home?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah. Close to home. And they said I could go down to Argyle and break in there as a agent operator. So I went down there for about three weeks and broke in and then I finally got a notice that ____[??811]</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Uh-hmm. So where did you go?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Uh. It was a place out here called Dearing, North Dakota. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: How many years were you there?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I wasn&rsquo;t there years. I was only there two weeks. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Oh well, where did you go then?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: From, Dearing, I went to a volunteering in this small place out here in North Dakota. It&rsquo;s south of Grand Forks. Oh jeepers, I can&rsquo;t think of the name of the town, but . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Then were did you go?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh can&rsquo;t remember...From then on I looked at as many places as I could. . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: You just went for those bits of time?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I just was a relief man. Two weeks here and two weeks there. And so . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Is that what you call an extra board?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I was on the extra board.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well somehow or another you ended up in Grafton though. Didn&rsquo;t you for a while?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I ended up there for a...I was at Grafton for a while. I was out at Putnam[??sp], North Dakota for two months. At the time, when I was out there. . . </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Where was that place where you had a lot of flowers and stuff?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh. That&rsquo;s the first agency that I had was Glaston, North Dakota and I was there for six years.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So was it first Grafton and then that Glaston or was it the other way around?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No, I worked Grafton several times just as a relief operator. And for two week jaunts at a time. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Was Glaston sort of your first regular place though?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Glaston?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Yeah.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah, Glaston was my first regular place. Well I suppose for any length of time. Although before that I had been to Uptham for two months but . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Um. Was it right after Glaston that you ended up here in Noyes?833]?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No and I left...When I left Glaston, I relieved my uncle out here at St Vincent. For...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Uncle?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: My wife&rsquo;s uncle.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Oh, Uncle Dick?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah. Dick Fitzpatrick out here at St. Vincent station. And while I was there. I got bumped by another operator. So then I went out . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What does bumping mean anyway?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Bumping means that you got displaced...You got displaced by an older man with more seniority than you have. And then I got...I went on the extra board. I had to leave home. I was away from home for quite some time until I got a chance to get Noyes?844] All you have to do is submit your name and you rank, you might say that&rsquo;s your seniority date. And if you&rsquo;re the older man you get this position. And so this was...This had been the second time now that I had hit in at Noyes and got it. The first time I had been displaced by some body else that had more seniority. Now I had been at Noyes now for fifteen years.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Do you enjoy it? I mean, this type of work?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I guess this the work the Lord had cut out for me to do with a minimum on </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>a H case in our hand</u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??853] . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Does it... I mean, everybody gets bored I&rsquo;m sure with their type of work, but I mean, all in all, I mean, do you like it? I mean, is it...I mean dies it fulfill what you&rsquo;d like to do in work?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: It does. I...Well after my two days off I kind of look forward to going back to work again. Although some days it gets pretty darn tedious and tired and aggravating because everything doesn&rsquo;t go true to form, but I still like the work. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Um. Can I switch to something kind of different here? What was...Can you describe what it was like when you had your, you know, Sharon when was first born, did it sort of shape you when you knew you had the responsibility of a kid or did it bother you much?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I think that when you are young like that and you have your first child, you take everything for granted. Responsibility isn&rsquo;t your main concern right down there. Although, your kind of puffed up, but you say well, I&rsquo;m married. I got a wife now. I got a child. And so, that makes you feel like well you got to get out and strive. And do better. But, there is sometimes when you get foolish and you spend money on foolish things that your not suppose to and you shouldn&rsquo;t do. But, I think that there has to . . .There&rsquo;s never been time that we ever spent anything foolishly when we didn&rsquo;t have clothes on our back and food in our...in the house. And someplace to sleep. You can&rsquo;t talk much longer it almost four-thirty right now.____[??878]</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Um. Yeah. What do you plan to do when you retire do you think?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Do you plan on gardening or going and doing anything special?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. I barely...I don&rsquo;t want to just sit around and do nothing because I can&rsquo;t get up and do ______[??882] that. I have...I say I don&rsquo;t want to do much gardening. I suppose I will have a little garden and I&rsquo;ll be mowing the lawn and I would like to work at something that I would...that I like to do, outside of the railroad work, I mean. Hopefully . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Why don&rsquo;t...You know what you could do is that you could experiment around with doing, you know, any, several different things. Things that you think you&rsquo;d be interested in and then trying them and seeing how you like them.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I would like to...I like greenhouse work. If I could get a job in a greenhouse or raise something like this on my own.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What are you planning to do in your spare time? I mean, what do you like to do?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I suppose there would be a small job that a person could get. I like painting, inside painting. If someone wanted some painting done or . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What about just things for fun though? I mean, besides work, I mean, would you enjoy going on a vacation and maybe going out in a boat or just fishing for fun, you know. Or going with somebody, you know, sightseeing or something like that?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Sightseeing is what I&rsquo;d like to do most. As far as fishing is concerned, I don&rsquo;t have too much interest in that because well . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: I guess you have to learn it younger huh?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Because of my lacks in not doing any fishing when . . .during my span of life. I don&rsquo;t know beans from apple butter about fishing. I wouldn&rsquo;t know what equipment to buy and what I did buy, I wouldn&rsquo;t know how to use it.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So what you would like to do is go around the country and see some of the natural wildlife and some of the historic sites and stuff like that?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: That&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;d like to do most.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Um. Could you tell me a little bit about things that are extraordinary that have happened? Like the 1950 flood and things like that you were through? I mean, was there anything that happened that was kind of extraordinary?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh I think we&rsquo;ll put that off for another time.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">End of transcription</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Addendum: go to marker 166, tape 5 </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: There are a couple of discrepancies in this tape. Dad said that he proposed to me in a letter from Camp Bowie in Brownwood, Texas and that he&rsquo;d asked me to come down on the train to Fort Worth. And that&rsquo;s not true. He came home in January of 1943 on a furlough and he asked me to marry him and I returned with him to Fort Worth, Texas at the end of his furlough and we were married. The other discrepancy is that he said that he was in the CC Camps first and then came up to Short&rsquo;s Caf&eacute; to work. And that&rsquo;s not true. He worked at Short&rsquo;s Caf&eacute; in 1938 and that&rsquo;s when I met him, when he was nineteen and I was sixteen. And he was in the CCC Camps in the winter of 1940 and &lsquo;41 and that&rsquo;s when. After he come out of the CC Camps and helped his dad with the crop in the spring, he got his draft notice and he was drafted in April of 1942. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; page-break-before: always; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Interviewee: Gordon Short </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Interviewer: Harriet Short</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Date of interview: January 31, 1996</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Location: Truth or Consequences, NM</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Category: WW II</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: This is a little bit of Spanish music and then you&rsquo;ll hear the tapes by Gordon Short.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: January 31, 1996. You understand. Just go over it and start talking.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: This is my memoirs of World War II in the States and the South Pacific, New Guinea, Philippine, Leyte and Luzon and occupational duties in Japan. This is Gordon Short speaking, of course. When I went into the service we left East Grand Forks by a bus and we traveled to Fort Snelling in Minneapolis. And that&rsquo;s...in 1942. And we stayed there only a day or two where we got on a train and we went to Camp Roberts, California. That is where I took my training and had a lot of fun times. Then I&rsquo;ll go into that a little bit later. And as to the training, we had . . .on the way to Camp Roberts we never went to the regular passenger train. We went into a what they call a troop train. And this troop train had kitchens in it and place to sleep and what not. We all took a shot a take at doing kitchen duty, but we didn&rsquo;t mind it because it was warm. We had the doors to the cars open and we had plenty to eat, good food. And matter of fact, we...a lot of us volunteered for kitchen duty and that was okay with us. But when we did get to Camp Roberts, I remember getting off the train there just as well as could be cause its something I hadn&rsquo;t done. I&rsquo;ve had a little bit of experience at military life when I was in the CC Camps and we had a little training there, but when we got off there was the sergeants there. Always heard that the sergeants were the tough ones. But you had to . . .didn&rsquo;t have to mind the officers so much. It was the sergeants and corporals that you had to watch out for cause they were very, very strict. But they weren&rsquo;t too hard on us until they once got you inducted. When they once got you sworn in that&rsquo;s when they put the...applied the pressure to you. Well we got the...They told us to line up and we lined up. And the first thing the sergeant asked us he says, &ldquo;Do any of you guys know what your left foot is from your right foot?&rdquo; And...but he said, &ldquo;Most of you guys will go...When I say go left or go right they&rsquo;ll do just the opposite.&rdquo; Of course that got a little burst of laughter from the bunch of them. We still had our civilians. I don&rsquo;t know if we had our civilian clothes on or not. They briefly made us put our Army uniforms on, work clothes and the whatnot before we left Camp Roberts. Before Camp Roberts I mean. When we got there . . . When we got there the noncoms....That&rsquo;s what they called the sergeants and the corporals there. They took us off the train, put us on some six by six trucks...Just a minute. I mentioned noncoms there just a few minutes ago and my wife she said, &ldquo;You better tell . . .say on the tape what noncoms is cause everybody doesn&rsquo;t know what a noncom is.&rdquo; An noncom is a non-commissioned officer such as a Private First Class or Corporal, Sergeant up to as far as Sergeant Major is concerned. Well anyway, after we got on these buses, I mean these six by six trucks they took us to the barracks that we were suppose to stay in. And everything of course, was new to us. And we thought it was really exciting. Well they took us in and they assigned us our place where we were suppose to live, sleep. . . right, barracks. And took all we had... Everything we had was in our barracks space. And old clothes, fresh clothes, new clothes and whatnot. We got in there and they gave us a certain amount of time to get things put away. Then they hollered, &ldquo;Fall out!&rdquo; We all...The non-commissioned officer, he said that that means, fall out means, get out of here and get outside and get lined up. We went outside and it happened to be right at mealtime and he said, this noncommissioned officer, he was a sergeant. He said, &ldquo;One or two of the corporals here will take you to the...show you where the mess hall is. There you will be eating until further assigned.&rdquo; And you got into a formation and then he says &ldquo;Column Right!&rdquo; and some guy bumped heads turned the wrong way and some did it right. And the meal we had wasn&rsquo;t a bad meal at all. I liked it. Can&rsquo;t remember what we had, but I remember eating it all. And after we got through eating we were told to go back to the barracks. And in the afternoon we had some talks. Our training really didn&rsquo;t get started until the next day. Then they started putting us through some tough training. Short:. And you had to be...we probably had to last for an hour to have ten minutes off. But anyway, I won&rsquo;t elaborate on this too much because I have quite a bit else I want to talk about. This training at Camp Roberts took six weeks and during this six weeks you never was...You weren&rsquo;t allowed off the base. You couldn&rsquo;t go in to town or nothing. Anything you wanted you bought at the PX. But there we were able to buy most all the accessories we needed. All the way from razor blades, tooth paste, beer, pop and candy bar. Huh? </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: My wife just said something. I ain&rsquo;t going to say what it was that made me laugh. And we did have show halls that we could go to on camp. Sometimes they were good, sometimes they weren&rsquo;t. But on Saturdays...Saturdays and Sundays was the worst days. We never had training those days. We were just more or less on our own. But, you got to do kitchen work. KP, they call it. That&rsquo;s kitchen police. That&rsquo;s setting up tables, waiting on tables, doing dishes, peeling potatoes, oh boy! Bushels and bushels of them! And...but the days went by fast and when you weren&rsquo;t doing any duties like that, you had plenty of time to write letters and get your clothes washed and whatnot. After the training was over, we didn&rsquo;t leave for Camp Bowie until a few days after we had our training at Camp Roberts. But we left Camp Bowie by troop train and then we were assigned to a unit. My unit was the . . .that I was assigned to was the 815</font></font></font><font color="#000000">^{<font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">th</font></font>}</font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"> Tank Destroyer Battalion, Headquarters Company. And we were...Let&rsquo;s see...I got marked on my notes here, we went to Camp Bowie by troop train, placed in the 815</font></font></font><font color="#000000">^{<font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">th</font></font>}</font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"> Tank Destroyer Battalion. And while I was at Camp Bowie, I came home on a furlough. And I don&rsquo;t know how...I can&rsquo;t remember just how long I was home on that furlough.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: It was January sometime. We went back. We went down in January because it must have been two weeks in the month of January, 1943.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: It was the first two weeks in January, 1944 and my wife...when we come back off our furlough we lived in Brownwood, Texas. I had to...a little correction to that. My wife&rsquo;s just mentioned this now that I came home on furlough. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: January.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: That was before we were married. And Harriet came back with me to Brownwood, Texas. I got a three day pass and we went to Fort Worth, Texas and there we got married on February 13, 1943. And we had lots of fun the day we got married. We went out to a night club and had some fun. A lot of good eating while we were on a three day pass. We had a... We went roller skating. And then. . . Our apartment that we had in Brownwood was a one-room apartment, of course. And we were very lucky to get that. And then I don&rsquo;t know just how long we stayed there cause...That&rsquo;s not important anyway. But then, my next note is: we left Camp Bowie via troop train to go to Camp Hood on April 1943. And then we went to Killeen, Texas. While we were at Killeen, Texas...Okay, wait just a minute. While I was at Killeen, Texas we moved to Lampasas, Texas. Harriet was with me then. There was quite a few thing. Short: happened there while we were there. Bob Hope and his troop from the California came out. And he put on a show for us. And while we were stationed there, Harriet used to come out to the guest house. They had a guest house there on camp. And I don&rsquo;t know how...For a certain amount of money you could...just a weekend and I think there was a little charge for it too, for the rooms. No. Harriet said there wasn&rsquo;t no charge for it. And I can remember one thing especially that happened while she was out there. We had a big parade and I mean a big parade. The parade grounds was a cement, all cement. And it covered acres and acres and acres. And this was at night cause it was too hot to. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: It was dark.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: It wasn&rsquo;t dark. It was in the evening. It didn&rsquo;t get dark until eight, nine o&rsquo;clock then. And I think the parade started at six o&rsquo;clock or six-thirty, something like that. And we paraded by units, companies, units and battalions and whatnot. And that whole parade ground practically was covered. We all had to pass in review, pass the grandstand with our banners and it was...I guess it must have been something to behold because they had...I guess they had kind of . . Harriet was up in the stands too. I don&rsquo;t know whether she was...She wasn&rsquo;t with the big shots, but she was with where the guests could go and watch the soldiers in their parading. And we paraded to music and I had...We were right in step. Then we...One thing we haven&rsquo;t noticed in particular that when we went by the reviewing stand the sergeant could call out, holler, call out, &ldquo;Eyes right!&rdquo; And everybody would turn their heads to the right. Of course, if you didn&rsquo;t know where your loved one was sitting, it was hard to pick them out because there were so many darn many people. And. Just...but she said...I don&rsquo;t know. Did you say you seen me?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: I don&rsquo;t know, really I don&rsquo;t. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Harriet said she didn&rsquo;t know whether she could pick me out or...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: I saw you company, yeah.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: She said we were all a bunch of sourpusses so she didn&rsquo;t know which one was which. No, I just made that up. And it lasted for about an hour, hour and a half. I&rsquo;m sure it did. And then afterward, after the parade was over, when we were dismissed, the sergeant said we could do whatever we wanted to for the rest of the evening. So, I beat it over to the guest house. One thing, even the boyfriends or husbands were not allowed to stay in the guest house over night with a friend, girlfriend, boyfriend whatever. Those or you wife. So we just visited for about an hour and then we...I went back to the barracks. So much for that. ______[??303] We left Camp Ivas, I mean Camp Bowie via troop train again. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Camp Bowie?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Camp Bowie. Leave Camp Bowie via troop train to...We went to a camp called Camp Ivas near Needles.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Stop that. Stop that thing. Correct that.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I&rsquo;m going to correct that last part. We did not leave Camp Bowie, we left Camp Hood via troop train to go to Camp Ivas near Needles, California where we took more training in the desert. And I mean to tell you that was really a desert out in that area and it was hot. Boy, many a experiences we went out there. We would do things, which we thought it was a bunch of nonsense. But we still was in the . . .I still was in the 815</font></font></font><font color="#000000">^{<font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">th</font></font>}</font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"> Tank Destroyer Battalion and we&rsquo;d be driving right along and all of the sudden they&rsquo;d call out, &ldquo;Stop your vehicles!&rdquo; We stopped out vehicles and there was about eight or ten guys in my truck plus the system driver and myself. I was the driver of this truck. And they&rsquo;d call out and say, &ldquo;Start digging a hole cause we&rsquo;re going to run our trucks into it and so they&rsquo;re out of sight.&rdquo; And when you start thinking about what kind of a hole you are going to have to dig to bury a big six by six truck in it. Well we&rsquo;d get the thing about half dug and they&rsquo;d tell us, &ldquo;fill it in again we&rsquo;re pulling out.&rdquo; So we&rsquo;d fill it in. That was just part of maneuvers cause they said that&rsquo;s what they had to do overseas. So we did what we was told and...But, we didn&rsquo;t dig...We soon caught on to that. We didn&rsquo;t dig very fast because we knew that we were going to have to fill it in again. We wouldn&rsquo;t dig the whole thing. So we just took our times at shoveling. I think the non-coms, non-commissioned officers, they knew what we were doing, but they didn&rsquo;t say anything. Anyway, that&rsquo;s what...We did a lot of other things too when we were out on maneuvers. And a lot of night driving, which...That night driving really helped because where we actually got into a battle, fighting, we did a lot of night driving. And driving without lights, you&rsquo;d say, &ldquo;How do you dare drive without lights on going up and down the mountains when you had huge drop offs on each side of the road that you could drop off?&rdquo; Well, actually, it wasn&rsquo;t completely without lights. We had night lights on our cars, or not cars but trucks. And we would drive by blackout lights too. And the guy in front, which I took to...I did a lot of the leading because the lieutenant in charge, I don&rsquo;t know why he did, but he picked me a lot to ride with. We would be the first truck down and we had to drive it just was the blackout lights. And the guy behind us would follow us by just ...by watching our lights at the rear end. Huh? No. And many a times you were wondering if you...You had to gage you distance between the truck ahead of you and your truck cause when you came to that certain spot, if you couldn&rsquo;t see the road very good you had to guess at most of the time and turn where you though he turned. Everybody must have been pretty good at driving because I never heard a tale of anybody going off. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">End Transcription </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Interviewee: Gordon Short </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Interviewer: Patricia Short</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Date of interview: July 7, 1990 </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Location: Sabin, MN</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Category: Autobiographical</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: All right. You can take a look at this Dad as I&rsquo;m going through it so you can have something to refer to. Now I&rsquo;d like to ask you some questions about when you were growing up and stuff like that. But first, just to get the ball rolling its kind of nice to start with these questions. What would you have been if you could have been anything that you wanted to be?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: If I could have lived my life over again I would have been a dentist.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Okay. And what did you like or dislike, both if you can remember both ways, about your own folks when you were growing up? Good things and bad things?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Hmm. Well, I would say Mother was quite impatient, was very patient I mean with us. And she would just the opposite, I think, of a lot of other women. Other women would crack their child right away, but Mother would always say, &ldquo;No, I&rsquo;m not going to crack y&rsquo;all. I&rsquo;m going to leave it up to Dad when he comes in from the field. I&rsquo;ll tell him and he can do the cracking.&rdquo; And most the times he would. Although, I&rsquo;ve often thought how can a person crack someone for doing something if he didn&rsquo;t see it and it happened two or three hours or three or four hours ago. But, he always did. Dad for a while, when I was real small I was told was a very gentle and kind man. But, after he had more of us kids it seems like the burden got on his shoulder was more heavy.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: You said that you were told or did you notice it yourself?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I noticed it myself.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: You noticed the difference?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I noticed the difference myself. He would be coming... He would be more . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Belligerent I would say.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Belligerent, I would say yes. And he would do things more so what he wanted to do without taking suggestions from any of us or Mother. I would say that Dad turned...Sometimes I think he thought thinks...I thought he was...He hated life the way it sometimes did. But, most of the time when...One thing when you&rsquo;re out working on the farm, out in the field, Dad would never be severe with you. And I . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Did he ever talk about he wished he could he of done something or wished, just wished something that had happened different or anything?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. No. Its seems like he never </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>turned</u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??28] the only thing. He . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: He was a wonderer.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: He was just...He just took each day at a time. And but, he always seemed to have money. And very seldom would he ever float a loan. Like nowadays, they float loans to, for farming. In the way in the thousands of dollars. Now they just...In them days maybe if Dad went to the bank and got a six hundred dollar loan to put his crop in that would be something. It was bad. Not bad, but that would be the extent of his loans. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Anything else you can think of? </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: One thing, can I add to what Gordon was talking about when his mother waiting for correction, I always heard Dad that was worst than his banking was waiting all day to see if he got it. I thought that was kind of interesting.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I...The only time I ever...One time when I could still myself, see myself sitting in the kitchen there right next to the cream separator and Dad was telling something and, I don&rsquo;t know, all the sudden I popped up and said, &ldquo;How do I know? How can I believe that? I wasn&rsquo;t living then.&rdquo; And Dad said, &ldquo;Are you.... Do you mean to correct... You don&rsquo;t believe me or something like that. You&rsquo;re trying to tell me that I&rsquo;m not right&rdquo; And until I blurted it out, I never did feel any fear. As soon as I said it that&rsquo;s when I feared Dad because I knew how...I wouldn&rsquo;t say Dad was severe when he punished us, but sometime just his talk would...His tongue was worse than his . . .palm of his hand sometimes.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Okay, let&rsquo;s move on to the next question. What were your hurts or disappointments? I don&rsquo;t know exactly what this question means. I guess you can interpret it yourself. What were your hurts or disappointments as a child? I don&rsquo;t know whether they mean hurts necessarily physically. It could be something that happened to you and it just kind of was a sad thing or disappointed you when you were a kid or something?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: That...I think the only disappointments I can think of is if we had something planned, like to go to an old mill picnic or something like that. Then it rained the night before. I know and we lived out in the country where we didn&rsquo;t have no gravel roads. Its just muddy roads and I know one of us kids would be out on that road every fifteen minutes to see if it was drying because the sun was out and low about noon most of the time the road would be dry. I was like, Dad, we&rsquo;d run in and say, &ldquo;Dad I think we can get the car out and go now. Its dry enough.&rdquo; And in the afternoon we&rsquo;d go up to the old mill picnic and they were giving plane rides up there for a dollar a ride. And them days you&rsquo;d get a plane ride for a dollar. But, who had the dollar? We&rsquo;d get up there and if Dad was in a good humor he&rsquo;d give us probably ten or fifteen cents a piece to spend. That&rsquo;s about all. But, I never...I can&rsquo;t say that I never . . .that I had very many disappointments in life or hurts. I think my biggest hurt when I was a teenager is at the time my brother Howard drowned cause we were quite close and when I heard that I was out in the field shocking for the fellow that I was working for. And I just had to quit. I just couldn&rsquo;t pick up a bundle and put it where it was supposed to be.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: You mean somebody came out to the field to tell you guys? </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Mother and Dad was in the car. They&rsquo;d already had their suitcase packed. They were on their way out to the road to Wilson was it? </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: I think it was. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: They were planning a trip.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No they hadn&rsquo;t planned a trip they just got a phone call.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: No. They got a call. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P.Short: Oh they went because of it, what happened.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: That my brother had drowned. See.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Yeah he drowned out there.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: And they stopped. They waved me over and told me to come and over to what they had to say. And they told me. And...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: They got it as a phone call or what?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: They got it as a phone call at home.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Does anybody know exactly what happened?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh, yeah sure. I know we know the extent of his . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well was he swimming or was he...What was he doing?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: He was swimming right after eating a full meal. He got the cramps. His buddy tried to save him and there was three other girls. They had swam out to the raft that was out in the lake a little bit. And . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So he made it out to the raft?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: He made it out to the raft and I think they were coming back. And when they were coming back they went by . . .They went past the roped off area. It was roped off area the WPA project. And there was a roped off area and they weren&rsquo;t suppose to go out to the raft. And the girls had swam out to the raft too. I think I&rsquo;m getting a little ahead of myself here now. The girls that swam out to the raft and Howard and...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: The _______[??] boy was it?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. It was the Evans boy. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Oh yeah.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: It...I can&rsquo;t think of his name round the spur of the moment. Gene Evans. Gene Evans was his name. They said, &ldquo;Oh, that&rsquo;s too short of swim. We&rsquo;re going to go out, go down the shoreline further so we can have a longer swim. And when he got about two-thirds of the way out to the raft Howard got a . . .caught a cramp. And . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Oh, so he didn&rsquo;t make it out to the raft?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No he didn&rsquo;t make it out to the raft. The girls were out there. And Gene seen what was happening and he tried to get a hold of Howard. And Howard as a drowning person was fighting and splashing his arms all around and in pain I imagine. And he got a hold of Gene and was pulling him down too. Well, only one of the girls could swim real good. So she jumped off the raft and swam out there and she said she seen right away it was a matter of who to save. She had to save one or the other. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What she actually had to sort of rip them apart?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: She had to rip them apart and when she got them apart she . . .It was Gene that she helped back to the raft instead of Howard. And Howard drown.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Nobody was mad at her?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: I don&rsquo;t think your folks knew the girls anyway did they?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No, huh-uh. And I think that would be the extent of my hurts or disappointments cause like I said otherwise as a child I really had a very good childhood life. And all I can remember...I like to remember the good parts instead of the bad parts. Like this.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Okay how did you usually get into trouble? That&rsquo;s the next question.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: How did I usually get into trouble? I don&rsquo;t know. That&rsquo;s a good question.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: You must have had some downfall. Everybody does. They either talk to much or something.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I had a temper, but not as bad as my brother Howard. My brother Howard used to have a . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: You and Howard must have been like your Dad then. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: ...quite the temper. I got into more trouble, you might say, after it was...Not as a child but after I got...After I was grown up and going to dances, come home and get into Mother&rsquo;s cake pans a lot of times and cookie pans when I shouldn&rsquo;t have done it. And . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: What did you do the time that she almost broke her toe chasing you?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I suppose...I think I tipped something over in the kitchen and broke a dish. And there was some stuff in it. And so Mother chased me around the house and I crawled out of the bed I noticed one time she kicked at me and kicked the foot of the bed and hurt her foot. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Oh that&rsquo;s what she did! </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well you don&rsquo;t remember ever tease...being a bully or a tease or anything like that?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. I was one of them . . .[laughs] I don&rsquo;t say it was one of those golden haired boys, that I was a goody-goody. I had my troubles too, just . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Yeah. They used to play chicken with cars too.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: And nowadays if we did that nowadays as we did then, you&rsquo;d really catch...get into trouble cause you&rsquo;d be tracking, what&rsquo;s called tracking in the house in them days. It was common for us to be outside, no shoes on, come walk around the house though.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Maybe they didn&rsquo;t have the same kind of flooring or something?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short:: Yeah. But that was because you Dad did it! It certainly wasn&rsquo;t good training. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Every once in a while we&rsquo;d get into a little trouble. Come tracking in the house with muddy boots on. Mother didn&rsquo;t like that. Snow and water is okay, but not mud. That&rsquo;s about all I can think about. We can go on to the next thing.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Shoot. There was going to be something else I was going to ask and I can&rsquo;t remember now! Oh well. Did you ever have a nickname?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I had a nickname up until I was about I was seven or eight years old. My nickname was Dad.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: That doesn&rsquo;t make any sense. Can you tell me the story behind this? </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Cause that for...That was the first one . . .one of my first words that I said when I was a baby was &ldquo;dad, dad, dad,&rdquo; which is common I think with most babies, but...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: It&rsquo;s the first syllables they hear.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah. But I don&rsquo;t know. And I think Mother and Dad, they didn&rsquo;t think too much of it until my cousin Ray, Ray Short. He was the one that kind of dabbed that nickname onto me. He said, &ldquo;When you were a baby you said dad, dad, dad all the time. So we&rsquo;re going to call you Dad now as a nickname.&rdquo; </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Anything when you were a teenager? Did any fellow teenagers call you anything?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Gordy. Gordy.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Huh?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: They called you Gordy.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah, Gordy.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: And Shorty.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Gordy and Shorty. And Flash Gordon. [laughs]</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: The kids here called him Flash Gordon when he drove us.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: The girls used to call me a lot better names than that.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Okay what did you do on a hot summer afternoon?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh boy. When we weren&rsquo;t shooing mosquitoes out of the house we usually went to...We had a water hole about a mile east of our place. And we used to go down there and take off all of our clothes and go swimming. And when we didn&rsquo;t do that we were out hunting gophers. We&rsquo;d take along a pale and traps. And when we got old enough, Dad would allow us to take the gun. And we&rsquo;d go trapping gophers and hunting...And there was a grove of trees there. We&rsquo;d go over to where the crows nests were and in them days you could get five cents for a gopher foot, five cents for a crows feet and...No ten cents for crows feet or five cents for crows egg. And we&rsquo;d always wait until the egg was just eggs hatched. You go up there and get the bird, the young birds and kill them and get the feet off. Get more money off them. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Did you guys ever have anything like, your Mom ever make anything cold to drink or anything like that?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh yeah. We had koolaids and I can remember when root beer first come on the market. And Mother would buy root beer in packets and boy. Bring it home. And we always had...The only way we could get something cold is put it down in our well. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: That&rsquo;s what I was wondering. You must either...The only way if you didn&rsquo;t have ice cubes, you either have to go well or spring or something.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: And we had a well that flowed all the time. And it was full nearly right up to the top and Mother had, in order to put the things in a pale so it would be cold, she also had to put weights in it. Or if she...Now in them days, they use a lot of gallon cans. A lot of gallon pales. And you&rsquo;d put something in a pale there and weight it down and then put it down in the water. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So it would be sealed? Whatever you going to have to drink would be sealed so it doesn&rsquo;t get water in it.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Well, they never put it in the water that far.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. Like when she picks up a . . .I don&rsquo;t know if this thing is catching anything I&rsquo;m saying or not, but it...You know, when you mixed that stuff up you had to...you more or less put it in a jar. She...I have one out in the shed here now, one of them great big jars. I found it in the woods one time and I thought I was going to save it. Its about that big around and about that high. I think its what they call a quart and a half sealer, which you don&rsquo;t hardly see nowadays. They were a little bit smaller than a pickle jar or something like a pickle jar that you have even that they have on shelves nowadays. And they come up, oh they&rsquo;re about like that. They stand up about that high. And that&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;d have our cool drinks in.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Okay, What were you afraid of? I guess that means when you were young. Was there anything you were afraid of like the Boogie man or anything?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. We never . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Afraid of the dark? Afraid of small spaces?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I wasn&rsquo;t afraid of the dark or I wasn&rsquo;t afraid of no Boogie man stories. I can&rsquo;t say . . </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Were you ever afraid your parents would be too poor because of the Depression or that you would lose your home or your farm? Or your parents would divorce? Afraid of anything?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. In them days, I don&rsquo;t think kids ever thought of divorces. And its true we...I was raised in the Depression years, but I never knew what it was to be hungry. We always had three square meals a day. We always had lunch in between and . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Everybody in the farm . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Everybody. We raised most of our food. Mother would go into town with maybe 24 dozen of eggs in a cream can. And she&rsquo;d get all the groceries she wanted to. And no, I think I was very fortunate to live when I did. And even if a lot of people in the cities said they, in them years, it was hard going. But, I can&rsquo;t ever think of us ever...I suppose for what we had then, according to today&rsquo;s standards, we were real poor folks and probably we were. But, I never thought of poverty. I never thought of being poor. And I think we just lived one day to another. I just appreciate everything my folks done for us.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Okay we&rsquo;ll have to skip the next one then cause I had down: Do you have any of those same fears today? But evidently you didn&rsquo;t have any, so. Okay. What has been...Now this is talking about your entire life now. What have been your greatest disappointments? Is there anything you wish you hadn&rsquo;t done or you wished you would have done? Or you wish you could do over? Or whatever. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well, every once in a while, I personally think, well if I had to live my life over again I sure do things different, But, I think my .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: I mean did you think....</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: . . .career would have been different, like I&rsquo;ve said before. I could of...I would have been something else had a better profession than what I did go into. And another thing is: I think when I come back from the service I would have finished my high school education...I would have went to high school and got a high school education because my...Like we talked about this when we was out to Montana. Robert, I think he only went through two grades of high school and then even when he was working on the railroad he took a correspondence course and he finished his last two years.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Gordon, I want to interrupt you. He was in his senior year when he got expelled from school cause McIntosh. He wouldn&rsquo;t behave himself.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Okay. And just found out the truth on that.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Okay anyway was the...Did you have any disappointments as far as...I don&rsquo;t know...As far as your plans here at home or with your kids or anything else?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. I think everything went well with my work. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Would you have like to have had a son, for instance? We know you didn&rsquo;t, but would you have liked to?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I think that was a disappointment when we lost our first child. Our first child was a boy and so I think...I used to cry. I cry some because when I would think of that because I think I blamed myself for it, losing the child. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: You don&rsquo;t want to do that.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: And Harriet says I shouldn&rsquo;t do that because...I think if I hadn&rsquo;t taken my...I had some time off from the Army when...And I was out on the eight or nine day pass what you call it. And so I had my wife Harriet come out there and she was pregnant at the time and they were just ready to give her a baby shower at the time that I called. And this had to be canceled and I felt that her traveling out there probably caused the baby to be born the way it was. And so, it died. And it&rsquo;s buried out there in Needles, California now. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Was the baby premature when it was born or was it full-term when it was born?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: No it was premature.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: It was premature?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: But I think to . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Too much so?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: No, it was long enough. I think that if I&rsquo;d have been here, I think the baby...They didn&rsquo;t even try to make that baby live. Gordon, you know that!</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So you think that if . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: The baby... Now other people that we&rsquo;ve talked to said they have never heard of a dry birth. Its completely dry. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Oh I have.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Yeah. And see the other Doctor Wallis and Grandma said that they felt if I carried it full-term, I probably would have been enough fluid to have had the baby. But, both Dr. Wallis and Grandma feel that that baby, if they&rsquo;d have...If I&rsquo;d have been here, they would of saved it. Those people felt that its feet wasn&rsquo;t right. Well it had sat, in the womb, on its feet so that the heels were pushed up into the legs.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So it had been dry for a while?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Sure! And the feet was just like it had this front part of the feet. Well, those dumb idiots didn&rsquo;t know that hey could bend the foot out and bring the heel out. Grandma and them knew all that stuff. Some of those doctor didn&rsquo;t know their A from a hole in the ground.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So it wasn&rsquo;t a still birth?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: No.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: The baby was alive right up until that time?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: They didn&rsquo;t even try to make that baby live. It was a blue baby and Dad says well it was all dark. Well sure, if the cord was wrapped around its neck and so that&rsquo;s what a blue baby is. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Sounds like pretty ignorant people?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: They were ignorant.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Harriet were you checked by the doctor before our baby was born out there? Was the baby living? He must have been...The baby must have been living when it was born?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Sure. I just got through saying that! You ought to remember they said that they didn&rsquo;t...they told you they didn&rsquo;t think they should make the baby live because they didn&rsquo;t think it had normal feet. It did have normal feet!</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well, if that&rsquo;s the criteria for somebody living, that&rsquo;s pretty pathetic!</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Damn right it is!</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: My Lord!</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -0.95in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Cause I explained it to Dr. Wallis the way it was a she told me those feet were there, all the feet were there. All they had to do was push it out like this. If your foot was like this and you were leaning on it. As a baby the bones are soft. They can mold them.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Is this being recorded?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Yeah.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: They can mold those feet and the heel can be pushed right back into the foot. Even club footed babies, Gordon, can be straightened out at the time of birth!</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Okay, let&rsquo;s continue.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Okay. Let&rsquo;s see. How have you handled them. What have you learned from them, what made you learn. Okay, the next question has to do with our last question so try and remember what you said. Says, How have you handled your disappointments? What have you learned from them that you would like, you know, your own kids, like me to learn from? Is there anything...Like for instance, you said you would like to have had a different career. So in other words, would you say, in other words, for an example that it&rsquo;s important when you&rsquo;re young enough to make the best effort you can to do what you&rsquo;d like to do._____[??253] for instance . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well, I think at the time I was really too young to make my own decisions when I come out of eight grade cause when I come out of eighth grade see I was . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Mention you were going to be a dentist too.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No I wasn&rsquo;t...Let&rsquo;s see</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Yeah. Fifteen, sixteen that would be about right. Fifteen, sixteen, yeah.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Sixteen. I was sixteen in March. And I come out. I graduated in May. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: He must have been awful dumb. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Eighth is sixteen. No wait. Sixteen . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Gordon, you would have been fourteen when you graduated from this eighth grade.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well you see, I was . . .Yeah, I would have been fourteen plus.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: That&rsquo;s right. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: When I come out. And at that time, all I could think about, oh boy, I&rsquo;m through school. I don&rsquo;t have...I can stay home on the farm now and do farm work and I don&rsquo;t have to go to school anymore. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Didn&rsquo;t the teachers at that time ever encourage you?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: They didn&rsquo;t push it. No.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: That&rsquo;s not good</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Gordon, you should explain to Trisha why you were weren&rsquo;t encouraged. There were no school buses. If you went to school you had to be put in town on a board and room basis and most people did not have the money to put their kids at board and room.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So in other words, the school were you&rsquo;d been going to up until that time didn&rsquo;t go any further than that.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: No. It was a country school. Little one room school house. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: My brother Howard went to high school. I didn&rsquo;t. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: If you were lucky like you mother was to live in town where there was a school then you&rsquo;d go to school. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: If you could live your life over again...Now some of this is you&rsquo;ve sort of covered, so I don&rsquo;t know why they have this question here. But, if you had your life to live over again what would you do differently?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well, I explained a lot of that already. I think maybe I was always told by Harriet that I didn&rsquo;t take my rightfully place as a parent when the kids were growing up. That I wasn&rsquo;t strict enough in discipline. I think maybe I should have done that, but...Like she said, I was gone so much of the time that when I did come home I would baby the kids too much. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: I can&rsquo;t blame you for that.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: And . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: No. That&rsquo;s why I never stopped him from doing it. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: And I think...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Sharon and Betty never saw him all week long.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: And I think that when I look back and see what other people did and how they lived, I think I would have wanted to travel more with my family than what I did. We went so little and did things as a family. And although, I know other people around the country here that&rsquo;s done the same thing now. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Tell the reason why you didn&rsquo;t.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Alfred Loer. They were in the same way. They said they couldn&rsquo;t go anyplace when they had their kids at home because we had to...I was a person that...I was more dedicated to the family than I was dedicated to traveling and I believed in...I took pride in my place. I liked to keep my place up. Keep it painted. Keep the grass cut and I wanted to keep food on the table. And instead of tobacco and everything like that...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Heavens to Betsy! You have been lucky if you&rsquo;d have went anyplace. You couldn&rsquo;t go anyplace. You had to have food and clothing and shelter.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: That&rsquo;s what I was saying. I had to have food on the table</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: He didn&rsquo;t have money to go anyplace.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: And I didn&rsquo;t want to owe my life to the banker in borrowing money. A lot of people in them days took trips and everything on borrowed money and worked their selves off . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: I&rsquo;ll tell you what they did it on. Some of the mothers went out and worked. I stayed home and stayed where I belonged. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yes. We were a very fortunate family in that way that I was the only bread winner. And we were fortunate enough that I could make as much as I did. And I appreciated what Harriet did in staying home. When she does do it...When she did choose to go out and work, it wasn&rsquo;t because she had to. It was just because she wanted to have a change of life I guess. Instead of being in the house all the time she went out to work. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Okay, who was your best, best, best friend when you were growing up? Did you have one particular person that stands out?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I had two. I had two if I may put two in there. One was Lawrence Marek. You know how to spell that? </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Huh-uh. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: You know how to spell Lawrence Marek? M-A-R-E-K. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Okay.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: And the other one was Howard Filipi, F-I-L-I-P-I. And favorite games now, would that would be games when I was a child? Or games after I grew up?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Both. Well mostly we&rsquo;re talking about young people. Young people</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: [Laughs] I knew I&rsquo;d catch you on that one! </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Post office I suppose.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. We...In school of course in dry weather it was baseball. We called it wasn&rsquo;t kitten. It was more a kitten ball than baseball in them days. And what was this game called may I?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Captain may I? I played that. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: That was a game and stealing sticks. That as another game we played in school. And well I tell you there wasn&rsquo;t much of a variety you could do with.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Okay. Did you have any favorite toy? Do you remember a toy that you used to really like or a blanket or a stuffed animal or a toy engine or soldier or a little car or anything?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I had little cars that&rsquo;s what I . The little cars and you could, I suppose what could be added on to that favorite toy was an instrument, a little instrument you . . .that I got for Christmas.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What was that?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: A harmonica.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well you couldn&rsquo;t really cuddle up to a car or a harmonica though. When you were real little didn&rsquo;t you have anything that you took to bed with you?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Not really?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Just went to bed?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Not when you slept eight in a bed!</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Cuddle up with each other I guess!</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: [Laughs] No.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: They put three at the top and three at the bottom. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Yeah.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: And what special place did you like to play in or go?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Yeah. Did you have a fort? Or a grove of woods? Or . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: We didn&rsquo;t have...We lived on section one there and Dad planted some trees after a few years, but when we first moved there we never had a not a stick or a stone, you might say. There wasn&rsquo;t a tree on the place. Not one tree, not even a bush.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: When you went into town, did you have any special place you used to go to? I mean, was there a soda shop or a dance hall or something?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh. You bet ya! In them days they them soda fountains and you could buy them dixie cups for a nickel And for a nickel more they&rsquo;d put topping on it.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What town were you near at that time?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Warren, Minnesota.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: That was Warren, okay.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: And you know when I was a teenager we moved up to McIntosh. We&rsquo;d have a...They had a drug store there that had a soda fountain in it. And you could buy any kind of ice creams, dips or sodas or floats or whatever you wanted. One special place where we liked to play when I was . . .is in the hayloft. When we was on the farm we liked to play in the hayloft because there was a lot of hay up there and there was a lot of ropes to shimmy up and down [Laughs]. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Yeah. You want me to tell her why you shimmied up and down the ropes? Just like Danny used to do on the table leg here.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Yep. I figured that. What is your earliest memory?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh Gosh. I suppose I could remember back when I was...Let&rsquo;s see...Yeah, I must have been about three years old, a little better than three years old when the misses...I was three in March and I think we went out to Seattle. We went out to Seattle, Washington. After . . .In the spring of the year after we got nice weather. You know, its funny, what the very first thing I can ever remember that happened to me, is my brother Howard taught me how to tie my own shoes. Then when we got out to Seattle, I remember . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: That was before you went to Seattle?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: On the way.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: On the way out to Seattle, we used to sit in the back seat there and Mother would say, &ldquo;Put your shoes on! Howard, show him how to tie his shoes.&rdquo; And Howard showed me. Finally after a while I learned how to tie my own shoes and . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: You went by car?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Model T.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p></div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: An old Model T. And we got out there, I remember the place where we lived was way up on a hill. And on this hill...The only way to get up that hill is...In them days, you didn&rsquo;t have cement sidewalks. You had wood sidewalks. You&rsquo;d have cleats in them. You know, the side walk would be oh, say about that wide and then they had to have a cleat to the wood about every eight or ten inches apart.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Yeah. I know what you mean.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: So to get a grip on it. And we walked up and down that a good many times. And if you ever took a wagon or a bicycle or a tricycle on them things, you&rsquo;d go thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: How long were you out there? Couldn&rsquo;t have been very long.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. I don&rsquo;t think we stayed out there much over a year, year and a half because we come back and...Oh, while I was out there, I remember rolling car tires down a hill into a colored family&rsquo;s home. And some of our tires went right in the house. The door was open and it went right in. And when we come back, we...I wasn&rsquo;t five. I was... Must have been...We lived in McIntosh a while and then we moved down to Grundy&rsquo;s. And I didn&rsquo;t...I wanted to go to school I know, but then I . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: When did you live in Warren? It must have been after you went to Seattle then? Or lived by Warren, I mean...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Oh heavens yes!</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh yes. When we come back from Seattle I was between...I was a little over four years old, four and half years old because when we come back to McIntosh we stayed there that winter. And at...I was five at McIntosh. Then the fall, the summer we moved down to stayed with my Uncle Grundy&rsquo;s. And I remember as soon as I hit my sixth birthday on the 14</font></font></font><font color="#000000">^{<font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">th</font></font>}</font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"> of March, I told Mother, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m six years old now and I can go to school!&rdquo; But they wouldn&rsquo;t let me got o school because see, this was March and it was too close to the closing of the school year. They wouldn&rsquo;t let me start, but boy I was all ready to go. I wanted Mother to pack my lunch too and I wanted to go, but I couldn&rsquo;t go.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: I can see why you though you were fifteen then cause if you started school on the fall after...If you were six, you would have turned seven in first grade then.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Yeah, but he still would have been fourteen out of eighth grade.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah, see I was . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: My birthday&rsquo;s in March and I knew I was fourteen when I got out of the eighth grade.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Yeah.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Now what was you happiest moments?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Yep. That&rsquo;s the last one. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: As a child or as a . . .?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well both. You can give me both. Child first. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Gosh. Let&rsquo;s see. I have to think for a bit on that. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Was there some time when you were a kid when you got a gift that you really wanted or a surprise gift or a surprise or something good happened to you? I don&rsquo;t know.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well my...I think my happiest moments was when I would . . .when Dad and Mother would say, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re either going to send you,&rdquo; which they did a couple of times, &ldquo;or we&rsquo;re going to take you up to McIntosh to see my Grandma and Grandpa Sannes.&rdquo; I just loved that place and I really had a good, happy times up there. And . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What was so great about it?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Well, they&rsquo;d put me in a ...They&rsquo;d take me out in the field, put me on a wagon, when I was real small, and told me, &ldquo; Alright now when we&rsquo;re picking potatoes and you&rsquo;ll...We call to you, bring the horses forward. You say giddy up. And the horses will start up and they&rsquo;ll walk down the row. You don&rsquo;t even have to drive them, but you can hold on to the lines anyway,&rdquo; which I did. And they&rsquo;d dump their pales of potatoes in the wagon. Well, pretty soon, I got built up higher and higher and higher because at first I could hardly look over the top of the wagon. Like this...you know, have them eyes like this. Pretty soon, I kept building up, building up, building up and I was up to my knees. And one time I thought I would be a little cocky. And they told them bring the horses forward. I had seen my uncles do this. I took a line and snapped it over the wagon, hit one of the horses when I did that. As I did that I fell off the wagon. Right down in front. My...I don&rsquo;t know if you know what a kingpin . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Yeah, I know. You take it out and its what attaches the . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Your double trees, your double trees. Alright. My head hit there and I rolled underneath the wagon and I landed up like this and the wagon wheel just scraped the back of my head. I then over this arm. And that&rsquo;s why. Look how straight this one is. Look how crooked this one is.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What did you do though, to start the whole thing that you did wrong?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: He slapped the horses with the reins.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I slapped the horses on the butt and they started . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: With the reins?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: With the lines. They called them lines.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Yeah. But that&rsquo;s what you mean. The . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: And they started up with a jerk and that&rsquo;s what caused it. And of course, they would have started running and trotting, but my uncle was close by and he grabbed a hold of the bridal and stopped them. And of course, they picked me up and took me into the house and Grandpa took me to the doctor to see if what was wrong, if anything was wrong. They pronounced me okay and just told me to take it easy for a little bit and I can remember the best part of it all. Grandpa took me up to the store and he bought me a dime, either a nickel or a dime&rsquo;s worth of pink and white peppermints. And boy, that was the best medicine in the world. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Grandpa&rsquo;s pink peppermints.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Grandpa&rsquo;s pink peppermints. But he more or less stuck to white peppermints. But he asked me, &ldquo;What kind do you want?&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I want white and pink.&rdquo; [Laughs].</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So are you saying that you think that you arm could have been fixed if they had had a doctor see to it?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I can&rsquo;t remember them doing anything, but that&rsquo;s definitely a cause from that. Although, my arm has never giving me any trouble.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Did you tell her this is Grandpa and Grandma Sannes you were talking about?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah, Grandpa and Grandma Sannes. I don&rsquo;t know if the cause of my right arm being like this is a cause of me being left handed. I can&rsquo;t. I&rsquo;m left handed in most ways. I can eat left handed. I can write left handed. I can throw left handed. I can&rsquo;t even throw twenty feet and hit a barn with my right hand. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: How old did you say you were then?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah. Five years old.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: I can&rsquo;t believe that they would trust you the five year old kid up in a wagon like that.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh yeah. Well they figured, he can&rsquo;t fall out.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: He was five and half really. Cause if you were digging potatoes it&rsquo;d be way in the fall of the year. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Did you have anybody when you were young who was a real encourager, you know? Some body that really encouraged you or told you that you could be whatever you want to be, that you&rsquo;re a good person, whatever?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: My cousin Ray. Ray Short. I worked for him ever since I was about nine or ten years old. I would go out and herd sheep and cattle and he . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: He&rsquo;s your cousin you say?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Cousin Ray.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah. And he always give me encouragements. You know, and he says Dad...He said, &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t forget that you should have more schooling.&rdquo; He said...He always told me, he said, &ldquo;You should have never quit.&rdquo; When I got so I was old enough when I graduated from the eighth grade and went out to work for him he said, &ldquo;Dad, you should never quit school. You should have went on to high school. You should have went on to high school.&rdquo; But of course, when I was nine or ten years old when I worked out there for him, he always told me, he said, &ldquo;I never went on to school, but you should go on to school.&rdquo; He said, &ldquo;You can be anything you want to.&rdquo; And I can remember when I&rsquo;d go out herding sheep. And this would be on horseback. We had a regular cowboy saddle. He&rsquo;d shorten up the straps so that my foot would fit in them. And he...for a few mornings he would make my lunch, then I knew what to fix. I don&rsquo;t know what I&rsquo;d take for drinking water. I&rsquo;ll be darned if I can know that now.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: You said he made you lunch for a few mornings and then you did. Well are you living at his place when you&rsquo;re doing this?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh yeah, I was staying with him. Shucks when I come in from the herding sheep, I would help him milk cows. I was nine or ten years old and you would milk cows. And peanut butter and honey sandwiches, oh how I loved them! And you know, its funny, I used to eat many when I was a kid, but I still love them. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Now if you were able to help him at that age, why didn&rsquo;t you Dad have you stay home and help him?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Because, it seemed like whenever Ray needed me, just like Gale[??]525 at the time he needed someone to help when I come up here and I met your mother. Dad would never...Dad would let us stay at home and when we got through working some place, you set your suitcase down in you bedroom, hung up your clothes and you put on your work clothes if you didn&rsquo;t already have them on. And you&rsquo;d go right outside and pitch in and work. He would never stop you from going out because we . . Dad always knew he had to many at home. He. . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So another words, Ray didn&rsquo;t have enough and you Dad had too many. So your Dad didn&rsquo;t mind you borrowing you guys out to the family.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. That&rsquo;s right! And when...I can...He could come over and get me any time he wanted to. And I&rsquo;d got to work for him. Ray wasn&rsquo;t the . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Was he a single person at this time?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh yeah, he was single at the time. You know, I was . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: How...What difference in age? How much...What age would he be?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh gosh he must have been at least ten or fifteen years older than I or more.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So he was in his twenties and you were just a little boy?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah. He was probably in his middle twenties or latter twenties. And I would, you know believe it or not, I was only eleven or twelve years old. And Ray would never go out...Unlike his brother Harry, Ray would go out sometimes and go out on a toot, get drunk. Not actually get drunk, but I think he, more or less, was out with a girl. And he would stay overnight and go to . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Okay, I think you can talk.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: How many kids now a days between the age of eleven, twelve or thirteen years old would assume responsibility of taking, doing your chores in the evening, feeding the cows and the sheep, milking, doing the milking, separating? And then in the morning, he, my cousin, if he wasn&rsquo;t back yet. I&rsquo;d go out and do all the chores, throw a set of harness on the team of horses, hook on to the _____sled [??563] and clean out the barn and do all that. It&rsquo;d take me a little bit longer than an adult, but I would do all the chores like that and then I would do chores&hellip;</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Did you just do this for...because you Dad said to help him and you get your board and room or did you ever get earning money on top of it all?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I got my board. Yes. I worked for, one time there, I worked for about three to four weeks and when he went to take me home, I could tell he was fidgeting in his pocket. He always had loose change in his pocket, Ray did. And I knew he, I could tell he was probably counting the coins. I got paid for them three or four weeks over there. I got paid a dollar and a quarter. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Isn&rsquo;t that great!</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: All them days. Twenty-one days . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: What would a regular have earned in them days. Made more than that for that amount of time?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: For probably a dollar a day.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So he was underpaying you?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Oh good God, yes.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: A little bit.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I even worked out in the hay field when it was out in the summertime. I mowed. I raked hay and I pitched hay and stacked hay and everything else, just like a grown up. But in them days, we always had such a good rapport with one another. And that we got along so darn good that I think that&rsquo;s why he took advantage of me because I just liked to be around Ray and he...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Ray is dead now.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I wish I could have been around when he </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: When did he die? Not that long ago right?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: A couple years ago.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah. I wish I could have been around him more because I think I would have learned more than I would have learned from my Dad.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: That Ray isn&rsquo;t his first name as a cowboy or something that Dad was talking about?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No it was Grundy that was that. And if I had been around Ray more, he probably would have showed me how to do things more than Dad did. Like I said, I&rsquo;m not mechanically inclined now. I never was because Dad didn&rsquo;t never let us kids fix anything. If anything broke, he&rsquo;d tell us to go do something that we knew how to do and he&rsquo;d do the fixing. And . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: How is this Ray related to you again?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: He&rsquo;s my Uncle&rsquo;s boy. Uncle Grundy&rsquo;s boy. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Oh!</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I don&rsquo;t know if you know anything about cowboy. When we were little kids, my Uncle Grundy, he went out to and he worked. He was one of the last of the cowboys that worked on Big </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>Foot </u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??587] Ranches. There used to be a ranch out, down in Texas called, Hundred and One. I think its was a Hundred and One Ranch. And he worked on that ranch and he did everything and anything. He punched cattle. He branded cattle and well he was a regular typical cowboy and he was good with a rope. I remember one time when we come back. He &lsquo;d come back for a short while and for a visit. And then he went back again. But while he was home he showed us a lot lassoing techniques. And he had four of us run abreast. Not abreast, yeah abreast. And he . . All the time we were running we were close to him all the time we were running. He had that lasso going like that. And he caught. . . At the first throw, he got us all in that loop and stopped us. Now he said, &ldquo;If you&rsquo;ll all run and be sure that your feet coordinate. Your right foot or left foot all lefty. We started running and we practiced for a little bit til our left foot or right foot would go out in front. We ran and started swinging that loop and all of the sudden it just zipped out and got, caught all four of us.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: All four of one foot?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: All four of one foot.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Yeah. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Now that&rsquo;s a trick!</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Yeah. That&rsquo;s quite the timing. Yep. Okay well, I&rsquo;m kind of done with this sheet. Oh wait a minute. One more question. I knew there was another one. Can you think of the saddest moments in your life? That&rsquo;s the last one. I guess you covered some of that already. You said one of the saddest things was when your brother drowned.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: I guess there probably anything else you haven&rsquo;t covered.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Let&rsquo;s see. I think there was a lot of sad things when I was in the service, but you know, there&rsquo;s a difference being in the service an seeing someone killed or and dying right.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: I guess you kind of expect it when you&rsquo;re in war.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Yeah. I seen a lot of sad things in the. . . What was the</font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u> topic[??610] </u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">of the question now? </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well never mind Dad, but you know you hear some people talk about in war, sometimes you see innocent people hurt. I mean, did you guys ever run into any civilians that were caught in the crossfire that should never have been hurt?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. You heard...Very seldom you heard anything like that.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: In World War II, I don&rsquo;t think you did.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: In World War II, especially in the South Pacific, you might of over in the other area. What was the other area called?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Atlantic.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Atlantic.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Yeah. European theater.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: European theater, yeah.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: European theater yeah. I think there was a lot of innocent people killed over there because of the bombings, but not for in the war theater in the . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So you guys never ran into the thing where you&rsquo;d be going by a village and you&rsquo;d see kids or women or anything?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Never?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: The only time there was when they dropped the A bomb. And they wouldn&rsquo;t have seen that. That was over in Japan. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Yeah.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: I seen a lot of death.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: So the Filipino people, they would evacuate war zone areas so they were way out of the fighting?</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: Very little fighting that there was in these little hamlets, that they call it that the Filipinos have.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: -1in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 1in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Okay, well is there anything else that you want to add. I can&rsquo;t think of any other questions. These are pretty darn good questions, these ones I have here.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">G. Short: No. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">P. Short: Well I&rsquo;ll tell you what, I&rsquo;ll stop this.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Remainder of tape (not transcribed) contains Patricia Short and unidentified family members discussing family history.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">End Transcription</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; page-break-before: always; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Interviewee: Gordon Short </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Interviewer: Narrative</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Date of interview: Unknown </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Location: Unknown</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Category: WWII </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">This is Gordon short speaking. I have been asked by my three daughters, Sharon Hannaford of Darien, Illinois, Betty Thorsvig of Glyndon, Minnesota, Patricia Lewis of Sabin, Minnesota to do my war memoirs and my experiences in World War II. At my departure from East Grand Forks, Minnesota to my induction point to my training center while in the States. My war time experiences in the South Pacific, which includes New Guinea, Leyte and Luzon of the Philippines and occupational duties in Japan. Then back to the States, my discharge and back to my loved ones again. I have a lot to be thankful for even though at that period of my life I was not a Christian, but I know Jesus as His father, my Lord and God. For reasons, I might think of several, he brought me through many of trials and battles while we were on the front lines.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Enough of the summary, now down to the real stuff. Some parts there will be laughter and some there will be real . . .it will be real emotional. I got my greetings from the President in March of 1942 and I left East Grand Forks, Minnesota April, 1942 by bus along with a large group of men my age or so. We were driven to our destination, induction center at Fort Snelling, Minnesota and was processed rapidly and sworn in to the military service. We had to take off all of our civilian clothes and put on our military clothes. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">By the way, while I was on my way to the post office to ship home my clothes as we were told how to salute an officer. I met an officer and I had both my hands full so I set the bag I was carrying in my right hand down and saluted the officer. He returned the salute, then said, &ldquo;Soldier, I know you must be new in the service as I can tell by what you are on your way to do. You do not have to salute anyone when you have both hands full. Just greet the officer by saying good day sir. And that is sufficient&rdquo; He was very nice and we had our old chat. And then we both went on our way. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">We were at Fort Snelling but a short while. Then shipped out by troop train to Camp Roberts, California. This was a very large, beautiful camp and clean. On the troop train we had it very good. Good food, the weather was fine. I got my share of kitchen duty. KP it was called in the military service. Yes, it took us two or three days to get to our destination. Of the fun times was when we stopped in town along the way. Boy, there sure was a lot of young girls out to greet us and plenty of Red Cross ladies giving out milk, cookies, coffee and rolls. Real great!</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Upon reaching our destination, we were taken off the train and loaded into Army trucks. Six by sixes they called them then. They were called and we were driven to our camp right by our barracks and unloaded and lined up to be dismissed and taken to out barracks and assigned by our sergeants and corporals where we were to stay in which barracks and which beds. When that was finished we were called to the mess hall for a beautiful six course meal. Ha-ha! It wasn&rsquo;t bad at all though.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Our basic training was for six weeks and we had training on how to march, use of rifles and live ammo, hand grenade throwing and use of small arms and what position to be in when we ______[??40], also training with bayonets, which were attached to our rifles and small knives we used in hand to hand battle. Going through the obstacle course was the hardest training, especially when you had to go over six or eight feet walls with a full pack that weighs fifty to sixty pounds on your back. For night training we had to go under barbed wire with a full pack on a crawl. Keeping down low while a .50-caliber machine gun, being manned by an officer, firing live ammo right above us. We had to keep down low or get shot. Some fun aye? </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">There were some times after we finished supper we were told not to leave the barracks or camp grounds. On account there was going to be...The was going to be a special exercise that evening, but would not say just what. Shortly after we would be told to pack a field pack for a twenty-five mile night march after dark. We got several of these trips and sometimes it was doing a fast walk, double time, a trot and so forth around the parade grounds. This went on for two hours or better. Boy, you sure was ready for the showers when we were dismissed.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">On the weekends when we were in training, we had to stay in camp doing KP duty for ourselves or for someone else who had training over with from another area, but we got paid for these persons for filling in for them. When we off duty we could go to the PX or just bum around camp, going to the movies, write letters or play cards. This camp was sort of down in the valley and the hillside around it was beautiful, green trees, grass and flowers. I would go up to the...on the hillside, under the trees and take along some potato chips, a bottle or two of soda pop and write letters to Harriet and my folks and some other friends. I&rsquo;m going to proceed on now as I have a lot more to write about and I cannot write too much in one sitting. I have only three pages done now and I just got started on my memoirs.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">We left Camp Roberts, California in the summer of 1942. Either June or July and went to Camp Bowie, Texas by troop train. And we were placed in the 815</font></font></font><font color="#000000">^{<font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">th</font></font>}</font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"> Tank Destroyer Battalion. Camp Bowie was situated on the outskirts of Brownwood, Texas. After some additional training there, I received a few days furlough and went back home to see Harriet and my folks. When I returned to camp from my furlough, I brought Harriet back with me. This was in January 1943. She found a room in Brownwood, Texas until February 13, 1943 I got a special pass and we went to Fort Worth and was married on that date. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">While we were stationed at Camp...at this camp, Harriet got a job as a telephone operator in this town. She had experience at this work when she worked up in Bemidji, Minnesota. So this company was glad to get her. When I had time off we would go for strolls, roller skating, movies and so forth. Sure can have a lot of fun in a lot of nothing...on almost nothing when you are in love and as young as we were then. We moved from Camp Bowie to Camp Hood, Texas either in April or May, 1943. This camp was at Killeen, Texas. Here we received some extensive training. We had some hard training and some fun times also. While we were stationed there Harriet met a fellow worker at the telephone company by the name of Oleen January. She was a single girl and we became friends with her. One day Oleen and Harriet decided to go out and picnic on my day off. So we had to find a companion for our friend Oleen. And I knew a young single fellow in camp and I told him if you wanted to go on a blind date picnic. He jumped at the chance as he had never been away from home and was terribly lonesome. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0; margin-: 0.5in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">H. Short: Gordon forgot to mention that I stayed at Lampasas, Texas. I had moved down there via train and found a place to live. And I went to the telephone office there and got a job at Lampasas in the telephone company too. And this is how I met Oleen. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Oh. This young man had never been around many young girls before. So when the day came, he came into town on the camp bus and we all went down to this river bank and placed our picnic baskets on the ground. Well, the girls went out for a short walk. We started a fire for the cooking, not paying too much attention in where we started the fire. Soon afterwards...After we started the fire, we started to itch and wondered why. We had built our fire over an ant hill. They really were swarming around the fire trying to get away from it. So we had a real good laugh over that. Sure moved to another spot in a hurry, you can bet your life on that! We finished out the day without any further unpleasant incidents happening. This young fellow went back to camp the same evening and I stayed and went back to camp early on Monday morning. We had other experiences while in this camp, but were just general routine things. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">While at Camp Hood, in Killeen we had a few spectacular things happen at the entertainment center. We had a troop of celebrities come out to our camp to entertain the troops. We saw Bob Hope and his troop and others too. And start...And I forgot their names already as it has been fifty-three years ago now, but they sure put on a good show. This camp had a very large parade ground and on one evening, we put on a parade show for the public to come in and watch, like our girlfriends or wife or other friends. My wife, Harriet said it really was a beautiful sight to see. Thousands of soldiers marching, everyone doing the same thing.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">At this camp they had a large guest house where the ladies could come and stay overnight for free. The only stipulation was that the menfolks could not stay at the guest house overnight. After the parade, we were dismissed and I went to the guest house for an hour or so and I went back to my barracks for a good night&rsquo;s sleep. While at this camp, we had some more training, of course, and lots of recreation and fun times. Yes, we really had fun times. Although, lots of young fellows away from home for the first time really got home sick and could not... </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">And when they did not have to do training whatsoever, they would lie on their bunks and just read or day dream. By the way, I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ve ever mentioned what time we had to go to bed and what time we had to get up. We had taps at ten o&rsquo;clock, ten p.m. and lights out. In the morning was reveille by bugler at five o&rsquo;clock. We had thirty minutes to get out of bed, make it up, sweep under your bed, scrub under your bed, wash up, shave and get ready for breakfast by six a.m. We learned now to make a good bed, tight bed. When the top blanket is tight enough so that when you toss a quarter on it it will bounce, then its good enough. We did all this before drill time and inspection time at seven a.m. In the same period of time we ate breakfast too, also. At most camps we had a rifle range training with live ammo. It was a tedious training, but fun also. We had hand grenades throwing, bayonet practice, not on the rifle range of course. One day I had a pretty good shooting, hitting targets up to 300 and 500 yards, but that was my lucky day as I never was that consistent. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">As I never was that consistent. When we received notice that we were going to Camp Ivas, out on the desert, near Needles, California. Harriet and I decided that she should go home as it would cause an inconvenience to both of us if she would stay. Shortly after she went home, our outfit or battalion left by troop train for Camp Ivas, which was a few miles out of Needles, California. We had a large tent that we lived in. There was about six or eight of us fellows in each tent. As usual while on our trip we passed through many a towns and had fun talking briefly with the civilians, had plenty to eat and nothing else to do but play cards and so forth. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">We had more training out on the desert. And a few times when we were on maneuvers we were told to halt our trucks and start digging a hole to bury our truck. And as I was truck driver then we would have to...We had to hole dug about half way. There was about six or eight of us fellows attached to my truck and we would be told to drive the truck into the hole, which I did. And then we would get orders to back it out and fill the hole up yet again, but what nonsense. During this time of doing what we were told to do, it was hotter than blazes out. Perhaps around ninety-five to one hundred degrees above zero. My rank at this time was a T-5 or Corporal. We drivers made several trips into town driving officers for mail, supplies and so forth. We drove six by six, command cars and jeeps. We were not suppose to pick up or take a girlfriend or wife for a ride also. One time I did take Harriet for a ride in a jeep. That&rsquo;s another story, which I will get to later. After we had been at Camp Ivas for a while, I received a seven day pass and I could not go home, back home. So I sent for Harriet. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">A lot of times we would have assignments with our trucks to pick up supplies all troops here and there. And we would not finish until ten p.m. or eleven p.m. at night. And we would put our trucks away and come back to our tents. First we would go and take a cold shower. It wasn&rsquo;t too bad as we had no way of heating it, but it makes you sleep and feel good anyway. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Harriet got sick while we were at Camp Ivas and the doctor advised me to get a pass and take her home. So I did. But on the way home and on the train, Harriet got worse instead of better. I stayed awake taking care of her for over twenty-four hours or so. Finally I decided I needed help. So I asked the conductor on the train if he would inquire if there was a doctor or even a nurse on the train. Soon a nurse showed up and then a doctor. And they asked me what was wrong. I told them both that Harriet...what Harriet had gone through and I thought she needed to be hospitalized and given medication and they both agreed. I could hardly stay awake by then. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">The doctor gave me some pills to relax and get some rest or sleep. He said they would take care of my wife and he would call ahead to Des Moines, Iowa and have an ambulance at that train station. So they would put her in the hospital. By this time everyone in the coach was very interested in helping. They went and got sandwiches, cookies, milk and water and coffee for us. We sure was treated royally and when we reached the station, sure enough, the ambulance was there and a police car to lead the ambulance on its way to the hospital. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">I rode in the police car with all our luggage and other items we had with us. Of course, there was all sorts of papers to fill out and so forth. I had an aunt that lives in Des Moines, Iowa. So I called her and she said, &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you leave there to get a hotel room,&rdquo; as she was coming right over and helped me. And picked me up to bring her back to her home. Harriet stayed in the hospital only briefly. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">In the mean time we had contacted Barney Johnson, her brother-in-law form Pembina, North Dakota to have him come and help me get Harriet the rest of the way home. As soon as he arrived we took Harriet out of the hospital as the doctor said she could travel. We arrived back in St. Vincent by train. Shortly after then, Harriet was under Dr. Wallis, a woman doctor&rsquo;s care. She was our family doctor who cared for her. She lived in Emerson-Manitoba as Harriet had lived near the Canadian border. Harriet rapidly recovered from her illness.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">In the meantime, I put in for a pass extension and received five more days. During the five extra days that I received, I spent or we spent two days as Harriet was able to travel some then at my folks&rsquo; place at McIntosh, Minnesota. Then we went to Harriet&rsquo;s sister&rsquo;s place in Bemidji, Minnesota. And we spent our last three days of leave, that&rsquo;s what the military called it, at Bemidji. While Harriet worked at the telephone office at Bemidji she became acquainted with several of the operators there. And some were quite beautiful also. None as beautiful as Harriet of course, but I would joke and kid around with her that I might take one of them as my girlfriend if I had not seen them first. Before I married Harriet, just kidding, well I don&rsquo;t mind saying that those three days sure went by fast and when it was time to go, I believe one of the girls drove me down to the train station. Another car load of the gals drove down also to see me off on the train. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Soon the train came in and after a few days, a few hugs I mean, to the other girls an a long embrace and several kisses to Harriet, I got on the train and a few tears I might say, I waved good bye to them all. As far as the train was visible to them. Harriet was crying too, I&rsquo;m sure. I was quite sure before I came home on that leave that I had a hunch or knew that our outfit was getting ready to be shipped overseas. So shortly after I got on the train and was traveling along, I met a fellow soldier that I knew briefly and he confirmed our outfits departure. Within the next few days, but none of us knew where we were going. The rest of the trip back to camp was dull and kind of sad. Just doing a lot of thinking and reminiscing and wondering what the future held for us. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">It was the first part of March 1944 that we left Camp Ivas by troop train, a large one, and traveled to our destination center, at San Francisco, California. Had a very enjoyable trip as much as we could knowing not what we were really getting into. None of our equipment went overseas with us. We thought it might come to us later or we would be supplied with the new equipment when we were overseas, but that wasn&rsquo;t supposed to be, which I will tell you later. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">When we reached San Francisco, we were put into six by six trucks and went to out center. We only spent a few days there, but while we were there it was a big beautiful place. We all had to take turns on KP, kitchen police. Believe it or not, but the non-commissioned officers, Private First-Class, the T-5s and Sergeants of all ranks up to the First Sergeant had to pull this duty. They told me that they loved it as we had free access to all the food, drinks and so forth we wanted. Sure couldn&rsquo;t beat that! Sure was one big happy family, fun time and work of course, also. By this time we knew the area we were going to It was a SWPTO. Southwest Pacific Theater of Operation.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Days went by fast at this center and we soon left camp and was hauled by truck from our center to the docks where we were to get on the ship we were going to sail overseas on. The ship&rsquo;s name was the USS General </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>Hawes[??263]</u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">, a very large ship. We boarder ship and left San Francisco, April 10, 1944. It was a beautiful day when we left. No rain, sun shining and lots of boat whistles as it was the custom that the other ships anchored would give us a good send off. There was a lot of waving when we left and a lot of soldiers were crying and so forth. I forgot to tell you at that when we were boarding our ships a lot of friends and relatives were on the dock to view at there loved ones a cheerful send off.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Going under the Golden Gate Bridge was a wonderful experience and I am sure that lots of the other guys were wondering the same as I. Would we live to see the bridge again when the war was over? Would we be just some of the lucky ones. Guess God only held the future which was in His hands for all of us. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">While we were on our way to our destination overseas, we had nothing to do as the sailors did all the KP work and so forth. So all we had to do was eat, sleep, read and play cards. When the captain of the boat wanted to tell us something he would blow a whistle and say, &ldquo;Now hear this! Now hear this!&rdquo; And he would go ahead and say what he wanted to say. One time he said, &ldquo;Now hear this! Now hear this,&rdquo; after he blew his whistle. &ldquo;You guys don&rsquo;t worry that there might be enemy subs around or enemy planes close by. All you think of and do is play cards and so forth.&rdquo; We felt like telling him what else is there to do, but we didn&rsquo;t dare say nothing.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">But a few days out the sailors put on a surprise, pulled a surprise on us. They dressed up like Neptune. Had tails on their costumes and poured pales of water to splash on some other guys. We even slowed the ship down and a sailor was tossed over board with his life preserver on him. He went under water then and was pulled on board again. You see, we were crossing the International Dateline on that time and date. They sure put on a good show for us.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">We did a lot of zig zagging on our trip and we were not escorted, which made our trip that much more dangerous. When we were getting close to our destination, the captain came on the phone and said we may be attacked by enemy planes, that we should be ready to dive below. Sure enough, within a day or so, one came at us and the whistle blew to get below as we seen one coming. He tried to get near us, but one of our own plane, a fighter plane came up on the enemy&rsquo;s tail and the two of them had a light skirmish and our fighter shot the enemy Jap plane down. We seen this happen as a lot of us disobeyed orders, did a lot of peeking. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">At night it was pretty hot where we had to sleep in our bunks. We would take our pillows and go up on deck and sleep under the life boats. With the boat making rocking it was quite comfortable and we slept real good. We must have been on the ship for twenty-seven days arriving in New Guinea on April, 5, 1944. Cannot remember the port we got close to and then went in by punt boats or some other kind of small boats as the big ship could not get close to shore. As soon as we were on shore, our supplies were brought in. The beach head had already been established so we&rsquo;re not in too much danger from the enemy. We went to our area that was assigned to us for a camp. We pitched our tents and made everything as livable and comfortable as possible. Even had to dig holes for latrines and so forth. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">We did some more training, but mostly light stuff. We got to see a lot of funny sights as the natives, especially the women, were very skimpily dressed. Some had their dress covered and some didn&rsquo;t. Many a times I seen both women and men go on work detail under the supervision of the Australians who were in charge of them. One time when they got to where they were going and assigned to work, the guard told them to get off. All got off except one man. He would not get off. Finally, the guard said...told him to get off one more time and cocked his rifle and said, &ldquo;You either get off or I shall drop you with a bullet and pray you . . .&rdquo; This time the man did as he was told and he was good for the rest of the day. I guess he was just plain ornery. We didn&rsquo;t have to do much except our exercising, playing outdoor games and just waiting out our next assignment, which we knew were coming shortly. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Back to the natives again, the women they&rsquo;re always does the real hard work. They could carry a bucket or a cardboard box or a wooden box on their head up to probably twenty-five to thirty pounds and walk right along with it. I seen them carrying a lot of big rocks in their containers. It was quite a sight to see the menfolks climb the trees and get the snakes that would be up there. Snakes were a delicacy to them. Sometimes there would be snakes on the roads that the trucks had run over and they would have the driver stop and they would pick it up and have a snake stew meal out of it. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">One more true story I must tell before we leave New Guinea. One day a buddy of mine and I found a pontoon, which came off a seaplane. Well, we decided to find some paddles and check it out to see if it leaked or not. It checked out okay and we found some paddles of sorts. We found something we could use as seats. We were all sent down trip down the swampy stream.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">End side A</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">We were all set for a trip down the swampy stream. The only thing we had to worry about we should watch out and not go too far as there was rumors which proved out to be true that there was headhunters on the island. But, we did not know how close they were. We set out and don&rsquo;t know how far we went. It was so calm and so much greenery with lots of different birds all singing in their own chirping voices. And after a while we thought we went far enough. We turned back hoping our CO, that&rsquo;s Commanding Officer, or sergeant wouldn&rsquo;t find out what we had done. We got back and everything went okay. So much for that.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[repeat of above narration regarding the pontoon trip]</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">These are incidents that happened while I was in the States at different camps and Harriet was with me. When I was stationed at Camp Hood, near Lampasas, I would come into town where Harriet and I had an apartment and I would stay overnight and go back to camp in the early a.m., about five a.m. on the camp bus. Well, one morning I got up as usual to catch the bus and the bus stop for me as I was getting on the bus. Harriet came running down the sidewalk holding up her arm and yelling, Gordon, you forgot your dentures. Your false teeth!&rdquo; She had them in her hand. Well you should have heard the guys in the bus hollering and laugh to see Harriet in her night gown and bath robe and barefooted. Some of the guys were half asleep, but they sure woke up and joined in the fun. I was sure was teased on the way back to camp. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Another incident that happened was when I was stationed at Camp Bowie near Brownwood Texas, Harriet and I had an apartment there. And also I would come into town at night whenever I could and stay overnight. One morning we either forgot to set the alarm clock or didn&rsquo;t hear it because I was late getting up. While I was hurriedly getting dressed, I told Harriet to call a taxi cab as I was already missing the camp bus. The taxi arrived and we . . .with a quick good-bye kiss I was on my way in the taxi to camp. But I missed reveille. I sure was one nervous guy. I was wondering what would happen. One of the guys called out my name when roll call was called. We got by with it as it was common for guys to do that for one another in the service that way. I made it for breakfast and changed into my work fatigues. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">While I was still at Camp Bowie, near Brownwood, I would at certain times when Harriet was free to come into the camp...I would take her in our mess hall for dinner with me. I was in good standing with the mess sergeant and he would really treat me good. I had...He had a special table set up for us. Boy, the guys would sure look when we came in. It was something different and they would call out and say, &ldquo;You lucky guy!&rdquo; And it made us feel good, but they were all on their best behavior and the day went well. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">We had cooking facilities in our apartment, but sometimes we would eat out in our favorite restaurants. Eating out was done mostly on weekends. Living a military life is like living a politician&rsquo;s life, I believe. Although I never was or will be a politician. If that you pack my bag and you polish my apple and I will do the same for you. That&rsquo;s the way favors are done for, to each other. I would favor the mess sergeant with things he needed and he would favor me with groceries and so forth that Harriet and I needed. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">We would get two or three day passes while at Needles, California and go to Boulder City, Nevada and Las Vegas, Nevada. Sometimes we would take a truck or two, if some officers wanted to go and we would have a fun time gambling, eating and so forth. Sometimes at camp we would get orders to send a truck to L.A. where we were stationed at Needles, California, for parts and so forth. Usually a sergeant and one or two other guys would go along to help load. I was lucky to get the assignment to go with my truck.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">One day when we finished our work in L.A. we went to the hotel to clean up and put on our better clothes. I looked out the window and saw a nice convertible going down the street. And all at once one of the car wheels came off and rolled into a parking lot close by. The sergeant said, &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s go and help her out.&rdquo; So I took the truck, went to the car and fixed it up for her. She was from Beverly Hills. She invited us up for a martini. We accepted and away we went up the hills to a beautiful house and two or three drinks and then the darn sergeant excused ourselves and away we went back to the hotel. Darned his hide anyway! Just when we were beginning to feel good. We went out to eat and put on an uneventful evening and went to bed. The next day we left early and back to camp after picking up our supplies. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Another incident that I might mention was when we were stationed at L.A. a buddy and I got a weekend pass and we went to Los Angeles for fun and pass time. That was before Harriet came out to stay for a while. On Saturday as we were walking to the bus stop in town, we had to wait a few minutes for the bus. All of the sudden, a young girl drove up in a white Cadillac convertible and she stopped and asked us where we were going and if we needed a ride. We told her where we were going and we were going to catch a ride on the city bus. She said she would take us to our destination. So we jumped in and she drove away. She told us her name and where she lived. We were most amazed as she was Joy Fleischman[??sp450] daughter of the family that owned the Fleischman Yeast Company. She asked us if we would like to see her place and have a light lunch. And of course we said yes. We asked her how come she picked us up.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">While we were stationed in New Guinea, we would have movies outdoors. Ones of course, probably two or three times a week. Well one night when we had a real good one, there was a lot of guys and gals there. Yes we had WACS and Red Cross gals and some gals from the hospitals. The movie projector progressed real good. But the reel finished and the fellow that was operating the machine shut it down while he changed and put on the second and last reel. While he was doing this some camp dogs that were civilian owned were playing around camp and by our seats at the movie. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Two or three dogs ran up to me as they were chasing something. Yes sure enough I felt something on my leg and I grabbed a hold of it and squeezed it like the devil. My best buddy Marvin Wassing was sitting about three or four rows ahead of me and my friend and I hollered to them and said, &ldquo;Marvin, I bet you cannot guess what I have up my pant leg?&rdquo; He started to laugh and everybody around us did the same. He said, &ldquo;That would be hard to tell Gordon.&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I believe it&rsquo;s a big rat!&rdquo; I hobbled up to where they were sitting and ____[??] and Marvin&rsquo;s buddy pulled out a handkerchief and wrapped it around his hand. Then he said &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s go exploring.&rdquo; So he reached up inside my pant leg and said, &ldquo;Gordon, you can let loose now.&rdquo; And I did and sure enough out came a big rat, dead one. I had squeezed it to death. The poor thing.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">All eyes were upon us and some were quite sober and some were laughing, but everyone put their legs up, feet up on, off the ground to the next seat ahead of them. After the show plus the added addition of the dogs and rat episode, the Aussies, Australian troops invited us, some of us, over for a cup of tea and some C-ration biscuits and some real home made biscuits. Well, I tell you that was the strongest tea I ever tasted. After a long chat with them as they were close by and we were quite friendly with them. We went back to our camp and got very little sleep because we was up every few minutes to go to the john. Yes, strong tea makes a person go like the dickens and we sure did! Every once in a while we would have a drinking party and play poker. We saved up our supply of beer we were issued back at the rest camp, a distance back of the lines. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">I remember one time taking my truck down to the motor pool and when we got, quit for the night I drove my truck back to the area, but I don&rsquo;t know how. We got by with it. I was a little under the weather and when the bugler blew reveille in the morning, I couldn&rsquo;t find my pants. So I grouped about and found a pair of pants. It was a pair of pants worn by Corporal Hadly and he was about 300 pounds. Boy. It had been daylight and the Lieutenant and Sarg who took roll call could have seen me as I must have looked an awful sight. I may have caught a good scolding. But once again I was lucky. Little to say, I was the talk of the camp for a while that day and a few days after. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Another thing that happened while we were back at rest camp was that a lot of guys got a case of dysentery from something that the cooks fed us or something we drank. Well, I tell you we spent a couple of days or so getting on over that. Between our sleeping area and our latrine was an incline, which was bad enough when it was dry. But during these days when it was...we were sick, it rained like blazes. Every time we had to go to the latrine, which was an open, narrow pit, which you had to straddle and let it go, wipe and cover and sometimes you had to wait your turn [laughs] as the line was filled with straddlers.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Sometimes because of the heavy rainfall we would slip and slide in our hurry to get there and we would fall and we&rsquo;d go right on the spot. There was plenty of them. Then we would have a mess to clean up. Not only what was on the ground but also on ourselves. It was against Army regulations to leave stool exposed and step in it. Sure was glad when that finally left us. I guess the field hospital gave us something to take for a discomfort feeling. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">After our stay in New Guinea, we boarded ships for a destination in the Philippines, for combat duty there. Just not sure how long it took us and what the names of the ships were that we were on. Its been a long time. Fifty-three years to be exact and I don&rsquo;t remember everything I should. I&rsquo;m not sure of the port we entered, but was on the island of Leyte. We went in on small boats all ready for action. Nothing happened when we made our beach landing. This part of the island was supposed to controlled by our troops as we had secured only one-fourth of the island at this time.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Soon after we arrived on Luzon, our outfit the 815</font></font></font><font color="#000000">^{<font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">th</font></font>}</font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"> Tank Destroyer Battalion was disbanded as our company was not needed because they had no use for us. Some of us were assigned to service company, some to the 127</font></font></font><font color="#000000">^{<font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">th</font></font>}</font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"> Infantry Regiment and some to the </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>_Tugee</u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??524] company. And some to the Headquarters of the 32</font></font></font><font color="#000000">^{<font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">nd</font></font>}</font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"> Infantry Division. I was just...I was put in the infantry from driving truck to walking and the infantry was quite an adjustment you can believe! That and my best buddy Marvin Wassing was placed in the 32</font></font></font><font color="#000000">^{<font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">nd</font></font>}</font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"> Infantry Division as a truck driver in Headquarters. Eventually I asked for a and got a transfer to the same office so we could be together. I have so many experience to relate to you all that it would...It would take quite a while to put it down on paper as I cannot write over a few pages at one sitting.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">I&rsquo;m going to relate some things at this point in the infantry I was put in the rifle company. We were issued rifles, ammo and all the rest of the equipment we needed. In short time, we went over out on patrols and we were not on patrols we would be called up to be ammunition bearers. This might be during the day or at night. One night as we were called upon to carry ammo to an ammunition depot to be used by the machine gunners and riflemen in a different area where very much fighting was going on. When we had arrived there we were told where to put the ammo. We were not told to watch out for corpse that were placed close by as it was so darn dark. We did step on something soft and it was some corpse that we stepped on that we come in contact with. We deliver our ammo cans or containers and left right away for our camp. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Another time when we were on ammo bearers and in our group was a fellow by the name of Alabama. Just a nickname as he was from Alabama. He was such a happy-go-lucky guy, always whistling or humming a tune. We finished our assignment towards the evening and went to our places for the night. Well that night the Japs decided to do some mortar firing at us. Most of us were lucky, but some were injured or killed. One of them was the happy kid, Alabama. The next morning I went around hurried to see what happened and the ones that were hurt or dead. They told me about Alabama and said it was not a . . .it was pretty bad. Sure enough I took a look and it made me shutter as his face had been blown off and he was terribly mangled from the upper part of his body. However, he never knew what hit him. This was the something we were going to have to get used to. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Many of the time we would be put on patrol and we would stop to eat our meal such as it was K-rations. Eat right close by to a dead water buffalo, partly decayed. Not the most pleasant place to be to stop to eat. The combat troops and their equipment were water soaked in the first down pour. They never completely dried from then until the division was relieved. Foot travel was </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>on the level part of terrain</u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">[??565] was laborious because of the heavy sucking, clinging, knee-deep mud. The slopes and tops of the mountain ridges were boggy as the village, but the infantry men slipped and slid and crawled forward. They slept and ate and fought in a sea of mud while supply troops conquered the same</font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u> trecherous [??570]</u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"> footing to give them the wherewithal to continue.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Nature and the enemy had done their best, but we kept plugging along. Sometime the enemy won and sometimes or most of the times we gained on them. I was asked in a few weeks, if I would like to be wire man. That is to string wire it was needed. I accepted the assignment. Sometimes I was given an escort to help me in case I ran into a straggling Jap or two. I would have my roll of wire, a carbine rifle, several hand grenades an Army .45 pistol strapped on me and a lot of times I would be stringing wire right along side of the Jap wire. Believe me! </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">I forgot to tell you that the first night on guard duty on the front line went well until it started to rain. I had my foxhole dug and blanket in it. I helped dig the hole for the machine gun emplacement. Needless to say that when I woke up from the rain I was half covered in the hole and really soaked wet. When it was my turn to do watch on the gun we were armed to the teeth you might say. There was so . . .periodically firing during the night, but not too close to our area. The Red-Arrow men embarked from Hollandia and Leyte [??591] __________[??] Entered Leyte Gulf and came ashore on November 14</font></font></font><font color="#000000">^{<font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">th</font></font>}</font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">. Two days later the division of combat troops ______[??] and </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>relieved[??593</u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">] elements of the 24</font></font></font><font color="#000000">^{<font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">th</font></font>}</font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"> Division in </font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"><u>Caragara</u></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2"> [??594] Pina Gorra [??594]sector. I shall never forget the sight as we were marching up to the front lines and seeing trucks with corpses stacked like cord wood596] All of them, they were bringing the dead back to the rear echelon for burial. It kind of made one sick knowing that that...fate to fall to any of us marching to what we run into. We had to...had to believe the things you might see or might have happened. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">One place where we were went into action of battle was kind of at a lull and our commanding officer asked us then to distribute the wire to different areas in the immediate area so they could talk to one another. So we did. And one of the officers asked on the phone if anyone could play any kind of music or sorts. At that time I could play the harmonica a little bit. So one of the guys spoke up and said, &ldquo;Short had a mouth organ and could play it.&rdquo; So I had it with me as it was small and the equipment easy to carry. They okayed it and I played what I could and had a good pretty good response from that. And then some other guys did the same as I did. One could...he could sing pretty good.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">One time when we were up on the front lines I was with the leading units. One of my...lieutenants said, &ldquo;Gordon I want you to stay here until the rear units catch up. Then you can use your radio to talk to us up front as I will have another wire man spread wire from here to where we stop for the night.&rdquo; Well I sure do thank him and most in my Lord and savior because while we were waiting it was near evening. The front was digging in and was quite unprepared to what happened. Actually some in our outfit disobeyed orders and did not set up a look out post. And while digging in did not maintain a close watch. They did not set up a machine gun and they placed their rifles by a tree. While some of them had only the small arm weapons on them. The consequences was that the Japs on a hill a small distance away, opened up with rifle fire and mortars forcing our guys to take whatever cover they could. The fox holes were not deep and they went into them without their guns. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">O</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">ne Jap sneaked up on one fox hole and bayoneted the three men in the foxhole to death. Then he ran away from the hole and he was shot dead before he could go very far. They knew that they could not get back to their own outfit. They were sent out there to do what they could and be a suicidal on the mission they were on. The three guys that were killed in the incident, I knew real well and had played cards with them the night before. One of them was a drill and weapons instructor who had just finished a tour of duty in Alaska and Greenland and had asked for a transfer to the war zone where the action was. The poor guy died one hell of a death. I believe such as the misfortune of war. Some make it and some don&rsquo;t, but I truly believe that he and the others could have made it if they had used good common sense and prepared for what had happened. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">After those areas we were attacked also. But with watching for something _____[??651] and hadn&rsquo;t repelled the enemy. You would know that many a time that we were moving by either small groups or large ones near the front lines. We would come across some small villages and low and behold you could actually smell something real good. And close by that trail we were on was a small bakery in the Philippines. And they had made good doughnuts and they offered doughnuts, coconuts, milk and coconut meat and cut up in small pieces. It sure was good! They got cigarettes and tobacco from the soldiers in the form of K-ration packages in return for their good gesture. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">One time as our company was moving up the front lines we came upon an opening where there was a stream of running water. And there was evidence of a killing of our soldiers at this point. We heard later on that a few men of another outfit stopped here briefly and went swimming. While doing so, they were attacked by Japs. Some were partially clothed, some were naked. Guess there were quite a few of them that lost there lives there. Another bungled job that happens once in a while.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">Another time when we went out on patrol we were all told that it was just supposed to be a reconnaissance patrol as the enemy was not in the area. Well it turned out to be quite different. About the middle of the afternoon we ran into a Jap patrol. We exchanged fire at first at one another. Cannot remember how many were hurt, but there was a few on each side I&rsquo;m sure. Our squad was pinned down in some tall grass and one of our guys was hurt real bad. We hollered for the medics and they had quite a time getting into . . .up to him because he would be plenty exposed to the enemy. They finally crawled to where he was a dragged him on to the side of the hill. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">All this time and for about two or three hours we were pinned down in the blistering hot sun. And our canteens of water were empty and we were really suffering. Late in the afternoon the officer in charge gave us all orders to rise up and open up with all of our machine guns, fire and rifle fire to and then retreat as fast as possible. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">We were told afterwards that some of the troops on our side were on a hill close by, but not close enough to help us. We were watching and they were laughing at what they saw. What seemed funny to them was not, that while we were running down the hill on one side, the Japs running down the hill on the other side. On the way down the hill we saw a couple of medics and another person, which I assumed was a doctor, operating on a soldier&rsquo;s neck. He had been wounded badly and they were removing the bullet and sewing the wound up again. We all got back to our camp okay. We really should not have been on this patrol as it was our last day for a while up on the front lines. We learned from good sources that the Jap patrol that exchanged gunfire with us were almost wiped out the same night and was surprised by another group of our guys from another outfit. Of course, as we raised it them the Japs were in the vicinity and what direction they were in traveling. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">When we got orders to go to Luzon, we boarded ships for the distance. And we made out okay except that sea was so darn rough our ship was listing about forty-five or fifty degrees and much more than we could have capsized. At meal time after you picked up your tray of food. We ate at a counter standing up because if you sat down your darn chair would be allover the place. Pretty hard to hold on to your tray and cup of coffee and eat at the same time. We were in a small sleeping compartment. And slept in bunk beds. Mine was the fourth one high and I had to rope myself in so I couldn&rsquo;t fall out of bed. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">We finally made the rest of our journey safely and unloaded the usual way. We were soon engaged in battle again. One time we were notified that we had to take a hill a short distance on the front line and that we were going to have a rough time of it. Our area chaplain, he was for the Jews, Catholics and Protestants alike. Now he talked to us and told us that he was going to have a short service for us all in a few minutes and anyone wanting to attend may do so. A great many of us did. Here is what he told us. He said that tomorrow I will pull no punches. It will be rough going and some of us will not make it. Perhaps including myself. He said that any letter that you might write home could be given to him or any article that we wanted to be sent home. </font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 99%; widows: 0; orphans: 0"><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">After his brief sermon and prayer for us and by this time you could hear some of the toughest men in the group weeping. Some out loud. While we were at this open service, our chaplain said to keep your helmets on and your rifles ready as there was enemy close by. Later that day our commanding officer told us that we would be attacking the hill about five a.m. in the morning. The mortar men and heavy artillery would start about three a.m. or three-thirty a.m. to help that much. Anyway, he said this should get most of them, but being that they were well dug in there would be some left for us to contend with. He wished us well and to get a good night&rsquo;s sleep&hellip;</font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Batang, 바탕, serif"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></font></font></p>

&nbsp;Dad told me the story once of two broncos Grandpa Short had. &nbsp; They were downright ornery - hard to harness and work, but were tireless. &nbsp; One day, somehow, Dad&#39;s younger sister, Edna wandered into the corral. &nbsp; She went right under the one bronco&#39;s belly. &nbsp; Grandpa spotted her, holding his breath...The horse just looked around, sniffed her thoroughly, and waited as she left.<br><br>When Dad was around 7 years old, he went out with his Dad and the hired men during haying. &nbsp; He knew how to handle driving lines, so when they had to tend to a piece of equipment, they asked him to take the lines of the hay wagon. &nbsp; Well, something spooked the team, pitching Dad forward between the two horses. &nbsp; Before he could roll over to avoid the wagon wheels, one rolled over his arm. &nbsp; He still hurt there when the weather was right, the rest of his life.<br><br>Dad remembered one big work horse they had called &quot;Fred&quot;. &nbsp; He was their &quot;calf horse&quot;. &nbsp; If a cow ever had trouble calving, they&#39;d hook up a rope or chain to &quot;Fred&quot;, the other end on the calf&#39;s legs (if it was a breech birth...) &nbsp; Somehow &quot;Fred&quot; always knew when the cow would give, because he always pulled with, not against, the cow. &nbsp; Nine times out of 10 the calf was saved.<br><br>When a county ditch was being made through the farm on Section I, a horse loose in a pasture got bogged down in the mud in the ditch. &nbsp; The ditch was being made through the main pasture, and as the horse was walking on the ridge of dirt formed by the digging, he slipped and fell in. &nbsp; This horse was one of the workhorses on the farm, so Grandpa Short and his sons went out to see what had happened to it. &nbsp; When they finally found the horse, it was so bogged down that they knew they&#39;d have to pull it out. &nbsp; It had been struggling to get out itself out however, and was very weak; they finally had to shoot it...&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>

<p>Dad didn&#39;t start out in the Philipines, and he didn&#39;t end there.</p><p>He began the war state-side, as everyone did, in boot camps and training camps, was shipped overseas, and began seeing action.&nbsp; I never heard my Dad use the term &#39;tour&#39; - maybe that&#39;s a term that didn&#39;t come into play until later wars.&nbsp; In his war, you just kept fighting until the war was won, you got a serious wound/illness, or were killed in action.&nbsp;</p><p>Dad started out in New Guinea.&nbsp; He remembers seeing women squatting over holes in the ground at train stations urinating in public, which shocked him and his American buddies and something they never forgot.&nbsp; Dad was a country boy, and he had definitely never seen anything like that before!&nbsp; </p><p>One of the first actions Dad saw in the war was in New Guinea, as part of the 127th&#39;s involvement during&nbsp;http://historynet.com/wwii/blsavageoperation/index.html&nbsp;the taking of Buna.&nbsp; The 127th came in late in the action, but were received with open arms.&nbsp; They were relieving the 128th, battle-weary and exhausted.&nbsp; The 127th were described as &quot;...clean, husky, healthy, and well equipped...&quot;; they should be, since many members like my Dad were nearly fresh off the ship from home.&nbsp; After this, Dad knew his wasn&#39;t &#39;in Kansas anymore&#39;, to coin a phrase...</p>

<p>http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/web03/atlases/ww2%20pacific/ww2%20pacific%20war%20index.htm is a great overview of the Pacific Theatre of WWII, from the American point-of-view.&nbsp; That&#39;s what my Dad always called it, the &#39;Pacific Theatre&#39;.&nbsp; It was his war, the war as he knew it.&nbsp; Hitler was across the globe.&nbsp; He and his buddies were fighting the Emperor of Japan.&nbsp;</p><p>He started out as a gunner, but was soon reassigned as a truck driver, hauling supplies to hell and back on roads that were more trails than roads; the jungle trails, and cliffside roads were often slick and deep with mud, bogging down the trucks and making travel slow and dangerous.&nbsp; American troops became even more vulnerable to enemy snipers.</p><p>Dad didn&#39;t simply drive trucks around all the time.&nbsp; If an officer needed someone to do something right now, they used whoever was handy or whoever was handy and they trusted to get the job done.&nbsp; One time, Dad was asked by his Leutenient (whose name now escapes me...*sigh*) to make an ammo run down a line with two other guys.&nbsp; At some point during the run, he was pulled out for another job.&nbsp; He found out later that those two men who continued to the front were pinned down by Jap snipers and eventually killed.&nbsp; I came &lt;i&gt;this&lt;/i&gt; close to not being born.&nbsp; Close one...!</p><p>Luzon.&nbsp; Leyte.&nbsp; Villa Verde Trail.&nbsp; Those names meant something to my Dad because he was part of each one of them, in the 127th Infantry, 32nd Division (aka, the &quot;Red Arrow Division&quot;).</p><p>A good article on the Villa Verde Trail, and the 127th&#39;s part in it, is available&nbsp;http://www.thehistorynet.com/wwii/blvillaverdetrail/index.htm</p>

<p>I heard about Dad&#39;s war from Dad.&nbsp; But he didn&#39;t always tell us everything.&nbsp; How can you?&nbsp; It&#39;s too much for anyone to cover.&nbsp; He told me the little things he remembered, mostly the positive things - the rat up his leg, the friends kept (and some lost), the unstated but implied pride of being a part of something bigger than himself that made a difference.</p><p>I have been trying to fill in the blanks for years.&nbsp; I&#39;ve decided to take up the research again since the web is becoming more mature, those my Dad&#39;s age and their offspring are documenting WWII more and more since that generation is leaving us.</p><p>http://www.worldwar2history.info/Luzon/ is a brief overview about Luzon, a place in the Philipines that was crucial in that region&#39;s fight against the Japanese. Another campaign was&nbsp;http://www.worldwar2history.info/Leyte/.&nbsp; Dad was a part of both of those campaigns, as a member of the 127th Infantry. I&#39;ll continue digging around for more online sources for their unit, and keep everyone posted...</p>

Tonight I was cleaning out a closet of mine, and as often happens, I digress from one task to another. At one point, I&#39;m at my desk rearranging and clearing out to make room for this and that (it&#39;s a long sad tale), and I come across a slip of paper taped to a cubbyhole in the desk. Document &quot;Uncle Henry&quot; and &quot;Aunt Daisy&quot; in family history it says. For a moment, I wondered what in the world, then a split second later I smiled, remembering Mom telling me last year, in the midst of her first flush of grief and confusion. &quot;I want to tell you before I forget...&quot;<br><br>&quot;Uncle Henry&quot; and &quot;Aunt Daisy&quot; were Mom and Dad&#39;s code phrases in their early love letters to each other, especially during the war when they were quite aware that many letters were read by the Army censors, for their genitalia. When they would write to one another that &quot;Uncle Henry misses Aunt Daisy&quot;, they knew exactly what the other meant without being crude or letting anything slip to the censors.<br><br>Mom has kicked herself more than once for having Dad take out the bundle of their love letters and burn them. She can&#39;t for the life of her remember why they did it, either. What she does remember is Grandpa Fitzpatrick, her father, joking that &quot;...that&#39;s the hottest fire ever seen around here...&quot; <br><br>The evidence of our existences are fragile at best. All too easily it disappears and no one knows we were ever here...

Interview with GORDON SHORT - December 12, 1977<br>------------------------------------------------------------<br><br>T. = Trisha Short (Lewis)<br>G. = Gordon Short<br><br><br>T.: Could you tell me some interesting stories that you remember that had something to do with your grandparents or your mom and dad?<br><br>G.: Well, the only thing that I can think of now that would be interesting was when we came back from Seattle, and I was about 3 1/2 or 4 years old, and we stayed with my grandparents up in McIntosh ...<br><br>T.: Which grandparents were they? <br><br>G.: Mr. and Mrs. Jorgen Sannes. Most particular thing that I can remember is that in the fall of the year when we were picking potatoes-actually I wasn&#39;t, but the menfolk, were- but I was out in the potato field like all kids would be. They gave me the job of standing in the wagon and holding onto the lines of the horses hitched to the wagon. When pickers would fill their baskets, they&#39;d call to me to move the wagon up to them to dump them . That&#39;d be alright until the wagon began to fill up a little bit, and I was standing up in the front, and they motioned to me to move up. I had seen the menfolk slap the lines on the rumps of the horses before, so I thought I&#39;d be a bigshot, too, so I said &quot;Giddyap&quot;, gave a slap to the horses with the lines. They jerked a little bit harder than I thought they would; I lost my balance and fell forward, headfirst right down onto the doubletrees, hitting my head on what they called the doubletree pin. From there I fell underneath the wagon. my right arm ended up extended over my head, and one wheel just scraped going over my head, and ran over that arm. My grandpa saw all this happen, and one of my uncles--they picked me up right away and ran me up to the house. They put me into the car and took me into McIntosh, a small town 1 1/2 miles away to the doctor. The doctor said I was alright--he never checked my arm too much. To this day it&#39;s not as straight as the other one. It never hurt me too much. As we came from the doctor&#39;s office-grandpa was a great one for peppermints, white peppermints-he always had white peppermints in his pocket. Well, this time he didn&#39;t give me one or two peppermints out of his pocket; he went to the store and bought me about a dime&#39;s worth of peppermints, and you could get a pretty good size sack for that in them days. Right then and there I forgot all about my hurt; those peppermints were more of a cure than what the doctor could have given me. That&#39;s the big memory of what happened when I was that old. I can remember a few things even earlier, about when we lived in Seattle, but that&#39;ll be another story later... <br><br>T.: Could you tell me anything about your Grandpa and Grandma Sannes, what kind of people were they like? <br><br>G.: My Grandpa Sannes, I never knew him when he actually worked in the fields himself, because every time I visited them, their son Knute who lived with them took care of the farming, and I believe Grandpa was retired or semi- retired then. He might have helped in the fields a little in his older age, but the times I can remember he was around the place, feeding the livestock or chopping wood. <br><br>T.: What kind of person was he like? people well? Did he get along with people well? <br><br>G.: He was a jolly fellow. He was always ... he was a teaser. It was funny to hear him, because he had such a Norwegian I brogue. Whenever he tried to make something sound serious, it ended up sounded pretty hilarious I would say. He tried to make things comes out right but they wouldn&#39;t. My grandmother was really a down-to-earth person. She would go to all limits to make you feel at home. She would have all the Norwegian dishes (food), and if you didn&#39;t try them all, I tell you, you&#39;d make her feel bad. When I was small and we were staying with them, one of the most interesting places that I can remember going into was what they called the milking room. That&#39;s where they had the cream separator. This room had a special smell--it always smelled of cream and milk, and always freshly scrubbed floor. One time I went up there--it was lamb feeding time. one or two lambs gets left without a mother... Bum lambs, you mean. Yes, uh, they were called &quot;bottle lambs&quot;. Grandma would say, &quot;Gordon, do you want to feed the lambs?&quot; Boy, I couldn&#39;t ask for anything better. She&#39;d fill the bottle with warm milk, and out the pasture we&#39;d go right along the fence. And boy, those lambs really were waiting. And if you&#39;ve ever seen any young animal nurse from it&#39;s mother... same way from a bottle--jerk, jerk, jerk. I don&#39;t see how they can drink so fast, but they sure did empty those bottles in a hurry! When we&#39;d get through with that- they always wanted more-but only one bottle per feeding, until the next feeding. <br><br>T.: Was there any relative that you seemed to identify with more when you were a kid? One that you liked being around? An Uncle or an Aunt? <br><br>G.: When I was about 12, 13, or 14, my favorite cousin was Ray Short. Because he was hired me to come over and herd sheep. I would always have a horse, and an old saddle. Help saddle the horse up for me in the morning and make me a peanut butter sandwich, a couple of cookies, and I&#39;d take along a quart sealer of water, get on my horse, and had what we called a saddle bag but was actually just a sack tied onto the saddle horn. I&#39;d get on this old horse-I guess he wasn&#39;t too old-I&#39;d have to go about two miles to the pasture, let the sheep out, and herd them all day. There was times when the sheep would lie down in the afternoons and there wasn&#39;t much to do. I got acquainted with another neighbor-his name was Ed Procrobik (spelling unsure-this is how is SOUNDED). He was plowing, so I tied the horse to the tree, and got on his tractor with him. Pretty soon he said, &quot;Hey, would you like to drive?&quot; And I said, &quot;Sure!&quot; I&#39;d never steered a tractor in my life! I was going along pretty good. Pretty soon the wheels- -you&#39;re supposed to keep the wheel in the right furrow--they started coming out of the furrow, and instead of bringing it back, I steered it the other way and it got worse! (Laughs) He said, &quot;No, you&#39;re going the wrong way... 11 He allowed me two or three rounds like that, and then he said, &quot;Now I&#39;m going to tell you what I&#39;m going to do, I&#39;m going to get off of this tractor and you&#39;re going to make a complete round by yourself.&quot; That was the first time, and I had drive that tractor around that field by myself, and had to trip the plow out of the ground at the end and put it into the ground again. That was my first experience plowing with a tractor. I had drove horses with implements much younger, but that was my first experience with a tractor. <br><br>T.: Was there anything you particularly liked doing around the farm-chores, things you did around the animals? <br><br>G.: I didn&#39;t mind doing chores, because we always did them together. Seemed like in the wintertime, when we had chores to do, I always got stuck standing out in the cold weather pumping water for the horses and cows, while the others were in the barn where it was nice and warm! I guess I can&#39;t complain too much because I got out of the chores a lot of the time because I helped mother in the house. <br><br>T.: I know you&#39;re animals were all raised for livestock or for working, but was there ever any animals that you got close to? <br><br>G.: We had one young horse, called &quot;Brownie&quot;, a mare. She was good at driving in a buggy with shafts. All of us boys took turns driving her. We had her several years. We&#39;d hook her up after feeding and harnessing her, and take the hired men out in the fields. We&#39;d go back about 9:30am with cold water for them. Make another trip at noon. Did the same in the afternoon. She&#39;d make about six trips out to the fields every day. <br><br>T.: Did you ever breed her? <br><br>G.: No. When you&#39;d put her out in the pasture at night, she was a foxy one to catch in the morning, I tell you! She wouldn&#39;t come in alone. You had to drive in the other horses-she&#39;d come in with them, but she wouldn&#39;t come in alone. <br><br>T.: Just like &quot;Sarina&quot;, huh? <br><br>G.: Yeah. She always knew when you were going to try and catch her. If you tried to catch her out in the pasture alone, it&#39;d take three or four of you to do it, because you had to corner her.<br><br>T.: Tell me little bit about your own parents, anything you can remember, stories, etc. <br><br>G.: Mother and Dad, they liked to go places a lot. We used to go into town as a family and shop. The trips were not far away. We lived in Angus, and McIntosh was about 50 to 60 miles away. That was the furthest we went. We&#39;d go and stay two or three days. That was the highlight of our times, going up there by car. I think the most interesting times was during holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year&#39;s. We never went places then, we&#39;d invite people in to our place. Mostly Uncles, Aunts, Cousins, congregating at our place. After a big meal and getting ourselfs stuffed, we&#39;d get out the card tables and play cards, having two or three card tables going. <br><br>T.: When you were a kid, did you ever play any of the old games like &quot;Fox and Geese&quot;--what kinds of things did you do? <br><br>G.: With all this snow on the ground, it just seems like yesterday when we&#39;d play &quot;Fox and Geese&quot;. You make a circle in the snow, then lines across like spokes in a wheel. As long as you stayed in the center you were free, but if you got out of that circle you were eligible to be caught. If you were a good jumper, you could jump from one line, or spoke we&#39;d call it, and catch the other guy. We&#39;d play that, and we&#39;d play &quot;Leap Frog&quot;, and we&#39;d play &quot;Stealing Sticks&quot;, and we&#39;d play &quot;Crack the Whip&quot;. <br><br>T.: What was &quot;Crack the Whipl&quot;? <br><br>G.: That was done mostly on ice. You&#39;d get two or three fellows that were on skates, and some that weren&#39;t, and if you were on the tail end without skates and started sliding, all of a sudden they let you loose, and you&#39;d go any amount of...<br><br>T.: Like a big long &quot;snake&quot;, all connecting hands, you mean? <br><br>G. : Yeah-the leader wouldn&#39;t be going fast wouldn&#39;t be going fast at all, but the one at the end would. I always ended up being on the end and had no skates. I knew what was going to happen and braced for it. <br><br>T.: Was your Mom or Dad much for going to church? Did you go to church as you were growing up?<br><br>G.: No, I&#39;m sorry to say, I never had much church bringing up as you&#39;d call it. I had very little church...<br><br>T.: Did your mother go to church more than your dad? <br><br>G.: Mother was more interested in us going to church ... we did go to Sunday School a lot, I remember that. I remember going to the Presbyterian Church at Angus. I remember having several Sunday School lessons there. I know Dad would always give us a dime. A nickel was for candy or ice cream, and the other nickel was for Sunday School. We&#39;d take in the church service while in town, too. We&#39;d be gone from 9:30 to about noon. In the afternoons we were free on Sundays. Had lots of things to do--either go out horseback riding, or hunting. <br><br>T.: What was your favorite pastime? What did you like to do when you didn&#39;t have to do chores? <br><br>G.: Before I was old enough to work in the fields, there was a certain amount of chores you had to do that we were expected to do according to your age. When done, you were free to do what you wanted to do unless mother wanted us to help with garden work. <br><br>T.: What did you do, though? <br><br>G.: Mother would pack us a lunch in a gallon can, putting a sandwich and apple, and a jug of water with us, take some traps and water pail. We&#39;d head out to a neighbor&#39;s pasture about a mile east of our place, just loaded with gophers. If they wouldn&#39;t come out fast enough, we&#39;d down them out! <br><br>T.: I can&#39;t think of what to ask you--anything interesting about your childhood before you left home? <br><br>G.: I remember when we came back from Seattle we stayed at McIntosh. Dad moved us down to his brother&#39;s place, with Uncle Gurney&#39;s. We lived there one winter. Right after Christmas my oldest brother and cousin and other brother were getting ready for school. I said, why can&#39;t I go to school, too? They said I couldn&#39;t go. I was standing by a sled, and my brother was cleaning it out, he was shoveling snow out of the sled. I guess he didn&#39;t see me-he turned with the shovel, and the shovel hit me in the lip and cut me real bad but not enough to take me to the doctor. It hurt more than it cut me. It was lucky that the tip was turned over at the edge from hitting on the ground or something-- it was blunt. I was only 5 years old. <br><br>T.: Were there any teachers when you were attending school that especially remember? <br><br>G.: There was one teacher. She lived on what we called the Big Ditch Road about 1 1/2 miles from school. I can remember her first name real well-her first name was Lena. I&#39;m quite sure her last name was Johnson. She was quite a stout woman, quite short 51211, and about 180 or 190 lbs. She was a very stout woman. But she was a very good teacher.<br><br>T.: She cared about you, took an interest in you? <br><br>G.: That&#39;s right. I was in 7th grade, she said, &quot;Gordon, would you like to take the Eighth Grade examination?&quot; I said, &quot;Yes.&quot; Well, I took the 8th grade examinations and I passed. I was one of the highest. It didn&#39;t mean anything because I still had to take it next year. <br><br>T.: At that time you didn&#39;t have to stay in school until you were sixteen, huh? <br><br>G.: No, no, you didn&#39;t. One of best buddies was my same age, and when he was in the 7th grade and passed them and didn&#39;t have to come back until the 8th grade if he didn&#39;t want to. But he didn&#39;t want to stay at home, so he just came into the 8th grade to be with us. <br><br>T.: When you got older and worked in the fields, was there anything you did responsibility-wise you didn&#39;t do before? <br><br>G.: You have to go back to when I was about nine or ten years old--the first implement I run then was three horses on a sulky plow--a plow that has one low (?) board, about 16 inches, and doesn&#39;t take much of a cut. We had one sulky plow and my brothers had two gang plows. I drove three horses on that. After I proved I could drive them, my dad ... there was an implement called a roller or cultipacker ... it&#39;s something that after you plowed and pack it. <br><br>T.: Like a harrow? <br><br>G.: No, a harrow has points/teeth on it. This was a solid roller. Four horses on that. Then at 10 or 11, they let me drive five horses on a gang plow. <br><br>T.: How old were you when you started to hire out to other places? <br><br>G.: When I herded sheep for my cousin--11 or so? Another neighbor a mile and a half east hired. His name was Jesse Campion. I herded cows for him one summer. The wages were really cheap. If you got 25 cents or 50 cents a week you were getting a good wage. <br><br>T.: What year was that? <br><br>G.: I&#39;d say about 1929 or 1930.<br><br>T.: How old were you when you left home?<br><br>G.: When I really left home to be away from home for any amount of time was when I went to the CCC Camp at Big Fork, Minnesota.<br><br>T.: What&#39;s the CCC? <br><br>G.: The &quot;Civil Conservation Corps&quot;. There was a lot of those camps in those days. <br><br>T.: Under Roosevelt&#39;s &quot;New Deal&quot;? <br><br>G.: Under the President&#39;s &quot;New Deal&quot; where they put boys to work and gave them jobs. That was in the Depression times. <br><br>T.: What did you do? <br><br>T.: I was in there in the winter time. We&#39;d go out into the woods in the morning burn teepees, teepees of wood. <br><br>T.: Like Eli (Gooselaw?) <br><br>G.: The boys in the summertime would pick up dead wood and put them into teepee shapes, and we&#39;d go and burn them in the wintertime, and that was good because that kept us warm! <br><br>T.: Did you really feel the Depression that much that you actually had to go to work to make money off the farm?<br><br>G.: I don&#39;t suppose I had to go out and make money because we got enough to go to shows on and for money. <br><br>T.: So your family wasn&#39;t really that hard up then during the Depression? <br><br>G.: We hard up to the extent that we didn&#39;t have much money, but we always had plenty of food. <br><br>T.: You always had the necessities?<br><br>G.: Oh, yes. Mother raised turkeys. She&#39;d take and sell them in the fall of the year. We&#39;d all pile in the car and go into town to Grand Forks, and we&#39;d buy our fall clothes with her turkey money that she had. One thing I could say about Mother-God rest her soul now-she never spent much money on herself. She always saw to it that us kids got clothes first. Being that there was so many boys in the family and the spread wasn&#39;t too much, I always got a lot of hand-me-downs. <br><br>T.: What was it like when you first left home--were you kind of scared, or were you excited about it? <br><br>G.: I was kind of used to it because I had been away from home two or three weeks at a time before, but the camps were run like a military camp. You had to get up in the morning and go out to a flag raising. Taking it down at night. This happened Monday through Friday. Weekends were free. I had two jobs. At CCC&#39;s I burned teepees. Then I went on to be a carpenter&#39;s helper. One time one of the night watchman got sick and never came back, so I got stuck with his job! I liked better, because I had more time off for myself. It&#39;s funny--you can be off somewhere, and you come home ... this time I got a ride home, having to pay to and from. My folks didn&#39;t know I was coming home. The fellow let me off down at the end of the road leading up to our place. I wrapped on the door. Mother didn&#39;t know who it was and my heart was just apounding. I was anxious to see everybody. They were anxious to see me, too. This was on a Saturday morning. On Saturday night we all went out to a dance and had a lot of fun. On Sunday this fellow came back and picked me up and back we went. It was a short stay, but we had a lot of fun. <br><br>T.: You would say then you were mostly excited about leaving home then, eh? <br><br>G.: Yes. <br><br>T.: Did you make many plans when you were going away from home? <br><br>G.: No, I never made any plans because I just didn&#39;t know what I was going to be or do when I grew up. I knew that I was going to go into the military service, whether it was war or not, because one thing that always sticks in my mind is that when I was going to school is a little poem that went like: <br><br><br>&quot;&hellip;If you will be a soldier boy, you may come too&hellip;&quot;<br><br><br>I don&#39;t know what that poem is, or where that line comes from...<br><br>T.: &quot;...you will be...&quot; what? <br><br>G.: (Repeats line above) ... I don&#39;t know from what poem that line is from, but that always stuck with me. I thought to myself when I was little kid, I&#39;m going to be a soldier. <br><br>T.: Were you a little scared, though, when the time came? When actual war was going on? Did you ever think that when you got over there, that you might not come back? <br><br>G.: When I was drafted, I thought it was an exciting deal. It never occurred to me that we could really get hurt until we were showed wounds, of planes strafing men, and how soldiers were being unloaded from barges and making a beachhead landing and how the enemy could cut you down with machine guns and mortars and everything like that. I got to thinking, &quot;Hey, this isn&#39;t a kids&#39; game, this is real!&quot; By then it was too late and was already committed and sworn in and do what I was told. Finally we actually got into the actual phase of fighting. <br><br>T.: How long did it take from basic training? You were down in Michigan? <br><br>G.: No, it was California, for six weeks. <br><br>T.: Where were you shipped to from there? <br><br>G.: I was in three training camps in the States before we were sent overseas. From California...I can&#39;t think of them in order. One of them was... Fort Worth, Texas?) <br><br>T.: Anyways, where was the first place you were shipped to overseas? <br><br>G.: First place was New Guinea.<br><br>T.: Did you see service there, or was that just a stopover?<br><br>G.: There was some action going on when we got there, but it was just about over when we arrived. We weren&#39;t there too long before we were shipped to the Philippines. In the Philippines is where we did our fighting. We were first on Layte (spelling?) and then on Luzon, both places we did heavy fighting.<br><br>T.: Were you reinforcements or were you ever frontline troops? <br><br>G.: We were in the front lines. our company went up in the front lines at least 9 or 10 times. Full strength of 130 to 140 men. Many a time we came back with just 30 or 40 men. The rest were either killed, or wounded and in hospital.<br><br>T.: I know about being in foxholes-you dug them yourselves&hellip; <br><br>G.: That&#39;s right.<br><br>T.: Is that one of the things they taught you how to do? <br><br>G.: We knew a certain way from training. <br><br>T.: Did they teach you how to deal with the enemy if you were captured by them? <br><br>G.: Oh, yes. You were supposed to just give them you name, rank, and serial number. <br><br>T.: They never trained you to withstand torture or whatever. G.: No, that was pretty hard to say. One person can stand more than others. Up to you. <br><br>T.: Did you ever see those makeshift medical units and the conditions they had to work in (like a MASH, but pre-MASH)? <br><br>G.: Oh, yes. On the front lines you never had a setup like a regular hospital. <br><br>T.: They had regular army doctors? <br><br>G.: Yes. <br><br>T.: Did they have nurses there? <br><br>G.: Some did, but mostly Philippino nurses, not U.S. nurses, were near the front lines. One time I walked by, we were walking back from the front lines after heavy fighting and I saw a doctor and a medic actually insert a tube into a person&#39;s throat that had been cut by scrapnel so that he could breath because his windpipe was cut off. <br><br>T.: Could you ever talk to chaplains? Did you ever get scared and have to talk to somebody? <br><br>G.: The only time I ever talked to the chaplain was when your mother got sick and we had to send her home, and we had no money, so I went over to the chaplain... <br><br>T.: When was this? Where were you? <br><br>G.: This was at Fort Worth, Texas. <br><br>T.: This was the time you were on the train? <br><br>G.: Yeah. I told him our situation, that we didn&#39;t have any money, and if he would help me get money from the Red Cross? He did--he went to bat for me and in a matter of a short time he got the money for us. So I could bring my wife home. <br><br>T.: You came right here to St. Vincent? <br><br>G.: Yes. From the time we left we left there and got here, a lot happened. It would take quite awhile to tell it ... <br><br>T.: Once you told me about something funny that happened while you watched a movie--something about a rat up somebody&#39;s leg??! <br><br>G.: That somebody&#39;s leg was my own! This was over in New Guinea--we were stationed there for awhile, and we had a portable smoking screen set up. Right opposite this screen, some Australians had their camp set up there. it was just one company or platoon stationed there. one night, it was a beautiful night out, we were all sitting there watching this movie. <br><br>T.: Do you remember what movie it was? <br><br>G.: Seemed like it--I can&#39;t remember the name of it--that Deanna Durbin was in it. <br><br>T.: Who was Deanna Durbin? <br><br>G.: Deanna Durbin, Frank Sinatra ... It was more or less of a...I can&#39;t think of what I want to say ... the movie was going on, and of course around the camps there were a lot of dogs. They were chasing each other around the camp, and around this movie area. Pretty soon one dog stopped by me--I thought it was a dog--but I felt something against my leg. All of a sudden another dog come chasing it. Pretty soon what I felt by my leg ran up my leg. I put my hand down and felt a bump. I just held on and squeezed for all I could-- <br>,br&gt; T.: Didn&#39;t anyone notice this the whole time it was going on? <br>,br&gt; G.: Nobody noticed it, and that dog just stood there. Pretty soon, there was a break in the movie, the lights came on, and a couple of my friends-- Wassing from Minneapolis and Alabama--we called him Alabama as a nickname, because he really was from Alabama, a small fellow--they were sitting about two rows up ahead. I hollered, &quot;Hey, Wassing--I bet you can&#39;t guess what&#39;s up my leg!&quot; And he started to giggle, and everyone else started to giggle, because they took it to mean something different. I said, &quot;No-- there&#39;s a rat up my leg, or a mouse.&quot; &quot;Come on, Short, you&#39;re just pulling our leg.&quot; &quot;No sirree,&quot; so I hobbled out to where they were and said, &quot;Feel...And Alabama, he felt and said, &quot;By God,&quot; he said, &quot;there&#39;s something there.&quot; He took his handkerchief out of his pocket, wrapped it around his hand, and raced up my pant leg, and said, &quot;By Golly, there&#39;s something there--I can feel the tail! Let loose!&quot; I let loose, and he jerked it out from underneath my pant leg. But the thing was dead, because I had squeezed it to death. &quot;Boy, you sure weren&#39;t kiddin&#39;!&quot; And everybody was looking- -there was nurses there in uniform, and officers, and a lot of other guys. When that movie started again, nobody had their feet on the ground--put their feet on the bench up ahead of them! They didn&#39;t want no rat running up their pant leg. After we got through, one of the Ausies said, &quot;Short, do you want to come over for some tea and crackers?&quot; I said, &quot;Sure!&quot; I tell you--if you ever drink tea made by Australians, you have got a treat coming. You can float an egg on top and it wouldn&#39;t sink. It&#39;s so strong. They just take a gallon can, put some tea in it, and boil the devil out of it! After two cups of that, and you&#39;re not going to sleep long because you&#39;re going to the bathroom every 10 minutes. They had some hardtack crackers there, too. I ate a few of them, and drank a couple of cups of tea. That made my night--a rat up my pantleg, drinking strong tea, and staying up all night running to the bathroom (latrine, they call it); the next day I was pretty pooped out! <br><br>T.: Is there anything that you remember about being in battle-- something that you remember that stands out in your mind? Once I think you told me that you were going across some field at night, walking across dead bodies or something? <br><br>G.: This has happened in the front lines--at night, we would be- -you&#39;d be fighting in the daytime, and at night you would in the foxhole, or standing on top of the ground--whatever was available--during the day you&#39;d be fighting, and at night you&#39;d have time to rest, if you weren&#39;t standing guard duty. You&#39;d be on 2-4 hours, then off--it depended on how many were there to take their turns. You were subject to call at any time during the night to be ammunition-bearer, if they needed you at the front lines. Many times I was called, and in this one instance I was called, we were carrying ammunition boxes--I don&#39;t know how far--and when we got to the destination, this one sargeant told us where to put them, but he didn&#39;t tell us what was in front of us. Lo and behold, pretty soon I was stepping on something soft. <br><br>T.: Was there anyone with you? <br><br>G.: Oh, yes--there was several of us. I asked the sargeant, &quot;What am I stepping on?&quot; &quot;You&#39;re just stepping on some dead bodies that we haven&#39;t carried down yet.&quot; It gives you an awful funny, eerie feeling stepping on somebody like that, you know, even if the party is dead. <br><br>T.: Once you talked about being in the foxholes, during the rain, standing there in the water. <br><br>G.: My first experience with that was at the front lines. It was raining--we had our trenchcoats and one blanket. When we dug in that night, we didn&#39;t have time to dig in very deep. I suppose my foxhole was about 10 inches deep. I spread my raincoat on the bottom. I thought, &quot;Well, I&#39;ll lay on that and I&#39;ll cover up with my blanket.&quot; Lo and behold, it started to rain--it had been raining,- but it had quit--it started to rain again. You wouldn&#39;t believe it, that you could sleep, when it was wet like that ... <br><br>T.: Wasn&#39;t the coat rainproof? <br><br>G.: I was laying on it--yes. The blanket I had was just soaking wet. The hole started to fill up, I kind of welcomed my chance when it came my turn for guard duty. Where we stood guard duty is, we had a 50 calibur machine gun set up, you would squat behind this machine gun that was--it was sitting on top of the whole, and you were squatting down in the hole, and you had strapped on your belt you had a 45 calibur pistol and hand grenades, and had a small arms rifle beside the machine gun, too. T.: Did you ever encounter anybody on your guard duty? <br><br>G.: Not on guard duty, but we fired several times when we wasn&#39;t on guard duty. <br><br>T.: When you are actually fightinq, did you ever come close to the enemy--ever hand-to-hand? <br><br>G.: I myself never came to hand-to-hand with the enemy, although there was instances on the front lines there where I suppose the enemy was as close as 25 to 30 feet away from where I was, but they were ... this one, they were in another foxhole, ane they were struggling, and one of the fellows in our outfit was killed, in this foxhole. When the Japanese started running away, he was cut down by another Yank that seen him run.<br><br>T.: Didn&#39;t it get kind of kind of smoke-filled in the area--how did you know if you were shooting at anything or not? <br><br>G.: The only time it gets smoke-filled in the air like that was from your big calibur guns, not from rifle fire. <br><br>T.: Yes, but grenades were used ... <br><br>G.: Not too often did we have to use grenades, except when we wanted to drive the Japanese out of their foxholes, or probably if we surmised or had a hunch that there was a machine gun nest ahead. <br><br>T.: Did you ever use them yourself? <br><br>G.: Oh, yes. We used hand grenades. <br><br>T.: Didn&#39;t you ever get scared that it might stick on your finger and you might not be able to throw it? <br><br>G.: No--I had pretty good luck at grenade practice while in the States. <br><br>T.: Was it hard? <br><br>G.: They were set for so many seconds before they&#39;d go off. just pulled a pin. <br><br>T.: There wasn&#39;t any safety pin or something?<br><br>G.: You They had a safety lever you peeled/held out (couldn&#39;t hear tape well here--not sure if &quot;peeled&quot; or &quot;held&quot; is the right word). As soon as you-- you wanted to make sure that you didn&#39;t put your arm back and your arm didn&#39;t hit a branch of a tree and knock it--drop it. othewise, there were times-- not in our outfit, but in other outfits--actually men sacrificed themselves for their buddies. A grenade would come into the hole, they&#39;d see it and fall right on it, and of course they were killed.<br><br>T.: When was it that--what year was it about, when you went over to Japan? <br><br>G.: That was in 1945--we didn&#39;t go into mainland Japan until 1946 (I think Dad was wrong here, according to all records I&#39;ve seen--his 32nd was in Japan in 1946, but they came initially in 1945--Dad himself must have been in Japan in 145, because he was discharged in 1945 ... )--no wait a minute, 1945--that&#39;s right. I came HOME in December of 1945. We were in Japan for about 6 weeks to 2 months before I came home (NOTE: That would put it about September/October). [NOTE: He didn&#39;t get discharged until into 1946, however&hellip;]<br><br>T.: Was that because that was where it was more intense and they needed more men than other places?<br><br>G.: We didn&#39;t go to Japan until the war was over, we didn&#39;t do any fighting on Japan on the mainland. <br><br>T.: You were there for part of it, weren&#39;t you? (I am IGNORANT here, not realizing that the U.S. were occupational forces only at this stage, and the war was over ...) <br><br>G.: No, our fighting was on other soil in New Guinea and the Philippines. <br><br>T.: When did you do there then? <br><br>G.: It must have been about October. The summer was when the Emperor surrendered It as more or less occupational forces.<br><br>T.: So for two months or so you didn&#39;t do any fighting? <br><br>G.: No, no fighting there at all. <br><br>T.: So, when December came and the war was over, and they let you out, where did you go to? I mean, did you just fly over and take a train home to here or what? <br><br>G.: No, we came back on a ship called the U.S. General Haas (Hass, Haws-- spelling?!). I don&#39;t know how many days it took for us to get back--I think it was around 14 days ... 12 or 14 days--we landed in Seattle. Yes, it was Seattle. From there we took a train to a camp in Wisconsin where we got our mustering out pay. <br><br>T.: Did they give you a suit to wear home?<br><br>G.: No, we were allowed to wear our army uniform home. You could wear it for 48 or 72 hours before you were supposed to chanqe over to civilian clothes. <br><br>T.: How did Mom take it--did you tell her ahead of time or did you surprise her? <br><br>G.: Oh, yes--I called her from Seattle, when we were back in the States. She was living back home here with her folks. When I came home on the train and got off and come to Pembina-- <br><br>T.: Wasn&#39;t there a depot here at St. Vincent? <br><br>G.: Yes--Grandpa, her dad, met me at the train, but Harriet couldn&#39;t come because she had just gotten over pneumonia, so she couldn&#39;t come out of the house, but she sure was glad to see me when I got home. <br><br>T.: When you were 19, after you were done working for the CCC camps, didn&#39;t you come and work for our uncle here? At the Short&#39;s Cafe? Was that right after the CCC?<br><br>G.: Shortly after, yes.<br><br>T.: What did you do there? <br><br>G.: At the Cafe? Wait tables, bartending.<br><br>T.: Isn&#39;t that how you met Mom? <br><br>G.: Yes--she chummed around with other girls in the town, and that&#39;s how I met her. <br><br>T.: How old was she at the time that you met her?<br><br>G.: 16 years old. <br><br>T.: When did you actually start going out?<br><br>G.: We went out a few times while I was working here, but I think that the first time we started going together seriously was when she worked as a telephone operator in Bemidji and I was living in MacIntosh.<br><br>T.: How in the world did you get together when you were that far apart?! <br><br>G.: That was only 50 some miles ... my brother and I had a car, and we&#39;d drive down there. Sometimes our friend Arlo Johnson, who had a car, too, he and his girlfriend, my brother and his girlfriend, and I would drive to Bemidji, and I&#39;d wait until Harriet got off of her shift at the telephone office, and we&#39;d go out and have supper, drive around and have fun. <br><br>T.: What did you see in her?<br><br>G.: It&#39;s hard to say what you see in a person, that you just know it, that they&#39;re just meant for you in life, and that&#39;s the one you&#39;re going to marry. <br><br>T.: Did you know the first time you dated her or did it take a few times to know that you really liked her? <br><br>G.: Well, I don&#39;t know whether--at the time that I worked here I liked her, and I suppose ... but the thought of marrying, although she says I asked her, &quot;Let&#39;s get married!&quot;--of course she didn&#39;t say yes, because she though I was kidding ... <br><br>T.: When was that? <br><br>G.: That was when I was working here (Short&#39;s Cafe). I don&#39;t know how things would have turned out in our lives if she&#39;d said yes, and we would have gotten married then. It might have kept me out of the army and maybe it wouldn&#39;t have. I don&#39;t remember ... Even at the time that I was going with your mother in Bemidji there was other girls that I went with then that I liked real well, at the same time. The fact is ...<br><br>T.: Was she jealous of that? <br><br>G.: I don&#39;t know if she knew about it(!) There was one girl I wrote to, in the service before I was married. At the same time that I was writing to your mother I was writing to her! <br><br>T.: So when was it that you actually did ask Mom to marry you?<br><br>G.: In 1943, on leave--no! It was before I was in the service (1942), at a dance in Bemidji, before I went into the service. My Uncle Grundy and Aunt Ella, and my Mom and Dad, and another couple, went to Bemidji. We picked up Harriet and went to a nightclub, and were doing some dancing and drinking, that&#39;s when I preposed. I preposed to her right on the dance floor. We came back from the dance floor, and the rest of them on the sidelines, we told them what we were going to do. No, we didn&#39;t--we held off from telling them. I told Mother in the house (my mom), and went out to the barn and told Dad right afterwards.<br><br>T.: What did they think of it? Had they met Harriet?<br><br>G.: Oh, yes--they were happy for us. I was in the service, and I wrote and told her to come down to Fort Worth, and we&#39;d get married. She bought her ticket and came down on the train, on her own. That disappointed my mother because they already had a shower planned for Harriet. So she hopped on the train and came, and we got married. Wasn&#39;t it a little chapel you got married in? Did you have any friends with you? <br><br>G.: No-the only witnesses were the Pastor&#39;s wife.<br><br>T.: Did you guys ever think of waiting until after the war? Some people didn&#39;t want to get married ... <br><br>G.: No, it just seemed like we--if something was going to happen--we didn&#39;t talk about that. Just seemed like it didn&#39;t enter our mind--if it did, we didn&#39;t talk about it. I knew it was inevitable that I would go overseas-- we just wanted as much time together as we could get. <br><br>T.: After you got back from the war, did Grandpa and Grandpa Fitzpatrick move out of this house right away, or did you live with them for awhile? <br><br>G.: We lived here for awhile. They moved out in 1946 or so.<br><br>T.: Didn&#39;t you keep animals around here for awhile? Did you go to Trade School right away?<br><br>G.: The first year, I was self-employed. I had some two cows from my brother, had chickens and pigs, and the big garden in 1946-47.<br><br>T.: When was it that you went away to Trade School? <br><br>G.: That was in 1947--no--in 1947 I worked on the farm out here, just about 1 1/2 miles east of our place, for a farmer named Warren Griffith, for six months. In 1948 I started working on the Section--Extra Gangs--I worked on the Section in 1948, 1949, and 1950, not steady--all of this time I still had cattle here and raised a big garden. In 1951 is when I went to Minneapolis to the Gail Institute. <br><br>T.: Wasn&#39;t that on the G.I. Bill, paying for it?<br><br>G.: That&#39;s right. <br><br>T.: How long did it take? I went down there in April and came back in November, a six months&#39; course. <br><br>G.: What did they teach you? They taught us how to telegraph, which was quite an art at the time&#39; and basic fundamentals of depot work--what a depot agent had to contend with. <br><br>T.: Was is run by the railroad?<br><br>G.: I don&#39;t think it was run by the railroad, I think it was privately-owned and operated. The teachers were more or less railroad employees that were actually working there on their off-duty hours, or retired railroad employees that were working there full-time.<br><br>T.: So after you left school, did you get a job right away with the railroad? <br><br>G.: Yes, at the time I went to school, my brother (Robert?) went also. Before we left, one of the teachers called us and said that I have two openings for telegraphers at Three Forks, Montana, and wanted to know if my brother and I would take it. We had a specified time to get there. But when I got home, my wife was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, so I couldn&#39;t go. <br><br>T.: What was wrong?<br><br>G.: I don&#39;t know--she had a nervous breakdown. It was more or less because of the situation that she had the sole care of raising the family while I was at school and we were quite hard up as far as money was concerned, and just things in general worried her, and kind of wore her down to a frazzle. --Her nerves were on edge.<br><br>T.: Didn&#39;t Grandpa and Grandma help her any?<br><br>G.: They did--it wasn&#39;t to the extent that she was hard up for food or anything, but it was just that, I don&#39;t know ... complications of several things ... <br><br>T.: So, what did you do then? <br><br>G.: I stayed home for while until she got to feeling better, then I wrote down to this teacher and asked him if he had another opening, and he said he did. If I wanted to, I could go down to a place called Persia, Iowa. This was around the first part of December, so I hops on the train and down I go. I got down there and stayed there about two or three weeks, and It was closer to Christmas time, and I had never been away from home at Christmas before (except for the War), and I was getting lonesome I guess, and I thought to myself, and I didn&#39;t know whether to call home or ask for money and come on home. So I called, and we decided that I was coming home. So I told the agent that I was staying with that I was bunch it and go home. So I hopped on the train and I made it home just a day or two before Christmas. Shortly afterwards I contacted the Great Northern Railroad to see if they had anything for me close to home. They said that I could go down to Argyle and work there as an agent/operator. I went down there for about three weeks, and broke in, and finally got a notice to go out on my own. <br><br>T.: Where did you go? <br><br>G.: It was a place out here called Deering, ND. I was only there two weeks. From there I went to a small place south of Grand Forks--I can&#39;t think of the name. From then on I went to so many places ... I was a relief man-- two weeks here, two weeks there--the Extra Board. <br><br>T.: Somehow or another you ended up in Grafton, ND, didn&#39;t you?<br><br>G.: I was at Grafton for awhile, at Upham, ND for two months-- at the time, while I was out there ...<br><br>T.: Where was the place that you had a lot of flowers?<br><br>G.: That&#39;s the first agency that I had at Glasston, ND--I was there for six years. <br><br>T.: Was is first Grafton, then Glasston? [NOTE: Dad did work in Glasston from 1956 until 1962] <br><br>G.: No, I worked at Grafton several times as a relief operator, and did two week jaunts at a time. <br><br>T.: Was Glasston your first regular place then? <br><br>G.: Glasston? Yes, my first regular place--well for any length of time, not counting Upham for two months. <br><br>T.: Was is right after Glasston that you ended up here at Noyes? [NOTE: Sometime in 1953 to 1954, in Noyes, he did work as a 2nd trick (2nd shift) operator] <br><br>G.: No, when I left Glasston I relieved my inlaw here at St. Vincent, my wife&#39;s uncle (Uncle Dick)--Dick Fitzpatrick at the St. Vincent station. While I was there, I was bumped by another operator, so then I went ... <br><br>T.: What does &quot;bumping&quot; mean? <br><br>G.: It means that you got displaced by an older man with more senority than you have. Than I went on the Extra Board and had to leave home. I was away from home for quite some time, before I had a chance to get Noyes in. All you have to do is submit your name and rank/senority date, if you&#39;re an older man, you get this position. This had been the second time I had bid in for Noyes. The first time I had displaced by somebody else that had more senority. I&#39;ve been at Noyes now for over 15 years (as of 1977). <br><br>T.: Do you enjoy this type of work? <br><br>G.: I guess this is the work that the Lord has cut out for me to do with the minimum amount of education that I had.<br><br>T.: Do you like it? Does it fulfill what you&#39;d like to do in a job? <br><br>G.: It does--after my two days off, I kind of look forward to going back to work again, although some days it gets pretty tiring and aggravating because everything doesn&#39;t go true to form. I still like the work. <br><br>T.: Let&#39;s change the subject to something quite different--when you had Sharon, did it shake you a little bit, knowing you had this responsibility now? <br><br>G.: I think that when you&#39;re young like that and have your first child, you take everything for granted. Responsibility isn&#39;t your main concern right then and there, although you&#39;re kind of puffed up, thinking, &quot;Well, I&#39;m married, I have a child...&quot; So, that makes you feel like you&#39;ve got to get out and strive, and do better. But, there is sometimes where you&#39;re foolish and you spend money for foolish things that you&#39;re not supposed to and shouldn&#39;t do. I think that there&#39;s never been a time that we ever spent anything foolishly that we didn&#39;t have clothes on our back and food in the house, and someplace to sleep. <br><br>T.: What do you plan to do when you retire? <br><br>G.: Well... <br><br>T.: Do you plan on gardening, or... <br><br>G.: No--I don&#39;t want to just sit around doing nothing because I think that would be bad for you. I&#39;ll have a little garden, mow the lawn. I like to work at something that I like to do. I would like greenhouse work. I suppose I could get some small jobs painting. Sightseeing--no interest in fishing. Because of my laxness in not doing any fishing during my span of life, I don&#39;t know beans from applebutter about fishing--I wouldn&#39;t know what equipment to buy, what I did buy I&#39;d never use! I&#39;d like to travel around and see historic sites, natural beauty, etc.--that&#39;s what I&#39;d like to do. <br><br>T.: Could you tell me about some extraordinary things that have happened to you, like the 1950 flood? <br><br>G.: We&#39;ll have to talk about that another time ...<br><br>[END OF DECEMBER 12, 1977 INTERVIEW] <br><br>Mom&#39;s Corrections to above interview (!): <br><br>There are a couple of discrepancies in this tape--Dad said that he preposed to me in a letter written from Camp Bowie in Brownwood, Texas, and that held asked me to come down on the train to Fort Worth, and that&#39;s not true. He came home in January of 1943 on furlough, and he asked me to marry him, and I returned with him to Fort Worth at the end of his furlough, and we were married. <br><br>The other discrepancy is that he was in the CCC camp first, and then came up to Short&#39;s Cafe to work, and that&#39;s not true. He came up to Short&#39;s Cafe in 1938, and that&#39;s when I met him, when he was 19 and I was 16, and he was in the CCC camp in the winter of 1940- 41, and that&#39;s when he came out of the camp and helped his Dad with the crop in the spring, and got his draft notice, and was drafted in April 1942. <br><br>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>Additional Notes: <br>Friday, 5/14/1993 <br><br>Dad told me another story of how he and 2 buddies were running supplies or ammunition to the front line areas when an officer told him to stay behind for another reason (pulled him off). The other 2 went on, into an area where they had to &#39;dig in&#39; (foxhole). They only got to dig in 18&quot; or so when snipers opened up on them. They jumped into the foxholes, which although shallow, did help. However, the sniper cover allowed some Jap troos to come up on them and bayonet them to death. This happened about 2 hours after they left Dad. Dad heard about it later on. Dad said he prayed many a prayer to God then, during the war&hellip;He feels even though he wasn&#39;t a Christian yet, that God honored his prayers&hellip;.