December 7th

[cope]

A day that will live in infamy. My grandfather had 30 years navy and was in Pearl Harbor at the time of the attack. My grandmother had my mother who was just born with her there as well. I remember growing up my grandfather loved to fish for catfish and would take me fishing from time to time. He never cleaned the fish but would eat them. Later I found out as I had grown up and he was gone that the people of Hawaii would not eat any fish in the harbor because the fish were eating the dead floating in the harbor from the attack. He was still squeamish years later and wouldnt clean or gut a fish because of it even that many years later. Thats why spam was so popular in Hawaii and still is to this day. Little stories you learn.

Just wanted to share this with others I think its important to remember our history and remember the attack on Pearl Harbor. So many of our men and women have passed and there are fewer and fewer each year at the memorial.

[Abigayle]

Great story, Cope, thanks for sharing it.  My dad was sitting in his high school classroom, in a small town in Iowa.  When the news of the bombing hit the small town classroom, my dad stood up and said "mail my diploma to my mother".  He went downtown and insisted in the Marine Corp.
One of his many jobs on the farm, was to shoot the pigeons as his younger siblings flushed them out of the barn.  I have his sharp shooter medals.  In his 80's, when war buffs would find him and call him a hero, his only reply was "we were all heroes".  That was so true.  The greatest generation, hands down.  Don't think we ever stop missing them, until we join them.

[Ravenwood1950]

My father was at Pearl Harbor the day of the attack also. He served on submarines. Every time he was transferred off of a submarine to another,  the ship he left would be sunk with all hands lost. This did not happen only once...it happened several times. In fact, if the crew heard Dad was being transferred they wanted off that ship. I wish Dad had recorded his thoughts on the events of the day. I have always thought that keeping a journal was important, especially when major world events occur.
I scrapbooked my feelings and what we did on 9-11 and am glad that I did so while the moment was fresh in my mind. Guess we all need to record our thoughts/actions on this pandemic.
Ravenwood