In a message dated 8/9/05 5:50:51 AM, WLStewart@ISUnet.net writes: > Since the History Channel has > recently relived the last days of WW II we now come to V-J Day. > > Where were you on that day? Youngsters are exempt from answering. > > I had just turned 6 years old in August of 1945 and I don't have a solid memory of either V-E Day or V-J Day. Oddly, however, I do have a strong memory of the earlier capture and killing of Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini. I was at a day care/pre-school in Los Angeles and the news came over an old wooden table-top radio and everyone cheered. Otherwise, my direct memories of the war involve camouflage netting over war plants, a sea of uniforms on trains and in depots, collecting scrap metal (including cigarette package tinfoil liners) and kitchen grease for the war effort, blackout curtains and one night-time air raid (so-called) with anti-aircraft fire that cause me to seek shelter behind our sofa. My Iowa-born parents each had a role in the defense effort. My dad was a civilian employee on the Alcan Highway project in Canada's Yukon Territory and my mom operated a drill press in a small carburetor factory that made parts for Air Corps bombers. I just used my young eyes to scan the skies for Zeros with my aircraft silhouette spotter book for reference <gg>. Rick