"Old times there are not forgotten"
Americans learned the names of places including New Guinea, Tarawa and much about the geography of North Africa. The United Mine Workers went on strike, the only labor union to do so during World War II, declining enrollments at the nation's colleges and universities were reversed with creation of officer candidate programs and in male fashion, the zoot suit was introduced.
New book titles: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and The Human Comedy as well as books with war themes including Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Here Is Your War, God Is My Co-Pilot and Guadacanal Diary.
At the movies: Casablanca, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The More the Merrier, The Song of Bernadette and Watch on the Rhine.
January - December
With our fathers and brothers gone to war, Beckley became a community almost void of young able bodied males. Our mothers and older sisters did their part on the home front, which included taking care of us.Gasoline was rationed (to save rubber) as was sugar and other commodities. We saved string, rubberbands and peeled tin foil off cigarette wrappers to donate to the war effort, sometimes getting free admission to a Beckley movie theater in return for our collection. Scout troops organized scrap metal collections under the supervision of our grandparents. Italy surrendered to the Allies.