"My father (Madeleine's grandpa) loves to tell this story. During WWII, my dad was in elementary school and chewing gum was a very special treat - it was hard to get - not really available to buy because of the shortage of ingredients used to make it. So one day, maybe around 1942 or 1943, Maddie's great grandpa brought home a piece of chewing gum - ONE piece - for my dad and his three other siblings to share. So they decided each one would get to chew it for a few minutes then pass it on to the next one. Maddie's grandpa was the last one in line. Right before his turn to chew the gum was finally about to arrive, his younger brother swallowed it. So my dad recalls the 40s and the effects of the war through the eyes of a child for sure!"
Mrs. St. Peter, mother of Maddie in 4M

"Carmen's maternal grandfather (my daddy), Jesus Lopez, was drafted into the United States Navy in December 1943, just 2 months after he turned 18. Seaman Second Class Jesus Lopez served on the U.S.S. Altamaha, an aircraft carrier. He read the radar on board."
Mrs. White, mother of Carmen in 4M

"I entered the Marine Corps July 16, 1943. Grandma & I were married Oct. 3rd 1943 in Pittsburgh, PA. I was home on leave & we were married by a justice of the peace. I was wounded by shrapnel shortly thereafter. Joel was born on Sept. 13, 1945 & the twins (your mother & Aunt Judy) were born March 20, 1947."
Mr. Millin, Miss Major's grandfather

"The government was offering free college classes at a nearby high school. The teacher who taught the classes decided to start a club for the students so we could all get to know each other. We had beach parties, went rollerskating, and went to the movies as a group. In fact, I'm still friends with a woman that I met in that group!"
Mrs. Major, Miss Major's grandmother

"I remember seeing my first television set - 1948 or 1949. It was black and white, the screen was about 9 inches across and had a magnifying glass over the screen to make it look larger.  I remember riding the street cars that traveled throughout Cleveland in the late 1940's. They converged on Public Square, coming in from various points east and west. The one we normally rode was from Kamm's Corner (Rocky River Drive and Lorain) near Fairview Hospital.  It was really neat because the track would go under the street on the Detroit-Superior Bridge and you could see the Cuyahoga River below.  I remember riding wooden escalators in the downtown stores in late 1940's (May's and Higbee's). Higbee's is now Dillards.  I remember starting 1st grade (1948).  I was 5 years old, almost 6.  I got to ride a school bus to St. Mary's of the Falls, Olmsted Falls.  I did not go to kindergarten.  During the ride on the bus one day, I remember going past a house that had been struck by lightning during the night.  The house was still smoldering.  I remember my first experience in a hospital.  I had to have my appendix removed when I was about 5yr old.  I remember having my finger pricked for a blood sample on a glass slide.  I also remember vividly being on the operating table and having the ether mask (anesthetic) being placed over my face. The sound of my screaming was a warbling sound going up and down in intensity.   Summers were great at the age of 5 & 6 (1948-49). Playing softball in the neighbor's front yard, picking mulberries of the neighbor's tree, picking elderberries along the road in the front of Grandma and Grandpa Major's house, floating in an inner tube in Rocky River at the park in Olmsted Falls, vicinity of Columbia Road, north of Bagley Road and riding my first two wheel bicycle (home made with 10inch balloon tires) from home to a store 1.5 miles down the road.
Mr. Major, Miss Major's dad

"The Papago Indians used to do quite a bit of farming along the Santa Cruz River near San Xavier Mission. Their horse-drawn wagons could be seen all over Tucson with their produce; squash, pumpkins, corn, chili, and my favorite, watermelons. Off season they would bring in mesquite firewood.
We were living on Meyer Street in Tucson and I had bought a second hand tricycle, which I would take out on the sidewalk and race a blue streak.
Four-year-olds not being the most saavy people around, it stands to reason that my reasoning was not very reasonable when I let go of the handlebars and pushed the trike away from me thinking that it would go straight up the sidewalk. The trike took a sharp turn to the left, right into the horse's legs of an empty wagon that was parked. As my brother Joe shoved me through the front door, followed by my trike, I could see through the cloud of dust the fish-tailing wagon headed for Congress Street doing "sixty miles an hour" (that was Mach-1 in my day). The rest of my day was spent in the closet imagining the worst of fates to come. The end of the "chapter" was anti-climactic when no one came to investigate. Appartently nobody witnessed the accident and my fear was chalked up to another lesson learned.
'La Marchanta' who was an old Yaqui Indian, would sell tortillas door-to-door all over the neighborhood. She would carry them in a big basket on her head. It was amazing what a heavy load she carried and how far she would travel."
Ruben Moreno, grandfather of Adam of 4M and Adam of 6M

"I was not born in the 1940s, so I called my grandma and she told me a few things.  She said that most people listened to the radio until about 1944. When people started watching T.V., the T.V. was black and while. Instead of flying airplaned, most people took a train until the late 1940s. Then people started to fly. In the 1940s, there were no fireplaces. In the 1940s, not many people had cars. The cars were much bigger, so the people who had cars shared.  In the 1940s, there were no refrigerators; instead, people used ice boxes. In the 1940s there were not many phones and the people who had phones called it party line."
Angela S. of 3M