Shelter Stories

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         Shelter Stories

I am currently reading a most excellent book about civilian life in England during WWII. The title is "How We Lived Then" by Norman Longmate. I knew all about how we lived in America during WWII, but little about what had happened over across the pond. It was worth the four bucks I spent during a book sale.

To begin with, the British were subjected to being killed by bombs from the air. To meet this threat the British had two types of shelters, aside from the London Underground, church basements etc. The first of these was the "Anderson." This shelter was constructed of six corrugated steel panels, with flat panels front and rear with a door in one end.

A hole was dug 7ft 6in long and 6 ft wide, and a depth of 4ft. the whole structure was then covered with at least 15 inches of dirt.The Anderson was tough. It could stand up to a 500 lb. bomb dropped 20 ft. away, or a 100 lb. bomb dropped only 6ft. away. Only a direct hit would destroy it. The shelter was designed to hold six persons. Bunks and chairs were added. Some people grew vegetables or flowers on  the top of shelters. Two problems were the cold, and often, water seeping into the floor.

The Andersons were given free to people who could not afford them, otherwise the cost was 7 pounds. About 3.5 million were built. Many can still be found today, being used  as tool sheds or storage.

Okay, that was shelter for people outside of cities. What about people living in cities? The answer was the "Morrison." It was a shelter which was a table and a secure place to sleep at night. It didn't protect from bomb blast, but it did protect from flying debris and falling ceilings. The Morrison came in kit form to be bolted together with 350 separate parts. It consisted of a steel top and steel legs, with steel mesh sides. The top could be used as a table between air raids.

Each Morrison measured 2 m long, 1.2 m wide, and 75 cm tall. About 500,000 were made. They were given free to people who had a yearly income of less than 350 pounds.
(It is right about here that I again miss my old typewriter, which had a pound sign on the key board.)

And now we come to another group of shelters.This was during that event known to historians as the "Cold War." Many of you reading this remember being told at school of "Duck and cover." We entered a time when the threat of bombs were long past, and the harm from radiation became real. Fearing the Russians would drop an atomic bomb, and we would all perish from radiation, shelters were built.

Civil Defense published pamphlets telling home owners how to prepare by reinforcing basements with sand bags to shield from radiation. And so on.

A whole host of literature was born out of the fear of a nuclear war. I remember an exercise I used for a class in Sociology. It was about which people should be kept outside of a shelter.

Is there today a truly safe place for shelter? It is something to think about.

      Aloha
      Grant    

Thank You Mrs. Pinkerman

     
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     Thank You, Mrs. Pinkerman

Thank you for the tunafish sandwich. You see in 1955, it was still cool for high school seniors to carry their lunch in a brown paper bag. My friend Fritz and I carried our lunches. Our mothers would take turns  packing our lunches. Most other tunafish sandwiches I had eaten, contained a mixture of tuna,relish, and mayo. But Mrs. Pinkerman used chopped pimento stuffed green olives. It was wonderful, a really unique taste. I continue to use this idea when making a tunafish sandwich.

Right about here I feel that I must pay tribute to Wanda, the wife of my good buddy Pat. Pat and I taught high school together for a number of years, and we carried our brown bag lunches. When Pat had a meatloaf sandwich, Wanda would include a slice of American cheese. Pat would place the slice of cheese on top of the meatloaf and nuke it. Presto! Pat had a hot sandwich, which closely resembled a cheeseburger. I continue to copy this cheese topped meatloaf. I have named it a "Sheridan," which is their last name. Thank you Wanda.

And I would like to thank a  Greek immigrant family (unknown to me) who moved from New York to Detroit, and dressed up the lowly hot dog. Their idea was to cover the hot dog with beanies chili and chopped onion, topped off with yellow mustard. In Detroit it  is known as a Coney Island dog. This is another creation you could copy. It is really good.

       Aloha
       Grant
 

Ugly Ducklings

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          Ugly Ducklings

President Roosevelt called the Liberty Ships of WWII "ugly ducklings," and as such they would bring victory to Europe. So these cargo ships, came to be called Liberty Ships. There were 18 ship yards located on the East coast, West coast, and the Gulf. The plan was to build 2,711 ships, and 2,710 were completed.

Taking a cue from Henry Ford's idea of an assembly line, they decided to do the same with ship construction. 250 ton sections were transported by rail to shipyards for final assembly. This was already being done with warplanes. One ready to fly B24 bomber rolled off the assembly line every hour!

Shipyards competed, and the SS Robert E. Peary was built in 4 days, 15 hours, and 29 minutes! But on average, it took 70 days to build a ship. Ships had been riveted before, and now they were welded together. But there were problems, three ships broke in half. It was thought that the problem was with inexperienced welders. But it was proved that the cold Atlantic waters caused the steel to become brittle.

Liberty ships were 441 feet long, and 56 feet wide. They were powered by two oil fed boilers, and had a speed of 11 knots. Each ship had five holds for over 9,000 tons of cargo,plus planes or tanks, lashed on the top deck. A Liberty ship could carry 2,840 jeeps,440 tanks, or 230 million rounds of rifle ammunition.

These ships in 1943, also carried soldiers,over the protests of the military. They were sometimes called "Kaiser's coffins," after the West coast ship builder's name. This may have something to do with the fact that 24 ships were built using concrete. Ferro  cement  was used with steel. It was not a new idea. The British used concrete for ships during WWI, when there was a shortage of steel. Concrete floats, it is all a matter of displacement.
 
Liberty ships were named for famous Americans, starting with the signers of the Declaration of Indepence. A ship could be named by a group selling $ 2 million in War Bonds.

These slow cargo ships carried in addition to her crew, a Naval Armed Guard,consisting of 12 to 27 men. Ships were provided with a stern-mounted 4 inch gun, assorted anti-aircraft guns and machine guns.

More than 2,400 Liberty ships survived the war. While others were sunk by torpedoes or floating mines. Many were sold to foreign countries,loaned, or put to other uses. Some ships were used by M.S.T.S., (Military Sea Transportation Service) carrying servicemen and their families. Sailors called it "more shit than service."

I think it was 1957, when my squadron was moved from Panama to its new home in Puerto Rico. And we traveled aboard a ship named the George W. Gothels, named for the man who built the Panama Canal. I did some research and found that it was a Liberty ship with the number 0599, when it was built.

If interested the best source is :American Merchant Marine at War, www.umm.org Every ship is listed there and a great deal of other information about Liberty ships.

An interesting fact I came across is that the engine room scenes in the film "Titanic," were filmed on a museum Liberty ship in San Francisco Bay.

I think the next time I fly to San Francisco, I will be sure to visit this ship.
          Aloha
          Grant  
 

That Old Machine

 
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          That Old Machine

"What's that old machine?"she said, pointing with her finger. "Is it an old computer?" "No, "
I said, "It is called a typewriter."

I learned how to type in my junior year of high school. It was tough to work stiff, cold fingers during those winter mornings when typing was first period. I never realized then how important being able to type was going to be in my future.

Following high school I joined the Navy, and it was there that I discovered I would be able to use my skill with the keys. After boot camp and assigned to a base, I spent my spare time reading. The time came for me to report to the USS Tarawa, an aircraft carrier. When I arrived, the ship was at sea, and it was on some hush hush secret mission. I found out later that it was a rocket launch to the moon.  Usually a sailor would be flown out to meet the ship.  But, not this time.  I was stuck in a transient barracks until my ship returned. But soon a master chief yelled, "Any you guys know how to type?"  It is almost a rule that you should never volunteer for anything.  But here was a way to avoid picking up cigarette butts, and other low, miserable chores."Yes, I called out, " I can type like the wind!"  I really could type 56 correct words a minute.

So until my ship returned I typed lesson plans for the guys who were teaching various aspects of the S2F anti-sub carrier aircraft. I made the guys happy, and I learned a whole lot about that aircraft. I   also had my weekends off.

After a time my ship returned and I served aboard until later when I was discharged, and went off to college.

Anyone who has ever been to college knows about term papers. I was again typing.  Following graduation and my first teaching job, I once again made lesson plans. There were also tests to be typed.

Next, it was graduate school and a Master's thesis to be typed. I think it was 40 pages, about a slave revolt.  Good true story, I should have published it.

There was typing again for another MA degree. This time it was for a seminary where I was enrolled. I summarized every book of the Bible. Whew!

I made the transition to computers, but I miss my old typewriter.  I want to mention watching linotype operators at their keyboards, typing words that came out in lead slugs for the evening newspaper. And while in the Navy watching and listening to the chatter of teletype machines. I still miss my typewriter. And here I am again typing.        

       Aloha
       Grant

Radio Memories

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          Radio Memories

This afternoon the radio filled the room with Franz Liszt's "Le Prelude," and the Lone Ranger and Tonto rode again across my brain. With it came memories of sprawling on the living room floor, being treated to another  exciting adventure.

One other program filling my radio world, was "Captain Midnight and the Secret Squadron," which would  send you secret messages, if you had sent for the plastic decoder.

I also had at my fingertips the "Firestone Hour," and the "Telephone Hour," which introduced me to the world of classical music. One weekly program of the greatest interest was "Your Hit Parade," sponsored by Lucky Strike cigarettes. Their slogan was the letters L.S.M.F.T. (Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco). The orchestra would play the number ten song of the week, and so on,with great gusto, leading to the next song, and then to the top number one song of the week!  It was all very exciting!

The first radio I knew about was a crystal radio. Copper wire wound around an empty oatmeal box with  a crystal detector and a wire cat whisker. An insulated copper wire antenna strung in the attic or in the yard, and a good ground was needed. Listening with earphones to voices and music from miles away. And if the clouds were low, the radio signal would skip, and stations from far way could be heard. Very exciting!

Then everything changed with the debut of the vacuum tube.  Radios were now seen every where. Even in automobiles. The "Walkie Talkies," hand held field phones, used by soldiers in WWII, contained vacuum tubes. I find it interesting that American soldiers held by the enemy in prison camps, managed to build radios in secret. Now they could  chart the progress of the war.

When your radio was not working properly,you could take your tubes to a store with a proper cabinet, and put them in the correct  spaces by yourself, and check to see if they were alright.  If not, you read the number on the bad tube, and replaced it with a good one from the drawers in the cabinet.  If this didn't work, you could take it to a radio shop to have it repaired.

And then came the transistor to replace the tube. Small, light in weight, and I haven't a clue how it works.  But it spelled the end of vacuum tubes.  I was given a transistor radio which would fit in my pocket. Very expensive gift costing forty bucks.

Then suddenly there were pictures to go along with sound. The first t.v. I ever saw was in the window of a radio shop. A small round screen in a large box, glowing black and white, watched by a number of people standing with me, outside on the sidewalk.

Another time a few years later, a number of my friends and I would be invited to a house to watch t.v. This house had a large bay window, and turning around in my seat I saw people outside looking through the window at television!

Television quickly became a matter of fact.  Antennas sprang up on roofs everywhere. Sociologists studying the effects television was having on people, found that even those who had no t.v. had an antenna on their roof. And you know the rest of the story.

       Aloha
       Grant