Memories of Home and Distant Wars

By D.J. Wallace

The effects of the Great Depression, pressed between two World Wars, made me, D. J., as well as my family, reflect upon feelings toward men's conflicts and leadership of world nations. I detested wars and all things causing them. On a garden plot one hot summer morning in 1948, while weeding around tender sprouts, my father told me, his eleven-year-old son, about his friend, a victim of war who had joined the US Army in 1917. He wanted to fight the kaiser and help bring peace to the world. This friend died struggling for his life, slowly losing his ability to breathe due to the effects of gas poisoning in the trenches of France. I remembered that story.

On December 7, 1942, the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, destroying aircraft, ships, and many navy men. I was six years old and failed to understand the impact of this deed, but I saw the effects it left on my parents and siblings and wanted to know why. My two older brothers explained that the United States was at war, that the Japanese had declared war on us. This gave me great alarm and left me in fear. When planes flew overhead, I crawled under my bed and covered my head. I believed the Japanese had returned to kill all of us. War affects people, especially young children that way.

As the war progressed, my family established a ritual at the morning breakfast table. We checked the weekly list of soldiers and sailors in the newspaper that had been killed or missing in action. We cringed and cried when a familiar name was listed with the initials of KIA or MIA. We found a name we all knew, a cousin, my aunt's only son.

The Second World War came with angry images and impressions that followed me through my life and still flash forth at random times. Movietone News screened a clip near the end of the war in 1945 that I can't forget. It was of a toddler covered in dirt and ashes, sitting in the middle of a road scattered with debris, a child, all alone, with his fist in his mouth, crying for his mother who lay dead beside him. This scene is forever imprinted in my mind.

Memories of Home and Distant Wars contains recollections of stories from my memory based on true events from the late 1930s into the 1960s, collected from an era of hardships and sacrifice. These memories were shared with family and friends who encouraged me to have them published.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9798888510612

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Acknowledgment

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Beginning

Chapter 2: The Black Cauldron

Chapter 3: Hobos and Bums

Chapter 4: The Ruins

Chapter 5: Pearl Harbor

Chapter 6: Words and War

Chapter 7: The Invasion

Chapter 8: The Letter

Chapter 9: It's Over, Over There

Chapter 10: Bouncing Back

Chapter 11: Battleground

Chapter 12: Dons Market

Chapter 13: The Schwinn Phantom

Chapter 14: The Bully

Chapter 15: Maladies and Hormones

Chapter 16: Monsters in the Park

Chapter 17: The Intruder

Chapter 18: The Great Cornfield Race

Chapter 19: War Stories

Chapter 20: Eternal Families

Afterword

About the Author

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Memories of Home and Distant Wars

D.J. Wallace

ISBN 979-8-88851-060-5 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88851-061-2 (Digital)

Copyright © 2023 D.J. Wallace

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Acknowledgment

Thanks and kudos to my wife and her efforts to keep the faith and the love and patience she gave to all of us.

Introduction

The years from 1910 through 1945 established an arduous and troublesome time for many people of the world. Wars and rumors of wars rolled upon world communities as ocean waves rush upon beaches. It seemed as though tensions had been building in Europe for more than forty years. Rivalry among the Great Powers—Austria, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Russia—had led to crisis after crisis. The result of these conflicts culminated with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo. The archduke's death was merely a last step on the long road to war, a road down which Europe had been drifting for decades, and the rest of the world communities waited for the other foot to fall. In Russia, the monarchy fell to a Communist dictatorship in 1916, adding to the instability of that region.

Human suffering, the cost of World War I, and all the devastation caused was staggering. The economic losses were immense. The Allied and Central Powers had spent tens of millions of dollars fighting the war. By 1918, every European country was nearly bankrupt. From the onset of the war, the United States tried to distance themselves from European problems but felt immediate pressure from France who played a valuable role in the United States fight for independence in 1776 from Great Britain. France wanted their help.

The First World War, the war that would end all wars, lay on the minds of many people throughout the world at this time in history. Young men from the countries of Canada and America willingly volunteered to enter the fight with the armies of France and England to check the aggressive actions of the German kaiser Wilhelm II as he sought to expand German power.

In 1917, the United States entered the war. A year later, near the end of the conflict, one of the worst epidemics in history swept around the globe. It was infamously dubbed Spanish Flu. In one year, it killed ten million people—more than all the combat deaths of that war's conflict. The epidemic was partly a result of troop movements carrying the flu virus every place they traveled. The Spanish Flu claimed victims indiscriminately on both sides of the battle line. Its potency was more effective than the firepower of all the armies.

On Thursday, October 24, 1929, a few years after the war's end and the flu pandemic, the economy of the United States crashed. By 1932, factory production had been cut in half, and the nation's unemployment rose to over 25 percent in 1933. America, traditionally the land of opportunity, now seemed to have nothing to offer to millions of its citizens. Like the domino effect, the world's economies fell one after another, culminating with the Great Depression. The ensuing weeks and years generated high unemployment, idleness, malcontent, and hunger.

In the United States, people struggled to provide for their families. Soup lines were evident in nearly every city, and the vacant stare of hopelessness peered into empty factories of every manufacturing city. Strikes and protest marchers manned by the unemployed workers and veterans of World War I demanding their promised bonus for fighting in the war frequented our nation's capital until federal troops moved them out.

In December of 1941, nearly twenty-three years after World War I ended, the Japanese staged a surprise attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In reaction, President Roosevelt cast the surprise attack as the day which will live in infamy. In coining this phrase, the president gave the rallying call that would bring about the commitment of a reluctant America to total war. It seemed the Japanese awakened a sleeping giant as America's manufacturing capabilities escalated significantly in a very short time. The challenge the Empire of Japan laid on the doorstep of the United States was answered by a span of record production. Idle factories came to life, offering jobs to the unemployed, and the economy of the United States started to climb out of the Depression.

The years from 1914 through the 1940s, for all nations involved, would leave behind vast numbers of fatalities caused by wars, disease, and unemployment. In the midst of this unsettled time, many families also experienced the onslaught of wave after wave of maladies from polio, pertussis, scarlet fever, measles, flu, and other ills. Many stricken victims died, while others were left with lifelong impairments.

The effects of the Great Depression, pressed between two world wars, made David Wallace reflect upon his feelings toward man's conflicts and the leadership of the world's nations. He detested wars and all things that cause them. He despised the hurt and damage wars did to people. On a garden plot one hot summer morning in 1948, while chopping weeds in the family garden, he told a story to his eleven-year-old son about a friend, a victim of war, who joined the US Army in 1917. He was on his way to help fight the kaiser and bring peace to the world. That friend died struggling for his life, slowly losing his ability to breathe due to the effects of gas poisoning from fighting in the trenches of France.

Memories of Home and Distant Wars is a compilation of stories from my memories, stories based on true events from the late 1930s into the 1960s. The facts and histories remembered are collected from an era that yielded hardships and unexpected sacrifice. It is a part of the lives of one family, among the many at that time, of the greatest generation.

Chapter 1

The Beginning

David Wallace pulled at this shirt and tucked it into his pajamas while straightening them as he walked down the hall to the closed bedroom door and listened. He wasn't in the habit of traipsing around the house in faded plaid pajama bottoms, sleeveless undershirt, and fuzzy slippers, but the early call by his pregnant wife, Jeannette, that September morning had sent him immediately out to find the doctor.

David, wiry, early forties, bald, solidly built and well muscled for his five-foot-five frame, worked hard at whatever job he could find to provide for his large family in the fall of 1937. This morning, he felt a bit miffed about being left out of the bedroom while his wife was inside and in labor without him. After all, he reasoned, he had been present at all ten of the other births. He complied, however, because he knew pertussis was highly contagious and at epidemic levels. He appreciated and understood the doctor's concern and remained at the bedchamber's closed entry with his head bowed and listened.

The house was silent. The rest of the family slept at this early morning hour.

Except for intermittent muffled sounds and words uttered behind the bedroom door, all was quiet. Dr. Hadley—medium height, bald, husky build, fifty-five years old—the attending physician, administered to most of the needs of families in this rural area. He had just arrived at the Wallace home.

He told David he was very concerned about the whooping cough epidemic that was rapidly spreading into every household in the township. Dr. Hadley and a few qualified volunteers had been rushing about eighteen to twenty hours a day for the past month treating everyone infected since the onset of the epidemic. His team was unable to remain at all the homes needing help. Because of that, a few of the infected died from the lack of prolonged medical attention, including Jimmy, the Wallace's tenth child and three-year-old son. The family adored him and took it very hard when he passed away from the ravages of the disease. Jeannette, his mother, told the children Jimmy was a special child, and God allowed him to stay long enough to help the family understand what it was like to love an angel. It was a week after his death when the family buried him at Earlham Cemetery in Richmond. After Jimmy's death, waiting for the arrival of the newborn and watching over the other children kept the family focused. But the loss of Jimmy hung over the home like a great black shroud as only the death of a loved one can.

For some reason, Jimmy's death hit Jeannette harder than the death of her son Richard, her ninth child, who died two days after his birth in 1932, eighteen months before Jimmy was born. David believed she was grieving for both through Jimmy. It was always hard for her to talk about this time in her life, and she seldom did.

There were other tragedies. In the mid-1920s, Betty, their fourth child, had contracted polio when six months old. The effects of it would physically impair her for life. David Junior, the sixth child, fell from the back porch down a flight of cement stairs in 1935 sustaining severe head and brain injuries. He was eight at the time and was eventually institutionalized at the urging of local health advisers. Junior later died of pneumonia at that facility. Two other boys—Herbert, ten, and William, eight, the seventh and eighth children—contracted scarlet fever two years prior to the birth of the newborn. These brothers suffered severe nerve damage to their hearing which would worsen throughout their lives.

David and Jeannette were resolved to keep their faith intact and remain steadfast to meet each challenge with renewed purpose. They sustained each catastrophe with new energy and continued to persevere like other families throughout the country were doing. They had great trust in God and incorporated His teachings into their lives. They frequently prayed for greater faith and strength to endure and felt their prayers were answered. They believed each day without sickness, disease, or harm to any of them was another victory and blessing from God. Their determination was to defeat the raging invaders waiting at their door threatening them.

David remained in vigil. He focused and listened, uttering silent prayers while waiting for the first cry of life from his child. The room remained silent. He continued to pace the hallway with intermittent visits to other parts of the house to check on the sleeping family. The noise volume began to elevate with the voices of children as the morning progressed. The older children were appraised of the situation and took charge of the younger ones. David felt anxious. He reflected on the past few weeks as his thoughts returned to Jimmy and all that had transpired.

Twelve hours later, Jeannette gave birth to a robust and healthy son, Dale Jean, on Thursday, September 30, 1937. He was named after Dale Jones, a respected relative of his mother's family and after a shortened version of his mother, Jeannette. His induction into the Wallace Clan came near the end of the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II. He was also infected by pertussis at two months old but survived. Constant care from family and the diminishing effects of the epidemic allowed the doctor to administer better care and keep him from the fate of Jimmy.

Jeannette, age forty-two, barely five feet tall, with tan complexion, pale-green eyes, dark long auburn hair, called Dale her replacement child for Jimmy.

There was nearly a twenty-one-year span between Dale and Martha Jane, his oldest sister, born in 1916. She was married and had a child, Tommy, before Dale was born. His oldest brother, Fred, the family called him Bud, was nearly twenty years Dale's senior. He married Mary Kathryn Moss the same year Dale was born.

David enjoyed his eighth son as he did all his children. Dale stayed healthy, and as time would prove, he became a child of great curiosity. Later, the family would refer to him as a spoiled brat, an enigma Dale believed was spoken more out of love than resentment.

At the time during the Great Depression, numerous families moved across the United States from hometowns, villages, and farms away from their extended families. The economic failure of 1929 added to and accelerated the flow of mass migration within the country. Seventy percent of the nation's population lived on farms in the 1930s. By 1950, there had been a complete reversal, leaving many communities struggling to meet the economic and health service needs of a population on the move.

The city of Richmond is located on the eastern border of the state of Indiana within the county of Wayne. The first settlers arrived on the banks of the Whitewater River in 1806, quickly populating the area and transforming the wilderness into fertile farmland. By the end of the nineteenth century, the National Road, the Whitewater River, and the railroads combined to make Richmond a manufacturing center. At the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, the city had a population of nearly twenty-five thousand. That would change as the Great Depression extended into years. Several industrial and financial establishments succumbed to the effects of the crash. Mass migration, from neighboring states lacking industry and jobs, saw Richmond as a natural destination to reestablish home and security. President Roosevelt's New Deal and the building of the interstate through Richmond opened construction opportunities in the late 1930s. A railroad hub and the establishment of new industries added to the city's growth, stability, and economic infrastructure. The small farm communities, located within a six- to twenty-mile radius, became homes for full- and part-time farmers which offered other opportunities for desperate people striving to feed themselves and their families.

The Wallace family felt fairly secure on their small farm northwest of Richmond.

David's job at the Wayne Bus Body Factory was dependable. But a forty-hour week became reduced to fewer hours near the end of the 1940s. The little farm helped by producing more than enough food for the family and allowed a small surplus to be sold to neighbors, friends, and the local grocer. The Depression and daily radio reports full of war news in Europe added to the mix of economic concerns.

Unfamiliar faces, appearing frequently in the communities of local farms, churches, and homes asking for jobs and handouts, elevated as the decade of the thirties came to a close. The grip of the Great Depression's effect on the country's economy settled more and more into the thoughts of the nation.

It became very clear to most of the citizens of the United States that the winds of war would force our nation into harm's way