The Kid Who Could Identify A Kaiser

When I found out about the Missouri Veterans History Project, I called up and got an appointment to be interviewed.  I was eager to share my story because the interview will wind up in the Library of Congress.

It would be the story of my time in the US military - back in the days when we had two armies: the United States Army and the Army of the United States.  I was in the latter.

It took three people to interview me: one to run the camera, one to take notes, and one to ask me questions from a script.  I sat down, faced the camera, all eager to talk about my time at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, Fort Rucker in Alabama, and Fort Lewis in Washington State.

But I was unprepared for the first bunch of questions: 

THEIR QUESTION: Where did I go to elementary school?

I was puzzled because I did not see what this had to do with my military service.  Plus it was an embarrassing question because I had been shuffled around to five different schools between kindergarten and 3rd grade. I did not want to admit that the Board of Education treated me like a displaced person.

MY ANSWER: I went to a bunch of different elementary schools.

THEIR QUESTION: What were my favorite childhood activities and sports?

Now I was very puzzled because the people doing the interview were about my age.  Didn't they know that kids in the 1940's did not have activities and did not have sports?

Back in the 1940's, kids did not go to gymnastics class or take karate lessons or play in soccer leagues.  Kids simply walked out the door and joined in with whatever their friends were doing.  It could be blackberry picking, figuring out how to make bubbles with chewing gum, riding scooters, playing two-hand touch, throwing dirt bombs in mock battles, or, my favorite, following our local stream deep into the woods, where there was lots of skunk cabbage and jack-in-the-pulpits.  These were not activities; these were ways to spend time.

MY ANSWER: I hung out with the kids in my neighborhood.

THEIR QUESTION: What was my biggest accomplishment as a child?

Now I was really puzzled.  I had never looked back on my childhood as having accomplishments. So, I thought about how I had impressed my father.

Our house overlooked New York State Route 25A, the major east-west road on the North Shore of Long Island.  It was a busy road.  I would sit on our steps and identify the different makes of the cars that drove by at the breakneck speed of 35 MPH.  

It was a childhood form of bird watching.  Just like a bird-watcher, I was really thrilled when I spotted a rare specimen: a Kaiser or a Hudson or a Studebaker.  Or, best of all, a luxurious Packard with its grand hood ornament.  I was six years old, and my father bragged about me. 

MY ANSWER: My biggest accomplishment was being able to identify makes of cars at an early age.

I slowly understood the goal of the interview.  The Missouri Veterans History Project wanted a picture of what kind of person I was before I went into the Army.  They went on to ask me questions about my military service, but their goal was to show me as more than a soldier.

And I began to worry: when my interview winds up in the Library of Congress, will viewers focus on what I did as a soldier or will they focus on the fact that I could identify a Kaiser at the age of six?

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A 30 second You Tube promo for the Missouri Veterans History Project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnJ74F6klZU

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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com