quite a chunk out of our small population we had little parade for the mothers cried yes but we all thought nothing had happened to them when our when the japs wouldn't dare attack us where couldn't cross the atlantic the boys went to camp in the drills and train with their old equipment and wrote cheerful letters home about how they could whip anybody when they got their guns but after a few months they were a little better boy and watched him grow up and was in a single family in town that wasn't kin to one of the boys and company a after the first shock was over we settled down to life more or less issues mis listening and one night last winter came the first telegram from the war department out and took it off the wires just for closing time it was for mr mrs todd and on a farm just outside town out and said they looked very lonely and taking off from the porch that night to get the news everybody stuck by their radios we were thinking about our boys so christmas came and went and everybody tried to have a good time thinking about the next christmas on the boys in the back where letters are said don't worry mama we're doing all right in  but then retreated we knew that things must be getting worse because their letters were getting more cheerful the boys were trying to keep our spirits up there were more telegrams there was one for old man landry about his grandson jamie would be an orphan one for the white and the green birds and two for the and boys it always stuck together the war was certainly getting closer to us now we were in the middle of america we couldn't be bombed but there was a war right here on our front but it wasn't true so now she just doesn't leave any room only what is official from the government somebody instead of hanging out in black crepe put a flag out in the front of their house and soon they were all over town killed by a bomb from a jet plane often we got a little desperate and i think how could we given the things they needed and we wish treated take that comfort we were enjoying in our homes and carry them out to the tropics and give them to our soldiers as we did when they were kids it's a boy scout camp down the river the war was here now right here with us in every home in town much worse but it didn't get worse mercy of the japs they were missing in action we didn't on any of them were dead all that night our people wandered around the street from the post office to the courier down to the depot to get the papers off the train trying to get some news trying to get or give some comfort but very little was to be here and this was war war brought right here to our little town forced upon us by an aggressor whom we had helped and tried to trust in the past naturally we couldn't do much of anything for a few days we couldn't work we couldn't even sweep our two remaining doctors had their hands full treating people for shock and for those sicknesses brought back to life by worry and grief but everybody took it deering said my boy would be fighting now if he'd had guns and food for his man a toddler who would have to farm alone now said it makes us realize how little we've done to help th we all wondered at one time or another how the rest of america felt those who had not lost sons brothers and fathers but just the battle some of us were disillusion and some of us were just plain man we tried to make some plans a committee phoned the red cross in new york to see if there was any way to get letters to prisoners of war and of the japanese and the rumor mongers tried to start up again telling harrowing tales in japanese atrocities to prison but they didn't get very far our minds were i don't now so we didn't have time for rumors we knew the enemy and what he was like and then things started to happen our salvage drives took on new meaning to us because our boys couldn't use the things we didn't waste we didn't keep for ourselves anything that could help our soldiers and we realized in a way how lucky we were we were a little ahead of the rest of america we can learn the full meaning of this war because we had lived with this pain there was no doubt in our minds now no complacency no indecision no time to think of our own troubles just can they were all handy with tools so they worked after hours in a refrigerator thank you cleaners are moving in that way an airplane factory got two more mechanics they needed to make the planes we didn't have a deck and a shipyard guy well who helped launch the ship three days ahead of and there was one more man in america making guns we are all either walked or stayed home and gave up our tires so that our on a good rule and our planes can land we didn't realize how many things we could do that we hadn't done before we made over our clothes snap we didn't spend our money we put it to work to get our boys back home we were going to face and again after all they've been through without being able to say with a clear conscience we did everything we could to help work because we knew we could face our boys to those who had given arms legs and knives we could say that we gave not only our sickening luxuries and comforts but our money our thoughts our skills  people and we knew that through our efforts these boys that have guns is better guns than the enemy they have food to sustain medicine to keep them well streets of ships to keep them supplied they'd be better than any of their weapons would be stronger because all the ingenuity mechanical skill of our whole great nation would be behind these boys and never have to surrender because we at home would never let them down we knew that our america learned what we had learned the hard way that this is everybody's not war for an outpost here a naval base there but war for every foot of