Digital History
Wartime Childhood in California
Digital History ID 4139

Author:   Ann Relph
Date:

Annotation: Anne Relph spent her wartime childhood in California.


Document: To me as a child ... the war never had any reality. It was like a story that someone was telling me ...

We lived in North Hollywood, and they had big searchlights on those hills, I guess to look for aircraft or something. I can remember going up and taking hot coffee to the soldiers in uniform. I was a member of the Civil Air Patrol, which was something they organized for kids. We bought WAC uniforms from the army surplus and were given wooden guns to drill with, and we were taught Morse code and the different kinds of airplanes to watch for. We were never actually used, but we did have a sense of being prepared for something, for some time in the future. That was the only time to me the war seemed real.

Copyright 2016 Digital History