A Wartime Encounter!
By Joanne Sears Lewis
(From the April 2007 Senior Bulldogs
News)
I remember
the camouflage nets over Lockheed during World War II!
I also
remember the troops in camouflage that used to do their training in the old,
overgrown grape vineyards that was then call the Ben Mar Hills tract along
Walnut Avenue. Sometimes, not often, these soldiers came up the alley between
Fairmount and Walnut in full camouflage, carrying guns and wearing helmets.
In those
days before smog rules and recycling, we were still burning our trash in
backyard incinerators. I was out one morning (it must have been in the summer
or on a Saturday), stuffing the concrete stove full of our trash. Suddenly I
looked up, and there was a soldier - he was probably all of eighteen - all
suited up and armed, walking by our back fence. My eyes popped. Our chickens
clucked and flew up onto their roost. Our ducks tried to stuff themselves into
the corner of the chicken wire pen.
The soldier,
just as startled and embarrassed as I, lowered his eyes and slid by as softly
and swiftly as he could. I stood frozen for a full two minutes before stuffing
in the last of the meat wrappers and milk cartons, and putting a match to the
lot.
I wasn't
scared, just proud of these guys and curious about their lives in the barracks on
Glenoaks Avenue.