© Mark Ollig
“Music played from the radio while my father swept the floor, and I was cleaning off a table when suddenly, the music stopped, and we heard the voice of President Franklin Roosevelt,” my mother told me.
It was Monday, Dec. 8, 1941, and President Roosevelt was about to give his six-minute and thirty-second “Infamy Speech” to a joint session of Congress.
The time was around 12:30 p.m.; Mom was working in the restaurant owned and operated by her parents in Silver Lake when President Roosevelt began speaking on the radio.
She and her father paused to listen.
“Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan,” President Roosevelt said.
The Japanese military had attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, HI.
After Roosevelt said, “a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire,” Mom recalled something she would never forget.
“My father was holding the broom with its handle touching the floor; he lifted the broom and pounded it down onto the wooden floor, which caused a loud reverberating echo to be heard as he raised his voice saying, ‘My God, we’re at war!’” she said while raising her voice for emphasis.
I asked if she would like to hear President Roosevelt’s speech again. Mom paused for a moment and then said, “Yes.”
With my smartphone, I did a quick search, and within seconds, my mother was once again hearing Roosevelt’s Dec. 8, 1941 speech.
She listened intently with her eyes closed and nodded several times.
When President Roosevelt said, “a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire,” Mom softly repeated her father’s words.
While reminiscing about how her family lived during World War II, she recalled the famous US soldier, Audie Murphy.
Murphy was the most decorated US soldier during World War II and received every military medal of valor the US Army had.
“He’s buried in Arlington National Cemetery. I went there years ago while in Washington, DC,” Mom told me.
July 3, 1955, Audie Murphy appeared on the TV game show “What’s My Line?” which I found on YouTube and played for her.
Mom told me she and my father watched “What’s My Line?” every Sunday night, and she also remembered the name of the host, John Charles Daly.
Daly was also a journalist for CBS. He gave one of the first radio bulletin reports of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941.
Mom recalled when she and her sister, Marguerite, visited the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, HI, in 1994.
During my visit with her, we listened to radio news bulletins and viewed film clips from Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941.
Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018, during the Winsted Summer Festival Grand Parade, Mom and other family members watched the long line of decorative floats as they passed by on Fairlawn Avenue West.
As a group of marching US military veterans approached, Mom started to wave the American flag she was holding.
One of the veterans marching by was her brother, David, who served in the US Army during the 1960s.
Mom was all smiles and shouted, “Hi Davey!”
David turned his head and noticed her waving the flag. He smiled at his sister and shouted, “Hey Therese!”
Mom continued waving the flag as she proudly watched her brother marching with the other military veterans.
I appreciate your taking the time to listen while I reminisced about my mother today.
Aug. 26 would have been her 92nd birthday.
I dedicate today’s column to my mother.
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| Therese Marie Ollig August 12, 2018 |