December 7,1941 - Clintwood, VA
As usual, the seven Danners had attended Sunday School and Church at the Methodist Church. Afterwards, a heavy lunch, the children went to the local school to play. Play was broken by the yelling - "Pearl Harbor has been bombed". None of us knew where Pearl Harbor was located. The event probably changed our future more than any other item in our lives. Moves, travel, new faces, different houses and schools, separation of family, and no familiar furniture became part of our lives. But the following series of events bonded us together and made us depend on each other. In meeting new situations, we developed family strength, encouragement, and made the best of it. We became tough, happy and strong individuals. We made new friends and developed good personalities. We knew Mother and Daddy loved us and that together we would watch over each other.
On Pearl Harbor Day, our father was the foreman of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CC camp was set up by the Army to use young men during the depression days to train for the military duty, but also to perform civilian tasks, fighting forest fires, building mountain roads, trails and bridges and plus other duties. Pop was tough but fair on his four foreman and two hundred men. Pop developed them from street kids to working men. These boys received $30 a month of which $20 must be sent to their parents. There was very little money in those days.
Our mother was a beautiful woman. Men would turn their heads to see Lake Danner's walk in our one block town. Mom was a strong church and Christian woman. Mom and Dad had class and manners which they also expected from each child. We were to have pride and to be someone. We were expected to work and pull our weight, but, to accept every person as a worthwhile creation of God. Each one of us were equal, but in life some of us would perform more fully than others. We were expected to use our talents that that were a gift to us. To me, that was an unwritten, but expected, task for a Danner.
A couple of weeks after the Pearl Harbor, the CC boys were in the Army. Dad closed that camp and was sent to Salem, VA to close another camp.
1942 - Salem, VA
Mary Burns was left in Clintwood to finish her senior year in high school. Lewis was in Tennessee at Hiwansee College. Bill, Bob and Janet were enrolled in three separate schools. This was the first time any of us had ever attended different schools. The bad news was that school bus driver would not let mother on the bus to enroll us in the schools. We enrolled ourselves. Our house was a mountain cabin with no neighbors within miles. We created our own leisure time activities. Later, we moved to a small duplex in town. (Housing was very difficult to come by during the war years.)
Summer 1942
Dad was now with Stone-Webster Engineering Co. Pop was sent to Gary, Indiana. All of our furniture was stored at Aunt Mary and Uncle Oz's farm house in Bedford, VA. Also Bill and I was shipped to the farm for the summer. Janet, Mom and Dad went to Indiana.
At the end of the summer, Bill and I were notified to catch the train to Indiana. This was a real test of big brother caring for a little brother. Neither one of us been on a train before. With a small suitcase plus a bag that contained ham and sausage biscuits, fried chicken and apples, we caught the train to Cincinnati. There we had a tight schedule to change trains. As we entered the Cincinnati Station, we walked in to a world we never-never seen before. Huge dome building, miles of marbled floor and the most people in one area that we had ever seen in our life. Somehow, by running to another exit, we caught the north bound train.
Pop did not want us to go to the Chicago Station, so we got off at the last stop before entering Chicago. There we met our parents and Janet.
Pop was scared driving our 1939 Hudson in the fast traffic through Chicago so he just got in the middle lane and held it there. Cars flew by on both sides. As Janet become car sick, Pop will not give up his spot. Finally, Janet rolled down her window, suck her head out, and let it fly. She left her marks on every car that passed us on the right-hand side.
Gary, Indiana
What a dump! - a house near the overhead trolley car line, running noisy 24 hours a day, huge fires shining from the nearby fire ovens of steel melting pots. The good part was Bill and I had to only sleep on the floor for two nights before we headed West.
Ponca City, Oklahoma
Dad had arranged to get us an extra gas ration book for the trip to West. (To buy gas, you had to have ration coupon books - also you used them for shoes, meat and other items.)
Ponca City was great. The newness and the friendliness of the West was different from Southern tradition. Lewis was there and working with Pop. But soon, Lewis entered the Army. Bill, Bob and Janet in separate schools and they were very new or modern. We walked to schools in very windy conditions. It was a very exciting year of the Wild West for us. Bill was a wrestler for the high school team. Bob had a fight with the school bully in the first week. Janet had two policemen to visit our house on a false claim by two other girls saying that she had stolen something. Mom hated the gas pilot lights because she was afraid they would go out and we will get poison. But it was a great adventure for us. Soon, we were on the trail again - going back East.
Knoxville, TN
Dad was assigned to the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge, TN. This project's mission was the best kept secret of the war - to developed the Atomic Bomb.
After much looking for housing, Mom found us a small house on Boruff St. Again, we were assign to separate schools. Mary Burns rejoined us and was in the Nursing Corps Program at Ft. Saunders Hospital. She lived there. Lewis was involved in major war campaigns in Europe. Dad often worked seven days a week with 10 - 12 hours shifts. Mom took the job at the local draft board. Afternoon, we were on our own except Pop assigned duties for the boys and Janet had her jobs to complete.
We got some of our furniture back and finally, we settled into familiar area for more than a year. This was the first occasion to make friendships for longer than a school session.
Bill graduated from Knoxville High School one day and was off to join the Navy the next day. Bob was in junior high and Janet was in elementary school.
With three children in service, we sported three star banners in our house window. That was a proud emblem for us.
The time I say Dad get most excited is on D-Day. He jumped into the Hudson car and blew the horn for about three minutes. Remember, all war news was broadcast on the radio. TV had not been invented then.
After the war ended in September 1945, Lewis and Bill came to Boruff St. Burns took an out-of-town nursing job. Pop was a short term Methodist preacher and Mom took a job at the school. Janet entered Jr. High and Bob entered the Sr. High.
Each one of us was affected differently by the war years. But we were a thankful family. God parents, sisters, and brothers cared and watched over each other. We were loved and we loved each other. We supported and help one another. There were rough bumps, but we were survivors and we created happy times. We had faith and strength in God, parents and family. Together we knew we could, we would and we did.
WW II, 1941-1945
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