My mother was working in downtown San Francisco on V-J Day,
when the second World War ended. President Truman’s announcement that Japan had
surrendered came over the radio at 4 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, while most
people were still at work. Early on, there was a report that a streetcar had
been torn apart and set on fire on Market Street, so streetcars were no longer
in operation east of Van Ness Avenue. Few people then drove
“machines” to work, so it was a long walk for many.
Since Mother had been invited to
have dinner at a friend’s apartment on Nob Hill, she walked from work, coming
very close to Chinatown. The Chinese had been
at war with Japan
for eight years, and they were elated that it was over. Many were shouting and
throwing lighted strings of firecrackers. It was all very frightening. Two of
the girls at dinner got mad at their boyfriends for flirting with girls in the
window of an adjoining apartment, so for revenge, they leaned out of the front
bay window and invited up every serviceman they saw! When the bell rang, they
made one of the mothers answer and excuse their silliness. More than a dozen
had answered the invitation!
At midnight they decided to go down
to Market Street
to see what was going on. The city was wild! One young woman bathed naked in
the pool outside the Civic
Center. Servicemen were
everywhere. Some had broken into liquor stores and helped themselves. Display
windows were broken, and men donned dresses, skirts and blouses they had taken
off of the mannequins. Some climbed up to theater marquees and tore down the
lettering of the current movies. Strangers hugged and kissed; some laughed,
some cried. One sailor on crutches simply stood and cried. “My buddies
didn’t make it,” he sobbed. About 5 a.m., Mother and her friends came upon
an elderly lady sitting alone on a curb, singing loudly. She said that she had
sons and grandsons overseas and had promised them that the minute the War was
over, she would celebrate for them. And she did!
Many things went on in San Francisco that night
– some funny, some very tragic. But there were nice things, too – friendliness
and people helping and sharing with others. It was a lesson in human behavior.
Mother was one of the few who went
to work the day after V-J Day, and since it had been declared a holiday, she
received double pay. This event has remained forever vivid in her mind.
Although she, too, was glad the War was over, Mother had enough of a sense of
history to realize that she was in a special place, at a very special time.
Victoria Venditti
Lexington, Missouri
Back in 1955 a call
went out from the editors of the then Capper’s
Weekly asking for readers to send
in articles on true pioneers. Hundreds of letters came pouring in from early
settlers and their children, many now in their 80s and 90s, and from
grandchildren of settlers, all with tales to tell. So many articles were
received that a decision was made to create a book, and in 1956, the first My
Folks title – My Folks Came in a
Covered Wagon – hit the shelves. Nine
other books have since been published in the My Folks series, all filled to the brim with true tales from Capper’s readers, and we are proud to
make those stories available to our growing online community.
