Living History--what's Your Story?

[regent]

As I remember cigarettes were about 12 to 15 cents a pack, out of the reach of most teens, so "sniping butts" was a way of life for teen smokers. One walked the curbs looking for butts. We had name for the varieties, the biggies and most ;prized were "banker's butts" the small one's "lip burners." Some families used the kids to snipe butts and bring them home, to make full sizers using toiilet paper for wrapping. All my friends were expert rollers including the little guy still close to diapers, if indeed he even wore diapers. Bull Durham and Bugler were five cents a pack. Sniping butts was time consuming and chancy, and being lazy, I didn't pursue the habit. I never smoked thanks to the depression.

 

[oldfart]

OK, here's my contribution to the story. My grandparents were all born in 1878 or 1879. Two died before I was born, but I remember the other two well, as well as a collection of aunts and uncles born between 1897 and 1910. There was something about talking to folks who remembered life without cars, airplanes, and electronics who grew up generally without electricity or radio. I have a scrapbook an aunt kept during WWI both before and after American entry. Since one side of my family spoke German, I also got stories of the problems of German Americans during WWI. Telephone calls would be terminated by operators if they heard German being spoken on the line. My grandfather had to schedule his sales route to be in Cape Girardeaux on Sundays to be able to find a church with a German language service, as many churches were pressured into dropping German language services.

But the worst situation was that of the uncle I am named after. Gus was born in 1900 and joined the Navy in 1940. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, he was already at sea commanding an "armed merchantman" convoy in the South Atlantic without escorts. Merchant marine duty was the most dangerous of any military service in WWII, the survival rate was lower than for bomber crews, submariners, rangers, or paratroopers. Gus exchanged letters with family in Europe writing in German, and as a result ended up in fights when he got to Dakar the first three times. On the next voyage, his second in command took a long look at the envelop and spread the word. You see, Gus's father was born in Switzerland.

 

[Unkotare]

But in my journey I realized we're all the same no matter where. Accents might be different, even language, but no one was so unrecognizable or foreign I couldn't interact with them. Maybe it's just a travellers thing, but without travel and new experiences I think a person really does suffer a kind of 'limited perspective of reality' where they believe what they know describes the whole world in some respects.

Go easy on the 'worldly and wise' act; you never even left the country on this "journey."

 

[Unkotare]

As I've been told, one side of my family had to slip out of Ireland on the Q-T under an assumed name as the British military was on their tails for *activities.* A great-grandmother came over as an indentured servant.

There is another, more interesting relative of long ago, though not by blood.

 

[Truman123]

I hopped a steam ship to London.