Benjamin Wallace
Charles Gavins Jr.
American History II
10/17/17
Interview of Charles Raymond Wallace
On A warm summers evening in a basement in South Georgia, I met up with my grandfather, we were both too tired to sleep. So I asked him if he would like to be interviewed for my history project, and he happily obliged. Please note that this interview was transcribed word for word so it reads best if you keep that in mind. Now that all of that is out of the way I introduce to you Charles Raymond Wallace.
[00:00:01] This covers the period of my life from 1940 to 1965. Some of the earliest things I remember were in 1941, December 7th. [17.3]
[00:00:19] The Pearl Harbor raid vaguely remember that being talked about. But I was aware that it happened and at that point they Had been having problems, Or Germany had been causing problems in Europe and the president. Had. Said he would not declare war unless we were attacked. So when Japan attacked. That gave him the excuse President Roosevelt. Franklin D Roosevelt The Excuse to go ahead and declare war on Japan Germany. And. Italy. And so essentially that was when We got into war too. I remember Hearing about The war a lot of it. [53.7]
[00:01:13] Most of the European things. I remember a lot of. The towns in the region where the troops were In The force when D-Day occurred in 1944. I remember the the troops in Fort Campbell very close to where I lived and the other was the armored division there the tanks used to drive Down our road in the country. We actually used to fill the soldier's canteens with ice water and they'd give us K-rations for that. K-rations. had Food for the service men. I Don't believe it had any candy at it. There was another thing called C-rations that had candy that we really went for. [58.0]
[00:02:12] During the war. I recall very vividly the rationing. Of. Meat. Gasoline. Tires. For example Sugar and anything sweet. There was no candy available And one of the really rare Things was for us to have bubble gum. We had a ration book with stamps. And each member the family had a book. And. I would save up my sugar in a jar. And not eat it on my cereal and make fudge about once A month. With the rationing of gasoline My father Was a college professor and we lived in the country. [40.8]
[00:03:09] Everybody had at least had an “A” sticker which was the smallest amount of gasoline. We had a B sticker because we knew if we lived in the country and he had to drive to work each day to the college so we got to get more gas. I remember one time. My grandfather was still living in Kansas. [19.7]
[00:03:30] And he had to go see about her. He had to go to the ration board to get additional. Gasoline stamps in order to be able to buy gasoline and drive to Kansas and back. Tires were rationed, although I really do not remember us being without any of those things. The biggest thing about it was sweets. Meat was rationed but I don't remember that ever was a problem with us. I remember. That day in 1945 when. We were saved a letter from my uncle. Who said that his son my first cousin had been killed on Iwo Jima. He was a first lieutenant In Marines. He was a squad leader. And. On the war Jima they're not really sure. How it happened Some say it was a sniper. Fire. And. But we never did know exactly what happened to him. There were no automobiles built during World War Two. My father had fortunately just bought a 1940. Buick. Which lasted through the whole year. Through the duration of the war another thing you know. when soldiers were drafted into the military. It was not for a set period of time is for what we called the duration the duration of the war. So compared to what happens today. The soldier may go for a four year term or something like that. That was not the case back in those days
[00:05:20] That's the war. I recall. The veterans returning. And. In particular and those around the college has a lot of housing had to be built to house of veterans because they. Were on what was called the G.I. Bill which provides them. Education. Free education. At the college level. So. To have them they had. A lot. Of. Housing involved and I recall going to school with a lot of beverages that were. Several years older because they had been in the military. We. Know the area that. [43.0]
[00:06:04] Has changed the law is in health care. When I was growing up in my. Teen years earlier. The. We all had measles mumps and whooping cough. And. [16.9]
[00:06:22] That was just part of life. A. Real. Great thing was polio. And polio theory crippling. Disease that. Would. [11.1]
[00:06:33] Occur just at random. No one knew what caused it. Or how. [6.6]
[00:06:42] Or how to prevent it really. I recall. One of our. Best football players on our. High school football team came down with polio. In our junior year. And he was. His legs were paralyzed and he. So we didn't paralyze risked his life. Substantive that they did in fact come up with the Salk vaccine to. Solve the problem of polio. Also we would at school we would all get. Vaccinations for smallpox. There was no. Asking for. Parental. Approval or anything else they lined us up and you got a smallpox vaccination which was. They would put something on your arm and then. Take a little needle and prick the skin in a. Little. Round. Area. And. A scab and develop and fall off the patch. That was your smallpox vaccination. Ultimately smallpox has been. Eliminated eradicated completely. So. Young people aren't faced with that problem anymore. Gone. Are doing those two years. If you high school years if you. Had any extracurricular activity after school like football sports then. You are on your own to get home and. There was. One of my classmates. Had a car. In the whole school. And so we hitchhiked. Home. In. My case like five miles in the country with no problem. And that was really quite frequently. You could hitchhike. People would pick you up. They. Knew who you were if they didn't they still would pick you up. I remember hitchhiking you from the University of Tennessee. [1:58.8]
[00:08:42] All the way back to middle Tennessee 175 miles. [3.3]
[00:08:46] Again. You took your suitcase and. Got out in the street and put your thumb out and you hitchhike. No. Our. Call. We move from Kansas to Tennessee. Where my father took the job. Of college professor. In. Middle Tennessee and I recall. My. Peers at the time. [31.5]
[00:09:18] Frequently brought up the civil war. I've never heard of the Civil War. But they are quick. They consider me a Yankee and they're quick to say that. The South won the Civil War. And. It just. Was a different. To. Something I'd never heard of before. But. Got used to it and. [19.6]
[00:09:39] It wasn't a real big deal eventually. I also recall politics. From the various presidential races. Back in. Probably the most significant thing. [16.5]
[00:09:57] I recall. So again this was 1963. Was the Kennedy assassination. Which. Really. I think frightened everybody. That. [13.9]
[00:10:11] Something like that could take place. OK turn it off. What college. In my hometown. The. I lived at home. The cost per quarter was $45 and that included the books the books. Cost $5 to rent for the course. [26.3]
[00:10:39] That ultimately went to University of Tennessee. And as I recall I think the quarterly cost was a hundred and eight dollars. And clearing the room. In the dorm. [12.3]
[00:10:52] The molar significant historical events. I remember. The day when we invaded Europe I remember that training. Began since we were close to Fort Campbell a lot of the. Training went on there. And we the soldiers were there. On occasion we had the. Soldiers to dinner. I can remember one time we invited the two soldiers that they'd been by attack. And. We invite them to dinner. And turned out to. One of them was Jewish and we served for point. We didn't know what to not do it. We didn't know he was Jewish. Remember D-Day remembered. The day that Roosevelt died. At warm springs. And. Remember. Victory in Europe Day which was. Before victory in Japan. The. Victory in Japan happened after the dropping of the two atomic bombs. On Nagasaki and. Hiroshima. And that. He ended the. Ascent that ended the World War Two and then the. Signing. Of. The declaration. Will be. Called. On the. Battleship for the. Victory in Japan. [1:38.4]
[00:12:34] When the war was over in Europe. We. It was if it was an absolute surrender. Of Germany. They would like to have an armistice which is different. Which happened after the first world war and that didn't work well because they retained some of their. Ability to. Build. [26.4]
[00:13:01] War equipment again. But. This was a. An unconditional. Surrender. In. Europe in Japan both. In preparing for the invasion of. [18.7]
[00:13:21] Europe. Patton's Army the 3rd Army. Shows middle Tennessee because the terrain was very similar to what they're going to encounter in Europe. The Rolling Hills woods and. Rivers. My wife's father had property. On the. Cumberland River. Near heartful Tennessee. And that was part of the area that the. Army just chose to. Come and use. Back then they did not ask. They they. Everybody was so focused on the war effort that it was fine. For them to come in and. Stay on your property. We had a large farm property down. Near the river. And. So. The. Army forces came in and did maneuvers on the property there. And they got to know some of the. [1:02.7]
[00:14:24] Soldiers a bit. My wife's grandfather. Grandmother. Had farm products chickens eggs. And that sort of thing. So. They would trade. Chicken eggs for coffee because coffee would be hard to come by in the civilian world. And. So they did that just to an eating experience. I also. Think in terms of milk to everybody during my life time. Who was so. Healthy. And. Able bodied went into the military of some sort. And. I went in for just. A matter into the reserve program for six months. When in 1958. I went to. Fort Jackson for basic training. And then to Fort Gordon for military police training. And then. The rest of my military career was. As. A reservist. For a few years. Another area that. Changed. The changes I've seen in my lifetime have been the. Change in lifestyle. Back. When I was growing up we certainly had no television we had radios we had. Telephone in the country. We had what we called party lines. And. There were four different people. On our phone system. Now we had. Different numbers. But only one person you could use a line one time. And so one of the. Things that happens frequently is people. If they picked up the phone and someone was talking they would listen to the conversation and eavesdrop on the conversation. Which was. Certainly not very polite. But it happened a lot. Also. The TVs really became. Quite. [2:06.5]
[00:16:31] Available to us in the early 50s. We first had a black and white television with. A roundish tube. The. In. Color later on. But like in 19 it's key. To. My brother and we did not have until he's at home my brother and I go by the. College dormitory on. Saturday night and watch the wrestling matches. And. That was sort of. The level of our television the. Entertainment. At the time. For us the onset of. Computers. And all that. Really came out. Is that really came after the time period that we're covering after 65. I was born in Columbus Kansas. A little. Small town in the. Southeast corner. Of Kansas. [1:00.7]
[00:17:33] In 1934. I was born at home. Not in a hospital. You know a house that my mother and father had actually built. We lived there until. My team 40. My father taught high school there. And then we. We moved to. Clarksville Tennessee in 1940. And I. Lived there. Through. My high school years. Until I went off to university in Tennessee. And graduated in 1957. During my years in high school. I did. The things that most people do. I played. Football. In the. [46.2]
[00:18:22] Study. No sir. I should have. But. [3.1]
[00:18:31] While living in Kansas in 1938. The tornado came through. And. Blew the house down. We were living in my mother and I were at home. My dad actually started. Taking a nap on the sofa. And the house exploded. And. The walls rolled out and we rolled out of the house. The only casualty was our. Collie dog. Who. Was hit by a chimney. But. My brother sister rushed to. Be a few blocks away. My brother got a call on his hand. The school got. The. Damage. Pretty seriously. My father was at high school. Where he was no. No damage. Our house was. Totally. Blown away. There are pictures of our furniture in the Life magazine. That month. When we were living in Tennessee My father bought a farm. That did not have a house on. And. To build a house the only lumber that he could buy. Was. [1:18.0]
[00:19:50] At the lumber yard there in St Bethlehem Tennessee. This of course. Was green oak. Lumber. And you could. You could use it you could drive it through it once it is cured and you could not. [16.7]
[00:20:08] Get a very hard time ever drive another nail into the entire house built out of green. And it. Stood very well for a long time. My. Brother. Mother. Lived in the house my. Mother father brother sister who are older than I was. And. [23.0]
[00:20:32] My next door neighbor next door farm. He was an officer in the. Air Corps at the time. Stationed in the Pacific. He came home. After the war. And met my sister and they married [16.6]
[20:47.8]