Reaction to writing an Oral History

   Everyone has a story, every story has stories within that story. I asked my grandmother about what she saw during WWII and the difference between that and the Vietnam War. She was young during WWII but she was in NYC the day it was declared over. I enjoyed interviewing her because she would answer my questions in a story like manner. All I had to do was press record and take some notes. I found writing an oral history to be easier than some essays, but it may not always be the case without a good interview.
    My only problem with writing an oral history is that you cannot change what they say. You cannot add on and you cannot erase all the parts of the story you do not like. If you do you are not being a good journalist. Along with that editing is very critical. I recorded my interview and it helped immensely. The only thing I had to do was type what she said word for word and put it onto the document. My organization of this essay was quite different I started with the end and I went backwards then forwards. Although I liked the change of pace. My words are all in italics but here is my essay to see what I mean. Enjoy!

A Time of War is Different every Time

With every war you expect the same ending, however that isn’t always the case. Celebration always seems prevalent when a war ends but it doesn’t always end in that manner. My grandmother grew up during WWII and lived through the Vietnam War. She was in New York City the day WWII had ended.

We were all in New York. There were only three of us children at that time, it was Eddie and myself and Anne Marie. We were staying at a hotel. We got up and cleaned up, we were going to have room service breakfast. Out the window we could see ticker tape flying out of windows. When the waiter brought us our breakfast we asked him, what was going on and he said, “The war ended, World War II in Europe”.

Ticker tape originated around 1870 and was originally used in regards to stock machines. It got its name by the ticking sound the machine made. The day World War II ended, a “Ticker Tape Parade” was held.

            We turned the radio on; we didn’t have television then. And all they had on any station was that the war was over and people were celebrating. Later that morning we left the hotel and went to Times Square. I was eight and as we walked through Times Square the ticker tape on the ground was passed my knees. Everyone you saw was so happy, it was incredible. I think half of them were drunk but they were very happy that the war in Europe was over. It was wonderful.

Before that happy day, in a small town in Northeast Pennsylvania many waited for their loved ones to return.

            A small banner about fifteen inches or so would hang in your window. There would be a blue star for every soldier that was in the war. Silver stars meant injured and gold stars meant Killed in Action. Mrs. Murphy had three gold stars hanging for her three sons. The Dougherty’s had two stars in their window, but they remained blue. All my uncles but one were in the war. My father’s job at the United Mine Worker’s was deemed too important to lose. My uncle Hugh was a brick maker and they said no to him too. My cousins were too young but my mother’s cousins and my father’s cousins were in. I knew one nurse; she was a Colonel in Europe.

Besides a banner that would hang in the window, living on the east coast, every house had black out curtains in every window. Air wardens would walk the streets at night and if they saw the slightest glimmer of light they would knock on your door and tell you to “turn out the light”. At night my father drove with no headlights.

I remember a lot of things that were fun during WII for kids; we used to stomp on the cans to flatten them. Although I remember we were only allowed so many pairs of shoes a year. As kids our feet grew, mine in particular. My mother had to go, on quote, “the Black Market” to buy me a pair of shoes.

My most vivid memory is still the ticker tape. There was an office building across from our hotel. The buildings were older and had no air conditioning so they opened the windows and threw parachutes made of paper or Kleenex or something like that out the window. Along with the parachutes ticker tape was being thrown out the windows everywhere. It was truly a sight to see.

After that the soldiers came home. They were welcomed home with open arms. If you knew of anyone’s son coming home, you went to their house, you brought them cakes; anything you could get your hands on, you brought them over. We had a party in every house; it was amazing.  

Soldiers coming back from WWII were greeted kindly, but for those who served during Vietnam it was a different story. It was the exact opposite ending of WWII for Vietnam.

The students, the college students and younger hated the war. We lived in Wilmette, Illinois then.  They were embarrassed to say they fought in Vietnam; no one wore their uniform. There were no parades, no parties of any kind; it was really a shame. When we went outside, among our friends we would discuss Vietnam but not with strangers. We were afraid to; you never knew what they would do.

During the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, I couldn’t take the children down to Gilson Park in Wilmette because it was all students, college students, and it was dangerous. We couldn’t go to the beach; we couldn’t do anything. They didn’t have any money, no place to stay, and there were too many for the Village Police to do about it. They started coming two or three weeks before the convention and the Village asked us not to go down there. They had no sanitation, no shelter; the living conditions were just awful.

People were angry that we were there and it was perfectly acceptable, they had a right to their anger. Others were destructive with it. I don’t think anyone liked it, the fact that we were at war. During WWII it was a righteous anger because of Hitler and the Holocaust and we knew what was happening over there and the United States knew it. That was one thing with Vietnam, in Vietnam they weren’t doing any of that; there wasn't a Hitler. Many people didn’t like it; they didn’t find there was enough cause to be there. The real problem with Vietnam was that you didn’t know who your enemy was.

In WWII there were the trenches and you knew when the enemy was coming but in Vietnam the enemy could be an eleven-year-old. It wasn’t just hard on little kids, it was hard on the soldiers; they didn’t think that children could do any wrong. The worst part of the war was that it was more mental. It seemed as if the soldiers were mentally abused.

We found out the war was over on the news. We had seen the footage that war correspondents had filmed over there before, so we had known what was going on and when the day came that they said the war was over it was like any other day. I don’t remember what I was doing that day but there were no celebrations of any kind; there might have been for when the prisoners of war had returned. The main thing about the Vietnam War that was difficult for the soldiers was that, they had fought a war where the enemy was unknown. It was an endless fight.

WWII brought celebration; Vietnam brought cold feelings and shameful soldiers. When WWII ended it was unlike any celebration that had happened before. The soldiers were welcomed back with open arms, while the soldiers who fought in Vietnam felt ashamed and embarrassed to wear their uniforms. Times Square was filled with laughter and joy on September 2, 1945, but on April 30, 1975 it was just a normal day.