12/7/41 Pearl Harbor - Payback Time

This was a day that started out beautiful and made you smile. I had my breakfast, did a few things I had to do; then I made my way downtown to the bowling alley where I greeted a few friends and the owner of the bowling alley; did some small talk and then the boss said some people were going to bowl on my lane. I went down to where the pins were and reset a few. It was just automatic; someone would bowl and I would clear out the down pins and then sit back and watch the bowling ball smash into the pins whereupon I would bring my legs up to not get struck by a flying pin, and then I'd reset for the next person. This went on for the rest of my shift. Finally it was time to close and as I went forward to leave and go home my boss asked if I knew that "the Japs had bombed Pearl Harbor?" No, I hadn't heard and where in the heck was Pearl Harbor? I was told and this set me in a somber mood. Of course I and all my friends would try to enlist and pay those "Japs" back. (Now "Japs" was a derogatory word and it was used in the movies, the papers, or just conversation. After the war it became "Japanese" again after I remembered I had some good friends who were Japanese.) I admired President Roosevelt when he declared war on Japan and it's leaders. It was "payback time."