No Sign of It

Last week while we were in Athens, Tennessee, we decided to drive out to see where we had lived when we first moved there years ago. I remembered the little house with a garden plot just up the hill where I would take our older daughter to play while I worked in the garden. We brought our second daughter home to this house a few days after she was born. It seemed like an easy thing to do—just see what the place looked like now. 

Our first problem was that although we knew which road to take out of town, we weren’t quite so sure about which road to turn down to the house. I thought I knew, but we passed it up and went on up the road. Meanwhile, I called a friend and asked her if she remembered where we lived at that time. She thought she did and directed me to another road while we were out that far. We turned down that road but found nothing that looked familiar. Finally, we drove on back to the road I thought was the one, and we drove out that way, but nothing looked familiar there either! We have decided that they probably tore the house down and built a new subdivision there.

The experience reminded me of a book I read during the research I did for my upcoming novel. The book is called On the Swing Shift: Building Liberty Ships in Savannah by Tony Cope. Cope says that he was a child during World War II and remembers the shipyards with thousands of workers. When he returned to Savannah a few years ago, he says he was “reminded that few people my age—and almost none of lesser years—remembered anything about that part of Savannah’s participation in the war effort.” 

On the Swing Shift was a valuable resource for me as I read about the shipyards in Savannah and the Liberty Ships built there. Cope interviewed people who had worked there in a number of different capacities, and they were able to describe with precision many experiences they had during those years.

Both my experience in Tennessee and the research for my novel are reminders that things are constantly changing on the landscapes of our lives. If we want to remember them, we’ll have to write them down and make pictures! Many of those who served in World War II and who worked on the home front during those years have died already. If we know any of those who are still with us, it is important that we talk to them and hear their stories NOW!