Hi Marilyn,
Today was the first time I read your introduction (I looked at your profile after reading your thoughts on Papa Art.) It was very interesting; you don't often hear about what a child's perception of World War II was of the war as it happened. Certainly better for American kids then for European ones, as you discussed here. Martin's thoughts about growing up with Grandparents who lived through it all was very interesting, too. I began to be interested in WWII in grade school. I loved to look through the books in my little school's library and must have checked them out dozens of times over the years I went there (K-8th grade.) My grandfather never talked about it either and somewhere along the lines us kids either learned not to asked or felt it intuitively. I did speak with him about it in 2000, but I couldn't talk to much about it too much as he couldn't talk for very long.
As a Marine, even while in the reserves, I have found that former military men will open up to you more easily. As a for instance, I was dating a girl in college whose father was in Viet Nam. I visited her at her home while she was visiting there one time and had a long talk with her father. During this time, he told me about his time in Viet Nam. After we had talked and I was in the other room, my girlfriend toldme wide-eyed she had never heard any of any of those stories. And at that time I had only been out of basic training and in the reserves for a few months. At least now (13 years later) I have more than boot camp stories to tell! I'm reminded of that line in A Bridge too Far, "This is a story you will tell your grandchildren; and mightily bored they'll be."