January 1, 1945 (Monday)

DISAGREEABLE WEATHER RINGS IN THE NEW YEAR

Happy New Year. And a very cold, disagreeable, stormy day. Snowing and blowing and much colder to-night. Stanley and a friend Mr. Meek came this noon. Had dinner at 2 o'clock. Had beef roast, venison, buns, cabbage salad, peas, cherry pie, potatoes. Morse left for Jackson at 4 o'clock. He gave Hank $5, Henry and I $5 for Xmas gifts. Dr. Robinson made his 3rd call to see the sick cow. She isn't able to stand up yet. Had milk fever. Stanley, Alice, Shirley, Roger and Mr. Meek went to Fred Fahrnis for supper to-night.

---

Edna makes note of the disagreeable weather on the first day of the new year in 1945.

The Lowell Ledger (Jan. 4, 1945) affirms her observation with a front page headline: New Year Storm Hits Wide Area Local Highways Blocked by Drifting Snow; Many Homes Snowbound. Despite the road conditions, Lowell Schools resumed session following the holidays on January 3. Two buses got stuck in drifts before picking up any students and several other buses returned to school after only making it halfway through their routes. I can only imagine the backlash on social media that would happen today if buses had been sent out in such poor conditions.

Morse paid a visit on New Year's Day and gifted his brother and his parents $5 each for Christmas. I was curious about what $5 might purchase in 1945. A quick glance at some of the advertisements in the same issue of the Lowell Ledge provided some insight. With $5 you could have purchased 102 grapefruit, or 45 loaves of bread, or six bags of coffee (3 lbs), or 40 tickets to see a movie at The Strand.

I worry about venturing out in poor weather in modern vehicles with all wheel drive and with a mobile phone in my possession. Morse headed back to Jackson without the advantage of either. Dr. Robinson came to the farm on a holiday in poor weather to attend to Henry and Edna's sick cow. Alice and Stanley and their family journeyed out to visit with friends. World War II was still raging. Bad weather was perhaps the least of their worries.

December 7, 1941 (Sunday)

Edna, Alice, Helen and kiddos are involved in a car accident and the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor

(Japs bombed Hawaiian Ils

today)

Cloudy, gloomy day

Morse, Red, Helen and Dean here for dinner.

Red had to go back to Middleville at 5 o'clock

to run the picture films

in the theater.

Helen, Dean and I went to Alice's a while this early

evening and came back with Alice in car and

as we were turning into our

drive way a car driven by

Max B[?] of Middleville

tried to pass by us and ran

into our front left fender and

shoved us beside our walnut

tree at side of of drive way.

Alice had a 1 1/2 puncture

in right leg just below knee.

Helen bump on fore head and I

have a sprained left wrist.

We all went to Dr. Wedel's office to receive treatment.

Could have been much much worse.

None of kiddos injured.

---

The first publication of the Lowell Ledger following the attack on Pearl Harbor was on December 11, 1941. The front page of that edition is without any major headlines regarding the bombing or that the United States was now at war.

It did feature an article entitled "President Makes Stirring Appeal: Nation United in Battle to Final Victory" and several news items calling citizens into action.

That edition of the Lowell Ledger also offered a brief account of the car accident that left Edna, Alice and Helen with minor injuries.

The attack on Pearl Harbor began at 7:55 AM Hawaiian time, nearly 1 PM in Michigan.

At 2:22 PM EST an Associated Press Newswire distribution detailed information from the White House about the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese.

It was around that same time that a reporter from an NBC station in Honolulu phoned their NBC affiliate in New York from the rooftop of an office building, with news of the attack.

Listen to that report

TRANSCRIPT OF REPORT BY REPORTER IN HONOLULU

Reporter: Hello, NBC. Hello, NBC. This is KTU in Honolulu, Hawaii. I am speaking from the roof of the Advertiser Publishing Company Building. We have witnessed this morning the distant view a brief full battle of Pearl Harbor and the severe bombing of Pearl Harbor by enemy planes, undoubtedly Japanese. The city of Honolulu has also been attacked and considerable damage done. This battle has been going on for nearly three hours. One of the bombs dropped within fifty feet of KTU tower. It is no joke. It is a real war. The public of Honolulu has been advised to keep in their homes and away from the Army and Navy. There has been serious fighting going on in the air and in the sea. The heavy shooting seems to be . . . a little interruption. We cannot estimate just how much damage has been done, but it has been a very severe attack. The Navy and Army appear now to have the air and the sea under control.
Operator: Ah, just a minute. . . . This is the telephone company. This is the operator.
Reporter: Yes.
Operator: We have quite a big call, an emergency call.
Reporter: We’re talking to New York now.

Most newspapers had already gone to print when the attack occurred. The other main source for breaking news in 1941 was radio. But a 2001 Journal Times article said that most radio stations did not interrupt their regularly scheduled programming with news of the attack.

A broadcast of the Giants football game was interrupted at 2:25 PM EST with a brief announcement and at 1:50 PM CT (nearly 3 PM in Michigan), WGN in Chicago interrupted their broadcast of the Bears game to announce the attack on Pearl Harbor.

I am not sure when news of the attack finally made its way to Bowne Center.

December 7, 1941 was an eventful day for Edna. She needed to use the margins to fit all of the details into her daily entry. She noted the attack on Pearl Harbor in parenthesis at the top of the page. Edna typically starts her entries on the line beneath the date. While Edna needed to use the margins to fit in all of the details about her day I think it is likely that had she known about the attack when she started her journal entry she would have led with that information.

Located nearly 3,000 miles from California in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, to Edna, Pearl Harbor must have felt a world away. At home, in Bowne Center, she and several of her family members had been involved in a car accident.

"Could have been much much worse. None of kiddos injured."

December 6, 1941 (Saturday)

Edna does her "usual" Saturday work.

Cleaning up and a

little colder.

Did usual Sats work

of baking + cleaning

and then couldn't get

every thing done.

Alice worked at John

Livingston's to-day.

Shirley and Roger stayed

with me all day.

Morse and Frances

came this evening.

Stay a while then

went o stay all-night

with Mrs. McCarty.

---

The world will change for Edna, her family, and the rest of the United States just a few hours following this journal entry. On this day, however, Edna tried to get her normal routine of baking and cleaning done.

She writes, "...and then couldn't get everything done."

I suspect that she meant that she was unable to finish her work because she ended up watching over Shirley and Roger (two of her grandkids) and was then visited by Morse (her son) and his wife Frances.

I am struck by this simple and uneventful entry. It was just a day like any other. Edna, like Americans across the nation, were unaware that the next day would become one of the most significant days in American History.

December 6, 1941 was a quiet day at Pearl Harbor, too. Arles Cole (who was just 17 at the time) spent the day Christmas shopping. The next morning, as he stepped onto the navigational bridge of his ship, he heard explosions as someone shouted, "we are under attack."

Read more about Arles Cole's story from this 2016 post on AmericanLegion.org.

Pearl Harbor survivor Arles Cole in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Monday, Dec. 5, 2016. Photo by Lucas Carter.