- Collection:
- Veterans History Project: Oral History Interviews
- Title:
- Oral history interview of Robert A. (Bob) Rivers and Elaine Puckett Rivers
- Creator:
- Palmer, Janet
Rivers, Robert A., 1934-; Rivers, Elaine Puckett, 1939- - Date of Original:
- 2004-05-05
- Subject:
- World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Puckett, Marion King, 1908-1964
Puckett, Antoinette Hughes, 1882-1986
Graves, James Austin, 1913-1973
Jett, Leroy
Jett, Norman E., 1918-1978
Jett, Jack O., 1921-1966
Jett, Richard B., 1925-1982
Smith, Kate, 1907-1986
Rivers, Robert Lee, 1905-1972
Rivers, Evelyn Graves, 1909-1996
Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Ga. : 1868)
United States. Army. Quartermaster Corps
United States. Army. Quartermaster Base Depot Company, 4499th
S & W Cafeteria
United Daughters of the Confederacy
Sons of Confederate Veterans (Organization)
Brookhaven Variety store
Brookhaven Supply
Terminal Station
V-mail
War bonds
scrap metal drives
grease collection - Location:
- Iran, 32.0, 53.0
Philippines, Manila, 14.5906216, 120.9799696
United States, Georgia, 32.75042, -83.50018
United States, Georgia, Atlanta Metropolitan Area, 33.8498, 84.4383
United States, Georgia, Houston County, Robins Air Force Base, 32.60911, -83.58444
United States, Georgia, Houston County, Warner Robins, 32.61574, -83.62664
United States, Texas, 31.25044, -99.25061
United States, Virginia, York County, Langley Air Force Base, 37.09801, -76.4206 - Medium:
- video recordings (physical artifacts)
mini-dv - Type:
- MovingImage
- Format:
- video/quicktime
- Description:
- In this interview, Bob and Elaine Rivers discuss growing up during World War II in Atlanta. They describe family members and neighbors who served in the war, rationing, Victory Gardens, and blackouts. They recall how their play was influenced by the war. Bob recalls following the major events of the war in the newspaper. They describe the feelings of the community on the death of President Roosevelt. Bob describes his uncle's career in the Army in Iran supplying oil to the Russians; he was sent several articles from the region by his uncle. He relates digging up Minié balls from the area where the Civil War Battle of Ezra Church was fought. He recalls using the "Aircraft Spotters Handbook" with his childhood friend, and being allowed to serve as assistants to the neighborhood air raid warden, Mr. Wire. They both describe comic books and radio shows being influenced by the war. They talk of patriotism, frugality, and economy. Bob relates seeing a Japanese mini-sub on display and going to see the Georgia Crackers baseball team at the Ponce de Leon baseball park by streetcar. His father called it "wartime baseball" because the teams were made up of players that were too young, too old, or from Cuba. He remembers watching Georgia Tech-University of Georgia football games. Bob relates his service in the Air Force as a navigator on refueling flights.
Elaine and Bob Rivers grew up in Atlanta during World War II.
Elaine Puckett Rivers and Robert A. "Bob" Rivers interviewed by Sarah Eberhard and Janet Palmer on May 5, 2004 Palmer: Today is May 5, 2004. My name is Janet Palmer and I am doing my interview with Mr. Robert Rivers – Bob Rivers and Elaine Rivers at the Atlanta History Center on the Veterans History Project. Mrs. Rivers, would you please state your name, spell your name and give me your birth date. Mrs. Rivers: Elaine Rivers. [name spelled out: E-L-A-I-N-E R-I-V-E-R-S]. Date of birth is 5/24/1939. Palmer: And Mr. Rivers, would you state your name and spell it and give me your birthday. Mr. Rivers: Yes. Robert Rivers, but I go by Bob Rivers. [name spelled out: R I V E R S]. My date of birth is January 18, 1934. Palmer: Mrs. Rivers, I'll start out with you. Can you tell me, tell me about your ________________________________________. Mrs. Rivers: Alright. I was born in Atlanta and we lived in the Brookhaven section. And the biggest impact that it had on me, I knew that my father had to leave home and go be a soldier because we were having a war. And I had, previous to that time, I would stay at home with my mother and my father managed a store in Brookhaven, a variety store. And he leave that work and my mother had to go to work and take his position as a store manager. And so, that put myself having to go to the local nursery school in Brookhaven. And I was very unhappy about it. And my older sister, which she was a year older and then my baby brother, we all had to stop nursery school. And I remember crying about it and begging to go to the store with her. I knew what was going on and my father at the time was 35 year old, was wearing bifocals and had 3 children and he was drafted. So this had a big impact on the family. He did not see well enough to fight in combat and he was sent to the Philippine Islands in a city in Manila. And he was put in a _______________ master core where basically he was checking out uniforms to the soldiers in that area. So, I remember my grandmother who was living in College Park, near the Atlanta airport at the time, her house had a central hall which she had closed off and when they called the blackout, my lil' brother and I would be staying there some and then she would take us to the central hall of her home and ____________________. And I think she had a small lamp in there and that she'd say now we're going to play a little game so we wouldn't be fighting and we would all sit down on the floor on the quilt. And she'd say I'm going to tell you a story and we're just going to be really quiet and we'll play in here for a while and then later on we'll go to bed. And so that was her way of handling the blackout for small children and I can remember sitting there. So later, I remember before my dad left, the soldiers had been gathering at the building on Peachtree Road, which was later the Veterans Hospital and the Veterans Administration Building an old brick building and we walked through there and looked through a wire fence and we could see my father and many soldiers standing behind that wire fence on Peachtree Road and some of them were sitting on grass and I knew he was just about to leave then to be transported out, but I can remember seeing the men in uniforms there. And I remember the day that he came home and they came to Atlanta's terminal station which is no more. But I was walking along and holding my mother's hand and I can remember this, I think it was a cold day and I had on a little wool coat and bonnet and many, many soldiers were getting off the trains down there. And I thought, how would we ever find him and it was my mother and my older sister __________________, as far as I can remember. And then I saw a soldier with two women walking toward us. And my thought was they already had their soldier. And as they got closer, then I saw it was my father with my grandmother and my aunt and they were approaching us. They picked him up from his train and were coming to meet us there on the grounds of the terminal station and so, that was a, real happy reunion. And later we took pictures at home _______________ some of those pictures of his first day back and he was in his khaki uniform and we were just so happy to have him back. And then, I remember when Franklin Delano Roosevelt died, and he was such a beloved President. Everyone loved Roosevelt and everyone cried and he was in Warm Springs, Georgia when he died. I think I was in 2nd grade. And the railroad tracks came right by my school grounds and we knew that the President's body would be coming past. And they brought all the children outside onto the school grounds and I remember standing up on a little stone wall there watching the train and everyone just sort of stood in a silent reverence when our President had died. And I remember watching that train go past (of course, we couldn't see anything but the train). But that was a time when things were done that way and everyone felt patriotic and very sad over the President's death. And those are my main memories as a small child of how the Second World War affected me and my family. Palmer: Did you have any other references? [?? Inaudible language with man/woman ??] Mrs. Rivers: Well, yes I have several uncles that went also. Palmer: Do you remember getting letters from your father or any correspondence from your father? Mrs. Rivers: Yes. We have letters that he wrote back to us and I don't know if we still have any of them. But he wrote to his mother and at one time I found a portion of a letter that he had written to my grandmother and kept that – I may still have that somewhere. And I remember at one time he had either sent us or brought home to us a little package of soldiers' rations like they gave us. Seems like it was maybe a metal box and has a little can they had _______________. Palmer: Do you remember any [?? Inaudible ??] Mrs. Rivers: No. I only remember, you know, that he was gone because there was a war and when it was over he came home and I remember games we played as children and I remember a little girlfriend and myself sitting on the front porch swinging and swinging and we were playing that we were in an airplane. And she would say “bombs over Tokyo”. [Mrs. Rivers laughing with Ms. Palmer] And we'd say “bombs away”. We knew that planes were dropping bombs so this affected the children's play area at times. Man: Where did you get this information? Mrs. Rivers: I think from listening to the adults talk. And I remember my mother and her friends talking about people like “Toe Joe”. And I would remember they would say that name and kind of laugh. You know, maybe some of the other words but that was, I just heard them talk about it. And none of my uncles were injured and my father wasn't. And they were all able to go through the war and come back home. Which was fortunate, you know, that my father wasn't in ways in harm's way because he was out there in the Pacific. And, but he wasn't going to get shot at really unless, you know, unless he was bombed ____________________. They were all in harm's way when they out. I'm sure they probably rode troop ships to the ____________________. Palmer: Do you remember anything about rations or, ... Mrs. River: Yes, yes. I remember hearing the talk about them and I remember you know, you couldn't by meat everyday or if we were supposed to have a day or so a week where we didn't eat meat and one meal that we used to talk about or hear talked about was eating peas and potatoes for a meal. And I remember that there were rationing for gasoline, but my mother said we could only get a certain amount of gasoline every week and shoes were rationed. I remember that sort of thing we talked about, about the adults around the week. Man: [?? Inaudible ??] Mrs. Rivers: I guess not. Man: [?? Inaudible ??] Mrs. Rivers: No. I think we, I think we had enough to eat, but it was just that some meals had to be vegetarian and that new shoes were, you know may be farther apart. But I think we had one pair of shoes for everyday and one pair of shoes for Sunday – that's sort of thing. Man: Did you have a victory [?? Inaudible ??] Mrs. Rivers: We, I remember having a victory dog. It was in our backyard in Brookhaven. [Laughing] And we had vegetables planted back there, I had never see the eggplants growing in that sort of thing and I remember that we had some chickens also, which I'm certain wouldn't be allowed now. [Laughing] Palmer: What was the, was the regimen adjusted when your dad came back? Did he go back to his same job? Or what was that period like after he came home. . . . Mrs. Rivers: I believe he was gone about 3 years. And when he came home, then of course, my mother wasn't able to come off of her job later, but he did not go back to the same job. But he had previously been in the hardware business., and he wanted to go back into hardware. And I think he went to some courses first _______________ some type of school about hardware and then he went into a management position at the hardware store in Brookhaven, it was called “Brookhaven Supply,” where he was there for the rest of his life and we continued living in Brookhaven. So it was, I don't really remember their being much of an adjustment, except that we had two more little sisters after he came back home. [chuckling] So, he never talked a lot about it, except he talked about some of the Philipinos, the way they ate _______________, He would, he said that they had a, they would cook a large pot of rice outside and then they would put fish into it like sardines or other small fish and stir them into the big pot. And then the Philipinos would sit around the pot and eat the rice and fish like that and he never wanted to eat rice again after he came home. [chuckling] Palmer: And one of the things I thought was interested in was when, when you went to elementary school and you were saying during all of this, _________________________ curriculum, or that when the war was going on was that something that was _________________________ in school or was it just _________________________ or did it have an effect on just the days that _________________________ elementary school child? Do you, in terms of just _______________________ or _________________________ geography or anything like that? Mrs. Rivers: I don't think we did. I don't think it was brought up to children much. I don't recall it being brought up in school other than that we would always pledge allegiance to the flag everyday. And we knew that we had to stand up and do the pledge for the flag, anything patriotic like that and we prayed everyday in school. Palmer: Did you practice the blackout drills or anything like that? Mrs. Rivers: I don't think we ever had to during school because it was generally at night. ________________________________________ turning off all the lights in case, you know, that there were planes coming over Atlanta. I supposed they thought it could have happened back then and didn't, so we were fortunate in that. Man: [?? Inaudible ??] Mrs. Rivers: Well, in a way I think it did. I think it instilled in the children at that time from a certain reality, but we were taught not to waste food and to take care of our shoes and to take care of our toys and our clothes and things of this nature. Of course, I had gotten _________________________ too, [chuckling] so they were always practicing through _________________________, so I knew that people did things to save money. The women canned food and they would cook tomatoes in the summer and put them up in glass jars and have for next winter and that's before things go, I think it instilled in all of us, you know a certain sense of the economy that things might not always be the same and that I think it made us have the appreciations for appreciating the military too. That men had to give up portions of their lives if not all of it. And they go to defend their country and the patriotism was instilled in children _______________. So, that's something that I feel appreciates is wheel-chair service. Man: Mrs. Rivers, before we interview Mr. Rivers, is there anything else that you can think of that _________________________. Mrs. Rivers: I don't believe so. Man: Thank you. Palmer: Thank you. Eberhard: My name is Sarah Eberhard and I am continuing the interview with Mr. Rob Rivers and want to start off by asking what your first memories are of the, after the War II era and what triggered those? Do you have any family or close friends that were in ____________________. Mr. Rivers: Well let me say that I was 7, when December 7, 1941 occurred, the beginning of the war, when I was 11, when the A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Nagasaki and during that time, I was attending George _______________ Harris Grammar School, but as we used to call it our elementary school as they say now out at West End. So I had begun kindergarten actually in 1939, so I was already in the schools when the Germans invaded Poland in September 1, 1939. I don't remember anything at all about them, nor do I remember anything specifically about Pearl Harbor. But first, the memory of an actual occurrence during World War II that I have was _______________ trade over Tokyo, which I believe was April 1942. At that time, I was 8 years old. I can remember going out and getting the bagels in the morning. It must have been a Sunday morning. We always took the Atlanta Journal Constitution. I remember getting the paper and showing it to my dad, who was very elated. And we had, in the paper that morning, we saw area photos of the Japan/Tokyo, which was being bombed by the B-25s. And I remember that quite well. Some instances that I remember actually during the War was the _______________. My mother had a part-time job down in downtown Atlanta and she would go in on Saturday and I had gone in with her that morning and I remember as we sat there it was in the Rhodes-Haverty Building, I remember that. And I remember, I guess I was old enough at that time, I was 10, so I was able to read the paper, look at the pictures and saw the big headline about the allies landing at Normandy and I was quite thrilled about that. I also remember, I guess, that in late 1944, when McArthur landed back in the Philippines, fulfilling his promise to return and then I can also remember, of course, the VE Day and VJ Day, I remember when the bomb was dropped. Nobody really knew what it was at the time. So those are my memories of actual events during WWII and I also remember when Roosevelt died and how sad all the neighbors were, the adults as well as the kids. So those are some things that I remember actually happening. Another thing I remember is Patton's army ________ across Europe after D-Day. I can remember seeing the newspapers. They always had these battle lines and they showed the battle lines constantly moving eastward toward Berlin. I remember following that and being real excited that the Allies were moving on in to the Reich and the war would soon be over. My dad was not in very good health. He always said he was too young for the first World War and too old for the second. He was not in real good health. I'm sure he was classified as in poor health. So my daddy never went to serve but my mother's younger brother, ____ James, was a career army man. I think he went in probably, I'm not sure of this, but I think he probably went in before Pearl Harbor. He was probably in his late 20's at that time and served throughout the war and retired from the army as a master sergeant. His time though, he was right in combat but he was in the Persian Gulf command. He was stationed in _____ Bay, Iran. They were helping supply oil to the Russians, called the Eastern Front. I can remember getting Iranian money back when he would send it to me in letters to my mom and he would also occasionally write me a letter. I remember the V-mail, the lightweight airmail, when letters would come in. One of my favorite mementos of WWII was when my uncle James was either going to or coming back from Iran, he was on a troop ship that landed in Italy, Naples, I believe it to be exact. At one time I had a ring that he had sent me and _______ on the ring. One of my most prized possessions was a German helmet that he had traded for or somehow another got a hold of, and my little buddies and I, _________ we had more fun playing with that German helmet. I wish I still had it, but I don't know, my mother was kind of a _______ and she probably threw it away as some point. I don't know whatever happened to the German helmet. But we had a lot of fun playing with it as well as many balls that we dug up ________ church which was the civil war battle that was fought out in southwest Atlanta, so my little buddy and I, Leroy, who lived next door, we would dig up many balls and we would play __________. I also have another story that is real funny. My mother decided, I guess in '42 or '43, something during the war, that she wanted me to play the piano. So they ordered me a very nice piano that was in a large wooden crate and I took piano for a couple of years, but I was not much interested in piano. But I had more fun playing with a crate than I ever did with the piano. That crate during WWII was out in our backyard and that crate became a submarine, a tank, a fort, and I want you know we killed more Japs, and that's what we called them, during WWII, I know that's probably not correct to express it that way, but we were pretty much propagandized, so they were Japs and of course the Germans and we just killed them by the droves out in my back yard, because that is what we did. We played war pretty much all time. I guess we played Cowboys and Indians a little bit, but we played war most of the time. The stories that I remember about a neighbor that we had, this lady, very nice lady, she commented to my mama one time, that I was running around shooting a machine gun, bullets, throwing hand grenades, imaginary, of course. She speculated out loud she wondered “How in the world does he make noises like that,” coming out of this little 8-10 year old boy. So we had a lot of fun playing war. My little buddy next door, Leroy and I – I remember that we had a walkie-talkie situation rigged up over our driveway from my window to his bedroom. We could tap out Morse Code on this and we both learned the Morse Code because that – I think the troops used that. So we both learned the Morse Code and we also had something called the aircraft's father handbook. It was a book that had all of the allied airplanes: the German, the Japanese, the Italian airplanes. It would show different views of these aircrafts over ________. Mitsubishi, for example, had flown over Stokes Avenue me and Leroy would have been able to identify them. We knew all the airplanes, not only U.S. and British but also for the axis powers too. So we were quite into the war. Now Leroy was the baby in the family. He had 3 older brothers who were all in the service and he also had an older sister. I remember ________ was a army lieutenant, Jack was a ___________ for B-17, I believe that flew combat missions over Germany and R.B., who is the youngest of those three, he was in the Merchant Marine. I can remember coming home after the war and being in total awe of all of these boys. Now the only thing about it, these boys always punched Leroy when Leroy and I would get into little fights we were inseparable when we were kids. The brothers would always give him tips on how to beat me and so he would always have the advantage. I was an only child. So Leroy could handle me pretty well. I remember another thing, my wife mentioned the blackout drills. We had __________ Stokes had ________, which is where I lived. Four houses out from where I lived Mr. Wire was our block warden. Mr. Wire let Leroy and I become his assistants. What a thrill that was. You can imagine a 9 and 10 year old boy and give him a flashlight. I don't think we had helmets but we accompanied Mr. Wire when he went up and down the street and if we saw a light we would have to go to the door and tell them to cut off that light. I often wondered to this day exactly what we thought was going to attack Atlanta, GA. Now I could understand it if it was Savannah or Charleston or somewhere like that because we did have submarines right off the coast. They said that in those fort cities that you could actually see burning U.S. freighters right off the coast that had been torpedoed by German submarines. But, how in the world they thought these planes would get over Atlanta, I don't know. Maybe it was a psychological thing that they wanted everybody to really get in the spirit of things. I can remember being, ____________ when I wasn't duty with Mr. Wire, I can remember like my wife does, having an interior hallway that we would get into and with my flashlight we would read comic books. I remember the comic books, Superman, Capt. Marvel, people like that, they were always fighting the Nazis or Japanese. I can remember during school time, all the kids drew pictures of fighter planes, gun tanks, we just drew constantly. It was all war-oriented. Like my wife, I remember pledging allegiance to the flag, saying prayers and another thing I remember was Kate Smith singing “God Bless America.” I get kind of emotional thinking about it. Eberhard: ________ at school _________ Mr. Rivers: Yeah, we were just patriotic as we could be. So those are some memories I have. Eberhard: For those of you … it sounds like it was because of the ages _______ it was almost the norm. It's like you said your very first thoughts or memories are all war-related. Was it different, was it much of the lifestyle changes you came out of it and what ____ because again, that's all you had ever known. Mr. Rivers: Well, a couple of things that I remember that I forgot to mention was that I remember the _________ Tuesdays we use to have. I remember my dad and mom, and of course no one took a vacation during the war. I don't ever remember, I guess I was too young before the war. I think they take me to Florida one time, like maybe the late 30's, but I really don't remember that. First vacation I remember was 1947 because people did not travel. You couldn't go by car. We had an old 1938 Plymouth that my dad inherited from his dad, who past away about that time, and we drove the old '38 Plymouth from that time on until 1949, when we bought a 1949 Ford. That '38 Plymouth, my mother use to say we drove – we pushed that car all the west end because nobody could afford to buy a new car. I remember the rationed stickers on the front window. Another memory I have – my dad would take us down to eat, I guess this was during WWII, we would go down to downtown Atlanta, this was quite a shopping center, and all that type of thing, and there was an S&W Cafeteria in downtown Atlanta, right on Peachtree Street. I think it was probably one night when we went and ate down there that I guess they had a war-a-thon drive because they had a ____________ mini submarine that was on display right there in the middle of the street. I can remember as a kid, I guess my daddy lifted me up and you could look through the porthole or some place they had cut in the Japanese submarine and you could actually look in and see the Japanese characters written on the controls and all of that. I'm sure they were selling war bonds during that show. I remember seeing that. That was a big memory for a kid to see a Japanese submarine. That was really something. Eberhard: Similar to what you just mentioned. Around the city of Atlanta is there anything, are they any specific events that you remember related to the city of Atlanta in terms of how Atlanta as a city reacted to the war effort. Mr. Rivers: Well, let me say this, my daddy use to take me out to Ponce de Leone Ballpark during the war years. I guess I was 10 when he decided I was old enough to see the old Atlanta Crackers play. We would ride the streetcars, Atlanta had streetcars back then. You had to be my age or so to remember streetcars. We would ride down to Ponce de Leone Ballpark and to me it was such a thrill to see. To me they were like major leaguers, but they were not, they were minor league baseball. My daddy who had grown up in the ‘20s was a longtime baseball fan. He always put down the teams in '44 and '45. He would call it wartime baseball because most of the really able-bodied young men were off in the service and so we had a lot of 16-17 year old boys playing professional ball or guys who were in their 40's who were too old to fight or they had a bunch of Cubans that would come on. They had a lot of Cuban ball players, and I still remember the names. To me it was great baseball, but daddy would always shake his head and say “this is wartime baseball,” because they would make a lot of errors. They weren't as good as the players back in the ‘30s. Daddy also put that down. Of course daddy was a sport's fan. He would always take me to Georgia Tech football games. He was a graduate of Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech and I _________ because Georgia Tech back in '43, '44, all during the war they had what you'd call the V-12 Program. That was where they took these young men who were training to be naval officers or navy pilots and while they were completing their studies they could play football. So they had a bunch of young studs, they were playing Georgia for example, who really didn't have a program, __________ and there were a lot of Georgia players were full ________ and Tech would just beat Georgia _________ back then and to this day Georgia doesn't challenge __________ of those war years because they felt like Tech had an unfair advantage. So I cut my team from Georgia Tech football to Atlanta Cracker baseball. After the war the veterans starting coming back and I'm sure my daddy thought the quality of play improved quite a bit. Eberhard: As the war years ended and you continued on through school. I know you were in the service later on. Tell a little bit about this has effect – continued to throughout your life – did this affect you going into service and I know you're a member to organizations now, just _______ tell a little bit of how it's continued to ______ gone on. Mr. Rivers: Well it made quite an impression on me because I have __________, WWII especially. Certainly I go along with Tom Brokow who calls that “the greatest generation.” I have – my uncle served, my daddy didn't serve because of his health and age, however, I just had a tremendous admiration for men who served during that time. I've had the pleasure during my life of meeting a number of people who are combat pilots through bombing missions or were actually captured by – I know 2 men that were captured by the Germans, in both cases and spent time in prison camps. I just make a point to go up and shake their hand because I just think that my service back in the ‘50s, there was really very little going on. I have absolutely no, I'm absolutely not a hero, but I do know those on flying status that flew in aircrafts similar to some of the bombers in WWII and often thought when I was serving my time – “gosh, what if somebody had been shooting at me,” I said – you always wonder if you could have done as well as those men who were flying combat mission in WWII. I never felt that I had any really good war stories at all, but I have the utmost admiration for those guys that served back there. Being such a buff and fan of WWII my two sons, I made sure they got to see every movie like Patton and Midway and all of that and made them have an appreciation for that. As a result both of them are real buffs of WWII now because I would kind of indoctrinating them on that. Eberhard: In your services, is that following your graduation from high school that you managed _________. Mr. Rivers: I went over to the college and was in ROTC both in high school and college and that's where I graduated through college on ROTC. I got my separate lieutenant's ______, then I went to navigator training and served a year learning to be a navigator and then flew for 2 years as on a _________ refueler which was similar to the B-29 except the _________ was taken out ________. Jet fuel tanks _________ we'd have to refuel it. I used many of the same – this was in the mid-50s. We use to run with the same navigation coordinates that we used in WWII, in fact, the environment that I flew in was more like WWII than what it would be now to be flying compared to the mid-50s. Eberhard: Where were based during your ______________ Mr. Rivers: All of my bases were in the continental U.S. I __________ in Texas. I was stationed at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia and also stationed in Roy Robbins Base out in Macon. We flew all around practice missions over the country and down in the Caribbean, generally speaking. I tell you what, it made me have appreciation for what some of those navigators, pilots went through flying bombing missions over Germany. It gave me a little inkling of it, I'll put it that way. Eberhard: Did you ______ during your time. Mr. Rivers: Yeah, there was a background commander ________ that I flew with a few time who went to Canada and joined the RCAL and actually before America got in the war. _________________ Eberhard: Do you remember when servicemen started coming home. Were there festivities and parades or anything like that? Mr. Rivers: I guess I remember the stories ______ of the older students ______ talking my high school _______ I think we had some older boys that had been in the service during WWII. I was just entering the 8th grade when the war ended so I guess when I was in junior high school. I think in '47 when I started high school I remember some older kids that came back who had actually been in the army or navy. Eberhard: ____________ war effort Mr. Rivers: No, not at all. He was an accountant and he worked for the state Georgia Highway Department and he also worked for the private construction company. He was real supportive of ______ long after my father had past away. Eventually, I inherited some bonds that he had bought way back in the '40s, war bonds. He bought a lot of war bonds back in the ‘40s. I went and took bonds ________ that he had passed on to me – it was kind of like looking back and seeing those bonds from 1943 and 1944. My daddy was very conservative. He got his big experience I guess was the Depression. We use to talk and he'd tell me a lot about the Depression. But he was supportive, of course, of the war effort. But, he was not in good health. Eberhard: I know you mention following __________ in the papers. What role did the radio play. Did you listen to radio every night, on certain dates or certain times or were there special programs you made a point to listen to. Mr. Rivers: The main thing I remember is the – I remember radio quite well. I don't know that we ________ remembered _________ all that much. I'm sure I did. I remember a lot of shows they use to have in the afternoon that were for kids, like Jack Armstrong and _________________ Eberhard: I always listened to the Lester Brown show. Mr. Rivers: Lester Brown show. Eberhard: I think the Lester Brown show was on Saturday mornings. That was a radio show for kids. Mr. Rivers: There was one called “Let's Pretend.” Eberhard: We'd always listen to the radio. We would hear patriotic songs like Kate Smith singing and that kind of thing. Mr. Rivers: I break up when I see Kate Smith. Every time I think of her singing that, it breaks me up. Eberhard: ___________ I'm sure you mentioned that after the war you __________ did you look forward to seeing some of those shorts before the movie started that would show you some __________ on the war. Mr. Rivers: ___________ new, yeah. ____________ I guess there was so much on Sundays ____________ films that Hollywood made were even after the war where they always pictured the Japanese as always bucked-teeth and always ________ they would scream _____________. We were sort of propagandized, no question about it, but you know I think it was justified _____________. Eberhard: Are there any other memories that you have that you'd continue speaking about. Mrs. Rivers: I just remember something else that we did in school. We would have scrap metal drives and everyone was suppose to collect 10 cans from home that you had opened and had vegetables ___________ had labels peeled off and stamped them down flat and these flat tin cans were turned in at the schools so that they could be used as, I suppose it was government or industrial use. I'm not really sure what they went for. Any kind of scrap metal like that was recycled and reused and paper drives, too. Old newspapers would be saved and turned in at schools. Mr. Rivers: Also we collected grease, because I understand that people back then cooked with bacon grease – a lot of us did, at least down South. _________ would go down and have grease drives because if I understand it they use it somehow or another to make the ___________. Eberhard: Now was there anything else? Mr. Rivers: I think that was pretty much it. Eberhard: Are you involved with any organizations, _________ or WWII-type organizations military? Mrs. Rivers: Well, I'm very involved in United Daughters of the Confederacy which is an organization for women, of course, who are decedents from Confederate soldiers. I had at least three great great grandfathers who fought for the Confederacy and that's another military ___________ and so I'm very interested in that organization and what we do is to honor those of all wars. And we find the graves of Confederate soldiers and we mark those graves as Confederate soldiers and dedicate them and hold ceremonies for them and we often give _________ of military service to, to servicemen like my father or anyone who has been in the military in any of the American wars and who is also descendants of a Confederate soldier, so we often give these medals. Quite a few are given every year and honor our servicemen who are still living or I can still have one issued posthumously for my father because he served in World War II. So, this is something I _________ that World War II helped to teach a lot of _______ appreciate patriotism for veterans of all wars. Bob Rivers: _______ similar organization, we're the, I guess, brother organization to the United Daughters of the Confederacy. We're the Sons of the Confederate Veterans or more popularly known as the SCV. I had a great grandfather, John Rivers, who fought as a 17 – 18 year old for the Confederacy in Sherman's Army, came down into Georgia and so I'm a direct descendant of John Rivers and I also have some uncles in their graves who fought in and some were killed during the war between the States and so we're related _____________ both very supportive of our Southern heritage and also we're - I would like to get the word out to say my fellow members of my graduating class from Brown High School of 1951. They would be, of course, my age and _______ many of them would have memories of World War II and relatives, parents and brothers, or what have you and I hope to get the word out so that some of them can come down and do what Elaine and I have done today. Mrs. Rivers: ______________. I have a picture of my father here. His name was Marion _____ Puckett, and like I said he was in the Quartermaster Core in World War II and was stationed in the Philippine Islands and he gave about three years out of life away from his family and business to serve his country, and men quite often had their pictures made in their uniforms during that time. And then this is another picture of my father and mother over here _________ service uniform again and I think that all the men were proud of their service uniforms at that time and were very patriotic. And then I have another picture that was taken on the day that he came back home and this is a picture of my father in his khakis standing with his own mother, her name was Antoinette Hughes Puckett and she lived to be 104 years old so she far outlived her son. And she died in 1986. But, I think it was a sign of the times, that everyone was proud of their military service and ______ their uniform and what it stood for and what _________ they gave up the sacrifices that everyone made during that time. Eberhard: Thank you. Mr. Rivers. Bob Rivers: Yes, this is my uncle, James A. Graves. He was _________ Army. You can see from the patch that, patches that he was a Master Sergeant when he retired and he served during the entire 4 years of World War II in the Persian Gulf _________ and although he didn't see any combat, he was still, like my wife said, in harms way. I think anybody that was there at that time was ____________ pictures here so you can see it here, the entire photo shows the trading company or platoon my uncle was in and the other two photos _________ shows my uncle on the left having a bite to eat with some of his army buddies and the __________ one shows my uncle on the left as you look at with some Iranian kids that they __________ while they were over in Iran back in the 4 years. I have another one that I wanted to show. This is to show patriotism that endeared the youngsters. This is me, me on your right, I'm here and my little buddy, Leroy, we had our sailor hats on. We were very proudly giving a pretty good salute, I think, you know. And, so we always were, with our sailor caps or _________ goggles or something like that and so that just shows the patriotism that the kids felt. Eberhard: Thank you ___________ so we Bob Rivers: We enjoyed this Eberhard: I want to see your pictures a little more closer up. Bob Rivers: O.k. - Metadata URL:
- http://album.atlantahistorycenter.com/cdm/ref/collection/VHPohr/id/293
- Additional Rights Information:
- This material is protected by copyright law. (Title 17, U.S. Code) Permission for use must be cleared through the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center. Licensing agreement may be required.
- Extent:
- 51:49
- Original Collection:
- Veterans History Project oral history recordings
Veterans History Project collection, MSS 1010, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center - Contributing Institution:
- Atlanta History Center
- Rights:
-
