Peoples' memories of World War II differ significantly, depending on whether they fought overseas, served in stateside military installations, worked in civilian jobs, or viewed the war, after the fact, through the pages of history.
For me, one of the most interesting and perhaps least understood perspectives, is of those who were too young to join but became fascinated spectators from their window seats. As one of them, this book is my sense of how kids my age viewed that war; how we lived our lives and did our parts here at home, and how it affected my own life.
Drawing on newspaper accounts of those days as well as my own recollections, I narrate the book as an adult remembering my infancy, and then how, from about age seven to twelve, my life was influenced by the war; how the war, although not directly involved in our lives, affected the day-to-day activities, events, and concerns of ordinary kids.
I try to show how our major issues were not so much the world events, themselves, but the way they affected our daily lives, activities and emotions, through movies, music and media. Interspersed throughout the book are anecdotes - some personal and others public - including some wartime ironies, and tales of personal heroism that are sometimes too incredible to imagine.