Sacrifice and Prosperity:
A generation goes to war (continued)
One of the defining moments in American history was the moment when Americans heard that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. Almost everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing. Elizabeth Jennings remembers that she and her husband, L.B. Jennings, were driving home from church when they heard the news. R. Pierson Smith, a soldier stationed at Camp Forrest, recalls he was in the Maxwell Hotel in Nashville when he heard of the attack. William (Buss) Holt, Sr. was getting off a bus at Twin Oaks when someone came running out of the store shouting "they bombed Pearl Harbor, they bombed Pearl Harbor."
Once the United States entered the war, the number of soldiers increased at Camp Forrest, and just about everyone in the Tullahoma area found jobs providing services for the soldiers and their families. Almost every family took in boarders. Frances Painter recallls taking in young girls who had come to Tullahoma to work at Camp Forrest. She stresses that it was not just men who came in search of jobs. Women came in large numbers as well.
Robbie Travis recalls almost every member of ther family working in some kind of employment related to Camp Forrest. Her grandmother took in boarders, her aunt and uncle ran a cafe, her grandfather ran a taxicab service, and her father delievered mail at the base. Robert Fagg would collect glass bottles as a young boy. He remembers that liquor bottles were particularly plentiful outside the King Hotel. Peggie Northcutt remebers that young boys would get jobs as shoeshine boys. Mrs. Fagg remembers how people would drive around the rural area in Coffee County where she lived, and they would stop and ask if residents had any kinds of room for rent.
The young people remember collecting cans and scrap during the war. David Peterson remembers that clothes hangers became particularly valuable commodities during the metal shortage. Patra Escue remembers buying stamps to put in a booklet. Oncfe the booklet was full, the booklet could be traded for a war bond.