Nostalgia time again:

"Our bombings became ever more frequent and destructive. Nightly, at the wail of sirens, Ma and Pa scrambled over the masonry rubble littering the streets. They carried Little Brother and me in their arms to find protection underground. Droning airplanes showered us with bombs that shook our world and everything in it. They torched buildings, maimed and killed people.

Bombs were liberating the people huddling in caves and basements where they waited to be liberated. When the sirens announced the end of the rain of terror from the sky upon the reign of terror on the ground, we ventured out to find the city in flames, and bodies in rubble."

-- Not Again! (seenit@ww2.com), February 28, 1999

Answers

NotAgain, I for one am really tired of your posts depicting life in WWII. If you have something to offer other than long, usually pointless quotes, please contribute. Otherwise, please stop wasting bandwidth. Thanks.

-- offtopic (posts@senseless.ramblings), February 28, 1999.

Mr., Mrs. of Miss offtopic,

well, maybe it won't be bombs this time. More likely more interesting missiles.

Pointless posts from someone who has lived the future?

-- Not again! (seenit@ww2.com), February 28, 1999.

Not Again! --

Your wartime experiences were horrendous, but not unique. Having married a refugee (who was 12 when her family took to the roads in Eastern Europe) I've had occasion to hear many similar stories.

They are devastating even to listen to. But these accounts tell us only that one does what one must to survive, and that not everyone succeeds.

In the present situation, do you have any concrete suggestions for the rest of us?

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), March 01, 1999.

Dear Tom,

WWII was only the beginning of my problems. What followed was in many ways worse than my experiences during the war and lasted a lot longer. They did not end until the mid-sixties when I graduated from college. Then I soared to heaven.

DeDaulle said: "The more I get to know people the more I like my dog." Oddly I still like people, and very much so. Except lawyers, they are not people.

The purpose of my posts has been to get people to think about what might happen in the near future. And to prepare accordingly.

I am not worried about myself. I am worried about my wife of 30+ years and other people close to me.

I am finishing my memoir and am trying to get it published as soon as possible. A literary agents in NY is now reading it and that is a big step. Hopefully I will learn more when he returns from Europe in mid- March.

People who have read it have been greatly inspired by my memoir. The reviews have been exceedly coplimentary and encouraging. I will inform you when I can send you copy in some form. You may contact Chris at catsy@pond.com (she kindly volunteered as go-between))or me hatchou@yahoo.com.

Concrete suggestion?:

The biggest problem for me was always was emotional.

It is easier to soothe your body than your soul. You can always find food and shelter, although they might be miserably deficient.

The key to sanity is patience. Have patience with your situation, yourself and those around you. I always lived from minute to minute when things got tough. You know you can survive at least another minute. And another... When you are under great stress keep your mind in a foxhole. Was it FDR who said that?

I grew up in an atheist milieu. Looking back over the years I am convinced that a higher power guided me through minefields to where I am today. There were too many "miracles" and "coincidences" for it not to have been so.

Wish I had the time to write more.

-- Not Again! (seenit@ww2.com), March 01, 1999.

Tom, Not Again's posts are his own valuable way of contributing to Y2K awareness and preparations. He's lived through hell and giving his account, taken directly from his written memoirs.

I for one, find them extrememely valuable, as I am actively trying to prepare myself mentaly for hardships to come. They are a sort of pep-talk for me to know that whatever calamity life may throw at me, if Not Again could survive them and thrived later on in life, so can I.

I imagine that I am not alone who can benefit from his posts.

I wade through a lot of complaining garbage about other people's posts, those are the true waste of bandwith. What does not benefit you could very well benefit someone else.

Offtopic, you know how to read, all you need to do is skip threads from Not Again, that takes less time then posting a complaint and won't contribute to wasted bandwith.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), March 01, 1999.

As I was saying ...

-- Not Again! (Seenit@ww2.com), May 09, 1999.

Very nice to see you again, TTF, and a warm welcome back!

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), May 09, 1999.