oral history
Mr. McGinn was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on November 10, 1914. He lived in his family's home in Hartford until he married, and moved to Windsor Locks where, he lived with his wife's family. He attended local schools in Hartford and graduated from Hartford High School in 1932. Mr. McGinn said that he enjoyed school and particularly liked History, English, and baseball. He said that those two teachers, Mr. Young, and Mr. Shide were two of his most admired men growing up, and said that to this day he still thinks of. He wanted to attend college after High School, but could not due to his parents not being able to afford it. He said as a boy he wore knickers and long socks most of the time and he remembered his first pair of pants his mother bought him when he started high school. He reminded me that when he was a youth, attending high school was not taken for granted. He said that most of his friends went immediately into the trades or became laborers, if they could find a job.
On December 7th 1941, he was having dinner over his in-laws when his brother in-law rushed in screaming that Pearl Harbor was being attacked. He said that at that moment he realized his life was never going to be the same. He said he enlisted the next week and spent the rest of the war with the 43rd Infantry Division, fighting in the Pacific. The profoundness of a passing generation is often not realized until there comes a point in time where your own mortality is conceptualized. The recognition that the world you grew up in no longer exists is overpowering, frightening. The thought that all the stories your parents generation will not tell and be remembered congers images of leaves being blown away on an early winter's stormy night. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ child was good. Though the country was going through a depression, his father worker and if they suffered he did not realize it. He said that he had a lot of friends in the neighborhood and that he would go to
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 697
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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