Uncle Jake had joined the Navy and the family was riding in the car taking him downtown to the train station on Broadway. I recall watching Uncle Jake’s dog, Tops run alongside the car. After a while, he stopped running and went back to the house on Crittenden Drive to wait for his master’s return. It would be several years before the sailor returned to the side bedroom. A flag with one star would hang in the front window of the home until he came back. The ship beside Uncle Jake would be sunk in the Pacific but he would be safe.
Often we would imagine we saw Uncle Jake in the black and white newsreels that played before the movies at the Highland Theater.
We gathered in my grandparents’ house at 4435 Crittenden Drive each Sunday. My Aunt Doris’ husband, Pendelton, also served in the Navy. Looking back on those war days, I understand the adults drew strength from eating those Sunday meals together. They talked of better times and shared the bond families tie without asking.
My grandfather gave us money for ice cream one afternoon following dinner so my mother and Aunt Doris decided to walk with us to the Drug Store on Park Boulevard. On the way, neighbors called out their door, “The war is over!!”
The ice cream money was promptly used for the Street Car Fare to take all of us downtown to Fourth and Broadway where other jubilant Louisianians gathered to celebrate the War’s end. I had very few Street Car rides during childhood and this is one I am glad to remember