2017/2018
Vol. 13

A Personal Situation

December 7, 1941; Bloomsdale, Missouri, USA

Have you ever got into a position that got personal fast? My great-grandpa happened to get into just such a personal situation. It was December 7, 1941, and my great-grandpa was thirteen. He had a school play, but before the play started, my great-grandpa decided to go to the outhouse. This trip to the outhouse was going to be like no other.

As my great-grandpa walked up the stairs, he noticed a man — a man Great-Grandpa thought he had never seen before. The man was average height with his shoulders bent down, his hands on his head, and his back slouched down.

When my great-grandpa got all the way up the stairs, he could tell this man was his school bus driver. My great-grandpa saw a tear in his bus driver’s eye. This made my great-grandpa’s hands sweaty, and butterflies danced in his stomach. Great-Grandpa was uncomfortable, because he was used to seeing his bus driver happy. My great-grandpa had never seen a man cry before in his thirteen years.

The bus driver had twelve kids — ten boys and two girls — and all ten boys were in the service. My great-grandpa asked the bus driver what was wrong. The bus driver told my great-grandpa that Pearl Harbor had been bombed by the Japanese earlier that day. Standing in awe, my great-grandpa asked why the bus driver was so upset. The bus driver said two of his sons were in Pearl Harbor, and he didn’t know if those two sons were alive. With abundant tears streaming down his face, the bus driver asked my great-grandpa not to tell anyone, and my great-grandpa promised.

The next morning on the way to school, my great-grandpa ran down the aisle of the bus to ask the bus driver if his sons were okay. The bus driver said that earlier that morning he had received a call from the army. The army said both sons were alive and uninjured. My great-grandpa was delighted with this great news. The whole day after that, my great-grandpa couldn’t stop thinking about the bus driver, his sons, and Pearl Harbor.

Alex Newman; Missouri, USA

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