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Home Front Letters: Shirley La Rosa

Mrs. Shirley La Rosa, of Pahrump, Nev., writes of church life on the home front during World War II. She says the first thing that came to mind about church activities was bingo.

“They had picnic tables set up outside on warm summer nights for the adults to sit around and play. We used to say bingo, the old corn game, because unlike today, where ink daubers are used to cover your numbers when called, in those days they used hard kernels of corn.”

(I’ve played bingo with kernels of corn before. I guess bingo popularity never fails. Fans play multiple games with computers nowadays, while poor folks like me — who never win — still play one set of cards on the rare occasion when I go with my brother and his wife, visiting from out-of-town.)

Shirley continues: “The biggest excitement a kid could have was going to the grocery store, putting a penny in the gumball machine and being the lucky winner of a striped gumball. That meant you won a free candy bar. Another freebie was if your five cent ice cream cone had a piece of paper in it that said ‘free’: then, next time, you got a free cone on the house.”

Thanks to Shirley for these glimpses of a simpler day and, also, for two post cards concerning Pearl Harbor.

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