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Dec. 7 / By Margaret Dart

It was 2:25 Sunday afternoon December the 7th, 1941. The radio was broadcasting Sammy Kaye's Sunday Serenade. Someone switched the channel to John Daily, who always reported the world news at 2:30.

Over the speaker came the words, "the Japs have bombed Pearl Harbor."

The two couples with us that Sunday were from Lawrence. They had driven down to Kansas City to find apartment as they were (the men) to begin their residency at KU Medical Center in January. I had fixed lunch and were sitting on the floor in front of the fire. We didn't have much furniture. Jim and I had bought the small two-bedroom cottage in Westwood that spring after I quit teaching in Lawrence. We felt we had mortgaged our future buying that $5,000 house with a $300 down payment.

We heard John Daily say, "the Philippines are now under attack" and suddenly he was cut off.

I remember we sat in silence. The only sound was the crackle of the wood burning in the fireplace. Someone started taking the plates to the kitchen. We couldn't find words. They soon left. Just a "goodbye."

The certainty of tomorrow was gone.