Howard Herron Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Howard Herron 5 7
Q: I see.
A: But 1 knew all about it.
Q: They met up with some volunteer sheriffs and police workers that kind
of....
A: Protect the men down there.
Q: Damaged their cars?
A: Yes, Ben Lewis, they finally found his car and the State Police got
his car back for him. He loaned it to them. Ben Lewis was a farmer but
he loaned them his truck when they went down there. They went through
the cornfields and everything to get away from them. The folks that went
down from Auburn, they weren't prepared for all that gun work, They
wanted to do it peacefully.
Q: So they had quite some stories to tell when they got back?
A: Oh, I guess they did.
Q: Do you remember back in 1932 when the library was started here in
Au bur a?
A: Well, yes, but I didn't pay much attention ta it. I couldn't tell
you much about it.
Q: Do you remember where it was located?
A: No, I don't. See, after World War 11, that's when the Japs blew up
Pearl Harbor.
Q: Yes. Do you remember where you were the day that they bombed Pearl
Harbor?
A: I lived in Springfield and I belonged to the American Legion and my
son belonged to the Sons of the American Legion. I was going over there
to get him and they came running in and said they bombed Pearl Harbor.
There was an awful excitement then, I tell you. I lived in Springfield
then, I moved to Springfield and I sold cars for Latham Motor Company.
This war comes on, I volunteered for war work.
They sent me to the fairgrounds. There was an Army Air Force Depot and I
was on the Fire Department there. I got promoted to where I was Captain
of the Fire Department. And then when the war was over, the war lasted
about five or six years, and all that time we had so much lumber piled up
there, oh tanks, trucks and everything else. I moved out when my motherin-law
died and we moved out here to keep house for my father-in-law.
They wanted me to stay where I could be on call for the fire because
there was a lot of perishable stuff. All that airplane stuff was all
over the fairgrounds and I had, in order to keep my job, we moved back to
Springfield and I stayed there. A11 the the I kept thinking, "Well, now
there's going to be a good living between the guy that's got and the guy