Louis Philip Trutter Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

A. You how what he did in W? He was a navigator on a B29 and they m+de 36 trips
Japan fiom Taipei, Taiwanp Tinian or one a€ those little islands out there. They would fly
there, bomb Japan, and fly back. Thirty six times and he never got a scratch aql I think he sGd he
used up six airplanes but managed to get them back all shot up with holes in tvm and every(hing,
but managed to get back to home base.
Q. Well, he's a quiet man so you don't hear all this unless you have the opportunity. Did you all
enjoy doing the Reminiscence of Springfield at the Art Association?
A. Oh, very much. Got a big bang out of it. Everybody said the boys were mch better than the
girls. (Chuckle)
Q. I forget who the girls were, Mary Jane Masters, Jo Sane:. . .
A. Can't remember the others.
Q. Time changes our way of life. What comes to mind when you think about kt?
A, There's a number of things where I can think right off the top. Number o*, we are cerWy
a much more afnuent society. In my day I was in high school during the deprasion. I mea@ the
stock market bust during 1929, 1931 and Gee, people. ..that depression was wrrible.
Q. Well, your father had a job.
A. He was a lawyer,
Q. So he carried through.
A. He carried through fairly well, but golly there was the old expression, "Br~ther, can you spare
a dime?" They sold apples on corners. I man it was. ..
Q. But you see that on street corners today.
A. Yeah, but there were so many. . .the farmers lost their farms because. . .ten cents a bushel
corn and they couldn't meet their mortgages on their farms.
Q. So who bought them?
A. Some guy who had a couple of buck laid back and bought them for nothisg.
Q. Not the government?
A, No, no.