World War II - home front USA

"Hughitt Street" is a fact-based historical book on how World War II impacted the lives of people who lived there at the time. The storyline begins as a woman returns and views Hughitt Street, which is now deserted, with the eyes of the inner child. She recalls, through the characters, how life was on Hughitt Street when she lived there at ages 10 through 14 during the "War Years". The reader will find themselves back back in 1940's in Iron Mountain, Michigan - on Hughitt Street - with hotels, bars, brothels, Italian stores and characters that come alive through the radio, newspapers and America at war... President Roosevelt, Truman, Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito and Tojo became everyday names as world events influenced her life.

Excerpt from Book

... As a kid growing up, you never thought things would change. The houses, stores and places would freeze forever in time. People would never die and Ray Cecconi's store would always be there....

... One cool fall day I came home from school and found my mother sitting in a chair close to the Heatolator wood stove with her feet in bedroom slippers braced against the stove, and she was crying. "What's the matter, Mamma?" I asked, and she looked at me and said she had received a telegram from the War Department and Uncle Benny had been killed in the Battle of Tarawa. And she cried. Long ago she had put up a white flag with a red border and a blue star with gold braid on it and proudly displayed it in the window. A blue star meant somebody in the family was in the war. A gold star meant they were killed. We now would have a gold star....

...Each generation is beholden the their ancestors; for wars and peace have been going on since civilization began. There will always be those who hope to rule through might and conquest, also there are many who try to build a society of men who will reason together and hope is renewed with each era. The wise men die, young warriors are born and the cycle goes on. Peace in the world and soul is evasive but hopefully we can learn from the past....