Hazard, Kentucky circa 1943

If time travel was possible, I'd like to go back to Hazard, Kentucky during World War II. These pictures were taken on Main Street, near the courthouse and my father's clothing store. I'm in one of the pictures. If you are interested, find a man in overalls near the bottom of the top picture. Look past him over on the sidewalk and I am standing there in a dark sleeveless sweater with a light-colored shirt under it. I have my elbow bent about 90 degrees.

So what was going on in Hazard that day? My father was one of the organizers of a scrap drive to help the war effort. We scoured the whole town for scrap metal which we carried, dragged or hauled downtown and piled it all the way aroung the courthouse. Trucks took it across the river to the railroad yards and loaded it on a train to be taken to Pennsylvania. We liked to think that our scrap metal became parts of tanks, ships, airplanes, bombs, and bullets that helped win the war.

Hazard looks a lot different now. Even the court house has been replaced, but the house we lived in is still there.