1944: Testing of Munitions at Ft. DeSoto

One of my moms friends gave me a box of good smelling body powder when l was just a little girl in Gulfport in 1944. This was my prized possession at the time. Well, my little sister Kathy dumped it somehow and boy was l mad because the day before she had killed my turtle. She was only 2-years-old at the time and must have gotten tired of the turtle running around, so she put in under the leg of a little play table and sat on the table - he got squished!

Needless to say, on top of that fiasco, dumping my precious powder really angered me. So, I am in the bedroom on Preston Avenue picking up the powder and putting it back in the box......with tears and crying like you wouldn't believe.

THEN, a loud BOOM!!! The next thing you know, I am picking up plaster from the floor and putting that in the box too!! It seems that out at Ft. Desoto (being wartime) they would test munitions. 

Well, you want to hear mom trying to explain percussion to me when l continuely questioned her as to 'where the bombs were?' as we had a big hole in the ceiling. Seemed to me at the time if a bomb knocked a hole in your ceiling and the plaster came down, there should be a bomb on the floor.  I was a smart little girl, but I could not grasp the answer my mother tried so hard to give me.  

Happy Memorial Day Gulfport