Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

The Golden Summers of the 1930s Give Way to the Turbulent 1940s by H. Bishop Holliman 2011

"On July 1, 1941, I registered for the World War II draft, an event that had lasting consequences for me, as it had on everyone else of my age group.  At the time, I was working in a New Deal temporary job in Birmingham, Alabama and at Hill’s Grocery Store on Saturday, planning to return to college in September. 

My brother-in-law Robert W. Daly, Sr., his wife - my sister, Vena and my niece, Mary, already had been to Daytona that summer for two weeks, and here in August they were going back again!  Robert had a very stressful job at the Woodlawn bank, and he decided he should spend at least a month away from it. So they took off again.  This time I went with them to help drive in case Robert did not feel up to driving all the way.  So, I quit both jobs and made my last trip to Florida as a foot loose and fancy free lad.       


Left, Mary Daly Herrin in the bathing cap supervises her cousins, Carolyn and Charles Ferrell at Daytona Beach, Florida the last summer before America went to war. Photos courtesy of Charles H. Ferrell.

 Left to right that late summer in Daytona Beach, Florida: Carolyn and Loudelle Ferrell, Vena and Mary Daly, Bishop Holliman, Robert Daly and Charles Halford Ferrell.   Germany invaded the Soviet Union June 22, 1941.  America was only a few months from being thrust into the growing war.

Robert rented a house (pictured above) similar to the one we had had at Clearwater, Florida in 1936.  Thus, we were prepared to stay as long as allowed by the bank.  A few days into our stay, Loudelle, Charles, Halford and Carolyn joined us.  I think they were living in Jacksonville, Alabama at the time where Charles was the Methodist pastor. There we were - a big part of the Ulyss and Pearl Holliman family, enjoying our stay on the beach in the summer of 1941.

                                             

But it all ended too soon.  Mama wrote from home in Irondale, Alabama to tell me I had received a notice from the draft board to report, adding that 'you had better get back home'.  I planned to hitch hike, which was a popular way for college boys to travel in that day.  But Loudelle would not hear of that, so she pretended that they also had to get home, and that I should ride with them.  And so I did."

Next posting, the War comes and everything changes....