European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 07, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Pearl Harbor Quot Usi fowls 11 8 support citizen Tif m six months before the attack president Roosevelt was pushing the Uso with this billboard in new . 6.1941the Way we were by Rick Hampson the associated press As predicted dec. 7, 1941, lives in infamy. But who remembers the Day before Pearl Harbor saturday dec. 6, 1941. Was a final Day of innocence the last time americans could realistically Hope to avoid entanglements abroad and preserve the old ways at Home. The Sun Rose shortly after 7 a m. On a nation of 134 million people More than half of them living in Rural areas or towns under 50,000 it was an Era of Packard Hup mobiles and Terra planes of 15 cent chocolate sodas at the drugstore on main Street and wednesday night band concerts on the courthouse Steps. It was a country where a National debt of $47 billion was widely regarded As a scandal where Only a few million people had to pay Federal income taxes where congressmen made $10,000 a year. The capital was so relaxed you could walk through the White House Gate and onto its grounds without a pass. Los Angeles had yet to experience its first smog Alert. In new York Quot mugging Quot meant making a funny face and a shortage of live in help was considered a serious social problem. The civilian work Force was 56 million Strong and three quarters male. Most women who Heij jobs did so purely out of necessity. At Home a third of housewives cooked with Wood or Coal and halt did laundry by hand or with a hand cranked washing machine. A fifth of Homes were without electricity and less than half had telephones. The nation finally had crawled out of the depression but More than a third of the nations 32 million families lived below the poverty line of $1,500 a year. Somewhere Between 4 million and 5 million people were unemployed. They included disproportionate numbers of Blacks who had benefited Little from the Boom in defense spending. The average weekly income was $40, the minimum wage 40 cents an hour. Those who paid Federal income taxes did so a year later in quarterly instalments. Withholding and take Home pay were unknown concepts a married Man with two dependents paid no income tax unless he made $2,500 then he paid $6 if his income was $5,000, he paid $271. There were 16 shopping Days til Christmas and business was booming. Websters new Standard dictionary Cost $1.95, a new Chevrolet $900, a a decent suit about $35. Turner1 s fish Market on the Sands Cost $15,500 a at least that a what producer Billy Rose paid for it at an auction Friday night in new York. Havana cigars were in every tobacco shop and you could buy genuine Alligator handbags $10 at Bloomingdale natural Mink Coats $1,275 at Altman Fountain pens $2.49 at Gimbels and the Remington Model 1 typewriter $39.95 at Stern s. Nylons $4 a pair were replacing silk stockings which had been made scarce by an embargo on japanese silk thread. Brooks Brothers was Selling custom tailored Olive drab Soldier s shirts. Air conditioning was beginning to appear in office buildings and advertisements and articles told of coming marvels such As Kitchen garbage disposals pm radio and television which had been successfully tested in a few Large cities. At the White House president Roosevelt had a message for reporters a it s a Good Day for Christmas shopping a and gave his Secretary the rest of the afternoon off. Alger Hiss and most of his colleagues on the state department s East Asia desk left work Early he would recall Quot with no thought of impending  surrounded by a world at War americans busied themselves with Domestic concerns. Buffalo Chevrolet workers voted to strike within two weeks new yorkers talked about making the old Gracie Homestead on the East River the mayor s official residence the do Catcher in Laguna Beach Calif was empowered to mete out the death penalty to dogs chronically guilty of Quot Barking or howling at night or biting  in Hollywood the producers of two faced woman starring Greta Garbo announced the film would be withdrawn from Heaters following a complaint by the Catholic league of decency that its plot a involving twin Sisters who sleep with the same Man a was immoral greyhound bus service in the Northeast was halted by a dispute Over the pay of seven cleaning women at the Cleveland garage they were getting 40 cents an hour the Union complained not the 60 cents guaranteed in the contract. Chicks bred to grow red White and Blue feathers were exhibited at the Roanoke va., poultry show in Elizabeth n.j., a policeman shot and killed a 6-year-old Holstein named Claire after she escaped from a pen and went berserk. Crime also went on As usual. In Pocatello Idaho a Man and a woman waited to be sentenced for adultery an offence punishable by up to three years in prison in the Bronx a judge ordered the Jaffe Brothers Eli and Frank held on $500 bail each for dealing in stolen live chickens. Gerald Ford was practising Law in grand rapids mich., and Ronald Reagan was making movies in los Angeles. Jimmy Carter was at Georgia southwestern College George Bush at prep school in Andover mass. Eileen Maguire of Westfield mass., was returning from a shopping trip when she smashed the front end of her fathers car but got Over the Shock in time to go dancing that night with her Boyfriend. Cornelia Wilma Allen a product of Brearley Chatham Hall and the masters school made her debut at the clubhouse of the National society of colonial Dames on East 71st Street in Manhattan. She wore a gown of chartreuse mousse line de some. A few Miles to the North italian Jack Harris a Journeyman body puncher who fought Firpo and Tunney died in Yonkers at the age of 43. That night 46 million people listened to the Lucky strike hit Parade on the radio. Others danced to the hit Chattanooga Choo Choo or paid 25 cents to see Abbott amp  Buck privates or Bob Hope in caught in the draft. But if december 6 was a last Day of innocence it also offered ample warning of trouble ahead. America was a nation in limbo not at War not really at peace. That morning every Story on the front Page of the new be. V a a  Hepburn posing in 1939, starred in the 1941 movie Quot the Philadelphia