Document text
History lesson comes to life Photo by Jim Craven Keith Krambeal, back to camera, and his wife Gaynell share some of their World War II-era memories with students Wednesday at South Medford High School as part of a two-day event focusing on history. South Medford students learn from first-hand accounts By JOANNA COLLINS Imagine the government rationing your shoes. Imagine watching planes shoot down balloon bombs headed toward your hometown. Imagine hearing the sound of the atomic bomb the exploded over Hiroshima. South Medford High School students heard these remembrances and more Wednesday when they heard people describe what life was like during World War II. "The fact that they'd come out and talk to us is wonderful," said sophomore Sarah Smith. "It's more real then just through the history books." The students heard from both veterans and civilians who visited with students in the school library. The two days of activities are part of a living history lesson organized by South High social studies instructor Mike Beagle. About 300 students in grades 10 through 12 from classes in American Studies, English and U.S. History spent about 25 minutes with six veterans or civilians. After their interviews, the students will summarize what they learned -- and complete their required assignment -- by writing a paper. "The goal of it is to get our kids to understand why they live the way they do now," said Beagle, a second-year South High teacher. At one table, Gaynell and Keith Krambeal of Medford told a group of students what it was like to be in the U.S. during the war. Both were children at the time, but remember life on the homefront well. Gaynell passed around a war rations book, explaining to the students what rationed goods each color stamp could bring in exchange. Red meant bread, meat, sugar and butter. Blue meant canned goods. "There were a lot of things going on that today you wouldn't know existed," Gaynell told students. "But they were very real in those days." Keith Krambeal told the South students about the day he heard over the radio about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. naval base in Hawaii attacked by Japan. The attack brought the war to to the U.S. Krambeal lived on a farm in the Midwest and didn't even know where Pearl Harbor was. Before the war ended he had moved to Oregon, where he was a witness to the scares even Oregonians could receive. Krambeal watched Navy planes try to shoot down a Japanese gas balloon bomb off the coast near North Bend. At other tables, the stories were a bit more intense. Vern Wolthoff, 82, of Medford, told of his almost five years serving in the South Pacific aboard a destroyer. He handed out a diagram that showed the position of his ship in the fleet. His scariest moments? Kamikazes attacks. The suicidal Japanese pilots wreaked havoc with the U.S. fleet by crashing their airplanes into ships. And then there was the moment Wolthoff heard the events that changed history. "We were 60 miles offshore with the detonation of both the atom bombs," said Wolthoff. Although he couldn't see anything through the fog and clouds, Wolthoff definitely heard the explosions that would later be identified as the first atom bombs dropped in wartime, first on Hiroshima then on Nagasaki. The U.S. bombing of Japan ended the war in the Pacific. Beagle has been making history come alive for years by having students talk with people who could recount real life during wartime. Before coming to South High, Beagle had students in Tigard and Silverton do similar interviews. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA