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2
First, there was Roderick MacDonell Cronk, Jr. (born on November 2, 1948). “Rod” became owner of several used book stores in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Although this business provided a comfortable living for “Rod”, it did not earn him the “rich man” title for which he had aspired. “Rod” still lives in Fort Lauderdale and still runs his book business.
Secondly, there was Patricia (Trish) Ann Cronk, who was born on February 9, 1951. “Trish” had three husbands, the first of which became the father of her only child, Sandra (Sandy) Lynn Bonifay, born on September 15, 1970. “Trish’s” first husband was John Oswald Bonifay, this marriage ending in a divorce. Husband number two was Lawrence Reed Hamm (born August 25, 1954), who adopted “Sandy” on February 26, 1981. Although I did not personally know “Larry”, from the remarks about him which were issued by “Trish” and others, I believe that he was a very nice person and a good provider. However, this marriage also ended in divorce.
The third and present husband of Patricia is Fred Kummer (born April 26, 1941) who I do know personally. Fred is a successful representative of America’s finest companies for Life, Health and Annuities, and a very fine man. He was a member of the prestigious Top 100 Million Dollar Club. It is easy to see why he has been successful in his career.
The thirdborn child of Roderick, Sr.., and “Polly” was Darlene Gertrude Cronk who was born on November 19, 1953. After the birth of her only child, named Gene Rod CRONK (born on October 21, 1976), Darlene moved from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Palatine, Illinois. Darlene died there in January of 1995.
CHAPTER TWO
As a young boy growing up in Savannah, Georgia, my life was filled with good times and with bad times. The uncertainties obscured the daily events which were happening in my life. Our family, growing up in the depression years, faced the same barricades that every other family faced. It was a difficult time to raise a family, and my father did the best he could with his limited income. It seems to me that his monthly salary was about $200 (or less), however the cost of every tangible article was equally low.
For example, I can remember my mother and father going to the Big Barn Grocery Store in Savannah (I think it was located on Barnard Street near the downtown area) and leaving with five large bags of groceries and the total cost was approximately $5.00. However, taking into consideration the fact that rent, clothing for five kids, automobile expenses, food, schooling, and all of the other expenses, including utilities, quickly ate up the family income.
The Big Barn Grocery Store was the fore-runner of the grocery store supermarkets. Although there were many food articles that still required the services of the clerk, such as cutting and weighing cheese, weighing peanut butter, dipping butter, etc., the new innovation was that you could select your own canned goods and packaged products. This helped speed up your visit to the grocery store.
Speaking of grocery stores, the first supermarket in Savannah, Georgia, was an A & P Grocery Supermarket located on West Broad Street just south of Liberty Street.. This new idea in grocery stores was an immediate success, and everybody flocked to the store to do their shopping. Because of the innovation of the supermarkets, it was necessary to provide different packing for food products. Butter was packed in cartons, oleomargarine was packed in a carton with a little packet of yellow coloring which had to be blended into the one pound block of oleomargarine, peanut butter was put in jars, and a multitude of other products were placed in new forms of containers. I remember before the supermarket was established, I worked at the A & P chain of grocery stores. The first store at which I worked was located at West Broad and Forty-First Street. Another was located on Waters Avenue and Thirty-Eighth Street. The last one was located in the downtown section about one block north of Broughton Street. Prices then were considerably cheaper than today’s costs, for example, name brand cigarettes (Lucky Strike, Camel, Chesterfield, Philip Morris, etc.) sold for two packs for a quarter. Cheaper brands such as Domino, Target, etc., sold at ten cents for a package of twenty cigarettes. All other food items were comparatively cheaper. An interesting thing happened while I was working at the A & P. My first cousin. Stewart Wilson, worked at a bowling alley as a soda jerk. He had learned the alphabet of the sign language, and he taught it to me. There was a mute family who bought their groceries at the West Broad and Forty-First Street store. When they learned I could read their wants, I think they told their friends about me, because it was not too long before there were about six or seven mute families buying their groceries from me. In those days, you had to tell the clerk what you wanted, and he would get it for you. No supermarkets yet.
I ran away from home on three different occasions. The first was when I was about five and Rod (my brother) was three, my mother was going to give us a bath. So Rod and I decided to leave. We walked about nine blocks and it started to rain, so we sought cover. We found an overhang to protect us from the rain, but the owners of the building found us and called the police. My mother had already contacted them, and so they got us back together.
The second time I ran away from home, I got a little farther. I was about ten years old and Stewart Wilson was visiting my family. He lived in Knoxville, Tennessee, at that time. He apparently got home sick and decided to return home. He asked me if I would go with him to Knoxville, and I said “yes”. So we started hitch-hiking to Knoxville, but we got only about 100 miles from Savannah when the police spotted us. They contacted our parents, and put us on a bus bound for Savannah.
The last time was when I was about twelve years old. I wanted to go to Jacksonville, Florida, to see my Aunt Mildred who lived there. And so I hitch-hiked to Jacksonville. This time I got to stay there about three days before I was once again shipped back to Savannah. Not once was I mistreated or molested by the people who gave us the rides, but you would certainly not try anything like that today. Back then, there was not the meanness in the world that there is today. When I was about ten years old, my mother worked at a company called Success Soda. Their motto was “Nothing succeeds like success”. Mother owned an Austin automobile which was a very small car.
One day I carried the keys to the car to school with me, and when I discovered that I had the keys with me, I told the teacher that I had to return them to my mother so that she could go to work. So I returned home (we lived at Bona Bella at this time), but when I got there she had gone to work with my father. Well, there was the car, there were the keys, and there was me. Putting all those factors together could result in only one thing. I had to take that little car for a ride. We lived at the top of a small hill, and so I had no trouble getting that car going. I drove down the road on the way to Isle of Hope, turned around and drove down Norwood Avenue, went to Sandfly, then back home. On the way back home, I passed a motorcycle policeman who took a good look at me, but did not turn around. When I returned to my house, I could not get that little car up the hill. After repeated attempts, I finally left it at the bottom, and that is how I got busted.
My first school was the Sacred Heart School where I attended first grade. As I remember, I did not pass, so my mother took me out of that school and put me in a public school. I was placed in the second grade at the Forty-Ninth Street School. When I reached the fourth grade, I transferred to the Thunderbolt Elementary School. From there I went to the Thirty-Seventh Street Junior High School, now living at 210 West Thirty-Fifth Street. Then on to Savannah High School. By the time I reached High School, we lived at 2915 Burroughs Street, which was almost two miles from Savannah High School. We walked there and back every school day.
Savannah High School was divided into two separate schools. One called Academic High School (principal was Mr. Varnedoe) and the other was called Commercial High School (principal was Mr. Funk). I attended Commercial High School, and participated in the band, playing the trumpet. I enjoyed being in the band, getting to attend all the football games, parades, state band meet, etc. The years were 1940 through 1942.
World War II broke out on December 8th, 1941, and after completing eleven grades of school, and being eighteen years old, I entered the military. I felt that I would have been drafted, so I enlisted in the U. S. Army Air Force. There was no Air Force, per se, but it was part of the army. So I left school before I graduated, but only because of the current circumstances of our country being at war. I always said that I would return to school to get my diploma when I was discharged from the service.
CHAPTER THREE
When I enlisted in the U.S.A.A.F. on November 5, 1942, I was sent to the Fort Gordon Military Reservation in Augusta, Georgia, to be indoctrinated. This consisted of physical exams, getting medical shots, issuing of uniforms, classes explaining what to expect and how to cope with it, and included our I. Q. Test. I scored 124 on my I. Q. Test. I later found out that it was necessary to score at least 110 in order to attend Officer’s Candidate School. There were also orientations as to fighting the enemy and surviving. I stayed about two or three days at Fort Gordon, then was transferred to Miami Beach, Florida, for basic training.
My billet at Miami Beach was in the Norman Hotel located at Collins Avenue and Fifth Street in south Miami Beach. Basic training in wartime Miami Beach was not as bad as I had been told it would have been. We became soldiers there, and learned to understand and obey orders of our superiors. We marched down the streets of Miami Beach, past hotels, stores, and houses. There were many units marching in the streets, so many that our unit sometimes had to wait until other units cleared the street so that we could proceed. There were many classes there all intended to prepare us for war. We were told that there was the possibility that we would not return from our overseas assignments, and there was much to-do about giving your all for your country. In effect, it was a form of brain-washing. We had rifles and bayonets, and with bayonets attached, we learned to kill the enemy (if necessary). We also learned how to avoid being killed by the enemy. Thank goodness that I never personally had to use that part of my training.
After basic training was over (two to three months), I was transferred to Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois, so that I could attend welding school. I was there about two months before washing out of welding school. I did O.K. with the electric welding portion of the class, but I simply could not get the acetylene welding down pat. I burned more holes in the aluminum samples with which we were working, that the instructors decided they wanted to keep their airplanes intact. It was generally conceded that airplanes do not fly too well when they are full of holes.
Then I was assigned to Clerical School at Salt Lake City, Utah, again for a period of about two months. There I learned all the facets of working in an office in the Air Force. I had learned to type in Junior High School and in High School, and in fact, I was quite accomplished in that field. I completed the course with honors and was sent to the 398th Bomb Group stationed at Spokane, Washington, and assigned to Group Headquarters in the Group Engineering and Armament section. Soon after my arrival at Spokane, the entire Group was transferred to Rapid City, South Dakota, for training in preparation for our overseas assignment. I was promoted to the rank of Corporal in Rapid City. The training at Rapid City was primarily for the air crews and mechanics, flying B-17 Bombers. Our office work was already in full swing.
Upon completion of our training period at Rapid City, it was time for our overseas assignment. Our destination was England, and the air crews flew their airplanes on a circuitous route to Great Britain. The ground personnel, however, were sent to Boston, Massachusetts, by troop train, there to board the ship that took us to England. The name of the ship was preceded by the name “President”, but unfortunately, I do not remember the complete name of the vessel. I suppose we were taking a more or less direct route to Britain, but about half way across the ocean, we were told that our sonar picked up German submarines, and so we had to detour to the north skirting Greenland and Iceland. It was during this time that we encountered a violent storm at sea, causing the waves to be about 100 feet high. It was quite an adventure, and the sight of the Northern Lights did not overshadow the experience. We were all glad to get through the tempest, and arrive safely in England.
We docked at the city of Birmingham, and from there went to our new home. The Air Force Base to which we were assigned was called “Nuthampstead”, or in official terminology, “Station 131”. I was still a “Corporal” at that time. When we arrived at our base, the airplanes and crew members were all there, and all by now completely at home. With us, the work of being in a new country and a new home was just ahead. It did not take too long to set up our offices in Group Headquarters, and the Squadrons were likewise quickly set up. It took only a few days for our entire outfit to become “operational”, in other words, ready for war.
It was shortly after we arrived (two or three months) that I was given my promotion to the rank of Sergeant, which was my final promotion, and the rank I held at my discharge from the service on October 24, 1945.
My job during World War Two was that of a clerk in the Group Engineering and Armament section. It was my responsibility, among other things, to call each of the four squadrons of which the Group was composed to relay to them the bomb load of the airplanes and which airplanes were to be used for each mission. There were four squadrons in the 398th Bomb Group, those being the 600th, 601st, 602nd, and the 603rd Bomb Squadrons. The destinations of the missions were given to the air crews at their briefing prior to their mission.
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