Interview of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Trotter

Interview Team: Kelsey Malkin, Crystal Nguyen, and Josh Nichols

Faculty Facilitator: Mrs. McDuffie

Date of Interview: 3-9-06

Mr. Daniel Trotter was born in Madison, Georgia, on April 21, 1925, while Mrs. Trotter was born in Springfield, Missouri on April 1, 1925. Mr. Trotter attended Jordan Vocational High School, and Mrs. Trotter attended Columbus High School. The Trotters both graduated after their eleventh grade of high school. At the time, there were only three grades in high school: ninth, tenth, and eleventh. Most boys were in J.R.O.T.C. Mr. Trotter was the vice president of the J Club and played on the Jordan football team. Jordan was the first high school in the nation to achieve 100 percent in their war bond stamp book drive.

For fun, Daniel and his friends would drive through the Columbus High School parking lot back-firing their cars, hung around the house, went to drive-in movies, or sat around the radio listening to the radio programs, “Amos and Andy” and “Gangbusters.” They also spent their time listening to the music of Harry James and Frank Sinatra and dancing the Jitterbug. Mrs. Trotter shared that their favorite place to eat during the war was at home. Occasionally they would go out to eat at Goo Goo’s Restaurant that was famous for the best steak sandwiches in town.

To help out with the war effort, they had scrap metal drives and bought war bonds. People in Columbus volunteered their blood to the Red Cross, collected scrap rubber and metal needed to make tanks and ships. Additionally, women worked in plants to help the war effort. Most people had to have ration stamps to purchase gasoline of which they were only rationed four gallons a week. Because Mrs. Trotter’s father was a painting contractor, he had access to more gasoline for his vehicle. Sugar was also rationed. Gasoline cost seventeen cents a gallon. Coca Cola and hot dogs were five cents. Haircuts were fifteen cents. Movies were fifteen to twenty-five cents, and the Springer Opera House was fifteen cents.

There were blackouts on the West Coast of the United States but seldom in Columbus, and only at the beginning of the war. It was not uncommon to see soldiers at church, and families would take them home with them for lunch. Many Columbus girls married soldiers.

The bus was the most common form of transportation for getting around Columbus during the war. It cost five cents to ride. Mostly everyone walked or rode their bikes to school. There were only three or four cars in the parking lot belonging to students at Jordan Vocational High School and only one at Columbus High School. Mr. Daniel Trotter worked at a grocery store to earn enough money to buy a car, a 1936 Willis, to drive around in. Some of Mr. Trotter’s friends had motorcycles and used them to get around.

The Trotters seldom went over to Phenix City. Mr. Trotter said that the condition across the state line was known as “the roughest, toughest town.” Phenix City was not a place one visited often. Mr. Trotter explained how Phenix City had no laws, and the civilians killed soldiers.

Mr. Daniel Trotter had to register for the draft on his eighteenth birthday which was on April 21, 1943. He worked with the Ft. Benning line crew after graduating, while Mrs. Trotter worked for Western Union. Mr. Trotter later joined the navy, and the couple got married when they were both nineteen, living in California before he was shipped out. While he was away at war, she wrote letters to him every day.

Mr. Trotter remembered a time during the war when the ship he was serving on was sinking, and one of the men who went overboard could not swim. He tied a line to the back of his pants and pulled the man to a raft. Another time, he shared that they were in the Pacific in 120 degree weather and that a man dropped forty dollars off the ship. Mr. Trotter jumped in after it and retrieved it from water in which a shark had been seen the day before. He put the money in his mouth, and his men pulled him back to the ship. Mr. Trotter served in the United States Navy for two and one-half years and got out when he had enough points.

Mrs. Trotter heard that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor when she was working at Craig’s Bakery making bread. She remembered that she was leaving for San Diego when she heard of President Franklin Roosevelt’s death. Mr. Trotter was greatly upset upon hearing of his death. Mrs. Trotter shared that when Germany surrendered, the streets were full of sailors and other people. When the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan occurred, the couple felt that it saved thousands of soldiers’ lives. They also felt that the United States did not really have a choice in dropping them. When the war ended with Japan surrendering, people went wild with everyone kissing others. The Trotters were in San Diego when Japan surrendered.

After his service in the Navy, Mr. Trotter taught for thirty years and coached basketball for Jordan Vocational High School for seven years. He was also an Assistant Principal at Jordan and then was the Principal at Daniel Junior High School for fifteen years. The Trotters have been married for sixty-one years and are still living in Columbus.