Interview with William Blalock K.:To start out, what is your name?W. B.:William Blalock.C. K.:Date of birth?W. B.:October 13, 1925.C. K.:Place of birth?W. B.:In Durham county.C. K.:Was that your residence when you were a teenager?W. B.:Yes, until I was 17 years old when I served the country.C. K.:So, you went into WWII?W. B.:Yes, in WWII in the navy.C. K.:Did you live with both of your parents when you were young?W. B.:Oh yes.C. K.:Was your father in WWI?W. B.:Oh no, he didnt make it, he wasnt in that age group.C. K.:Did he know anyone in WWI?W. B.:Yes, he had a couple of brothers that were in WWI.C. K.:Did they ever tell you or him stories that you can remember?W. B.:No, other than I remember him saying something about the trenches over in France. They fought unlike we do today.C. K.:Did you guys have electricity back then?W. B.:Well the earliest I remember we did not have electricity. The earliest I remember, I must have been about 3 years old, I have a picture of me and my mother and father when I was 2 years old. And we lived out in Rougemont and there was no electricity there at that time. And I remember we had ... a well across the street. We had to walk across the street to draw water from the well.C. K.:So, you said you were in WWII, any war stories?W. B.:Oh yes, one time I got a brain concussion, a skull fracture ... I was sent back to Eya Heights Hospital in Pearl Harbor, there I spent about six months. When I went back to duty, I went into a destroyer. Later I went to be a radio electrician.C. K.:What about the attack on Pearl Harbor, what do you remember about that?W. B.:I was at home in Rougemont at the time when the bombing went on. But my older brother was in Pearl Harbor on the USS West Virginia. He was a member of the crew.C. K.:Did he get killed?W. B.:Oh no, he survivedC. K.:Did he tell you specific details about Pearl Harbor?W. B.:Uh, no. Well he did say he was not on duty that morning, he was on liberty in Honolulu...
