ON THIS DATE APRIL 12,1945 BY JERRY PRITIKIN

I was 8 years old, and I stayed home from Hibbard Grammar School in Chicago earlier that day. I was listening to an afternoon kids serial radio program, when they interrupted with a special announcement, "President Roosevelt is Dead, Truman becomes President!". We were living at 4839 N. Troy Street, and I was home alone . I remember running outside and yelling...Truman's President!. I stopped a few of our neighbors, and they didn't want to believe me. Then I ran through the alley, to my parents best friends, the Waldman's, over on Albany Street to their 3rd floor apartment. Rose, answered the door, and I kept saying Truman's President, she did not believe me, too. We went into the front room, and she turned on their console wooden RCA Victor radio... and the reception had a lot of static, and after a few moments ,the announcer repeated that the President had died and Truman was now the President... it was just after 5 o'clock Chicago time. I remember thinking to myself... that the next day was Friday the 13th. That evening, the Tribune had a bold Headline FDR DIES, and his picture was bordered in black. A little more than a week later, I recall that the Terminal Theater on Lawrence Avenue had the FOX Newsreel of President Roosevelt's Funeral... and for the next 6 months kept repeating it, I believe it was Lowell Thomas Voice. FDR was loved in our house, we used to listen to his fireside chats. Less then 4 weeks later, the war in Europe was over, and it was sad that FDR did not live to see the end of it. At a future posting, I will write about the year 1945, and the profound effect it had on me...