Bena Mae’s Kitchen: A date which will live in infamy

On Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese surprise attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dubbed the attack as ‘a date which will live in infamy,’ and he couldn’t have predicted it better. Seventy years later, Americans vividly remember what happened on that fateful day.
Like other tragic events in our nation’s history, I remember it well….Kennedy’s assassination, the day FDR died, the attack on the twin towers. The days and weeks that followed these events seemed to pass in slow motion, like a nightmare we couldn’t awake from. Their impact on the world changed it forever and our lives would never again be the same. Goodbye Mayberry, hello cruel world.
I was 14 going on 15. All I knew about war was what I had read in the history books. And where in the world was Pearl Harbor? Most of us had never heard of it or what it had to do with the U.S. We would soon learn when our lives would be turned upside down.
The Sunday afternoon that the news came on the radio was a chilly gray day, a proper setting for such dreadful news. I had been out walking with one of my girlfriends. That and bicycle riding or the movies was our usual entertainment after Sunday dinner. Nothing momentous, just simple little things one did in a sleepy little town where there wasn’t a whole lot to do. But it was enough for us.
Since it was beginning to get dark, my girlfriend and I parted ways, she to her house and I to mine. When I opened the front door and walked into the living room, the first thing I saw was Daddy with his ear to the radio. The look of concern on his face was like no other I had ever seen. Then I heard President Roosevelt address the nation. And this was apparently not one of his fireside chats. We were going to war!
The transition from peace to war was immediate with the American people who joined the war effort with all the energy they could muster. Tom Brokaw was right when he called them America’s Greatest Generation. I couldn’t be more proud of them. For the next four or more years an ominous cloud hung over the world as it teetered toward the brink of destruction. Heavy casualties from the war zones were heartbreaking as our boys fought valiantly to bring the war to an end. We owe them a debt we can never fully pay.
It all happened 70 years ago this month. It seems like only yesterday.

Oreo cookies are crushed and combined with cream cheese and then dipped in chocolate to make for a simple no bake treat that will be the hit of any party.

Easy Oreo Truffles
Courtesy of www.betterrecipes.com

1× 18 pkg
Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, finely crushed and divided
8 oz
Cream Cheese, softened
2× 8 oz pkg
Semisweet Baking Chocolate, melted

Line a baking sheet with waxed paper. Mix 3 cups of the cookie crumbs and cream cheese until well blended. Shape into 42 one inch balls. Dip balls in melted chocolate and place on baking sheet. Sprinkle with remaining cookie crumbs.
Any leftover melted chocolate can be stored in tightly covered container at room temperature and saved for another use. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm. Store any leftover truffles in tightly covered container in refrigerator.