TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

This is the multi-year Q&A sessions held by D&D co-creator Gary Gygax here at EN World, beginning in 2002 and running up until his sad pasing in 2008. Gary's username in the thread below is Col_Pladoh, and his first post in this long thread is Post #39.

 

[airwalkrr]

So how's that for a rambling epistle?

As always, it was most excellent, sir. As a history buff, those kinds of stories thrill the heck out of me.

 

[Nagora]

Curse this timezone difference! Your longest reply yet (is there a prize for eliciting such verbosity?) and it arrives as I'm going to bed!

Thank you very much for taking the time, it was very interesting. I'll not quote the whole thing.

I remember brownpits and blackouts, Air Raid Wardens walking around at night looking for light leaks.

That's interesting: I hadn't realised that blackouts were nationwide in the US - I had thought it was only a costal thing.

I remember only enough gasoline to drive the car short distances, mainly on sunday, as my father had a Class A gas ration emblem in the window of out 1939 Nash Ambassador sdedan

What's a "Class A" gas ration and was there any particular reason your father had one?

I remember the service banners in the windows of apartments, many with a gold star, not just the blue one for a son in service.

What was a gold star for?

I remember my mother dressing me in a sailor's uniform with a woking wooden bosun's whistle--and as my father was a friend of Mr. Ed Robinson, head keeper of the Primate House at the Lincoln Park Zoo, wearing it when I got to play with a baby chimp, where to my father's horror, be biing very germ conscious, the little ape and I taking turns blowing the whistle. The poor creaure contracted TB and died thereafter, probably from contact with me, although i have never tested positive for that disease.

That's a shame; chimps can be very long lived and one of Weissmuller's "Cheetas" is still alive and well at the age of 75!

After VJ Day rationing was dropped,

That quickly!? Rationing ended here in July 1954, although by that time it was down to just luxury items like sweets. Britain was basically bankrupted by the second war and it took a long time to recover.

and we did have plenty here, but I remember being in Lake Geneva the year after the war ended and learning that nextdoor neighbor Bob Rasch had been killed as had Doug Brady who had loved three houses away. had been a friend of my brother's.

I had it in my head that you were in Chicago at that age; when did your family move to LG?

One of my mother's neighbours was killed when a lone bomber dropped a rack of bombs on their area. The man heard it coming and lay on the ground and the shockwave coming up from the pavement killed him while others much closer to the explosion survived.

Rationing was fairly strict here, and people were tense, but there was no Blitz, so we had it far better that the UK folks did.

I also had not realised that rationing was such a widely enforced thing in the US.

Absolutely the war affected my interest. Not only the films O saw at the theater when all the boys in the neighborhood went to the show Saturday afternoons, my father brought home a c. 65 mm scale cast metal soldier figurine almost every Saturday night as a present for me, and with money I begged from my mother to spend after the Saturday movie I's buy either a new pea shooter and a bag od dried peas or another metal soldier or two for ten cents--about the same as 2 p in the UK back then. There were also coloring books depicting military and vaval personnel and equipment, and I loved to apply my crayons to them.

Well, I can understand that, but I was thinking more in terms of whether listening to stories from returning relatives had fired your military interests. I think all war gamers have been inspired by movies and suchlike. I was curious to know if it was more personal than that for you.

I also was given for a birthday or Christmas a bombing game, a down-looking periscope device with the lenses being similar to reversed binoculars. One looked at the game board on the floor and depressed a lever to release three darets, one at a time. The building outlines were marked with + values for train stations, factories, oil storage facilities, warehouses, etc.

That sounds pretty cool.

So how's that for a rambling epistle?

Cheers,
Gary

I think it's a new high-score!

Thanks again. It's interesting to get an American-eye view of the homefront for a change, even if you were only a lad at the time.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Curse this timezone difference! Your longest reply yet (is there a prize for eliciting such verbosity?) and it arrives as I'm going to bed!

Thank you very much for taking the time, it was very interesting. I'll not quote the whole thing.

The benefit to me of being semi-retired is being able to post more without feeling guilty for not working

Think nothing of it. My pleasure to be of service.

That's interesting: I hadn't realised that blackouts were nationwide in the US - I had thought it was only a costal thing.

We had blackout shades and heavy curtains on all the windows of our place in Chicago. I don't remember that being the case at my grandparents house in Lake Geneve where we spent a good deal of each summer.

What's a "Class A" gas ration and was there any particular reason your father had one?

Class A was the ordinary gasoline rationing sticker. It allowed only a low number of gallons per month. I know that Class B allowed a greater quantity, and I believe that there was also a Class C. IIRR farmers were not rationed. I was too young to know the number of gallons each sort allowed.

What was a gold star for?

Family member killed in service. All of us boys were very respectful to the householder or apartment tennent that had one of those in the window.

That's a shame; chimps can be very long lived and one of Weissmuller's "Cheetas" is still alive and well at the age of 75!

Indeed, and I feel regret even though I do not know for sure that I was the cause.

BTW, if you look up the gorilla, Bushman" now mounted and on display at the Chicago museum of Natural History, you'll see what he looked like. We got to go back to see him as well, as Ed Robinson was the only one that dared go near him as he got older. He was the same age as my sister, 11 years older than I, and my brother always kidded her about being Bushman's twin. that was one strong ape! He could burst a footballby squeezing it and pull a car tire into a long oval

That quickly!? Rationing ended here in July 1954, although by that time it was down to just luxury items like sweets. Britain was basically bankrupted by the second war and it took a long time to recover.

The end of rationing was astonishingly rapid, although there were a few shortages for about a year after the war ended. Oddly enough candy was never in short supply here, and all sorts of chocolate bars and like candy were on the shelves, most at 5 cents the bar. My parents didn't allow me much in the way of soft drinks or candy, but I managed to ahold of one or the other around once a month.

I had it in my head that you were in Chicago at that age; when did your family move to LG?

The neighborhood in 4100 North Kenmore Avenue was declining rapidly throughout the war. In the spring of 1945 our group of boys, about 10 in number, were attacked by around 30 kids from up the street a block or two, and thanks to Jerry Paul's BB gun, and his strong throwing arm we held them off by fighting from Jerry & jimmy Paul's back porch, and Jerry beaned their leader, one Rex, with a clinker that he had thrown up at us. That dropped Rex and his pals caried him off, the lot of them running away. Whenmy parents learned of this my father decided it was time to sell the two-flat and move.

He owned property in La Jolla, CA, and he planed tobuild a place there for us to live. We went to Lake Geneva in July 1946, just before my 8th birthday. We remained there bacause father was not willing to retire, and there would have been no work for hum in California. Being a foolish kid, I was delighted to remain in Lake Geneva with my friends there, able to see my Chicago buddies fairly often as well as the distance was only about 75 miles.

]One of my mother's neighbours was killed when a lone bomber dropped a rack of bombs on their area. The man heard it coming and lay on the ground and the shockwave coming up from the pavement killed him while others much closer to the explosion survived.

A couple of Irish lads I knew that moved from the UK after the war ended, Thomas and Michael Duffy, told me how that had beensent out of London to avoid the bombing. They were sent to Redhill, Surrey. One day a V1 rocket ran out of fuel overhead and cme down near where they were living. It missed the ammunition dump but hit the garbage dump

I also had not realised that rationing was such a widely enforced thing in the US.

Absolutely, and everyone watched out for hoarders as well. I am told that in small towns meat, diary products, and eggs were pretty to get from farmers selling on the black market, butt everyone was on rationing.

Well, I can understand that, but I was thinking more in terms of whether listening to stories from returning relatives had fired your military interests. I think all war gamers have been inspired by movies and suchlike. I was curious to know if it was more personal than that for you.

Actually, the only war stories I heard were from Mr. Joseph E. Dimery, my oldest friend's father, he being a Yorkshireman that fought in WW I, was breveted Captain all the wayt from private for his courage in combat, and given six months to live after being mistard gassed. He told us about the Germans with their tommyguns, flamethrowers, and "minnewerfer" bombs.

Of course watching war movies and seeing Victory at Sea did royse my interest in military history

Thanks again. It's interesting to get an American-eye view of the homefront for a change, even if you were only a lad at the time.

As it happens I have a remarkable amount of recall of that time, and what a time it was, especially after the war ended and the USA was on top of the world. Even the Korean War (or, according to HST, Police Action) didn't dismay folks much.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[gideon_thorne]

My folks always suggest one particular movie to showcase what growing up in england, during the war, was like. It's called Hope and Glory.

Now, my mom was a bit closer to constant shelling, being near London, than my dad was. But Mick likes to talk about how a particular chimney stack in Sheffield was used as a turn marker for aircraft to navigate over and bomb Nottingham.

 

[Col_Pladoh]

My folks always suggest one particular movie to showcase what growing up in england, during the war, was like. It's called Hope and Glory.

Now, my mom was a bit closer to constant shelling, being near London, than my dad was. But Mick likes to talk about how a particular chimney stack in Sheffield was used as a turn marker for aircraft to navigate over and bomb Nottingham.

The UK took it on the chin, but the fact is the Gross Deutcheland was far more devistated.

In regards bombing the US had nothing at all.

Cheerio,
Gary

 

[gideon_thorne]

The UK took it on the chin, but the fact is the Gross Deutcheland was far more devistated.

In regards bombing the US had nothing at all.

Cheerio,
Gary

Some of the most fascinating conversations though, occur when you get people from england and Germany comparing notes.

 

[Nagora]

A couple of Irish lads I knew that moved from the UK after the war ended, Thomas and Michael Duffy, told me how that had beensent out of London to avoid the bombing. They were sent to Redhill, Surrey. One day a V1 rocket ran out of fuel overhead and cme down near where they were living. It missed the ammunition dump but hit the garbage dump

Redhill's nice; I've lived near there. My father was evacuated from Belfast near the start of the war and didn't see his family, other than an older brother who went with him, for the best part of four years. He was sent to a farm up near the Giant's Causeway and seems to have had a great time.

The huge shipyard in Belfast (of "RMS Titanic" fame) was, of course, a prime target and very easy to find from the air: just follow Belfast Lough to its end and drop everything you have! Bound to hit something useful. :\

 

[haakon1]

US Homefront Stories

My dad was born in 1931 in Brooklyn; his dad was a WWI infantry veteran and unemployed for most of the Depression, but got back to work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard when the war started.

My dad's stories about WWII are pretty sparse, and pretty much like Gary's. Generally, it was a good time compared to the Depression. The one story I remember is that the local Italian barber had a model of an Italian battleship in the window, that all the boys loved to stare at, but he took it down when Italy and the US went to war. My dad collected "war cards", like baseball cards, and loved to see maps of the war's progress.

His older brother went to India with the Army Air Force and was a mechanic for C-46 Commando cargo planes, the planes that flew over the Himalayas (the Hump) to bring supplies from the Ledo Road in Assam, India to the Chang Kai-shek's Nationalist Chinese HQ in Chungking. That's the CBI -- China-Burma-India theater -- and the fighter units -- the Flying Tigers (originally American volunteers in the Chinese Air Force before the US entered the war) were quite famous.

My mom was born in 1936 in Houston; her dad went to sea at the turn of the century on sailing ships and was in Halsey's destroyer flotilla in WWI. (Admiral "Bull" Halsey commanded Allied South Pacific naval forces in WWII, under Nimitz, the overall CINCPAC. He was famous for aggression, a Patton of the sea with quotes like: "The only good Jap is a dead Jap." He retired in disgrace though, after falling for a Japanese deception at the Battle of Leyte Gulf and exposing the landing forces to attack -- the Taffy 3 incident.) After the Great War, he was a merchant ship captain, harbor pilot, and tanker company manager in Houston. (Houston was the center of the US oil industry at the time, and still is a major shipping center and petrochemical complex.)

He had been anti-war, supporting the America First ideas of Charles Lindburgh and the like.

On Dec. 8th 1941, my grandpa tried to join the Navy again, but his blood pressure was too high. He wrote to Halsey to try to get around it, but instead, they put him the War Shipping Administration, working with the seaman's union to pick crews for tankers to the UK (low life expectency, especially early in the war) and to improve morale by running shows for them and so forth. He did things like get the guy who wrote "You Are My Sunshine" to visit for a morale boosting event, and deciding not to open the roof of a hotel to sailors, because he knew people would end up falling off or getting thrown off while blind drunk.

He also had the job of going around to the families, with the union guy, to notify them when a tanker went down. My mom dreaded phone calls in the night, because that quickly came to mean only one thing. They were convinced that the U-boats were in the Gulf of Mexico (turns out to be true after the war, but denied at the time due to insufficient escorts to cover the Gulf) and that Germans were landing on the coast to resupply (don't think so!).

In addition, he was an air raid warden, which I think means he got more gas for his Ford woodie station wagon. He definitely had a WWI/British style helmet for that. They were very serious about the black out in Houston, both for air raid reasons (you never know if there could be a repeat of the Zimmerman telegram in WWI) and for U-boat reasons (city lights siloutte a ship easily for U-boat attacks, which are almost always at night).

The other good story is that, before the US entered the war, but after April 1940, my grandpa got the occassional letter from friends in the shipping business in occupied Norway. When this happened, the "G-Men" would come over in a black car and suits to read the letters for any hint of intel. The Nazis, however, would black out various passages, to I'm not sure if they were able to get anything from it.

Also, from both parents, kids insisted that SPAM was maps spelled backwards as a code, and the cans were used to ship maps to the troops secretly. Not that I think there was a lot of spam on the homefront!

 

[Fifth Element]

Col:

One of the level titles for a bard in AD&D is "racaraide". A google search only brings up references to AD&D bards. What was the source of this term, and what does it mean?

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Some of the most fascinating conversations though, occur when you get people from england and Germany comparing notes.

One of my good friends in high schol was a German lad whose mother and sister had brought him here as immigrants. They were from East Germany, and his stories were not very fascinating.

Cheers,
Gary