Rona Simmons > Quotes

“Flour and butter, cream and sugar, words and images -- all the ingredients for a rich, tasty story.”
― Rona Simmons, The Quiet Room

“It is for their descendants, the descendants of all Americans, and for readers everywhere that the veterans tell their stories and pass on their memories and their spirit. So, here, they kiss their wives and sweethearts goodbye, turn to brush a tear from their cheek, and rush to the enlistment center, eager, fearless, and very naive.”
― Rona Simmons, The Other Veterans of World War II: Stories from Behind the Front Lines

“Bringing you 'raisins and almonds' and words (from a Yiddish lullaby”
― Rona Simmons, Postcards from Wonderland

“Perhaps what unites this group of disparate souls is their unique sense of humor, one only an eighty or a ninety year old has. With each of those who shared their tales, I’ve smiled, chuckled, laughed out loud, and occasionally doubled over and laughed till I cried.”
― Rona Simmons, The Other Veterans of World War II: Stories from Behind the Front Lines

“And this is their story. One of boys becoming men and waking to the prospects of life. One of flight. Of breaking ties to the earth and gliding over the hills of western North Carolina and over cities with unfamiliar names, like Schweinfurt and Regensburg, and through skies thick with flak. Of touching the clouds, the moon, and the stars. One of enduring friendship, duty, and honor.”
― Rona Simmons, A Gathering of Men

“Like their counterparts who served on the front lines, however, they too rushed to enlist on hearing of the attack on Pearl Harbor. They served just as proudly and proved every bit as instrumental in winning the war, whether they served in Europe, in North Africa, in the Pacific, or at home.
They, too, have stories to tell.”
― Rona Simmons, The Other Veterans of World War II: Stories from Behind the Front Lines

“But people had forgotten there was a day in the not too distant past when they’d not seen or heard of bombings, and suicide vests, and snipers. Alicia, though, had not forgotten.”
― Rona Simmons, The Martyr's Brother

“At day’s end, when released from their chores, they fastened earmuffs under their chins, stole their mothers’ scarves to wind around their necks, and boarded wheeled vehicles they had fashioned from crates and boxes. Without engines or wings, the contraptions were earthbound, but, as they bumped their way downhill, the summer air breezed past the boys’ sky-angled faces, and if they dared close their eyes, they swore the crates took flight.”
― Rona Simmons, A Gathering of Men

“They were said to be suffering from battle or combat fatigue, or being “flak happy,” a condition we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Most recovered from the stress when removed from combat. Some, however, carried it with them the rest of their lives.”
― Rona Simmons, A Gathering of Men