Buckeye

One morning, shortly after Cal Jenkins opens his father-in-law’s store, Hanover Hardware in Bonhomie, Ohio, a woman comes in and asks him to turn on the radio. He complies, and they learn that Hitler has surrendered. Margaret, as she introduces herself, is overcome with emotion. She kisses Cal passionately and then leaves.

Bonhomie is a small town with a long history of profitable industry and business, and its growth trajectory has matched that of the Midwest as a whole during the century or so since its founding. Its Black population grew during the years of the Great Migration from the South, and then its immigrant communities expanded as families made their way from various countries in Europe. By the time World War II began, its small downtown was surrounded by distinct neighborhoods, each with its own majority population of different races and ethnicities.

Cal was born in Bonhomie, Ohio, in 1920, and he has escaped fighting in WWII because he was born with one leg shorter than the other. He feels guilty for his luck, especially when other young men he knows begin dying overseas. Cal tried to enlist when the war started, but the recruiter turned him down.