On the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, N&O writer Treva Jones spoke to Triangle residents who remembered the events of Sunday morning and how they learned the news.
It started as a typical Sunday afternoon in North Carolina 50 years ago. People had gotten home from church. Most had finished Sunday dinner.
In Raleigh, 4,000 people were in Memorial Auditorium for a performance of Handel's "The Messiah." But even as the choir sang, the world was changing forever.
Max Snipes was taking a spin in Chapel Hill when he heard the stunning news -- the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor.
"I was riding down Franklin Street, at the Graham Memorial building, and I heard it on my car radio. I was just shocked, " said Snipes, 85, a retired barber.
For a generation of Americans the sneak attack is frozen in time. They all know where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news on Dec. 7, 1941.
