Tom was a very small child during the Second World War. His family has an extended history in California – his parents resettling in downtown Richmond just as the city was starting to rapidly expand at the outset of the war. The primary focus of this interview is Tom’s time as a student at the Childcare Development Center, where his mother was head teacher. In his interview, he offers his thoughts on how the Great Depression influenced the Second World War, recollections of air raid drills, and the influences of war imagery through posters and other wartime propaganda. Powers provides great detail on his experiences as a young student at the Childcare Development Center, including his daily routine and personal response to different pedagogical methods. Later, Tom became a temporary teacher at the school, finding the routine to be intimately familiar in the context of a changing city. Powers went on to become an important Bay Area politician – working with his wife, Donna Powers, in helping to found the Rosie the Riveter / WWII Homefront National Historic Park in Richmond.