11. World War II Begins

On September 1, 1939 World War II began when the German Army and the Russian Army invaded Poland. But the United States was not yet involved. In September 1939, John Dixon began to attend Monnier Elementary School, which was only 2 blocks from the store. He walked to school each day. At that time school buses were used only in the country where distances were long. Young John began the arduous task of learning to read and write.

Helen returned to Finland in 1939 and stayed there despite the start of the Winter War between Finland and Russia. She served in the Women's Auxiliary to the Finnish Army. The same year she married Finnish Army Captain Harri Martti Virjo at Lappeenranta, a city evacuated by its residents because of the ongoing Winter War with Russia.

During the winter War, Harri commanded a group of rough characters who had been allowed to leave prison on condition that they serve in the Army defending Finland against the Russian invaders. Harri was able to keep his men under control and kill a substantial number of Russians.

Finland was ill prepared for war. The Finnish army was much smaller and poorly equipped. The Russians had tanks, but the Finns had none. However the Finns had sisu and a very cold Finnish winter on their side. All the Finns were expert skiers and dressed in white, which made them very hard to see against the snow. One of Harri’s favorite tricks was to ski up to a Russian tank and make a peculiar sound, like the cry of a strange bird. When the Russian tank crew opened the hatch to see what made that curious sound, Harri, or one of his men, would throw a hand grenade into the tank. Many Russian tanks were wiped out in this way.

On July 1, 1940 John Dixon, almost 6, awoke and was surprised to find that he was all alone in the family living quarters (the back room of the gift shop). Soon his grandmother, Anna Kyro arrived and informed him that Laura Dixon was in a hospital giving birth his new sister, Ann Lynn Dixon.

Not long after this, John Dixon acquired his first job. He was appointed waste basket manager for the Awrey Bakery store, located in the same block as the gift shop. His duties included emptying all three large waste baskets in the store every Tuesday and Friday. His pay was 25 cents cash per week, plus a bag of day-old cookies.

Erick Kyro graduated from the University of Michigan with a BS in Forestry in 1940. He worked as a forest ranger for a time. He occupied living quarters on top of a mountain and kept a lookout for the smoke of a forest fire. He also worked at the Vickers manufacturing plant in Detroit for a short time.