SMITH: Old veterans, one teen and this Dec. 7

You might seize the fleeting opportunity to break bread and perhaps hear a few old tales from the fading corps of local survivors of the 1941 Japanese attack that swept the U.S. into World War II.

If we're lucky, four or five veterans who were there 70 years ago will speak at the memorial breakfast at Santa Rosa's Veterans Memorial Building.

This year the aged vets are bidding farewell to their national organization, the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. Its leaders, most in their early 90s, voted recently to surrender the organization's charter and disband on Dec. 31.

“It was coming sooner or later,” said the association's chaplain, Navy vet Herb Louden, 94, of Petaluma. “The people are so old, you can't get them to hold offices.”

Louden, who on Dec. 7 of 1941 was in Pearl Harbor and a pharmacist's mate aboard the hospital ship USS Solace, will share some memories of the day at Wednesday's event.

Breakfast, costing $8, will be served from 7:30 to 9 a.m. The memorial program will begin shortly after 9. There's no charge for people who want to attend the program but not eat breakfast.

Though the Pearl Harbor Survivors' Association won't convene on Oahu this year, there will be ceremonies there to honor victims of the attack that galvanized a nation deeply torn over whether to enter the war against Germany and Japan.

And McKenna Faith, a 16-year-old country singer and songwriter from Ukiah, will be in Hawaii for the observance.

She'll perform “Not My Time to Go,” a song inspired by the late John Finn, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism under attack that morning seven decades ago.

SKOOL'S OUT: Teachers who loved and depended on Skool Daze, the educational supplies shop Bob and Sherral Krantz ran for more than 30 years, say it was just like the couple to humbly, quietly lock up and retire.

The store on Piner Road was dark Monday. Bob says on the phone machine, “I've retired and Skool Daze is closed. Thank you for all your support over the years.”

Teacher Maureen Holden said Bob “always greeted everyone with an infectious smile. He always wanted to know how you were and how he could help.”

Buying teachers' supplies online is swell, too, but it's just not the same.

NOT GONE, MOVED: The downsized Copperfield's Books is settling into its new space near the Ross in Montgomery Village. Just imagine moving all those books.

Staffers will celebrate the move Wednesday with what Copperfield's Vicki DeArmon calls “an all-day book party.”

There will be food and drinks and prizes. From about noon to 5, local authors will read and talk and sign, among them Ianthe Brautigan-Swenson, Buzzy Martin, Joan Frank, Stacy Carlson, Thaisa Frank, Dani Burlison and Leilani Clark.

Then there's live music — in a bookstore! — by Patsy & the Bobcats.

Try to find that on Amazon.