When I was a child during the Depression, I don't remember ever
feeling deprived of anything because we didn't know anyone else
who had any money or material possessions. We grew our own vegetables
and canned them. We had a truck patch in Linwood where my grandpa
Alexander lived and I helped in that and then helped Mother
and Grandma can the produce. Since I was older than Bill it was
my job to do things like that. I would go to the woods with Daddy
and Grandpa and cut wood all day and that was our fuel for the
winter. I know Marion was very surprised when we got married and
I knew how to cut wood and probably do it as well or better than
he could, especially since I had always lived in town and he
had always lived in the country.
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At one time during the Depression, Micki's Dad worked just 3 days in 4 months..
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At one time during the Depression my Dad just worked 3 days in
4 months (he worked at Delco Remy) so he tried door to door sales
and my mother did laundry for people. I don't know how they did
it, but we always had food on the table and we had fun. We
played a lot of cards, sang and worked puzzles. We had one puzzle
that we worked so much that we almost knew where the pieces went.
It was puzzle of a beautiful sailing ship.
We always had a Christmas tree, a little artificial table top
tree about two and one-half feet tall that we put up a week
before Christmas and took down the week after. We got a gift,
an apple, an orange and some candy, but we were always happy with
that. The smell of oranges reminded me of Christmas for many years
because they were a special treat. One of our Holiday Traditions
was that we always had Cranberry salad and Date Pudding.
I always got to go to the movies on Saturday afternoon, I think
it was 10 or 15 cents. I walked every place, I guess that's why
I always liked to walk and still do.
I went through school and when I was in High School, I was in
Choir or Glee Club as it was called then. My Dad used to take
a car load of my friends and I to all of the out town ball games,
no matter how far or how bad the weather.
I was expected to make good grades in school and there were
no excuses. One of the things I remember about walking was I
always walked school and it was several blocks. One time, we
had a big snow and my Dad couldn't get to work (or probably didn't
have any work to go to) so he shoveled a path so we could get
to school and when we got there, the school was closed !!!!
I had two jobs all through High School. I baby sat in the morning
and after school and made $2.50 a week, and went to a grocery
store and worked 2 hours after that and made $2.50 a week there.
I was really in the bucks with $5.00 a week. I graduated in 1938
and things were no better but I finally got a job in a sandwich
shop in Alexandria and I worked 56 hours a week for $5.00 ( I
couldn't seem to get past that amount of money). One thing I
remember about that job was that every week I had to wash the
huge plate glass window in the front. There was a big mirrored
back bar that had to be cleaned every week. (It was very elaborate
and if you had it now, it would be worth a fortune.)
While I was working there I got Rheumatic fever and was very sick.
I lost 30 lbs in three weeks. Mother and Daddy took me to several
Doctors, but I can't remember that anything did much good, I
just finally got over it and went back to work.
By this time my Dad was working more or less steadily at Delco
Remy due to the War situation, even though we didn't understand
much about it or have any idea that it would ever affect us. Roosevelt
was elected President and even though he was an aristocrat and
had always had money, he understood the needs of the people -
jobs, food on the table and some kind of security to hopefully
avoid the disastrous period we had just gone through.
Anyway, not having any great hopes I put my application in at
Delco Remy, and lo and behold, I was called to go to work. Talk
about rags to riches, I don't remember exactly what I was going
to make, probably $20 or $25 a week. I could hardly believe
my good fortune.
I had a special friend, Ruth Ulmer, in school. Her mother had
died and her Dad was a mail carrier. She was able to go to nurse's
training. I never even thought about College, because there was
no money for it. You were lucky that your parents insisted and
were able to let you finish High School.
When she finished Nurse's training she also got a job at Delco.
There was a teen age Dance Hall, The Embassy Club, in Alex where
every one went. Ruth had met and had some dates with Marion (your
Father , Grandfather) and that's how I met him. He was having
dates with her and I was engaged to some one else and when we
met, it was love at first sight. I know that sounds dated or
passe or whatever expression is used , but that was the way it
was with us-- we were blessed and still are. I don't know if you
can imagine what repercussions there must have been to that situation
54 years ago, but we were completely oblivious to any problem.
Our families were shocked because back then you were already
supposed to be acquainted with both families and in our love affair
no one knew anyone else in the other families. I just want to
impress on you how our relationship was.
And on December 7, 1941, the Japs attacked Pearl Harbor. I know
it is hard for any of you to understand, but that event changed
the World and the way we had lived forever. The way we had lived
was an age of innocence and trust, and that all changed then
and the world was never the same. You always remember where you
were and what you were doing on that date, in fact I think that
was the first official date that Marion and I had. I know I was
home alone listening to the radio when I heard it. We compared
notes later and we happened to be doing the same thing. He also
worked at Delco (at that time almost everyone who had a job worked
there).
Just recently I read this description of the War years and it
certainly describes the times appropriately. From 1941 to 1945
,the War years, we went from breadlines to boom times. Experienced
heartbreaking separations. Put up with blue stamps and rationing
, Melted to mush when we heard "I'll Be Seeing You".
Bought bonds. Zipped our lips. Put in Victory Gardens, And on
Saturday nights we jitterbugged, Shagged, and Lindy hopped to
the Dorseys, Glenn Miller, and Harry James.
Marion lived in Pendleton and I lived in Alexandria and after
that first date we were together almost every night. We saw Frank
Sinatra in Indianapolis the last time he was with Tommy Dorsey
before he went on his own. On Valentine's day in 1942, he was
bringing me an engagement ring and had a wreck along the way.
The wreck was on State Road 9 just north of Linwood. As it
happened, my Mother and Dad came along. They picked him up and
brought him on to our house. By that time it was so late, I
didn't think he was coming.
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Grandma didn't think we should get married on April Fool's Day |
We became engaged then and were married on April 2, 1942 We were
going to get married on the 1st but when we went to tell Grandma,
she said we shouldn't because that was April Fool's Day. So
we changed the date to the 2nd. We didn't have a big wedding.
We went to the minister's house (George W. Winfrey, the same
minister who married my Mother and Dad). Marion's brother, Gib
stood up with him and my friend Ruth stood up with me. We started
housekeeping in a little house at the corner of State Road 38
and Columbus Ave. East of Pendleton. The house hasn't changed
much since we lived there.
I have made it a point of mentioning where we lived because you
must remember at that time we were just recovering from the Depression
and Society was not mobile the way it is now. A lot of people
didn't have one car much less two which is more or less the norm
now, so for us to have become acquainted was very unusual, I
think.
Shortly before we were married, I was laid off at Delco, They
were gearing up for the War effort. At that time not many married
women worked outside the home. When I was called back to work,
Marion didn't want me to go, so I didn't.
Marion had a bad back for a long time and he was classified in
4-F and then the first Christmas we were married along with our
Christmas cards came a "Greeting from Uncle Sam". There
is no way I can express to you the emotional upheaval this caused
us (along with millions of others, except it is always worse when
it happens to you) He went for his physical Jan 4, was reclassified
to One A and left for Service Jan 11. It was almost incomprehensible
that this could be happening to us. I had no job and really no
job skills either. I was to get $50.00 a month allowance from
the Government.
One of the wives of the men who left at the same time he did came
to live with me for awhile to share expenses. I got a job at
Hardy's (it was a factory, not a Drive-In) working nights at probably
one of the dirtiest places there ever was. You had to eat in
the Rest Room with dirty paper towels stacked in the corner and
no place to sit except on the floor. (There had to be rats in
there) I didn't think I could stand that very much but I had
to have a job of some kind so I could eat. Marion came home on
a 3 day pass and wanted me to go back with him and I did. (Besides
that we couldn't afford our phone bills). He was stationed in
Arlington, Va. just across the Potomac River from Washington ,D.C.
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