Life with George

[JWBear]

I mentioned awhile ago that my mother has started writing the story of her life with my father. She's spinning a fascinating look at life in small town New york state in the 30's, and the home-front during WWII.

Would anyone be interested in me posting them here?

[DreadPirateRoberts]

yes

[Kevy Baby]

No

[wendybeth]

Yes. I love reading about that era, and my family is from a small town in upstate New York so it would be even more interesting to me.

[Not Afraid]

Absolutely!

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Indeed, please!

[JWBear]

Ok... You asked for it!


Life with George

My daughter Bobbie gave us a voice recorder and wanted her dad and me to record our life. We never seemed to get around to it, and talking into a machine is hard to do. I know it is easier to put my thoughts on the computer so here goes:

I first heard of George from my girlfriends. They said he was cute and had curly hair I was not impressed as I had my eye on another boy named Don. Fortunately he did not have his eye on me; and as it turned out he ended up getting married four times that I know of.

I finally met this new boy at a box social. (A box social is an event put on by a group to raise money for their cause; I think this one was the Future Farmers of America). The girls pack a decorated shoe box with food and the boys bid on a box and eat dinner with the girl who brought it. No, George did not buy my box. But he did offer to take me home. So a dynasty was started.

The Courtship:
We had a lot of fun; most of it didn't cost a dime. Ice skating on ponds or creeks nearby. Impromptu parties at someone’s home or yard. Parents were always there. One night a group of us gathered on a dirt road and square danced under the moon.
One of our friends would call the dances and another, who couldn’t walk, played his guitar. In the winter we played basketball in the grange hall. We just divided up whoever was there and played until we were tired. Not very organized but fun.
Of course none of us was old enough to drive so we walked or stayed home.

When George was old enough to drive we went to a real dance hall every weekend. The first year he had to have an adult in the car to drive so his mother would go with us. She would sit in the car during the dance and wait for us. We always had a car load, his sister and as many friends as we could get in.

Neither one of us had a phone, so we used his sister Dorothy to deliver messages from school. (George had quit school shortly before I met him because his mother would not sign for him to play football, a decision he always regretted.)

Next; I’m stood up!!!!!

[JWBear]

Part two:

About a year after we were "going steady" I was invited to a formal dance and George agreed to take me. The big night arrived and I was ready and waiting. I waited and waited and waited but he never show-up for the big event. I was crushed as only a teenager can understand. Remember, no phone in either household and it was the weekend so I would not be able to find out what happened until Mon.
When I went to school on Mon. Dorothy told me that George and his friend Don had been arrested and spent that night in jail. I thought that would be the end of this boyfriend because, when my father heard about it, I would be forbidden to see him again.

Later I leaned that George's mother had bailed both of them out when Don's parents had refused to bail him. The fact that he was one of ten or eleven children was the reason as they just couldn't afford to. (I think.)

Small towns are a great place to grow up in. Yes everyone knows all your business but they keep an eye on you and are ready to help when needed. My father had heard about it early as he played poker with the police chief at the American Legion building. They must have gotten a laugh over the scare those kids had when they were locked up with a drunk and other unsavory characters.
Neither one of them ever got into trouble with the law again.

The reason they were arrested you ask?
They were picking up scrap iron to sell for pocket money and had the misfortune to find some near the IBM building when caught. Yes the same company George worked for later for forty years.

After that they both got jobs and worked for a living the rest of their lives.

[JWBear]

Part three:

Dating improved with George working. We were able to do more things like a movie once in awhile, a hot pie (pizza to you) or a pig sandwich (pork barbecued on the premises served on a roll with a delicious sauce). I can still taste them.
We were also able to venture farther, on day trips. Rochester to see the Lilacs, A beach at Lake Erie, and even into Canada once when my sister was at the Thousand Islands with a friends family, of course we always had a carload of friends along including his sister and one of mine.

I must tell you about the car George and his friend acquired. They turned up one day with a very old clunker painted red, white and blue. You never knew if you were going to get where you wanted to go, or if you were going to get back. I've spent a lot of time by the side of the road while they fixed a flat tire. It lasted just long enough, until they could afford a newer, old car.

Of course Sunday nights were for Epworth League (church youth group). George discovered if he wanted to see me then, he would have to go to their meetings.

During the winter months he would come to my house in the evenings and we would play Monopoly. I worried about him driving home, as he had to go up a steep dirt road that was not heavily traveled (Twist Run Road) I could see the top of that hill from my house so he would blink his lights when he reached the top so I would know he had made it safely.

On December 7th we were in the car either heading for a movie or just got out and heading home, when over the car radio we heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. At that point our world, as we knew it, was turned upside down.

[lashbear]

This is really good !! :snap:

[Gn2Dlnd]

Great!

[katiesue]

Wonderful!

[Morrigoon]

Liking it!

[wendybeth]

Great stuff, JW! (We have two Bobbies in our family- one on Eric's side, and my sis. ToriBear is a lucky girl, as both Aunt Bobbie's spoil the hell out of her).

What part of New York do your parents hail from?

[JWBear]

What part of New York do your parents hail from?

Endicott/Johnson City/Union Center area

[JWBear]

The war years:

The Christmas after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, George surprised me with a hope chest. A few weeks later he said "look in the glove compartment I have something for you", it was a diamond ring, so we were engaged. I started planning a June wedding.

Meanwhile George filled out an application at IBM; they said he did not have experience in their line of work. He went to Scintella in Sidney N.Y. and was hired (they did work for IBM). He got tired of being there alone and the long drives on weekends to see me. He wanted to move the wedding to March but I had my heart set on a June wedding well guess who won, we were married on March 14, 1942.

My sister Lee was my maid of honor, George's sister Dorothy was a bridesmaid, and his brother Elwood was his best man. A friend, Ethel played the piano and my Sunday school teacher Lou, sang. We went back to my house for cake and ice-cream. We had no honeymoon as we couldn't afford one. A simple wedding that probably cost less than fifty dollars but it lasted 64 years.

Our first home was a third floor furnished apt. Hot in the summer and cold in the winter. George applied to IBM again for a job and on June 6th 1942 he started working for IBM at sixty cents per hour, yes $.60 per hour. He had to take a pay cut from his former job but he felt it would be worth it.

The war started to heat up. A lot of our friends were joining and leaving for training. We soon were using ration stamps for food, clothes and gas. Then they started the draft. . I was pregnant with our first baby. Eileen was born on Jan. 13 1943. George was worried about being drafted and not able to chose his preferred service so he joined the Navy. We then took a few days and went to Niagara Falls for our delayed honeymoon. Then on August 3, 1943 it was off to boot camp for George.




.

[JWBear]

George went to Great Lakes Naval Station for Boot camp, from there to Wentworth Institute in Boston for 20 weeks. One weekend he hitchhiked home, a distance of over 300 miles, people were very happy to pick up servicemen then, but it took him most of his leave to get home and back to Boston. It was written up in the Somerset Lighthouse, I still have the paper. (He wasn’t supposed to go more than 20 miles from Boston).

He talked me into coming to Boston. I left Eileen with my parents and took a train. I had to go to New York, and then take another train to Boston. I had to sit on my suitcase or stand for the second half of the trip because it was so crowded. I rented a one room apt. a few blocks from the Somerset Hotel, where they were billeted. I got a job serving breakfast and dinner on the chow line at the hotel. They would march out in the morning to Wentworth Institute. for classes. They had lunch there and then marched back again at night.

I had to be at the hotel at 4:30 in the morning. There was a blackout, so no streetlights were allowed or headlights. In January it was pitch black out. I walked down the middle of the streets until I saw the guard at the back door of the hotel, what a welcome sight. I had to go through the kitchen and got to know the cooks. I remember one cook especially as he had a glass of orange juice for me every morning when I had a cold. I learned to love Boston Baked Beans and crab cakes as they were on the menu every day. There was a day old bakery nearby and we bought a Boston cream pie when we had the money to spare.

When George got a weekend off we took trips, one was to New York where we went to an automat. Big thrill for a couple of small town kids.

.

[JWBear]

After Boston George was sent to Tonawanda N.Y. to study Oxygen Generation. I went with him and we rented a bedroom in a private residence. He was on substance, which meant he had to pay his own rent and food and the Navy would give him money to cover said bills. Well great in theory but not in practice. Someone lost the paperwork and time went by, and no money arrived. We were behind in our rent (thank goodness the landlord understood our problem and did not kick us out) but we had a bit of a problem about food so we budgeted ourselves to one hamburger a day. We figured that was the most nourishing thing for the money. Asking our parents for money was out of the question.

When the check finally arrived from the Navy we went out and had a big dinner and to top it all off, we had a hamburger.

After that George went to two more schools in Cambridge, Mass. and Moffet Field in Calif. and I went home pregnant with our second child.

After his schooling was over he was sent to the Navy Yard, in Mare Island, Calif. where he waited to be shipped overseas. He waited and waited and still no orders but they kept him busy doing things, like shore Patrol in San Francisco.

Meanwhile back on the home, front I moved into a old farmhouse in Union Center. It was divided into two apts. An older couple lived in the other apt. when I moved in but soon they moved closer to town. Another girl in the same position as I was, moved in (two babies and husband in service). She only lasted a few months and disappeared (her things were still there when I moved months later). I couldn't blame her, I had a coal stove for heat and the bathroom was out back. When it got real cold my car refused to start and the water lines would freeze. About this time I had my second daughter; Georgianna was born on
Dec.8 1944.

In Jan. we had a blizzard so bad that everything in the house froze, as usual the car refused to start and the phone lines were down, so I packed the baby on a sled and we walked to my in-laws about a mile away and stayed there until it was over.

Later that month friends of ours told me that they were going to Calif. He had been discharged from the Army and had been offered a job out there. They asked, “did I want to go with them”? After talking with George's mother and sister, who were staying there with her baby while her husband was in the Army, I decided to go with them. I knew the children would be well cared for. I made arrangements with Charlie, who owned the local grocery store, to cash my Navy check for them. He was a good friend who did things like saving bananas for my baby when they were impossible to find.

So it was off to Calif. with Norma and Frankie:

.

[Snowflake]

God, this is just great.

This really touched me, I can't tell you why, but it did, just the way your Mom worded it.

My sister Lee was my maid of honor, George's sister Dorothy was a bridesmaid, and his brother Elwood was his best man. A friend, Ethel played the piano and my Sunday school teacher Lou, sang. We went back to my house for cake and ice-cream. We had no honeymoon as we couldn't afford one. A simple wedding that probably cost less than fifty dollars but it lasted 64 years.

Snowflake, on the edge of her seat, awaiting the next installment.

[JWBear]

She finally sent a new installment the other day:

I was only able to take a small suitcase because the car was full of their belongings, so full we three had to ride in the front seat. I don't know who cried more, Norma or me, she was homesick for her family and I missed my babies. Poor Frankie he just kept driving. It didn't help when we stopped at a diner for lunch and saw a young girl hitch-hiking with a baby. More tears.

I'll never forget driving out of the snowy mountains into Sacramento and seeing all the flowers in the yards.

George had told me to meet him at a hotel, he gave me the name but I was so excited I forgot it. I knew it was some sort of royalty but there were a lot of those names, so we went to the wrong hotel. After a few hours we realized our [or my] mistake so we went to the Ferry building in San Francisco and I called George and left a pay phone number. He was not back yet from looking for us. When he called he said stay there until he could get back there again [he was in Mare Island]. After an all night vigil we finally got together.

We rented a room in a house that was full of couples like ourselves, we all shared the kitchen and living room. I got a job on Mare Island with the Navy, working in a ice cream parlor. It was a submarine base and we were instructed to make the sundaes or milkshakes any way they requested. The ones who had just docked after months at sea wanted milk or ice-cream and could they put it away. It was one of the most rewarding jobs I ever held.

Frankie had a sister living in the area and we were invited there occasionally. They taught us how to eat artichokes. George and I went to San Francisco one day and had the famous waffles with ice-cream. We were becoming cosmopolitan in our tastes.

After I had been there six weeks or more Norma and Frankie told us that they were returning home because Norma was pregnant. Did I want to go back with them? We decided that it would be the right thing to do as I had no idea how I would get back if I didn't go with them. So off we went again this time only one of us was crying as Norma was happy to go home.

We traveled the southern route this time. It took us thru Pasadena where my sister Lee was living with a friend Ethel [the same one who played at our wedding]. We also stopped to see an Aunt of Norma's who lived in Los Angeles. So it was on the road again, we had to detour to the Grand Canyon, we couldn't miss seeing that.

We were thrilled when during a snowstorm we saw a band of wild horses head to tail, waiting out the storm.

Home again:

[wendybeth]

It's so cool that her memory is so clear, JW. The part about her job made me a bit teary- I can only imagine how good that ice cream tasted to the sailors after being away so long. Thanks, and keep it coming!:snap:

[JWBear]

Today is my mother's 85th birthday. Happy birthday, mom!

I have a couple more installments. I'll post them tonight.