[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.

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