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the war effort. Some people say rationing was a way of making the people at home feel the effects of the war. Everyone did their part to win the war. I hadn't heard anything about the possibility of a war until Pearl Harbor. Before Pearl Harbor, there were many in our neighborhood who spoke German as a second language, or spoke some German. As soon as the war started, no-one spoke a word of German. We were all just Americans. I could count in German before I could count in English. We just thought of it as part of our heritage. I heard of the war the day after it started. We didn't have a radio, and we didn't hear until we heard it from a neighbor or teacher. The day after the war started, our teacher, James Bessemer, stood up in front of the school, and told us about the war. That day our next door neighbor, Roy Gilbert, enlisted in the Navy. I don't know how many other men, from Onaway, went in service that day, but I know some did. That was true all over the country. Men who were old enough went in, factories started to convert to war production. Remember Pearl Harbor, was on everyone's lips. Instead of making cars, they made jeeps, tanks, boats. It was, Everything to win this war. There were scrap metal drives. Even the metal on gum wrappers was saved. I am told now they used the gum wrappers to throw off the enemy radar. Within a short time, all civilian production was stopped, and changed to military production. Every factory, that was around then, can tell you what they made to help win the war. When the war started there were at least thirty kids in our little school. By the next fall, there were only eleven, by spring there were only eight. The others had moved away to other places, where their parents could work in defense plants. My first teacher went in service as soon as school was out in the spring. Jim Bessemer and his twin R.D. both went in. I don't know of any young male teachers still teaching by the time I entered first grade. More and more men were going in. People who did not go in were hassled about not being in service. My brother-in-law, Edward Boothe, was in service when I first saw him. The next time I saw him, he was out. I don't know why. He got out in 1942. Some people tried to get in and were 4F. They were hassled too. People would come up to them and say,"My son is in service, why aren't you?" The Government started collecting milkweed pods to stuff flyers jackets with. They said it kept them warm and would keep the afloat if they went down in the water. Every night we were out there picking milkweed pods to stuff flyers jackets. We all tried to get more than someone else. I think it was about two or three cents a ten pound onion bag full, but we were working to win the war, and we were getting paid for it. After the war was over, I remember wondering who would buy our milkweed pods. I'm not sure if it was in the spring of 1942, or the next year, but I remember two fighter planes diving on Arden and I as we walked home from school. The telephone lines came as far as Shimmels. We were between McClains and Shimmels, by a big hay field, when they dropped below the trees and came at us. Those guns looked big to me. They were low enough so we could see their faces, and we knew they were laughing at us for diving into the ditch. One was a blond and he had a big mouth. It was wide open when he laughed. The other had brown hair and a smaller mouth. His was more of a smile. they must have had radios. They seemed to be talking to each other. They had to pull up to miss the telephone wires. I was in the first grade when they took us on a bus to another school. They showed us some news reels about the war. They also showed us a movie where a man was driving a car around a globe. He was singing a song. It went, I'm driving over the world. I don't have to stop. I just have to roll along. Every time someone or something got in his way, he would stick his head out the window and yell, hey you get out of there, then he would go back to his song, I'm driving over the world. I think now, it was aimed at the kids who were old enough to drive or almost. I remember Arden and I trying to copy him, in the old model T. I thought it was a funny movie. That is the first movies I had ever seen. Many things were rationed during the war. Gas was rationed, sugar was rationed, shoes were rationed, tires were rationed, lard was rationed, soap was rationed, canned goods was rationed, I just don't know what else was rationed. Some things you just couldn't buy. The only people who could get cars were doctors and mail carriers. No one else could get one. Ford had an ad out then. It went like this. There's a new ford in your future, there's a Ford in your past, but the one you have now, you'd better make it last. There were many ads like that. Another ad I remember well is, the one of Uncle Sam standing there, pointing at you. It said,"Uncle Sam wants you." When I was in the second grade, we went to the Roberts school. There were 48 kids and one teacher. One of the girls in that school was Nina Vashon. Her brother was killed in the war. That was the first I realized the hurt the war caused. They moved away right after that. My brothers got a lot of models of different planes. They had a lot of ship models too. They had books on identifying different aircraft and ships too. There was a war correspondent named Ernie Pyle. He wrote his columns from the foxholes of the front lines. He started the war in Africa, and went on up through Europe. When the war was about over in Europe, he was transferred to the Pacific. I don't know what Island he was on when he was killed. His columns were made into books. Here's your war was in Africa. Brave men was the war in Europe. Last chapter was the Pacific. It ended by telling how and where he was killed. Mother bought all three of them, and read them to us. He wrote about what war was like for the foot soldier. My sisters, Irene and Edith, went to Bay City and got jobs during the war. Irene worked in a defense plant, They made parts for jeeps. Edith got a job in a meat packing place, skinning hotdogs. Edith's boyfriend worked in a shipyard. They made P.T. boats there. Irene married one of the sailors who came in to pick up P.T. boats. Irene worked for Autolite. John Thompson worked for Defoes shipyard. They used to try for at least one launch and one roll over every week. Down here, I have met many people who can tell you about what the plants around here made during the war. They can also tell you about the prisoner of war camp over by Owosso. The prisoners worked in some factories. I am not sure as to what jobs. I just remember one woman telling me about working with some of them. Some people, who were of German decent, got letters from Hitler, asking them to come back and fight for the Fatherland. That may be why no one spoke German after the war started. When the war was over, my folks went into town to do their shopping. They used to hold two fingers up in a V when they met someone. That stood for victory. When the war was over, they went into town and everyone was celebrating. Then they could give a full hand wave. They were so happy. All I thought was, who will buy my milkweed pods. After having my own sons in service, I know why they were so happy. I felt that way when they came home. Please feel free to email us with any questions you might have |
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