PART FOUR

Rosalia High School

Northwest County

On Land and Sea and in the Air

Warriors, Supply, Support, Civilians

Our third set of interviews seemed almost too easy after the big crowds we dealt with earlier in the week. Marie Meserve, our teacher contact in Rosalia, had recruited the senior class, all seven students, to interview and write for Rosalia High School.

When we first started talking to people in that area about our World War II generation writing project, I spoke to the folks at the Rosalia Senior Center, again asking them to help me find people to interview.

The Rosalia seniors meet Tuesdays at noon in the Methodist Church fellowship hall for lunch. The meal is sponsored in part by Council on Aging, under the guidance of Scott Hallett, our Nutrition Director. Besides an excellent meal, the group enjoys conversation, a few good jokes, a lot of bad jokes, occasional speakers or musical entertainment, and every week a wonderful American Odyssey travel film which were produced and directed by their current president, Rudy Schroeder.

Almost everyone in attendance at the senior center told me we should contact two graduates of Rosalia High School, a couple of veterans named Bob Goldsworthy and Don Gelhaus. I did that, and they both agreed to come to Rosalia from Spokane and Plaza for the interview day. Then slowly but surely we began to find people the other five students could interview. We ended up with seven who could be there on interview day: one each from Colfax, Garfield, Palouse, St. John, and Spokane, as well as one from Rosalia. Besides the student interviews, I also met with one person from Oakesdale, a couple from Rosalia, and a former Thornton resident who now lives in Dalton Gardens, none of whom could be there on interview day. So it was that we completed this Part Four assortment.

Let's start with our Colfax veteran, Jack Neil. Neil's daughters ran an ad in the Gazette on his Birthday showing him in an Army uniform, the same picture shown in his story below. I called Jack without a referral and he readily agreed to an interview. I later discovered he was familiar with our operations. Our COAST (Council On Aging Specialized Transportation) Director, Gail Griggs, told me Jack used to drive for COAST. Here's his story.

Jack Neil

Claire Freeze, a long-time Rosalia resident, handed me a couple of pages of material she has included in a family history. The first portion of that document contained some excerpts from a diary Claire's sister, Helen Hengen, kept as a teenager. The entries shown here, all dated in December 1941, are presented unedited.

Helen and Claire Hengen

This next story is about a sailor who tried hard to stay in the service, but couldn't get past the medical requirements because of what was diagnosed as a bad heart. He has certainly outlived those concerns.

Dick Kreibel

This next man landed in Europe on D-Day and lived to tell about it. I saw Bob West and his wife at a fund raiser in Palouse on Memorial Day and was pleased to see him wearing his Army uniform jacket, as were several other veterans at the affair.

Robert West

When I met Don Gelhaus on interview day I learned he is writing a book about his World War II experiences. I thought maybe he might need some help pulling it together and said I would be glad to help him. He said, "Well, thank you. But Nona Hengen is editing it for me." I kind of figured with that kind of help he was in pretty good shape. Look for that book when it comes out. It should be fascinating! And well edited. Ryan had completed this essay just before Memorial Day so I read it at the Council on Aging & Human Services Board of Directors meeting and the Rosalia Senior Meal on the Tuesday after the Memorial Day holiday, just to give them an idea of what we were producing through all the interviewing process, as well as observing the holiday. Ryan's work was very well received in both camps.

Don Gelhaus

Way back last year at Thanksgiving time in 2000, I was visiting with Don and Helen Cowan at a St. John community Thanksgiving celebration. I told them about what was then only a vague idea we had to put together some kind of book. He then told me about his time in the military and I asked him that evening, "If we actually can figure out how to do a book, would you let a student interview you?" He almost said yes. Well, I think he said he would think about it. But, I didn't forget. When I called this spring and asked him to go to Rosalia for an interview, he did say "Yes." Here is what he shared.

Don Cowan

The call I made to Bob Goldsworthy was a typical one. I have a hard time saying something the same way twice, so every call I made to all these people asking them to participate in our project was a matter of some level of terror for me. I would call someone and get my words all messed up, upside down, backwards, out of order, and end up feeling like a total idiot, then ask if he or she would help us out. And they would quietly reply, as did Bob Goldsworthy, "Yes, I'd be glad to. What would you like me to do?" This went on over and over again. So when I say "Thank you," I REALLY mean, "THANK YOU" to one and all.

Bob Goldsworthy

Well, we actually did get to interview a man who presently lives in Rosalia. I had met Don Messinger a year or so ago when I was soliciting door prizes for COA&HS's Volunteer Reception in October. At that time he showed me the poster he had given his wife for Christmas while he was in the Army. So, knowing he had been in the service, I went back to him and asked him for an interview. Like so many people we interviewed, he was interested in helping our young people in the county understand what life was like during the war years.

Don Messinger

That does it for student interviews. The rest of these in Part Four are folks who couldn't get to any of the interviews, but we felt their stories certainly were worth telling, so they talked, I listened, and here is what we came up with.

I met Yvonne Hoffman at the Oakesdale Senior Meal Site and after visiting with her for some time, invited her to participate in our project so she could tell us about her husband Lenhart's military service, plus talk about life in Oakesdale during the war. This story introduces some of the hard to think about aspects of war, aspects that were part of the lives of so many who saw combat.

Lenhart and Yvonne Hoffman

I told you in the last Part that I wouldn't be picking favorite stories, but this next one has one of my favorite lines in it. You'll see it about half way through the story: "Nothing got by us!" It was said with a big smile and a wink, but it told me reams about how everyone was committed to winning the war in whatever place they found themselves. Maxine helped me write this, correcting my spelling and grammar just like she did for so many kids through her years of teaching in Rosalia.

Roy and Maxine Ramey

I interviewed Bill Norris several years ago. I was editing a novel about World War II pilots and was interested in hearing a first-hand report, and thought I might submit his story for local publication. It didn't get a bite then, but I dug it out, called him and got his permission to use the story in this book, as we did with all the stories you see published here. He too gave his permission for the telling.

John W. "Bill" Norris

So, that was the end of our student interview program. We worked our way through getting the stories written, turned in, graded, and copies sent to me along with signatures giving us permission to publish the student's work. We then sent all the stories to the people interviewed, giving them full permission to edit, rewrite, add to, delete, whatever it took to get their stories the way they wanted them, which is the way they appear in this book. I also turned my attention to interviewing people from Colfax and St. John, and a few other places as they came up. Parts Five and Six will present those stories.