PART TWO
Women and Men at Home and Abroad
People From Both Near and Far
I had a very difficult time trying to figure out in what
order to put all these stories. It
seemed right to put the groups of interviews done at the schools in Parts in
the order they occurred, but what about the order within each Part? Some people were unable to get to a school to
be interviewed by a student. Where should
those stories fit in? It turned out each
Part fell together differently. This one
got divided into Women and Men, each in alpha order, with all the Pullman
people included, both those interviewed by students and those interviewed by
me. There are also other people in Part
Two, ones who live in
Anyway, there are twenty-four stories in Part Two; the ones
with by-lines were written by students in Craig McCormick's Sophomore Honors
English Class at
Now then: when I initially spoke to this first lady about doing an interview, she kept telling me she would bring books the kids could look at, but she seemed very hesitant about actually talking with a student. She finally agreed to do it. I was amazed at what came out of that meeting.
These next twelve stories are about women who did amazing things, took on tremendous responsibilities, kept the home front going, moved all over the country and even to foreign lands, all to do what they needed to do to support the war effort. I know you are going to like these ladies. If you met them all at once, I wonder if you could pick out the one who welded ships? Repaired airplanes? I am awe-struck at what these women did at a time when women didn't DO these things. They had all been raised through the Great Depression and had learned how to make do and use whatever they had on hand. Those lessons stood them well when the nation's young men went to war. They were able to step in and make the difference. Listen to their stories and watch for the reaction of the students who wrote about them.
Both Alma Druffel and this next lady are on the Board of
Directors of Council on Aging & Human Services. When I asked them to come in for an
interview, neither blinked an eye. In
fact, Win ended up on the front page of the Daily News along side Celia Fockler
(next after Win), who was wearing her welder's mask. Win was holding up a model of an airplane and
wearing a T-shirt her family had gotten for her. The shirt showed a giant picture of the
Flying Fortress, an airplane she worked on during the war.
This next story illustrates how the war invaded the private
lives and plans of both men and women, even those still in school. Sylvia's story includes a look at college
life during the war.
This next lady serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors
of Council on Aging & Human Services.
I have attended the Board's meetings for well over a year now and have
yet to see one fail to be run with military precision. Alberta Hill and I reorganized Kate's paper
in order to add some detail she and
This next lady did her part in the war effort by working
through the Red Cross to provide things people in war-torn countries needed,
including our military men and women.
The Dorothy Matson story was written by a student from
Here is some insight into the life of the occupation forces
after the war ended, how teachers were drawn into the
national effort to re-establish
Families were terribly wrenched by
the war, some having several men and/or women go into the military
service. Mary Redlin's family was one of
those. When I first talked to her about
sharing her story she mentioned her mother, then began to weep. After all these years, the pain of war is
still apparent on many faces.
The Moscow Pullman Daily News ran an article and an editorial
about our writing project. After reading
those pieces, this next lady's daughter called us and asked if we would like to
interview her mother, a WAC who had gone to
Looking at a recent picture of Frances Scheiler and her
first five great grandchildren, it is hard to imagine what life was like for
Our attention now turns to some of the retired warriors
living in and around
Lewis Elwood served in the
Military Police. He stood closer to
General Douglas MacArthur than most men or women would ever dream of doing.
Next is a story that could be told of many
A couple of weeks after I asked
the Senior Center folks to help out on this writing project, a man walked by me
and kind of off-handedly said, "I was on a PBM in the Pacific," and
kept on walking. I thought, "Hmmm. Next time maybe I'll get his name." Well, we got more than his name, as Matt will
tell you.
Gil Low started to shake his head
"No" when I first asked him to sit for an interview. But then when I asked if he would just talk
about how the Navy had changed since he first enlisted, he agreed to do that. And he even asked me if I wanted him to
wear his uniform. I thought, "I
can't wear clothes I bought last year.
How could he wear his uniform?"
When I asked him about it he said, "Why, of course I can wear my
uniform!" And he did. Fit great, looked sharp, and got a lot of
attention both at the school and at the
Where were you when
Well, we finally caught up with Roger Spencer and sat down with him in Craig McCormick's classroom. I had told the kids I would start the interview, just to kind of get things rolling, and at some point I would ask David Kahn to come sit down and finish it up. The students had been instructed to have some questions ready, but I had noticed a blank sheet of paper in front of David, so I was a bit apprehensive. But, not to worry. Roger took off telling his story, being well rehearsed from his stint with the journalism class. Then David moved front and center. I wish we could reproduce the entire one hour conversation he had with Roger Spencer, but the following will give you an idea of how it went.
When Stanley Holloway
and I talked about an appointment to interview him, he told
me, "Come at three. We have tea at
three. You'll like that." That invitation, and his wife Margaret's
charming
George Scott was one the first
people I interviewed. In fact it was
because he couldn't get to the general interviews at the school that I decided
to jump in and participate at the really tough level, that is, listening and
writing. George told his story with a
twinkle in his eyes that only left when he would tell me a story, then add, "But, don't put that in the book."
It was as I talked with George
that I began to realize we were stirring up memories that we of later
generations need to know about. They
are, however, memories of events that once again take a toll in the telling, a toll on the lives of
those who first lived through those events sixty years ago. Thanks George, for teaching me much more than
your story.
Here is a story that is a bit
different. It tells of a man who, like
many, made their contribution to
Well, I guess it's about time to
deal with
This last story from the
That pretty well covers the people we interviewed who now
live in