Do you remember Pearl Harbor day?
Oh yes, I remember it very well. We were at my mother and father-in-laws, and we heard it on the radio. It's the kind of thing you don't grasp the significance of right at first. Then the next day we heard President Roosevelt had declared war, which really set everyone to thinking, when it got to something like that. We just did all the things that we could do to help out.

Thelma Robeson, 72, Fayette County

I can remember being a senior in high school, and that some of the boys in our class had to go into the service before we graduated. It was three or four that didn't go to graduation exercises because they were in service. That made a big impression on us.


Sarah Ziegler, 53, Adams County

How did the second world war affect your life?
A lot! I probably would have been married before I was, if it hadn't been for the war. Bud and I, when we went on our senior trip, we had our first date in Washington, D.C. and then we went together from then on. That was in 1940. Then he left for service in 1942. And the war goes on for two or three years, and you think, "What the heck", so we were married in 1944.

Bud worked on a tugboat for ammunition ships. They reloaded, and Bud said it was about time he was sent overseas. We knew this was coming, but it was just one of the things you didn't talk about. One night he came home thinking it was his last night home and he did leave the next day but for some reason he didn't go overseas that day.

From then on, for about a week or ten days, when he went to work we never knew whether he would be coming home that night or not. One night, he just didn't come home, and the next day after I waited so long, I went out to the base. I went out to the pier where his ship was (I knew which one it was) and it was gone. It was just that simple.

I got letters from Bud. Sometimes they'd come all at once, maybe five letters. Then sometimes you'd go six weeks without hearing anything. When you'd get them, they were censored. If there was the least little word in them that they thought might be even a hint of something, that would be cut out. If you wrote on both sides of the paper, it would cut out the back, too.


Evelyn Rigsby, 58, Madison County

I remember when the war was over, everyone went to town and drove and drove and had a big parade and were waving flags and hollering. Some people were crying. It was quite an experience to think it was finally over and the boys would be coming home.


Betty Alvey, 60, Howard County
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Rationing

I was teaching during World War II, and it was the rationing I remember most about it. At the beginning of the war, when rationing was first started, school was dismissed for a few days, and the teachers took care of making out the ration cards (or books) for the families in the community. The head of the family came to the school, and the teachers took care of each one of them.

Gasoline, sugar and meat, and I can't remember what else, were rationed, and each article had its own book that had to be made out.


Ruth Snyder, 83, Marshall Country

Tell me, what was a victory garden?

A victory garden was a vegetable garden during the war. Everyone was encouraged to raise produce. Our girls took victory gardening in 4-H.


Neva Schlatter, 79, Pulaski County

During the war we learned to live with things; you made do with what you had. You might wear shoes a little longer, because shoes were rationed, and boots were rationed - anything that had rubber in it.

I think about the times when someone died. It was almost like a legacy to get their ration stamps, because they didn't have to turn them back in. Somebody in the family always said, "I'll take their ration stamps to get a pair of shoes," or something.


Betty Alvery, 60, Howard Country

Gas rationing hit everyone. It really stopped travelling. The farmers got enough to put out their crops, and the ones that worked in town got extra gas, but not enough to do all the things they liked to do. Families would have to get together to go shopping, and things had to be planned to save mileage.


Gladys Tribolet, 71, Huntington County

I was in high school during this period, and there wasn't much socializing, since gas was rationed. They couldn't take school buses to a skating party, or this type of thing, so we really didn't do much. Maybe we went to a show on Saturday night, or some member of your class had a party. During this time I learned to drive a car, and maybe we burned a little more gas than we should have. Many times my father said, "You drove farther than you should have last night."

I think probably we were happier then, because you visited with your neighbors and you did more socializing than we do now. I think that we were more together than we are now, now that we have the money and the gas and every member of the family goes off by themselves in their own direction. At that time, we had to all ride in the same car when we did go.


Floy Jacobus, 53, Gibson County


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Home Appliances

We got one of the first electric refrigerators in the neighborhood. That sure made things a lot easier. I had to churn twice a week when I didn't have that.


Maud Sloneker, 90, Fayette County

What would you hate to give up the most, comparing the things you have now with the things you started housekeeping with years ago?


If I had to do without, I believe my refrigeration. Because I could dab around to wash my clothes, I could have candlelight or coal oil lights, and if necessary, I could take a broom and sweep.

But I couldn't fix cool things, and I would miss cool things.


Vernell Saltzman, 81, Posey County

Tell me about when you first got electricity

The first things I got - and I had them spoken for - was a little radio and a vacuum cleaner. That was the two things I wanted the most, because I had them bought before we had electricity.


Marie Weber, 71, Rush County

Radio was a big thing when you were eating supper. You would just sit around and listen to those radio programs like you'd watch TV now. That radio was really a real important part of your life.


Mary Ann Hoskins, 49, Grant County

And "Stardust" was one of my favorite songs. Well my mom thought that was about as crazy as she ever heard. And now I understand what she thought about it, because the songs the young people have today are pretty crazy to me. I see the difference in what generation you're living in."


Catherine Summers, 67, Harrison County
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Jobs During the War



I worked during World War II; I worked at the G.E. (General Electric, Fort Wayne). I was rather smart in arithmetic and I thought I was going to work in an office. And then they told me what they paid in an office, and they told what they paid in a factory. I decided if I was going to have to work, I was going to work in a factoryÉAnd I learned to run a lathe like the men run. I learned to read blueprints and all this, and I worked at Winter Street G.E.

When the war was over with, then the men were coming back from the war, and they switched me to a girl's job. I had to take quite a cut in payÉeven back then. But they did give me a little better job, because I had more experience in a lot of things than what a lot of girls did.


LaVerda Shearer, 56, Whitley County

I had a wartime job. The summer between my junior and senior years, I worked in a factory in Anderson, and I had to share a ride, since we were carpooling. A lot of the men had gone to service, and they were using all the girls that they could in factories.


Loranelle Kimmerling, 54, Madison County

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