Military Memories: The Community

I'm home from the hospital and on the mend -- see "Sad Sushi" post -- and although the rehab exercises and all the rest wear me out, somehow the highlight of my day is the sweet escape that comes when I take a break and think about genealogy. How many of us love it and in times of trouble find that it can be very soothing to whatever ails us?

So the thought now is to pick up the GeneaBloggers writing prompt for this merry month of May with short posts on Military Memories and thought up by Jennifer Holik. There's a blogging theme for every day and that's going to work for me... and maybe you too, if you blog?

Meanwhile the work continues on the Farrell DNA project and I'll probably be posting on that as well. Cousin Rich and I are busy comparing DNA matches that are the result of Mom's recent AncestryDNA test. I have made some really nice contact with matches for the Farrells as well as for Mom's wonderful Whetstones, a House descendant, and now a Kobel cousin with a branch that spells it Coble. Who knew?

For this short post on Military Memories the topic is The Community. My family all lived in the little Western Maryland mountain town of Frostburg in Allegany County. When WWII broke out, the boys enlisted and went off to war. I did a post about the Kelly boys, Dad's brothers, going off and you can read it here. Dad wasn't eligible due to a childhood injury and he stayed at the home front.

There was rationing and everyone of my age has heard stories about the scarcity of tires, cars, and sugar as well as the use of Ration Books and coupons. I guess that I'm lucky to have all of Mom's stories about the war years in Frostburg and the munitions plant where everyone, including Dad, worked. The local movie theatre had bond sales before the main feature. No new pots and pans nor new sheets for the newlyweds. There was a housing shortage too and rentals were all but impossible to find. One of my all time favorite movies about this era is "Since You Went Away" made in 1944 and every time I see it I think that it could have taken place in Frostburg, with some minor adjustments.

Mom and some of her friends worked during the war. Before the war she found it difficult to get a job and through the help of a friend worked in the Five & Dime. It didn't last long, and my impression is that she wasn't too serious about it either. But when the war started it was much easier for women to find work, good work. And they found fellowship there too, sharing the good and bad.

I think Mom found the work at the textile mill where fabric for parachutes was manufactured a bit more challenging than the work at the Five & Dime. It contributed to the war effort. I might not have this absolutely right (and Mom will let me know) but the guys who were her bosses thought she was just another dumb blond and often made sport of her work efforts. On her own she organized a way to record measurements (or something to do with numbers) and it blew them away. "YOU did this?!" they asked her in disbelief. Sure she did. She'd just never been challenged before. I guess that probably happened to a lot of women who worked at interesting jobs during the war and were good at it and enjoyed it too. I think that it must have given Mom a sense of "can do" that stuck with her and was put to good use when she took up genealogy in the 1970s.

Everyone in town had a Victory Garden. Everyone always had a back yard garden for vegetables, fruits, and wine grapes anyway so to continue it into wartime just made easy sense. Putting up or canning vegetables and meat they hunted was very common. Jams and jellies too. But doing without sugar was a real hardship. And watch out if you ask Mom what she thinks about margarine. Can't stand it to this day!

Little Frostburg had just been through the Great Depression and before that, reversals at the many coal mines in the area. The townsfolk were naturals at economizing and doing without and then finding clever ways to substitute.

A postcard sent to Dad from one of his brothers.

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/military-memories-community.html

Olde Timey Stories

I never get tired of listening to Mom tell about how things were when she was a young girl! Here's a random sampling of some of the stuff she's told me recently. There are lots more - and some I simply can't tell you to protect the guilty - but these seem appropriate for the blog.

Christmas during the Great Depression was meager by our overblown standards but as Mom says, they never knew they were poor because so was everyone else. What they did get was a fresh orange every Christmas as a special treat, so when Mom smells oranges it still reminds her of Christmas.

When I was growing up, Mom always put a fresh orange in our Christmas stocking so even today, around holiday time, when I smell a fresh orange I think of my childhood Christmases and Mom telling us about her Christmas oranges. She also mentioned scurvy and how important vitamin C from the oranges was because scurvy was still more common when she was a kid.

Mom points out that they had what seemed like enough of everything, and plenty of food on the table. Everyone had a big garden in the yard with veggies and chickens in a coop at the back of the property and sometimes pigeons. The men hunted (this is Western Maryland and the hunting is still good in the region) and that put more meat on the table. The women "put food by", or as we say, canned. I can still remember my maternal grandmother's pantry with its shelves lined with all manner of food stuffs. I loved staring at those simple jars with melted wax on top to seal the goods.

Mom has a rather nasty memory about the killing of a chicken and feathers flying. She must have been three or four years of age and didn't understand what was going on so it kinda freaked her out. Still does when she tells the story.

Very early, there was an outhouse in the back of the yard too. Everyone had them. I don't know what year indoor plumbing and sewer lines came to Frostburg, but Mom was still in elementary school when it did. It was very difficult to get your sleepy self to go out to the outhouse in the cold of winter! One spring, a bird decided to build a nest in the outhouse, giving all reason to spend a little extra time seated there.

During the Depression, the front or "best" room wasn't heated during the winter. A tree was set up there and the room heat turned on only for the Christmas celebration. Mom would sneak in (as all kids did and still do) to check out the inventory of presents and the name tags. And of course presents were more likely to be hidden in closet recesses or on top shelves! Mom, undaunted, loved to go on little expeditions looking for hidden treasurers. One year she found a polka-dot dress meant for her! Oh, joy!

My sister took after Mom and always loved knowing what she was getting for Christmas before the day. I never saw the fun in that scheme, but to each his own. I love a surprise:)

Mom, at a year old, with her father

Cambria Williams and her mother,

Emma Susan Whetstone Williams, 1919.

Men who hunt... food on the table.
Grandpa Williams seated with pipe.