World War II Remembered

They Also Serve

269 While standing and waiting, those on the home front worked to support the war effort. Some of these unsung heroes of World War II were the wives or parents of servicemen. Parents often took in the children of refugees or others who were unable to care for their offspring . While they became involved in many programs to support the war effort, they were living with rationing, censorship, and little or no knowledge of where their servicemen and women were. People wrapped bandages, gave to the Blood Bank, served on volunteer boards, sent clothes via Bundles for Britain, and knitted scarves, hats, and gloves for servicemen. Women filled in at factories as the workers went to war, and volunteer groups provided day care for their children . There were plane-spotting schools followed by schedules of volunteers for plane identification; there were blackouts and air-raid warnings. My mother, a widow with seven children, responded to the War in Europe by taking in two children from London, through a distant family connection, when the British evacuated many children from the They Also Serve • Marion Weathers Grassi Marion and Joe 1939 270 World War II Remembered city to escape the bombing by the Germans. These children, ages two and six, stayed with her for eight months before the father was able to collect them. My mother, who had had a chauffeur before the War, also took a course on how to check her car engine, recognizing and identifying problems. I don’t believe she had ever raised the hood before that. In 1939 Joe and I were married. He had a secure job as we were coming out of the Depression, working for a company whose specialty was marine insurance, underwriting ocean cargo and hulls. With the advent of the War in Europe they became extremely busy, spending long hours rewriting policies to fit the new circumstances. We had one child and lived in an apartment in New York City. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, our world soon changed. My five unmarried brothers all entered the service; one was a Marine, one was a medical service corpsman, and three were pilots. Though Joe was very nearsighted and had a child, he too would eventually be eligible for service. With that hanging over us, we made arrangements to move into my childhood home, with my mother, in the New Jersey suburbs. Rationing of scarce commodities changed everyone’s life style. It was not easy, but we soon learned to adapt. Everything was secondary to the war effort. Gas rationing came first. Our household had an “A” card because our needs were minimal. Those whose jobs depended on the use of a car were allowed more gas—a “B” card. Woe be to the person with a “B” card whose car was seen parked at the golf course on the weekend! Soon families found that shoes were rationed. Our daughter was learning to walk, and although we had coupons to cover the need for shoes, we found socks in short supply. It was rationing of food that presented the most adjustments. Meat, butter, coffee, and sugar were the scarcest items. There were minimal fresh vegetables in the markets: there was no one to grow them, so we soon planted “victory gardens” and preserved the resulting crops. My mother collected food stamps from our help and then parceled out each one’s share in an individual container. One was heard to mutter that “us working girls must eat to do our jobs.” With enough people in our household , we sometimes saved up coupons and could have a roast on special occasions. After it was eaten, we would render any fat which had been saved from the meat scraps. The aroma of the melting fat was so reminiscent of the tasty roast that we would moan in memory of that rare treat. They Also Serve: Marion Weathers Grassi 271 No sacrifice was too great for those with family members in the service. To our disillusionment, those with no military members often managed to get all the red stamps they wanted on the black market or through illegal connections. Joe and the Red Gauntlet Officer training was out of the question for Joe because of his nearsightedness , and with a family there was need for a higher rate of pay than he could get as a noncommissioned soldier. Lykes Lines, a freighter company that...