Historian john, keying writes, the Second World War is the second largest event in human history. It killed 50 million human beings and left hundreds of millions of others wounded in mind and body and materially devastated. This largest single event affected life here in abilene as well as in communities around the world and where our panelists were during the war. I will begin our introductions with our abilene resident. Margin olson. She spent part of the war in exas and oklahoma as she fored her husband from post to pust. Next on our panel, doris snyder. She spent part of the war in akron, ohio. Not exactly rosie the riveter, but some type of war work. She is the mother of our museum curator, william snyder. We have made this panel into a Family Affair as you will see in a moment. Skipping down to the end of the table pause this is the way i rangered my remarks, bob went to oklahoma a m, now Oklahoma State university, where he studied journalism. Bob while he was there met press la, and they married in 1955. The bless he had event, also known as my birth, occurred four years later. Here we are today, and please welcome our panelists. [applause] well, i would like to start just by asking about a key date in history, december 7th, 1941. Perhaps starting with you, doris and proceeding down the panel. Where were you on that day, what were doing . What is your reaction to the news . What was the first noticeable change in your life . I was working at Firestone Tire and rubber he do in akron, ohio, on that day. That day changed my life a lot. Because my husband enlisted in the marine corps that very day. He felt that it was the thing to do, even without asking me. But i guess it was the right thing for him to do. No disrespect to eisenhower, he didnt want to be in the army, so he thought he could get what he wanted if he enlisted ahead of time, and he enlisted in the marine corps. And believe it or not, he enlisted in cleveland, ohio, and they never even let him return home. They sent him directly to san diego that very minute, and he didnt even have a toothbrush, didnt get to say goodbye to his parents or nothing, or to me. [laughter] of course we werent married at the time. We were engaged, yes. But thats what happened to me on pearl harbor day. I was working at firestone. I wasnt exactly rosie the riveter. I was at firestone, in order to accommodate us, they built quanset huts on the main factory ground. I wasnt on the main ground. I was in this hut, and in the bottom of the kwan set of they were huts, building wings. I was working up on the second floor. No air conditioning. Believe me, it was warm. But we knew we had a job to do, so we did it. A man was sent down from new york to train me to operate this huge it was like a typewriter key board. It was about four feet long. And believe it or not, it paid the pills the bills and ordered the materials that we needed to build the wings all on this machine. It made the checks, and it kept the accounts right on this machine. I guess it was the nearest thing we had it a computer back in those days. And that was my pearl harbor day in a nutshell, i guess. Thank you. Margin, how about you . Marge, how about you, if we could move the microphone to her . Thank you. I was a new bride. I had been married three months, and we were living supposed in abilene, to be happily ever after. On that day i remember the radio was on, and remember definitely hearing president roosevelt tell us about pearl harbor. I knew then it was going to hange my life. Actually, within just a few short months, my husband did leave for the service, and i became not only a war bride, but eventually i did become rosie the riveter for a short time in amarillo, texas. But it definitely changed our life. Mr. And mrs. Reeves, your experience was different as dependent children at the time the war broke out. What were your and your parents reaction my 6th birthday was the next day. I probably didnt appreciate all that attention to pearl harbor, but it impacted us because three older brothers. It was something that we were very my family was very aware of the significance. It was a big deal. I was playing in a flower bed in the front yard digging, and mother came out and told me that the japanese had attacked. It sort of register as a big thing, but it got even bitter because dad was preparing a christmas lighting decoration for our house. He at that moment altered it to victory. For he asked me if the morse code for v was three dashes and a dot or three dots a a dash. Profiteer. War that reminds me something that i didnt learn until recently. Uring the war, the b. B. C. Used the opening refrain from beethovens fifth. Something that did really change, between 1940 and 1945, women in the work force increased by more than 50 . In fact, nearly half of allamerican women took on some sort of job during world war ii. And it wasnt just defense work. Women moved into all types of new field because of a male labor shortage. An amarillo newspaper story was amazed that women were now driving taxis, checking and stocking groceries. Selling mens clothes, work as soda jerks, managing Department Stores and fixing flat tires. It really was a revolution in the type of work that women did. Marge, we will start back with you. Do you want to tell us more about the work you did in amarillo where this article was written . That is where i became rosie the riveter. It was the first place we moved after basic training in wichita falls. The first thing i had to do was get a job. I worked in a warehouse for a short time and learned they were hiring war brides, especially wanted war brides, because they figured they would be better workers for the defense plant there in amarillo, texas. Something i never dreamed that i would ever do, and i cannot believe i did it, but i climbed an eightfoot ladder with a blow torch in one hand and a roll of solder in the other hand and we woulded a group of make ipes together to one large pipe for helium. I had other experiences there, but that was the one thing that shocks me today to think i did it. [laughter] i know you followed mr. Olson around during the war. Were some of those other jobs jobs k on, maybe jobs that men would have been in peace time . The first job i had in amarillo, it was in a warehouse, and i had to push almost like a grocery cart around and fill orders. And you had to learn in a short me where everything was on shelves. Misthings, o many and i had to devise a way of knowing all those. In oklahoma city, i dont know that men were doing it, but i teleprinter. Se a i worked for western union, running several Branch Offices throughout the city. The special one that may have been on the dangerous side was i worked at the stock yards, and i had to take a commuter train to the stock yards and check in before and after at the main office. I handled quite a bit of money. Getting on 2 or 22, commuter at about 5 00 in the evening with a bag of money, a lot of money, riding on the commuter train in august. I am sure it was all that dangerous back then, but i shouldnt wouldnt try it now. [laughter] doris, you told us about some of your work with that interesting early computer. What other jobs did you have . That was about it, unless my husband or my fiancee came back. Yes. Then we were stationed at camp lejune, North Carolina. He got to come home early from the South Pacific because he had been in two of the worst battles. E had been at guadal canal and terawa. They were the first to don in the water in japan. They needed r and r. Absolutely. Bob and parise, your parents experience would have been different because they were not of military age. Did it change the work . No, because i had two younger sisters. So she was a stay at home mom. Ut my dad was a builder. We had moved from West Virginia when i was little to florida, to orlando. Hat was before there was any speaking mice or princesses in florida. There was nothing there but orange groves and san. My dad built a house for us there. Pause he enjoyed building the house so, that later became his lifetime work, my dad, when we moved to ohio. So we had some experiences in florida. Nd from there we move to texas. Dad decided because he had heard there was so much work in ohio, because we had four rubber plants there at the time. Akron was known as the rubber capital of the world as that time. We had goodyear, goodrich, general and rubber plants there, and this was a lot of building there. He built up the whole city of firestone park. He built all the homes there. It became his lifes work then, and we did well. We had three regular meals a day. Although we had been raised through the depression. I dont remember ever being hungry. And everybody was kind of in the same boat. We didnt know we werent privileged and had a lot of things. We felt we were so fortunate when we got an orange for christmas. Not all this technology, the tosoni they have today. Right. In terms of your homes in oklahoma, your fathers work and perhaps the work your mother may have taken on during the work . My dad worked for the electric company, and because of the war, they were shorthanded, included a lot of extra hours, including no vacations. We also farmed. So in the team he was not working for the electric company, we also worked at a farm. And in addition to that, a was near. Force base into an ted the garage apartment that we rented to a soldier. War was a real period of work. Then we also had a large every won. Almost she did not work outside the home, but my brother and i managed to keep her fully occupied, i am sure. There were five of us. I am the baby, which i like to ell them all the time. But my eldest brother did go into the service, and my sisters husband and my dads brother. Dad tried to, and they told him he was more valuable on the home front. He was also in the electric business. But we had the victory gardens. We collected scripe iron. I remember going without bubble gum. That was a big one when you are not very old. You have no bubble gum. But my mother worked fearlessly. She was a volunteer in many aspects of the home front, and she started a u. S. O. Center in the town where we lived. About 3,000 population, and there was an army camp 40 miles outh of us in texas. So mother decided, the boys, seasonals, were coming up on the train and looking for some place when they had free time to get away from camp. So she decided they have to have a good place. It cant just be bars and everything. She talked a lady who owned a lot of property in town, and she talked her into letting them use a building downtown. She managed to talk to verybody into furnishing doughnuts, furniture, a pan yo, and girls probably to help, and mothers, and magazine, and books and whatever it took to give the boys a place to go. That became my performance area because i got to play the pan yo. I could play home on the ranger with two fingers. Be glamorous must and important to the war effort. Well, the red cross and u. S. O. You bring up are synonymous to home front as re war bonds, rationing, victory gar dense, what sort of memories did those activities rise . Short annuals of bubble gum. I know children had troubles getting tires for that was bicycles. One of my most frightening moments was a result of that. Copper ought a pound of or metal, we would get a free movie tooked. Nd the movie was about a mummy that would get people. I walked home in the fog and was pursued by that stupid mummy the whole way. Lets talk about another key day. We are here to commemorate dday, the 70th anniversary of dday. What are our dday memories . Where were you . How did you hear the news . Was it sort of the light at the end of the tunnel after all these years . Anything come to mind . Come to mind. I was working at firestone and we all heard that d day was happening and all of the churches were open. So what i planned to do on my way home from work, i stopped at church, prayed for my husband. Marge. I remember that i at the time had taken my baby daughter and my husband was overseas and i was living on the farm with is folks and my sister lived about 25 miles away and she had three children and her husband was serving in the navy. That o excited that day i had my baby daughter with some clothes and pay playpen which was her bed. I picked up my sister and we started out in the w even e hours of the morning, we were going to celebrate some place. We thought it would be in chase county in the flint hills. The first thing we had was a flat tire and here we are and had to unpack kids and everything and it was still dark and we happened to be near a small town and so we went to the filling station and behind the filling station was the house. We knocked on the door and woke him up. The man was so happy when we told him it was dday and told him about it that he came out and took care of our tire. Otherwise i dont know how long we would have been stranded. How about meanwhile in oklahoma . It took a while for the word to get there. [laughter] the key dates i really remember were Jimmy Doolittles raid and the atomic bomb and the day president roosevelt died. I was 12 when he died and he was the only president we had had during my lifetime. That was really one of the big moments of the war and i remember dday and being fascinated by it but it wasnt one of those do you remember what you were doing when kinds of days in my life. And sort of the same for me and the day that roosevelt died was, i do remember, april 12, 1945 because we also had a tornado that about took most of the little town that i lived in away. So that probably took a little more significance to us and, also, i had well, i dont think i want to tell that. [laughter] well talk later. A better question, since you two are both still in school, in grade school, did the war, was there a daily effect of the war . Was it constantly on peoples minds . Im sure they had siblings and parents involved in the war. How big of a presence was the war in your daily life at school . It was huge. E teachers always posted war happenings, we learned a lot of geography because of the war and learned about other countries. They sold stamps for buying victory bonds each monday morning at school. You could buy one either for a dime or a quarter. We had scrap drives through the school. One of the popular pasttimes was for kids to bring war trophies that their brothers or fathers sent to them, german helmets, japanese helmets and thinking of todays life, rifles, pistols, and all kinds of weapons showed up on a regular basis in grade school, but threes were great moments and we passed them around for show and tell. [laughter] well, i had letters, of course, i wrote to the brother and i wrote to and they wrote to me and still have some of those so that was something that was very appreciated and rereading them now, it just takes you back. I mean youre transported back when you read those letters and they loved everything that we would send. I must say, we were good about it, everybody wrote and everybody was a part. That war touched everybody, verybody you knew. We were together for lunch as a panel together to get our thoughts together as best we could. You shared one item i thought was really interesting. It was from an organization of a red cross chapter in a very small town in oklahoma raising money for the war effort and collecting items to help the allies. What really struck me is that its dated march 1941 rand so these small communities in southeastern oklahoma were already involved on the side of the allies to some extent well before pearl harbor which really came as kind of a surprise to me. Well, in the time we have left to kind of go full circle, we keep mentioning these key dates, there is victory in europe day, if there is any memory associated to that or more perhaps victory over japan day, more meaningful depending upon which theater your Family Member was in and any particular memories of those two key dates. Well, both v. E. Day and j. V. Day prompted impromptu parades down main street. Everybody who had a pickup or car was driving and honking, so it was a celebration clear in the middle of the country and obviously extremely well received. As the focus singer woody guthrie, the peace hit st. Louis a lot harder than the war ever did. Well, we have sometime for questions and answers of our panelists, but also just for you to be able to share your memories of the war as well and linda here will pass the microphone, please wait until you get the microphone so that the cameras will be able to pick up the audio. Being young during that time, in my studies at school when i was giving my p. H. D. , we talked to a lot of wives who lost their husbands in the current wars. What did the homefront, what did the men and women do when a friend of theirs or a neighbor got news that they actually ost a husband . Are you speaking to me . Anybody on the panel. I lost Three Friends in the war. One, his ship was bombed and split in half and he was asleep on the bottom deck at that point and the other one, jerrys plane was bombed and, of course, they were all killed on the plane. And then ben worked at firestone with me and i always felt so bad that he enlisted because he was all that his mother had. He had no reason to enlist. He wouldnt have had to, but he did anyway. And he was all she had and he didnt come home. I guess i was one of the lucky ones. My fiance came home and we got to be married and had three children. I guess thats one. Another question for the panel . Yes. This question is for mrs. Olson and mrs. Snyder. I heard the toughest job in the army is an army wife. How do you feel about that . It was what . The toughest job in the army is an army wife. Do you feel that is true . Amarine wife. Squoot or a marine wife. [laughter] right, marine. Lets see, when he got home, we were married in three weeks after he got home. The war was still going on, but he got to come home because of what he had been through, so thats why we were sent to camp lejeune. We lived there on base for, lets see, almost a year and almost two years i think we lived on base and it was one of the most fun times of my life. I could walk down to the ocean. I could walk to the grocery store. Even though we lived in what today they call a little travel trailer and thats what all the married marines lived in and i had to learn to cook on a little camp stove. Keg to pump up a little on the front of it and we had some wonderful times. I made a lot of marine friends and families because the whole base was family mostly. We had some lifelong friends that we made there. So actually it was a nice experience. I enjoyed now today, i think North Carolina is my favorite state. , the s, my experience worst time of all that for years after my husband died in 1989, i had a recurrent dream that he was walking down a country lane to a mailbox and i would get there and there would be no letters. And this dream continued throughout the years until obviously maybe in the last 10 years and actually thats kind of what has happened. There were days, to me the lifeline was the communication and communication when our husbands were in the army were by letter. No telephones, no ipads, no cell phones, no pictures, nothing and then these letters at least coming from okinawa would come, maybe you would come down to the mailbox for two, three days in a row or maybe five days and then there would be no letters. The and then the next day there would be one. When he was sent overseas, he didnt know where he was headed. I didnt know where he was headed because they zigzagged across the pacific because of the japanese subs and it took about six weeks, he left the first part of june and didnt get into okanawa until the last of july and then it was another six weeks before i heard from him, so to me, communication was the hardest part and those were long, long months. Of course, i had a baby girl and i was busy, but still it was hard, very hard. I know thats why i continue to have a dream that referred to that time in my life. Were your letters all cut up . Mine were so censored, it was usually just dear doris and a salutation, so chopped up. I cant understand why the censors had to be so rough because my husband wasnt crazy enough to tell where he was to the enemy, why did they chop them all up like that . I think they enjoyed it. [laughter] no, in answer to your question, mine werent cut up. They werent . But my husband never wrote very much about what was going on except the discomfort of the rain and the mud that he was living in on okinawa. But after he was dead probably about at least 10 years, i was going through his things and the first part of the diary showed nothing, so i was ready to toss it. And flipping back through, i came to the middle of the diary, he had started it when he left, not in front of the diary. And in this diary, i learned about the snipers, the booby trap that he barely escaped, of the ickness, 170mile typhoon and all of those things that he didnt write because he didnt want me to be upset. A treasure. Mrs. Reeves, you mentioned that the war was something that everyone felt, was involved in spouse from the war or 2 that ts 1 feels the last war, do you have any suggestions on how we can help civilians understand that . Ere is still that cost actually a group of ladies at our church who this kind of thing keeps it foremost in your mind, we have made greeting cards to send to the military so that they would have cards to send home to people. It is something that when you work on it and you talk about , you become very aware that these things are still going on, there are Lonely People out there and it gets, it also encourages them beyond, i know the email and all of that stuff, but you know, those letters that you have in your hand that i still have from my brothers in the 1940s mean a lot. I think generally you know talking about it and encouraging that kind of involvement because it does, it means a tremendous amount and it did, it was mentioned early, you know, when you live in a little town, you do lose people that you know very well. I think everybody kind of huddles together. You try to support each other and youre aware of everything that is going on in the lives. You have to put yourself there. Another question . I want to say that i was in the army and when it was mail time, it was a big deal. I think that the email and all that stuff is detrimental to the military because just think of all the times that you could write a letter and those soldiers would get that letter nd be really thrilled. I think that there needs to be a campaign of writing letters instead of all of these emails because they can keep those letters. They cant keep the emails, theyre in space. Letters are tangible. And reread them. Years and years from now, those soldiers can read them and think back, it is very necessary for people to write letters. At 5 00, a booth will open by the statue where you can make a card to send a current soldier. We have time for one more uestion. Ne more. What effect or what memories do you have from the ragsing that went on during world war ii . I know my mother has talked about it briefly, but she doesnt talk very much about those memories. As kids, we didnt notice it so much except for a shortage of bubble gum. Word would pass very quickly if some store got it, but because we it is a farm and access to other farms, we were able to get things that probably were limited to others, but such things as butter and meat and gasoline among other things were all ragsed. In fact, i have with me some little coins that were used as a part of the ragsing process to control how much you got and you were also asked to turn in things like lard because the gliss rain in it was used in explosives. It affected every aspect of life and probably as noticeable to everything is inability to travel. Were accustomed to hopping in he car to driving to wishta or kansas city if you like. With five gallons of gasoline, that didnt happen. We stopped putting sugar in our tea so mother could bake sweet things. You made adjustments and would rather eat it, i guess, than drink it. It affected bootlegging too, by the way. Thats another panel. [laughter] at s, when we were living midwest city across from the field, there was a commissary. So really, the military men, at ast the air force, they were pretty well set becausior that we couldnt get probably some of the best food there. The only drawback i ran into is when i was pregnant with my daughter and i craved cherries, just the cans of pie cherries of all of the things. My receive back home, they ran a grocery store, she sent me a hole case of cherries. I dont remember having any trouble of getting gas. My dad had got me a little ford coupe, of course, a used one when i started working at firestone. All i can remember is i think we had a little booklet of green stamps and i had to use the stamps. But i never had any trouble getting gas. I certainly didnt have to pay almost 4 a gallon for it. [laughter] well, thats about all of our time for our homefront panel this afternoon. Would like to thank you for attending. Were going to take a 15minute break and we will be back with our panel on life on the battlefield. Thank you very much. [applause] youre watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan 3. To join the conversation, like us on facebook at cspan history. This year, cspan is touring cities across the country exploring American History. Next a look at our recent visit to st. Louis, missouri. Youre watching American History tv all weekend, every weekend on cspan 3