[thecodont]

I always enjoy hearing from Mr. Nolte, a great local historian.

[Pelham]

A similar article I read said that the war brought a hard and lawless element to Oakland.

[bigbob]

An article I found elsewhere today really quantifies the magnitude of the aircraft aspect of WWII war effort. It’s hard to imagine a national mobilization of this scale:

http://researchmaniacs.com/Forwarded/WWIIAircrafts.html

[nutmeg]

bookmark

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I'm reading a new book called "Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II."

Highly recommended. It's a view of WW II history that hasn't (to my knowledge) been covered before. The mobilization of the US free industrial might to win the war was a staggeringly tough challenge. Almost as tough was fighting communist controlled CIO labor unions which wanted the US to lose and FDR's New Dealers who wanted to centralize all control under government.

The sections about Henry Kaiser and his sons together with Steve Bechtel and his family and the building of the Calship shipyards in Richmond and the Marinship shipyards just above Sausalito are tremendous.

[ScottinVA]

I spend much of my childhood in Vallejo, just up the road from SF. The entire region in the postwar era was a choice area to live and work. Unfortunately large numbers of the nonworking welfare parasites and flowed in as well and the Bay Area.. especially locales like Oakland.. was truly regained its footing after the mid-60s. The influx of illegals from Mexico that followed exacerbated the problem.

But at one time.. the Bay Area was a great place.

[JimRed]

No mention of what drew so many queers there.