[girlangler]

I know what it means (exposing my age).

My Mom was also a patriot, recruited from the coal mining camps of Appalachia to go to Richmond Virginia at the tender age of 17. She was a “Rosie the Riveter,” only she was a welder, welded ship hulls during WWII.

And the girls then wrote to every GI they met after the guys went overseas. My Mom wrote to several, it was a patriotic duty then to do so.

Take a silly hillbilly girl from the mountains of Appalachia and send her to a city during WWII, to contribute to the War Effort, and you get catasprophe (sp).

Mom danced to Benny Goodman’s band, and lots of others, in the ballrooms in Richmond. Her claim to fame was having three ballroom gowns and shoes to match (from a coal mining camp and lucky to get shoes).

But she spent all her free time writing letters to the soldiers she danced with. The YWCA recruited these gals from the coal mining camps and across the U.S. So these gals weres safe, spent all their time writing letters.

[NonValueAdded]

God Bless your mom and all those who worked on the homefront and supported - truly supported - the troops overseas.

[SandRat]

hehehe — My Mom left the hills of Western Tenn with he Sister to work in a Naval Ammunition factory. All the same things she did and experienced as well.

[SMARTY]

My dad enlisted with his friends, right after the Pearl Harbor attack. He was Army AF and crossed the Channel into France at Utah beach about 2/3 days after the initial assault. He talked about his experiences, but only a couple a years before he died.

He was not bitter at all or dramatic. Only once did he actually almost cry. Before the invasion he, was at Christchurch England and he said (working on aircraft) that crews would wait out on the tarmac for planes to return from their flight into occupied areas. Once crews returned, the men could go to mess. He said it was sad to sit there in the mess and see guys still sitting out on the tarmac waiting for thei long overdue crews that everyone knew would not return. People had to go out and get them, and make them come in and give up the wait.

He had lots of stories ... small snippets really, just like that. I feel like I got to know him a lot better when he talked about those things. I miss him.