Summer Reading Wrap-Up

Just finished reading Victory Gardens & Barrage Balloons: A collective memoir by Frank Wetzel. If you want a sense of what life was really like for day-to-day people during WWII, this is an excellent book. It is primarily a collection of memories about life in Bremerton, Washington, home of the Puget Sound Navy Yard, a crucial player in the wars against Germany and Japan. But you don’t have to be from Bremerton to appreciate the history lessons in the book. You may not know the streets Mr. Wetzel makes reference to, but there is so much more so ubiquitous to the times.

It was fascinating to get a clear understanding of how focused America was on winning this war. The number of people employed from the very young to the old, and then after earning their living in the war effort, how they turned around and invested large amounts of that income on war bonds and stamps. The rationing system is explained in full detail. And the dancing! I was surprised to learn that teenage boys didn’t all wear the ideal necktie and neatly pressed pants, and that girls weren’t that innocent. Kids back then sound just like kids from any other generation. Maybe not as angry, but definitely out for a good time and a little rebellion.

This book doesn’t paint a glossed picture of the era in the way that Tom Brokaw’s books do. I don’t mean to criticize Mr. Brokaw’s books as unrealistic, but they do tend to focus primarily on happy endings. And that isn’t to say Wetzel’s book is a downer – anything but! In fact, Mr. Wetzel seemed to have felt it necessary to spend some time at the end of the book trying to explain how awful the war was in order to counter the cheerful image he painted through the book. There are about ten excerpts from the local paper announcing deceased soldiers, as well as a complete list of Kitsap County’s Roll of Honored Dead, that just break your heart. While summing things up, Mr. Wetzel says, “We who collaborated on this book, like others looking back on their youth, tend to emphasize happy times and to forget the bad ones. But it would be a serious misconception for younger readers to decide from the upbeat recollections of its survivors that WWII was entirely a time of uniting, bonding, sharing. In truth, the war was a filthy, nasty mess.”

That era seems to be a combination of extremes. Maybe the good times were so intensely grand because the threat of death was so near. If you don’t know how long you have to live, and you suspect that time may be short, perhaps you want to work and dance and love your heart out. Those who survived have some wonderful memories, but they also live with the sorrow of having been the ones to make it. They had happy lives, but they lived them without the husbands, boyfriends, and good friends with whom they would like to have shared life’s joys with.

I think I’m ready to wind down my reading and research and dive into my rough draft. Mr. Wetzel’s intimate book was a great way to wrap up this current round of education. I’ve been working on my outline for the last month and I’m at a place where there’s nothing more left to do but just to write. I have to admit, I’m intimidated. I know there will be more research as I go along, and I hope to continue to share what I learn with all of you. Stay tuned for more movie reviews.

How is your writing and research going? Seen any great old films or read any good books?

Well, I’ve just finished reading The Greatest Generation Speaks: Letters and Reflections by Tom Brokaw, and I can tell you it’s an absolutely fabulous follow-up to his first book, The Greatest Generation.

Mr. Brokaw must have been flooded with mail and overwhelmed by people telling stories at his book signings. This second book is his opportunity to share more of the stories of this remarkable group of people. There are so many facets to WWII, and each facet is a piece of the puzzle no less important than the other pieces in constructing an image of the people and the world at that time. I had goose bumps reading about a Chaplain who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor, and I was pushed to tears by a sampling of the hundreds of love letters shared by a deeply devoted married couple.

This book isn’t just a retelling of stories from the men and women who came of age in the 1940s, it’s a collection of letters and memoires that lets you hear their stories in their own words. It’s quite compelling and inspiring.

In the midst of reading this latest I watched Since You Went Away, a film that came out in 1944 about a mother and two daughters coping with father away at war.

This film really felt like it was being made for posterity as well as for current audiences. Throughout the film there are sound bites of what you might have overheard various people talking about. There’s a dance scene held in a hanger with what appear to be clips from an actual hanger dance. I don’t know if that’s true, but it certainly looks that way, which gives the film the air of a documentary of life as it was. The director, writers, and producers seem to have been trying to capture as much as they could about everywoman’s life, so that people could see themselves in the movie and derive inspiration.

At this point I am beginning to feel like the 1940s are more real to me than my own decade! lol I hum the popular tunes (my current favorite is Poinciana), I’ve picked up some of the lingo (I called someone “a real wise guy” the other day), and I dream of owning some skirt suits and wrap dresses. There is something about this generation that draws me and motivates me. They give an example of what we are capable of achieving as humans. They were imperfect, sure, but I think there’s a lot of good we can take away and learn from them.

Seen any good old movies lately? If you’ve seen Since You Went Away, I’d love to hear what you thought of it. And I always love book and movie suggestions. Please, feel free to share…

As you can see from my mid-week post, I’ve been spending some time researching dating in the 1940s. I found a number of ‘40s and ‘50s educational films posted on You Tube that, while only moderately helpful to what I was looking for, were definitely entertaining.

These films were made by Coronet Films for use by educators, clergy, and psychologists hoping to guide young people in a right moral direction. I find there is often some truth in what they have to say, however, they underestimate the human nature of hormonal teenagers! lol

What strikes me is the borderline, if not bald-faced, hypocrisy. On the one hand the 1947 film, Are You Popular, cautions girls not to be caught dating too many boys, and specifically not to go parking in cars with them. This, they say, makes a man feel inferior; he wants to feel he is special, that he isn’t just one of the crowd sharing your attention. But then, in the film Going Steady, they explain the downside to dating just one person is less attention from other boys. These other boys won’t call you for dates because they know you’re going steady with one of their pals.

So what’s a girl to do? As far as I can tell, she’s supposed to say yes to dating the “right” boys, always with advance notice, and preferably in a popular public setting. Would she like to go to a movie or a skating party? Why, a skating party, of course! The two are to keep things casual and friendly, rounding out the evening with a platonic smile and a wave goodbye.

All of this makes me think of my grandmother who graduated from high school in 1949 and would have been trying to apply these rules to her own love-life. After WWII, the U.S. had more women than men, and the pressure was on to be the one to get married. That, in turn, reminds me of a Jane Austin plot! A surplus of women, a deficit of eligible men, no sex before marriage…Oh the dilemma! lol

My grandma met my grandpa at a military dance. She was hired as a dance instructor, and he pretended he needed a lesson. I imagine she was there with the hope of finding someone. Having not become engaged to anyone while in high school, she probably felt herself on the road to spinsterhood. She didn’t particularly like my grandpa, but he was smitten with her and wrote to her throughout the Korean war. When he returned, grandma decided to settle with him, since he was the most interested. I wish I could say they lived happily ever after, but I can say they did live until death do us part.

I wonder how many women, so desperate to avoid being the old maid, settled for men they weren’t in love with? And how many women pined away on the shelf instead of going out and making a life for themselves as strong single women? Unfortunately, women weren’t supposed to do anymore than get married, and that’s the tragedy! The country lost a lot of opportunity in this excess of females by corralling them to one purpose.

Well, this blog went in an entirely different, and more serious, direction than I anticipated. What do you think? Is there any truth in these educational videos? Or are we better off with our free-love and helter-skelter modern dating methods?

Vintage Sexism (Dating Guide Edition)

Vintage Sexism (Dating Guide Edition)

I originally found this by way of The Presurfer blog and just had to share it with my fellow vintage enthusiasts.