Sunday, February 1, 2009

Joe's Mom talks about dating during WWII

Visiting Mom and Vern today. I brought along my camera because I thought it was time to record Mom a little for memory's sake. She is still vigorous and healthy, but she is 84 and..... I took a little video segment of her telling a tale of her dating during WWII. Mom graduated from High School in '42 or '43 and, of course, as was the custom in those days, was ready to marry. As she mentioned, all the young men were drafted immediately upon graduation from High School and the picking was pretty sparse. She married my Dad in February of '45 which was several months before the war was over. This was possible because my dad, who was in the Army from '37 to '44, applied for and received an agricultural exemption to return to the home farm in '44. He must have almost immediately begun dating mom considering when they were married. So, he was one of the limited number of available young men around at that time. The Mel she mentions going to dances with was her brother, who also had an agricultural exemption from service. See the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcODZCG3Qqo . The video is just a little over a minute long.
Mom and her brothers were all Quakers (Society of Friends) and, as religion based pacifists, they all would have had alternative service to the army in any event.
This is a living link to WWII and to personal family history for my grandchildren and their children, etc.

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