Catherine Frey
INTODUCTION: This interview was conducted on April 22, 2006. I interviewed my grandmother, Catherine Frey. She lived in Chicago , Illinois , during the war and still resides there. She had 1 older sister and 1 younger sister. This interview was conducted over the phone. This portrays the life for a younger child during World War II.
Q: Hi grandma. I just wanted to ask you some questions about World War II. Would that be alright?
A: Sure go ahead.
Q: Ok, how old were you when the war started?
A: I was about eight, no seven, yeah, I was about seven years old.
Q: What specific things do you remember about everyday life, how it changed, you know, things like that.
A: I remember going to church and praying for soldiers. I remember walking down the street and seeing a star in almost every window because most every home had a soldier fighting in the war. There was rationing, we had tickets for soap, sugar, chocolate. I remember standing in line with mother and my sisters waiting to get soap- like a detergent- and sugar. Oh, we had these air raids at night. The whole city would go dark and no lights were able to be on. We had to close the blinds and turn all the lights off. Then after a while the air raid warden said all clear and lights could go on.
Q: How often did that happen?
A: Oh, about once a month or so.
Q: Did you know of anyone close to you that went to the war, I mean, any family members, anyone like that.
A: Well, no, but our downstairs neighbor's (because we lived in the upstairs of a 2-flat) son went into the war and was a sailor. Oh, well, Aunt Mary's husband, John Floyd, was in the war. He was 35 when he was drafted. All his buddies called him "Pappy" because he was one of the oldest ones there. It was a sad time. Mother and I would walk down the street to church and almost everyday we'd meet a woman whose son was in the war. Yeah, and my great aunt had 5 sons in the war. All of them survived, you know, only one was wounded.
Q: What was it like when the war was over?
A: Oh, everyone was happy the war was over, you know? How could you not be? It still took us a little while to get the food we wanted to eat, though.
Q: What did your mom and dad do during the war?
A: Well, my father was a bus driver.
Q: Did you or your mom or sisters do anything to help the war effort?
A: No, well, we gave money but didn't really do anything like volunteer or anything. I don't know why mother didn't, she had all us children to watch, it was probably too hard.
Q: Did you have to do anything special?
A: Well, I was really too young for a job, and mother didn't work so things immediately inside the house, as far as jobs go, pretty much stayed the same. The only thing we could really do was pray for the people.
Q: Well thanks grandma.
A: Is that enough, sorry I couldn't be of much help.