Mrs. Hedge
Megan Usab
Mr. Thomas
Honors History, Period 7
09 May 2006
Mrs. Hedge lived in Indianapolis on North Delaware street. Her husband enlisted into the war shortly after Pearl Harbor. For a short period she lived in California and moved around with her husband. In 1943 he was sent to North Africa while Mrs. Hedge was pregnant with their first child. Even though her husband was off in war she lived a decent life with her parents awaiting his return.
Megan Usab- DO you remember where you were when Pearl Harbor happened?
Mrs. Hedge - No I don’t, I cant even think of the date I probably was at work, in ’42 I was still working and my husband was in the service then in California, and then I quit and went out there cause he was going to be out there for six months, and then I went out there but I was at work for sure.
M- where did you work at what did you do
H- I was a credit investigator, I worked for General motors, GMAC is what I think its still called it was the business end of it all the dealers would call in to sell a car and we would refinance it and would give us the information on the person so we would verify the buyers information. I had all kinds of directories and if I couldn’t find anyone to verify them I would call one of the neighbors and that’s what I did and it was a lot of fun.
M: it sounds pretty fun.
H: then I think that’s when I started talking a lot, hahaha, no I talked before then, My husband used to always joke because he was really quite and he married me cause I could do all the talking.
M was it normal for women to work then
H um until we got married, usually women worked until they got married and had a baby and then you quit, and you only worked a little to begin with not like the days we have now. So when you had a baby you needed to focus on the baby.
M- I heard you say you didn’t have any siblings
H- so when he (husband) enlisted because everyone did after Pearl Harbor and he went in as a cadet in Florida. And then he went to California, at UCLA and taught a meteorologist class and he also taught at Mass Tech
M- Then did he ever have to go to war
H; Then he actually he went Africa, May of 1943 and I was pregnant then but he went anyway. He was stationed there the whole time, he directed planes as the war was ending there, then he would take route checks, from his bases to other bases, and he was there till the end of the war in Europe. Cause he was in the pacific, he was able to go to Egypt and all those northern countries and Europe for different checks. Actually he went to triplee and when he left he knew where it was going to be actually in two weeks he was in a I cant remember, anyways some other places in north Africa but he couldn’t tell me where he was but he would mention some things about the places, occasionally his letters would come around, but they would go through all the mail and would cut things out that the government didn’t want us seeing.
M: O really? Did you guys write letters all the time?
H- He did! Hahah. And I did but I am a terrible letter writer, when you talk you don’t write, he wrote really good letters. My husband would write beautiful letters real humors he wrote every day, and I wrote every day but he didn’t think much of mine and um I think he would get his in bunches, but since he was pretty much based in one place that is pretty much where everything went, so. We threw most of the letters away but I kept some of them, especially the ones around when my son was born which was November of 44 and he was still there in fact he wasn’t home till November of 45, so he a my son was a rather big child he was only a year old and he was over 30lbs, and my husband said I thought we had a baby, and he started picking him up and he asked man how do you do it and I said well I started when he was so little.
M- Did you work when your husband was gone
H- I only worked when we first got married in 1940, I didn’t after he left for service, and until I went to California,
M: What did you do in your free time?
H: Well when he left I was pregnant I moved in with my parents and I didn do much because I was pregnant and I was ok but I was big so I didn’t do much. We didn’t make a big deal about pregnancy. Most of my friends had one child
M: was your dad involved in the service?
H: No no he was to old
M: Did either your mom or your dad work during that time period
H: Yes yes they both worked,
M When the war came since it came right after the GD did the GD affect your family
H: well by then things were better but my husband made 27 dollars a week, and we rented an apartment that was 40dollars a week furnished, and we had three bedrooms, on the second floor of a home where the owners lived in the basement. I used to take envelopes and divide the money cause he was paid cash, I didn’t work because it was temp, and I was kind of lazy, I never cared I never went to college because college was expensive and not many of my friends were going but I had the option because I was an only child. I wanted to go to Franklin because my friend was going there but my mom didn’t think I was going for the right reasons, and I wasn’t so I didn’t go to college. So I just went to a business school. We used Dictaphones and did recording and typed them out. But I wasn’t very good at listening, I could do short hand and I think it was because I liked to talk so much.
M: What was a normal day for you when your husband was in the service?
H: well I was over at my mothers and they both worked, mother started working when the depression was going on, So I stayed home because I was pregnant, so I cleaned the house and made dinner, and when I had my son I let them cook because they liked to. And I had girlfriends but they didn’t have cars so we talked on the phone. I struggled with my daily letters and I took pictures. I struggled with an old fashion box camera.
I took a lot of pictures.
M: Well is there any other stories you can think of?
H: No Sorry, I feel like I didn’t give you much information I didn’t have any good stories.
M: No it was great thank you so much for your time!