Rosemary A. Sloan
Elizabeth Jamison
Mr. Thomas
U.S. History, Period 2
8 May 2006
Personal Interview of Rosemary A. Sloan
I am an 11th grade student at Cathedral High School and am conducting a research project on women workers on the home front during WWII. I interviewed my grandmother on my mother’s side’s first cousin and best friend, Rosemary A. Sloan. She lived in Syracuse, NY during the war and was 25 years old when it began. She is now 89 years old and lives in Indianapolis, IN. The interview took place on April 21, 2006 at 5:00 p.m.
Q: Tell me about your family life during WWII?
A: In December of 1941, Sunday afternoon, we were listening to the radio and it suddenly came on that Pearl Harbor had been bombed, which was a great shock. I was in the state of transferring from one position to find another one. And shortly after that I applied at GM in Syracuse, NY as a secretary. I really wanted to go to Washington to be working for the US engineers. This opportunity came up so I went to work at GM, which was making 30 and 42 caliber machine guns. It was a completely different atmosphere for me. The day I was hired the employment manager took me through this long factory, 4 stories, 2 blocks long. We finally reached the purchasing department and I worked there just as a typist until there was an opening. Then I was made a secretary to the purchasing agent. We would sometimes work 6 days a week, 2 nights a week. We worked from 8 am until 5pm and we typed in the evening 6 until 10 pm. Riding to work on the bus was a new experience. One morning, standing on the bus as you had to do, suddenly people in the back of the bus began yelling and screaming. The reason was a woman had been to the market and bought 2 live chickens which proceeded to crawl all over the heads of the passengers in the back. That came under control.
It wasn’t easy in those days to get to work. I took two buses across town. But in order to get on a bus that went to work, I had to ride about 10 blocks farther than I normally would. And then when you got on you would have to stand for another 20 minutes.
Q: How did rationing work?
A: As far as rationing, we all had to be careful with what we ate. From the standpoint, it wasn’t easy to get many things. We were able through the company to share a ride, so that made that situation better.
You met many different types of people which was a great experience. Sometimes some of the buyers in purchasing went away to war. Many girls left to join their husbands in southern states most often.
I had friends who went to the USO and in order to be a girl at the USO you had to have your character spoken for by 3 reliable people I had many friends who did do that and met their future husbands. It’s not something that I normally did but I did register. I had a very dear cousin who did do that and that is where she met her husband from IN, a farmer. They were married and had 13 children.
Q: What did you do for fun?
A: Entertainment-wise if you weren’t dating anyone, you went to the movies. Afterwards you went to Charles restaurant for a sandwich. You didn’t have a car and your time for shopping was limited. I had a father who was quite elderly, and being an only child he kept very close tabs on me. I had thought of wanting to go to England and learn how to fly an airplane but it never developed. I played bridge with a group of 8 women, we played every two weeks. That was fun. The problem was for me, I had to be at work every morning at 8 am, and sometimes it didn’t start the night before until 9pm with desert and playing until midnight. And as of a result of that I had to give up the bridge club because my work and job were more important.
Q: Can you describe more about the USO?
A:Your grandmother, my dear friend, was a harpist at Syracuse University. It was my idea that we go to the USO. But the day we were to go I thought maybe this isn’t such a good idea. She and another girl went and they met their future husbands from Indiana. Of course the library was always a source of help and interest. We did have going away parties for the boys who were going away in service. There were also girls who joined the WACS. That was something we kept up with. Money wise you got your paycheck and the banks weren’t open by the time we got to get down to the bank so we went to the department stores to get our checks cashed. At the office we had a cafeteria. You had half an hour. One person would get a table, and someone else would give the orders. It was all an experience.
Church played a large part of our lives. Novenas were at 5 o’clock on Sunday afternoons which Betty and I went to and prayed that all of our relatives came back safely. One was a first cousin who was up in Alaska. His brother was in Africa. The boy in Indiana was on Saipan when the Japanese were shooting from the mountains down toward the US armory. Of course we kept up with everything we could. Sometimes mail wouldn’t come for 2-3 weeks but then we might get 3-4 letters or more. As far as nylon stockings, those were very difficult to get. But sometime you knew someone who knew someone that sometimes soldiers would have a way of getting nylon soldiers. That was something the girls liked to get.
And of course we had air raids. And the man next door to us was an air raid supervisor. And all your lights were out, the streetlights were out, your houselights had to be out, and he would walk from house to house with a flashlight, and it was rather eerie. And I also volunteered being a person who would spot foreign airplanes. That involved that if I had the day off on Sat. at 8 o’clock I reported to a station where they did the spotting for airplanes. But it was not too easy. However, someone convinced me that I should not get up there and watch for airplanes, that it was fruitless.
Q: What was your daily schedule at work?
A: We went in at 8’o clock. When I first went in to GM I was on hourly, I got 50 cents an hour. If I worked 48 hours I got 26 dollars a week. The plant in Syracuse was originally under guide lamp division of Anderson, IN. Then it became an independent division even though I had only been there a short time, everyone was in a state of jubilation because we had become independent. Then at the very end of the war our factory made blades for jet engines. We had two factories, one near the airport and one near the older part of the city. The government needed machine guns and people couldn’t make automobiles anyway because they couldn’t get the steel, copper and chrome, the things needed for the machine guns and other war products.
Q: How was it like as a woman?
A: Many women were on the production lines, also the general foreman had glassed-in offices in the factory where women called clerks typed and collected figures and things for production reports. Production Reports were very critical to make sure we made enough machine gun parts or the day before and how we were doing for the month’s quota. And of course at the end of the war all the contracts were cancelled with the subcontractors and quite a few people were laid off from the offices because they wouldn’t be needed. I was hired with the understanding that I would become a secretary in purchasing. I had five years experience working for the Campfire girls. Then I decided I would rather get into something more lucrative and maybe more patriotic. So when I went to GM I worked in purchasing for 2 years for the purchasing agent. Then after those years the girl who was working for the control owner was going in the WACS so I was transferred up there. Then I worked there for 5 years. Then the secretary to the plant general manager took a leave of absence and decided to get married so I worked for the general manager. And so I worked for 7 general managers for a period of 27 years and I loved every minute of it. I loved the people and we had great friendships between the girls in the office, we were like a 2nd family.
Q: Which of our relatives served in the military?
A: You grandfather was in Saipan, he worked as a mechanic, and he also contracted malaria and was stationed in the hospital in Honolulu. Your grandmother had cousins, the Murphy boys, in Alaska and Africa. Then I had other cousins. The McSweeney boys, there were 5, and they were all in service.
Q: How did the aftermath of war affect you?
A: At the end of the war, the company wanted to go back to normal company performance. We had to bring in a lot of different types of machinery. We made hubcaps, wheel disks, radiator grills. They were different processes and different materials and of course as time went on everything was plastic to the greatest extent.
Q: How old were you?
A: I was 25 when WWII started.
Q: What was Syracuse like?
A: Syracuse, NY is very hilly. In the winter you have a great deal of snow and you have to climb the hills. And you learn how. It has Syracuse University and La Moyne University which is operated by the Jesuits. They came to Syracuse in 1945 and temporarily lived in some of the older mansions in the city. Then they eventually had night classes, after the war you could take classes until their college was built.
Q: How did people feel during the war?
A: So many children’s fathers were overseas, which certainly caused change in their lifestyles and memories for them they will never forget, wondering how their dad was doing and listening to the radio. As far as the children, school went on and I’m sure that they were emotionally concerned.
Q: What kinds of sacrifices did you have to make?
A: You couldn’t drive. I used to ride through the Share-a-ride plan. I rode with an engineer and we picked up 3 other people who would bring us home at the end of the day.
Q: Did you do any traveling during WWII?
A: They weren’t too many planes commercially for people to ride on. Also, we were so busy working. After the war, your grandmother and I traveled to Rochester, NY which took 25 minutes. The trains, I would come out to Indiana, Ohio, and Detroit to see relatives or unfortunately we had a funeral in the family. I remember coming to Indianapolis right after the war and seeing the train station. It was quite impressive. I also traveled to NY city with a very good girlfriend. It was interesting. We did very few things other than go to the movies and some of the art museums.
They had the USO for the soldiers, and they had table-tennis and dancing and someone playing the piano, that type of thing.
We read our daily morning and evening newspaper, the Syracuse Post-Standard and Journal. You could also get the NY times at the newsstand. My boss always took the Wall Street journal after the war.
Q: What did America know about the Holocaust in Germany?
A: I don’t really recall too much dear. It isn’t like today that we see so much. In those days you didn’t see too much. Maybe that was done on purpose.
Q: How did you find out about the end of the war?
A: Radio was your only source of news at nights. During the war I did take a cruise on the Seneca River we went up to St. Lawrence to Thousand Islands. And then we got on a ship. We were there the day the war ended. We did not know that because the captain on the ship said he didn’t tell people because he didn’t know what the Americans would do celebrating. But some young cabin boy had it on the radio. So they ran around to everyone’s cabin door and said “The war is over, the war is over.” They were able to get the orchestra to play, and they passed a hat for them to play, and they played all night. The next day we were so exhausted and we didn’t get up to go out for lunch. Then we got back to Quebec that night. People were dancing, we stayed an old French hotel, thousands of people were on this boardwalk, and most everyone was speaking in French. The restaurant in the hotel was closed, and the man at the desk said he would send a bellboy with them to a restaurant where you can get hamburgers. People were lined up for a block to stand in line to get a hamburger.
Then we went to Montreal which was much more modern than Quebec.