We had a little glass bank and we used to put quarters in it. Joe didn’t have a car, but would walk to get an ice cream, then walk back home. Sometimes he’d have to walk all the way to turtle creek. Sometimes, I would try to give him a dime and say get on the streetcar.

In 1933 when we were engaged we finally broke that bank. I think we had $30 or $35.00 in it. It might have been enough to buy our marriage license.

I was working at Westinghouse, and he was already a private, and was making about $50.00 a month. When he made P. F. C. they raised his salary to $58.00 a month. By the time he made corporal he was up to $65.00 a month. He stayed at that level throughout his time in the army.

Joe and his family had no money at all. My mother and dad paid for the wedding. Actually, I paid for most of the wedding, while my mother and father paid for the food. My dad served barbecued lamb.

My mother and father had a little candy store. But when rationing came in, and you had to have a coupon for everything, he closed the store. It was just too hard to keep it open.

My father was a millwright foreman in the foundry, and he was working night and day. If there was a breakdown in any of the machinery, they called him right away. We lived in east McKeesport and he used to walk to Wilmerding. That was about four miles, and he walked in winter and summer.

When Joe visited me he walked the same set of stairs that my father used. In climb the stairs up the hill into east McKeesport.

So we never spent any money on dates. If we went to the movies, it was 25¢.


I Worked in the Drafting Department at Westinghouse

When I worked at Westinghouse and told my boss I was quitting to get married he said: “that’s like hearing the horse has died, and you didn’t even know he was sick.”

Ed Martin was my boss. I used to inspect bimetals used in circuit breakers aboard navy ships. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I was an inspector.

One of my jobs was to choose the music for the floor. We had big allowed speakers overhead so that people could stay awake all night.

When I got married, Joe went overseas, and I went back to Westinghouse. Ed Martin had written on my dismissal form: “would re-hire at any time.”

When I was rehired I went to work on drafting board. I would do the lettering for the wiring diagrams. The drawings were fairly similar to one another, so all I had to do was manage minor changes in design. By the time equipped I had achieved junior draftsman status, and might pay it was $90.00 a month. Right off the top of that I always gave my mother $20.00. I also home groceries or soap or other items. You see, my mother didn’t drive a car; she had to carry everything home.

I bought my own wedding dress, flowers, cake, and photographer me for my marriage. We had a lovely little church wedding. Joe got married in the first suit he ever owned, a government issue uniform.


“We Just Knew That We Belonged Together”


In Turtle Creek, there was a social club. Dorothy knew some of the guys such as Jack Fallon. The name of the club was the Laicos Club. Laicos is “social,” spelled backwards.

One day we went to a picnic in Blairsville, passed Murrysville, on a route 22. Joe gave me a ride on his bike. Actually, he never owned a bike; he borrowed a bike and gave me a ride on that.

He walked up to east McKeesport to see me, and I never thought of anybody else after that. I was nineteen when I met Joe, and 23 when we got married.

We just knew that we belonged together. We would always talk about the day we got married.

Joe went into service in 1942. He and time EDT went down to Pittsburgh To enlist in the air corps. Tummy didn’t pass the exam but Joe did. By that time, Joe was wearing glasses and was able to pass the exam.


On a 10-Day Furlough, Joe and I Marry


Joe was assigned to Jefferson barracks in Missouri. But lately I find out that there is a Jefferson barracks in Mississippi, so I’m not really sure. In January of 42 Joe’s brother Pete died and Joe went to the draft board.

He said: “my brother just died; I need a deferment for about two weeks. I need to help my family bury my brother.”

Pete was a wonderful man. He was a lot like my son Bill.

The draft board said: “OK, we’ll give you a deferment.”

But while Joe was at home taking care of the funeral, the draft board jumped in and drafted Joe into the army. They disregarded the agreement he had with the air corps.

Joe got on the train in Pittsburgh. He went by Pennsylvania railroad to camp Mead in Maryland. Somewhere in there He took the bus came home for a three day furlough I met in downtown Pittsburgh. We traveled back home on another bus because none of us had cars and even if we did there was no gasoline due to the rationing. Cars weren’t even being made.

In May of 1943, he was scheduled for a ten day furlough, and we got married and. The date was May 15.

So now I was an army wife. I quit a job and went two for junior with Joe. At that time he was moved to a camp near Virginia Beach. It was raining all the time!

I remember that you used to serve as an altar boy for father Horne. Father horn Used to have a command car, and he would see Joe and I’m walking, and he would stop and pick us up. One time I was wearing a yellow dress and a yellow hat on my way to church.


“Joe Shipped Out and I Didn’t See Him Again for Two Years”

I stayed with Joe until he shipped out in November of that year. He went out on maneuvers in the summer somewhere in the swamps of North Carolina. Meanwhile, I stayed in Virginia. I had a room across the street from the camp. I had a friend there was also from Pittsburgh, we would shop and walk together.

Her husband was a sergeant in the quartermaster corps. Joe was a corporal in the infantry. He was a sharpshooter, and had sharpshooter medals. On Memorial Day as I always put his uniform and out for the kids to see it. Dianne has told me that she wants the uniform, so I will save that for her.

When Joe got his orders to ship out, this young woman, Chris, and I stood there until the troops were loaded up. I watched Joe’s train leave, and didn’t see him again for two years. Nor did I hear his voice. Today kids are on the telephone, the Internet, and they’ve got tons of pictures of themselves. I don’t have a single picture of myself as little kid. We have some of Dorothy Helen, and Brownie.

Brownie came home shellshocked you know. He was problematic to begin with. I don’t know what his problems were, but he should have never been in the service. He watched the head of his commanding officer role on the deck in front of him. You don’t get over things like that.

Brownie worked on an 8in. gun on the destroyer Salt Lake City.


While Traveling Across the US, Joe Buys me Some Memorable Gifts

When Joe shipped out, he traveled across country. I remember that he told me it took days to cross Texas. And one point he stopped at some place in the desert, and there were some Indians selling some jewelry. He bought me a necklace that I have for many years; I finally gave it to Joanie. It was a beautiful little necklace of mined beads that the Indians had made. I wore it a lot.

When the train hit Bakersfield, it headed north of the San Joaquin valley. They got off at camp Stoneman in Pittsburgh. He went into the PX and bought me a little pair of Dutch wooden shoes that someone had carved. It had on a written camp Stoneman. He must have gotten on a ship, because there was no railroad going from the camp into San Francisco.

But Joe didn’t really know where he was, as he had never left Turtle Creek. When they crossed under the golden gate bridge, no one was allowed on deck. They didn’t want anyone seeing those troops heading out.