"My Stint as Rosie the Riveter"

Memories...... It's funny how small things can trigger those fleeting thoughts that are sometimes purposely put in your mind's back lots, not willingly brought forward to be rehashed until the time when least expected. One case for me has been the memories brought forward by a book received as a Christmas gift this year from my son, titled "The Greatest Generation" by Tom Brokaw. I guess I'm like most people that have experienced the great war effort in that both those that fought and those that supported them prefer never to talk about them as if just the remembrance would somehow bring those awful days to life again and force those long put away memories to the fore front of one's mind.

Looking back, I suppose I, like others contributed what I could, suffered the hardships and gave as well as took whatever life in those days had to offer. It was a very hard time for all of us, young, old and everyone in between. I remember it as if it were just yesterday although time indicates it was well over fifty years ago. Ursel had been drafted and sent to Navy training and I was left to find a job. With the outflow of men, word spread like wildfire that Boeing was filling it's vacated positions with whatever energetic, patriotic, home-loving women it could find and offering us a way to contribute to the welfare of our beloved husbands, friends, brothers or sisters that were so courageously answering the call of duty in foreign lands whose names we could hardly pronounce let alone envision. I, as well as countless other women, donned our best clothing and headed for the place we would become as familiar with as we had been with our own kitchens.

My application for employment with Boeing was accepted and, after a month of extensive training in the art and technique of riveting, I was placed as a riveter in the bomb bay section of the B-29 Bomber, making fifty cents an hour which was really good money in those days. I had previously been making a whopping two dollars a week working at Swift and Company where I had to crack eggs into a cup enabling me to smell them for spoilage before passing them on to be added to the ice cream. With this job, my income would increase unbelievably.

In riveting training I had made the acquaintance of a woman that was to become one of my closest and dearest friends for many years to come. Betty was from Hutchinson, Kansas and had come to Wichita looking for a job which she had defiantly found. As luck would have it, Betty and I were placed working together in the bomb bay section of the aircraft with me being assigned to drive the rivets and Betty being assigned as my bucker. Our job was to secure the stringers that held the skin in place on the B-29. The plane was very tall and although it was positioned about five feet off the ground with a wooden walkway completely surrounding it, I still at times needed to stand on a wooden box in order to reach the top. To my misfortune, the rivet gun with all it's power would sometimes knock me off the box if I hadn't sufficiently braced myself. I only weighed one hundred ten pounds at that time so I found myself being knocked off quite often.

Betty and I had been working together for about six months before we got ourselves into trouble. I remember it was June, and those familiar with Kansas can attest to how terribly hot it can and sometimes does get during that month, and this was one time it was almost unbearable under that huge metal roof. Our lead man had put me in charge of driving one-quarter inch rivets. For those that aren't familiar with the procedure let me explain that these particular rivets were called "ice box rivets" because in order to drive them they had to be frozen and it took a very large, heavy bucking bar to flatten them from the inside. These rivets had to fit into the holes in the stringers which were long pieces of metal that had three sides which the rivet would fit into. This would enable the stringer to hold the skin in place on the aircraft. Taking into consideration that the temperature inside the building was dangerously hot, you can imagine how hot it would become inside the craft itself with no movement of air for relief. We tried to adjust by wearing our hair tied up in a scarf, but that helped little under the yoke of the heavy goggles we were mandated to wear. At times the sweat poured over the glass in under water fashion and Betty began having trouble finding the rivet. I was using a powerful 4x rivet gun and would try tapping on the rivet with the air gun to try to help her get a fix on just where my next rivet would be. Well, that was a BIG MISTAKE!! Being hot and frustrated she popped her head out of the plane and slammed down the bucking bar with as much strength as she could muster, and lo and behold if it didn't rip a hole and go straight out through the bottom of the ship. As if that wasn't bad enough, the lead man over us was directly under her and as if with deadly accuracy and to our horror he found himself perfectly laid out as if in deliberate sleep. Mind you, this was truly an accident although in both our hearts, we genuinely disliked the man.

Upon rushing to her side, we both looked down through the hole left by the tantrum and to our total shock beheld in the view what we thought was the lifeless body of the man bleeding from a clearly seen wound to the head. Boy did we get scared! The ambulance came and as we held our breath we witnessed his departure by means of their stretcher. Our salvation in the matter proved to be quitting time and our supervisor commented in passing that he would deal with us the next morning.

Being from Hutchinson, Betty had moved in with me into my three room house so we had plenty of opportunity to rehash the incident pertaining to our lead man. That night we couldn't quit laughing. Because we were so scared the anxiety seemed to heighten the whole situation and make it all the more funny and nothing we did could stop the laughter. After what seemed like hours, with our sides splitting from the pain of laughter, we finally fell into an exhausted sleep knowing that whatever happened the next morning our friendship would never be broken.

As is true with every day, the morning cometh. We were called into the office as soon as our faces were spotted among the crowd and informed that our lead man had been hospitalized overnight and that he would have to miss a full week of work while recuperating. The lecture to come took about two hours and covered the full spectrum from our misdeeds to our accomplishments. Although the supervisor conceded that Betty and I had been one of the best teams there, it was still decided that it would be better to split us up. It was concluded that Betty would be moved to shipping which was in another building across the street where she would be counting parts for shipping and overseeing the packing and wrapping of the boxes and be in charge of labeling them with whatever addresses were needed to get them to their intended destinations. I would remain in the position I had been trained for. With heavy hearts and disappointment we had no alternative but to accept the hand that we had been dealt.

With the move, Betty was then able to wear nice clothes and walk around with a clipboard all day. That was the life! I didn't have to be jealous very long though, as only two days later I was called into the office and advised that I too would be reporting to shipping the very next working day. I had lucked out too! So the next morning I was back with my friend Betty doing what we did best, working on our friendship. And believe me, it was much better than driving rivets all day! When Ursel came home on boot camp leave he was to report to San Diego. I decided to go with him which I thought would separate me from that new found friendship I had established with Betty, but to my delight she was adventurous and decided to come with us. It took three days and two nights on a terribly crowded train to reach our destination of San Diego. When we arrived, Betty and I managed to find work at a company named Ryan Aircraft. Their specialty was building the PB4Y2's which is a plane that landed on water. This time Betty and I were put into different positions so we didn't work together as closely as we had in Wichita, but we considered the eighty-five cents an hour as pretty good pay. That is if we didn't dwell on the fact that the man that was riveting right beside me was being paid one dollar and twenty-five cents an hour for the same job. Oh well, we consoled ourselves with the thought that we were an intricate and important part of the workforce and that we were very much contributing to the welfare of our fellow Americans over seas.

Housing was very hard to find, and there were lines of people waiting for even the barest of living quarters. Imagine how elated we were to learn that one of Ursel's buddies was being shipped out for over seas and was offering to hand over his living quarters to us. He had related to Ursel that he had a room at a place called the El Patio Hotel which to our horror was painted a bright red and white, but at least it was a place to rest a weary head. All the rooms in this place opened out onto a large inner patio area and our living area consisted of two rooms which we had to share with the single man that had been the roommate of Ursal's friend. Since we were the new ones to this arrangement, we had to take the front room area which opened onto the patio area and when our roommate wanted to get to his room, day or night, his only path was through our room first then into his. For a married couple, it was a very trying situation, but at least we had a place to live and it was something we could afford. (Barely, but we could afford it.) I do have to say that I, for one, had a very hard time adjusting to this experience and seemed to have my fair share of problems. Our landlord was somewhat cantankerous, but he did have a very nice wife.

One incident that sticks out in my mind involved the only mirror we had that hung above our dresser. Times were tough and money was tight, so the landlord kept a twenty watt bulb over the mirror and thought that should be sufficient for whatever our needs might be. We had a wash basin on the dresser that we would quickly wash up in, but for our other needs we would share a toilet and bath facility just off the patio area. Unfortunately, the only other light source available was a window that opened to the street. Ursel had a tough time shaving by the light and it was next to impossible for me to put on my makeup so I decided we would need more light.

While walking the usual fifteen blocks home after my workday had ended, I decided to stop into a little corner grocery store along the way and ended up buying a one hundred watt bulb. Wow! I was so excited! In my mind it was like coming out of the dark ages. The next night when I got home, lo and behold, the twenty watt bulb was back in it's place and my 100 watt bulb was no place to be found. Well, it didn't take much to figure out what had happened so I marched over to the landlord and asked for my bulb back. Well, I guess I look like a person who could always use a good lecture because one was forth coming about how much electric cost in California and how much more it cost there than what I was use to paying for it where I came from, etc., etc. We argued a little bit but I managed to present my case regarding the problem Ursel and I had with the twenty watt bulb and our inability to see how to perform our basic needs under those lighting conditions. Finally his wife had reached her limit and to my delight made him return my bulb. He was a hard headed one though, because this same incident happened another three times and each time we argued and he lost. Finally his wife set her foot down and told him to return the bulb and to not touch it again, so finally, he left it alone.

After that, things went well until we were caught with food in our room. Since we had to eat all three meals out every day we regularly ran out of money. The old bugger charged us twelve dollars a week rent which was pretty high rent and with eating out all the time we were forced to cut back. I had bought a jar of peanut butter and a box of crackers so we wouldn't have to go to bed hungry at the end of the month. Well, you guessed it! This time it was the peanut butter and crackers that disappeared. Well, back to the office Mable went! It of course had the same results, but true to schedule this had to happen twice before his wife had finally gotten enough again and permanently ending the standoff by demanding he return the food stuffs and that he stop the charade. "George" she said, "give her back the food and don't take it again." I left feeling vindicated, but it didn't take long till we were back at it again.

I couldn't afford to take our clothes to the laundry and since there was a big tub in the restroom hall that was used for cleaning the hotel and patio area, I didn't figure it would hurt anything if I put it to use. I was intent in my work when once again he caught me off guard. "Mrs. Green," he snapped, "are you taking in laundry now?" Quickly I retorted, "No, you are getting my laundry money for the high rent you charge." One evening he knocked at our door and I answered it.

Immediately he spat out, "Why don't you and Mr. Green come out on the patio and visit with me?" Well, the first thing that popped into my mind was, "What have I done to you now?" but I stood there in shock a moment before I finally spat out that we would and closed the door. We didn't know what to expect, but something happened at that meeting. After that meeting he never seemed to want to pick on me anymore and we actually ended up becoming good friends. Surprisingly he turned out to be a pretty good person and I learned among other things that he too had lived in Wichita at some point in his life.

Betty's boyfriend who was also in the Navy came in on the East coast from overseas and when he called she immediately went to meet him in New York as they had planned a marriage which was to take place in the "Little Church Around The Corner." My heart was heavy as I bid her farewell as she left for New York City. Although we kept in touch for years, when they moved to Florida we somehow lost track of each other. I still miss her to this very day and wonder about how she has fared in life.

Everything was rationed in those days. Gas as well as food so anytime you would see a line of women, you instinctively knew it was something you needed also, so you would get into line as well. A lot of time was spent in those lines; but, however hard standing in those lines were, we as a family was blessed. The family blessing was what I took away as precious from those days in that we were blessed with never having to face the death of our loved ones. No deaths of either brother or brother-in law was experienced and that is a blessing that very few families can boast and one that we were truly thankful for. When the war was over, we settled down to a normal life and added two baby boomers to the population. As is sometimes the case however, we weren't destined to live happily ever after and eventually drifted apart and were divorced. I will close with one last thought in all this matter and that is......."Don't give me the good old days, I'll take the current way of life now thank you!"

Email Dottie Keegan, Author.

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Published and © Copyrighted, June 18, 2002
by Betty Naff Mitchell
Editor and Web Mistress