Dory Schwab

Dory was a Freshman at Newport High School when war began Dec. 7, 1941. She, as many in the Pend Oreille Valley heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor after she got home from church. She listened to Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" speech in school the next day, but she said that the war "was a long way away, and really not a big thing at the time."

While in high school, Dory worked at the JCPenny's in Newport where people would give away their shoe ration stamps to get stamps for sugar or whatever else they really needed.

She also worked at Kimmel's Drug Store, and said that, "On Wednesday nights the Ration Board would meet in the back room and we would have to stay open until they were done. Often I wouldn't get home until really late."

Rationing
"We really didn't have a lot anyways."
The Sugar ration was the worse
We had to car pool to conserve tires and gas
Before the war the school busses would go and pick people up for the PTA meetings, but after rationing started this ended and so did the heavy participation in PTA."

Every Saturday night there were dances at the high school where they brought the sailors down from Farragut, a truckload or two at a time. "We had a good time."

Every month or so there would be street dances between Kimmel's Drug Store and the Congregational Church (what is now the Pizza Factory and the United Church of Christ). The dances were played by a local band, and were a lot of fun.

"I had a lot of fun during the war!"


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Copyright © 2003 by Kristen Cornelis