Interviewer ---
We'll, start from the top, you already have the interview questions, so where were you on December 7, 1941?
Pat ---
I was home in our family home on 3rd Avenue and we heard it over the radio and...
Interviewer ---
What were your impressions, what were you thinking?
Pat ---
Oh gosh, we were just devastated. All I could think about was those dirty Japs. Course better be careful about what's said there.
Interviewer ---
No, that's okay, because this is history, you can say whatever you want. So total shock?
Pat ---
Total shock. We didn't have any idea 'cause I don't think even my parents were that aware that this was going to happen.
Interviewer ---
I have heard many people say that it all just seemed like it was far away, that it was incomprehensible that something like that could happen, let alone so close to home.
Pat ---
Right.
Interviewer ---
Or did it even seem close to home?
Pat ---
Well it didn't seem like it was far away, or like it was some other part of the world, which it was, but I mean Hawaii was part of the United States at the time, so they were biting on us, and but yeah, it didn't feel that closeness like being scared or anything, it was mostly just anger. That they would do this, especially when it came over the radio and said that the ambassador was actually back in Washington, D.C. at the time, so yeah it was pretty devastating.
Interviewer ---
Now did you, now how old were you? Kinda give me an idea...
Pat ---
In '41 I would have been 16.
Interviewer ---
So you were still in high school?
Pat ---
Yeah, oh yeah, I was a sophomore in high school
Interviewer ---
At Newport obviously
Pat ---
Well actually I was probably starting junior, junior, junior class 'cause that was in December, so I would have been starting in junior class
Interviewer ---
And did you, did you listen to Roosevelt's address in school?
Pat ---
Ah, I can't remember for sure, but I know that we listened to, we heard it, but whether we heard it in school or not, I can't off the top of my head remember, but I know it was a big, big deal and course they were already, they already had the draft going so you know we knew this was a pretty serious situation.
Interviewer ---
How do you feel about the dropping of the atomic bomb on the two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki? What are your impressions, should we have done it, should we have not? Were we justified, were we not?
Pat ---
At the time I thought it was something that we had to do to stop the war. Um after I was a little more mature, I could see where maybe, maybe we shouldn't do it, but right at that particular time, why we really wanted to get this war over with, it had been going on for so many years and there were so many people that were dying that uh that uh, yeah it was pretty devastating to know that that sort of thing could harm so many people and I was completely ignorant of the fact that they were developing it.
Interviewer ---
That was going to be my next question, were you aware of it being developed? I mean, most of it was being built at Hanford.
Pat ---
Right, and we knew that something was going on down there. I mean we were conscious of it but we weren't really conscious of the actual element that was taking place down there, it was just, you know there was, we all knew there was a place in that area that you couldn't go.
Interviewer ---
Where did you work? I mean, obviously you know, if you were a junior in 1941, you must have graduated before the end of the war so, or did you work during the war?
Pat ---
According to my letter [laugh] this was in '42, I worked down on the George Davaz farm, first in the house, and then I went out and drove team 'cause I liked horses, but that was just a short deal then, because after I graduated from high school, then I uh, my girlfriend and I went to work out at Fairchild, only it was called Galena at that time. And uh, she went into office work and I went into first office work, I was a file clerk. There was something like eight people in my row, and I can't remember how many other rows there were, and I was the last one. So all of the paper shipped down first toward the one at the top line and then down at me and so that was boring as the dickens, so I transferred to Test Block.
Interviewer ---
What was that?
Pat ---
That's where they took the engines, the B-17 engines that were being rebuilt and tested them in these cells. There was eight cells in this building, and they would run them for specified length of time before they'd be shipped back to the front. And I was the one that was on my particular shift that built up the carburetors for the B-17s. Cut off the safety wires and put the fittings on so they could be run off eventually, and it was uh, and they weighed about thirty-five pounds. And the uh, and since I hadn't told my mother that, my dad was gone by this time, he was overseas, and my mother had said that she'd let me drop out of college to do this, and as long as I worked in the office. [laugh] So, before I'd go home on the weekends I'd scrub my hands good because they'd get all scratched up from the safety wires. And I never did tell her 'til the end that I was actually working in the mechanical field.
Interviewer ---
Was she disappointed or just plain old angry?
Pat ---
[laugh] She didn't say much, because what could she say really. She was working as the secretary for the draft board at the time, so we were all kind of into trying to help out the war effort. But my girlfriend and I actually lived on the base for part of the time we worked out there and we lived in one of the big dormitories out there. Paid about $24 or $25 a month for our room, it had two small cots init and a place to hang our clothes and a bathroom and shower down the hall, and we ate on base at the great big mess hall and it was kinda fun. [laughs]
Interviewer ---
Kind of an adventure for someone from Newport
Pat ---
Oh right, for somebody who had been raised in a small town it was because so many others that from Newport that worked out there too, then we'd take the bus into town sometimes and while I was out there, I still continued playing second violin in the college orchestra so that I could keep up that continuity of the college, so I hauled my violin from the base into town and then I'd go play in the concerts [laughs] and then go home on the weekends.
Interviewer ---
Back here?
Pat ---
Yeah, back to Newport. Donna and I'd both come back. Then I'd sometimes, since my Dad was in the service, I had access to the PX and cigarettes were scarce in those days so I'd go and buy these cartons of cigarettes for a couple of dollars a carton and bring 'em back to my friends that smoked which was kind of, you know, spreading the... [laughs]
Interviewer ---
What were your wages while you worked at Galena?
Pat ---
Oh golly, I can't remember. Something, I had one paper, I can't remember where I put it, that said I was earning something like fifty cents an hour, thirty-five to fifty cents an hour, and I thought that was a lot.
Interviewer ---
How many hours did you work?
Pat ---
You'd work eight hours and you'd work for a couple weeks on the day shift and then you'd go to the swing shift and then you'd go to the midnight one. Well, I conned my way out of the midnight one 'cause I didn't want to do that midnight one, so that kinda put the kibash to that. And then also, while I was out there, we had a basketball team and we'd play, we'd do our practicing, and play at Baxter General Hospital, which is now the Veteran's Hospital, and we'd play there and the soldiers that were recuperating there would be our audience. And then sometimes we'd go over to Farragut and play, so it was...oh yeah, a lot of fun and so that kinda what went on there.
Interviewer ---
What was...Spokane like during the war? I mean, you said you would drive back and forth, what was it like?
Pat ---
Well, I didn't drive back and forth...
Interviewer ---
I mean you rode the bus back and forth, sorry
Pat ---
...we rode the bus. Spokane was a pretty busy town with all the armed service people coming and going and well we had the same thing up in Newport because the sailors would come over from Farragut, so we had lots of action with the servicemen and but Spokane, was jeepers, I never felt scared walking the streets at night, after dark or anything but it was a very busy place.
Interviewer ---
What was Newport like? I mean, from The Miners I kinda have an idea but eyewitness obviously...what was Newport like, you know, I mean you say it was busy...
Pat ---
Well, I can remember that well see my dad was appointed by the governor, this was in 1940, he was appointed by the governor to be in charge of the Defense Committee, he was the one in this part of the state. Use my little notes here, uh and I don't know whether he, maybe I'll find out when I get through The Miners here, but they did set up a defense of the bridge over here and the local people I don't know if he got the, you read about the...
Interviewer ---
Yes I did, as Pearl Harbor was attacked, they stationed armed guards at the Interstate Bridge, basically all the bridges that came back and forth across the river, there were armed guards. But they were all civilian...
Pat ---
Oh yeah
Interviewer ---
...and that amazed me, you know that there [were] obviously not enough deputies or whatever to...and they didn't bring military guys to guard the bridge.
Pat ---
Well see, musta been this committee that, I wish I could find that, what it was called, because it was appointed by the, Dad was appointed [by] the governor, and they did it throughout the whole state and they called it the Organization of the State Council of Defense. This was in 1940, so I would think that they probably had a lot to do with setting up that civilian group that were protecting the bridges 'cause I remember my dad going out and spending so many hours out there in the cold.
Interviewer ---
Now you said your Dad was overseas. Where was he stationed, what did he do?
Pat ---
He uh volunteered in right after, it musta been shortly after Pearl Harbor, because he was in the service by April of 1942. He was really too old 'cause he was forty-six, so he wouldn't have been drafted, but whether he just was, I just get the feeling that he was very patriotic and wanted to do something for his country, because it closed his office. And he went first of all to California where they were training. And then he went to England and what he was doing was what they called G-2, he was one of the intelligence officers who would brief the airmen on where they were going and so on. And they went from England to North Africa and that's where...and then to Italy, but his time in North Africa was really interesting. Because he met a French couple, and they invited him over for dinner, and he was practicing his French with them and so...I think he was some sheik or something but and so they would have dinner together. And some of his letters from there are really interesting. But they were over there in very primitive circumstances, because he said the airplanes got into North Africa before the infantry did, and he said they would had to sleep in these foxholes dug out of the sand. And they even told about, one of his letters said about how cold it was when they get their mess kits filled with food and it would freeze immediately, and he said that he'd spilled so much on his overcoat that he could probably scrape three meals off of it. [laughs] But he had some really descriptive things of North Africa in his letters, it was very enlightening in that respect, and one of the things he brought home was a, that the sheik gave him was a little oil lamp from, that was found in some of the ruins over there so its thousands of years old. I have that now.
Interviewer ---
I want to go back before I go forward. When you were working out at Galena, what was that like? I mean, since it was a big factory, what was it like?
Pat ---
Well, well it was huge, the place was huge. I mean, just walking around you got lots of exercise, but when I was working in Test Block, it was in a more confined area, but we just had, everybody knew what they had to do, but yet there was a lot of camaraderie amongst the people and the people didn't...the airport hanger was across the street from us suffered mightily from the roar of the engines as they were being run. [laugh] We were pretty well, you know the sound didn't reach us that bad because they had these big concrete walls that took care of that. But yeah, you could walk around through the other parts of the base, for instance, well to go to the restroom, for instance, you had to go over to the hangar and walk through the paint part of it, which was horribly smelling. And one of the times that they brought in a B-29 before it was put into service and it was there, and even though we all worked on the base, we could only look at it from a distance, the wouldn't let us get up close.
Interviewer ---
Because it hadn't gone into service yet?
Pat ---
Right, it was new, and we were all working on B-17s and then I think there were B-24s that were worked on some too. But we uh...then we had a, since we, Donna and I, were living on the base, they had a recreational hall for us with a pop machines and pianos and you know, we could dance with each other and so on, and sometimes we'd get together and do things like that, or we'd go into town, and see what was going on in town. And then when we did that, we usually rode the bus, which was another speed demon at thirty-five miles an hour. You'd hear the groan of the engine as it slowly went up Sunset Hill. [laughs] And then we had to go through the gate of course, and we all had these special badges that would let us in and out, and actually, stepping even further back, before we were even allowed to work out there we had to go three days through testing. First in Spokane and then out, out on the base and were put through all this rigmarole, but once we did that, we then you had free access back and forth.
Interviewer ---
What sort of testing was it Pat?
Pat ---
Well, I don't remember now, probably some of it was psychological but to a certain extent it was very general in nature so you know, you could pick where you wanted to work, for instance, or which fields you'd like to be in, but I didn't, I don't remember that I ever had a choice to begin with, because I was stuck in a situation where I had to do the filing and nobody gave me any instructions on how to file, what to file, and what file, and so that got to be pretty boring, so then that's when I, when I found an opportunity to transfer to the Test Block.
Interviewer ---
Something more exciting?
Pat ---
Right, and in this where I was doing the filing we always speculated that people in the, that were working there 'cause there was about eight rows of eight people each. I mean we each had our desk, and we each had a whole bunch of filing cabinets, but we often speculated as to who was really running that department because there was a great big, heavyset sergeant and then a little pipsqueak lieutenant [laugh] and nobody gave us any real direction as to what we were supposed to be doing, they'd just, ...I was the last desk in this one row and stuff would come down to me, and so I'd just file it wherever I thought would be a good place to go! [laughs] Uh, so I didn't stay there very long. I then went over to Test Block, and I wasn't the only Newport girl working there, Beatrice Hougen was working there too. She was working on the engines themselves, whereas putting, getting them ready to run, whereas I was working on the carburetors that would then be put on the engines, then run. And so we, and we were, it was a windowless building so we didn't have any idea what was going on outside. It was pretty quiet.
Interviewer ---
So, did you ever, because this was a new field for women really at the time, did you ever feel any, or suffer any discrimination from the male workers that were there?
Pat ---
No, because it was all for the war effort, and I mean everybody was so interested in doing what needed to be done to end this war, that uh no, there was never any discrimination. Most of the people that were there were either too old for service or were ineligible because of physical disability, so and that was the case all over the base.
Interviewer ---
That was one of those questions that I came up with, because you know, when you read accounts of the shipyards over in Portland and Vancouver, the women that were there spoke of a lot of discrimination in the shipyards. That's why I was wondering if the same was the case in the aircraft manufacturing.
Pat ---
Well, at least not in the Spokane area, at least where I was there wasn't anything because there wasn't any man to take our place, so you know there, we didn't have any problems.
Interviewer ---
What was the hardest thing to live without during rationing, and why? For you specifically.
Pat ---
Well first, the biggest thing for me was the rationing of shoes. Because being a horse person, I wanted to be able to buy a pair of boots, and I couldn't, because I needed that ration for regular shoes, and I conned a friend, old John Olson in Newport, he gave me one of his ration coupons so I did get my boots. But that was probably the worst and then the gas didn't really bother us that much 'cause we didn't really travel that much. Meat was a bit of a problem, but we survived and got by and yeah that was pretty much it, and the shoes because I was dying for a pair of regular cowboy boots. [laughs]
Interviewer ---
You were talking about the gas rationing, earlier to me before I started the tape, what type of ration did your folks have or you and your mom have?
Pat ---
Well, we had let's see, I think it was the "A" one that had a little bit more, and we had that for our 1940 Chevrolet and a "B" one for the '37 Ford because we, and basically we would put the cars up during the winter time we'd store 'em in someplace. In fact the last letter I wrote uh read of my mother's she was telling about how she was going to check with Lester Banersdale, who had the Banersdale Hardware to see if he could store the '37 Ford back of that.
Interviewer ---
Being that you worked out at Galena and were able to go into Spokane, how did you deal with the hosiery ration? Were you ever one of those that oh, painted your legs?
Pat ---
We painted our legs!
Interviewer ---
Describe that to me.
Pat ---
Well you put this goop on your legs and then you had, you'd put the line in the back with a dark pencil of some kind and then of course, you know you'd go out and you'd be all set. You know you had your dress clothes on and these painted on socks. [laughs]
Interviewer ---
Did you do that frequently when you, every time you went into Spokane?
Pat ---
Anytime we went to church, anytime we did anytime you went into Spokane, anytime we went to church, anytime we did anything socially, we had to do that, and on that same line, I can remember reading one of Mother's letters to Dad in '42, where she said a couple of friends of hers in Newport, this was after Dad was overseas, and she had some silk stockings and wanted her to donate them to somebody else who didn't have them and Mother refused. [laughs] They wanted her to send 'em to some of the gals who were overseas.
Interviewer ---
Overseas?
Pat ---
Yeah, because that's what they, uh nurses and so on over there were desperately, you know wanted, so they wanted her to donate them. She said no [laughs] 'cause she was holding on my dad's office while he was gone, until she went to work for the Draft Board.
Interviewer ---
Now was that a...your mom was the clerk of the Draft Board
Pat ---
Yes she was
Interviewer ---
Now was that a basically a full-time job?
Pat ---
Yes it was, full-time.
Interviewer ---
She gave up the office for this?
Pat ---
Right, I mean, they still paid the rent on the office and kept it, because all of Dad's files were there, but the Draft Board was a full-time job.
Interviewer ---
Did she ever talk about that?
Pat ---
Well, she didn't say much. She did say there were some young people that were getting out of having to go and she felt that it was a little bit unfair that some were able to pull rank or whatever, but she really didn't speak about it at all other than that occasional comment, and she had that job then until Dad came back, and that would have, he was out of the service by May '46.
Interviewer ---
Okay, I think I asked you this, but I'm going to ask you anyway. What types of transportation did you use, if you didn't get to drive like you said? You had the '37 Ford you filled up every once in awhile, you used what else? I mean other than the bus, walked everywhere you went?
Pat ---
Walked, used the bus or the train.
Interviewer ---
And how much was it to take the bus?
Pat ---
Oh I can't remember. It wasn't very much, several dollars or something. I can probably, I'll probably run across it in The Miners. [laughs] And then we'd catch the train to go sometimes too, like on Sunday's, and I can remember, I didn't want to leave and go back to, into Spokane, so I'd call up the railroad station and Number 24 to see when it was due to see when it was due and 'sposed to be coming in about three and sometimes it wouldn't come in until about 8:00 or something.
Interviewer ---
I don't know if you'll be able to answer this or not, but I'm going to ask anyway. Did you know anything about the POW camps that were up here? The German and Italian camps, or not?
Pat ---
Just knew the Italians were up here, but I really didn't know that much about the camps we'd just see them on the weekends they'd bring 'em into town, into Newport, and I didn't try to talk to 'em because they didn't know English and so it was just a case of you know, you'd see 'em on the street 'cause everybody walked up and down Main Street.
Interviewer ---
Pretty much like now
Pat ---
Yeah
Interviewer ---
That will lead me to my next question, what was this area like? During the war, was it much different than what it is now? What specifically strikes out in your mind from here?
Pat ---
Hmmm well, number one, as far as the high school was concerned, we didn't have teachers half the time. Severe shortage of teachers and sometimes they'd just have to drag somebody in from Newport. In fact, Mrs. Schlotthauer, Dr. Schlotthauer's wife was pressed into service because they just have the teachers and the superintendent ended up being the coach, because there just weren't enough teachers.
Interviewer ---
Where were they all? Were they all fighting or doing whatever?
Pat ---
Yeah, they ended up being drafted, some of 'em, and some of 'em volunteered. Both the music teachers we had volunteered, and so it was just a case of they were snatched.
Interviewer ---
What else about this area can you tell me? You know I kinda have a supposition from reading The Miners of what it was like. Eyewitness accounts, what was this area like?
Pat ---
It was a busy, bustling town. But so many of the young men were gone, and then a lot of the younger people left to go into the women went off to be in the service, not necessarily in the armed forces, but into other things like the Galena, so, for instance, Evelyn [Reed] she was out there, and...It didn't seem to slow the town down that much, and especially when all of the men that were left here had access to Farragut when they were building it we also had, I think I mentioned before that we had sailors that would come visit us.
Interviewer ---
I don't think you did mention that to me. Talk about that then, sailors, talk about the sailors that came to Newport.
Pat ---
Well there were some nice, young men and they would come over on the weekends after we got to know them, and they'd come back over here and we'd go out dancing and so on, and then sometimes we'd go back to my house and cook hamburgers or whatever. And, but they were all from the East Coast and nobody got really serious with any of them 'cause they were going to be shipped out so quickly and so it was just a case of we provided some entertainment for them I guess. We did have one family who, Parris' who, I think he was a warrant officer over at Farragut, and he knew this young, a younger sailor who was a friend of his from the Midwest, and he conned our family into giving him a place to stay on the weekends. And he was older than most of the sailors that were there, and he had a fiancée that he spoke of, and he was there for one whole, almost a year, and would visit us on the weekend and we took him up to Bead Lake. But you know, I mean it was common to have these sailors come, like I say for the most part, the ones I knew were nice, young men and course I corresponded with some of the guys that left here. I corresponded with some of the neighbor boys and so on, but otherwise these young men got shipped out why they were just gone. I didn't keep in touch with them, no we didn't. One of the exciting things that happened was I came home and they had a train wreck. Did you hear about the train wreck?
Interviewer ---
No, I didn't hear about the train wreck. I don't remember even reading anything about it.
Pat ---
I'm sure it's in The Miner's here somewhere, but they had, the train wreck was in the Idaho section [in Oldtown]. It was on the Great Northern tracks, and I don't remember now what caused it, but one of the boxcars was filled with, with cases of beer that were going to be shipped to the South Pacific to the boys, and it burst open and so everybody was [laughing] all the townspeople and even my brother were down there with gunnysacks gathering up these bottles of beer and we always called it "Train Wreck Beer" and hid it in the basement, and so did other people. I mean everybody was getting some of it, and I was disgusted because by the time I got home from Spokane, it was gone! [laughs] But one of the boxcars was filled with whiskey, was filled with whiskey, and it didn't break open. Some of the people opened it.
Interviewer ---
Really?
Pat ---
Yeah, Art Fisher and I forgot who else
Interviewer ---
Okay, back to the whiskey car. You said some people opened it up?
Pat ---
Yes, they popped the lock, 'cause it was sealed and started hauling out these cases of whiskey. I remember the name of one of them. I don't know if I should say the name or not, but anyway the police got involved and he, so they ended up having to return the stuff because it was obvious that the boxcar had not been busted open in the wreck.
Interviewer ---
But they didn't get into any trouble for the beer though
Pat ---
No, if there, if somebody came, there was a truck and I think they, people knew who it was why they made them bring it back. But if you took away a gunnysack-full they didn't do anything. Anyway, I got to finish off what my brother brought home. He even gave some to my horse, I found out he liked the beer, [laugh] so I stuck a bottle in his mouth one day out in the pasture, he tipped his head back [laughing] but yeah they ended up having to return all of that stuff.
Interviewer ---
What do you remember most about the war years?
Pat ---
Excitement
Interviewer ---
Anything excitement?
Pat ---
Oh yeah, I thought it was an exciting time. Number one because I had so much more freedom. My mother relied on me for so many things here at home and also up at Bead Lake, but also I was able to make the decision to leave college and go to work without having a hassle, so it was a case of, seemed to be more freedom to make choices and I hoped I made good choices. And yeah, everybody was, I don't think they felt depressed or anything because there was so much going on. Everybody was listening to the radio, watching the newspaper, so that you could follow what was going on overseas. That to me was like I say was more a freedom that I had never experienced before, because my dad was quite a strict taskmaster, and so all of a sudden I was given responsibility.
Interviewer ---
What was your best moment?
Pat ---
Gosh, my best moment, oh hmm, probably the day that I met my dad when he came in on the train at the GN [Great Northern] depot in Spokane on his return from the, from overseas, for the first time, when he first got back, it was so exciting to see him standin' there in his uniform and it was just really exciting. Well and before that, one of the things that I had done, my dad had sent me some of the ribbons that the servicemen got and I had a letter jacket, a Letter N jacket, and I pinned them on that Letter N jacket and this was before this, and I was standing in the, waiting for the bus to come in the bus depot in Spokane, and the MP [military police] guy came up and said, "You're not entitled to wear those, please take them off." [laughs] So I had to take those off and stuck 'em back. [laughs] But anyway, yeah when I got to see my dad was the most...
Interviewer ---
Who were your best friends?
Pat ---
Oh my best friends - the kids that I grew up with. For instance, Donna Jean Hall and Lorraine Jones, let's see, who were some of the others...some of the gals that I had at college, but well some of the boys, the neighbor boys you know, 'cause I knew them. They were overseas and I was corresponding with one of 'em, Wilber Holtz and he was a good friend, and then there was, gosh there was a whole slew of Newport gals that were working out at Galena and we'd get together. So yeah, and now Donna Jean is still a friend of mine, we still do things together.
Interviewer ---
What do you remember most about when the war was over?
Pat ---
Ooff...I had to go back to college. Dad was home so I was toeing the mark again [laughs] and of course by this time I was old enough, to my friends and I would still go over to Oldtown and have a drink once in a while, but Dad was still pretty much in charge [laughs] so that was kind of a blow.
Interviewer ---
Did you ever go down; did you go down to downtown Spokane on V-E Day or V-J Day and celebrate with the rest of them, with everybody else?
Pat ---
No I think, I'm not sure about V-E Day, I don't remember exactly where I was. Let's see, that was in '45, May of '45...
Interviewer ---
Right
Pat ---
...and I'm pretty sure I was still out at Galena at that time, so it was a big celebration of everybody over there. But with that somebody evidently heard it on the, some way or another and somebody started tootin' the horn and everybody else tooted the horn and so we all got all excited and were glad to see that it was the end, I mean it was really, really a relief.
Interviewer ---
What have you done since the war ended? I mean, what...you went back to college, where have you been since then? If that's the best way to put it.
Pat ---
Well, before I got my degree at college, I dropped out and got married. I didn't drop out, I got, I just, I was asked to marry a guy and I accepted and so I was on the farm for about eleven years out in Blanchard. That's where both my children were raised for a few years, then my husband was killed in '59 and I went back to college and completed my degree and completed my degree in January of '62 or '63, I can't remember which now. And had never been away from home, because even during the war years, I went back on the weekends to Newport, I went overseas for three years, studied history over there.
Interviewer ---
Where?
Pat ---
In Wales University College of Cardom. Kept house for a priest for awhile, had my daughter over there, and lived there for about three years, then came back and started teaching down in Moses Lake, until taught for five years and then went into counseling, and that's where I ended up. [laughs] And retired in '85 and moved to Deer Park where I built my house, my son and I built it. I built most, I cut most of the studding for it, 26 x 30 laid the floors, put the molding on, cut the molding and put it into place, did all that sort of stuff. [laughs]
Interviewer ---
What do you miss most about that time?
Pat ---
About the what?
Interviewer ---
What do you miss about that time, about the war years?
Pat ---
Oh, the camaraderie. You know we all felt somehow connected. It was uh, and maybe because that was the age we were too, but yeah, everybody was, it was an exciting time, not that I don't feel the slightest bit excited now about the present war [laughs] and that's pretty much it.
| Copyright © 2004 by Kristen Cornelis |