Tuesday, February 1, 1944

WWII doesn't play.  You cannot stop running even if you have a cold.  Grandma coughed for the last couple of days.

"I have been coughing so much lately that it was getting me down.  I went down and saw the Dr. today and he gave me some cough medicine that is helping already.  I hope that it rids me of that cough for good.  I also have been studying for my first class test so I don't do too much running around nor writing."

I'm glad to hear that Grandma is being so studious.  I find that when Shannon women find something they believe is worth working for they fight for it.  When I graduated undergrad, my father told me he was proud and impressed, because he didn't expect me to be studious.  Like I told him that day, I found something I cared about.

Grandma received word from several Missoulians this week.  Both of them seem to be sweet on her, but she is not entertaining any ideas.  

"Sunday night Bailey Stortz called me.  His ship was in here and he is now on his way to Trinidad.  I had lunch with him yesterday afternoon.  He is still as homely as ever but very nice, he likes to brag a lot though.  I pretend I am listening but my mind wanders all over while he is talking."

Grandma is without feeling however as she demonstrates with a Marine friend who is desperately homesick.

"I got a package from Gib LaVoie yesterday.  He is in Hawaii you know.  He sent me a yellow and pink gold bracelet.  It is that kind like Marilyn's watch chain is made from.  In the middle of it is a heart and that opens and he put his picture in one side.  I just about died when I got it.  At first, my one thought was to send it back to him but then I got to thinking that he only thought it would please me and he knows that we are just good friends and that's all we could ever be, and in his last letter he sounded so homesick that I wouldn't have the heart to send it back------ and anyways it is awfully pretty.  Oh, yes, on the heart he has the Marine Corp insignia.  I won't put my picture on the other side though."

More and more girls are joining the war effort.  Grandma's bunk is adding on another roommate and she's hoping to get an apartment with Beverly. Let's hope it works out.

Thursday, January 27, 1944

Grandma and Beverly screamed their way through a carnival that is in Miami this week.  She went on every ride and she won a prize for throwing baseballs.  Also a Shannon trait that I inherited.  I can throw a baseball or football some distance but heaven knows where it is going to end up.

"There is a big carnival here.  Beverly and I went without dates to it the other night.  I went on all the rides and into every side show.  In fact, I even won a prize for throwing baseballs.  Also, a lady would guess your age and if she didn't hit it within two years you would get a prize.  She guessed me to be 24 and I am still 21 so she had to give me a prize.  I guess I must look like an old Grandma or something."

I remember taking offense at people telling me I looked like I was 25 when I was only 21.  Now that I'm 27 people are surprised that I'm not younger.  I'll take it.

New friends from Missoula pop up in WWII Miami.  They are a Lieutenant and his wife from Missoula who read about Grandma in the Missoulian before they came to Miami and they decided to look her up.  They found her and invited her over to their home.

"Tonight I am going out to that Lt. Woodworth's and his wife's place for dinner.  I'm not too anxious to go now but I guess I will have a good time."

This is the second time that someone in Miami who is from Missoula, MT reached out to my Grandmother.  Is Missoula a small enough city that you can do that?  Maybe back then people believed that when you are from the same town you will automatically be friends?  I know they were more trusting back in the day, but just because you're from the same town does not mean that you're going to get along.  However, when I lived in Chicago I thirsted for people who were form Atlanta.  If I heard someone even mention Georgia I was like white on rice.  I pumped them for their details about where they were from and what they're thoughts on Waffle House were.  We'd share our Atlanta stories and promise to hang out soon.  Usually Atlanta only brought us together for the one evening, but it was always magical.

The other thought I had about the phenomenon was that it also must be a wartime paradigm.  You all want to be home, and you are so far away from that place.  Whenever you have a chance to make that connection and share it with someone else you lunge for it.  War disrupts everyone's home and if there is something that can make your current city feel like home you reach out and make that effort.

On this day in WWII history