Thursday, November 18, 1943

It's kind of pathetic that I just realized this, but I am writing this blog 70 years after Grandma started writing her letters.  I didn't intend it that way, but now that I am aware I strike a grand ol' self five.

The weather in Miami was so terrible that Grandma didn't want to venture outside.  She somehow braved the forecast and danced the night away with the sailors off the DE 16 that is in port.

"Last night I went to a dance for the sailors off the DE 16 that is in port.  There were a couple of Montana kids at the dance and we had a good time talking over the best state in the union.  They were from Livingston and Great Falls but they knew some kids that I know."

WWII shifted so many people around.  It didn't matter if you had the money to travel, the military would make sure you got where you needed to go.  People who probably never left their hometown and probably never would, were sent all over the world.  With the men overseas, the military gave so many women a chance to strike out on their own.  Grandma answered the call for volunteers and it was one of my Grandmother's proudest moments.  She spoke of her experiences with the WAVES as if they were fairy stories.  They were enmeshed in my family history and I will tell everyone that I know that my Grandmother changed the world by being a WAVE.

Grandma is so busy being a WAVES that she had to stop mid letter and pick it up the next day!  She brings up Thanksgiving and speculates about a turkey dinner.

"Are you going to have a turkey Thanksgiving or are you going to save it if I get to come home.  I want turkey if I come.  I don't know what I will eat on Thanksgiving.  It is just another working day for me.  Xmas day is the only holiday the Navy has and at that someone has to be on watch."

Grandma has a habit of in her letters where she asks a question and then demands something from her mother.  Previously, it was about sending her laundry ahead and now it's about the turkey.  It's odd getting annoyed with Grandma over this and realizing I do the same thing.  Grandma is rolling her eyes and whistling through her teeth at me.  Those teeth whistles often said a lot more about her mood than her words did.  They were the sign of either joyous days ahead or that you should run for the hills.

On this day in WWII history

Friday, November 12, 1943

Grandma and I are no strangers to pitching fits.  When I was a kid, I could get riled up about anything from where we were eating dinner to the disaster of the missing Barbie shoe.  Everything shattered the earth and the apocalypse was upon us.  I would spend dreary afternoons pouring my soul into my diaries and doing my best Emily Dickinson impression.  Turns out my hysterical moods are inherited from Grandma as she was amazingly talented as staging her own productions as well.

"How is the new apartment?  Do you like it as well as a house?  I suppose when I come home I won't be able to have one my good old tantrums if I want to.  Do you know you(r) neighbors as yet?"

Initially I thought that Grandma asked about their new neighbors out of desire for them to have a supportive apartment community.  Now I'm thinking she asks so her parents can prepare the new neighbors for my Grandmother's arrival.  It is definitely going to be a noisy one.

Grandma received word about her holiday leave form Personnel.  It appears her Commanding Officer forgot to share some of the leave guidelines with my Grandma.

"A letter came through yesterday on leaves.  It says that not more than 14 days is allowed during the holidays.  Well that really puts a crimp in my style. ... I'll be sick if that will be all the time I can have at home after spending all the money to come all that way.  I don't know what is going to happen now but I had better get what I want or I will really raise the roof.  If that should happen, my only getting 14 days, I will at least have Christmas day at home.  I would like to have New Year's Day as well."

It will wake Grandma four days to travel from Miami to Missoula one way.  The idea that it would take me that long to travel anywhere is baffling.  I flew to Japan and it took me a day and a half.  That was around the world not across the country.  Thanks to the universe for making air travel so much cheaper than it was back then. If it cost my Grandma nearly $1400 in todays dollars to take a train, I do not want to know what it would have cost her to fly there. I shudder at the expense.  

Grandma and I will close this entry the same way she closes this letter.  We will introduce a new character in my Grandmother's life in Miami.  A fellow Montanan from Flathead, MT is seeking out Grandma's company and trying to share in their love of Montana.  Grandma doesn't appreciate her efforts.

"...then I went out and visited that lady.  She is a typical person form Flathead. ... She was a great talker and I couldn't get a word in edgewise.  So of course you know that went over big with me."

These letters help me understand where some zanier aspects of my personality come from.  Grandma was flamboyant and was a wealth of pizzaz.  Grandma had so much pizzaz that she gladly bequeathed some of it to me.

On this day in WWII history

Tuesday, November 9, 1943

As most of you know, Grandma is making a valiant effort to go home for Christmas.

"My Commanding Officer signed my leaves papers so now I will have to wait until the 1st of December to see if Personnel will pass it!  They better because I am planning on coming home and if they don't I will be a sick baby.  If I can't come home then I won't come home until around June.  I am pretty sure that I will be home Xmas."

If Grandma doesn't go home for Christmas, the next time she will see her family is a year and a half after she left!  Even the thought of not seeing my family for months makes my heart shrivel.  Thinking about it now, I don't think my Grandmother went without seeing her sister at least twice a year during my lifetime.  Whenever Grandma and Great Aunt Peg got together, Ooooo-wee did the flamboyancy fly! I don't think there's enough glitter to describe it.  They were just so in sync.  They could just sit there and sparkle. 

Grandma talks about the journey she is taking from Miami, FL to Missoula, MT.  

"I leave by streamliner from here to Chicago and that won't be bad.  The dirty part of the trip will be from Chicago to Missoula. ... The trip is going to cost me $90.00 round trip coach and then of course I have to count my meals too.  I won't be able to get real nice Xmas presents for you but I will try to get you little things."

I looked into the conversion of $90 in 1940 to dollars with today's inflation.  What I have found is that $1 in 1940 is equivalent to $15.28 in today's dollars.  It looks like Grandma paid $1,375 in today's dollars for this trip back in 1943.  The ticket prices for the same journey, well to Whitefish, MT, are significantly lower than what Grandma paid back in 1943.  I'm guessing with the advent of inexpensive travel options AmTrack and other train companies had to lower their prices as well.

My Great-Grandfather is sick.  Grandma wants to buy him Christmas presents, but she does not know his current size.

"Since he has been sick I don't know what sizes he wears.  I wish you would write and give me his size in shoes, socks, shirts and pajamas.  Now, that is no sign I am going to give you any of those things, Pop."

Love my Grandma, but she was never one to keep a secret or keep Christmas presents a secret.  I cannot judge her for that; I told my boyfriend what he was getting for our first 3 years of Birthday, Christmas, and Anniversary presents.  I was just so excited and they were just so perfect!

Ohp, Grandma is in search of a new beaux!

"Saturday night I went to dinner and a show with that Ensign named Don Coffelt. He is back in Panama now so I will have to hustle myself another boyfriend again."

BUD ROBINSON, Come on Down!

Grandma and Great Aunt Peg

On this day in WWII history

Thursday, November 4, 1943

I struggle with Grandma's circus fascination.  Not only did she go once, but she went TWICE!

"Well, guess what?  I went to the circus twice.  Beverly and I went Tuesday night and then this Ensign that I have been going with and his friend that Bev goes with were in town last night and they wanted to go to the circus so we went again.  It was wonderful and we had a good time.  It isn't exactly the same as when I last saw it but it is just as good."

We did go to the circus as a family, and I think we went to the circus on a school field trip.  But, I just don't get it.  When I was growing up, circuses were heavily criticized for the treatment of their animals.  Animal and environmental rights were burgeoning in the late 80s early 90s.  Destitute animals and their appalling care  were photographed and publicized when I was a kid.  Those images are forever branded in my memory and circuses are tainted.  Also, Water for Elephants didn't help either.

Grandma's Naval Officer's commission was not accepted.  She will not be moving to Northampton, MA. 

My application for commission didn't pass through Washington.  They say that my age is against me.  Evidently they like older girls for officers.  Also, they said that my qualifications were good but that there were others that were better than mine."

Grandma prepared herself for this.  She goes on to talk about coming home for Christmas and that she is happy where she is.  

"At least on my commission though, I passed in the Seventh Naval District and I didn't lose anything by trying."

Grandma also gets to meet and marry my Grandfather.  I am longing to read about him and soak up what personal details I can.  He was here for a short time in my life.  I take every chance I get to discover more about him.

There is one more tidbit that ignites my imagination.  

"I was surprised to hear that Shirley might go over seas.  I will write to her this week."

I have no idea who Shirley is, but not many women were sent over seas.  Obviously if you were a nurse you automatically went over seas, but then my Grandmother wouldn't be surprised.  Does anybody in the great wide blogisphere know of a female Missoula, Montana citizen named Shirley who went overseas during WWII?  C'mon blogisphere: DIG!

Is that you Shirley? Yo! Second from the left!

On this day in WWII history

Monday, November 1, 1943

The Circus is in town!  I always forget what an event the circus is in the 40s.  There were parades and the train was always a spectacle.  Grandma is ecstatic!

"Tonight is the big night.  I am going to try to get my reserve seat for the Circus this afternoon.  I went down there once already and there was such a line that I couldn't wait cause I had to get back to work.  I am all excited to see it."

Grandma's mentioned it several times to her Father.  She knows that he would appreciate the Circus just as much as she would.  It is intoxicating learning personal details about Great-Grandparents I've never met.  Even as a grandchild you never fully know your Grandparents like you know your parents.  Your parents are humans with faults, desires, and crushed dreams.  Grandparents have a golden sheen to them.  They are eternally perfect.  No matter what your parents tell you.

Grandma loved to laugh.  She made jokes, and adored being teased.  I think she just played a prank on me while she's sipping her Bud Light with ice in heaven.  I'm waxing poetical about my Grandparents and my gaze is drawn to this saucy passage.

"We had a very nice time on our weekend and saved some money since we didn't have to buy our dinners.  I wish that would happen more often.  I could go to dinner nearly every night with kids that  bore me to death but I would just as soon but my own dinner and enjoy myself."

Grandma's advice about men was always practical.  Especially when it was unsolicited from 4 year old me.  As her only granddaughter, she provided me with her personal dating cheat codes.  The one that she didn't need to communicate was that you do everything with flare.  Betty Robinson had flare.

In between dating advice and the Circus, there is optimistic news from the War Front.

"They are taking the dimout regulations off all along the coast and tonight for the first time I will see Miami beach all lit up.  They say that is beautiful.  It will seem good to have the lights on again.  I guess maybe the war is coming more in our favor every day.  I heard the newsboy yelling the other day that Germany was getting ready to sign an armistice and so I bought a paper.  All I could find was an article an inch square on it.  Boy was I mad at wasting a nickel."

The newspaper boy sure did know how to sell a newspaper.  Wonder what company he's the CEO of now.

Let's play"Find Grandma in the Picture!"

On this day in WWII history

Friday, October 29, 1943

Montana is calling Grandma's name.  She nearly chased a Montana license plated car down the street because she was so excited.

"I saw a Montana car the other day.  It was from Great Falls.  I about fell over when I saw it.  I just wanted to run down the street and yell at them till they stopped but I didn't do that."

The homesickness is compounded by Grandma's sorrow over her roommate moving up in the ranks while she is still waiting to hear about her acceptance into Officer's training.  

"I have received one letter from Marvel since she has been in school.  She likes it a lot so far.  She has her gold buttons sewed on already.  I surely miss her.  I have Beverly though and she is a wonderful girl.  My new roommate is a lot of fun too so I don't have too much time to sit around and brood."

Homesickness and the loss of her best friend in the WAVES, makes Grandma's heart yearn for Montana.  The only problem is that when and if she returns to Montana, she won't return to her childhood home.  

"I was quite surprised that you really have decided to move. ... It won't seem right to come home and not to go to the house on 5th E. but we are still on the same street.  I am so glad Chief can still live with you. ... Give him a pat on the head for me or better yet, Mother, you put a lot of lipstick on  and kiss him, I know that you would love that!"

Grandma is so homesick that when one of her dancing partners is from a town in Minnesota, I guess that is near some of our I've never known about relatives, she inquires after her family.  Of course not everyone in Minnesota knows everybody, but I guess it was worth a shot.  Especially since he was such an impressive dancer.  Gosh I wish men knew how to dance this day in age.  You actually had to learn the dances, and not just stand there while someone uses your lower half as a battering ram.

"I went out with a boy by the name of Don Graham last night from Bimigee (sp), Minn.  We went dancing and we had a lot of fun.  He was really a very good dancer and I think that I danced for 3 hours straight.  He doesn't know any of our relatives though.  He has only lived there 3 years.  He is a sailor."

When the world gets you down, all you want to do is click your heels and be whisked away home.  The loss of Marvel and her uncertain future in the Navy is weighing heavily upon Grandma.  She hasn't seen her family in 10 months and she needs to recharge.  I hope her leave goes through so she can return to Montana's ferocious grace.

Evening, McDonald Lake, Glacier National Park, 1942 Ansel Adams

On this day in WWII history

Tuesday, October 26, 1943

The Navy doesn't joke about thievery.  One of the other WAVES, Beverly, had her room broken into.  The barracks went into Lockdown.

"It developed that some girl stole $25 from Beverly's roommate and $25 from the girl next to Bev's room.  They restricted the whole barrack and searched every room to no avail.  Thank goodness I wasn't in the barracks when that happened.  Everyone had to go to bed and couldn't even so much as take a shower.  A lot of girls didn't even get to eat."

I know I wouldn't be able to sleep with all that adrenaline pumping through the barracks.  What if it turned into The Monsters are due on Maple Street?  Everyone betraying each other until a shot rings out, returning everyone to their senses with blood on their hands.  In reality, the most distress caused by this is some rumbling bellies.

Grandma was invited to tea by four English women staying at the Granada hotel.  They were stopping through on their way to Canada to enlist with the CWACs.  

"4 English girls are going through here on their way to Canada to join up with the Girls Army in Canada. ... They were so nice and we had a lot of fun comparing our countries.  They were very much interested in our being in the WAVES."

They are the Canadian version of the WAACS.  Grandma calls it the Girls Army however.  I wonder if it's a slight to the Canadian army or if she's just referring to them informally.  If it is a slight, I wonder how my Grandmother referred to the WAACs.

Grandma moved into a room with an accordion playing roommate to get away from Marvel's replacement.  Apparently, Grandma loves to jam out to some accordion music.

"My other roommate belongs to the Salvation Army and she has an accordion and she plays and sings all the time.  It was enough to drive me nuts.  She also would give me lectures on the Salvation Army.  She said that people made fun of them but she thought they were cute.  That was enough to put me out for the night."

I just imagine this woman with an accordion strapped to her chest belting out a spiritual. She's most likely choreographing marches to rival any band directed by John Philip Souza.  She's got some sick moves.

On this day in WWII history

Thursday, October 21, 1943

Certain people are able to disguise their emotions when writing.  I am not one of those people. When perturbed, I tend to write my feelings and I feel infinitely better.  Regrettably, I reread the letter fifty more times, but this process is faster than me taking up someone else's time with my overreactions.  Unfortunately, I still torture my friends and family with every minute scruple that goes on in my life.  I love y'all dearly for that.  Also, thank you for not running away screaming.  Thankfully, I am completely desolate in my writing, and only slightly desolate when I talk to my friends and family.  You should have seen my high school diary.  Tears streak some of the pages...wish I was kidding.  My Grandmother on the other hand, is able to shut it down before she picks up a pen!  She took her Officer's Training Entry exam (yes, that is the Naval lingo), and this is all she has to say about it:

"I took my test and it was very hard.  I am not sure that I will be an Officer now.  If I'm not I will be home for X-mas tho."

That's all she said about it!  Although, I do the same thing when I'm disappointed.  I get discouraged and then push it aside.  "Oh well, I'll move on."  I just tuck it in the back of my mind until I am able to deal with it.  Again, you should have seen my high school diary.  So, this is what she is doing.  Grandma is covering it up and minimizing her pained feelings so they don't fluster her.  I cannot wait till I read her letter where she finally unleashes her fury on this subject.

In my family, we tend to misdirect our irritation onto other areas of our lives.  We tend to harshly express ourselves towards the object of our misdirected irritation.  Grandma does this on her new roommate.  

"I have a new roommate and I'm not too impressed with her.  She's around 28 and is real fat.  The only satisfaction I have is I'm smaller than she is."

I am sure there are other reasons beyond this woman's physical appearance that bug my Grandmother, and I believe that she never was truly rude to this woman about her weight.  If she was, I am sorry to this woman and I would admonish my Grandmother if she was alive.  Again, Grandma is misdirecting her anger and is taking it out on this woman.  I think there's more to this story and I will keep y'all updated.  This also serves as proof that Grandma is still shaken by the Officer's test and that it is of great significance to her.  I know this because of my family's famous misdirection of fury.

Flamboyant vocabulary is a particular passion of mine.  It adds a flair of the dramatic to everyday conversation.  For instance, I tend to use dated slang from the 40s and I do refer to my father as Daddio.  Grandma uses it to express her sorrow over losing Marvel and disguising it as a need for an alarm clock.

"Say - if you should see an alarm clock - grab it.  I haven't any timepiece.  Marvel had everything and when she left I was left practically desolate.  I can gets irons but I surely wish I had one."

Grandma's desolation over the need for a timepiece is her hiding her loneliness.  Her joyous use of language makes the connection across the decades stronger.

On this day in WWII history