John Graduates into the Service

We had a club called the Forum Club in Madison. My husband was vice-president of the club. I also joined the Ladies Auxiliary. We had carnivals, spaghetti suppers, pizza parties, steak parties and dances. I learned a lot from the ladies.

When our son John graduated from high school we had large party for him. He was the first of our children to graduate from high school. John joined the Air Force ground crew. While he was waiting to be called he worked at a gasoline station. He met a lot of people that way.

When we went to see John off he had to get a train in Newark, N.J. My husband, myself, and John's brother Tony went. About half way through the car trip to Newark Tony got sick. We had to stop the car and put Tony on a train to go back home. We also gave him money to take a taxi home from the train. It was the first time Tony ever travelled alone. We had no choice about the matter. My husband and I really felt bad. One son was going into the service. The other son was sick on a train going home alone. All we could do was pray that all would turn out well.

A train full of boys left for Camp Dix. Our oldest John was leaving home for the first time. It broke our hearts. We put up a front that all was fine, so our boy wouldn't feel bad. The minute the train left, I broke down and cried like a baby. We were anxious to get home and see how our son Tony was making out. He had made the trip back home fine, and he was feeling better.

After a few weeks John's clothes were sent home. I couldn't explain the feeling that went over me, seeing John's clothes and no John. I lit candles and prayed that God would watch over our son. John was a religious boy. During school he always went to the religious classes.

One day he had said to me, “I love God, but I don't remember all the hard prayers.”

I answered John, “Just talk to God about what bothers you the same as you would talk to me. God knows you love him. He understands you and will always be by your side.” That satisfied him.

John was first sent to San Diego, California, then to Missouri, and many other stations. We had not seen our boy for nine months. He would write to us faithfully about twice a week. We wrote to him about twice a week also. John said that the Air Force fed him well. The training was hard. He was going to be sent to Germany so he was given a two week furlough.

When John got home we were all thrilled to see him. He looked handsome in his uniform. We had had a phone put in the house. John also had the use of our car. He visited all his relatives and friends. One of our friends was a butcher. We told him our son was home on a furlough. He gave us the best cut of meat for John. The furlough passed too quickly. Then he was shipped to Germany for one year.

John kept writing to us all about Germany. He said the things that went on in Germany were awful even though the war was not on. John enjoyed being an airplane mechanic. At one time John and two friends bought an old jeep. They worked on it and got it working. They travelled all over Germany and the Alps, in Switzerland. The two boys lost interest in the jeep. John paid them their share and the jeep was now his. He gave it a paint job and sold the jeep for $1,500. He couldn't send a large sum like that, so he mailed the money to us a little at a time. We put it in the bank for him.

John and other boys got their clothes washed, ironed and mended for a pack of cigarettes or a bar of chocolate. It was my son's birthday on August 23. A friend of John's had fallen in love with a German girl. The girl's people cooked a goose with all the trimmings for John's birthday. They even baked a cake. We thought that was fantastic. It made us very happy that these strange people should do this for our son's birthday.

After one year he came back to the United States. The trip on the ship was crowded. They tried to stay on deck as much as possible. We had seen John only twice in two years. It was good to have him back home. John stayed home about one month. Then he decided to go to Coyne Electrical School in Chicago for another year. It was a good school, but in a tough neighborhood. He was old enough to make his own choice, so off to Chicago he went.