Month March 2012

A secretary for the tire rationing board on April29, 1944, young Lois Barden sat in Ithaca’s Courthouse basement, busy at her work. She looked up to see the face of the gentleman who ran the telegraph office in the train… Continue Reading →

Red (Leman) Ingalls joined the U.S. Navy in August, 1944 – even though he was too young. At 17, his mother had to sign his enlistment papers. Sailors earned $17 a month, but with WWII at its height, pay was… Continue Reading →

Duane Beard was a sonar man in the U.S. Navy, posted to the island of Tinian in the Pacific. From that island, one August day, he mailed a letter to his sweetheart Joyce in St. Louis, MI. Of course it… Continue Reading →

The Gratiot County Herald in its August 31, 1944 issue printed directions for gathering and preserving milkweed pods. It noted that “when the Japanese captured the East Indies, our supply [of material normally used for life preservers] was cut off…. Continue Reading →