My Mother January 4, 2012
I thought since I had told you a little about my dad that I should also tell you about my Mother.
My Dad went by the name of Bill and my Mother went by the name of Jenny, She was a quiet, soft and kind lady. My mom was an excellent seamstress and when she worked, (except during the war) she was a Tailor for Utah Woolen Mills in Salt Lake City. She made all our families clothes including coats, boys suits, dresses and anything else we needed. All were made to perfection. In fact all she did was always done to perfection. During World War 2 while my Dad was gone, Mama moved all of us in with her cousin and their family. We were crowded and it was ok because we always had someone to be close to. Times were hard back then and we lived mostly on S&H Green stamps. These were stamps the government gave each family so they could buy sugar, flour, gas, tires for cars and other things. All of the products we could buy were rationed by the government and they were in scarce supply. when we did not need our stamps for things like car tires, we could trade them to someone who needed tires for their stamps for sugar, coffee, or other things we needed. We made it through the War years by surviving. My Mother was very frugal and could make do with almost anything. Through it all she remained positive, kind, thoughtful of our needs, and those of her parents. We were blessed beyond belief during those hard years. Later she went to work for some of the finest Men's stores in Salt Lake City and in Provo doing alterations on men's suits. (During the War Years mama went to work in an Arms Plant in SLC, amking ammunition for the war effort.)
I have to tell you about the blackouts during the war. In all Western large cities it was manatory for people to block the windows of their homes so no light would shine out at night. In Salt Lake City everyone would block the windows at night. It was common place for air raid sirens to go off and scream all over the Salt Lake Valley if there was any indication that there might be any incoming airplanes that could be enemy planes. Sometimes we would hear them at night, when we did all lights had to be turned off in the house. The City became totally dark. I remember times when this happened that we would block the windows, turn off the lights, and turn on a small radio searching for news. When we did this we would huddle around the radio and hide the small orange light it gave off for fear that it could be seen outside. When these very loud sirens would go off it was very scarry for we young children, (we were 9, 7, I was 5, and 3) I remember hiding and crying from being so scared of them, I had nightmares for years well into my teen years because I was still afraid the Jap fighter planes would come and bomb us. Thanks to my very kind Mother, who always tried to comfort us, I did get passed being so afraid.
