0:00:01 |
BA: June 2 1945. |
0:00:14 |
LD: 1945, right. |
0:00:17 |
BA: How did you happen to go to the Armory to work? |
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LD: Well, 19-um, what is it now, 1941, of course, was Pearl Harbor. I was working
downtown and I just wanted to do something. So, I never gave the WACs a thought
or anything like that, and then they said, why don't you go to the Springfield
Armory; they're hiring like crazy over there. So, I went up and I got a job right
away, I worked, went in the stocking department, and I started working the next
week. |
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BA: Did you know anybody already who was working up there? |
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LD: No, no I didn't. I didn't, I did it so quick. After I got up there a little
while, I knew a few people. |
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BA: Did you live in Springfield? |
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LD: Yes I did. |
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BA: Right in town? |
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LD: Right on Federal Street. |
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BA: Right close, |
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LD: Yes it was. |
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BA: Easy to get to work. |
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LD: We used to work seven days a week, I did. You didn't have to work Sunday
or Saturday, but I used to go to the machine shop and work in the oil up there
to here! (laughing) But I didn't mind, I mean, I, what the heck, I wasn't doing
too much anyways. So, I enjoyed it; I really enjoyed it. |
0:01:40 |
BA: When you came up to get hired did they have any tests or anything? |
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LD: Nope. No tests. My first job was filling stain, you know, the gun stocks
that came back, They had holes in them and whatever. We had to sand them and
fill them with this wood plastic and then stain them over. Oh, we used to find
notes in those and everything else,you know, the soldiers used to stick in the
gun stock. Yeah, it real interesting, That was fun... Then I went on to the machines after that. But I enjoyed it. |
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BA: Who did the.. . were you given any training for any of your work? |
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LD: No, that was very simple, somebody showed you. Then I went over on the lathes
where they turn the gun stocks after they come out of the kilns. It's just a
matter of putting them in right. Taking them from the cart and setting them in
this big machine and it turns them. So, that was easy, but I had my eye on that
big router machine. No woman had ever run that, but I got acquainted, we called
him Chief and I used to go over and talk to him a lot. I'd get him, you know, "let
me try it a little bit," But he couldn't; he let me try it without a gun
stock in there because the gun stock had to be like 1000ths of an inch for tolerance,
I mean. But anyways, I got so you had to. .. when you started it was this kind
of an angle (motioning with her hands) and you turn it and make it that kind.
So we did two cuts on the top and then turn it right clean around and do two
on the bottom. It was really a man's job, but I wanted that so bad. |
0:03:31 |
BA: Why would you say it was a man's job? |
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LD: Well, because all that heavy turning and everything. Then you had to keep
up with the conveyer. But anyways, he knew I wanted to do that so bad, so he,
he taught me. I was the only one there who did it. In fact, Antra, that made
our machines from Chicago, they came down. This morning I go into work and this
derrick is in there, you know, up to the ceiling. The minute I start work the
men start climbing and they came towards me. They have cameras; well 1'm telling
you, I was,. . I thought, oh I' m panicy, so I got real nervous, but anyways,
they took my picture. Antra had a booklet that came out about women taking over
the machines and that's why they took my picture, 'cause no woman had done that
job. My boss, Al Denim, he's dead now, passed away. He had the one book that
came with my picture and he showed it to me. I said, "Gee, I'd like that for a souvenir," and he said he'd get me one, but he just couldn't get one.
So, I never got one. |
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BA: Oh dear! |
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LD: Yeah, I know. (laughing) |
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BA: It'd be fun to have one, |
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LD: Yeah, I know. Wouldn't it, though, Especially the only one having your picture
taken. Golly, with all this equipment there. |
0:04:55 |
BA: Which building was this in? |
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LD: In the stocking shop. Right on the front where Digital is now. It was right
there. |
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BA: Were there any other women in the section at all? |
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LD: Oh yeah. Running the smaller machines. There were like four aisles, you know,
each machine did a certain cut on the gun stock But mine was the only one that
did the four [cuts]. Four lines of those. I used to relieve sometimes on those,
but once I got that job, that was for me, |
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BA: Did you like that? |
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LD: Oh! I liked that. I really did, |
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BA: How long did you stay on that? |
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LD: Um, I must have been on that a year and a half, two years. |
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BA: What were your hours? |
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LD: Seven to three, |
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BA: Seven to three, |
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LD: And then they started the second shift, three to eleven. I worked that for
a while and then they started the eleven to seven and I worked that for a while. |
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BA: Did you take turns a lot or did you just take it for a while? |
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LD: What the machine? |
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BA: No, the hours. |
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LD: Oh, no, no. They asked me that I go on and show some of the girls some of
the machines, and I said sure. So, I worked those two shifts and then I went
back on days again. Steady on that machine until I got laid-off, you know, with
the rest of them. Not all, most of them. It was in August of '45. |
0:06:32 |
BA: They just laid everybody off? |
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LD: Um, three quarters, I'd say, three quarters. Of course the fellas were coming
home then, you know, and going back to work. |
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BA: So, the women had to leave to make room? |
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LD: Oh yes. Of course I was glad the war was over. Who wasn't? |
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BA: Oh yes. |
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LD: But, I did miss my job. |
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BA: In other words, you'd like to have stayed on the job? |
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LD: Oh, I: would have liked that, yeah. Strictly men on those jobs. |
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BA: But as far as you could see, you could do the job alright? |
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LD: Yes. I must have because, in fact, Chief, he used to gauge the gun stocks
after I got through with them, Boy, they had to be right, because the whole mechanism
set in there and if it was off, they wouldn't fit. So, it had to be right, |
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BA: So, you would have liked it, staying on with the men after they got back? |
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LD: Oh no! No, no. I just enjoyed working. |
0:07:33 |
BA: Did they have a lunchroom or anything? |
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LD: Yes, they did, a cafeteria. Yeah, on the second floor, they had a big cafeteria
up there. |
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BA: Did you eat your meals up there or did you bring it? |
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LD: Urn, sometimes, yes, a lot of times I did, In fact, I had my first powdered
potatoes up there, mashed potatoes, ( laughing ) eggs, too. They had powdered
eggs for a while. But of course, I lived near enough so that I could have my
breakfast. But I used to like to go up there and eat because the girls would
all sit, you know, a bunch of us would sit at a table and catch up on what was
going on. |
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BA: Sort of a coffee club? |
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LD: Yes, right, right. You only had a half hour for lunch. It was enough. |
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BA: Did you have coffee breaks or was it just a lunch break? |
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LD: No, it was just a lunch break, but, I.. . a set up man used to come and relieve
you on your machine, so you could lie down and take a break. |
0:08:34 |
BA: Did they have a ladies room? |
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LD: Ladies room? Oh, yes! |
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BA: You didn't have to, but did they have a place where you could lie down or
anything? |
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LD: No, no. When I worked that eleven to seven shift, when it got like 3:30,
I would have given anything to just lay down, just five minutes. I think I could have fallen asleep standing up
against the wall. But the minute it passed about 4:30, boy, it was like the sun
coming up, I was getting wider awake and wider awake and it was.,. |
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BA: You got your second breath, huh! |
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LD: I know it. it's just that one hour and a half, two hours in there that you
get real sleepy and then it passes, just like it never happened. |
0:09:20 |
BA: Did any of your friends come to work at the Armory? People that you'd known
before? |
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LD: No, If they did, they weren't in my department. |
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BA: You mentioned you didn't think of the WACs, did you know |
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anybody who did go into the WACs? |
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LD: No, I didn't. I hadn't even heard of them. It never dawned on me. I would
have liked that, I think. |
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BA: You'd like to have tried it? |
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LD: Yeah, I would have liked that. But I was real happy when I was doing it. |
0:09:47 |
BA: Did you have any brothers or sisters? |
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LD: I had a brother. But he wasn't in the service. He had three children. So,
he's passed away now. |
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BA: Where did he work? |
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LD: He worked in the shoe department in Forbes and Wallace. He was assistant
shoe buyer there. After that he went to Hartford, and he worked in FOX'S down
there. |
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BA: Was he younger or older than you? |
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LD: A year and two months older. |
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BA: Older! |
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LD: Just my brother and I. |
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BA: You said your name was LaBranch, when did you meet Duffy? |
0:10:27 |
LD: That was something again after the war was over and, uh, it's a long story.
I could write a book, believe me, if I got into those things. |
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BA: But, you didn't meet him in the Armory, right? |
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LD: Oh no, no! I knew him before that. |
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BA: You knew him before? |
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LD: Yes in fact he was in the service when I was working in the Armory. |
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BA: Did any of the women that you knew use any of the day care centers that were
around, during the Armory workday? |
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LD: That, I couldn't tell you that. I couldn't tell you, an awful lot of the
women, married women working, so they must have had some way. |
0:11:38 |
BA: Did you ever work on any of the metal machines or just stocking? |
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LD: No, no, just i n the stocking shop. Like I said, on Saturdays and Sundays,
I went into the machine shop, I had to take parts out of these that were coming
down out of the oil, pile them up, set them up, but I liked doing that. It was
an awful dirty job, but I didn't mind. |
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BA: Did you wear coveralls or...? |
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LD: Yes, I wore slacks mostly, Most of the time. |
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BA: Because I've seen in some of the scrapbooks that some of the women wore
coveralls. |
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LD: Oh, yes, you could. I didn't wear them though. I wore regular slacks, something
like this and jerseys. |
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BA: And a hair net? |
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L : And we had to have a hair net. We didn't at first, but one girl got her hair
caught in the sanding machine and after that it was a must. We couldn't wear
loose sweaters 'cause |
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another girl got her sweater caught in the machine and it took it right off her.
Right off her. (laughing) |
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BA: I'll bet she was shook-up. |
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LD: You bet, Everyone was. Those things weren't so common as they are today.
You know, today you see somebody and they're half undressed. |
0:13:03 |
BA: Do you remember any of the social functions? Did they have any? |
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LD: Oh yeah. We had one, once a year, a dinner/dance. It was real nice. We went
to real nice places and you know, everybody dressed up swell, which was interesting
after seeing them in their work clothes all the time, Yeah, once a year we had
that. |
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BA: look a little different when they show up at the dinner table. |
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LD: Oh I know. The romancing going on those days. oh, I tell you. |
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BA: Did they have any sports leagues, bowling leagues? |
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LD: No, not that I know of. I mean if they did I didn't belong to them. But I
didn't hear about them, because I would have gone. |
0:14:01 |
BA: Well, when they decided that they were going to let the women, let people
go after the war was over, the women went first? |
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LD: Yeah. |
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BA: How much notice did you get? |
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LD: I think it was about two weeks. |
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BA: Was there any severance pay or was that the end of it? |
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LD: That was the end, |
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BA: You got what you worked for and that was it? |
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LD: Right, and you know something. We didn't get, when we worked Saturday and
Sunday, we didn't get time and a half or double time. We just got regular time.
In fact, there was one man there, he was, I guess he was head of a union and
he tried to get that pay back. This was after the war was over and he tried to
get, he went to Washington, tried to get that pay back, for that extra money.
But nothing came of it, |
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BA: Did you get paid the same rate as men did when they worked in the stocking
machine? |
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LD: So much an hour. No, I don't think we got as much as the Chief did. He was
the regular man on that, naturally, and he had been there quite a while, No,
I would never get that. No, I got just the base rate. |
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BA: But your base rate was the same as the men doing the same work for the same
period of time? |
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LD: That I couldn't tell you. I couldn't tell you. |
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BA: But as far as you know, it was probably? |
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Lo: I just don't know, I mean, what they paid the men. |
0:15:41 |
BA: What was the Chief's real name, do you remember? |
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LD: He's passed away, he was, Oh my gosh, Jack was his first name, I cannot think
of his name. It began with an M and it was an Irish name. Isn't that funny. And
he lived in... Connecticut; we just called him Chief. He was an older man, you
know, with gray hair. He'd been there a long time. But somebody told me about
four years ago that he passed away quite a while ago. 'Course, l i ke I say,
he was in his fifties, then, and that's a few years back. |
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BA: Yes, yes, it's getting there. (laughing) |
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LD: (laughing) Boy, when I think of my age, now. |
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BA: Doesn't seem like it was so long ago, though, huh? |
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LD: No, it doesn't. And I pass the place going on the bus and I think, oh, if
all those buildings could talk, The activity in there, really, we really worked
up there. We got the E Flag, you know, for efficiency, the pins, E pins, mine's
over there. And we did a good job, I think. |
0:17:02 |
BA: Did you work other places later? How would you compare the Armory to other
places that you worked? Is it a company to work for? |
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LD: Well, I liked it, I mean. I liked it; the money was good. The hours were
good and I liked what I was doing. So, but before that I was a waitress and I
made good money there, but I figured I wasn't doing anything. Then when I got
married, my late husband, Mr. Duffy, he said, Lillian, you don't belong waiting
on tables, he said, you belong in an office. So, we moved to Rhode Island for
a while. He was a captain in the Army and he was made head of Public Works at
the Quonset Navy Base. Oh, I thought to myself, oh boy, I could work up at the
officers club, Of course, NO WAY, he says, no way! (laughing) So, anyways, I
went out and got a job in an office. I worked in accounts pending in at Bostich,
you know, they make staples and stuff. Yeah, I worked there and I retired i n
' 72. |
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BA: How did you like office work compared to working on a stocking machine? |
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L: Oh, well, there's a world of difference. I mean, the girls are different and
there's, I don't know, in an office, there's all these petty things that come
up. I never ran into that up at the Armory, never. No one was ever talking about
this one or that one, and believe me, there was a lot going on, But, we were
all good friends. It was, of course you like office |
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work and I liked it, but that way I could work. That was the only way Jack would
let me work, (laughing) |
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BA: After all it is interesting because, we did...(Tape ended) |