The World War II Era - Part 2

The World War ll Era - Part 2

The year was 1944.

On March 5, at 9:18 pm, Ernest sent Harriet a telegram.  The telegram was sent from Midland, Texas, and was mailed to Mrs. Ernest C. Ely, 1466 1/2 South High St., Columbus, OH.  It says:

HELLO DARLING SEND TRUNK RIGHT AWAY CHANGE ALLOTMENT TO DADS ADDRESS BRING TAILORED TIE MOVE NAVY MATTRESS IN ATTIC YOU WONT HAVE ANY TROUBLE GETTIN FOOD ON TRAIN I HAVE ALREADY PAID RENT BE CAREFUL COME SOON AS POSSIBLE LOVE ERNEST           

At that time, Mom and Dad had been apart for nearly a year and a half.  I know they both had to be so excited for her to finally be able to join him while he served.  This telegram I knew about.  Mom had given it to me many years ago, and I had it put away for safe keeping.  However, I did not know about a second telegram until Mom had passed away, and I was going through her things.  In the midst of lots of junk mail she had held on to, and other memorabilia, I found this:

          ARRIVED AT ST LOUIS 630 MISSED TRAIN WILL TAKE 1159 FROM ST LOUIS
          ARRIVE MIDLAND 957 SATURDAY MORNING LOVE HARRIETT

In those days, Mom spelled her name Harriett, instead of Harriet.  She liked the extra "t" on the end.  I do not have a clue why.  Maybe she thought it was classier. Even her tombstone has two t's.  She ordered it when she ordered Dad's.  Shortly before she passed away, she started to get mad when she kept seeing her name spelled Harriett.  It was comical.  With the Alzheimer's and Dementia, you couldn't make her understand that it was her own fault! 

I do not ever recall Mom telling me that she had missed a train on her way to Midland, Texas.  Maybe I do, I don't know.  Her train must have arrived late to St. Louis, and she had to wait for the next one.  I can imagine her disappointment.  They had been apart for months, and were really still newlyweds.  I try to picture my parents then.  I wonder what it was like to know Ernest and Harriet, to be their friends, their peers.  We are different before life changes us as we grow older, and as we take on additional roles, such as being parents. 

Mom and Dad wanted children.  Mom was told that she would never be able to have kids.  Her uterus was tilted, and she had scar tissue from several miscarriages.  She said each of us was a miracle baby. 

Ernest had found a home, or room, to rent.  The rent was paid before Harriet left Columbus. The people they rented from had the last name of Longabaugh.  They were very kind, and Mom spoke highly of them whenever she talked about that time.  The Longabough's were an older couple that rented out to military families.  Below is a picture of the house my parents lived in.  I think.  The picture below is of Mrs. Longabough and a child named Jerry McMullin.

Below is a postcard from Grandpa and Grandma Ely.  They had taken a boat down the Ohio River.  I like seeing my parents addressed as "kids."  "Hello Kids" is how the message begins.  At the same time, it feels strange. That is how I address my grown children, and I was not even a twinkle in their eye then.  

Grandma Salyards also sent them a postcard from Cleveland, Ohio, where she had traveled.  Grandma (Mary Grace) Salyards loved to travel.  Mom said that when air travel became popular, she loved to travel by plane.  I am not sure where she went.  She was originally from Indiana, and I do think I remember Mom telling me she would fly up to see her family, and to California.  She sounds like a lady who had a lot of spirit.  I have very few memories of her.  She had a severe stroke when I was very young.  I only have a couple of memories of her before her stroke.  I remember spending the night with her one night, and I remember her going for a drive with us and spending the day out.  That is about it.  I do know that when Grandpa (Wyatt Salyards) passed away, she raised 8 kids by herself.  Aunt Oma was sixteen, and Aunt Ruthie was just a few months old.  Friends of the family, a couple who had no children of their own, kept Aunt Ruthie for a couple of years so grandma could work.  They brought her to visit on weekends when they could.  I think Ruthie came back home for good when she was two.

Harriet stayed with Ernest  for only a few months.  Mom became pregnant with my oldest brother Ernie pretty much as soon as she got to Midland!  She went back to Columbus to live with her mom sometime before Ernie was born.  She was there in October.  I have a postcard from Dad to Mom from El Paso, mailed on October 13, 1944.  He went to Juarez while he was there.  That postcard is also in the scrapbook.  I have a tablecloth and two napkins he brought back from Mexico.

Ernest and Harriet wrote one another every day.  I do mean every. day.  They had boxes and boxes of postcards and letters.  They destroyed them when the boys were young.  They did not want anyone reading their love letters.  I only have one letter that Mom gave to Ernie.  He was just a baby at the time it was written.  Ernie passed the letter on to me a few years back.

I do not know much about their life in Midland, Texas.  Dad visited the First Baptist Church before Mom arrived, with Bill and Margaret O'Dell.  I do have a postcard addressed to Mom from a church there that they visited, but I do not know if it is the same church.  All I know is that they did attend church there together.  Mom had said that Dad accepted Christ after they were married about 3 years.  I believe it was during this time period.

I know I sure would.  I miss them both so much.  

The World War II Era - Part 1

The year was 1942.

Mom and Dad married on February 7th. 

Three months earlier, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.  The United States was at war.

In Columbus, Ohio, Ernest and Harriet were in love.  Harriet was a Senior at South High School.  She used to tell stories about a teacher who always gave her a hard time.  One day she had enough and she just up and quit school.  She just quit - her senior year!  She told the powers that be she wanted to get married anyway.  She walked out and never looked back.  She married her Ernest, and that was that!

Mom and Dad eloped, and were married in Greenup, Kentucky, at the home of the Justice of the Peace.  I think they were married in the evening.  Mom was only 17, but the marriage announcement in the paper says she was 21, and Dad 23.  Dad's age is correct. I seem to remember Mom telling me that she told her mother they were going to elope.

At the time Mom and Dad were married, Dad worked at Curtis Wright Corporation in Columbus, Ohio.  He was a tool and die maker.  Curtis Wright designed and built aircraft for military, commercial, and private use. 

Note:  Dad's notice of separation form the Navy states that he worked at Curtis Wright from 01/10/41 - 10/05/42.

Curtis Helldiver - U.S. Navy Dive Bomber

The Curtis Helldiver pictured above, was manufactured at the Columbus plant where dad, and later on mom, worked.  The postcard was sent to Dad by a friend named Daily.  I am assuming they worked together at Curtis Wright. 

Within a few months of their marriage dad would join the Navy, but first they had the summer. 

I'm not sure where Mom and Dad lived when they first got married.  One of the first postcards he sent her when he left has the address 1466 1/2 South High Street, Columbus, Ohio,  When Dad was discharged from the Navy, they lived at 480 Reinhard Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43206.  It is a part of Merion Village.  Ernie told me tonight on the phone that he thought Mom and Dad both grew up in or around German Village.  The home on Reinhard in still there, and is near German Villiage.  Trulia website estimates its present worth at $226,000.  The home was built in 1925.

On October 5, 1942, Dad joined the Navy.  This was three days after Mom's 18th birthday.  It was after that she went to work at Curtis-Wright. 

I had no idea until I started working on the scrapbook that Mom was one of the many women who took over a man's job in the factories during WWII.  I remember she talked about being in charge of a crib and several older men.  All the healthy, young men had joined the military.  Mom told these stories all my life, but even sitting in history class in school, I never made the connection until I was in a college US History class, which wasn't all that many years ago.

My brother, Craig, described Dad's job in the Navy as an "Aviation Smelter."  He worked on the warplanes.  His specialty was the propellers, from what Craig remembers.  Dad stayed state-side the entire time he was in the Navy.  Three places he was stationed are Midland, Texas; Quonset Point, Rhode Island; and Lewiston, Maine.

Mom joined Dad in Midland, Texas for a few months in March of 1944.  Details to follow in "The World War II Era - Part 2."

Midland, Texas - 1944 - Mom is pregnant with Ernie

Midland, Texas - 1944 - Mom is pregnant with Ernie