Della's Recollections
Page 3
I was working at the American National Insurance Company when I found out that I was pregnant in the Fall of 1944; and as soon as the insurance company knew, they let me go. That's what employers did with pregnant women back then - they laid them off. It was after I was pregnant that I moved in with my husband's parents. I took a temporary job at the cinema. I got a job working at the Queen Theater selling tickets.
The only time I ever had
fun during the War was when I lived with my father and mother-in-law. Inez,
Danny's mother, used to work part-time as a receptionist for a dentist, Dr. Maher. She would work in the office when the doctor's wife, Adeleid Maher (she
had the same name as me but spelled it differently), wanted time off. Inez and
Mrs. Maher became friends and they and Dr. Maher's daughter, Janey, and I would
go downtown to the theaters or clubs.
We saw some famous stars perform. We would go out regularly - four women. Janey was Janey Williams then as she was married to John Williams. He was in the Army Air Corps in England and he wrote her a "Dear John-letter" that he'd fallen in love with an English girl and wanted a divorce - he was planning on marrying the English girl. It really broke Janey's heart and that's when she started drinking. Later she married Christy Mitchell, whose brother was a Houston multi-millionaire, and she became quite a lush. We stayed friends after the War and Janey would come visit, always came during the holidays, until my oldest children were teenagers. We had lots of fun together.
Much of the time my mother-in-law and I were home alone. Danny's father worked on the fireboat. He worked a twenty four hour shift and then was off for forty eight. When not a fireman he was fishing. He sold some of what he caught. Meat was rationed but we always had plenty of shellfish and fish. Often Inez and I would be home nights alone listening to the radio.
Inez Traverso made crochet to supplement her husband's income. She was very skilled and various shops would supply materials and she made bedspreads, doilies, shawls - all kinds of things to order. She could work at home and often we didn't go out because she had an order to fill. Danny had left his father his black 1937 Ford when he went to sea. Gasoline was rationed and Inez and I went everywhere on the bus. Big Dan used the Ford but eventually sold it. I think that Danny told him to sell his car. After the War we had a 1929 Ford Model "A" and didn't buy our first brand new automobile until 1951 when we got a pea green four door Ford sedan.
When my son, Daniel, was born at the beginning of June 1945, that meant another ration book. We could buy more sugar and eggs and milk. Rationing went on for a while after the war. It took a while for industry to convert back to domestic production. You had to get on a waiting list to buy cars and appliances. I was on a waiting list for a washing machine when my first daughter was born in 1946.
Danny enjoyed going to sea and visiting lots of new places. Sometimes he was in danger but mostly he enjoyed a big adventure. I stayed home and worked and waited for him to come home. When he finally came back just before Christmas 1945, we had been married for two and a half years but I hadn't spent more than three or four months with him during that time. He was ready to continue shipping when he came back from the Pacific at the end of 1945 - he already had a ship to South America. The U.S. Government was encouraging men to stay in the Merchant Marine; during World War II, President Roosevelt had promised seamen veterans benefits and I think Truman did too so that they would keep going to sea. I gave Danny an ultimatum: It was me or the Merchant Marine. I wasn't going to stay married to someone who was gone all of the time.
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