Transcript What My Grandma LaVelle Did During WWII

What My Grandma LaVelle Did
During WWII
By Kelsey
Grade 4
Valley View Elementary
The beginning of the war.
Grandma LaVelle was living in Texas. She
was 15 years old. Before that she lived in
California, but everyone thought the
Japanese would invade California, so
they moved to Texas.
The girls in economics class sold a flag that
had 48 stars. Each star took a whole yard
of material. It covered the side of a three
story courthouse building!
During the war:
The clothes that she wore were dresses,
skirts, slack suits and blouses. In her gym
class they wore white shirts and white
pants. She had to do P.E. every day.
Man, if I had Math and P.E. every single day,
I would be running the track EVERY
DAY. They played a lot of baseball,
volleyball, and basketball.
Here are pictures of Grandma
When there was a shortage of
nylon for stockings, she didn’t
wear makeup on her legs like
some people did. She didn’t
wear stockings until she got
married. She entered nurse’s
training right after she got out
of high school. She wanted to
be a navy nurse because the
uniforms were so beautiful;
they were navy blue, and the
cape was lined with red
taffeta. They looked really
sharp on the nurses. She
really wanted to be a pilot, but
she wasn’t old enough.
More of what she did
Because of her interest in flying, she used to read
about Jackie Coffer and admired the fact that
Jackie would bring planes from the U.S. to Europe
and England. They had women who were teaching
some of the other pilots how to fly!
Woman also went to the shipyards and took jobs that
the men normally worked after they were drafted.
The woman had to work in the steel industry and
that is where “Rosy the Riveter” came in. (I told
her that Ms. Drum was “Rosy the Riveter” on
Halloween.) The women usually stayed at home
until WWII started when they were needed outside
the home.
More of what she did during
WWII (Continued.)
People wanted the women to stay home and
have babies and not work outside of the
house, but when the war came along
everyone was needed to build planes, and
ships. They also stopped the manufacturing of cars for regular people so
they could make jeeps for the war. (They
needed the steel.)
Grandpa Dick comes into
Grandma’s life.
Right after she got married, on
April 3, 1945, Victory in
Europe happened on April
25. Our Grandpa Dick was
in the service. He was
stationed outside of Texas; it
was a big, big field.When
they would go downtown,
they couldn’t go anywhere
because many navy men
were in the way.
Grandma and Grandpa
While they were passing through the crowd, this man
walked up to her and kissed her right smack on the
lips!!!!!!!!!!!
And it was a total stranger. Then
grandpa Dick showed him a look that said this was
his girl. She had also joined the nurse’s Cadette
corps. She was married and the school had a rule
that if you are married before your 6 months of
training, you would have to quit. They didn’t want
the girls to be married because they would
probably have babies.
Some fun stuff
The roller rinks were popular back then,
they would listen to rock and roll music
such as: “The White Cliffs of Dover” and
“Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree With
Anyone But Me”. She also remembered
“You Ain’t Got That Thing When You
Ain’t Got That Swing”.
Some cool stuff
She wasn’t allowed to go to dances, so her
interests were movies, roller skating, and
homework. She was too young to have a
regular job; her job was to get through
high school. She worked in the summer,
which would be through June, July, and
August. Her school would start the day
after labor day.
Before she was old enough
to work, she would clean
houses and baby-sit some
people’s children. She
was living right across
the street from her school
with a family. She took
care of a family that had
a mother, father, and
daughter. She got up,
made breakfast, and went
to school. In the
afternoon she came home
and made lunch and then
went back to school.
Then she would come back
home and make dinner. She
would have to wash the
dishes, and you know that
they didn’t have automatic
dishwashers back then so
she had to hand wash the
dishes. There was something wrong with the
woman. My grandma
doesn’t really know what
was wrong with her, she
said maybe it was a nervous
breakdown. The woman
couldn't take care of the
family.
Some more cool stuff.
And they would dry their
clothes on a clothes line.
It smelled so much
better than the drying
machine. The clothes
would be dry in about a
half hour because the air
was dry in Texas.
There is always a sandstorm
every year in Texas. Once
when a bunch of clothes
were drying on the
clothesline there was a
sandstorm so all of the
girls ran out and grabbed
all the clothes, and ran
inside, closed the
windows, shut the door,
and closed the shades.
Some more cool stuff.
(continued)
She also remembered her
She remembers selling
grandpa in the hospital
savings bonds and she
all that time. Her aunt
remembered having to
would save up gas
save copper, tin,
stamps and they would
newspapers, aluminum
drive them to the
and iron. They even
hospital and visit her
saved the foil layer of
grandpa. It took about
wrappers from gum!
6 hours to get there.
Also these things
When she heard that the atom
bomb was dropped on
Japan, she hoped it would
be the end of the war. She,
her friends, and family had
no idea how horrible the
devastation was until later
on.
Here is a picture with my
sister and me by the
atomic bomb >>>>>
(We were in California.)