Young women thought more of working for “the war effort” than marrying right out of school. Since almost all younger men were enlisting or being drafted, the majority of the industrial workforce became women. The woman who became “the face” for all of those workers was Rosie the Riveter, an actual person.
The Grand Trunk Carferry Company had a large dock near the western end of Muskegon Lake. The ferries were probably one-half the size of large, ocean passenger ships. The whole lower level of the ferries carried train cars. The train engineer would back a line of cars into the boat, and a crewman would signal where to cut the string. The train would back out to a switch, and then run another string of train cars into the boat, until it was full. The upper level had a few cabins for passengers, but mostly accommodated the crew. The car ferries became a major “highway” for moving materials back and forth, across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee and points south and west.
Since Muskegon had so much war-industry, the deep harbor and the carferries, it was vulnerable as a major sabotage target and possible bombing target if or when enemy planes were able to fly that far. Air raid sirens were installed in many places around town. Every household received instructions on what to do during an air raid. Almost every house had a basement so that was the primary gathering point. Some people build small, walled-in safety areas with cement blocks within their basements. Every month or so there was a city-wide air raid practice. When the siren sounded, we had to extinguish all lights, even candles, and go to our gathering places. If there was a safety room with no windows in the basement candles were allowed there, otherwise no light of any type. We had to stay in our “places” until the all clear siren sounded.
After hearing the voice of the man broadcasting from Honolulu, I wanted to be able to DO something for my country. With the possibility of being a bombing target, groups of Junior Air Raid Wardens were organized in many of the schools in Muskegon. I jumped at the chance to join. In our meeting room, there were large posters showing silhouettes of German and Japanese aircraft. We had to memorize those shapes, and were tested on them every couple of weeks. During the meetings we discussed our neighborhoods, and where the most vulnerable families lived. Every couple of blocks had an adult Air Raid Warden.
Within our neighborhoods we junior wardens were assigned to adult wardens. No one except wardens and junior wardens was to be outside during a practice, or actual alert. We were instructed to walk around our neighborhoods to be sure there were no lights showing and to remind anyone we saw outside to go inside. If we saw any lights or ran into people who were uncooperative, we were to report them to our supervising wardens, who were authorized to take appropriate actions.
Kim Feldman is the widow of a Korean and Viet Nam veteran, and wife of a WWII veteran. One morning a week she volunteers to read to two second grade classes and one third grade class. She volunteers one day a week to work in the Archives of W. H . Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M and one morning in the gift shop of the local hospital. A talented story teller, Feldman is currently one of the leading ladies of a production of The Telling Project, Telling: Aggieland.
