Uncategorized – Page 86 – Hinges of History

Sneaking Onto Base

Jean Clark’s husband, Lou, had enlisted in the National Guard before the war. By December of 1941, he was in training at Fort Lewis outside of Tacoma, Washington. They got word they were shipping out in February, so Jean decided to head up to the base and visit.

At night they called a muster and they lined up with all their gear in line and we just watched them as they marched by. They came close enough that they could give us a hug and say goodbye but that was it. I stood there thinking, “Boy, I feel like I’m in a movie just (laughs)”

But there was a problem with this cinematic scene. The base was shut down and Jean was stuck inside with another woman who had also come to see her husband off.

We decided, “We might as well stay here. There’s no bus at this time of night.” So, went into the place. There wasn’t a scrap of anything. We found an old blanket. We said we didn’t want to sleep on the floor because it looked a little bit chewed (laughs). My friend said, “My husband says they have rats in this place.” So we got up on the meat block and spread out and put the blanket over us and went to sleep until morning when we heard this guard going — he was supposedly guarding. I don’t know what he was guarding, but everybody was gone (laughs). But he was on guard duty.

He’d go one side of the building. Click. Turn in a military manner. Down the other side of the building. Click. Down the other side. We watched him. We thought, “Wheres’ he going to be?” So while he was on the back side, we went out the door. (laughs) And headed to the gate. She said, “Maybe they’ll think we’re civilian employees.” And I think they did. We just walked out and got a bus.

This photograph comes the California State Military Museum.

Love During Wartime

While in school to become a teacher Jean Clark met her husband, Louis.

He was in one of my psych classes and he was a year ahead of me. He had grown up in Corvallis (Oregon) on the farm there, and he decided that he needed to earn some money, some extra money for school, so he joined the National Guard. He was the youngest of six in his family and he had four brothers who were in the National Guard. He wanted to be in and as soon as he was 16 he joined the National Guard. He was still in in college, at Monmouth. In 1940, the United States decided to mobilize the Guard because of the trouble in Europe. So he spent a year in training. In the meantime we had developed a sort of a relationship. When I was teaching at Brownsville (Oregon), we became engaged in 1940. So I was waiting for him to come back from his training.

They got married in July of 1941. Jean was just 19 years old.

This photograph comes from the collection of Jean Clark.

Becoming a Teacher

Jean Clark’s family eventually moved to a farm on the outskirts of the town of Stayton, OR. There was a one-room schoolhouse nearby, but her father wanted her to get a better education, so he sent her into town to live with her great-grandmother, a very strict woman who walked from Virginia (where the family was from) to Oregon along the Oregon trail right after the Civil War.

I wasn’t awfully happy with it because it was “Sit up.” “You have a backbone you know.” And “Young ladies do not cross their legs. If you must cross anything, cross your ankles.” And then one day I came home, I began to realize she was of a different ilk. I mentioned that today was Lincoln’s birthday. “Oh!” she said, “He freed the slaves and ruined the south!” So you knew where she was coming from.

Clark was a talented student. She got a scholarship to Reed College in Portland, but her father wanted her to go someplace less experimental, so she ended up at the Oregon College of Education in Monmouth, OR (now Western Oregon University) when she was just 16. She completed her Bachelor’s Degree in three years instead of the usual four and became a teacher.

This photograph comes from the collection of Jean Clark.

Edna Jean Clark

Meet Edna Jean Clark, who goes by Jean. Jean was born and grew up in Stayton, Oregon, which she called “a family town.”

My great-great grandfather came there in the early 1800s and founded the town. The town is named for him. Stayton, Oregon. My family all grew up there. My brother and I and my cousins.

Jean’s mother was a Murphy and her father a Richardson. related to that original Stayton who founded the town. They got married 1911.

Stayton was a logging community, and Jean’s family all worked in the industry. That meant the family often moved around the area as her father got new jobs.

He was always a logger or a farmer depending on which was the best. We did a lot of moving from one log camp to another. I grew up, my first grade class was in a logging camp where there were just eight children in the first grade and only one in the second grade and then several along scattered through. It was a one-room school. Pot bellied stove on the floor. We played on the the sawed off logs as a playground.

The certificate of marriage comes from the collection of Jean Clark.

Why No Team Sports?

Janette Shaffer Alpaugh helped to organize sports teams for WAVES in the south. But she also helped to start alternatives to traditional exercises at the training centers as well.

We were at Smith, with a nice gymnasium. I kept thinking, “Why don’t we have some sports?” Because we took classes and we’d go down for marching and some calisthenics. But that was that. So I kept thing, “Well, you’ve got all these other young people. Why can’t we be trying basketball or something?” So I went to the lady, head officer, “Isn’t there some time we could schedule some basketball? Anybody who shows up could just play.” And she said, “Oh, that’s a good idea. I don’t know why we don’t do it.” So they fixed something up for Sundays when you had free time.

I think because I did that (laughs) — I didn’t think that was anything unusual. I did that because I wanted to play.

The photo comes from a Navy post card set produced about the Hunter College boot camp. It’s from the Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.

Dance, Dance, Dance

Physical education took many different forms. These WAVES are square dancing their way to fitness.

The photograph dates from April of 1943. It was taken at the U.S. Naval Training School for Radio Operators at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. It’s held in the collection of the National Archives.

WAVES also participated in sports teams which traveled to other bases and competed with women in various sports, like volleyball or basketball. Janette Shaffer Alpaugh helped organize those teams in the south. Read more about her work in physical activities for WAVES here.

“Not Going to Make It”

SPARs, the Coast Guard women, had similar training as WAVES. SPAR Dorothy Riley Dempsey remembers the physical training as being extremely taxing.

We were not prepared for boot camp. We had to jump through the tires, you know. Then the next thing we had to do was we had to scale a wall. We couldn’t do it. I said to the girl in back of me, “Quinn, push, because I’ll never get over that wall.”

There was a big rope and it had a knot on it. And there was a pit with mud here. We had to back up and jump and my friend Quinn who was with me, I said, “Quinn, I’m never going to make that pit.” And she said, “Neither am I.” So we sneaked over to another line. We never had to go over it. We didn’t get caught. I said, “If we’re caught, we’re out. They’ll get rid of us.”

Calisthentics

Depending upon the weather, WAVES could do their exercises either indoors or out. These WAVES are at the Naval Training School for Advanced Machinist’s Mates in Norman, Oklahoma. They’re working on a field outdoors (note the jumpsuits they’re wearing for their exercise).

But a cold winter day could drive the WAVES indoors. Jeanette Shaffer Alpaugh remembers being at training camp in Cedar Falls working one day inside in the gymnasium.

We were four abreast, one bunch of four after the other. The officer is charge was, somebody came to the door and called her over. She didn’t say “halt.” So we were marching ahead and this person kept talking to her. Now, we didn’t really know this. Anyway, I was in the second group of four, We come to the end of the gymnasium and she hadn’t said, “halt” or “squad left” or right or anything. And so there were stall bars at the end of the gymnasium. I don’t know how this first group of four — I don’t think I would have thought of it, but they started climbing the stall bars (climbing bars on the walls of old gyms). So here’s four people going up stall bars. We’re the second group of four, we started going up stall bars. She turned around and there were about four groups (laughs) up on stall bars. I think that — you know, then she says. “Halt!” It was really funny.

The photograph comes from the National Archives.

WAVES Do Swim!

One of the rumors swirling about the military women was the various qualifications they’d need in order to join the different branches. Since the WAVES’ name evoked water, and the WAVES were part of the Navy, one rumor about the WAVES was that a woman had to know how to swim in order to join. Some members of the Women’s Army Corps even now say they didn’t join the WAVES in World War II because they couldn’t swim!

The rumor was false; a woman didn’t have to be a swimmer to join the WAVES. But swimming was one of the activities women could do to keep in shape.

These WAVES are swimming in the pool at Yeoman Training School at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, circa March 1943. The photograph can be found in the National Archives.

Keeping New Year’s Resolutions

What’s your resolution this year? Do a search on the web and you’ll find any number of resolution ideas. The top ten resolutions for small businesses. The top ten anti-aging resolutions for seniors. Top resolutions for a first-time pregnant mom (and isn’t that redundant – I mean, can you be a pregnant dad?). Top vacation resolutions.

According to USA.gov, some of the most popular resolutions in the U.S. revolve around getting into shape (physical or financial):

Get fit
Lost weight
Manage debt
Drink less
Save money
Reduce stress
Quit smoking
Get a better job
Eat healthy food
Get a better education

Since this is the week when most people give up their resolutions, it may be time for some inspiration from the WAVES. For WAVES, physical activity was part of their daily routine, with a number of exercise choices to stay in shape on the job.

This photograph from the National Archives was taken at the WAVES Radio School at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. It dates from March, 1943. According to the caption:

The Navy knows that these girls will attain top efficiency in their work only if they are in perfect condition, so building a sound body plays an important part in the day’s routing at the WAVE Radio School.