World War Two broke out the December before Jay was born in April. All the men who weren’t fighting were working in defense plants. Building of homes and apartments came to a standstill. We had a very small apartment with wall beds in our living and dining room which was separated by an arch.
Mother came to stay with us when Jay was born and she gave Em unconditional love. She was such a great lady. Em immediately fell in love with her and they had a good relationship. Mother never felt completely at ease with him but he thought she was tops.
Em got a job in the ship yards in Long Beach during the war. He had to drive fifty miles one way and he worked the night shift. So he would come home about the time we got up. That meant when he went to bed, Mother, Jay and I had a very small kitchen and the bath to live in until Em got up. We put Jay in the bassinet in the bath tub in the bathroom and Mother and I had a two by four kitchen. Mother stayed about a month and soon after she left we were able to get a house in the rear of another house that had a bigger living and dining area, a bedroom and a summer porch.
About a month before Madge was born we had a call from Em’s Mother in Indiana, asking Em to come get her. She wanted to come to California to live. Em and Helen had gone out to Indiana to see her some time earlier when they got word she was very ill. Now she wanted to come live near her children. She told Em she would pay his plane fare if he would come and get her. This was in February and Em had no heavy clothes for cold weather. He said he would just go and get her and come right back.
These were the war years. It was so terrible to have the boys going off to war and not knowing if they would return. Ivan wasn’t accepted for Navy duty because he had a bad leg. Afton had joined the National Guard so he was in immediately. Floyd was drafted the following year and Reid was drafted two years later.
Floyd was training in California and came to see us one weekend before he was sent over seas. I was so glad to see him. I remember we went and had his picture taken. What a strong healthy boy to be sent off to we knew not what. We received word my cousin, Brooks Lee, was missing in action. He was a gunner on a plane and the plane was shot down. We held out home for some time but then the word came, he was killed in action. It was so hard for Aunt Ella to accept and for all of us for that matter. The war was so hard on Mother. Never knowing and always wondering where her boys were. Afton was sent to the South Pacific and Floyd was in Germany. Floyd never talked about the war after he got home. He came back whole but he seemed to put the war out of his life from then on.
Afton belonged to the army band and although he was in the army longer than Floyd he wasn’t in much action. Reid was just ready to go when the war ended. He did go to Korea.
I remember one morning just a while before the war ended, the phone rang and it was Afton. He was on furlough and he was in Los Angeles and wanted to come spend the day. I was so excited. It had been 5 years since I had seen him. Ivan was working just out of Los Angeles, I called him and he and Hazel came. It was a great day. Afton walked through the house saying he couldn’t believe he was in a real home. The bed seemed to take his eye. A real honest to goodness bed. It was a day I’ll always remember. I remember Afton and Ivan exchanged clothes. Afton wanted to see how it would feel to be in “civies” again. The day did end and we took him into town to catch his train to Long Beach and then to be shipped out to the Philippines. As we were taking him to the train it started to rain and I thought the whole city is crying because he has to leave.
Afton was home on leave in January 1945 when my Grandfather Tyler passed away. It was a sad time to lose grandfather but also happy to have Afton home.
The war ended in Sept. of 1945 and all the boys were once more home. What a happy time for my parents. But there was sadness too because so many families had lost someone.
Em’s Mother stayed with us a few days and then went to Sacramento to be with Helen.
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