Jean M. Holloway: Our romance started in April 1944. I was a senior in high school and Ed had just signed up for service in the U.S. Nary. Ed went to boot camp in Sampson, N.Y.. I graduated high school on June 4, 1944 and applied for a clerk’s job in Watson Flagg Machine Co. in Patterson, N.J. as a Time and Material clerk. They cut gears for PT boats for the Navy, making me a Rosie the Riveter. I earned 80 cents an hour, working 48 hours a week.
I had to take 2 buses from Little Falls, NJ to Paterson. I had a small office, and every hour I had to go around to the machines and record the job pieces cut or scraped, and put a move order on finished pieces. I worked the swing shift every two weeks , 8 tp 6, or 9 to 7. We had to wear slacks and that was women wore dresses more than slacks.
Ed became a sight setter and gunner in the Armed Guard Division of the Navy, making the famous Murmansk Run in the North Atlantic. On his firest Port Leave in October, 1944, he proposed, and we were married in January 1945. 36 hours after our wedding, his leave was cancelled, and he went to France on OUR honeymoon and I went home.
July 1945 was V-E. I worked until V-E Day. The plant closed and I went on unemployment, $26 a week for 52 weeks. Ed came back to the US and then was sent to Japan as part of the occupation forces. He had the points to come home. We started our life together. Ed took a job as a big city fireman for 12 years, a total of 40 years. From the start of our marriage, I sent many lonely nights worrying if he was coming home or was injured on the job, which did happen several times. I guess being a Navy wife prepared me for being a fireman’s wife.
In 1975m we had an auto accident that changed our lives. I spent 6 weeks in the hospital and Ed spent 5 months in a body cast and a year out of work. Ed could no longer do fire duty, so he retired. We moved to North Carolina and for the last 30 years we have enjoyed life with family, friends, church, and have volunteered together for mission trips and Red Cross disaster teams.
I joined the American Rosie the Riveter Association, and my girls are all Rosebuds (female descendants of Rosies,) Now at 81 years old, we enjoy each other. Sure we disagree, but that’s life. We had 3 children, siz grandchildren, and 4 great-grands. Through thick and thin and with faith in God and in each other, we stand tall in our love.
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