BOEING PLANE TALK

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1944

 

A Five-Minute Furlough With the Girls Back Home

F YOU’RE wondering what the girls

back home are doing, here’s a pictorial
letter giving you a resume of the typical
Boeing girl’s day.

First off, back home there’s a definite
manpower shortage. In. fact, the word
“man” seems very remote to most girls.

Right now the home front is a striking
resemblance of a woman’s world — but
that’s not the way the girls would like to
have it. They’re just as anxious for you
to come home as you are to get back.
And in the meantime, they’re just biding
their time.

While they wait for your return, their
days go something like this:

1. At 5 in the morning the alarm blares
out reveille for the lass who works first
shift. Maxine Burnett yawns, sneaks a
couple more winks and then gets up to
meet the dawn.

2. Even though most of the men in a
Boeing gal’s life are “either too young or
too old,” there’s a certain amount of
primping that has to be done. Verres
Everts puts on her “face,’’ brushes her
hair and dashes down to breakfast. (Inci-
dentally, Verres is the daughter of “Ad”
Everts whose face has been a familiar one

around Boeing for the last 15 years. He’s
Fabrication superintendent at Plant II.)

3. It’s still dark when first shifters pile
out of cars and buses to begin their day’s
work. Five early birds who drive to the
plants together are (left to right) Betty
Sitton, LaVerne McGahan, Bettee Bell,
Joan Wharton and Helen Mitchell.

4. On the job—10 hours a day — Mary
Ann Breitenbach, an inspector, finds that
crawling around jigs and B-29 assemblies
is hard work. By the time 4:45 in the
afternoon rolls around, she’s pretty well
“done-in.”

5. In fact, all the girls are lagging a bit
by the end of the shift. You couldn’t tell
it, though, from the sparkle in Margaret
“Mike” Egan’s eyes as she clocks out. By
the way, lads, she was the Plant I rodeo
queen this fall.

6. But a woman’s work is never done —
darn it! After work, there’s always a bit
of tidying up to do, and Dorothy Kaup
shows you what a neat job can be done.
After clean-up time, there’s a dash to the
butcher’s, the baker’s, the corner grocery
or a seat at the nearest hamburger stand.
After all, a gal’s got to eat!

7. In the evening it’s more likely to be
MAIL than MALE. Readin’ and writin’

are the two favorite pastimes for the girls
who build B-29 Superfortresses. And nine
chances out of ten, she’s writing to a man
in service. When mail call comes around,
you can remember girls like Alva “Cud-
dles” Caudill, who write to about a dozen
servicemen every week.

And then to bed—to dream of the day
when a soldier, or a sailor or a marine

will be back home for-keeps. That’s a
typical first shifter’s day.

But on second shift, it’s a reverse
process:

8. Alta Pfaffiy (eft) arrives home from
work at 4 in the morning. Roommate
Betty Kendrick, who is a first shifter, gets
up to have breakfast with her. Except on
weekends, from 4 to 5:30 a.m. is the only
time they have together. Then Alta goes
to bed, and Betty goes to work.

9. About noon, when second shifters
usually get up, there’s the customary
pressing of slacks, writing of letters and
everything else that first shifters do in
the evening —including baths. That’s
Helen Clark in the tub.

10. Then some of the girls dash out for
lunch, to shop or to see a movie. Here
Rose Marie Crabtree drops in for a coke
with Marie “Lollie” Betzen.

 

11. Back home again before going to
work. Sometimes there’s a few minutes
for playing records before changing into
slacks and leaving for the plants. It’s
Rose Marie again — with certain tunes re-
minding her of a certain sailor. |

12. They come from miles around. For
lots of girls building B-29’s also means a
couple hours a day bouncing along in
commuter buses. But Katherena Eckert
(eft) and Alice Montgomery look none
the worse for extra hours of travel to and
from their homes in Belle Plaine and Win-
field, respectively.

13. And then to the night shift to take
up where the girls on the day shift leave
off. Lillian Nigg works on B-29 tail assem-
blies at Plant I. Her workday begins at
4:45 a.m. and ends at 3:30 a.m.

14. Back home about 4 am., and it’s
Alta again awakening Betty to read the
latest from one of her servicemen.

First shift, second shift — all around the
clock. It’s a busy world, a fascinating
world — but, with all, a curiously empty
one for thousands of Boeing girls who wait
at home for their men who have gone
away to war.