We're In This Together: Forty World War II Memories by Ellen Williams

Author:Ellen Williams [Williams, Ellen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: oral history, NY, WWII, World War 2, memory, homefront, veteran, World War II, war, WW2, Long Island, memories, history, New York
Publisher: Aperture Press
Published: 2012-06-11T21:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOUR

East Enders, From The North Fork Of Long Island

DANIEL CLARK

Shelter Island, NY

Now resides in Greenport, NY

I was ten years old when America got into the war. My dad worked at the Greenport Basin and Construction Company where he helped build landing crafts and mine sweepers for the war effort. He was a mason by trade. He was in World War I so when we listened to the war news on the radio he was familiar with the French towns they would mention in their war reports.

My two older brothers were in college and had enlisted in the Air Corps that’s what it was called at the time before the Army and Air Force split. One of my brothers was a bomber pilot and my oldest brother was a chaplain assistant.

What I recall about the gas rationing, is that each person got a sticker for the windshield of their car with a letter on it A, B, or C. Your job defined what sticker you received. My father worked for the defense effort so he got enough gas to go to the Shelter Island Ferry each day, to get to Greenport for his job, and there was very little gas for anything else. Dad put in long days working in the shipyard. It was open 24 hours a day and employed two or three thousand people. People came from all over to work there. They built wooden minesweepers that were approximately 200 feet long. The minesweepers had to be built of wood because the mines would attach to the metal boats and blow them up.

In the Greenport Shipyard they also built crafts that were capable to move soldiers or one tank. These landing crafts were built like barges with a large ramp. The ramp would come down on the beach and either soldiers or a tank would drive onto the beach. The Reich Brothers Trucking Company from Patchogue moved 131 of these boats in the dark of night. I remember how they closed off Front Street in Greenport when they moved them. Everything was done in secret. They would take them on large flatbed trailers to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The minesweepers however were large and they were sailed out of Greenport Harbor and delivered.

I remember certain jobs I had during the war years. I had to weed our victory garden and chop wood for the furnace. The Boys Scouts collected newspaper and tin cans. Some people said the tin was sent to Japan and made into bullets that were used against us.

Only being allotted one pair of shoes a year I had to choose if they were for dress or play. As far as the food went, we always had vegetables, chickens and a cow so we always had eggs and milk. On Sundays Dad would catch and kill a chicken then he would put it in hot water and pluck it. Mom would cook it for our Sunday dinner.

As a kid I put together a bike. You couldn’t buy a new bike; they weren’t making them.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.