Movie Monday: Ladies Courageous

Movie Monday: Ladies Courageous

When I’m researching an era, I immerse myself in the media that would have been available to my characters at the time. For my Old West books, I read novels, newspapers, magazines, and catalogs that were published before or during the year my stories are set. For my WWII books, I can expand my media to include movies and radio programs.

During my research for Love at First Flight, I stumbled on a 1944 war movie called Ladies Courageous, a fictionalized account of the Women’s Auxiliary Ferry Squadron (that would later be merged with the Women’s Flying Training Detachment to create the Women Air Service Pilots program. According to several sources, the film is based on Virginia Spencer Cowles’s 1941 novel Looking for Trouble. However, the WAFS didn’t go into operation until 1942. Other sources indicate the film is an á-clef story (a name describing a real person behind the façade of fiction) of Jacqueline Cochran and Nancy Harkness Love, the women behind the two organizations.

Born in Brattleboro, Vermont in 1910l, Virginia’s journalism career began as a gossip columnist for

Public Domain

Boston and New York newspapers. She expanded into fashion and society, but when the Spanish Civil War began to bubble up, she packed her bags and headed for Spain in 1937, determined to make it as a war correspondent.

Different from most reporters covering the Civil War such as Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gelhorn, Virginia wrote articles from both sides for the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times, and Hearst newspapers, including an interview with Pepe Quintanilla, the chief executioner of Madrid. She eventually left Spain and traversed Europe, moving between Russia, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Finland, and France. After the fall of France, she went to England where she landed on the first day of The Blitz, allowing her to report the entire Battle of Britain. She later covered the North African Campaign, then Italy and France in 1944 and 1945.

Ladies Courageous stars Loretta Young, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and Diana Barrymore (yes, those Barrymores) and tells the story of the Women’s Auxiliary Ferry Squadron. The plot seems more “Hollywood” than war propaganda with impetuous female characters, dashing male pilots, and intrigue. Toward the end of the movie, a general notifies the women about the merge that will create the WASPs, an event that didn’t occur until July, 1943. The dialogue is good, and the plot moved along at a good pace. It was interesting to watch the film thinking about people in the 1940s for whom commercial air travel would have been a luxury, let alone the opportunity to take flying lessons. Might be similar to us thinking about going to the moon.

________________

Love at First Flight

Can two people emerge from the clouds of past hurt to find a silver lining of love?

Evelyn Reid would rather fly than do anything else, so when war engulfs the U.S., she joins the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. One of the program’s top pilots, she is tapped for pursuit plane training...the dream of a lifetime until she discovers the instructor is her ex-fiancé, Jasper MacPherson.

Collecting enough points to rotate stateside, fighter pilot Jasper MacPherson is assigned to teach the WAFS how to fly the army way. Bad enough to be training women, but things take a turn for the worse when his former fiancée shows up as one of his students.

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/3JoYNX

Wartime Wednesday: Aviation Terms

Wartime Wednesday: Aviation Terms

Public Domain

Accuracy is important for any story, whether contemporary or historical, but I’d hazard a guess that readers of historical fiction “know their stuff” and have little use for a book with errors. I learned this early on when I was freelancing for NHToDo magazine.

While working on an article about some historical place (interestingly, I can’t remember where, but I remember the mistake), I had put a couple of “placeholder” sentences in the first paragraph including one about Abner Doubleday inventing baseball. I’d meant to fact-check the sentences, but in the rush to make the deadline failed to do so.

I got the year incorrect. NHToDo was a travel and lifestyle magazine; to me a casual periodical, yet several letters were written to the editor calling me out on the error. That incident happened over fifteen years ago, but the lesson stuck with me. Hence, some of the tedious research I conduct for my stories.

At the time I was writing Love at First Flight, I knew a retired Air Force pilot who has since passed

Pixabay/12019

away. He was a wealth of knowledge and information, most of which had to be gathered over the telephone because of Covid restrictions (I was researching the story just as the pandemic began.) It’s one thing to know industry terms, it’s something else to use them correctly. Here are just a few*:

Absolute Altitude – The vertical distance between the aircraft and ground level.

Absolute Ceiling – The highest altitude an aircraft can fly at maximum throttle while maintaining level height and constant airspeed.

AGL – (Above Ground Level) – The vertical distance measured between the aircraft and a specific land mass. Not to be confused with Absolute Altitude.

Air Speed Indicator (ASI) – A flight instrument that indicates airspeed an aircraft through an air mass in miles per hour, knots, or both.

Apron – The paved area at an airport where aircraft park, fuel, load, and unload.

Bleed Air – Hot compressed air produced during the compressor stage of aircraft engine operation.

Pixabay/imagii

Checkride – This is the more common name for the FAA Practical Test. Pilots must pass a checkride for each certification or rating.

Contrail – A streak of condensed water vapor in the air due to the heat produced by aircraft engines at high altitudes.

Drag – A parallel and opposing force to an aircraft’s motion through the air.

Feathering – The act of adjusting variable pitch propellers so that the blades are in line with airflow and don’t create air resistance.

How many are you familiar with?

(*taken from https://epicflightacademy.com/aviation-terminology/)

________________

Love at First Flight

Can two people emerge from the clouds of past hurt to find a silver lining of love?

Evelyn Reid would rather fly than do anything else, so when war engulfs the U.S., she joins the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. One of the program’s top pilots, she is tapped for pursuit plane training...the dream of a lifetime until she discovers the instructor is her ex-fiancé, Jasper MacPherson.

Collecting enough points to rotate stateside, fighter pilot Jasper MacPherson is assigned to teach the WAFS how to fly the army way. Bad enough to be training women, but things take a turn for the worse when his former fiancée shows up as one of his students.

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/3JoYNX

Fiction Friday: Research for Love at First Flight

Fiction Friday: Research for Love at First Flight

Pixabay/Steve Buissinne

Long before I was a professional writer, I was a research nerd. I did and still do love looking up information and chasing rabbit trails. Before the invention of smartphones, I carried a notepad in my purse on which I could jot down names, places, events…anything I stumbled on when we were out. What I love best (after texting with my siblings) is using my phone on the fly to research something.

My husband rolls his eyes, but in a laughing manner, because he’s the one who usually prompts me when we’re somewhere and here about something we’re not familiar with. He’ll often use sports writer Warner Wolf’s catchphrase, “Let’s go to the videotape.” (Which is now digital in all probability!)

Anyway, Love at First Flight was published in September 2020 which meant I was conducting my

Courtesy of 
Texas Tech Univ.

story research just as the pandemic surfaced. Definitely bad timing! As any student knows, primary sources are the best which include autobiographies or memoirs, letters or diaries, articles written by an individual who experienced the event, maps, and sound recordings, etc. As part of my research, I had planned to visit the National WASPS WWII Museum located in Sweetwater, Texas, but in March 2020 travel was heavily curtailed, so I was stuck researching from my desk.

Fortunately, there are quite a few autobiographies and memoirs written by former pilots of the Women Air Service Program, and I was able to get my hands on them. Another fantastic resource was a video I obtained from the Wright Museum of WWII called Women of Courage which featured interviews. I also found video clips of news interviews and documentaries that included interviews with these stalwart women.

WikiImages

Many years ago, a fellow writer managed to secure a ride in a B-25 (or was it a B-29?) while researching her book. I had hoped to do the same so I could experience the sights, sounds, smells, and rolling stomach (!) of my characters. Instead, I found a fabulous YouTube video that took me into the air in a Vultee BT-13 Valiant that was lovingly (and sometimes not so lovingly) referred to by trainees as The Vultee Vibrator.

Maybe someday I’ll be able to hitch a ride in a vintage plane, but meanwhile, you and I can enjoy this virtual flight:

________________ 

Love at First Flight 

Can two people emerge from the clouds of past hurt to find a silver lining of love? 

Evelyn Reid would rather fly than do anything else, so when war engulfs the U.S., she joins the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. One of the program’s top pilots, she is tapped for pursuit plane training...the dream of a lifetime until she discovers the instructor is her ex-fiancé, Jasper MacPherson. 

Collecting enough points to rotate stateside, fighter pilot Jasper MacPherson is assigned to teach the WAFS how to fly the army way. Bad enough to be training women, but things take a turn for the worse when his former fiancée shows up as one of his students.

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/3JoYNX

Traveling Tuesday: Sweetwater, Texas

Traveling Tuesday: Sweetwater, Texas

Located forty miles west of Abilene, Texas and almost “smack-dab” in the center of the state, Sweetwater, Texas became a hub in aviation only eight years after the industry began. According to a paper I found on the University of North Texas website, by the 1920s, the tiny town was regularly visited by many famous aviators. In 1928, seeing potential, local businessmen raised money to construct a municipal airport. Funds came quickly, and the airport was finished and dedicated in August 1929.

In 1940, the town was notified that Sweetwater was being considered for use in the government’s expansion of defense efforts. Receiving nearly $200,000, the town purchased additional acreage and improved the facilities. The first trainees were fifty Canadian cadets headed for England’s RAF. In 1942, over 800 Americans arrived for training and graduated the following year.

Jacqueline Cochran, a world-renowned pilot, had been working for months to create a women’s

National WWII Museum

program similar to that of Britain’s Air Transport Auxiliary. She initially tried to use Hughes Air Field in Houston, but for many reasons was unable to develop a school that met her requirements. Finding Sweetwater, she quickly made arrangements, and by February 1943 Avenger Field was an all-female installation except for a few male instructors and other officers.

Slightly more than eleven square miles, Sweetwater is considered semi-arid, which is to say it’s a dry area, but not as dry as the desert. Average annual rainfall is thirty-five to forty days. Winter average temperatures are in the 60s, and summers are scorching with June, July, and August typically seeing temperatures in the mid- to high-nineties! I would imagine that many of the women who arrived had never experienced this kind of weather.

Thanks to the railroad and airfield, Sweetwater’s population exploded from just over 4,000 in the 1920 census to almost eleven thousand by the 1930 census. The women who arrived came from all walks of life. Some would be disappointed at the “small” size of the town, while others would be overwhelmed by its stretch of land and five-figure population. Of the 25,000 women who applied for flight training, 1,830 were accepted, 1,075 of whom earned their wings, which meant 756 women trudged to the train station and boarded a train for home, leaving the dusty town behind.

________________________

Love at First Flight

Can two people emerge from the clouds of past hurt to find a silver lining of love?

Evelyn Reid would rather fly than do anything else, so when war engulfs the U.S., she joins the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. One of the program’s top pilots, she is tapped for pursuit plane training...the dream of a lifetime until she discovers the instructor is her ex-fiancé, Jasper MacPherson.

Collecting enough points to rotate stateside, fighter pilot Jasper MacPherson is assigned to teach the WAFS how to fly the army way. Bad enough to be training women, but things take a turn for the worse when his former fiancée shows up as one of his students.

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/3JoYNX

Wartime Wednesday: WASPs, but Not the Kind You Think

Wartime Wednesday: 

WASPs, but Not the Kind You Think

National Archives

By 1942, in just about every industry in the U.S., men were in short supply. They were either working in defense jobs or serving in one of the Armed Forces. In late September of that year, two civilian organizations formed that tried to fill the void in the aviation field. The Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) and the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) were employed to fly military aircraft under the direction of the U.S. Army Air Force. Members of these organizations were Federal civil service employees, not military personnel.

 
The following year, the WFTD and WAFS were merged to form a

Photo: National Air and
Space Museum

paramilitary organization called Women’s Air Service Pilots (WASP). By the end of 1944, when the WASP program was disbanded nearly 1,100 women had ferried planes, towed targets, transported equipment and non-flying personnel, and flight-tested aircraft. Thirty-eight of these pilots lost their lives (11 in training, 27 on active duty), but because they were not part of the military it was the family’s responsibility to pay to ship the victim home. Often members of the girl’s unit would collect money on behalf of the family. During their two years of service, the WASPs flew sixty million miles and delivered 12,650 aircraft of seventy-eight different types.

 

Author Photo

Early on, the WASPs decided they needed a mascot. They turned to Walt Disney and asked permission to use Roald Dahl’s (of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fame) illustration from his first children’s book, The Gremlins. The book had been written as a promotional piece for a full-length Disney movie that was ultimately never produced. “Fifinella” was a female gremlin who wore yellow slacks and cap, red blouse, and high-top boots, black gloves, and blue goggles. She also sported a pair of wings. Patches were custom-made, and colors varied.

Fifinella showed up everywhere: WASPs jackets, their monthly newsletter, and in many variations on the nose of many a bomber. Dahl went on to draw other gremlins for Warner Bros. that were used in several WWII cartoons, some of which featured Bugs Bunny.

Have you ever seen Fifinella?

___________________  

Love At First Flight

Can two people emerge from the clouds of past hurt to find a silver lining of love?

Evelyn Reid would rather fly than do anything else, so when war engulfs the U.S., she joins the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. One of the program’s top pilots, she is tapped for pursuit plane training...the dream of a lifetime until she discovers the instructor is her ex-fiancé, Jasper MacPherson.

Collecting enough points to rotate stateside, fighter pilot Jasper MacPherson is assigned to teach the WAFS how to fly the army way. Bad enough to be training women, but things take a turn for the worse when his former fiancée shows up as one of his students.

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/3JoYNX

Traveling Tuesday: They Came, They Sawed, They Left

Traveling Tuesday: They Came, They Sawed, They Left

Pixabay/David Mark

Eighty-five years ago, known as the Long Island Express, one of the most destructive storms to strike Long Island, New York and New England caused approximately $306 million ($4.7 billion in 2017 dollars) in damage and property loss and killed 682 people. Starting out near the coast of Africa, it swelled to a Category 5, then hit land as a Category 3 or 4 hurricane (sources differ) rivaling such storms as Hugo, Harvey, Frederic, and Grace. Unfortunately for residents in the hurricane’s path, forecasters weren’t convinced the storm would amount to much more than rain and “heavy winds” so gave no warnings.

New England forests were decimated with more than 2.7 billion board feet falling which created an extreme fire hazard. In addition, without being salvaged the timber would rot and become worthless. Called upon to handle the destruction, the US Forest Service created the Northeastern Timber Salvage Administration. The Administration secured a loan from the Disaster Loan Corporation in the amount of $16,269,300.

Doing no logging itself, the NETSA paid owners after they delivered salvaged material. In an effort to prevent problems in the timber market, the Forest Service established log grades and prices, purchased and stored logs, sawed or contracted for sawing, and channeled the lumber into the market. Employees of the Civilian Conservations Corps and the Works Projects Administration took care of the hazard reduction work.

In the outskirts of Concord, New Hampshire, the Turkey Pond Sawmill was run by the Durant Family.

Pixabay/
Robert Gabriel

Located near much of the forest damage, the sawmill became a storage site for the downed timber – almost twelve million board feet of white pine logs. By now, it was 1941, and labor was difficult to come by as a result of America’s entry into World War II. As a result, the Forest Service did the unthinkable: they opened a sawmill on the northern end of Turkey Pond and hired women to do the work.

And work they did. According to one Forest Service manager, “Snow, rain, or sub-zero weather never slowed them up.” NETSA director John Campbell reported in 1942, “The female mill at Turkey Pond is going along nicely. It’s most surprising and gratifying to see the way those gals take hold of the job. In addition to the jobs we anticipated women could handle, we have found them capable of rolling logs on the deck, running the edger and for ‘show purposes’ even running the head saw.”

The mill operated for two years with a starting wage of $4.00 a day (significant when a waitress made about $1.40 a day and retail clerks earned about $1.80). Also, significant is that the wage was the equivalent of men’s wages.

Pixabay/James DeMers

Florence Drouin Blake was 15 years old when she went to work at Turkey Pond. “For me, it was about being all grown up and working with a bunch of women that were older than I was. They were all good gals. They helped me, and I helped them.” Despite being one of the youngest girls in the group, she had experience. She’d been cutting wood since age thirteen when her father gave her an ax for Christmas.

On November 23, 1943, the last logs were sawed, five years after being delivered.

Think you could have done the work?

__________________

Estelle's Endeavor

Will a world at war destroy a second chance at love?

Estelle Johnson promised to wait for Aubry DeLuca, but then she receives word of his debilitating injuries. Does she have the strength to stand by him in his hour of need?

Aubry DeLuca storms the beaches at Normandy, then wakes up in the hospital, his eyes bandaged. Will he regain his sight? Will the only woman he’s ever loved welcome him home or is he destined to go through life blind and alone?

Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3PW0q95

Talkshow Thursday: Welcome Stacey Haynes

Talkshow Thursday: Welcome Stacey Haynes

A warm welcome to award-winning novelist Stacey Haynes whose most recent publication is part of multi-author Suffrage Spinster series.

LM: What was your inspiration for the story? 

Stacey: The inspiration for my story is finding love during The Women’s Movement in the 1800s.

LM: What sort of research did you do for your story, and was there an exceptionally interesting tidbit you knew you had to include? 

Stacey: I read articles about the Women’s Movement and watched a movie on Netflix to see how Hollywood portrayed it.

LM: Have you ever considered writing under a pseudonym? Why or why not? 

Stacey: I haven’t considered writing under a pseudonym only because I’m not ashamed of what I’m writing. But since I co-author a few series with my sister, Marie Higgins, and we are trying to step outside of the Amazon window for publishing, we have decided to pick a couple of names to use, one will be for contemporary romances and the other will be for historical romances. Remember, though, it’s not because we are ashamed of what we write, because we are not. It’s because other publishing agencies may not accept multiple authors for who wrote the book.

LM: Did you set out to write a series? Why did you decide to write a series?

Stacey: Charity’s Challenge is a part of a MAP group for a series called The Suffrage Spinsters. At

first, when I wrote this story, I didn’t think of writing another in the series. But the hero of my book has a sister who is friends with my heroine. By the time I finished writing it, I figured she needed to have a story, too.

LM: How do you come up with storylines? 

Stacey: Before I begin writing, I need to figure out why I’m writing the story. I need a plot and a direction to go. Once that pathway is set, I will then put myself into my character’s shoes and pretend like this is my story and what would I say or do in that moment.

LM: What draws you to the time period about which you write? 

Stacey: To be honest, historical westerns are not my go-to time period. It takes a lot of research to find out how they lived back then. I find it difficult to write historical. I prefer contemporary. But, in this instance, what draws me to the time period would be the challenge of writing it.

LM: Why do you write in your particular genre?

Stacey: I’ve always considered myself a hopeless romantic. I want everyone to have a happily-ever-after. I love romance songs, movies, and stories. But I do love to toss in some different struggles to make the story exciting. I do enjoy writing time-travel romances as well as contemporary and historical romances.

LM: What is your process for writing? (do you outline, have a special place or time of day you write, etc.) What is your favorite part of the process? 

Stacey: My process for writing is mostly plotting. I have a Word document where I put my notes or research items on. I then think of what needs to happen in the book, figure out the problems, the trials, the villain, and then how to resolve it. It will take many brainstorming sessions with either my sister, or those in my writing support group that I’ve created. My favorite part of the process is finding the Ah-ha moment when you see it all make sense.

LM: How does/did your job prepare you for being a novelist?

Stacey: My job really hasn’t prepared me for being a novelist. When I was in high school, I took a creative writing class and dug into poetry after I got married. I currently work full-time as an accounting and payroll specialist at my work in the aerospace industry. I’ve been there for 32 years. If anything, studying the people I work with helps me create some character profiles. Since I am in payroll, I’ve looked at everyone’s names and have tried to use a combination of names to help come up with characters for my stories.

LM: What is your next project? 

Stacey: My work in progress is writing book 7 of Gems of the West series, called Opals and Orphans. My sister and I are also working on another series, a time travel one, called A Timeless Castle. We have two of the books almost complete for the 3 book series. I also plan on writing a sequel to one of my first stories.

About Stacey:

Stacey Haynes is an award-winning and best-selling author. She has always enjoyed reading and writing romance stories beginning with her first story in 6th grade. Her dream has always been to have one of her books published, and now has several, including a poem about her most disliked food, Peas! She won her first writing contest when she and her sister, Marie, entered their story The Magic of a Billionaire into an online writing contest on www.ajoara.com – and their story won 1st place!
She considers herself a hopeless romantic and tries to find the best in others. She loves to write in her spare time to relax after a hard day at work.

Stacey lives in Utah with her wonderful husband and three adorable children. She hopes to have more books published in her lifetime. You can follow her adventures on

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/Staceybuns1969
Author Page - https://www.facebook.com/Stacey-Haynes-Author-110345070332647
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/Staceybuns1969/
Bookbub – https://www.bookbub.com/authors/stacey-haynes
Website – https://StaceyHaynes.wixsite.com/home

About Charity's Challenge:

Charity Burke wishes she could speak her mind, especially when it comes to the roles of women. Many men have asked for her hand in marriage, but she has refused, leaving her father—the mayor—very upset. She wants to be a schoolteacher, but a woman schoolteacher is unheard of. By attending the Suffrage meetings, she would meet other women in her predicament, but she hesitates to cause problems with her father.

Detective Nick Young is hot on the trail of a group that plans to overturn the government in Rochester, New York. Instead, Mayor Burke sends him on another assignment—to spy on his wayward daughter. When Nick sees Charity with his sister, Ellie, he knows he must keep them safe while attending the annoying Suffrage meetings. But being around Charity makes him understand women and their changing roles in the world. Can Nick give his heart to an opinionated woman and go against the other men in Rochester?

Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3CzJpfE

Seneca Falls: Women’s Suffrage Meets It’s a Wonderful Life

Seneca Falls: 

Women's Suffrage Meets It's a Wonderful Life

Pixabay/Tommy

Located approximately an hour’s drive from Buffalo, the town of Seneca Falls, New York is in the northern part of the Finger Lakes Region. Lake Ontario is a forty-five-minute drive north. First populated by the Cayuga tribe, the Native American villages were decimated during the Revolutionary War. Upon the conclusion of the conflict, the region became part of a tract reserved for veterans. By 1818, a canal was completed that allowed transport between Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake. Ten years later, the canal would be connected to the Erie Canal.

The Bayard Land Company held all the real estate on both sides of the Seneca River, but did minimal development, concerned that multiple mills couldn’t be supported (despite reports that the force of the falls could handle approximately one hundred and fifty millstones.) By 1825, the company was in financial straits, so the tract was divided and sold. The now-accessible water power was snapped up, and mills and factories sprang up. Within six years, five sawmills, five flour mills, two textile factories, and three tin and sheet-iron plants dotted the landscape.

In 1831, Seneca Falls was incorporated as a village with Ansel Bascom elected as the first mayor. Bascom would eventually become a congressman for the district with anti-slavery measures being his focus. With the completion of the Rochester-Auburn railroad system in 1841, the town could now reach world markets for its locally produced goods. The trains also brought an influx of settlers, many of whom were proponents of women’s rights and the abolition of slavery, with the town becoming a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Thus, it is unsurprising that in July of 1848 the town became the site of the first meeting to be held for

the strict purpose of discussing “social, civil, and religious conditions and the rights of women.” Considered by most scholars to be the birthplace of the fight for women’s rights, the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention was attended by over three hundred people. Speakers included such luminaries in the cause as Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Frederick Douglass, and “A Declaration of Sentiments” was adopted. Seneca Falls is now home to the National Women’s Hall of Fame built in 1969.

Today, more than one hundred years later, Seneca Falls celebrates its claim to be the inspiration for Frank Capra’s film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” An annual festival is held the second week in December, with dozens of activities each day. This year’s guests included actress Karolyn Grimes (Zuzu Bailey), Jimmy Hawkins (Tommy Bailey), Donald and Ronald Collins (Young Pete), and Michael Chapin (Young George’s Friend). Also on hand were Donna Reed’s daughter Mary Owens and Frank Capra’s granddaughter Monica Capra Hodges.

Courtesy IAWL Museum

Open year-round, Seneca Falls It’s a Wonderful Life Museum opened December 10, 2010 with one display case and a wall of quotes from Frank Capra. Since then, a wide range of items have been added such as call sheets, an original program from the film’s premiere at New York’s Globe Theater, and earrings owned and worn by Gloria Graham as Violet Bick. Handprints of Jimmy Stewart, Karolyn Grimes, Carol Coombs, Jimmy Hawkins, and Jeanine Roose are also on display, along with many pieces from the personal collections of some of the actors. Funds are now being raised to expand the museum. (https://www.wonderfullifemuseum.com/) 

A visit to this intriguing town is now on my bucket list. Have you heard of this tiny hamlet?

____________________

Maeve’s Pledge – available soon for preorder

Pledges can’t be broken, can they?

Finally out from under her father’s tyrannical thumb, Maeve Wycliffe can live life on her terms. So what if everyone sees her as a spinster to be pitied. She’ll funnel her energies into what matters most: helping the less fortunate and getting women the right to vote. When she’s forced to team up with the local newspaper editor to further the cause, will her pledge to remain single get cropped?

Widower Gus Deighton sees no reason to tempt fate that he can find happiness a second time around. Well past his prime, who would want him anyway? He’ll continue to run his newspaper and cover Philadelphia’s upcoming centennial celebration. But when the local women’s suffrage group agrees that the wealthy, attractive, and very single Maeve act as their liaison, he finds it difficult to remain objective.

Wartime Wednesday: Mary Taylor Previte, Internee

Wartime Wednesday: Mary Taylor Previte, Internee

Photo courtesy
weihsien-paintings.org
/Mprevite/

Would you jump from a low-flying airplane to rescue people you don’t know? Mary Taylor Previte (rhymes with brevity) asked herself that very question many times over her life.

The daughter of third-generation missionaries to China, Mary was nine years old when armed men arrived at her boarding school and announced the property now belonged to the “Great Emperor of Japan.” For that first year, life remained the same. Then the Japanese needed the school for another purpose, and soldiers loaded the residents onto a boat, then a train, then trucks to transport them to Weihsien, a “Civilian Assembly Center” near the city of Weifang, Shandong, China.

When she arrived, the camp was already filled with internees: businesspeople, entertainers, doctors, Protestant ministers, and Catholic priests and nuns. Considered enemy aliens, the inhabitants were British, American, Belgian, Scandinavian, Canadian, and Australian.

Conditions were squalid, with little food to go around. Blankets were scarce, and residents spent all

winter shivering. Barbed wire and booby traps surrounded the camps with soldiers watching from guard towers or patrolling the grounds with dogs. Prisoners were required to wear their prisoner numbers at all times, and roll calls occurred daily. The children learned to count in Japanese so they could count themselves off. Dignitaries often visited.

Of the nearly 2,000 inmates, about 360 were children. Fortunately, the adults did all they could to create “normalcy” in the camp. Mrs. Previte remembers one teacher often saying, “School will go on. We will win this war, and when we do, you will compete with boys and girls who have been going to school all this time, and so school will go on.”

A Brownie troop was started, and concerts, classes, and lectures were given. Both children and adults would perform plays. The Salvation Army band was created, and they created an anthem that was a mix of the Canadian, British, and American national anthems – a victory medley, as it was called.

Difficulties were turned into games. In an interview shortly before her death, Mrs. Previte said, “Saturday was the Battle of the Bedbugs. We’d hold rat-catching competitions. My little brother John was the winner of the fly-killing championship.” She went on to share that despite their constant hunger, “we never lost our humanity or even our manners. You might be eating boiled animal brains out of a soap dish, and a teacher would come up behind you and say: Mary Taylor, sit up straight! They were right. People who gave up those normal routines got sick.”

According to Mary, the August day the camp was liberated was so hot, one couldn’t walk barefoot on the dirt. The war had ended, but the inmates had no idea. Soldiers parachuted to the ground and stormed the gates, receiving no resistance from the guards. During the hysteria and joy, the band began to play their “victory medley.”

In 1997, Mary decided to track down her liberators so she could thank them personally. She would find all (or their widows) but one. Eighteen years would pass before she was able to locate the Chinese interpreter, “Eddie” Cheng-Han Wang.

Mary passed away three years ago today as a result of injuries she sustained after being struck by a car while on her morning walk. She was 87.

___________________

Estelle's Endeavor

Will a world at war destroy a second chance at love?

Estelle Johnson promised to wait for Aubry DeLuca, but then she receives word of his debilitating injuries. Does she have the strength to stand by him in his hour of need?

Aubry DeLuca storms the beaches at Normandy, then wakes up in the hospital, his eyes bandaged. Will he regain his sight? Will the only woman he’s ever loved welcome him home or is he destined to go through life blind and alone?

Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3TNRrHP