In answer to inquiries regarding life during the Forties for working women. Will attempt to answer, however, will be pretty boring information.
The above photo is one taken after securing my first employment, with Civil Service at a local Army Recruiting office. Had just graduated from High School. We were walking some place, and came across this sign. A girlfriend and I moved to a larger city in order to seek employment. Our parents loaned us money to rent a room without bath. Of course, we did not have transportation available other than the street cars at that time, in l946. Later, there were city buses.
She and I had been friends during school years. We dated boys who were friends also, one stationed in Europe and hers stationed in the South Pacific. We had a lot in common. Being of the same size, we would exchange clothing to make our selections larger. We sometimes made our own dresses by hand, the simple dress style called "sack dresses", which were easy to make. Locating the material was sometimes impossible with our limited funds, sometimes making them out of chicken feed sacks of printed colors. Then, we added belts.
We were familiar with "hard times" because we grew up during The Great Depression years. World War II years were especially trying, for a young girl also. Although not at all as bad as what our servicemen were experiencing, somewhere "over there". During the War, we were never aware of the location of our servicemen in combat. We corresponded through V Mails. Our young boys were in service during our High School years, we graduated with merely one boy in our graduating class of 52. I had lived in boarding houses during those four years of high school. Because we lived on a farm, and was not possible to live at home with the distance.
Saving pennies on our first jobs was extremely difficult. We usually frequented a restaurant near by to our room, which served "corn dogs", which were wieners wrapped in a bun. Then, sometimes fortunately, we would have enough change accumulated to take a bus the 60 miles to our parent's home. THEN, we would have plenty of food to eat during the weekend.
Occasionally, we would salvage enough money to visit the movie houses. That was an extreme pleasure. Of course, those days the movies were most all being those which had love stories. Therefore, we always took a box of Kleenex, ha. Because our boyfriends were stationed so far away. And, we missed them terribly.
Then again, a few times she and I accepted double dates for dinner. With a purpose in mind, that was for the "free" meal. We were accustomed to the street car schedules. Therefore, as a practice, we would excuse ourselves after dinner, and then run to the nearest street car line giggling. We were very inconsiderate. We were hungry, and both of us virgins, so we were not taking any chances.
My job with Civil Service entailed typing envelopes for eight hours. Even though was a Stenographer, was employed as a typist on the first job. Typed on a very noisy manual typewriter, which had a hard touch. Was elated upon receiving my first pay check, do not recall the amount. Believe the wages were .43 per hour then, probably was not much. Loved my employment job, met so many wonderful people and the tasks were very easy to handle. And extremely grateful. I remember jokingly commenting to my girlfriend, "they are paying me for having so much fun?". Of course, realized that the funds were extremely welcome, had such a good life working. Later through the years was upgraded to Stenographer, and wages were increased. My favorite job opportunity then was advancing to the task of previewing films to be sent out to our troops. My task was sitting in a movie theatre at the Army base, viewing combat and cartoon films. That is where I viewed the first nude man. He was taking a shower "somewhere in the Pacific" out in the open area, with merely a stream of water posing over his nude body. I thought about that a lot, ha. Needed to select one film each per week, then forward on. Also was involved with "swearing in" ceremonies by the new recruits. However, that job did not last, because a female with seniority rights decided that she wanted the position. Had no alternative, other than being transferred to another position.
I worked as a Stenographer many years, until marrying. Then moving to another state where he was stationed. Of course, sought employment and remained working throughout the Forties and beyond until my retirement, as a Paralegal.
