Interview with Nova Wagner - excerpt
Were there male teachers back then? Yeah, there were two boys in my class at the county normal, and they were both teachers. Do you know Bill Finland (asking Jim Laird); he ended up here in Waupun. He died of a heart attack. And the other one moved out to California and I don’t know what became of him.
Do you remember what you were doing when you first heard that Pearl Harbor was attacked? Just routine housework and teaching. I remember it so vividly.
Did you hear about it on the radio? I don’t remember, exactly.
What did you do during the war? Well, teach school. And then summer time when I had vacation I worked in a factory in Milwaukee that was making the cores for Walkie-Talkies. That’s what I did, was help make batteries for Walkie-Talkies one summer. Another summer I worked in Ripon [in] a factory that was making shells for the Army (Charles interjects: “Casings.”).
Do you remember rationing cards and using them? Oh, yeah, gasoline, sugar. And, of course, our home didn’t have a mother doing the usual cooking and baking, we girls managed everything. But we didn’t blend much with sugar so I turned some of my rations over to his mother (motioning to Charles). So that we helped everybody out, so.
Was there anything in the Waupun area that you noticed that changed during the war? Rationing, that was the big thing. Then there were so many items you couldn’t purchase that you were used to…, clothing.
I remember someone telling me about nylon stockings; it was very hard to get nylon stockings. Oh, it was. That was a big thing. My dad would even…, he wasn’t the kind that would just go out and buy stuff for his girls, but he somehow managed to get nylon stockings once in a while, and that was such a treat.
(Jim Laird): Were they nylon or silk at that time? Well, must have been silk. I don’t think we had the nylon then.
(Jim Laird): Now, I would guess that you did not have running water, you probably had a pump outside? No, the water had to be carried. Some farmer would bring the water to school. And you had these big earthen water coolers, and that’s what you put the water in.
I was going to ask you, did you have a car or did you have to walk back and forth? I remember my first car. My dad helped me purchase it. And I drove. And in the winter times; sometimes the roads wouldn’t be cleared for me to get through. And I can remember getting the chains out of my car and lying on the ground putting the chains on my car so I could get through the snow. And one time I had to walk the rest of the way, and by the end of the day my car was there. I left the keys in it and one of the good people along the road brought it up to me. They were wonderful people, all of them.
(Jim Laird): Did you have a telephone in your school? My second school had a telephone. Not the first one.
Did you have a telephone in your house? Yes. (Charles relates: “The farmers owned the phones. They put up the wires and kept track of them, repaired them.”)
(Jim Laird): Now, did you have inside plumbing at home or did you have to go out to the back yard? On the farm it was always the back yard. We moved into Brandon, then we had waterworks. That was quite a thrill when you lived without it all your life.
But he (Charles) only had one furlough home on a weekend; otherwise I didn’t see him for pretty near four years. But I wrote to him every day. But he wouldn’t get it everyday.
(Jim Laird): Well, that must have been quite an experience to be here and to know that he was hurt there.
(Charles: “Instead of like it is now, now it’s on TV practically when it’s happening.”) I think of all those that it’s happening to now, the young people that are separated.
Do you remember what you were doing when you first heard that Pearl Harbor was attacked? Just routine housework and teaching. I remember it so vividly.
Did you hear about it on the radio? I don’t remember, exactly.
What did you do during the war? Well, teach school. And then summer time when I had vacation I worked in a factory in Milwaukee that was making the cores for Walkie-Talkies. That’s what I did, was help make batteries for Walkie-Talkies one summer. Another summer I worked in Ripon [in] a factory that was making shells for the Army (Charles interjects: “Casings.”).
Do you remember rationing cards and using them? Oh, yeah, gasoline, sugar. And, of course, our home didn’t have a mother doing the usual cooking and baking, we girls managed everything. But we didn’t blend much with sugar so I turned some of my rations over to his mother (motioning to Charles). So that we helped everybody out, so.
Was there anything in the Waupun area that you noticed that changed during the war? Rationing, that was the big thing. Then there were so many items you couldn’t purchase that you were used to…, clothing.
I remember someone telling me about nylon stockings; it was very hard to get nylon stockings. Oh, it was. That was a big thing. My dad would even…, he wasn’t the kind that would just go out and buy stuff for his girls, but he somehow managed to get nylon stockings once in a while, and that was such a treat.
(Jim Laird): Were they nylon or silk at that time? Well, must have been silk. I don’t think we had the nylon then.
(Jim Laird): Now, I would guess that you did not have running water, you probably had a pump outside? No, the water had to be carried. Some farmer would bring the water to school. And you had these big earthen water coolers, and that’s what you put the water in.
I was going to ask you, did you have a car or did you have to walk back and forth? I remember my first car. My dad helped me purchase it. And I drove. And in the winter times; sometimes the roads wouldn’t be cleared for me to get through. And I can remember getting the chains out of my car and lying on the ground putting the chains on my car so I could get through the snow. And one time I had to walk the rest of the way, and by the end of the day my car was there. I left the keys in it and one of the good people along the road brought it up to me. They were wonderful people, all of them.
(Jim Laird): Did you have a telephone in your school? My second school had a telephone. Not the first one.
Did you have a telephone in your house? Yes. (Charles relates: “The farmers owned the phones. They put up the wires and kept track of them, repaired them.”)
(Jim Laird): Now, did you have inside plumbing at home or did you have to go out to the back yard? On the farm it was always the back yard. We moved into Brandon, then we had waterworks. That was quite a thrill when you lived without it all your life.
But he (Charles) only had one furlough home on a weekend; otherwise I didn’t see him for pretty near four years. But I wrote to him every day. But he wouldn’t get it everyday.
(Jim Laird): Well, that must have been quite an experience to be here and to know that he was hurt there.
(Charles: “Instead of like it is now, now it’s on TV practically when it’s happening.”) I think of all those that it’s happening to now, the young people that are separated.