Interview

Interviewed is Emma Johnson, who lived during the war.


Question /Chris
Gram, how old were you in 1945

Answer/Great Grandmother
I was born in 1917 so I was twenty-eight years old. Your grandmother was to
years old.

Question /Chris
What can you tell me about how things were in 1945 during World War II?


Answer/Great Grandmother
There is so much, let me see, our family celebrated the New Year with a prayer
that the war would soon be over. That prayer was answered some time later
that year.

We still had rations, which meant we could only buy and have a certain
amount of anything, like gas for the car; you could buy small amounts of
certain meat and vegetables. Your great-great grandmother Stafford, saved
her cooking oil from bacon and would take it to her neighborhood store and
give to the owner. He would then give it to someone in the army; this oil saved
from all over the country would help our armed tanks run overseas.

Women could not have stockings/nylons, they are called pantyhose now.
Many women like the stockings /nylons with a line down the back of their legs
so they would take a pencil and draw a line down their leg to make people
think they had on stockings/nylons.


Question /Chris
What else can you share?

Answer/Great Grandmother
Your great grandfather was in the Civil Air Patrol. His feet were too flat to
be accepted into the armed services so he and other men would meet twice a
month and get certain things to do to help our city and country. He served as a
mechanic and repaired some of the equipment here in Michigan. He was also
Block Captain, which meant if anything like the enemy would attack our city,
he had certain things he had to do. He had a CA uniform, kaki pants and shirt
with stripes on the sleeve

Question/Chris
What did you do for fun?

Answer/Great Grandmother
I remember going to the Fisher Theatre, United Artist and other “movie
houses” and watching the news. We saw the war in action. After the
newsreels we sat through two full lengths pictures and cartoons plus coming
attractions. Most were war related, even the cartoons.

Most homes did not have television then so we sat around the radio and
listened to the news of the war. We would hear our President Roosevelt and
then Truman tell the country how our “boys” were doing.

Question /Chris
What did our family do when they found out the war was over?

Answer/Great Grandmother
Along with the entire country and our friends in other countries we celebrated. The shows
had celebrations with movies showing the ending of the war and marched all
over especially in New York and Washington. We had marched here in the
Metropolitan Detroit area as well.