My Grandma in WWII

[Bear]

Hello,

I've been put in charge of going through all the Brady Bunch family vacation photo slides and photo books.

I came across some shots of my grandmother and one of my grandfather in uniform.

Before she died she wrote down some notes of her days in Washington DC.

"In September of 1942 Dimple Tuttle and Maxine McMillon two 17 year olds from a small town in East Texas received Civil Service appointments to the Navy Dept in Washington DC. We were given $50 each for our room and board and a week bus pass to last until we received a pay day. We were put on a train and said good bye. We felt pretty uneasy about the unknown because we had never been much further away from home than church camp.

When we reached Washington we found the place to go for housing. We decided on a room with a family named Lewis. When we got settled in and got rid of our suitcases we went to the office that we were told to go to for our assignment. We went to work for the Aviation Marine Corp in the Navy Dept Out Office on the 3rd floor of the Navy building in records and statistics some of which were confidential material mostly concerning movement of troops.

It was a good experience for us girls we soon learned to budget and handle our money after running low a few times and wound up eating peanut butter and crackers with buttermilk for a few days. Other girls in the office got us to join the USO that took bus loads of girls on wed nights to Ft Meade Maryland for a dance. They always had good live bands to dance to. We both loved to dance.

The girls from our office wanted us go with them one night and we went to a bar. Me and Maxine didn't know what to order but their was a song at that time called Rum & Coca Cola so thats what we ordered. It tasted like motor oil and we both got sick. Our land lady told us to always order a Horses Neck next time.

At night we took an arc welding class with the thought that when we went home we could go to work at the ship yards and make lots of money. I was not allowed to go but Maxine went to work in Dallas."

[Bear]

USO

[Bear]

My Grandmother and Grandfather are in the middle. He loved motorcylces.

[Bear]

Welding

[Bear]

Maybe they had to wear some kind of uniform at the Navy Department.

[Guest Rick Research]

:Cat-Scratch: Tuttle? Got some relateds-by-marriage hereabouts. The VFW Post next town north of me is named for one of them (they've "misplaced" their German WW1 heavy mortar that used to sit out front when I was a kid...)

There's another CONNECTICUT family line for you! :catjava: