Q: This is Joanna Lippmann. Im here with my partner Evelyn Dong and we are interviewing Mrs. Margaret Weiler here at Traditions of Wayland. The date is May 15th, 2002. Can you please state your name for the record?

Mrs. Weiler: Margaret Weiler


Q: What was your approximate age in 1941?

Mrs. Weiler: 22.


Q: Where were you born?

Mrs. Weiler: Boston, Massachusetts.


Q: Were you raised there?

Mrs. Weiler: Yes, I was.


Q: Where were you living in 1941?

Mrs. Weiler: Boston.


Q: Is that when you were on the base?

Mrs. Weiler: No, no, I wasn't on the base until afterwards. During the war I went down there, I went down in December of 1942, I went to Durham, North Carolina. And I worked for the Federal government on the base. My husband was transferred over to Camp Campbell, Kentucky, and I went over there and I also worked on the base there.


Q: What kind of work did you do?

Mrs. Weiler: Secretary.


Q: So, during the 1930s you were in your teens?

Mrs. Weiler: Right.


Q: What was it like growing up?

Mrs. Weiler: Well, of course, I lived during the depression. But, my father would say, "Were not poor, were broke." But, you see, he had his own business and in the Depression, he lost everything, he lost everything. And it's something you don't realize until you go through it yourself.


Q: In the 1930's were you aware of what was happening in Japan and Italy and Germany?

Mrs. Weiler: Not Japan. Germany, mostly.


Q: Was it on the news a lot, what was going on?

Mrs. Weiler: Well. It was not saying what was going on in London, over there, and it really didn't hit us until December 7th, at Pearl Harbor. And that was when we realized how close it was, what was going on.


Q: So you didn't realize the full impact of what was going on, like the Holocaust, until we got involved?

Mrs. Weiler: Not that much, until Pearl Harbor. I don't remember what year we went over to help the British. It was in 1941?


Q: Yeah, we got involved right after.

Mrs. Weiler: Yeah, you see, what the thing is, they had a draft, okay, and a lot of the boys, they only had to go away for a year. Now this is before the war. But, they had a draft and they had to go and serve a year. But in the meantime, a lot of my friends who volunteered to go over there, who were drafted, to get their year over with, the war started, so some of them didn't get home until five years later. They were sent to Japan and over to England, so, but we were all in the same boat, all of my friends.


Q: So you had friends who went to fight in the war?

Mrs. Weiler: Oh yes, a lot of them. One friend of mine, she was married three weeks. I think her husband was a pilot, and he was killed. So there were a lot of stories about things that happened.


Q: Do you remember the first time that you heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor?

Mrs. Weiler: Yes, I know exactly what I was doing. It was the first Sunday I had to work for inventory and we were all at the South Station, the whole office over there having lunch and we were having a good ol' time and we didn't even know what happened until my husband picked me up and he told me that Pearl Harbor is bombed and that was the first time. I remember exactly where I was when I heard it. It was such a shock.


Q: Do you see any parallels between the attack on Pearl Harbor and the attack on September 11 this year?

Mrs. Weiler: Well you see, Pearl Harbor was military what do-you-call-it. But 9/11 was civilian and that was the worst part of it because it was civilian. Pearl Harbor was a military thing so there was a difference but it still hit you hard. That's the difference in the war today. It was a military war but it didn't start out that way.


Q: Do you remember FDR's fireside chats?

Mrs. Weiler: There will be a chicken in every pot I think he said? Didn't he say that? Yes, he was a wonderful President. He started the Social Security and, you know, he was a wonderful man. And to think he did this all in a wheelchair. But in those days they didn't show him- nobody knew he was in a wheelchair because there was no television and the pictures that the photographers took, they never showed him.


Q: Didnt they show him at a desk or something?

Mrs. Weiler: At a desk or that he was standing at the back of a train, you know, but they never showed him in a wheelchair. And he did a wonderful thing he started what they call the WPA, the people he made work for these people who didnt have a job and they went out and they built the highways and byways and the forests and they did all that kind of work.


Q: What impact did FDR's fireside chats have on you?

Mrs. Weiler: Well I wasn't that old. I had just graduated from high school.


Q: Before Pearl Harbor you were talking about how you didn't really know what was going on?

Mrs. Weiler: Didn't know that much about what was going on, at least I didn't. I was young. I mean I was just in my teens.


Q: Would you say that was the general mood?

Mrs. Weiler: Really, well the younger group, we weren't that concerned until even when the boys went away and, you know, drafted for a year, we figured they would go, get it over with, and come home. But then the war, Pearl Harbor broke out so they had to stay there for five years.


Q: Well, we heard about how it stirred up a lot of patriotism. Is that so?

Mrs. Weiler: Oh yes, and you know, we were on alert. We had to pull the blinds down in the house and there were rations, you know, coupons. And my husband's father had cancer of the throat and the only thing he could eat was raw hamburg so we gave him all our coupons (eww) I know, for the meat. It was hard, it wasn't easy but you just did it because, you know, you had to do it. You mixed the oleo margarine.


Q: Oh, put the yellow orange stuff in it so it looked like butter? You didn't have any butter so you had what was it?

Mrs. Weiler: Oleo margarine, we called it.


Q: It was white so you mixed yellow stuff with it so it looked like butter.

Mrs. Weiler: It was awful, yes, it was awful.


Q: How were your basic needs for food, clothing and shelter affected by the war?

Mrs. Weiler: Well the food was mostly and gasoline was rationed. Sugar, food and meat. And other than that I think we on our daily lives. I was married in 1942. You were put in different classifications and my husband volunteered. He wasn't my husband at the time; he volunteered on December the eighth but he wore glasses, so he was turned down. So we were supposed to be married January 3rd but because of the war we just postponed it. And then when he was thrown down from the service we were married April the 11th. And then we set up housekeeping and all and in October he was called. So he went and near Christmas time I went down to North Carolina and then to Kentucky and Tennessee and they were just building Camp Campbell at the time. And it was hard to find a place to live. We had one room, which we were very happy to get. You know, you do these things and it's no big deal but Im glad I lived through that experience.


Q: What did your husband do in the camp?

Mrs. Weiler: He was in the Ordnance Department, that's where I worked. I worked right next to the prisoners from Germany, handsome, blonde, young men. And there was just a little stockade fence dividing, separating my office from where they worked and theyd be out there--


Q: So you saw the prisoners?

Mrs. Weiler: Oh yeah--


Q: What was your reaction to them?

Mrs. Weiler: I didn't hate them. They were here, they were human, you know, we didn't have the hatred. That wasn't like it is today, you know. Because as I said, that was a military thing and this war is a civilian thing. I think it's just terrible to kill civilian human beings, whereas in the military you are there for a reason and you've got to take what's given.


Q: How were the prisoners treated?

Mrs. Weiler: Better than us. No they were treated very, very well, very well. Nothing, you know, they had good food, and they exercised every day.


Q: Did you ever say hi?

Mrs. Weiler: The girls would wave. But I worked right across from the South Station in Boston and all the Servicemen came through there. And while I was working we had one gal that was really funny. We were on the third floor and she put up a big sign "If you want to see a beautiful blonde, say Hurray, Hurray." So my girlfriend who was blonde put it up at the window and you should have heard the noise at the South Station. All the screaming! Those are the nice sides of the war, you know, when things like that happen.


Q: Do you remember Victory Gardens at all?

Mrs. Weiler: Oh yes, they had Victory Gardens. You see, I was down in the Camp, you know, so I didn't have a Victory Garden. I was working down there. And, it was an experience; you met girls from different states, all over the country. And this is an experience I dont know whether I should tell you, but the thing is funny. My husband was being transferred and we were put on alert, the base was put on alert. No one knows where theyre going or when they're going or how theyre going and I was working with a girl who had a car which was unusual. So, I was very, very friendly with the Captain of my husbands unit and we- I told him I promise you, on my honor, that I will never tell my husband or anyone where theyre going, otherwise Im going to have to go all the way back to Boston to find out where they are and go all the way back to wherever they go. So he said "Let me think about it." We had a car, we could drive wherever. And he told us. When we were driving from North Carolina over to Kentucky, Tennessee and Kentucky; right on the borderline, and we had to stop for a train, a flatbed. And there on the flatbed, was one of the fellows, was my husband coming. We just waved; he almost fell off the train. Ironic, isn't it? Where were we going? That's all it is. But everything was so secret, everything. Privacy, the blinds down, they were down on the train. Everything blacked out.


Q: So they had blackouts?

Mrs. Weiler: Oh yeah, in your own homes you had to have the dark curtains, and things like that.


Q: So did you ever feel threatened that you would be bombed?

Mrs. Weiler: No, never did, because, as I said, we were civilians, you never thought, at least I didn't, you never thought about being bombed or anything like that. The different truth was that Pearl Harbor was a military base and this [9/11] is not.


Q: The recycling stuff, did you save the tin foil from your milk bottles or bring aluminum stuff to be recycled for the war effort?

Mrs. Weiler: Oh yes, and a lot of women went into the Navy Yards and they worked in the Navy Yards and in different war efforts. They really worked there. And they had a State Guard, but they werent service people, but they wore uniforms and were called the State Guard. They would more or less take care of the things in the state. It wasn't the Coast Guard, it was just ordinary civilians, who volunteered to be in the State Guard.


Q: Did you ever look around and bring iron or metal or the rubber to the drives that they had to---

Mrs. Weiler: No, I didn't. As I said, I was down in the camp, and I was fortunate. We had our meals there and all that.


Q: Do you remember war bonds?

Mrs. Weiler: Oh yes, people would go around, maybe celebrities would go around talk about war bonds and they sold them in schools too. You had a little book, twenty-five cents. Youd keep coupons in the books until it came to about 18 dollars or something like that. So they had those in the schools and youd get 25 cents and get another stamp in the book. For the war effort.


Q: So you mentioned celebrities?

Mrs. Weiler: They went around selling the war bonds at different places. Most of them were celebrities. We all had war bonds, you know.


Q: I was just wondering, do you remember the movies? Were they patriotic, supporting the war?

Mrs. Weiler: Yeah, we had movies. They use to have movies on the base, you know for the service men to go on to watch. See, we didnt have gasoline either. We didn't use a car. In those days anyways, not many had cars. I don't think they started making cars until around 1947 or something.


Q: Because they used the car factories to make airplanes and stuff.

Mrs. Weiler: That's right, and we used the streetcar, that was our mode of transportation. Never thought a thing about it. When I was going to school I had to make three changes on the streetcar to go to school and at that time you, it's different now, but you could go to any high school you wanted to in the city of Boston. You didn't have to be in a district or anything.


Q: Did you ever go see the movies on your base?

Mrs. Weiler: Oh yeah we saw them. I dont remember them. They were sad. I know that.


Q: Were they war movies?

Mrs. Weiler: mm hm and the boys going away and the heart break that was along with it, you know, because separation. And then during the war they made war movies. A lot of musicals.


Q: Did you ever think of the movies as propaganda of the government for you to support them?

Mrs. Weiler: No, when I saw the movies I never thought they were propaganda. I never did. We weren't into that I think that much. Of course if there was a movie about Hitler, you know. But if the movies were propaganda, it was not too obvious that I've seen.


Q: Do you remember saying goodbye to people who went off to war, what it was like?

Mrs. Weiler: Oh, that was terrible. I know, I can remember my husband's, we weren't married at the time or were we, I can remember. His mother wouldn't say good-bye to him in the house. She came outside to the car, and then said good-bye, but she wouldn't say good-bye in the house at all. And of course I thought my whole life was over, you know, because I went back to live with my parents, and there was a time- I never deceived my parents ever-and I can remember I thought to my self 'If I can find a place to stay down in North Carolina, then I'm going to stay.' My mother thought I was only going to go for the weekend. But I couldn't live with that so I finally said to her, "Mom, if I can find a place to stay, then I'm going to stay." And my mother surprised me so much, they know more than we did, and she said, "And that's where you belong." Well, I was so relieved. You know it was terrible, I put myself through agony over this, about going or staying, but thats what she said, "That's where you belong, Peggy." So, I guess it was hard for everyone. It was very difficult. And the sign of when a boy killed when they had a gold star in the window. It was just bad times.


Q: You said your friend's husband was killed?

Mrs. Weiler: Yeah and they were married three weeks and he was a pilot and he was killed over there and this other friend who I told you, you know, she had tuberculosis and so he was going into the service for a year and then come back out and she was going to the hospital for a year and then they were going to be married. But he was one of the ones who didn't come back until five years. And when he came back he was yellow the color of malaria and I think it was the saddest wedding I've ever been to. It was really was but they were so happy and she was well. She got her health back and that's the way there were marriages going, you know, some got married before they left, others got married when they came back.


Q: How did you get news of the war and do remember any battles clearly?

Mrs. Weiler: Well, there was Pearl Harbor and we went on to other islands and there was the death walk. You know, Bataan, I think it was the march of the Bataan and that was where they just brutalized those men who had to walk. They'd fall and be beaten and it was awful. You see, we didn't treat our prisoners like that.


Q: Those were American prisoners in Japan?

Mrs. Weiler: Oh yes.


Q: So it sounds like you heard a lot more about the Pacific War or did you?

Mrs. Weiler: I think so because of the fact that we were involved more because it was our Pearl Harbor was ours. You know that people would know more about that then the war over [in Europe]. One girl did. Her husband was on the D-day landing. He survived and came back. But I think we were more interested in the Pearl Harbor where it was our own and-


Q: So you were more interested in the Japanese than the Germans?

Mrs. Weiler: Yes, I think so. I really think so because they brutalized soldiers when they were caught and became prisoners and the marches and we would hear about all the marches with prisoners of war. That was a sad time. Whereas we didn't hear that much about that the Germans, you know, captured. They didn't capture too many, but those men were in prisoner of war camps over there too. We treated our own prisoners very well.


Q: Were you aware of the Japanese internment in the United States?

Mrs. Weiler: The Japanese, some of them were American born. Is that what you are referring to? Yes that was looking back, that was a sad thing for them to do. But at the time, it was almost like the Afghans that are here who guilt by association you know, and looking back we would never do that again.


Q: So did you feel like it was justified back then?

Mrs. Weiler: At that time, we weren't very trusting, you know, and we didnt think that much about it. Looking back we think, 'oh my God, some of these people were American citizens', and that was bad.


Q: Did you think that Germans and Italians should have been put into camps like the Japanese Americans were?

Mrs. Weiler: That would've cleared out the whole country. All the immigrants, you know, eventually because they came through no we never thought about that. There wouldn't be anyone left.


Q: Did you receive letters from anyone during the war?

Mrs. Weiler: From my husband but thats about it. But everything was, a lot of it was censored too.


Q: They actually censored?

Mrs. Weiler: Oh yes, basically oversees. It was an APO number. Thats where it went, and then it was sent to the United States.


Q: But how did they censor, did they cut out words or did they just block them out?

Mrs. Weiler: I never had any of mine censored, but I don't know, they probably did. That's probably exactly what they did.


Q: Did you save any of your letters?

Mrs. Weiler: When I moved, I just threw everything away. Yeah, I threw everything away. If my kids read any of these letters, why they'd say, "Is that my mother and father?" Forgetting that we were young at one time. Well, of course then you couldn't fly, we used the train. And the trains were so dirty youd get coal dust in your nose, it was so dirty, that was the only way of transportation.


Q: What was the role of women during the war? Was it changed in any way?

Mrs. Weiler: Except that they went into the camps to live in the camps, to work. They went into the navy yard, women took a big part, and you know they had to because the men werent around. You know they were, most of them were gone so the women had to take over and when the men came back the women lost their jobs.


Q: How did your life change when your husband was gone? Did you feel more independent and do different things?

Mrs. Weiler: Yeah, I am an independent person today and you learn to be independent, you cant depend on anyone but yourself. And my husband would say "Oh my Lord, if your mother ever saw where you were living!" We were happy to get the room, a place to live. You know? But we survived. But the thing is you do what you have to do and you don't think about surviving or anything else, you just do what you have to do. And that's the way it's been all my life.


Q: Do you remember the posters encouraging women to work and contribute to the war effort?

Mrs. Weiler: Well they had posters of the welders and all that. They had posters like that around and they had Uncle Sam with the big hat and "he wants you" pointing the finger all those. And you know the thing of it is it wasn't like the Vietnam War where people didn't want to go. They all, this is what they wanted to do. There wasn't anything about going to Canada or going here or there, everybody wanted to just go. I didn't hear any complaints or anything like that. And it was hard on all the families, but this is what they wanted to do. And the wives knew, we knew that they were going. And there were men there, we called them crippled commandos; there was a father there with three children, who had arthritis, they had to help him out of the bed. In the end they'd get drafted and wed have to put them in a different classification, so wed call them the crippled commandos.


Q: Did you ever hear of anyone who tried to dodge the draft?

Mrs. Weiler: I guess all my friends went, I never did [hear of anyone who dodged the draft], I never did. I imagine, I'm sure there were many who tried, who did. I heard, there were many with the punctured eardrums, who would get the punctured eardrums so they wouldn't have to go into the service. That was the big thing, that was the punctured eardrum. I don't know how they got the punctured eardrum.


Q: So the general attitude was that people wanted to go to the war?

Mrs. Weiler: Well, I imagine there were some people who didn't want to go, but you see all my friends went.


Q: In the beginning of the war you were supportive of it, but when the war dragged on, did your support dwindle at all?

Mrs. Weiler: Well you know, the thing of it is that the soldiers all knew what they wanted to do, they wanted to go. And that's the way it was even throughout the war. I think back then of my young brother, he was seventeen, and he wanted my parents, for a Christmas present, to sign for him. That's what he wanted for a Christmas present. He was seventeen years old. And after this haggling and haggling my parents, they finally signed for him, and he went in April, and he was on the base and someone was stealing gasoline out of the base and this car came along, no lights, and my brother was on security. The Jeep tipped over and my brother went into the ditch and severed all the muscles in his legs and he almost died, they had to take him to the hospital. The service was wonderful. The doctors down there in North Carolina, they called my mother every day, to tell her about how he was doing. My father didn't go down, but you know he spent about two years in the hospital. But everybody respected him. Even to this day, I donate to the paralyzed veterans association. You know some of them are in wheelchairs, spinal injuries and things like that, sometimes I think it would be better if they had died than to live like some of them do. They're still living like that, some of them.


Q: Did your brother ever regain his ability to walk?

Mrs. Weiler: Yeah, they gave him a skin graft all the way up his leg. Well, the muscles were all severed. He was in a pretty bad way. But he had a wonderful attitude. He died two years ago. And even in this illness that he died of, he had a wonderful attitude. I think sometimes something like that would just bring you to the surface, you're not gonna give up, you know?


Q: Did you hear what was going on with the German Holocaust?

Mrs. Weiler: We didn't hear about that until after the war.


Q: So the first time you heard about it was when we had won?

Mrs. Weiler: UmmHmm, when we liberated France. And I still can't understand why the French don't like us. But that was a big, big thing for us when we liberated the French. That was a big thing for everyone, we were so happy. But we didn't hear about the Holocaust until after. I never heard about the Holocaust. People in higher places might of heard of it, but we didn't.


Q: What was your reaction?

Mrs. Weiler: I think it was just horrible. Well of course, then you see the pictures, the movie pictures that they made. That's when you realize. You know they have that memorial in Boston? Those three things. I think they're kind of stark don't you?


Q: Well, I think they're supposed to remind you of the camps and how barren they were. And the gas coming up from beneath, like the gas chambers.

Mrs. Weiler: UmmHmm.


Q: Did your reaction to the Holocaust make you dislike the Germans?

Mrs. Weiler: My husband was German. No, we didn't like Hitler, but we didn't hate the German people. We didn't like the German army, but we didn't dislike the German people. They were like us you know. And some of us were Germans really and truly because my husband was German and as you said, they didn't pick up the Italians and the Germans and put them in a camp. But you see, we felt very differently about that war than we did about Pearl Harbor. I think there was a difference, because it didn't hit us.


Q: Do you think part of the reason we were so quick to put the Japanese in the camps had to do with the fact that they looked different?

Mrs. Weiler: Looked different? No. It was because of what they did to us.


Q: How did you react to the news of Franklin Delano Roosevelts death?

Mrs. Weiler: Oh, that was sad, that was very sad. He did a lot.


Q: Would you say he was the greatest president?

Mrs. Weiler: I would say so, because he did so much for the people who were older, you know, social security, including myself. You know he started that. And he started those working programs for the people who werent working. And he was a person who helped so many people, thats what I mean, there was a chicken in every pot. But this is what he did, he was working for the people.


Q: What was your opinion of president Truman's wartime leadership?

Mrs. Weiler: He was different. But he had courage. That was a big decision that he had to make to drop the bomb. That ended the war.


Q: Did you support that?

Mrs. Weiler: Yes I did. We had to end this thing. We just had to end it. There were too many boys being killed, there were too many boys in the death camps. We had to end it. Yeah, it took a lot of courage.


Q: Even after you saw the horrible effects of the bomb, you still supported it?

Mrs. Weiler: We did. There were thoughts about the people that were injured, but I suppose to end the war, some civilians have to suffer. But it ended this whole mess. It could have gone on, and we figure there are so many sailors still buried down there in Pearl Harbor in that ship, and you know it was such a surprise.


Q: Did you participate in any welcoming home ceremonies?

Mrs. Weiler: Oh yes, we were all out there celebrating. Ticker tapes were coming out of the windows and everyone was so thrilled and it was exciting. Everyone was just so happy and thrilled. It was over, thank God. I was working in a camp, and it was over. My husband was discharged, because he couldnt go overseas. They were very strict about going overseas if you wore glasses. And he also wore special shoes because he had little tumors in his heels, but he had to go through all the training. So when his group went over, he couldn't go, they wouldnt let him go. And I used to ride in the tanks it was an experience. But the young girls today they can't go with their husbands, unless peacetime, the girls go to Germany and during that time, we just stayed in the United States.


Q: When the veterans came home, how did you view them?

Mrs. Weiler: Some of them were changed, but they were so patriotic. I know some of them went through an awful lot, but they were still patriotic about it all. You never heard of anyone complaining, and a lot of people didn't talk about it.

[Story about how not talking about the war can ruin you the interviewee requested that it not to be put on the web journal]


Q: At the end of the war, did you anticipate future wars, or did it seem to you that the countries would find other ways of settling conflicts?

Mrs. Weiler: We were just happy it was over, that was it. It was over, we never thought of future wars or anything like that. It was over. There were songs written about it, about the end of the war.


Q: What do you think the lessons are of World War II?

Mrs. Weiler: I don't think we learned anything from it. I think we learned more from the Vietnam War. It's a whole generation. Their feelings are different. I don't think the young people today are as patriotic as they were in World War II. You never saw any protesting on college campuses during WWII like you did during the Vietnam War. I don't know what they're doing today, cause we don't have the draft. Our military, I suppose, is up to what it should be. But we only made fifty dollars a month. Even as a private, that was your salary. So there was no extravagance there, you had to learn to live with what you had.


Mrs. Weiler: What do you think of today's generation of younger Americans? How are we different and how are we the same?

Q: Well, they've begun to experience, now, what was going on. I don't think the schools are teaching enough about history. And, they don't know who our leaders are. And I think those things are important. I think they should know who our leaders are and they should have opinions. They don't seem to know; they're not involved. It seems like they only care about their own life because they haven't been exposed to anything. So consequently they don't realize what it can be like. So even now, these people that are going overseas, they're professionals, they're military people. But the younger fellows don't know about this. They don't have to go, there's no draft. So they don't think about things like that. I think they have to register for the draft though, when they're eighteen years old. But, they're too self-indulgent.


Q: Would you say it is different from when you were a kid?

Mrs. Weiler: Yes. Oh yes. Everybody was in the same situation. And we all worked when we were in High School. We were the products of the Depression. So we all worked in High School. Actually, when I was seventeen years old, I worked over here in Wellesley in a very exclusive linen shop, Colt and Mableton(sp?). I worked for the summer. I had to dress the windows, I had to set up the displays, I had to tend to the customers, and I was the only one in the store. And I had to make three changes to come from Roslindale, to Boston, to take the train out to Wellesley. And you know, I didn't think anything of that, my parents didn't either. This is the way we were all brought up. I remember, when I was four years old, if my brother or sister was invited to a birthday party and I was too young, my father would always take me to the restaurant and buy me blueberry pie and ice cream. And you know, I remember that. He would always say, "poverty is no disgrace, but lack of breeding is." So these are the values that we grew up with. It wasn't about how much that family made, or how much this family made. Everyone was the same. Now the values are different, bringing up children is different. People nowadays don't believe in playpens. They think their children are being caged in. There's not one of us who didn't bring up our children without a playpen, and you know, they all turned out great. But as I said, I'm of a different generation, and we did things differently. And I'm trying to respect the way children are being brought up today. I don't believe in this time out. I don't believe in 'thats not appropriate behavior.' The biggest thing is that I don't think they have respect for adults, that's my biggest problem. I have a grandson who makes me feel like royalty. He opens the car door for me; his wife sits in the back. I say, 'Ill sit in the back,' and he says, 'No Nana, you sit right up here.' He gets the belt and buckles me in. He just treats me like a Queen, but that's respect. And I think that thats what's lacking today in children. I mean even in church, these children are screaming when the priest is talking, yet they don't get that child and take him out. They wouldn't do that in the theatre, I just don't understand it. We live different lifestyles, but we had a good time, we really had a good time. We knew the words to all the music, and we all had our favorite song. The thing that I think is important is to build character in a child, build character in a child; don't wait till hes sixteen. As long as we called my father, we had to be home at a certain time, we had curfew. One of my sons said, "I can't tell the girl I have to be home at eleven oclock, she doesn't have a curfew." And I said, "What kind of parents does she have?" Family means a lot. And I think we had to have more discipline during the war. We had to dole out the sugar rations. There were sugar shortages. There were shortages on everything. And you had to accept that. We got the little shoulder steaks, about a quarter size of meat for dinner. And they had gasoline. So you honestly learn self-discipline in a lot of things. If you have self-discipline, you can do anything you want in the world. That's what I always say to my sons. Those were good days, but the days today are nice. I think the young people are happy. They should be happy. And theyre all bright. Every one of them is bright. And I always had my clocks set ten minutes ahead, and my children would say, "Mom, why are your clocks always ten minutes fast?" And I would say, "Because I'll be in Heaven ten minutes before the devil knows Im dead."