who woulda thought

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I have an aunt on my wife's side who lives in New Hampshire in Hooksett. I've seen her maybe about 12 times in the 30 years that i've known her. This past week one of my wife's sisters brought her down for a visit. We never talked much as she is just about totally deaf even with aides. At any rate, when they pulled in, I was welding up something in the garage and with my mask on didn't see or hear them. I was surprised that when I stood up and lifted the mask, there was my wife's aunt standing right next to me with a big smile on her face. She then instructed me what to do with hold angle, speed and amps for what i was welding. As you can imagine, i was rather shocked. Come to find out, this woman was a ship's welder during WWII and she met her husband while she was welding when a welding glob fell on his head. She was a pretty little thing back then and you can tell even now as she is in her 89th year. I was wondering if she could still weld but she said she would have trouble with the mask so I didn't press it. She is still sharp as a sharks tooth and has full mobility. If she wasn't so deaf, you could actually talk to her and what a wealth she must be. Perhaps one quiet evening I might get to do that yet.

 

[TripleR]

That's great to hear, I've tried to get some elderly relatives to talk more about the rich lives they've lived, but not had much luck, hope you are successful.

 

[k0ua]

Wow, what an uplifting story. My mother worked in the ship yards on the west coast building liberty ships also. I don't know what her job title was, but she took a long list of pipe fittings and put them in a cart to take to the people assembling the plumbing in the ship.. She definitely knew what all sorts of weird plumbing fittings were.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

I think in general the people from the "Greatest Generation" don't really talk all that much about what they had to go through, and not just the war but life itself. My dad didn't and he was stationed at Pearl Harbor after the air raid and my mom still doesn't. Sometimes I think that they figure it was just part of life and they did what needed to be done.

Just my :2cents:

 

[Big Barn]

What a great story. As you say " who woulda thought?"

My father's oldest sister received a commendation of some sort (I have the photo and newspaper article somewhere) for being the first female weldor working in the shipyards here in Victoria during WWII. I think she was in her late teens at the time.

Terry

 

[MinnesotaDaveChalmers]

Awesome story

 

[Daver1963]

I think in general the people from the "Greatest Generation" don't really talk all that much about what they had to go through, and not just the war but life itself. My dad didn't and he was stationed at Pearl Harbor after the air raid and my mom still doesn't. Sometimes I think that they figure it was just part of life and they did what needed to be done.

Just my :2cents:

I was reading a book called "Civil War Fathers: Sons of the Civil War in World War II" and it seemed a common theme from these gentlemen was that when the Depression hit they were so poor to begin with they didn't notice anything different.

 

[skyhook]

Thanks for the great story,
it's a reminder to me, that our elders have a wealth of knowledge among them.
She must have been amazed on the "auto darkening" helmets.

 

[Travelover]

Cool! Wanda the Welder.

 

[roadhunter]

I think in general the people from the "Greatest Generation" don't really talk all that much about what they had to go through, and not just the war but life itself. My dad didn't and he was stationed at Pearl Harbor after the air raid and my mom still doesn't. Sometimes I think that they figure it was just part of life and they did what needed to be done.

Just my :2cents:

+1. We have come full circle. Now people just want attention no matter how they can get it.