Leaving Home

April 9, 1943 had its own flavor; the day I said goodbye to my Chow dog with the shoe button eyes (named Buttons because of it) standing behind the driveway fence at 4111 Three Mile Drive while my mother and my friend's mother and my sister waited in the car.  Just a tender moment, somehow, explaining to my dog the story of the day.  The next stop was Union Depot in downtown Detroit, a large and handsome building with the terminal that carried trains going East and West in and out of Detroit. The train to Chicago was loading and I was directed to the Pullman Car along with six or seven girls, all WAVES, and so I began the journey from private life to military life.

Just 237 miles, time enough to exchange information about our lives up until now and our excitement about the life we were about to enter into and the promises of writing letters to our lonely families! All so 'Cool.'   Chicago to Cedar Falls, Iowa , would be an overnight trip on an authentic Troop Train with a two hour layover in Chicago before boarding so the plan was to have lunch at an Italian restaurant that one of my fellow travelers knew only good things about. The others agreed, but I, with some regret, said goodbye and promised to meet them in time for the train ride to Iowa. I went to The Palmer House, often advertised and written about in many of the New Yorker Magazine issues. And there I spent the afternoon, with one drink in hand, wondering why I had decided to join the WAVES and realizing, finally, that I had signed up and had been sworn in for the Duration of the War. At last, then, I was finally settled and ready to begin my life as a WAVE. Looking at my Elgin watch with the pigskin band that my father had given me for my 20th birthday, I realized that I needed to hurry to get to the Chicago Station for boarding ...it all happened just like that, the troop train was waiting for me and I was given a bunk with another WAVE  The bunks were in sets of three, and my bunkmate introduced herself as Barbara Blankenship.  Then the train started to move as we began our trip through Illinois and Iowa. arriving in the morning in Cedar Falls. There, for the last leg of the trip, we were helped into two or three open bed trucks where we stood holding on to one another and to the sides of the truck. The Iowa farms were beautiful, with rich, black soil still soft from the spring rain and the smell of the pig farms all around us. I truly loved it all. The Iowa State Teacher's College Campus had been taken over by the Navy - dormitories and classrooms were all Navy.  We soon learned that the Schools' kitchen was, while under the supervision of the Navy, run by the personnel of the College, and the menu each day was filled with roast pork and other Iowan delicacies. Room assignment followed; I was assigned a corner room with three other WAVES and that it how it all began during the first week of April, 1943.

Dear Miss Blue,

What is this? Linguini has two more little nieces? Fanny surely would have loved having them visit along with Lydia and Marcella!  The picture you sent of Esme and Fiona in their highheeled pumps I love !  Is it Esme who is holding the very large and stylish handbag and looking furtivity toward Fiona. . .wondering, maybe, if they all would topple over were they to take a step forward?   

The playful times of childhood linger on forever, Pearl

Dear Pearl,

Giuseppina is back with her two younger sisters Esme and Fiona.  Fanny tried to walk them to the zoo after school but their shoes were a problem so Linguini picked them up in the car.  Melba says she has some little pumps that would be just the thing.  I hope your spring is as wonderful there as ours is here. There was a rabbit in the yard this morning dashing around with the happiest look on its face.  Write if you get some time.  I'd love to hear about your operatic leap from home to elsewhere.  It was an operatic leap, wasn't it?

I Remain as Always,
Your Devoted Miss Blue

Dear Miss Blue,

Giuseppina and her stories! Remember the story of Giuseppina and the Ant? We loved hearing her say,

Oh Formica,
How you getta here so quicka',
I don't see you on the shipa'
Oh, now I understan',
You dig a tunnel
Thru the land,
Just to find 
Your little fran'
Guiseppina.

Fanny will surely miss her new friends, but letters will fly back and forth until they pile up so high that Linguini will have to put them on a train for another visit! And as for black cats; why, Miss Blue, I am totally without anything interesting or pertinent to say about black cats other than it has been whispered around that they are witches in disguise!

I have wrapped up a wheel of cheese, the sharpest I could find (from our Cheese Store in the Village) and have sent it to Fanny and Melba to share, of course, with you.

Love from Pearl

Dear Pearl,

Fanny loved the story of the cheese wheel, Pearl.  She loves all things cheesey since Giuseppina told her the man in the moon is made of green cheese.  They have gone now - Giuseppina and Marcella and Lydia - but their folktales linger on for Fanny, especially the ones with an element of witchcraft about them.  Say, what do you know about black cats?

I Remain As Always,
Your Devoted Miss Blue

Memories of the Cheese Wheel in 1930's Detroit, Michigan

C F Smith, small and dimly lit, was one of three main grocery stores; the big A&P, then Krogers and then C F Smith. That is the store that had the amazing Wheel of Cheese and where my mother would send us when she wanted the sharpest and tastiest cheese, especially to go on top of her freshly baked apple pie. And she reminded us to always ask for a taste of cheese from the Wheel of Cheese. We were cheese tasting experts, my sister, Marion and I; always carefully chewing one or two pieces that the grocer had cut from the Wheel and handed to us on a special kind of cheese knife. Sharp or rubbery. We knew he knew when it was rubbery or sharp but he always liked to test our knowledge about cheese. We Really liked the rubbery cheese best. When the cheese was sharp we would ask for 15 cents worth; when the cheese was rubbery, the grocer would wrap a small piece for each of us in wax paper to eat on our way home.

Thank Goodness! Fanny found the beads! A perfect example of Monkey Business, but beware, for certain another trick is probably already in the making!

Yesterday was the day I made my famous Quick Fresh Minestrone Soup, with its 15 ingredients, plus salt and pepper and topped with the best imported Parmesan cheese.  Just to mention, here in the Village we have a specialty cheese shop with cheeses from all over the world! Cheeses piled high; some of the more special cheeses sit on little Blue Delft plates; making it all more inviting to the taste. A true Village atmosphere!

Love from Pearl
All about soup and cheese

Dear Pearl,

Fanny found the beads.  They were on the monkey. 

I Remain as Always,
Your Devoted Miss Blue