A SAD DAY
LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA
1944
It was a Tuesday in October. Fritzi walked into the barracks and greeted everyone as usual. “Hiya, pals, I’m back and ready to eat. Who wants to—” She stopped talking when she noticed that they had barely looked up, and some of the gals looked like they had been crying. “What’s the matter?” Willy pointed to the letter on Fritzi’s bed.
She picked it up and saw that it was from the Army Air Forces headquarters in Washington. She quickly opened it and read the news that General Hap Arnold had directed that the WASP program was to be deactivated on the twentieth of December. Fritzi was stunned. “Is this a joke?”
“No, read on.”
Fritzi sat down on the bed and read the letter. “When we needed you, you came through, and you served most commendably. Blah blah blah.” Then she cut to the end. “But now the war situation has changed, and the time has come when your volunteer services are no longer needed. If you were to continue in service, you would be replacing, instead of releasing, our young men. I know the WASP wouldn’t want that. Blah blah blah. My sincerest thanks, and happy landings always.” That day, WASPs stationed on ninety different bases all over the country received the letter.
It seemed that thousands of civilian male flight instructors had been excused from joining the army as long as they trained military pilots. But now that the army had all the pilots they needed, they had started closing down flight schools across the country. However, the army didn’t have enough infantry troops for the ongoing war in the Pacific and in Nazi-controlled Europe. Suddenly, these civilian flight instructors found themselves subject to the draft and could end up in combat not as fliers, but as regular foot soldiers. And just as suddenly, a lot of these same instructors wanted to take over the WASPs’ jobs, so they could remain in the States.
Many would have to be trained at great expense to the government to handle the advanced planes the women were now flying, but, nevertheless, the men got together and organized a huge publicity blitz to try to defeat the bill that was now in front of Congress that would militarize the WASPs and keep them flying.
The public was told that it wasn’t patriotic for women to be military pilots if they would be taking jobs away from men, and it was suggested that if they wanted to serve in the military, the women could join the WAC and become nurses, where they were really needed. And then the VFW and the American Legion jumped on board, and the bill to militarize the WASPs was defeated. This meant that the families of the girls who had been killed would be receiving no death benefits, and at the end of the war, the WASPs, unlike all other discharged veterans, would be left with no GI Bill, no medical, no nothing.
PENSACOLA, FLORIDA
Fritzi,
Honey, just heard what happened. What a raw deal. And what a damn stupid move on the army’s part. It’s gonna cost the army a fortune to train all those guys to replace you. Arnold says the main flack was caused by those guys that didn’t want to be drafted and have to go into combat, and they did a bang-up letter-writing blitz. He said they even got their mommies to write Congress. What a bunch of pantywaists. My friend Barry, who trained some of the WASPs, says there wasn’t a thing wrong with you gals, except that you were gals. Wish I was running this man’s army and could help, but dammit, I ain’t. Anyway, I know how bad you must be feeling right now, but the hell with them. Go out and get yourself a stiff drink. Oh, hell, get as many as you want, and know that I am always in your corner.
Love you, pal,
Billy
It was the first time he’d ever said he loved her, and she really needed to hear that right now. It softened the blow a little. And she did take his advice about the drinks.
HAPPY LANDINGS
DECEMBER 17, 1944, FRITZI LANDED THE BIG FOUR-ENGINE BOMBER for the last time, and before she walked away, she stopped and gave it a pat. “Well, good-bye, old gal. You’re one hell of a plane.”
On December 20, all the WASPs who were stationed all over the country were called back to Sweetwater, and after they had turned over their equipment—gas masks, goggles, leather flying suits, and boots—the government gave the women a dinner to say “Thanks again for your service, good luck, and happy landings.” Fritzi sat there and thought to herself, “Well, that’s a hell of a note.” After the dinner was over, when she’d said all her good-byes, she wandered out on the field and found a plane, gassed and ready to go, and decided if she was being kicked out, the government owed her at least a free ride home.
Fritzi knew she was drunk, but she didn’t care. She had done something she would never be able to forgive herself for. And now that the WASPs had been disbanded and she wasn’t needed anymore, it really didn’t matter to her one way or the other if she lived or died, so she started the motors, took off to the left, and headed in the direction of Wisconsin. She didn’t really want to go home, but she had no other place to go.
She made three or four stops along the way, and the army finally found the missing plane a week later, parked outside a hangar at Blesch Field in Green Bay. After calling a cab, Fritzi was home. A little hungover, but home. Hijacking a military plane was a serious offense, but no charges were ever filed.
Pinks had been left in charge of cleaning up inventory back in Sweetwater and agreed with her. She knew what Fritzi had been through. And Pinks figured that after what all those gals had done, the government should have flown all of them home.
After the war was over, the WASP records were sealed, and it was pretty much forgotten that they had ever existed at all.
It would be another thirty years before another woman would fly a military plane.
VICTORY
PULASKI, WISCONSIN
1945
ON VJ DAY, A NEIGHBOR RAN OUT IN THE STREET AND WAVED HIS arms and shouted, “The war is over!” Suddenly, there were church bells ringing all over town and horns blowing and kids running around banging pots and pans. They knew it was the end of an era for the entire world.
But most people who had been in it, like Fritzi, just sighed a big sigh of relief. For her, it meant that Winks had made it through alive and would be coming home for good.
The war was over, but it had taken its toll. More than 400,000 Americans had been killed and 1.7 million had been hurt in some way. And most people didn’t know about the 39 WASPs who had been killed or that 16 Army nurses had died by enemy fire, and 67 had been taken prisoner, including Nurse Dottie Frakes, who was held in a Japanese concentration camp for more than three years.
But in August 1945, Americans were in a jubilant mood. Finally, their world could get back to normal. As the headlines said, “Hooray! Rosie the Riveter can finally go home and be Rosie the Housewife again!”
The problem was that a lot of women didn’t want to be just housewives again. Fritzi was hoping to join Billy and go to California for employment, and Gertrude hoped to get a good, high-paying job at the big Ford Motor Company plant in Willow Run, Michigan. But in the summer of 1945, Kaiser-Frazer Corporation took over the plant to prepare for the postwar years, and it had no room for women. It wanted the best of the jobs to go to the returning GIs. Wink came back home and reopened the filling station, and Angie was happy to go back to being a housewife and mother again. But Gertrude still wanted to work. She tried to get a job flying, but quickly found out that the only job open for women in aviation was that of a stewardess, and when she applied she was told she was too fat to be a stewardess, so she wound up teaching accordion over at Saint Mary’s school.
SOOKIE HAS THE BLUES
SOOKIE AND DR. SHAPIRO STILL MET ONCE A WEEK, DESPITE THE FACT that they had almost run out of meeting places. But even with all the hassle of having to change restaurants, she knew it was doing her a lot of good. However, she was finding out that self-examination was not easy. They say the truth can set you free, but sometimes it can really depress the hell out of you. Sookie woke up one morning feeling a little blue, and when Dee Dee came to pick her u
p for lunch that day, Sookie was still in her nightgown.
When she answered the door, she said, “Oh, honey, come on in for a minute. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize how late it was. I should have called you sooner, but I don’t think I’m up for lunch today.”
“Why?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I just feel a little down today. Do you mind?”
“No, I guess not. But what’s the matter with you? Are you sick?”
Sookie sat down in her chair and shook her head. “No, I’m not sick.”
“Then, what is it?”
“Oh, sweetheart, I don’t want to bother you. It’s nothing. I’ve just been thinking too much lately is all.”
“Thinking about what?”
“Oh, stupid things … about my life … things like that.”
“What about your life?”
“Oh, sometimes I think maybe your grandmother was right about me all along. I’ve had two fantastic mothers—one a hero who flew planes—and I turned out to be just a big nothingburger with no courage at all.”
Dee Dee looked at her in utter disbelief. “What? You must be kidding. You were our hero. Don’t you know that? You were the best mother in the world. And you did so have courage.”
“Me? I don’t think so.”
“Yes, you did. Don’t you remember that day when we were little when Daddy’s Great Dane fell off the end of the pier? You’re not a good swimmer, but you jumped right in the bay and pulled him out. Don’t you remember that?”
“Yes, I guess so—but your daddy loved that stupid dog.”
“And that time we went to Disney World, and you were scared to death, but you got on that roller coaster, just so you could ride with us?”
“Yes, I do remember that. And I wouldn’t do it again, I’ll tell you that.”
“But you did it once. That’s something, isn’t it? And I don’t care what you say, it takes great courage to have four children and sit by and watch them make mistakes. Look at me. I’ve obviously married the wrong man twice, and you never made me feel bad or said a word about it. And when I needed you, you were always there. So I won’t have you thinking you are a nothingburger. Nothing could be further from the truth. Now, Mother, don’t make me have to spank you. You just get up out of that chair right now and get dressed, because we are going to lunch. Do you hear me? The world awaits!”
Sookie looked at her daughter and smiled. It was at that moment that she realized that her little girl, the one she had been worried about the most, had quietly grown up.
Sookie got up and did what Dee Dee said. As she was upstairs getting dressed, she had to laugh. Dee Dee may not be a Simmons by birth, but she was certainly Lenore’s granddaughter, all right. They went to lunch and had a marvelous time.
LENORE’S BIG DAY
POINT CLEAR, ALABAMA
JANUARY 2006
LENORE HAD A BIRTHDAY COMING UP, SO IT WAS TIME TO START PLANNING, and she always had a list of instructions for Sookie about how she wanted to celebrate.
Sookie got out her notebook and walked over to her house. Angel told her Lenore was back in her little den off the alcove. When she went inside, she found her mother fully made up but still in her floral dressing gown, sitting at her desk looking forlorn. “Hey, what are you doing? I came over to find out what you wanted to do this year to celebrate your birthday.”
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. When you’re my age, there’s nothing to celebrate.”
“Why? What’s the matter?”
“I’m so upset.”
“Why?”
“Oh, Sookie, it’s so awful to be old. Look at my phone book. Almost everyone I know is dead. Nobody is left that remembers me when I was young. I don’t have anybody left to reminisce with. If it weren’t for you and Buck, nobody would remember me at all. I’m being pushed into the past. Oh, it’s terrible when you don’t have a future or anything to look forward to. I used to think that after you and Buck were grown, I’d go on the stage, but then your daddy got sick, and I had so many club obligations, I guess I just misjudged time. And when your daddy died, it was too late. Oh, I could write a book. I’d call it A Life of Regret or The Things I Didn’t Do. And I could have done so many things. I was always good at anything I put my mind to, you know that.”
“That’s true. You could do anything and do it better than anybody else. But you know, Mother, I have always wondered: Did it make you happy?”
“What?”
“Have you ever been happy?”
“Oh, Sookie, why do you ask me these silly questions? I must say I liked you better when you were busy raising children. Lord, all you do now is sit around and think, and thinking is not good for you, Sookie.”
“Thank you, Mother.”
“Well, Sookie, your mother is the only one who will ever tell you the truth. You know I’m right, Sookie.”
“Okay, Mother. Whatever you say. But what do you want to do about your birthday this year?”
“Oh, I suppose I owe it to the children to have some sort of celebration. It means so much to them, and who knows? I may not be here next year, so maybe we should do a little something.”
Sookie sighed. “How many people?”
“Oh, no more than thirty. I’m just not up to it this year.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“And if we do go to Lakewood, don’t let them talk you into putting us in the smaller room.”
“Yes, Mother.”
That meant she wanted to go to Lakewood and be in the big room. And knowing Lenore, she would start adding more and more people as it got closer.
But that was Lenore. Her birthday was a big thing to her and she assumed it was for everyone else in town as well.
As Sookie walked back home, she began to think about the situation regarding her own birthday. Her real birthday, in October, had quietly come and gone. She wondered about the woman listed on her birth certificate. It was strange to think that somewhere out there, someone she had never met might have been remembering that day too.
GETTING TO KNOW YOU
POINT CLEAR, ALABAMA
SOOKIE HAD ALWAYS WORRIED THAT SHE AND DEE DEE HAD NEVER been as close as she would have liked, but Dee Dee had started calling and asking her to meet for lunch almost every week now. And it was nice getting to know her daughter just a little better.
They were sitting outside at Sandra’s Sidewalk Café one afternoon, when Dee Dee said, “Oh, Mother, did I tell you that I finally got the Poole family crest reframed?”
“No, you didn’t. Are you pleased with how it looks?”
“Oh, yes. I think I like the gold even better than the red.”
“Oh, good.” Sookie took a sip of her iced tea and said, “You know, Dee Dee, I just realized something.”
“What?”
“Well, just think, you are a Poole by blood, and I only married a Poole, so you are even more related to your father than I am. And none of us are related to the Simmonses at all. Isn’t that strange? I mean, what is genetics, and what is environment? And why am I the way I am?”
“Oh, Mother, who cares? We certainly don’t. The only thing that matters is who you are now. And besides, this is America, and you are free to be anybody you want to be. You can even change your name legally, if you want to, and not be a Simmons or a Jurdabralinski. You can be whoever you want to be.”
Sookie smiled. “Can I be Queen Latifah?”
Dee Dee laughed. “No, but you could call yourself Lucille Flypaper or Tiddly Winks McGee, if you want.”
“I know you’re kidding, but you know, it might be fun to be someone different, just for a change. ‘Sookie’ is way too babyish for a sixty-one-year-old woman, don’t you think?” Sookie took a bite of her salad and then said, “Virginia Meadowood.”
“What?”
“From now on, I want to be known as Virginia Meadowood.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“Do you think I’m too old to start over?”
“No, Mother,
sixty-one is young.”
“I wish I could start over. I would do things so differently if I had the chance.”
“Oh, what?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t have let so many things bother me, and I would have stood up to your grandmother more, of course. But then if I were someone else, I might never have been a Kappa, and I wouldn’t have married your father. You would have had a completely different father or else you might not have been born at all or I could have had four totally different children. I can’t imagine. It just boggles my mind thinking about all the what-ifs, wondering why things turned out how they did and if it was supposed to be that way or is your life just an accident.”
“It’s a mystery, isn’t it? But, Mother, you may want to change and be someone different, and we will support you in anything you want to do, but we’ve all talked about it, and we’re really glad you married Daddy, and we admire you for having so much patience with us and with Grandmother.”
“Really?”
“Oh, yes. But seriously, Mother, you are not who you think you are.”
Sookie had heard that before. “How so?”
“Well, it’s true that Grandmother is flashy and flamboyant and all that, but she’s a little shallow. You think you’re not important, but you are. You have heart, Mother. You are a real human being.”
Sookie was suddenly overwhelmed to be hearing this from her daughter, and tears sprang up in her eyes. “Well, thank you, honey. That means a lot to me.”
LATER THAT AFTERNOON, SOOKIE called Dena. “I’m telling you, Dena, when you live long enough to see your children begin to look at you with different eyes, and you can look at them not as your children, but as people, it’s worth getting older with all the creaks and wrinkles.”