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Overview
“When Ben went off to war...It was obvious I had to go to work. But with all these new duties and two small children under my wing, what could I do? There was a labor shortage. Sure. But was it so bad that some desperate employer would pay handsomely for two hours of a frazzled female’s time after a hard day? Shall we say, fifty dollars a week?”
PRAISE FOR PETER GREEN’S FIRST WORLD WAR II BIOGRAPHY
“Dad's War With The United States Marines is very highly recommended to all general readers and a welcome addition to the growing library of military memoirs and biographies.” –James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review
World War II was a tipping point for social change in America. With their men at war, nineteen million women joined the work force. Radio, the first instantaneous mass medium, provided daytime serial drama, entertainment and news, including pronouncements of world leaders and terrifying war reports, as President Roosevelt used the new medium to rally the nation to arms and win the war.
Alice Green’s lost and recently found eyewitness accounts of her childhood, her own war, the Golden Years of Radio and the postwar housing shortage are told from the light-hearted viewpoint of a shy, youngest child, who learns she can make even the stormy and outrageous characters in her own family laugh. With a little help from her son, who (just barely) lived to finish iescaped this madhouse to help tell it, her story stands for unsung American women in war and survives as Alice’s triumph.
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781941402115 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Greenskills Associates LLC |
| Publication date: | 11/11/2016 |
| Pages: | 288 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.65(d) |
About the Author
In his career as an architect, Peter has witnessed enough close calls, suspicious acts and outright skullduggery to lure him into writing mysteries. He also loves to delve in history. Find out what secrets he finds hidden in the past, buried underground or decided out of the public eye by the obscure figures in charge of cities' critical infrastructure.
A writer, architect and city planner reared in a family of journalists, Peter found his father's 400 World War II letters, his humorous war stories, his mother's writings and his family's often hilarious doings too good a tale to keep to himself, so he launched a second career as a writer. After years of architectural work and proposal writing for his design firms, he went back to Washington University to study creative. His father's amusing antics and serious achievements of his father's military adventure, Ben's War with the United States Marines, and his first Patrick MacKenna Mystery, Crimes of Design, were republished in 2014 by Greenskills Press. A new Patrick MacKenna Mystery, Fatal Designs, is forthcoming in early 2015.
Peter earned a Certificate in Creative Writing and Bachelor of Architecture degree from Washington University, St. Louis, and a B.A. from Yale University. He served as Vice President, Programs, for St. Louis Writers Guild from 2009-2014 and still serves on its Board of Directors. His is a member of Sisters in Crime, St. Louis Publishers Association and Missouri Writers Guild. His design organizations include the American Institute of Architects, American Planning Association, American Institute of Certified Planners and the Society of American Military Engineers, where his is a past St. Louis Post President and Fellow. He lives in St. Louis with his wife, Connie, and has two very young married daughters and three small grandchildren. An illustrated, Thurberesque story on the life and times of the last pet they owned can be found on this author website.
Table of Contents
Radio: One Woman's Family in War and Pieces i1: A Fish Story-the One that Got Away 1
BOOK I, 1913-1935: WHY IS ALICE'S HAIR ALWAYS HANGING IN HER EYES? 5
2: Mama 6
3: I Was a Volunteer? 12
4: Papa 15
5: A Member of the Family 27
6: More about Papa 37
7: Commencement, of Everything Else 47
8: A Family of Gypsies 52
9: The University and Thornton Wilder 61
BOOK II, 1936-1943: RADIO DAYS 71
10: Tennis Court Challenge 72
11: Assault on the Ivory Tower 78
12: Ben Looks Back for the Last Time 85
13: Reining in a Migratory Instinct 91
14: Launching My Publicity Career 95
15: Ben Joins the Golden Age of Radio 102
16: Ben Gains Creative Control 108
BOOK III, 1944-1945: A FAMILY GOES TO WAR 117
17: Off to War, with the Corps 118
18: A Radio Family 123
19: Between Us Girls 131
20: Furloughed Fears 142
21: Women Defend the Homefront 151
22: Ben's War with the U. S. Marines 162
23: Wolves and Bears 165
24: Annisquam Summer 173
25: Radio and War 182
26: The Storm Blows Ashore 191
BOOK IV, 1946-1950: WE BOUGHT A CROOKED HOUSE 196
27: Our Quest for Shelter 197
28: Leveling the House 202
29: The Boss Takes Over 208
30: In Charge of the Funhouse 213
31: The Ways of the Workplace 217
32: "Our House is Haunted!" 223
33: Neighborly Advice 229
34: Linda Handles the Big Boss 236
35. Life with Fathers-Part One 241
BOOK V, 1951-1982: METAMORPHOSIS 246
36: Life with Fathers-Part Two 247
37: Happy Days 252
38: From Unhealthy Obsession ... 257
39: ...to a New Profession 261
40: A Tale of Two Cities-The Letter 272
41: We Built a Creamy House 281
42: Ben's War Is Over 287
43: Parting Thoughts 292
Acknowledgments 297
About the Author 298