>> This is James Newberry,
and I'm here at the Sturgis Library at
Kennesaw State University on Wednesday,
April 27, 2016, with Jessie Moss.
And Mrs. Moss, do you agree to this interview?
>> Yes.
>> So could you please state your full name for me?
>> Jessie Moss.
And do you want me to say all of it?
Jessie Bell Moss. Jessie Bell Day Moss.
>> Okay. And when and where were you born?
>> Well, I was born November 27, 1918.
Somewhere in Forsyth County, I don't know where.
>> So you were not born at a hospital?
>> No. Not back then.
No. I'm one of nine, the youngest of nine.
>> So tell me a little bit about your childhood.
What were your parents' names?
>> My mother's name
was Nettie Jeanette, they called her Nettie.
My father's name was Albert.
And he had initial. I never
did know what the initial was for.
Albert L. Day.
>> And you said you had a lot of siblings?
>> Yes. I had three brothers and five sisters.
>> So tell me about
your childhood, what did you do for fun?
>> I would get out and play in the woods,
make playhouses in the woods.
I played school a lot out on the porch.
Back then, we lived in
country houses so I could sit out there on that porch and
put my knees onto the porch
and have all my books up here and
everything. I was a teacher.
>> And what did your parents do for a living?
>> Well, my father, he was
a farmer and a builder, carpenter.
During the depression, we moved a lot and I hated
it because they had changed schools all the time.
Part of the time he would build
houses when that was good,
when that was going good.
And when that slacked off,
he would move to a farm.
They had what you call share cropping back then
and so he would just go then and rent a place and rent
the land and everything and
share so much of it with the owner.
So he would go back from
the country to the city back into.
>> Did you have any chores?
>> Anything to do? Well, when he was on a farm,
I picked cotton some and hoed in the field.
He made gardens, things like
that because I was young but I still help.
At that time, my sister and I grew up together.
We were the last two younger.
So the others were all already gone married.
They were more like aunts and uncles.
>> So what are your memories then of the depression?
You said you moved around a lot.
Do you remember knowing
that there was a depression going on?
>> No. I never did realize
that until after I had gotten married.
And then I got to thinking about all of
those things and hearing about it.
Well, I heard it then,
but I didn't care nothing about it.
I didn't have to worry about it.
Everybody lived a bit alike.
>> So tell me where did you graduate from high school?
At Chestatee High School in 1938.
>> Could you spell that?
>> C-H-E-S-T-A-T-E-E.
>> And where was that?
>> Bud, tell them where it's at.
No. I better tell it myself.
It was between Cumming and Gainesville.
That's all I know, between Cumming and Gainesville.
But now it's a big high school.
But I think it was in Forsyth County,
somebody said it was.
>> And when you graduated from high school,
what did you envision for your future?
What did you want for yourself?
>> Well, I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do.
I would have liked to be a beautician,
but I didn't have the money at the time.
So I didn't do anything for a year or two right after.
Maybe about a year.
And I would work somewhere in Cumming in
the little dime store when that
was maybe on holidays or something like that.
The first thing I did,
when the war broke that is,
they wanted telephone operators.
So I was about 20 years old.
When I went to the Southern Bell Telephone Company in
Atlanta and trained to be a telephone operator.
>> And where was the Southern Bell Telephone company?
>> It was on Ivy Street right off of Peachtree, I think.
Because I could just walk up there,
and at night I worked a split shift,
on four hours and off four hours.
Could walk the streets of
Atlanta at night by myself, nothing.
>> And when you say split shift, what does that mean?
>> That means you'd work four hours,
stay off four hours and go back work four hours.
>> So you could never sleep more than four hours?
>> I didn't. I slept, I don't remember,
daytime, I guess, slept some of it in daytime.
>> And how much money did you
make as a telephone operator?
>> Thirteen dollars a week.
And I paid my board and everything,
out of that $13-$5 a week.
Then I'd go to Cumming on the bus.
It cost maybe $0.50 or $1.75.
>> And so what
are your memories of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor?
>> Well, I was out riding on
a Sunday afternoon with a friend.
That friend is just a friend and he married my niece.
And all at once he'd come on the little car radio.
President Roosevelt announced that we
were at war with Pearl Harbor.
>> And how did you feel when you heard the news?
>> What did I do?
>> How did you feel?
>> I guess I was kind of a little shocked or whatever.
Okay. And were you in Cumming at that time?
So you weren't in Atlanta yet?
>> No.
>> Okay. Well, tell me about meeting your husband.
>> Well, I lived in Alpharetta at the time.
And his mother lived at the Road.
It was Road's Inn.
None of us paid. His mother lived at the Road,
but he and his three other brothers,
they all went into service, to the military.
And so we lived by them
about three years and moved back to Cumming.
And I did I had never met him.
I had seen him pass by when I lived there.
But his mother and us were real close.
So they would come and visit us
and his brother told me he says,
I'm going to call Paul,
my husband, to come and meet you.
And he was in the coastguard then.
I said, that'll be good.
So in about a couple of months or something like that,
this good-looking sailor come to my house.
First time I've seen him
and he looks so much better than that brother.
Anyway, that's how I met my husband.
>> So you started dating?
>> Oh, yes. But he
came home from service is what he did,
visited his mother now because
of war had started right then.
And so we started writing letters and I've got
300 letters we wrote back and to. Still got them.
>> What did you say in those letters?
>> I'm not going to tell you. [LAUGHTER]
I don't know. We just met each other.
But the first time he come to see me,
it was at night, and when he started to leave,
we were standing at bay,
he had borrowed his brother in law's car,
a little roadster, I think it was.
Anyway, he started to leave and he had more sense,
he's more mature than other younger boys I had dated.
And he had asked me if he could kiss me bye.
[LAUGHTER] He asked me now that,
can't you see him asking him now?
[LAUGHTER]
>> And what was your answer to it?
>> I don't remember. I think I said,
"Yes, of course."
[LAUGHTER]
>> So tell me his full name.
>> Paul Jack Moss.
>> And he had already been in the service,
even though the war hadn't started?
>> Oh, yes. He had been already in there
about five or six
years before I met him in his first term.
>> So did you also have
a sister that married one of his brothers?
>> Yes, I did.
>> Tell me about that.
>> Well, we had never seen either one of them.
They were the two younger brothers.
So anyway, they started dating,
and they got married in June '42,
and Paul and I got married in December '42.
>> Tell me about your wedding.
>> Well, it was very simple
because we didn't have time to have a big wedding.
Nobody hardly did then.
But we wanted to get married because we
had been dating about a year,
from 41-42, through the mail mostly.
He came home two or three times a year.
One time he came home,
jumped and went A.W.O.L., and
[LAUGHTER] he come see me one weekend.
So anyway, when he went back,
they put him in a brig for a month.
[LAUGHTER] But anyway, the wedding was very simple,
and so he was there about four days, I think.
And we went back to Norfolk,
Virginia on the train.
First time they said the Georgia girl had been out of
Georgia and [LAUGHTER] rode the train.
I thought that was something.
And we went back, didn't even have a place to go.
He didn't even have a place for us to go,
had to go to the USO,
and they got us a place.
And by the way, we had
the bridal suite in
the place we went to, big boarding house.
>> Wow. So tell me what you wore at your wedding?
>> Well, I shopped about a month,
looking around and I didn't have too much money,
but I wanted something pretty nice.
I just got a blue wool suit,
and then I got a Navy hat,
and purse and shoes,
you match things then.
And he just wore his navy blue sailor suit.
And so that was what I wore.
I don't even think I had any flowers.
We didn't have time for anything.
And we had one of Paul's brothers,
one of my friends,
and my sister that went with us to get married.
>> So tell me why was he posted in Norfolk, Virginia?
>> Well, he had been
making a lot of trips before I met him overseas,
but this was different.
They were on the Leonard wood ship, a troop carrier,
and they carried troops
across and they couldn't tell us where they went ever.
We didn't know where they were at,
or how long they'd be gone.
And they carried troops over and they brought
back the wounded and the prisoners.
And I would stay in
the boarding house until he got back,
if it wasn't too long.
Some time, he'd go short trips and
be going about three or four days.
>> Well, tell me about life
there in the boarding house.
What did you do? [OVERLAPPING]
>> Oh, it is very old.
It's so old. I thought she was old anyway back then.
She probably was over 50 years old,
[LAUGHTER] but she's stooped
over [LAUGHTER] like I am now.
Anyway, she had this big boarding house, two stories.
No, it must had three because
the bridal suite was on the third floor.
Anyway, there were people there from up north,
and I was just a little old Southern girl.
And they had more fun at talking.
We had a room downstairs,
we'd meet in there,
and talk and meet each other and all.
And they were mostly from the north.
And they would love to talk to
me and I was a little Southern girl with all that,
who's had a long brogue.
[LAUGHTER] Well, I got to be
real good friends with her staying there.
We was there, I guess about three or four months.
>> Do you remember her name?
>> No.
>> Did you ever go to the USO?
>> No, I didn't. I just
stayed there until he had come back in.
>> And what was his job on board shift?
>> He was a carpenter's mate. Uh huh.
>> So you were only in Virginia for three or four months.
>> Yeah.
>> And where did you go after that?
>> Well, I would go there, and
then when he had go back out,
I would go back there.
When he had come in, he'd called me and
I'd go back and they'd save me there.
When I had to leave there the first time,
well, but anyway, my room was gone.
This other lady, we found another place and
she would have me a room when he'd come back,
and he'd called me and I'd go
back and stay until he went out again.
Maybe three or four days,
or a couple of weeks, or something like that.
>> So if he was gone,
you were coming back to Georgia?
>> Some time, I did.
Some time, I didn't and some time, I wouldn't.
>> So when did you come back to Georgia for good?
>> For good? Oh, you mean after the war, or no?
>> No. When you came back to get a job?
>> I don't remember just when it was.
Anyway, but he was supposed to go overseas,
and I've come back to Georgia
then when he was going to stay awhile.
No, I didn't know where he was going
because they couldn't tell us nothing.
But anyway, to Hawaii is where he went.
And so I went back home then.
And that's when I went to
work at the Bell Bomber Plant when I went there.
>> So why did you need to work,
or did you need to work?
>> Well, I could but he didn't want me to work,
but they didn't make nothing hardly in service then.
But I just wanted to work.
I didn't want to sit home all the time.
And then when the Bomber Plant opened up,
they got talking about that.
I had already quit the Bell Telephone when I got married.
He come home and got me then.
We just didn't give them no notice.
I just went upstairs,
told the lady we was getting married and leaving.
[LAUGHTER]
>> So how did you hear about the job at Bell?
>> Well, it was all over the news and everything.
I knew there was building it.
>> And what did they say
about it when they were building it?
What was in the news about it?
>> Any news about it?
>> Yeah.
>> They said they were going to have the Bomber Plant,
planes building there,
and there'd be a lot of jobs for people,
and it was good pay.
So much better pay that right at that time,
I was working down at Davison's
in Atlanta and Rich's too,
just a little part-time jobs.
>> So you were working at Davison's and Rich's?
>> Rich's then, yeah.
>> What did you do there?
>> I worked in the Children's Department.
>> So you're saying that you heard about
the job at Bell and it was going to pay more?
>> That was before when the war started,
when I worked at Bell Telephone.
>> So Bell Bomber Plant?
>> Bell Bomber.
>> Right. [OVERLAPPING]
Tell me about applying for that job.
>> Applying for? I don't
remember exactly when I went and applied for it,
but I remember when we had to go in any training,
and we trained about two weeks
before we were put on the job.
>> Describe the training.
>> The what?
>> The training.
>> The training? They let us train
for where they're going to put us.
So I was trained for the working on the fuselage.
I was trained for that.
>> Who trained you?
>> I don't know what his name was,
but I told somebody he looked like Clark Gable.
[LAUGHTER]
>> Did he really?
>> He really did. [LAUGHTER]
>> Wow. So where
did you live while you worked at the Bomber Plant?
>> At the Bomber Plant?
I lived with my mother and dad in Cumming.
>> And how did you commute to work?
>> In an old bus,
and it wasn't a school bus.
It's just an old rickety bus and it rattled all the way
to Alpharetta and back.
I don't know how long it took us, but it was,
I think, about 35 miles, or something like that.
>> And what did your parents think of you
working at this airplane factory?
>> They were all right with it. They didn't mind.
[LAUGHTER] I didn't know it.
[LAUGHTER] They didn't say anything about it.
>> So what was your position or your job at the plant?
>> I worked on the fuselage.
We fit skins on the fuse,
and a skin was something like aluminum.
And it would come out just like a big egg.
And you've probably seen some of it,
but it was just framed up wood frame,
the shape of a big egg.
And my worst day there at Bell Bomber Plant,
I'll tell you about it.
They told me one day, I
drilled really more than I ever did do.
Riveting. Anyway,
they told me to get up on top of the plane and do
some drilling a fish large.
Well, I crawled up there,
we knew we were pantsing that's when women
introduced pants to this women now.
Anyway, I crawled up there and I got my drill and I
started drilling down and then all at once,
I felt a vibration right where I was sitting,
and I knew I had to do something quick.
I was young, I jumped,
but I didn't jump quite high enough.
I tore a little hole in my pants,
and I had to go to first aid
and they put a band aid on me.
And my top was long enough for the hole in
the pants to be covered up and they said,
you might as well just go on to.
It's about noontime, go on to
the restaurant and have lunch and said,
just take a little rest a
while before you go back to work.
I went to the restaurant and
the country girl that I am and
was I like turnip greens and
I ordered turnip greens
and vegetable plate and I was enjoying
those turnip greens so good
and started taking another bite
and looked down and there was a big June boot
looking right at me.
You can imagine how I felt.
I just put it down and walked out.
I never did say a word to
nobody and I never did go back in there.
I carried my lunch from then on.
>> So they had a cafeteria.
>> Yeah.
>> And what all types of foods did they serve in there?
>> I didn't go long enough, I don't think to find
but I think it was
just a general lack of country cooking,
something like that, and several meats.
>> Who was serving the food?
>> Well, there was some young and some old
that would serve women and girls.
>> And tell me about the clothes you wore to work?
>> Well, just so you wore pants,
you could wear what you wanted to,
but I had slack suits and
then Paul was in over in Honolulu then.
I didn't know it he was there then,
but later I found out and I told him wherever
he was at if he could send
me I wanted him to send me some slack sits.
So he sent miss two pair and then I got
one pair of coveralls and things like that we could wear.
She's got some pictures
of all of this if
you want to look at it later or whatever.
>> Did you have to put your hair up?
>> Yeah. I wore what they call Snood.
It was like a crocheted thing.
I had long hair down here and it hung,
you couldn't let your hair hang
and I put on it come
halfway up here and your hair hung in it.
They were pretty. You could get them all difference.
I always wished I had to save some
of them different colors,
and I'd match them to my suits.
>> Did you have to wear any protective
gear around your face?
>> No. I didn't.
>> And what kind of shoes.
>> Just penny loafers.
Do you know what those are?
>> So were you working alone or part of a larger group?
>> No. There was just about five or six of us.
I had an old working man. I couldn't stand him.
I thought he was old anyway.
He looked old to me,
and I just didn't like him.
He wanted to stay around me
too much and I wanted to push him
away and so they got rid of him for me.
>> What do you mean stay around you too much?
>> Well, he rub up
against me and I didn't like
that and he was just irritable.
>> So was he harassing you?
>> Nothing like that, but
they just got rid of him and put somebody else of him.
>> How old was he?
>> The old man. He looked to be
about 65 or 70 as how old he looked.
>> So how many women, how many men in your group?
>> There was about about six of us worked on that.
>> And did you all have a particular job to do?
>> Just to fit in the skin and zone. That was our job.
And you had to drill a hole and countersink it and that's
what I did mostly and some riveting.
>> What is countersink mean?
>> It means that you got to have when it's finished,
it should be smooth.
>> So how many of these eggs would you get a day?
>> Good. You mean the fish large?
I think we worked on the same one half
the time I was there.
It was a big thing.
It was big and take a long time to do one.
>> So did you answer to a boss?
>> Yeah. I had a foreman.
>> Do you remember his name?
>> I did for a long time and I forgot it.
>> And was he a good boss or bad boss?
>> He was pretty good. He was a big flirt.
>> Well, tell me about the relationships between
the men and the women in the factory.
>> In the factory. I never was
around nobody but this one group I was in.
>> How did he flirt with you?
>> He wanted to take me home and all
that and he was married and I was married and I said,
I don't do that. I'm married.
He says, what do you think your husband's doing.
I said, well, I trust him.
So that was the end of that.
I guess that's where the big flirting
between men and women started.
>> Because this is the first time
many women are coming to work.
>> That's right and together
all the men that worked there was older
because anybody that was
able to go to war had to go to war.
>> So you said mostly you were drilling.
Is that right? Did you ever do any other jobs?
>> No. We just had the drilling
and it come out just a frame and all we had
to do is fix and they send the big skins
out that went on certain sections all around it.
>> And how big was the drill?
>> That type long, maybe.
>> Did you find the work easy, difficult?
>> No.
>> Described the work,
how hard was it, how easy it was it?
>> It wasn't hard. I just didn't mind it at all.
Just like a big drill,
it was I don't know what I have what
or it wouldn't have
had a battery back then or anything like that.
Just a big drill that we would drill.
>> So you said you had that tear in your outfit.
Did you ever feel like you were
in danger when you were working?
>> I didn't.
>> So describe the factory floor,
what did it look like?
How big was it? The factory floor.
How big was the area that you were working in?
>> You mean right where the fuselage was?
It wasn't too big and it wasn't too small either,
because that the fuselage is
a big thing itself on a plane.
>> And when you arrived at work every day,
what did the factory look like?
Describe the entry?
>> The what?
>> The entrance. Describe the entrance
that was the building. Describe it.
>> I don't remember. I don't even remember the building,
but I remember going in and we had garage,
had to check us in and
we had to walk through long tunnels.
It was underground.
We had to walk through that
and that was about all I remember about it.
>> Did you carry a name bag?
>> Yes.
>> Do you still have that?
>> I don't, but I
don't know why I didn't save those things.
I'm good at saving,
but I didn't save those.
But I do have one little card
that in Norfolk Virginia
where got a card for something there.
I go into the PAA
or whatever it was to get your groceries.
>> How much money did you make at Bell Bomber?
>> I don't remember right. At first I made
wasn't as much as it was when I left, but when I left,
I was making 56 a week and
by the way that was something of
size of 13 a week I'd been making.
So 56 a week there was more than my husband made.
>> What did you do with the money at the time?
>> Well, I paid my parents
a little little board
and they didn't want to charge anything
about giving a little and I bought
a war bond every
month and put it in and what he sent me,
I did put it in the bank and saved it.
>> So tell me about buying
a war bond. How would you buy it?
>> I don't remember how I did it.
I think you signed up for it,
and they just took out it out of your check.
>> So what hours did you work?
>> I think it was 4:00 in the afternoon to 12:00.
>> And tell me about
the typical day on the job from getting
there at 4:00 PM to leaving at 12:00 AM.
>> The difficulty in
getting there and working and then coming.
Well, I just rode that over.
They picked me up at my parents home there in Camden.
And somebody just bought
the old bus and they did that for a job.
They'd take people over there from
coming they wanted to work over there.
And, of course,
there was no readily rough bus
[LAUGHTER] over there and back.
And I would get over there.
What else did you ask me about that?
What are the difficulties I had or anything?
>> No, just a typical day.
>> Typical? Well, that was about it.
Riding over there and back and signing
in and it was nice.
>> Do you remember any of your coworkers or
anybody else that worked there that
you liked in particular?
>> There is one more girl
and she didn't like me, and I don't know why.
[LAUGHTER] I could tell.
She just wouldn't stay around me,
no, she didn't like me.
But anyway, she was there and another man,
her partner, and two more.
It was about six of us.
>> Did you have breaks during the day?
>> I don't remember having a break.
I don't know whether we did or not.
If we did 72 years ago,
it's left my mind. [LAUGHTER]
>> Well, if you got there at 4:00 in the afternoon,
did you have dinner there?
>> No, I didn't
>> So you said you stopped eating at the cafeteria.
>> And start taking my lunch. [LAUGHTER]
>> You took a lunch.
>> I took a lunch after that.
>> And what did you take in your lunch?
>> Maybe ham and sawshi's biscuit or something,
my mother would fix my lunch.
>> Did you ever see a finished plane there?
>> No, I didn't.
>> Never saw one.
>> No, I didn't. It seems
like they had finished one but we
didn't get to go see it some way or another.
But they finished a lot of them.
>> And what planes were they making at Bell Bomber?
>> I worked on B29.
If they made in more there, I don't know.
I never heard of any.
>> So were there ever any ceremonies
or events at the plant?
>> No.
>> No big get togethers?
>> No, they didn't make a picture.
[LAUGHTER]
>> Now, were you part of a union when you worked there?
>> I don't know if there's union or not.
I kindly think it was.
>> But you don't remember?
>> Don't remember.
>> Do you know how many people
were working there at the time?
>> At the power plant?
No, I don't. A lot of them, though.
>> A lot of them. So you could just
see big crowds of people coming in?
>> Oh, yeah.
>> Did you work alongside any African Americans there?
>> Of any African American? No, I didn't.
>> So there were none in your unit.
>> No. Not that I ever seen.
>> So how long did you work at Bell Bomber, total?
>> I think about nine months,
somewhere in there, maybe a little more.
>> And why did you quit?
>> Well, my husband came home from Hawaii then.
And so he got a sure duty in Mobile.
So we decided where we want to go.
Mobile or, what was it over in Mississippi?
Somewhere in Mississippi.
>> So either a base in Mississippi or a base Mobile?
>> Yeah.
>> And why did you choose Mobile?
>> Well, my husband liked it
better and it was a little closer to home.
>> So you left the job because he had come back.
Was this after the war was
over or was the war still going on?
>> Oh, the war we still going on then.
And we moved there
in '49 and we come back in '65.
>> Say that I raised my family there.
>> So before we go to your family,
I want to ask you a couple more questions.
How did you feel about having a job
like that in an airplane
manufacturing plant during the war?
>> Well, I felt like I was helping.
>> So that could be your contribution?
>> Yeah.
>> To the war effort? And did
you follow news of the war while it was going on?
>> Follow the new what?
>> Did you follow the news?
Did you keep up with what was going on in the war?
>> Well, yeah. I kept up with it,
my husband being in it. I did.
>> And how did you get your news at that time?
>> It would either be in the paper or
something like that or on the radio.
>> Did you ever go to see movies?
>> Oh, yeah, I went to movies.
We had a little theater in Camden then.
And, of course, I went to see Gone
With the Wind when it came out.
My favorite movie. [LAUGHTER]
>> So that would have been 1939?
A little bit earlier. And do you remember,
when you went to the movie, did they play a news reel?
>> About the war or anything?
I don't remember that if they did.
>> Do you remember hearing
President Roosevelt's fireside chats?
>> I do and I don't.
It rings a bell.
>> Do you remember hearing him on the radio?
>> Oh, yeah.
>> And what did
you think of President Roosevelt at that time?
>> I liked him. I liked him a lot.
>> Why?
>> I don't know. I guess it was because
he was connected with my husband and everything,
being the president, and he was in war now.
>> Did you send letters to your husband?
>> Did I what?
>> Did you send letters to your husband?
>> Did I send letters? Oh, my.
I sent about 300.
He sent his to me.
He kept his and I kept mine and it was about 300 and all.
I carried them on to a ship reunion we had
one time and they wanted us to bring some memorabilia.
So I carried that box
of letters and they couldn't believe it.
[LAUGHTER]
>> Why have you kept them for so long?
>> Oh, I wanted to keep them.
I read them over and over when he was gone.
>> And what did you write in those letters?
>> Oh, my. Would you ask me that?
[LAUGHTER] Oh, I don't know,
how much I loved him and how much I missed him.
>> So when you got his letters,
did they ever have censor?
>> Oh, yeah. Sometimes some of
the letters would be censored across the envelope.
And then inside, it would be marked over.
>> And why was that?
>> Something I'd wrote, I guess.
I don't know. They didn't want you talking.
At least they wouldn't let them
tell their wives or anybody where they were going.
They said, loose lips sink ships.
So that's danger in that.
>> Where did you see that message?
Loose lips sink ships?
>> Oh, goodness, it was on signs everywhere.
[LAUGHTER]
>> So there was posters?
>> Yeah, posters.
>> Did you see a lot of posters up at that time?
>> Yeah, quite a few.
About being careful about what you're saying.
>> So tell me about rationing.
>> Rationing? We had a lot of rationing then.
If you got out and help any way in the war effort,
you could be a rosier or anything without joining.
And things like I go to.
Anybody that go there and picked
up aluminum foil or anything could turn it in
and a lot of things was ration
like the sugar and the tires on cars,
and the nylon hose helped to make parachutes,
all of those things.
A lot of rationing.
And gasoline couldn't hardly
go anywhere because you couldn't get enough gasoline.
>> Did your parents get a ration book?
>> I'm sure they did but I don't remember.
I'm sure they did, though.
>> So do you remember when
President Roosevelt died in Georgia?
>> Oh, I did. I remember when he died.
I hate to hear because, I don't know.
I liked to hear him talk.
I disliked it.
>> So tell me about the end of the war.
What are your memories of victory day?
>> I really don't remember that too much.
I remember when it happened.
But I was happy about it, happy.
I've got the big poster that I think is in
New York when the war was
over and this sailor
grabbed this nurse and was kissing her,
I got that great big picture there.
[LAUGHTER] It was given to me.
>> So that sums up how you felt about the end of the war?
>> Do what?
>> That picture sums up how
you felt at the end of the war?
>> Oh, goodness, yes.
>> So you said you were reunited with
your husband when he came back from the Pacific.
And then you all had to
make a decision about where to move.
And why did you choose Mobile?
>> I let my husband choose it
but I wanted to get close as I could to home.
So he chose Mobile because he liked it better.
New Orleans was the other one.
>> New Orleans?
>> New Orleans.
>> And tell me about building the house in Roswell.
[LAUGHTER]
>> Oh, that was fun. [LAUGHTER] Anyway, well,
I had told you,
I think on the phone that day I talked to you,
if it was you guys talking to.
As I say, I saved all I could and bought war bonds,
and then Paul sent me all he could.
And so I put it in the bank,
and when the war was over,
we went back to Roswell and
his brother that married my sister had
a place down there and
enough land to let us build a little house on.
So with the money I'd saved,
we built I told you a two bedroom.
It was just a one bedroom;
one big bedroom,
a bathroom, and a big kitchen.
That was the house with a little porch on it.
But we built that little house with money I'd saved.
>> So that was before you moved to Mobile?
>> That was after the war.
And we stayed there about three or four years.
Donna was two years old when we moved back.
When he was in service when he was living
in Mobile during the war,
he was in the carpenter shop
at the Mobile coast guard base.
They called him after we'd been living there
about three or four years I think.
The man in the shop where he was working there
died and they wanted
Paul to come back and take over the shop.
So we went back to Mobile in '49.
War was over officially in '46.
And we moved back down there.
He took the job because
he could hardly get a job anywhere.
Him and his brother that married my sister,
they both went to Atlanta.
I think they got a job of
driving garbage trucks or something like that.
He took it. And I
cried all the way down there moving back.
I didn't want to go back and want to stay at home.
[LAUGHTER]
>> So I want to get the timeline straight.
So when he got back from the Pacific,
you moved to Mobile during the war?
>> During the war. That's when we moved back to Mobile.
I mean to Mobile, not back.
>> The first time.
>> First time. Then you moved to Roswell,
Georgia and built a house with your money.
And then in 1949,
when his old boss died,
you moved back to Mobile.
>> Back to Mobile. You got it straight.
>> So he's still in the military at this time.
>> He was still in the military.
>> But he was working in the carpenter shop
at the base in Mobile.
>> And he got hurt on his back and he had to
get out of service and he just
went into civil service then in the same shop
and we stayed about 27 years down there.
>> In Mobile? Now,
did you work outside of the home?
>> No. Nobody wanted me to work.
So I stayed home and raised my three children.
But anyway, I wanted to
go this one Christmas and make a little extra money.
So I think I worked two days.
I went one day and came back and I had
to hung them on a line,
I didn't have a dryer or anything.
And the next day I went and and
my best friend was keeping my youngest son,
he was a little toddler.
She was keeping him and when I went to pick him up,
he called her mama and I never did go back.
I never did go back to work.
[LAUGHTER]
>> You were upset.
>> That upset me. I didn't like that.
>> What job had you gone to do?
>> I was just going to work in
the department store for Christmas.
>> So how many children did you have there?
>> Three, two boys and a girl.
>> And tell me about returning to Georgia. When was that?
>> That was in '65.
>> Where did you settle?
>> Where did I?
>> Where did you settle in Georgia?
>> Let me get my mind straight now.
When we left Mobile and came back.
I know his brother again, we stayed close.
His brother lived at Alpharetta on Union Hill Road,
about a mile or two out of Alpharetta.
Anyway, he had already got out
of service himself out of
the army and built a house there.
He had some land about 30 acres
or 40 or something like that.
So he sold us 20 acres again.
So some more land right by him
and we moved a house in there from Atlanta.
Donna was working then somewhere down
there in Atlanta and she saw this house.
We were going to build a house on it.
We had 20 acres and we were so proud of that 20 acres.
Anyway, and we we were going to build.
And Donna called one day said she saw
this pretty Cape Cod home in
Atlanta that I think
almost giving it away about two or $300.
Maybe not. I don't think it's even 300,
and you could get the house for that
and have it moved and put on a lot.
And we got it and moved it and it was beautiful.
It was a beautiful home.
The time we got through with that,
completed over what had to be done to it,
it was almost new.
We spent $1,400 for that place.
[LAUGHTER] Can you believe that?
>> And when was that?
>> That was in '65,
'66, somewhere in there.
>> And that home was in Cumming?
>> Alpharetta.
>> Alpharetta, I'm sorry.
How long did you live in Alpharetta?
>> About seven years, I believe.
>> Was your husband still working at the time?
>> He worked on North Side Hospital in Atlanta.
>> And then where did you move from Alpharetta?
>> We moved to Lake Hartwell.
>> Why did you go out there?
>> Well,400 was coming through and if you got in land,
they're just begging you for it at a big price.
So we took him up on it.
So we moved again and we moved up there to Lake Hartwell.
Okay. So we did move to Lake Hartwell.
>> And then why did you move back?
>> Well, my husband passed away up
there while I was living there.
And we had already bought some land to come in
and be closer to the children as we wer getting older.
>> So I'm going to jump way back.
There's something I wanted to know a
little bit more about,
and that's the Southern Bell Telephone Company.
So you said you lived
on Highland Avenue in a boarding house?
>> No, it wasn't a boarding house,
but it was friends of ours that moved from
Cumming to Atlanta and they knew us.
So we just got a room from them.
>> And how did you get to work?
>> On a street car.
>> Really?
>> Yeah.
>> And the office was on Ivy Street?
>> The house? Thank you.
I'm pretty sure it was on Ivy Street.
I don't know if it's still there or not.
>> And what did you do as a telephone operator?
>> I was training for long distance operator.
>> What does that mean?
>> Mean that the war was on then,
so we were going to have a lot of long distance calls.
>> And where were the calls coming in from?
>> I don't remember.
>> What did the office look like?
>> It was a big room,
the one we were in at least.
And they had these things like
big curlers stuck in
your ears and all these things are hanging on the board.
[LAUGHTER] It was hard to learn.
>> And you were just directing
calls that were coming in from long distance?
>> Yes.
>> So were those important phone calls?
>> Oh, yes. Well, I couldn't listen to them.
I don't know, but I'm sure they were.
>> So it wasn't just like regular city calls in Atlanta.
It was calls coming in from
overseas and who was taking these calls?
>> Well, somebody like me as just training.
We just training for it.
>> But you were routing the calls.
Where were you routing the calls to?
>> I think that's where we were at
and from a long distance.
>> And how long did you work there?
>> About eight months.
>> And then you stopped working there to get married?
>> He came home
one day and come to the telephone company and got me.
[LAUGHTER] And we went upstairs and talked to my boss.
And she said, well, if you're going to Norfolk,
Virginia, you can work there,
but my husband didn't want me to again.
So I stayed home all the time.
>> So when your husband said he didn't want you work
in all of these times
that he told you that, how did you feel?
>> I didn't mind. But wherever you went and got a place,
they wouldn't hardly take you or let you have
a room if you didn't work.
We tried to find an apartment one time
and the lady opened the door and we
told her what we wanted a room.
And she said, do you work? I said, no, I don't.
And she just slammed the door in her face.
[LAUGHTER]
>> Why do you think she did that?
>> Because well, she wasn't going
to have somebody in her house all the time
using her electricity and
everything. That was the reason.
>> And tell me about traveling on trains at that time.
>> I loved it. When he'd go off sometime,
his mother and me took several trips together.
We'd go see the other brother
and my sister because he is in Oklahoma.
And so we'd go to Oklahoma and visit them
and I'd go several places and go back to the Norfolk.
>> Were there a lot of troops on the train?
>> Well, quite a few and everybody it was
all army coming out of Norfolk back toward Georgia.
>> So during the war, did you ever feel
any fear about what
could come if the enemy wasn't stopped?
>> When the war would stop, you mean?
>> Did you ever feel fearful
of the Germans or the Japanese?
>> Oh, no.
I never did. I thought I was too far away from them.
[LAUGHTER]
>> Because you had two oceans between.
So tell me about your children.
How many children do you have and
grandchildren and great grandchildren?
>> Oh, my goodness. I've got three children.
One deceased, had two children.
And then I have another son and he
has one daughter and his wife had one son.
They had a second marriage,
so he's got one stepson.
And then my daughter,
she has two children and one deceased.
>> And then you have a lot of
grandchildren and great grandchildren.
>> Oh, goodness.
I couldn't get over all of them.
It take me too long.
I'd have to have a pencil and paper and write it down.
[LAUGHTER]
>> So Mrs. Moss, why do you think it's
important to share your World War II experience?
>> Well, it's important for
people to know more about it.
>> And what do you think is
significant about the fact that you were
a woman doing this factory work at that time?
>> You mean why I was
working you mean or where I was working?
>> Yeah.
Why do you think that's significant or important?
>> Well, it would be if you can't get
somebody to do the job if the men are gone,
everybody had to go nearly that was able to go.
They'd take them then with I guess a few diseases then.
But anyway, they were just such a shortage of
men that they needed with all over the world.
And these millions of women that
worked like I worked over there all over the world.
>> Well, is there anything else you want
to add before we finish up?
>> Oh, well, just enjoyed being here and meeting you.
[LAUGHTER]
>> Well, thank you very much,
Jessie Moss, and we will end there.
>> Well, thank you very much.