“But that was one of my greatest frustrations with being a welder. You had to get the temperature on the machine set exactly right. If it were too hot it’d burn a hole in the metal. If it’s too cold it’d stick [laughs], so you couldn’t make a…

“We’d never worn pants. Women did not wear pants. Maybe they did in California and New York City, but not in Lineville, Alabama.”

“We went to Heflin, Alabama to catch the train to go to Savannah. And when we stepped on the train onto that coach, there wasn’t a seat anywhere, and it was filled with young men in khaki uniforms. It was a troop train. Everything was a troop train.…

“I do remember, and this is the only time I remember ration books that we had. Food was rationed. Gas wouldn’t have mattered to us if it was rationed or rubber, because we didn’t have a car. So I wouldn’t have paid too much attention to that. And we…