Labor Day Tributes
Labor Day - Monday, September 2, 2019
Labor Day was established as an official federal holiday in 1894 to celebrate the American worker. While this was already recognized as a federal holiday well before WWII, it is the strength and dedication of those who stepped up during that war to build all the equipment needed by our soldiers as they fought to rescue the world from Hitler and the Nazis that I think of when I think of Labor Day.
My family members were farmers who stayed on the farms and helped to feed our country. A.G. often talked about members of his family who went into the factories and shipyards to support "the boys" who were fighting. His father was one of those "boys". I particularly remember him talking about his young mother going to work in the factories in Southern California helping to build the airplanes that were so much needed. And about an elderly great uncle who dyed his white hair and beard with black shoe dye and went to the shipyard in Long Beach asking what he could do to help his boy come home. He was given a job sweeping the floors.
It is those men and women that I particularly think about this week. Do you have your own story? Email it to me at custinput@agrussell.com. With your permission, we will post as many as we can on our website and on Facebook.
We are grateful for all who work to support our great country.
Goldie Russell and the A.G. Russell staff
Tributes from our customers:
My wife's uncle was a tool and die maker employed at a General Motors plant before WW2. He was a Journeyman when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor so was draft exempt because he was an essential war worker. He made parts for submarines and tanks designing several dies and making simpler more effective pieces for the equipment he built. He always felt ashamed that he could not enlist but he was told in no uncertain terms that he was more valuable at GMC making parts. After VJ Day he was drafted into the US Army serving in Occupied Germany in 1946 and 1947. He came back to GMC in late 1947 and remained there until 1987 retiring with 50 years in the tool room retiring as superintendent. He died in 2008.
-Carl
Here is a tribute going out to my late mother and father who did their part for the war effort during WWII... for my mother who relocated herself to Baraboo, WI to work Badger Ordinance, a munitions factory and nitrocellulose propellants. I wish I had questioned her more about her specific roll. Nonetheless, Her contribution along with her coworkers was invaluable to secure our victories.
And for my father who served as an Army surgical technician in the European Theatre. I can only imagine the lives he saved or made better serving in his Mobile Surgical Hospital he served in, skills used later after the war caring for his dying mother in her home from bone cancer.
Thanks Mom and Dad.
- Paul B
My grandmother also worked building planes in San Diego during WWll. She remained there afterwards and lived in the same apartment near Balboa Park until she passed. I heard many stories from her. My father went to war while his mother helped build the planes. Just wanted to share.
-Jeff D., Bossier City La.