Fathers and Wives

Sorry for not posting last week. I hadn't had time to get through any more of my reading. This week I'm about half way through a book which contains first hand accounts of WWII COs. It was created using the same set of interview questions for each person. So far I'm learning a lot of different things. For one, it appeared that during the 40's it was perfectly acceptable for men and women to date multiple people at the same time. I didn't expect that. I guess I thought that was more of a modern notion. So far, the men whose stories I've read were very involved in their churches and went on to continue work associated with their churches or other social work. Many of them adopted children as well. Very few had told stories about others not accepting them because of their beliefs. I was surprised at that given the other things I've read. It could also be that these interviews were done very late in these men's lives and maybe the good stories outweighed the bad and didn't seem worth mentioning at that time (there's also the scientific side of memory that has shown that every time you remember an event, you change it in your mind).There was one story of a person who  had participated in the starvation experiments and had kept a journal. The journal was later used to write a book solely about those experiments. The interviewee didn't seem to dwell on any sort of hardship from the experiment. Many of them were at odds with their fathers. So far, many of the fathers believed much more strongly in work than in church, college or pacifism. Many also told stories that exemplify the fact that many of the other COs at the camps had very different beliefs and lifestyles. There were a few men who had gone to the same camp as grandpa. They both mentioned having to go to Oregon to fight fires from there. I get the impression that several of them jumped around a little. I don't know if grandpa ever had to go outside of Ohio during his time at the camp. Another interesting commonality among these stories was that they stated that they did not waiver in their decision to be a CO. They were raised in an environment which supported that idea. I would of thought there may be more uncertainty during that time. I also found it interesting that all of the wives worked (mostly nurses or school teachers) and traveled with their husbands working on various social projects. Those are just a few interesting notes and highlights.  More stories next time.

Peace be with you