A Mouthful of Rivets
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Book Excepts
Caryl “Jeri” Johnson McIntire
From Chapter Seven: Women’s Ingenuity
Despite cautions by several friends not to become a welder, McIntire signed up for training and then a job working nights at the Boston Navy Yard – and loved it immediately. She liked the challenge, satisfaction and support she received from male co-workers. One man who took over Jeri’s shift in the morning observed that her work had a women’s touch.
Matilda Hoffman Becky Havers
From Chapter Two: Quick Studies
While she perched on a 28-foot ladder painting the outside of her house, Matilda Hoffman Becky Havers was recruited by her neighbor to work as a machinist in the New York Shipyard. At the shipyard, Havers overcame resentment of male co-workers, became a labor representative for women workers, and mastered all the machines in the yard.
“There was sort of a neatness about it, I guess. Maybe because a woman sewing would be satisfied with her stitch. That’s the way that I felt. It was all in the wrist.”
“I worked at the shipyard almost four years and enjoyed every minute of it.”
Elmer Becky
From Chapter Twelve: Counterpoint: Children and Grandchildren
Elmer Becky was flying combat in Italy when he received a letter from his mother, Matilda Hoffman Becky Havers, that she was a machinist in the New York Shipyard. It didn’t surprise him a bit, he said. “If they had said my mom had enlisted and was in combat someplace, it would not have surprised me,” he said. Becky shares tales of several adventures he had with his mom while growing up.
Read Elmer's letter to author Christy Wise about his mother Tilly.
Patricia Teeling Lapp
From Chapter Six: Coping with the Basics
Patricia Teeling Lapp worked as a weather observer and communicator for the Civil Aeronautics Administration at an emergency airfield at Lone Rock (pop. 500), WI, a bit west of Madison. On her regular midnight to 8 a.m. shift, Lapp encountered bitter weather, loneliness, a startling visit from the local sheriff, an abusive station manager – and rickety transportation.
“To get from town to the airfield, I bought an old Model A Ford from a farmer, and for “protection” during those long nights alone, I borrowed my landlord’s Irish setter. This car, which I’d bought for $50, had a flat tire almost every other day.”
