3/27/03 - On the Home Front: From the War Years to Happier Times"
The March meeting of the Madison Historical Society drew an audience of more than 120 people to the Chase Room of the Madison Public Library. The program, titled “On the Home Front: From the War Years to Happier Times” featured six long-time Madison residents who shared their memories of life during the period from 1940 through 1955.
Before the program began, President Dorothy Pietrowski set a festive tone by introducing, from the front row, Historical Society member Mr. Louis Walter, who celebrated his 95th birthday that day.
Program Chair Cathy Coultas and Dorothy Pietrowski introduced the six panelists: Mayor Jack Dunne, Sal Luciano, Monsignor Puma, Kay Leary, Art Brown and Helen Simester. Former Madison High School history teacher William Chemerka served as moderator. +
The speakers created a captivating picture of Madison in the 40s and 50s by sharing their memories of the Second World War, the Korean War, and the post-war era.
Life changed in Madison, as it did everywhere, when the U.S. entered World War II . People were issued coupons allowing them to purchase limited amounts of beef, sugar and butter. Rubber tires and gasoline were not easily found. No longer was a pair of nylon stockings, the kind women wore to work every day, to be taken for granted. All these things were in short supply because they were needed to support the U.S. military effort overseas.
Bill Chemerka asked the panelists to talk about ways in which their lives changed when America entered World War II.
Mayor Dunne remembered seeing young men standing in long lines in front of the municipal building on weekends, waiting to board buses which would take them to boot camp, and beyond. .
Mrs. Kay Leary described lunch hours spent searching for a store that had a supply of nylon stockings; the scarcity was caused by a need for nylon in the government manufacture of parachutes.
Mrs. Leary, like many young women, stayed on in the workplace although she was married. Not long before, women had been required to resign after the wedding. Mrs. Leary read a letter she had received from Prudential in 1947 stating that the rule requiring the resignation of married women was temporarily rescinded because of the male labor shortage. The letter also stated that the rule would resume at the end of the war, but married women had become a permanent part of the workforce.
Mayor Dunne recalled that parents, probably trying to protect their children, rarely discussed war fatalities. All the same, they heard about the casualties from friends and relatives. Dunne reported that 41 Madison men died in the Second World War, and that 9 were never found.
Bill Chemerka asked for more information about the changes seen in every day life in Madison. Mr. Sal Luciano described helping in his father’s grocery store when supplies of food were never steady or predictable. Although a number of Madison residents owned cows and chickens, the Lucianos were never sure what they would have to sell the next day. Monsignor Puma added that his mother, like many, started a Victory Garden, in which the family grew their own vegetables. (The Monsignor recalled being in charge of getting manure to fertilize the soil.)
Mr. Art Brown remembered gasoline and rubber tires being hard to find, and described waiting in long lines in front of gas stations that had either.
Mrs. Helen Simester remembered the long lines at a grocery store at the present site of Hair Core on Waverly Place, waiting with her ration stamps to buy a pound of hamburger. Mrs. Simester, whose husband was the head of Physical Education at Drew University, shared her memory of Drew (still called Brothers College at the time) receiving the prized Navy B-12 status, one of only three such colleges in New Jersey. (A B-12 unit was an officer training program for liberal arts colleges.) The war also brought the first admissions of women to Drew with the expectation that the all-male admissions rule would return after the war, but the women were there to stay.
Mr. Luciano remembered that a blue star in the window of a house signified the home of someone in the service; a gold star meant that a person had been lost. Mayor Dunne recalled that five memorial plaques were dedicated to Madison’s war dead.
Madison residents volunteered their support in a variety of ways during the war years. Monsignor Puma discussed his father’s participation in and donations to war causes, and Kay Leary described volunteering regularly at Morristown Memorial Hospital. In the neighborhoods, volunteers monitored blackouts, which required all houses to turn off their lights at night or draw dark shades, and cars to drive with headlights dimmed. The panelists explained the reason for these precautions was that the enemy attempted to target coastal cities at night by spotting concentrations of light. Volunteer airplane spotters also monitored possible enemy activity.
Scrap drives were another popular way for citizens to contribute to the war effort. Pots and pans, aluminum, and rubber tires were collected for recycling. School children collected the foil liners from discarded cigarette packs and gum wrappers, and turned in balls of tin foil at school. Comic books were also donated to the troops.
The Korean War saw Sal Luciano and Mayor Dunne joining the military. Both spoke of the hardships of service, but the indescribable camaraderie with fellow soldiers. Kay Leary described Korea as “forgotten war” about which the public received little information. At the end there were no parades or dramatic homecomings.
Bill Chemerka noted that the Korean War saw the first integrated military in American history. Art Brown commented that integration was too long coming, and that “too much time was wasted waiting for it.” Panelists had varying opinions about the extent of racial discrimination in Madison, but all agreed that efforts were made to improve any divisions among residents. Mr. Brown emphasized the success of the African American community in Madison, which has proudly produced seven lawyers and an architect.
Bill Chemerka asked the panelists to discuss the domestic culture of Madison. Before, during and after the war years life in Madison was dominated by the large estates including the Twombleys, Dodges and Kirbys, who were generous to the town and it’s residents. The greenhouses were a key part of the floral industry in America and employed many Madisonians.
Art Brown described the train station, morning and night, being crowded with chauffer-driven limousines awaiting their employers. He also told of stacked boxes of flowers from the greenhouses, prepared for shipment and waiting every morning at 6 a.m. for the train.
Madison saw a growing middle class as the estate owners passed away and their land was divided. The Monsignor described his involvement with people who argued over the rights to parts of the Twombley and Dodge estates. He had the audience laughing as he described the court case of a ‘crooked realtor’, who had no hope of winning his cause with “25 angry nuns in the front row.”
The panelists finally discussed some of the elements that give Madison its special character. Mrs. Simester cited the outstanding school system as a defining component of the town, and Mrs. Leary added that her childhood memories were of Madisonians being generous and helpful to each other as a matter of course. All the panelists recalled the wonderful aroma of bread being baked in outside ovens, and observed that one of the ways people connected with each other was to share a loaf with whoever lived next door.
Sal Luciano portrayed Madison as a place where you felt needed, wanted, and watched over…a place where a kid could grow up right.
The meeting drew to a close with Bill Chemerka addressing the audience: “..and here you have six little Madison kids who grew up right – in front of you.” The applause continued for quite some time.