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    Slacks and Calluses: Our Summer in a Bomber Factory
    Unavailable
    Slacks and Calluses: Our Summer in a Bomber Factory
    Unavailable
    Slacks and Calluses: Our Summer in a Bomber Factory
    Ebook219 pages3 hours

    Slacks and Calluses: Our Summer in a Bomber Factory

    By Constance Bowman and Clara Marie Allen

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

       In 1943 two spirited young teachers decided to do their part for the war effort by spending their summer vacation working the swing shift on a B-24 production line at a San Diego bomber plant. Entering a male-dominated realm of welding torches and bomb bays, they learned to use tools that they had never seen before, live with aluminum shavings in their hair, and get along with supervisors and coworkers from all walks of life. 
       
       They also learned that wearing their factory slacks on the street caused men to treat them in a way for which their "dignified schoolteacher-hood" hadn't prepared them. At times charming, hilarious, and incredibly perceptive, Slacks and Calluses brings into focus an overlooked part of the war effort, one that forever changed the way the women were viewed in America.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
    Release dateJan 11, 2012
    ISBN9781588343710
    Unavailable
    Slacks and Calluses: Our Summer in a Bomber Factory

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    Reviews for Slacks and Calluses

    4/5

    24 ratings5 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Amusingly illustrated anecdotal contemporary account of life as a "Rosie". highly entertaining a must read for anyone interested in women's war work in the US during WWII.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely loved this book. I had juststarted to get into WWII and the homefront issues and this was the best window into the minds of females at the time. Very brave, courageous women who did what had to be done and enjoyed life to the fullest. Wish I could have met them.
    • 4/5
      Slacks and Calluses: Our Summer in a Bomber Factory is the true story of two young teachers who decide to do their part on the WWII homefront by spending their summer vacation working the swing shift building B-24 bombers. They bravely enter the male-dominated world of a production line, pick up their welding torches, and learn to deal with the grease and aluminum shavings that become a part of their daily wardrobe. Slacks and Calluses offers a unique view into the lives of unconventional women and their contribution to the war effort. It is a quick and enjoyable read, full of both humor and accurate historical detail.
    • 3/5
      We are probably most of us aware of Rosie the Riveter and that women joined the workforce in large numbers in WWII to build the materials needed to win the war. This is a look into what it actually felt like to go work on the line building the machines of war. And how did society react to women in the workforce like never before?

      You can tell that the author would be delightful to sit down over a cup of coffee and talk about her experiences with. A warm and engaging tale of two friends working in a factory over their summer break. A fairly short book but worth the read.
    • 5/5
      Generally I avoid WWII histories and memoirs, as I have little more than a passing interest in any historical event fresher than mid-renaissance. However, this account is so charming and clever, while at the same time self-deprecating, that I couldn't pass it up. It helps that the authors approach the war not as a trumpet-blaring, flag-waving adventure in patriotism nor a soul-crushing, blood-mired slog through the lower reaches of hell, both of which attitudes are part of what has turned me so thoroughly off on other WWII accounts. Instead, these two fine ladies approach the entire war as only a backdrop, a constant dull noise which one is constantly aware of, but that is easily ignored in favor of more workaday concerns. This book gives a wonderful firsthand account of the daily life of the workers who built the B-24 Liberators. The grinding repetition and occasional pettiness of the bureaucracy, the colorful and occasionally dramatic personal relationships, and the unforeseen hazards of the job (how did we get this dirty in only 8 hours?!) make this more of a human-interest piece than a war-history. Still, I think it would make a good addition to a reading list about the war and it's effect on the people who were not sent overseas. Recommended.