Bastrop Advertiser (Bastrop, Tex.), No. 95, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 1, 1979 Page: 3 of 16
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Thursday, February 1. 1979
I HI H \STKOP AI>VKRTISKR
Tears, fun and work—
Bastrop in World War 11
by DAVIS McAl LEY
The courage of women
plus events which were
"funny, wonderful and sad"
during the period of World
War II in Bastrop was the
theme of a well-attended
presentation by Mrs. Ruby
Pearcy for the Bastrop
County Historical Society
last week.
During that time of
dramatic change in Bastrop,
Mrs. Pearcy recalled, "Wo-"
men did the work." They ran
garages, restaurants, farms,
insurance agencies; they
drove trucks.
Most important, "they
never gave up," even in the
face of shortages, rationing
and a town suddenly full of
lonely strangers, she said.
Mrs. Pearcy remembers
spending December 7, 1941
addressing Christmas cards.
When they cost only two
cents to send, she sent
"hundreds," she said. But
that pleasant Sunday after-
noon occupation was broken
off when her husband
returned from playing golf
with the news that "the
Japanese have just bombed
hell out of Pearl Harbor."
She took a radio to school
the next day, she said, so her
fifty graders could listen to
President Roosevelt's
speech declaring war. She
turned her back to the class,
she said, and looked out the
window at the conclusion of
the address, her chin
"quivering."
But in a mood which, she
said, typified all of Bastrop,
she faced the class, saying
"Let's get to work."
Mrs. Pearcy remembered
how crowded Bastrop soon
became. She remembered a
carpenter "begging" to be
allowed to rent her store
room to sleep in, though it
had no lights or plumbing.
She remembered the 500
fifth grade children who
checked "in and out" of
Bastrop schools during one
short period. She remember-
ed sealing the 67th child in
her classroom in the last
vacant window-sill.
Mrs. Pearcy described the
busy U.S.O. building, the
busier bus station at
Chestnut and Pecan near her
home. Particularly she re-
membered the "dead sol-
dier" found under one of her
crepe myrtle bushes, who
awakened suddenly asking,
"has the bus gone?"
"We were good listeners,"
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Representing employees at the Sim Gideon generating plant. Merle Beck [left], presents
a check for $450 to Charles Elliott for the Mother's March Relay Run. Plant employees had
pledged $45 for each mile Mrs. Marilyn Kuhn [center] ran in the fund-raising event.
Staff photo by Davis McAuley
Wiring suspected cause
in Strong home blaze
Fire gutted the mobile
home of Mr. and Mrs. Bryan
Strong at 302 Lynch in
Smithville shortly after 7
p.m. last week.
The blaze, plus water and
smoke damage destroyed
almost all the household
goods of the couple who have
been married about a year.
Mrs. Strong, formerly
Susan Fowler, a former
cheerleader at Bastrop High
School, left the house shortly
after 7 p.m. to buy some
groceries. After leaving
Wessels, she stopped at the
hospital.
TTiere she heard that her
house was burning, accord-
ing to her mother, Kathleen
West of Bastrop.
A pair of wooden chop-
sticks survived the blaze
unharmed, said Mrs. West.
But a "Trophy" sitting next
to it was "warped" by the
heat, she said.
Also destroyed were a
new color television and a
quantity of new clothes
Susan had bought to wear to
work.
"A lot of people do want to
help," said Mrs. West. A
Susan or Bryan Strong Fire
Fund has been opened at the
Citizens State Bank in
Bastrop, she said.
Anyone who has "items of
clothing or household goods"
for the couple should contact
Suzie Waites at the Texas
Grill in Bastrop.
Faulty wiring is suspected
as the cause of the blaze, said
Mrs. West .
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Main Street • Bastrop
Of
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HI IK I SI I'I'I II s J'KINIIM. ()H HI I' K NI 11 81
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she said, to lonely soldiers
met at "the dance hall on the
hill." One such she comfort-
ed. she said, by promising to
play "Rock of Ages" as part
of her organ prelude at the
Methodist Church. "I've
always been glad I did," she
said.
When gasoline rationing
kept her from traveling to
visit families at Christmas,
she and her husband invited
"four boys" from Camp Swift
to have Christmas dinner
with them.
Equally vivid in her
retelling was the summer of
1942. "It was a rainy
summer," she said. The
humidity was fierce. Even
the screened porch at home
was too hot, she said. So as
often as they could, they
would take "a dozen boiled
eggs" and a quart of beer, if
it could be had, and go "lie on
the hills" until the evening
breeze brought some relief.
Mrs. Pearcy recalled the
"beautiful, gothic style"
chapels at Camp Swift where
she played the organ for
many weddings and choirs.
"Some wonderful voices
came with Camp Swift," she
said.
Business in Bastrop was
good, she recalled, "if you
had something to sell." She
remembers many "curio
shops" doing a lot of
business.
But there were trouble-
some shortages too. Natural
rubber auto tires were out of
the question. There was
never enough gasoline,
sugar or cheese. "A pound of
bacon was a prize," she said,
when the butcher could be
persuaded to save one for
you.
Mrs. Pearcy also recalls
that women had the "ugliest
legs" during the war years.
After the years when silk
stockings were in style,
women "had just gotten used
to nylons," she said. But once
the war came with Japan,
the ladies had to make do
with rayon.
The unnatural growth
associated with the war and
the proximity of Camp Swift
was reflected not only in
people renting every avail-
able room in town. The post
office, which normally em-
ployed five or six people,
soon had a staff of "ten to
twelve," she said.
The post office at Camp
Swift used as many as 50
men, she said. She also
recalled railroad cars full of
mail being shipped from the
training camp.
The spirit of the time was
typified, she said, by one
women she knew who was
running.her husband's busi-
ness. The woman was
pregnant as well. When she
heard that the woman was
having trouble delivering
the baby, Mrs. Pearcy said
she went to offer whatever
support or help she could.
But the woman told her
not to worry. "I'm going to
have it all right. Just listen
for the news tomorrow."
The story and the attitude
that went with it is "just a
sample of what women did in
that time," said Mrs. Pearcy.
The experience "welded
us together. We shared"
with each other, she said.
When the end of the war
was finally announced, Mrs.
Pearcy said she "walked to
the church to practice" the
organ. Walking, she saw
groups of people talking
together on street corners.
"Some were celebrating,
some ot hers were quiet," she
said.
But her only thought
about victory, she said, was
"at what price?"
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Bastrop Advertiser (Bastrop, Tex.), No. 95, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 1, 1979, newspaper, February 1, 1979; Bastrop, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth602030/m1/3/: accessed May 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Bastrop Public Library.