Nellie Trujillo: Growing up in wartime
By Freddy Ontiberos
Mr. George
American History
11 November 2002
I interviewed my Great Grandmother Nellie Trujillo. She lived in the Mexican Village during World War 2 in Dodge City, Kansas.
What were you doing when you heard that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor? She was listening to the radio station X.E.W. out of Mexico City. They were playing a song called Mala Noche (Bad Night), when they interrupted with the news that Pearl Harbor had been bombed earlier that day. She was eighteen years old in 1940 when all this commotion had occurred.
What were you doing when you heard that the atomic bomb had been dropped on Japan and the war was over? She was listing to the radio station X.E.W. She was happy that the war was over. She had the urge to go out and enjoy herself at the parties that were being thrown due to the war being over.
What was one thing – a phrase, a picture, an activity – most often comes to mind when you think of those years? She was scared because the USA was at war, and they heard that they wanted to bomb the Golden Gate in San Francisco, California.
How did food and gas rationing work? What were victory gardens, and did you have one? Did you participate in a scrap drive? Stamps were given families to buy shoes and clothing. She did not have a victory garden. Scrap drives were not really going on where she lived.
What other ways did ordinary people support the war effort? All the men were at war, women worked the air plane factories and Browns Manufacturing made equipment for soldiers.
How did you learn what was happening in the war overseas? Did you have anything special to keep track of the war news, like a scrap book?
She went every Sunday to the Dodge Theater and watched news reels and this let her know what was going on overseas.
How much time did you spend in school talking about the war? She was out of school, but they talked in groups and gathered in random places in their neighborhood with her friends.
How did the war affect your family life? Did any members of your immediate family go overseas? Her brother, Mike Torrez, was stations in Germany and everyone prayed that the world would be a better place and send the soldiers our best wishes.
How strong are your memories of this period compared to other times in your life? How do you explain that? Everything had changed and it was not the same, and we did not have the peace like we used to.
One of the saddest moments was she worried that her brother Mike wasn’t coming back, and at the same time they got news that her friends, Rudy and Bob Esquibel (brothers) had been killed in action.
Mr. George
American History
11 November 2002
I interviewed my Great Grandmother Nellie Trujillo. She lived in the Mexican Village during World War 2 in Dodge City, Kansas.
What were you doing when you heard that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor? She was listening to the radio station X.E.W. out of Mexico City. They were playing a song called Mala Noche (Bad Night), when they interrupted with the news that Pearl Harbor had been bombed earlier that day. She was eighteen years old in 1940 when all this commotion had occurred.
What were you doing when you heard that the atomic bomb had been dropped on Japan and the war was over? She was listing to the radio station X.E.W. She was happy that the war was over. She had the urge to go out and enjoy herself at the parties that were being thrown due to the war being over.
What was one thing – a phrase, a picture, an activity – most often comes to mind when you think of those years? She was scared because the USA was at war, and they heard that they wanted to bomb the Golden Gate in San Francisco, California.
How did food and gas rationing work? What were victory gardens, and did you have one? Did you participate in a scrap drive? Stamps were given families to buy shoes and clothing. She did not have a victory garden. Scrap drives were not really going on where she lived.
What other ways did ordinary people support the war effort? All the men were at war, women worked the air plane factories and Browns Manufacturing made equipment for soldiers.
How did you learn what was happening in the war overseas? Did you have anything special to keep track of the war news, like a scrap book?
She went every Sunday to the Dodge Theater and watched news reels and this let her know what was going on overseas.
How much time did you spend in school talking about the war? She was out of school, but they talked in groups and gathered in random places in their neighborhood with her friends.
How did the war affect your family life? Did any members of your immediate family go overseas? Her brother, Mike Torrez, was stations in Germany and everyone prayed that the world would be a better place and send the soldiers our best wishes.
How strong are your memories of this period compared to other times in your life? How do you explain that? Everything had changed and it was not the same, and we did not have the peace like we used to.
One of the saddest moments was she worried that her brother Mike wasn’t coming back, and at the same time they got news that her friends, Rudy and Bob Esquibel (brothers) had been killed in action.