October 11, 1906

Where were you born?

Worcester

Where did you live during the war?

Well I was brought up on Clayton St. 

How old were you during the war?

Oh I must have been 12 or 13 oh wait you are talking about WWII - oh I must have been at least in my 40s. Well the War started in 1942 so I was in my late 30s.

What was your occupation during the war? Did you have one?

I was a machine operator

For what? What company?

Harrington Richardson

What did you do for Harrington?

I operated a big big machine - we were making guns for the war.

Is that a job you got after the war started?

I started at Crompton Knolls - I was a can grinder then. Steel disks that were supposed to be for machinery. They said they were sending it to Springfield, Mass to put it together for a machine. I was a can grinder. That was the name of the job I had. A can grinder. I started there. They taught us how to be a machinist. From there I went to Harrington Richardson which was nearer to home. I was nearer to home there. They were on Park Ave and I was on May Street and I thought the job was better. In fact, I gave it up to take care of my first granddaughter. 
 
 

Oh really?

Yeah so my daughter to go to work. 

Oh ok

She worked. Her last name was Harrington and she worked at Harrington Richardson as a bookkeeper. 

Oh wow. Do you remember what your wages were like at Harrington Richardson?

They were not very much. We didn’t get much. The most I got down there was 80 dollars. The policemen used to deliver our payroll because we worked the night shift. I was working 3-11 and 11-7. I would swing around with one of the girls that was working out of town. She wanted to change jobs with me. She said "Sarah I am tired of working nights would you change with me?" and I said "sure". I made 80 dollars that week. I remember that pay very clearly because the police said "What are we doing in the police department with this heavy pay envelope?" It was nothing but heavy half-dollars. They paid us in half-dollars at that time. I remember that that envelope was so heavy that he said, "what are we doing in the police department?" I thought that was so funny and so cute of him to say that, you know because I don’t know, because that's the only pay I can remember. I remember getting 30 or 40 dollars. We worked piecework. That was piecework. You had to make so much an hour and you would get paid like that.

And let me see, from there I stopped working. My husband said stop working. Then I worked at FilenesI went back to store work. I went to work in a Filenes store. I was a clerk there. 

This is after the war?

Yes this was after the war.

Did your husband work during the war?

He had his own business. He had his own garage. He was a mechanic. Our house and the garage was in the back so all he had to do was go out of the house and into the garage to go to work.

So he wasn’t drafted?

No he was too old for that.

Did you have any siblings?

I have two daughters. I have loads of great grand children. I am on the fifth generation. I have pictures at home. They gave me a 95^th birthday dinner. My granddaughter made those arrangements. We took pictures of everybody there. There were grandchildren, great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren there. We have twins in the family. 

You're a lucky lady! 

I was lucky to have good health. I was really lucky. I had no trouble what so ever. Now I have it all piled up with arthritis. I have it in my fingers and my knees are horrible. I am stuck in a wheelchair but they walk me everyday so I don’t get stiff. 

Oh how nice.

Yes she is very nice to me. It’s a nice place here.

You enjoy it?

I do I enjoy it very much. They are all so good to me I like them. They are very, very nice. 

Good. 

They have a lot of colored people working here but they are very, very nice. I'll tell you some of them must have come from Africa because they are so dark. They are not born around this country because they are so black. But they are very nice. They laugh at everything you say to them. They think everything is a joke.

Wonderful. Can you tell me a little bit about your education?

I got as far as the third year in high school and then I had to drop out. My father pulled me out of school to help support the family. At that time I was working at Johnsy McGuinnus. That was the name of the store. That's out of business now. It used to be a beautiful store. Just a shop. A clothing store.

What is your ethnicity?

Armenian

Did you belong to any clubs or church groups?

I belonged to …oh I can't remember the name. I went there for a little while. It was nighttime. I couldn’t make it at night. Icy weather. At the Armenian Church I sang in the choir.

What is the name of the church?

Armenian Church of our Savior. Its on Salsbury St. It’s a nice church. It's not too old. We had a church up on Laurel Hill. That was where the Armenians congregated because the church was there. Everyone wanted to be near the church. So they built this nice church on Salsbury St. and sold the other church and the Russian people bought it.

When was this?

This was a long time ago oh I don’t know what year hunny. I don’t remember the years.

Was this during the war or after the war?

I think it was during the war. I am not sure about that because I didn’t sing there I sang at the old church up on Laurel Hill.

So your neighborhood was very centered around the church? 

Yes it was. Most Armenians lived around Laurel Hill and Summer St. Up around there -you probably don’t know those streets.

No I am not familiar with them. 

But if you say Laurel Hill everybody knows where Laurel Hill is - its on a hill.

Like lots of things in Worcester. 

Yeah - Worcester is supposed to be built on 7 hills but I can count 14. 

How was Worcester during the war? Did you notice any tension between any neighborhoods based on ethnicity?

No the Armenian people are very friendly people. They get along with everybody-even the blacks. There was blacks around that neighborhood because it was a cheep neighborhood. Rents were cheap. We had a Jewish landlord and he was very good to us. My mother had 6 children. I was next to the oldest. My brother was born in the old country and then my mother brought him out here. My father came out here first and then it took him almost 16 years to save enough money to bring him, my mother, my brother and a nephew out here and that was in 1905 and I was born in 1906. 

Wow you've spent a long time in Worcester! Do remember much about the consumption of goods - like the rationing during the war?

Oh yes. We had to buy things with coupons and stamps. The rationing was terrible. It was. The coffee and the sugar and the butter and even meat was rationed. You couldn’t get bacon. Oh I remember my husband had a garage on Main St. before we bought the house on the foot of the hill. My husband had the garage on Main St. and we were across the street from the A & P store. I used to look out the window. I used to help my husband in the garage. I knew something about automobiles and I helped my husband in the garage. We did inspections on stickers - you know you need those stickers to ride. I helped with that. I used to look out the window and say "Louie, the Flipton Company is delivering meat over there." And meat is rationed. He used to say "go over and tell Mr. Dodge," he was the manager there, "to save us a leg of lamb.". They used to park their cars in our yard so he had to do us a favor. It was nice like that. I would get all the butter I wanted. I would give all my coupons away to the neighbors because I had plenty of coupons on account of Mr. Dodge favoring us. That's how it was during the war. Everything was rationed.

I would love to hear more about your work in the factory. Were there a lot more women working there?

Oh yes. The men were going off to war. The girls and women were being hired. We were a bunch of women. It was nice working with the women at that time. I never worked in a shop. I always work at a store as a clerk from the time I was a youngster. I worked at Filenes. I worked at a curtain store. I loved to talk that's my weakness. 

What pushed you to get a job during the war? Was it your husband? Did you need the money?

It wasn’t favoritism at all. We didn’t have to know anybody to get a job. Everybody could get a job because most of the fellows were in the service. I had two brothers in the service. They both came out alive - no danger there. What else can I tell you about the war?

What did you do for recreation during the war?

I was babysitting - home taking care of her. My husband was a very good bowler. He was one pin short of being the champion of the city - of his gang. He got a couple of bowling cups. There was no recreation. I don’t remember - we didn’t go to dances. If we went to the movies it would be on a Sunday. I would entertain at home. Relatives would come and go. I have now outlived them all. I am the only one of 6 children living. I didn’t think I would live so long.

Do you remember where you were when the war started?

Yes I was coming out of the bank. This fellow came in and said "Oh war is declared". I think that they shot the president at that time. I think it was JFK being shot that day I was coming out of the bank. That's all I can remember. But during the war I don’t remember - of course we got newspapers at that time. We didn’t have TV at that time. 

Is there anything else?

I don’t remember much of anything else. We were poor people. We didn’t have much money. We had to work hard for it. We didn’t go out spending it. We had no place to spend it. My husband had a Cadillac that was old and he repaired it, painted it. He made it look presentable. We went to Canada in it. We went to New Mexico and I've been to Florida. I would love to go to CA. I have a granddaughter out there and she's always talking about CA and she loves Hawaii but I'll never see that place either. 

Is there anything else you can tell me about Worcester during the war?

There wasn’t a lot of things you could buy during the war because a lot of things were converted over to machinery for the war. Like shoes were expensive. Anything that you bought was expensive because there was a shortage of it. I think that is why we started doing business with Japan and China at that time. Everything turned into war effort. Every shop turned their machines into doing war articles. 

Do you have anything else to add? 

I haven't told you much of anything that's very interesting. We worked at Harrington Richardson making the guns. 

Do you remember how many years you worked there? 

Just a year and a half. Then my daughter had her baby and I stayed home. She asked, "Mom, would you stay home and take care of Paula while I work. " I said "sure". I had kind of gotten tired of working the night shift. I worked 3-11 and 11-7. We would sing all night long with the windows wide open and there were houses across the street. I remember the police came over and told us to shut up. We were keeping them awake form 11-7, but we had to do something to stay awake. We all sang all the war songs. We had a lot of fun doing that.

Did you work every day? 

Everyday. I wasn't absent one day. One time I remember it was a really bad night my husband couldn’t drive me to work I had to walk. In those days the women would be - they would catch a woman on her way to work and they would rape them. Women would be afraid. I would carry a knife in my pocketbook. The older men, the younger ones were in the service. They were hiding behind the trees. They would say "Sarah you never know when they will grab you and pull you into the cars." 

They didn’t like you taking their jobs? 

No, no that wasn't it. They thought the women needed the men. They wanted to be with them. I don’t know what the reason was. There was a quite a few being raped like that. They were the older men, 35, 40. So this one day I went to work. It was very icy and snow. I walked all the way to work. When I got there they said "Sarah what are you doing here at night ? This kind of night we didn’t expect you. " I said "I've got to come in - we've got to win the war! I am here to win the war." They used to call me Mrs. Roosevelt. 

Oh really?

One night I was working and the superintendent was going through the department and I couldn’t see him. All the sudden I saw a little spark and I said somebody is down there watching me and I kept staring and staring and all of the sudden he stepped out of the shadows. He called me Eleanor. I said, "Mister my name isn't Eleanor, my name is Sarah.". He said, "Oh no everybody knows you as Eleanor Roosevelt around here." I must have looked like her. I had buckteeth at the time and I was tall like her. I said "We've got to win the war". They had guards outside the factory - everything had to be protected. I walked to work and it was a very bad night. I used to be afraid. I was scared. My husband used to drive me to work but that night he couldn’t drive me. It was a half-mile walk but I had my knife in my pocket. So that was that. I wish I had nicer stories to tell you. When I worked in the store I liked it. I liked being a saleslady. 

How did things change after the war? 

The fellows came home. Naturally we had to leave our jobs - they wanted their jobs back. They were gone 2 or 3 years. I was glad. My daughter had her baby and so I stayed home. I was tired of working the nightshift. Singing and yelling to stay awake, getting yelled at by the police. It was either close the window or be quite but it was summer so we couldn’t close the window. We sang quietly. The machinery was loud though and a big big machine. I had to grind it down to the size of a long part of a gun. It was automatic. It was interesting and different. We made the little guns and the big guns. The policemen wanted the little guns. We were making mostly for the war, the big guns. It was nice. I liked working in a factory. I never worked in a factory before. I thought it was wonderful for them to hire me and teach me how to run the machines so now I know what goes on inside those factories. We learn from what we experience. It was different from store work. I liked the store - it was cleaner, better hours, not as noisy. 

Well Sarah that's it - you've been such a help. 

I am so glad I could talk to you. Please come back to visit.