Ed Steele (ES): Ed Steele. My birthday?

Marina Moriarty (MM): Sure

ES: 3-28-17. Worked at US Steel

Betty Steele (BS): Which was American steel

ES: Huh. It was Washburn, then it turned to American steel and wire, us steel and I worked in the electrical cable works. And I retired in 1978, 24 years ago and I had 42 years service down there and I when I retired I was supervisor of finishing, shipping, ahh,

BS: transportation

ES: ahh, transportation and wheel repair. And ahm, what else?

MM: Can you tell me how you found out about the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

ES: About the what?

MM: The bombing of Pearl Harbor

ES: Ahh, through the paper and TV.

BS: You saw it on TV?

ES: Yeah

MM: what, what were your first thoughts?

BS: No

ES: Terrible.

BS: Did we have TV then? We didn't have TV. I heard it on the radio

ES: Did too. Maybe, maybe I'm wrong then. Maybe it was the radio.

BS: It was not TV Eddie.

ES: Huh?

BS: That was 1941 right?

ES: Yeah, 41. that's right cause I got our first TV in what? 1951?

BS: 49

ES: something like that, so it must have been the radio.

BS: Is that on now? Can you hear me?

MM: That's quite aright. Can you tell me how you noticed life in the Village change? How did your family…

ES: Well I'll tell you, when I was a young, young it was all Swedes. It was all sweets that lived. And one thing, like today, you don't know nobody hardly that lives around here, except the ones immediately around here. You know? And I used to know I used to know everyone on Whipple Street, everyone on Steele street, all the streets down here. I could tell you where everybody lived. But today of course, they don't come out like they used to. You drive, you drive around now nobody comes out, except the people we know around here.

MM: Were there, any dramatic differences you noticed in the village between, between when you left for the war and when you came back? Did you notice differences maybe in your, in the activities in the village or in the work in the village?

ES: Well the village used to be a live place, you walk through the village a lot of kids, a lot of people. And and when I came back it was kind of diminished.

MM: How so?

ES: I don't know why. And still today it is the same way. The same way down there. You drive through the village now, its dead. It was real lively. And of course we used to have police walking the streets in them days. Today you don't see any police walking the streets down here. They go by in cruisers. So I notice that, that's a big, big change.

MM: Did the ahm, the village have before WWII did the Village have a different sense of community then after the war or did something change in that sense?

ES: I don't know how I can answer that. Ahhh.

MM: When you came home from the war did you do different leisure activities than you did before you left?

ES: Oh, I would say I did about the same

MM: About the same?

ES: About the same.

BS: Basketball

ES: Oh well, I did basket ball before I went into the war. I was, they had a church league down here and, and it was four churches involved in it and we used to play basketball in tournaments up at North High school on Salisbury street. Of course that's not there anymore and then after the war I was a coach on the Methodist team up at Norton Company. We played up at Norton Company. That's the only difference I noticed.

MM: Did you, did you notice any rivalries before you left before you left between the Swedes in Quinsigamond Village and other parts of Worcester. Did you notice any…

ES: No, I don't, we didn't have trouble with anybody

MM: Nobody?

ES: We didn't have trouble with anybody. So I cant I cant say we had any real rivalries.

MM: Did you go into the city a lot? Did you go to ahm, downtown Worcester? Or did you mostly…

ES: We mostly stayed here. Of course I went to north high school. And I walked home from there a lot too. My father was in the, he was in the market basket business, and and ahm, he didn't have time to come get me, and of course them days, they don't have the bus service that kids have today. No busses. You had to take the bus by yourself, transit.

BS: Or walk…or walk.

ES: Exactly or walk. What did you and other ahm, citizens of the village. How did you feel about the war? Why did you think you were fighting the war? Did you talk about it at all or?

ES: Oh well, sure. They bombed Pearl Harbor that's what got everybody up in the air here. You know? I didn't want to go into the war, but I got drafted.

BS: They had the draft

ES: They had the draft, so they caught up to me. So I had to go. But that's alright.

MM: So what was your…how did you feel about fighting the enemy? How did you feel/ what was your perception about the people you were fighting against?

ES: See we were fighting against the Japs, they were very sneaky. They didn't care if they got killed or now. When I was on Okinawa, crying out loud, I felt bad on Okinawa for the infantry people. The ones on foot, I was in an armored tank, we used to get shot at by the infantry, the Japanese infantry, and just bounced off the tank. And another thing I was scared about down there, flame throwers, come up against the tank, kill everyone in the tank. But we were lucky, that never happened to us. Of course we did the same thing. They were in caves down there they go right up to the cave and use the flamethrower in the cave. I don't know how many were in there, must have been quite a few. Got killed that way, you know?

MM: How did you understand the Germans as the enemy? How did you and other…

ES: Germany you said?

MM: Yeah, how did you feel about the Germans? How did you and your friends…

ES: Hitler?

MM: Hitler.

ES: We didn't feel very good about him, ill tell you that. Hell, we think Roosevelt did the right thing there.

MM: Was there a lot of ahm, did many people in the village buy war bonds?

ES: I think so.

BS: Oh yea

ES: Yeah,

MM: Was there, was there general support for the war in the Village?

ES: I would say there was. Yeah.

MM: And how were you received when you came home?

ES: I got welcomed.

MM: Did you find it difficult to readjust to life back home? Had many things changed?

ES: No, I didn't find. I got right back to us steel. Right away, I think I took a couple weeks vacation then I went back to work. And I was received good down there. I was lucky down there. I started off down there in 1937, I graduated from north in 1936 and I was, I wanted to be a farmer, like my father, you know, work here. But September 1937, my father had a friend who lived on Carslon street down here, he was superintendent the roller mills down here. So my father says, do you think you can get a job for my son? For that winter you know?

MM: Uh huh.

ES: And and he says, yeah, sure will get him a job, so I got hired into the electrical cable works. I was floor man there in the cable works for I would say for about 3 months, then I went down to the shipping department as a ranger and sodder and from there, I was friendly with on of the general foreman and he says, so, so ed, would you uh, like to go work up in the office? I says yea, yeah that would be alright. So he got me up into the office. I was a chaser there, going around the mill, chasing products that get through. And after that I got called in by the boss and asked me if I wanted to be a stock clerk, sitting on my can all day there, didn't have to walk around the mill. So, so , I took that job. Then we had, we had, they were getting ready to fire the superintendent, john, Johnny Jewel. So they had people coming from the headquarters in Cleveland, come to Worcester, and a fellow by the name of Jim, Jim Robertson, that came in, oh I guess they had been there for about a week or so, I didn't know they were watching me and how I was doing. So he called me in the office and says, would you like to be a supervisor in production planning? He says you don't have to tell me right now. Ill give you a couple days to think about it. I belonged to the union down there, you know. For. So, I come home an I asked her and we decided why don't you try it. And I did. I was supervisor of the stock clerks in the production planning office. Form there in, I think it was 1958, a fellow by the name of, uh, of uh, what's his name?

BS: Is she interested in this?

MM: That's ok.

ES: Nickelson. He's superintendent. He says, frank, ah, John McGinnis is ah, gonna retire down in shipping department, he says would you like to take that job? I says sure. And I took that job.

BS: She's not interested in that.

ES: Ill cut it out now.

MM: Can I ask you about how your family dealt with the war? did your family find it more difficult to live during the war?

ES: Oh I guess my mother, my mother was really concerned when I went to Okinawa. She was really concerned. My father didn't have much to say.

MM: Did, did your family have difficulty with food rations?

ES: I imagine so, I imagine so. Though they grew a lot of vegetables here, so they had all the vegetables they needed. And my mother was a great canner. She used to can.

MM: What did the village mean to you before the war? what did living in the village mean? Did it have a special, a special meaning? Did you have a special identity?

ES: I always liked the village, so, I don't know what else to say. I always liked the village. I used to play baseball, I was the catcher. I ah, I was down at greenwood park a lot.

MM: Did you like it as much when you came home from the war?

ES: I guess so. I never disliked it.

MM: Did you notice different groups coming into the village? Or did it look pretty much the same?

ES: Oh yeah, I noticed that. A lot of different groups came into the village. The Swedes started to move out and the Irish came in and the polish came in. all good people though. We had a lot of competition down at the park.

MM: But you generally agreed with Roosevelt and his decisions?

ES: Yeah, I did. I think he did a splendid job.

MM: When you were home, how did you find out about politics and?

ES: Well, we had a Alex Sterneloff, he was an alderman, in the city of Worcester, of course he was my Sunday school teacher. So that's how I got interested n politics. Of course he was a republican and I was made a republican at that time.

MM: Did you go to the movies at all before the war? or before..

ES: Oh yeah. And after the war too, with her. She was a great movie-goer.

BS: That's all we did. What else did we have?

ES: Yeah, that's true. I went quite a bit to the movies. Now its all changed

BS: There are no movies here in the city.

ES: What about Greendale?

BS: Is, is that on?

MM: Oh no, I'm sorry its still on. No, no, go ahead.

BS: No, but they are all closed, all the ones we thought were beautiful. They are all closed. There are none around here.

ES: The one over at Webster square, we used to go there a lot. That's gone.

BS: The little theater we used to go to. We thought that was wonderful, the auditorium and the music festival.

MM: In the 1940s was there a theater right in the village or did you have to go into the city?

ES: The nearest one was Millbury street. I went there.

MM: Did you…

ES: Yeah. There was really nothing like that down there.

MM: Just grocery stores, a few five and tens. That's all.

ES: There was a clothing store

BS: A clothing store. That's it.

ES: And Archie's and a drug store, another drug store.

BS: Yeah. Now they don't have anything.

ES: They don't have nothing like that down there now. That's why its so dead now. You take a walk down there now at night, absolutely dead, even though they put the community center down there.

MM: Uh huh.

ES: You see very, very few kids down there.

BS: They are all home watching TV

MM: What is your greatest memory of the war while you were home? Maybe your greatest memory before you left...

ES: Ahha, I don't know how to answer that. Really didn't have anything great. I was happy to get home.

MM: I mean, before you got drafted what what, what impressed you the most. What did you and your friends talk about the most before you got drafted?

ES: Stay out of the war

MM: There was always that fear that you were going to get drafted?

ES: I knew I was gonna get drafted. See my father was in the market garden business, so I figured I had a chance there, cause I was going to help him. But that didn't work out. I was told you were goin in the army, and I went in the army. Or the service I mean. I didn't volunteer at that time. I just went

MM: Did you, did people in Quinsigamond think of themselves as villagers first or as Americans first? Where was your identity? Was it….

ES: Oh, I think, I think when the war was on we were Americans. I really think that, at least that's the way I felt

BS: Your friends went with you too.

ES: Who?

BS: Well, [unintelligible]

ES: Gusterson, knew him.

BS: And after the war you had a reunion every year. [unintelligible]

ES: Oh yeah. Well they were mostly from Boston,

BS: a few around here.

ES: There was only me, I forgot the name of the guy from Worcester. 2 guys from Worcester, just me and him.

BS: Larry.

ES: He wasn't from Worcester, he was from Millbury.

BS: So, he was around here.

MM: Did you think that, did you think that the, the war changed your family? Because your family stayed and you left. Did you notice a change in your family from before the war to after the war?

ES: I don't think there was any change. They were all happy to see me come home, you know?

MM: Did you have any sisters?

ES: Any what?

MM: Did you have any sisters?

BS: SISTERS! [yelling]

ES: Sisters?

BS: Did you have any sisters?

ES: Oh, yes, she lives right next door.

MM: Did she go to work during the war or did she stay home?

ES: Her husband was in the war, in the navy. She stayed home.

MM: She stayed home. Did she have children at that time?

ES: Yeah.

BS: Yeah, Norma. She had one girl.

MM: Ok, is there anything else you would like to have recorded?

ES: I don't know

MM: About the village, about life in the village before the war?

ES: The only thing I can say about the village now is its dead. It's a league of nations that live here.

BS: All except the blacks.

ES: We have a lot of blacks that live on top of the hill. All good people. Real good, their kids are wonderful. They walk through my yard in back there and they say hi. They don't touch anything. So I got no complaints about the blacks, ill tell you that. They're good people.

MM: You just wish that the village had more life in general?

ES: That's right. See they, they had a place to go, called Archie's store down in the village. Everybody used to congregate in front of him. He was a nice guy. He treated everybody good. And now he's gone, that store is empty. That used to be a lively place, right in the heart of the village. Grey Square.

MM: Well, thank you very much.

BS: I don't know what you got out of this.