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Owen, Mildred (audio interview #3 of 3)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is third of three interviews conducted with Mildren Owen in her trailer home in the desert community of Yucaipa, California. As previously, she seemed to enjoy the interview experience and particularly the company of the interviewer. Owen's anecdotal style lent itself well to the interview process. However, her propensity to move from one episode of her life to another, which paralleled her peripatetic life pattern, made it difficult to construct a clear sense of chronology. 6/20/1980
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- 2021-07-27
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- SUBJECT BIO - Mildred Owen began working at North American Aircraft in 1943, and remained there for two years until she was laid off. The first of eleven children, born in Boston, Owen began working after she completed the ninth or tenth grades, first in a leatherette factory and then a munitions factory. Starting in 1920, with the exception of one year when she worked at a box factory, she worked as a waitress on the hotel/restaurant circuit for the next nine years. This is how she met her husband, who worked as a waiter, who she divorced in 1943. After Owen married, and for the next five years during which her three sons were born, she worked as a domestic. Then, during the Depression, and until she went to work in a shipyard in Massachusetts in 1942, she remained home and received relief payments. Following her job at North American, Owen worked at various chains of the Fred Harvey restaurants in California, returning to Massachusetts in 1951, where she worked at various odd jobs and cared for her ailing mother. At her son's suggestion, she returned to southern California in the mid-1970s. She was enthusiastic about the Rosie the Riveter Revisited project and remained in contact with both the interviewer and project director inquiring about the progress of the project. TOPICS - children; postwar layoffs at North American; job responsibilities; exposure to fumes and debris; working with fiberglass and resin materials; attitude towards defense work; relationship with co-workers; work attirepostwar layoffs at North American; postwar work; family history; parent's illnesses and deaths; waitress and pantry attendant at Fred Harvey restaurants; housing and living arrangements in California and Massachushobbies; social activities and dating as adolescent and young adult; divorce; financial and emotional independence; attitude towards war work; and future plans; The audio quality of this interview is fair;
- *** File: rrrmowen9.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:04-1:19)... Owen clarifies the ages of her children when she moved to California in 1943 and during the years she worked at North American. (1:19-3:13)... There is some confusion about when Owen was laid off from North American. She lived in California, working at North American, for approximately five years, returning to Massachusetts when she was laid off. There, she went to work at a donut shop and a dry-cleaning company, but quit working a few months later so that she could care for her ailing parents. (3:13-6:45)... Owen discusses the layoffs at North American in 1945. She continued to work after the war making windows and helmets. She also completed reinforcement work on the fiberglass canopies during the postwar years. She talks about the fumes she was exposed to while working on the canopies. (6:45-8:03)... Owen entire crew were women. She worked on a team with two women on the fiberglass canopies. They were able to talk while they worked and she got to know them well. (8:03-9:53)... Owen enjoyed working at North American and thought that "it was for a good cause." Although she had worked in a factory setting before, she was exposed to new materials like fiberglass. She notes that she developed a skin rash whenever fiberglass debris came in contact with her body. (9:53-11:49)... Although she was not pressured by her supervisors, Owen was very conscientious about doing her job correctly. When applying resin to the parts she worked on, she was required to wear rubber gloves. She describes her work attire, noting that she did not have to wear a protective cap on her head unless she was working near machinery. (11:49-13:32)... As hop steward, Owen handled shop matters in her department affecting both men and women. She was very successful at recruiting new members to the union. (13:32-17:58)... Owen earned approximately $50 to $70/week at North American. Although she did not have a lot of money left over by the end of each pay period, she made ends meet and supported her three sons adequately. Her oldest son married and moved out when he was eighteen and her second son went into the service when he was seventeen, serving during the Korean conflict. By the time she left North American in 1949, her third son was fifteen years old son still attending high school. (17:58-20:16)... In the late 1940s, Owen work at North American began to take a toll and she felt extremely run down. She occasionally laid down while she was at work when she did not feel well. Her supervisor encouraged her to take advantage of the vacation time she had acquired over the years. While she was on vacation, her oldest son got a job to help her support the family. When she returned to North American a few weeks later, she was laid off. At that time, she returned to Massachusetts with her youngest son. (20:16-23:03)... At North American, Owen worked an eight-hour shift, 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. She usually arrived home 3:30-4:00 p.m. During her first couple of years at the plant, all three of her sons lived at home and helped her around the house. Her youngest son got a license when he was fourteen or fifteen so that he could take her to the store during the period she was ill. (23:03-27:24)... Owen expected that she would be laid off at the end of the war and that North American would "get rid of the women because they didn't need them anymore." She felt fortunate to be one of the women who stayed after the war. After she was laid off in 1949, she went back home to Massachusetts. She recounts returning to California to visit her son, only to rush back to Massachusetts when her sister told her that their father was dying. When Owen got home she learned that her father was healthy and that her sister feigned his illness because she did not want to take care of him any longer. Owen stayed in Massachusetts with her parents until her father died in 1976. End of tape. *** File: rrrmowen10.mp3 (0:02-4:10)... There is some confusion in Owen discussion of the postwar layoffs at North American. Although she implies that she was laid off at the end of the war, in previous interviews, she stated that she was laid off in 1949. She notes that although women expected that they would be laid off after the war, many were disappointed when it happened. (4:10-8:33)... Owen returned to Massachusetts two weeks after she was laid off from North American in 1949 and went to work at a donut house and a dry-cleaning company. Her youngest son also worked and contributed to the household income. He married when he was eighteen and moved out. Owen second son returned to Massachusetts in 1953-54 after serving in the Korean conflict. He lived with her and her parents until he married. When her parent's apartment house caught fire, they moved to a new location and she rented an apartment next door to them. She worked in the dry cleaning business until the early 1970s, at which time she left to take care of her mother who died in 1973. (8:33-15:17)... Clarifying her work history during the postwar years, Owen notes that she was hired as a Fred Harvey waitress in 1945 after she was laid off from North American. She worked at Harvey's restaurant in the Grand Canyon during the summer of 1945 and then returned to Massachusetts. When she had trouble finding work at resort hotels in Florida during the winter of 1945, she returned to Fred Harvey and worked the summers at the Grand Canyon and the winters in Death Valley. She also worked in Sequoia for a summer or two. Her waitress wages were approximately $67 every two weeks plus tips and room and board. When she was promoted to pantry attendant in Death Valley, she earned more. She quit Fred Harvey when her father started to go blind and she was needed by her parents in Massachusetts. (15:17-19:42)... Owen discusses her parents' health problems and her father's last days of life. He died at home in 1976. After her father died, she sold their home and moved back to California. (19:42-23:32)... Owen describers her various living arrangements. When she moved back to California in the 1970s at her son's suggestions, she arranged for housing in California through the HUD office in Massachusetts. End of tape. *** File: rrrmowen11.mp3 (0:02-2:25)... One of Owen hobbies as a young adult was to make and sell artificial flowers and wedding decorations. When she was employed at Bethlehem Steel, she made rag dolls and sold these items to co-workers during Christmas holidays. (2:25-4:32)... Owen discusses her work history at the dry cleaning company and the donut shop during the late 1960s. She left the dry-cleaning company in 1971 to take care of her mother. That was the last job that she had. (4:32-7:07)... Looking back, her life was much better during WWII than it was during WWI. She recalls having to stand in long lines just to get sugar and other types of food during WWI, in contrast to WWII. Jobs also were more plentiful and people were not living in poverty. (7:07-8:57)... Owen enjoyed working in defense during WWII, stating, "It was an experience that I really never thought I would ever do and it was something different." She never utilized the mechanical skills she learned at North American at any of her jobs in the postwar period. (8:57-13:21)... Owen reminisces about the years she enjoyed roller skating and dancing when she was a young woman. Later, when she worked in Florida, she won a roller skating contest during the period she worked in Florida. (13:21-18:17)... Owen describes her social life when she was an adolescent. When she was eighteen, she met a man and they almost got engaged. Even though she was separated from her husband during WWII, she did not date other men. She divorced in 1943, but never dated again, joking, "I haven't been with a man in so long, I wouldn't know what to do if I had one." She was proud of the fact that she supported her children on her own and did not need to depend on a man. She enjoys living on her own and would never want to share her home with a man because "I could not stand having anyone tell me what to do." (18:17-22:33)... Owen future plans include traveling to Florida and Massachusetts to visit relatives. She lives a relatively quiet home life, occasionally going out to play bingo or visiting her children. She does not drive and has to take a bus wherever she goes. Although she is content living alone, she does get lonely. She is careful not to go out alone in the evenings because of street crime. She discusses a friend who was robbed while waiting for a bus in San Bernardino. End of tape.
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