Hello,   In this morning's  MassMoments e-mail there is a story about how many women were forced to go out to work during the World Wars,  especially WW II.      But, one reminder is that while reading was the  World War 2  was starting while "The Great Depression" was still going on.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression   http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=351   So, between 1930's and 1940's,   lots of SADNESS, worry,  stress, etc.,  was going on in our grandparents' lives,  and in our parents' lives -  if they were becoming soldiers in 1941 and 1942.   It's mentioned in the MassMoments article that in the .mill towns.  in MA   (like Lowell and Lawrence, etc.)    women were already working.    But - things changed in 1941:   ....    But with men leaving to enlist, there was a sudden labor shortage; women stepped forward as "production soldiers," taking their place on assembly lines. In the mill town of Lowell, where women had traditionally worked unskilled jobs for low wages, new opportunities opened, offering independence, self-respect, and money. At the end of the war, many women lost their jobs to returning soldiers, but others, armed with new skills, remained. The number of working women never again fell to pre-war levels.   Betty              (near Lowell, MA)     (And,  World War I  in the US was not pleasant for families.       My maternal grandparents were just getting married and starting having their many children from 1912  (until 1930's).    Then WW I was from 1914 to 1918.     And, then during the 1920's, these grandparents lost 3 babies for different reasons.    And, then the 1940's, their older sons were enlisting to go off to fight in WW II.        These grandparents never had a lot of money so they had to .make do.  with what they had -  and then throughout their early married years, 1911 to 1951,  lots of  WORRIES.)   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II