And you are too! That's why you're here, visiting with me as I take you to the 1940s for romance at a time when the world trembled and innocent love endured the separation of war.
It's a totally different world today. I find that I can't live without my Andoid or my tablet. There are times when I literally have the desktop doing one thing, the Kindle doing another and my IPad playing music, and you just know that my phone is right beside me ready to buzz my Tweets and send a quick text. I do my research on the net and have at my grasp a few vintage WWII history books beside me. Yeah, it was a different world during the forties.
Letter writing and the telephone, talking with neighbors on the front stoop or the porch, the radio and the movies were all the social networking of the time. Dancing and music were tantamount in every household - even as America's involvement in the war raged on for over four years. And speaking of dancing ... good Lawd, it's different today. Then it was sweaty palms as your partner swung you around the floor or held you in a nice embrace. Today it's sweaty bodies bumping and grinding on an overcrowded dance floor where the pick up line is "Yo, I wanna know your name, your numba and how old are ya'. You wanna get jiggy on the floor?" As opposed to "You're one swell ducky shincracker. Would you care to dance?" Please can I get in a time machine and hit reverse 70 years?
I discovered that men were gentlemen. Do we even know the true definition of that in today's Millennial era? Holding doors open, exiting elevators after all the women exited, rising when ladies came to the table, and most importantly respecting the word "no," even if they didn't want to! Chivalry was the word of the day, not swear words, which were few except in the military, and only spoken by the GIs.
Ladies wore gloves and there was a hat for every occasion. Fedoras were a man's essential accessory until they were replaced with seven pound helmets of steel in the trenches. Dresses and suits and Government Issue (GI) olive drab and Red Cross Gray Lady uniforms were the norm of the day. Evening and sleep apparel were drastically different, and ladies didn't wear their pajamas or slippers to the grocer, like we see today. I must admit, there are many days when I roll out of bed, pour my coffee, settle in at my computer then remain in my jammies and bunny slippers until two in the afternoon. It would be so easy to hit the supermarket without a change of attire!
So, like many of you, I always thought that the sixties ushered in the feminist movement but the forties were considered "phase one." Women entered into the workforce: Rosie drilled rivets into bombers, tanks, and ships twelve hours a day as her man fought for the survival of liberty. No longer just keeping house and raising children, they joined the war effort in both the military and on the home front. That lasted until the boys came home, and they were kicked to the curb, pushed back into the kitchen, restoring domestic tranquility and normalcy - the very things the boys had been fighting for.
It was a generation of sacrifice and hardship, yet youthful love blossomed, and familes pulled together as their men left for unknown shores. I want to take you there - to that generation - that time of valor and heroism, that era that put women into the military and the eventual end of the war. Here on my blog, it comes to life in the romance, the history, the music, and yes, even the fashion. Won't you join me? Follow me with your email to receive my newsletter and you'll experience it all!
In my novels, we'll journey into compelling stories where the lives of our hero and heroine are most likely not too dissimilar to many veterans and their sweethearts.
I live and breathe this era. My husband is a WWII Living Historian with the 1st Infantry Division, otherwise referred to as the Big Red 1 (don't you love that!) Together we visit encampments and meet some of our nation's surviving heroes, veterans of a war that we should never forget. Their bravery lives on everyday, their valor honored in my novels. I'll even spotlight some of my interviews with them here on the blog!
Thank you for visiting, friend. Come back often and I promise we'll have a gas! Not that kind of gas. LOL :)
