Juanita Eggers | Interview 1 | January 2, 2016

DUNHAM: I'll just introduce us that--it's January 2, 2016 and I'm here in the lovely home of Juanita Eggers. I'm saying that right? Yes?

EGGERS: Yes, Juanita Eggers.

DUNHAM: Okay--in Albany, Oregon, for the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front Oral History Project. And we always start at the beginning--or actually with what was your full name when you were born?

EGGERS: Juanita M. Uhlman.

DUNHAM: Okay, and how do you spell your maiden name?

EGGERS: U-H-L-M-A-N [spells]. It was Swiss--my dad was Swiss.

DUNHAM: Okay--ah! And when and where were you born?

EGGERS: St. Helens, Oregon.

DUNHAM: Okay, and what year?

EGGERS: Nineteen twenty-six.

DUNHAM: How far back do you know your family history? Do you know when your family on each side came to the US?

EGGERS: Pretty much. My dad's from Nebraska and I think his parents came over just before--I think before he was born they were here, but I'm not positive. 00:01:00But I know they went back to Switzerland when he was six, and then they came back here. They had a place in Portland.

DUNHAM: Went back with your Dad?

EGGERS: Yeah.

DUNHAM: Do you know how long they stayed in Switzerland?

EGGERS: I think it was mostly like a month's visit or something.

DUNHAM: A visit, okay.

EGGERS: Yeah, just a visit type.

DUNHAM: And on your mom's side?

EGGERS: Mom lived in Washington and was born and raised in--well, I think she was born in Colorado but she was raised in Washington State.

DUNHAM: Okay, and do you know where her family originally came from?

EGGERS: I'm not sure. As far as I know they were always there. I'm not sure.

DUNHAM: Did you know your grandparents on either side?

EGGERS: I didn't know my grandfather on my mom's side. My sister and I found out later that he was alive. But he was a cook on the wagon trains coming up from 00:02:00Texas, when they brought the cattle up, back and forth. And so we didn't even know he was alive until much later, and we could have--because I think he lived until '56, and so we never met him.

DUNHAM: Okay, and your other grandparents?

EGGERS: Yeah, I knew them. I knew my Grandma and Grandpa Uhlman, yeah. They lived in Portland and they were great people. My grandpa was just a little short guy and Grandma was quite tall! [laughing]

DUNHAM: Oh yeah? That's somewhat unusual.

EGGERS: It was. She was kind of a large--not big and heavy, but just a large-boned woman. She was really sweet though. I can remember her knitting and talking, knitting and talking. [laughing]

DUNHAM: And so where did you grow up?

EGGERS: Well, I was born in St. Helens and lived there till I was almost six. The Depression hit and right after that then--

DUNHAM: What had your family done in St. Helens?

EGGERS: Dad owned a garage and I think they were pretty well-to-do. He owned a garage and I've seen pictures of him all dressed up real fancy and everything. I think he lost the garage and they moved to Idaho. They just packed up and moved to Idaho, and we lived on a big ranch in Idaho until I was about thirteen.

DUNHAM: Okay, and I forgot to ask--how many siblings do you have or did you have?

EGGERS: I have four brothers and a sister.

DUNHAM: And where did you fall?

EGGERS: I was the oldest. [laughing]

DUNHAM: Okay, that's a lot of responsibility probably.

EGGERS: Yeah, I helped bring them up.

DUNHAM: So what was life like in Idaho? What town did you say, in Idaho?

EGGERS: It was Goodrich, Idaho a little bitty town and it's not even there anymore. It was between Council and Cambridge and it was just a small--Dad had a 00:04:00big ranch there. They had to really work hard. There was no electricity or anything then. I can remember all the people going out in the wintertime and cutting ice in the creeks, you know, getting ice and then they'd put it in a big, big stack and then they'd have trucks from Council come down and put sawdust over it. And that was ice for the ice box through the summer, most of the summer.

DUNHAM: And was it a farm?

EGGERS: It was a big farm.

DUNHAM: Right, and did you work on the farm?

EGGERS: Oh yes.

DUNHAM: And what did you do?

EGGERS: Hoeing and haying and everything, all that.

DUNHAM: And you were quite strong, yeah? Let me see--I forgot what you--remind us what you told me on the phone about what you could do.

EGGERS: Oh, like when I had a reunion with my friends, the boys would tease me--well, they still teased me--and they said, "Juanita, we remember when we had to do the hay and we'd throw those bales up on the truck, and you would beat us 00:05:00doing it!" And I did! [laughter]

FUKUMOTO: Nice!

DUNHAM: So what kind of work did you have to do on the farm, or did you get to do or--?

EGGERS: Well, we did everything, like hoeing in the fields and working in the--and then of course I would go get done outside and then I'd go inside and I'd have to help mom, and the boys would come in and wait for dinner.

DUNHAM: Oh!

EGGERS: Ohhhh!

DUNHAM: So you had double duty.

EGGERS: I had double duty.

DUNHAM: Wow, and school too?

EGGERS: And oh, school too, yeah. We went to school.

DUNHAM: What was school like then?

EGGERS: It was really a great school up there. It was just small. There was three kids in my class. There was Billy and Tommy and I. My class. [laughter] Billy {Mays?}, Tommy Thompson, and Juanita Uhlman.

DUNHAM: And so how long were you in that school? Oh, till thirteen, is that--?

EGGERS: Till I was thirteen. I finished the seventh grade up there and then came down--Dad moved to Ontario, Oregon. And I remember when we got down there and we got out of the car with my brothers and I--we looked over the fields. It was all alkaline, and we sat down and sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. We were so sad. We left our friends, we left everything we knew--we were just little kids. And we had to clear all that land of sagebrush and we had to--Dad had huge fiel[ds]--he had 360 acres, which was one of the biggest ranches there, and you had to clear all those acres of sagebrush. And then we had alfalfa, corn, and then it was--they called it Jacobsen Gulch, and the road went up like this and then it 00:07:00went down into the valley to our place. The whole valley was ranch after ranch going along and we had the biggest one up at the head of it practically.

DUNHAM: So how did you clear all that sagebrush?

EGGERS: Dad had--was it horses then, or did we have a tractor? I can't remember for sure, because we had to chop, chop, chop a lot and then they pulled it out by--I think horses or a tractor.

DUNHAM: And so this was about '39 or so that you moved there?

EGGERS: Yeah, this was--let's see, I was six when we went to--let's see, Ontario it would have been '26, '39. Yeah, it would have been in about '39.

DUNHAM: Okay. And so what was it like transitioning to Ontario? You had to leave your friends behind but--?

EGGERS: It didn't take too long, and we made a lot of friends and had best 00:08:00buddies and everything, and the boys liked it too.

DUNHAM: Was it a larger school and--?

EGGERS: It was much larger.

DUNHAM: Okay.

EGGERS: Yeah, because we had, you know, like thirty/forty kids in the class then instead of three.

DUNHAM: So was that a welcome transition or was that hard, or both?

EGGERS: I don't remember it being hard. I think it was fine. We just made friends and the kids were nice and they took us in. The teachers were nice.

DUNHAM: What was it--when you were growing up what was an average day like for your mom?

EGGERS: From probably before dark till after dark, I would imagine. I know Dad was a workaholic and he was always out working, always out working.

DUNHAM: Working on the farm?

EGGERS: Yeah, and you know I thought of my mom lots of times, over the time, and it seems like she, when she was in Idaho, she canned everything. There was no 00:09:00electricity. She canned everything and she canned stuff in half-gallon jars--big jars! Not quarts or pints, in half gallons. She canned all the vegetables, all the fruit; I remember peeling peaches. And the meat--they'd butcher a cow or a pig or something, and also we had--up there we had a smokehouse. Dad had a smokehouse and he smoked all of his meat. And on top of that, with that smokehouse, we had a little dog, a black and white little mutt. She saved my life many times, because they'd send me out to the smokehouse to get some meat out and she wouldn't let me move the rock. So I'd go get my dad and he'd come--and we knew what it was. There was a rattlesnake under the rock and Tippy wouldn't let me reach down and--

DUNHAM: What would your dad do?

EGGERS: He would just get a big long--he had a big pole there, and he would just 00:10:00move the rock then and then we'd shoot the--

DUNHAM: So if there was no rattlesnake your dog would let you do it? Your dog always knew.

EGGERS: Yeah. But then--but she was always right with me. She was with us kids all the time. She was a little mutt, just a cute little mutt, but she was--she was a cow dog too. She would go out in the field and bring in the milking cows, only the milking cows!

DUNHAM: She could pick them out.

EGGERS: Yeah, she'd pick them out and bring them in.

DUNHAM: Wow, what kind of dog?

EGGERS: She was a Heinz 57. That's what we called them. I have no idea what breeds she was or anything. She was about--oh, I don't know, a foot or so tall. Not a very big dog. More energy than fifty--oh my word, that dog! She was always on the run.

DUNHAM: Well, in the house, aside from having to help your mom cook, did you also have to help take care of your younger siblings in other ways?

EGGERS: Well, generally we were always so busy. I did have to watch out for them 00:11:00and be sure they didn't get in too much trouble or get hurt or something. I remember going to school--I was always dragging them along. "Come on! We've got to get to school on time."

DUNHAM: How did you get to school? Walking?

EGGERS: Yeah, we had to walk up the hill and down the hill. We had to walk in ten feet of snow. [laughter] Not really. I always told my kids that and now they give me a bad time about, "Ten feet of snow. Sure. Mom walked through ten feet of snow to get to school." [laughing] There was a lot of snow. One time when we came home, we got home and Mom says, "Where's Allen?" Well, we didn't know. We hadn't seen him or anything. Well, she got all frantic, you know, and took off. He'd walked to meet us but he'd walked off the road because you couldn't tell. The road--he'd walked off and he went down into the creek. I mean the creek bank. There wasn't any water or anything, it was just that you had to stay on 00:12:00the road, because if you walked off of here you just sunk into the--and there he was, waiting for us to come and get him. He was all bundled up.

DUNHAM: Did you go to church growing up?

EGGERS: No.

DUNHAM: Okay, did you have a religion in your life?

EGGERS: I don't think there was a church there, and my dad was not religious at all. In fact, his family was--they are very, very religious. But for some reason--I think when the Depression hit and he lost the garage, he just lost faith in God.

DUNHAM: I know you were busy, but what did you do for fun growing up, you and/or your siblings?

EGGERS: Oh, we did a lot of sleighing in the winter time. Things like that. And skating on the creek--there was water in the creek. We used to play Auntie Over. There was the barn or the sheds or something. We'd play--I don't remember exactly how we did it, but it was something about Auntie Over, and you'd throw 00:13:00the ball over the barn and the other people were supposed to catch it. I don't remember the rules or anything, but it was Auntie, Auntie Over.

DUNHAM: Okay--well, it sounds--I'm sure it was fun. So what was high school like?

EGGERS: High school was fun until the senior year when I decided I wasn't going to stay home anymore. I was going to take off on my own and I went into town. I was a 4.0 student, naturally. Dad expected it. And then when I went in town I had to work to support myself, so my grades dropped a little bit. But it was fun. It was okay, you know.

DUNHAM: May I ask why you decided to move to town?

EGGERS: My father and I got into a discussion. [laughing] Yeah, a very good, very strong discussion.

DUNHAM: Okay, you'd rather not say regarding--?

EGGERS: No, it was just--we just didn't get along. I was a teenager, hot-headed and--

DUNHAM: Yeah, yeah, okay, so you had to make a bold, independent move to go live on your own. What kind of work were you doing?

EGGERS: I worked at what they called the Toot and Tell. It was a car hop. And then there was a restaurant downtown--what was the name of it? There was a little shake shop--Nib's Shake Shop. Yeah, Nib's Shake Shop downtown. I worked there.

DUNHAM: What was social life or dating life like at that time?

EGGERS: We went to the Gay Way a lot. My daughter said, "You went where?" And I said, "We went to the Gay Way." That was the place where we danced and that's what our main thing was, to go out and go dancing.

DUNHAM: And was it to live music or recorded music, or both?

EGGERS: It was--we had bands. Yeah. We had little bands that played and everything, at the Gay Way.

DUNHAM: And so you were in high school. Do you remember where you were when you first heard of the attack on Pearl Harbor?

EGGERS: Oh yes. We were--my mom and I was inside cooking, and it came on you know. And Mom says, "Shhh." And so we sat there and listened. She says, "Go get your dad. Go get your dad. Aunt Clara and Uncle Hugh are there." And his brother, his sister--

DUNHAM: In Hawaii?

EGGERS: Yes, they were there. We didn't hear--it was a month before we heard that they were okay. Because commu[nication]--

DUNHAM: Wow, was he in the military?

EGGERS: Yeah, he was in the military. Yeah, he was an officer in the military and he was stationed there in Hawaii.

DUNHAM: Oh wow, but he was okay?

EGGERS: He was okay. They were okay. Aunt Clara said it was the craziest thing. She said they heard pop, pop--pop. And they thought What are they doing? Why are they practicing now? This isn't their time to practice. And then all of a sudden 00:16:00she thought--I don't think they're practicing. And then everybody--they heard the sirens and everything. But they came through okay.

DUNHAM: Yeah, so how did things begin to change for your community and school and all of that?

EGGERS: Everything changed. For one thing, there was rationing. It was hard to get anything. And it was sugar--people--you'd get these slips, you know. It was kind of slips and stuff that they handed out, and everybody would exchange them for something. "I don't need sugar this month--do you?" "Yeah." Or butter, or this or that or what--well, butter we did ourselves. But sugar and flour and things like that were really hard to come by.

DUNHAM: Did it affect what things you were able to eat then during--?

EGGERS: Yes.

DUNHAM: So what types of things did you have to go without?

EGGERS: Well, we didn't--we couldn't bake that much, because mostly we had our own vegetables and meat. That was all taken care of. But when it come to sugar 00:17:00and flour and main things like that, why it was pretty, pretty hard to get it.

DUNHAM: And then--so you were still in high school?

EGGERS: Yeah, I was the--let's see--'41 wasn't it?

DUNHAM: Yeah, December of '41.

EGGERS: I graduated in '44, so I would have been--

DUNHAM: Okay, so you were still--pretty early on in high school.

EGGERS: I was still, yeah, pretty young.

DUNHAM: And so you finish up your senior year. So you're living on your own that senior year and you finish up in June of '44 or so?

EGGERS: Yes.

DUNHAM: And then what happened then?

EGGERS: Well, I worked for the county 4-H a bunch. For a while I was secretary. I took shorthand and typing and stuff, and I worked for them for a little while and I thought--No, this is not for me. I'm a farm girl. I can't stand this! And 00:18:00so of course then I heard about--they needed people in the war effort and everything, so I took off for Portland.

DUNHAM: Was that the first you'd heard about that?

EGGERS: Yeah.

DUNHAM: Yeah, okay--do you remember how you heard about it?

EGGERS: I don't really remember how I heard about it or anything, but I went out to my grandparents in Portland and stayed with them for a little bit, and then I got a job down in the yards working on the ships, the Liberty ships and stuff.

DUNHAM: The Portland shipyard?

EGGERS: Yeah, the Portland shipyard.

DUNHAM: So what was that like? Do you remember applying for the job or your first day?

EGGERS: Well, I kind of remember a little bit about going down there and really having a heart attack doing this. But I mean, I was by myself you know, doing my--my grandparents, they just couldn't believe I was doing it. But I was--

DUNHAM: Did your parents know too? Were they--no, you weren't in communication with them then.

EGGERS: They didn't know. No. I didn't talk about it to them at all or anything.

DUNHAM: Yeah, okay--so sorry, you were--first day, heart attack? [laughing]

EGGERS: Yeah, first day--oh! Of course you got the job right away, as long as you were healthy and everything. You got the job right now because they needed--they still needed them then, because this was '44, like the fall and winter of '44, because I didn't go right away. I stayed home, I mean stayed there for the summer.

DUNHAM: Working at the local place--or the county place for a little bit?

EGGERS: Well, I worked there for a while and then I went and worked at a drive-in, because I didn't like that. And so then I took off and went to Portland.

DUNHAM: Okay, so did they have training? Or were you just--?

EGGERS: Yeah, they had training--such as it was. [Dunham laughs] But it was really kind of strange, because they told me when I started to weld there that I was a natural. And I'm just sure just--it seemed like I trained for a couple 00:20:00days and they said, "Come on. You're going onto the ship." "Okay!" Because--well, they told us, they said, "You know, you women are so much better than the men at this!" And we were. You know, we were--we just had a knack. A lot of us just--they put us to work right away. And I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it. And I enjoyed the other women and everything, and there was a lot of us. And we lived in a big boarding house.

DUNHAM: Oh okay, so you did--?

EGGERS: I think I was in Room 400 or something.

DUNHAM: Was it--that the shipyards owned? Or how did--?

EGGERS: I think they might have owned it. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure, because there was a lot of us in that big building, because there was like probably five hundred--because you just had a room and just a cot and stuff, and I think they fed us in a kitchen, as far as I can remember.

DUNHAM: Okay, did you pay separately? Or did they deduct it from your paycheck do you recall?

EGGERS: I don't remember that. I don't really remember.

DUNHAM: Do you know what kind of money you were making at the shipyards to begin with?

EGGERS: Whoa! We were getting rich!! [laughter] We were making over a dollar an hour! Yeah, I think it was like $1.40 something like that we started.

DUNHAM: So that was probably many times over what you had ever made before?

EGGERS: Oh yeah! Anywhere else it was like $0.25 an hour/$0.40 an hour. Can you imagine?

DUNHAM: Yeah, and so what exactly were you doing?

EGGERS: With the--

DUNHAM: What was your job--what was a typical day at your job like? What was your routine?

EGGERS: A typical day? Well, you had all this safety stuff on, and these coveralls and everything, and you just worked.

DUNHAM: Did they provide the safety equipment or uniform?

EGGERS: Oh--yeah, as far as I remember they provided it, but I'm not positive.

DUNHAM: That's okay, but it was a mask and--?

EGGERS: Yeah, you had a mask and you had eye stuff over--these goggles and things. And you had coveralls, and then you had a pad to protect you, you know, from the hot. And yeah, I think we got burnt every once in a while. There was 00:22:00accidents and stuff.

DUNHAM: How were accidents--what would happen if you got burnt or had another injury?

EGGERS: Well, I think they would just, you'd just go to the--what did they call it?

DUNHAM: Infirmary? Or--

EGGERS: Infirmary or something. You'd just go there for a while and--

DUNHAM: Okay, but they had it on-site?

EGGERS: They'd fix you up.

DUNHAM: Did you ever get some burns?

EGGERS: I don't remember getting very many burns, or any hardly. No.

DUNHAM: Did you ever hear about worse accidents? Somebody getting seriously hurt or even dying?

EGGERS: No, I didn't. No. I don't remember any of that at all.

DUNHAM: Well, so take me through a--what shift were you on? Day shift or--?

EGGERS: Graveyard.

DUNHAM: Graveyard, okay. From the beginning?

EGGERS: Yeah.

DUNHAM: Okay, well, so--can you take me through a shift a little bit?

EGGERS: Well, we went through the shift and we worked and we got breaks every so often, you know. Because the work was pretty--you had to be really careful and everything, so you got breaks, I think, quite a bit. You worked for an hour or 00:23:00two and then a break, an hour or so, a break, and so forth. And then you got a lunch break.

DUNHAM: And when you're doing the work, are you working independently or in a team somehow?

EGGERS: Well, there generally was people--we was working on a thing and I think--I was trying to remember how we did that.

DUNHAM: It was prefabricated components of the ship?

EGGERS: Yeah, you'd put them together.

DUNHAM: Okay, so you're welding?

EGGERS: Yes.

DUNHAM: And so what was your actual routine or technique? Do you recall? I know it was a long time ago.

EGGERS: Yeah, it was a long time ago. Yeah, I think when we worked on them we--it was hard to remember, because I was trying to think, what in the world, because I remember doing the welding. I remember doing that, but I don't remember--because it seemed like you'd weld and you'd go along and then you stop and rest, and then you'd straighten up and everything. On some of those, because 00:24:00I was pretty small, I got into some of the smaller places too.

DUNHAM: Okay, they utilized you for that.

EGGERS: Yeah. I remember on the planes--I was on the planes riveting, and I was always in the small places.

DUNHAM: They really utilized that on the planes, I think. Yeah.

EGGERS: Yeah. So--

DUNHAM: Back at the shipyards, what was the makeup of your crew, in terms of were they mostly local? Or by that time were they coming from all over?

EGGERS: Oh no--there were gals from everywhere, everywhere.

DUNHAM: And it was mostly women?

EGGERS: Mostly women.

DUNHAM: Sometimes I've heard the men gave the women kind of a tough time. Did you--?

EGGERS: Yeah, I never had that problem, but some of the older women--because see, they were there for so long that when I came that problem had kind of been solved. And I remember the older women, because I remember this one woman--boy, she didn't take any guff from them or anything, you know. And they'd better watch out! [laughter]

DUNHAM: What might she say or do?

EGGERS: Well, she'd--I don't know.

DUNHAM: Well, you don't have to repeat it word for word.

EGGERS: I don't have to repeat it, no. Just tell them bloody guys to mind their own business. I can do better work than them, and--[making a sound] ruh, ruh, ruh, ruh.

DUNHAM: Okay. Was there a mix of races? Were there African Americans or others who were coming and working there, do you recall?

EGGERS: Yeah, I think there was--not very many though. In our crew I don't remember any African Americans there. It seemed like there was Asians. I can't remember for certain.

DUNHAM: Oh yeah? Not--maybe Chinese?

EGGERS: But not in our crew. I don't remember other people, just a bunch of us gals that were about the same age and stuff.

DUNHAM: Okay, and were many of them from the South or other parts of the country--or do you remember?

EGGERS: Mostly from the West, as far as I can remember--or California.

DUNHAM: But you didn't--you had come on your own, so you didn't have any friends or anybody there?

EGGERS: Right.

DUNHAM: But you met folks there and in the dorms?

EGGERS: Yeah, I met a lot of people there and in the dorms.

DUNHAM: Did you have time for--so your eleven to seven shift--what do you do when you get off? Is that when you sleep?

EGGERS: Well, not exactly. [laughter] We had a lot of energy then. A lot of times we would go out to the beach or out to go swimming somewhere or do--out in the country. Just go places and everything. And then in the evening we'd get together and eat, and then we'd go dancing, and then we'd go back to work.

DUNHAM: So when did you sleep?

EGGERS: Not too often. [laughter]

DUNHAM: You were young, I guess you just--?

EGGERS: We were young and we had lots of energy and had--

DUNHAM: But you're working with serious equipment on the job.

EGGERS: I know! We had--

DUNHAM: I've heard sometimes people--well, you talked about having lots of breaks, that maybe they snuck some naps in the bathroom or wherever?

EGGERS: That is a possibility.

DUNHAM: Was there some of that? Okay.

EGGERS: Yes. [laughing]

DUNHAM: And sometimes I've heard of other things going on during the graveyard shift, maybe playing games or even, I don't know, gambling or I don't know what. Any of those things?

EGGERS: I don't remember doing that, no. I think we were a pretty straight-on 00:27:00bunch. I heard of all stories, you know, things that happened and stuff like that that people would do, you know. And some of them, you know--there's always one or two that try to get out of work. They do more work trying to get out of work than if they'd just work!

DUNHAM: That's true. Well, speaking of that, how were you all evaluated or that type of thing?

EGGERS: We were pretty good. We were good. We did our job and we did a good job.

DUNHAM: Did you join a union?

EGGERS: I don't think so. Not that I remember.

DUNHAM: I'm not sure there either. So anything else about the shipyards before we talk about your transition to Boeing? Anything else we should know?

EGGERS: No, I think I was there for like three--three and a half, four months something--I don't remember exactly.

DUNHAM: Well, you were talking about going out dancing and all that. You'd lived away from your folks for a year, but this must have been a real time of independence I guess, and all. Did you meet anybody? Were you dating then?

EGGERS: I didn't date much. I had boyfriends, but as far as dating--I didn't do that much. Yeah.

DUNHAM: Okay, okay. Just having a good time in groups?

EGGERS: Just having a good time, the girls and boys would go out. There weren't very many eligible boys around, to tell you the truth.

DUNHAM: Right. Were there soldiers around?

EGGERS: No, I don't remember soldiers.

DUNHAM: Okay, so there were slim pickings in terms of--?

EGGERS: Yeah, it was slim pickings--the guys were off to war! [laughing] It was very slim pickings.

DUNHAM: Yeah, so how did your time at Portland shipyards end?

EGGERS: We got laid off.

DUNHAM: Oh, you did?

EGGERS: When the guys were starting to come back we got laid off.

DUNHAM: Okay, in '44--still in '44 or early '45?

EGGERS: Yeah, that was '45, the beginning of '45 I think. They started kind of--put down because they weren't going to get the orders for the ships, because 00:29:00the war was winding down.

DUNHAM: Winding down, okay.

EGGERS: We knew we were going to win by then, you know.

DUNHAM: And so it was sort of last hired, first fired? Was that part of it too? Because you'd come--

EGGERS: Yeah, that was part of it. And the guys were going to come home, so sorry girls.

DUNHAM: But then you found opportunity at Boeing?

EGGERS: Yeah, I went up to Boeing. I think myself and a couple others we went up to Boeing. We had heard that they were hiring. Somehow we got the word. So we went up to Boeing and they put us right to work. They were still needing people up there on the planes.

DUNHAM: Okay, so how did Boeing compare with the shipyards?

EGGERS: I really enjoyed riveting much more, much more.

DUNHAM: Okay, why is that?

EGGERS: Well, it just--for one thing, I had a boy as a bucker. [laughing] And that was interesting.

DUNHAM: How so?

EGGERS: Well, we were friendly. [laughing] He was a good guy. Yeah, but we did, we had--

DUNHAM: Was he your age? Or was it an older guy?

EGGERS: No, he was about my age. In fact, I think he lied. I think he was younger. Yeah. I think he was like seventeen maybe, because he was really young. And it seemed like I was the one that taught him how to do the stuff. [laughing] Yeah, but we'd work in the wings and everything, and because we were both really small they stuck us in there all the time, and then they'd pull us out by our feet.

DUNHAM: Oh really?

EGGERS: Yes. You couldn't even wiggle to get out of there!

DUNHAM: Wow.

EGGERS: I mean to wiggle to go back. And they'd just pull us out. I remember them doing that, clearly.

DUNHAM: Yeah, and so were you riveting and he was bucking?

EGGERS: Yeah, I was the riveter and he was a bucker. All us girls were the riveters, yes, us women.

DUNHAM: Wow, and so was the pay similar or more?

EGGERS: Yeah, it was similar. Maybe a little bit more.

DUNHAM: And do you remember if you joined the union there at Boeing?

EGGERS: No. I don't think we were there long enough.

DUNHAM: Okay, and do you remember what planes you were working on?

EGGERS: B-29s mostly. And we worked on the Liberty ships at the--because I think the Liberty ships were in Portland and they were also at Richland, was the one--yeah.

DUNHAM: Right, right. And at both places was there a spirit of patriotism?

EGGERS: Yeah.

DUNHAM: Did you have ship launchings? Did you go to those? Or because you worked graveyard--?

EGGERS: Oh yeah.

DUNHAM: Okay, even though you did--yeah?

EGGERS: Yes.

DUNHAM: Did they have entertainment at either place?

EGGERS: I don't remember much entertainment, just that they--it seemed like different ones got to hit the thing, you know.

DUNHAM: Yeah, yeah, celebrations of the--

EGGERS: And away they went.

DUNHAM: Okay, of the launchings or planes being finished?

EGGERS: Yeah, and there were a few words said and away they went. It wasn't too much formal, because it was kind of war and there was--you know. They did everything in a hurry.

DUNHAM: Were there things about secrecy and not talking about what you were doing at all? Was that an issue?

EGGERS: Yes, and you know some people--some of the women I've talked to, they had cameras and stuff. But I don't remember cameras. I didn't have a camera and I don't remember anybody else-- To me, I think there was--you couldn't take a camera in.

DUNHAM: Most places--that's what I've been told. I know I have some women I've met who have photos of them getting ready for work or after or other things, but not--yeah. Do you have any photos back from that time period?

EGGERS: No. I don't have any. I wished I did. You know, but I didn't have a camera then, so--

DUNHAM: Yeah. So what--did you see images of the Rosie the Riveter and that symbol during that time? No.

EGGERS: Not really.

DUNHAM: Okay, not till much later.

EGGERS: No, that was much later. Yeah.

DUNHAM: How long were you at Boeing?

EGGERS: I was--about four months, I think, three or four months.

DUNHAM: Okay, and you said--so you liked it a little more there?

EGGERS: Yeah, I liked the riveting.

DUNHAM: Just the nature of the work, okay.

EGGERS: And I think the people--we had much more fun, the people and everything.

DUNHAM: And is this in Seattle, or where was this?

EGGERS: It was in Boeing in Seattle.

DUNHAM: Yeah, Boeing in Seattle.

EGGERS: Yeah, I went on the computer and was trying to find out something about it, but I couldn't. I haven't been able to find out yet, just about--because I put in Boeing, Washington, 1945, you know? But I still haven't been able to--

DUNHAM: There's a fair amount of information. Have you ever been up to the Museum of Flight up there?

EGGERS: A long time ago. A long time ago.

DUNHAM: Okay, yeah--I think they've increased some history around that.

EGGERS: And there's a big--well, when the Spruce Goose was in McMinnville--have you ever heard of that?

DUNHAM: I'm not sure. I've heard of it being--yeah, somebody talked about it up there.

EGGERS: Yeah, we went there to that, a long time ago.

DUNHAM: Oh, what was that like? Okay, so you went and saw it?

EGGERS: Saw it too. But I haven't been back really.

DUNHAM: Okay, well what was--had you been to Seattle before, and what was it like then? You said you had more fun with the group of people up there.

EGGERS: Yeah, I'd been to Seattle before. It just seemed like there was a more fun bunch of people and everything, that I remember. And we did a lot of things too.

DUNHAM: Yeah, what did you guys do for fun?

EGGERS: We went out dancing, went out to meet the sailors.

DUNHAM: Okay, so more sailors up in Seattle?

EGGERS: There were more sailors in Seattle.

DUNHAM: That made it a little more fun maybe? Okay.

EGGERS: Yeah, I think that might have perked up everything. [laughter]

DUNHAM: Did you go to USO dances?

EGGERS: Yeah, I think so. There was a USO not too far from where we were.

DUNHAM: Did you do any dating then when you were up there?

EGGERS: We didn't date much. We went in bunches. It was safer, with the sailors, in bunches.

DUNHAM: Did you ever hear of any stories of--I don't know, challenges with the sailors when people didn't stay in groups?

EGGERS: Well, yeah--a few times, when things might happen, get out of hand or 00:35:00something. But not--there wasn't much. Most of them were pretty good guys. They just weren't out to give us harm or anything. They wanted to have a good time.

DUNHAM: Yeah, I know it wasn't spoken as openly of at the time, but did you know of any gays and lesbians at the time?

EGGERS: I didn't realize, when I met--when I didn't realize what was going on--let's see. Let me think a minute. Because we were at--I was trying to think if it was--it was at Portland shipyard. I came in with a couple of gals, and one of them said something to me and I was marching on, going somewhere. And she says, "No, Juanita don't. Come back here." Something like that. And this woman was standing there, and I didn't realize that she was a lesbian, and she was 00:36:00madder than a hatter about something. I mean she was furious. So I went back and we went around--so I never did find out what was going on, but maybe somebody had said something about her.

DUNHAM: Okay, had you already known that she was a lesbian? Or just from that--

EGGERS: No, I didn't know--at the time I didn't know, at the time at all. It wasn't till later, I mean like weeks later, that I really found out. Because she worked there evidently, but I don't know if she got fired or something--it's just a possibility that that's what was going on.

DUNHAM: Yeah, well--I forgot to ask. When you were at the Portland shipyards did you know folks who lived at Vanport? Were you familiar with that community?

EGGERS: Oh Vanport--no, I don't remember that. I don't remember them. I know what you mean about Vanport, but no.

DUNHAM: What did you hear about Vanport ultimately--or not till after the war did you hear of it?

EGGERS: Not till after the war.

DUNHAM: Okay, when they had the flood?

EGGERS: The flood and everything, all of that happened.

DUNHAM: Okay, and do you remember hearing about that at the time?

EGGERS: Yeah, when it happened. Yeah, because it was on the radio and it was really terrible. Oh yeah.

DUNHAM: So where were you living in Seattle?

EGGERS: In a big boarding house.

DUNHAM: So similar--was it provided by Boeing?

EGGERS: I think so. I think they were.

DUNHAM: Now some women have described that when they went out they had chaperones that took them around. Was that the case for you guys there?

EGGERS: Well, I don't remember chaperones, no. I remember when I worked at--was it Portland? There was an older man. [laughing] He was always waiting for me when I came out. And he would take me to the boarding house, walk me there. And also, he wanted to date me. Yeah.

DUNHAM: Oh, so was it his job or was it his interest to do that?

EGGERS: Well, I'm not sure. I think he had a big fat crush on me. It seems to me that is--what's the word? When you say--maybe I think a little bit too much of myself, or something. I don't know--

DUNHAM: Oh, don't worry about--about being vain?

EGGERS: Yeah, being a little vain.

DUNHAM: Well, did he proposition you at some point in some way? Ask you out?

EGGERS: He asked me out and we went to dinners and things like that.

DUNHAM: Oh, you did go out?

EGGERS: He was a gentleman. Yes, we went out on dinners and everything. He was always a gentleman and everything. I don't know if he was married or not. I don't remember. I never asked or anything. But we did date. I think I'd been there probably a month or a month and a half when it happened, when I met him one time going out. But that was at Portland. So when I got laid off I went to 00:39:00Seattle before the affair went very far or anything. It was just dating and going to dinner.

DUNHAM: But were you interested?

EGGERS: I liked him. I was kind of--you know, he was an older man. He was nice-looking.

DUNHAM: How much older?

EGGERS: I was nineteen. He was probably forty-something.

DUNHAM: Oh wow, okay.

EGGERS: [laughing] He was good-looking, he was very smooth, very nice.

DUNHAM: Did he work at the shipyards?

EGGERS: Yeah, he worked at the--he was in the business part, you know. Because he would come down from the offices and meet me when I was coming out.

DUNHAM: So did you ever--did you maintain contact once you went to Seattle?

EGGERS: Yeah, maintained contact and had some lovely letters from him, and how much he missed me and everything, and pages and pages and pages of them.

DUNHAM: And you wrote back?

EGGERS: Yeah, I wrote back to him.

DUNHAM: And did you get together again?

EGGERS: No. Because when I left--

FUKUMOTO: Do you remember his name?

EGGERS: Yeah. [laughing] It was Manly Labby.

DUNHAM: Manly.

EGGERS: Manly Labby.

FUKUMOTO: That's a cool name.

EGGERS: Yes. I thought it was cool. [laughter] Yeah. He's probably passed away a long time ago, but we corresponded for quite a while. And then from Seattle I went to LA, and then I worked at the phone company down there. I don't know why, but I quit writing to him. I don't remember why or anything.

DUNHAM: Well, what--did you go, would you go--I know you went to dances a lot. Did you also go to the movies at all?

EGGERS: You know, I've never been a movie buff. Right now I think it has been fifteen/twenty years since I've been to a movie. I watch them sometimes on TV or 00:41:00with my daughters and everything, but they always--they just bother my ears. You go in, it was so loud, so loud! And I just can't--I can't do that.

DUNHAM: Well, I like to ask about it during the war years because they had the news reels and the cartoons and all that stuff.

EGGERS: Oh yeah, yeah--we went to those. We went to all the news that came on and everything before, and then you'd have all this for fifteen/twenty minutes; it seemed like forever. And then you'd have the previews for the next fifteen/twenty minutes, and then finally you'd get to the movie.

DUNHAM: Okay, so you never liked the movies that much.

EGGERS: No, I didn't. [laughter] I never did. I just never cared for them.

DUNHAM: Were you following the news of the war at all, in any other way? With a radio or newspaper?

EGGERS: Just the radio. We always listened to the radio.

DUNHAM: At the companies would they give any kind of war updates or information? 00:42:00At the shipyards or Boeing?

EGGERS: If something special happened, yeah, we would get an update on it or anything they'd--

DUNHAM: What type of thing might they--

EGGERS: It might come over the loudspeaker or they might have a radio somewhere and they'd turn that up and we'd listen.

DUNHAM: Did you have air raid drills or any type of thing like that at either of those jobs?

EGGERS: No, I don't think so. I know we had to keep our windows dark a lot. Yeah, from the very beginning, especially along the coast here and everything. I remember we had to--everybody put black stuff on their windows, to blacken it out and everything.

DUNHAM: And did you know of any Japanese Americans who were incarcerated?

EGGERS: Well, I think some of the kids that were out--I felt bad for them. I know one night they were chasing this one kid. He was a tall, good-looking Japanese guy and I thought he was really cute. And I--he was such a nice guy, 00:43:00and I just ran the other way because there was a gang chasing him. I hope they never caught him. I don't know.

DUNHAM: Was this back in high school?

EGGERS: That was back in high school in Ontario.

DUNHAM: So you had some classmates who were Japanese American.

EGGERS: Yeah.

DUNHAM: And then who probably were taken to the camps?

EGGERS: Yeah, a lot of them were taken to the camps. There were some ranchers out there, you know, they took them. I don't know if they ever got their places back or not.

DUNHAM: Yeah, mostly not.

EGGERS: Mostly not.

DUNHAM: But yeah, in some cases people took care of it. But yeah.

EGGERS: Yeah, I've read two or three books about the man in Mt. Hood--what was that book? He was up the gorge. He lived at Hood River. Yeah, he was a farmer up Hood River and everything, and he had a book wrote--and it was all about his years. And I thought man, that was so sad, so sad what they did to them. It's 00:44:00just--you know, it's war and it's--people don't think and sometimes they don't have any common sense. It just happens and they just run them off and put them in internment and took them down to Arizona and stuff. My word!

DUNHAM: Did you know of any Italian or German Americans who you saw experience any prejudice?

EGGERS: No. I don't remember any of them. No.

DUNHAM: Okay. Well, how did your time up at Boeing come to an end?

EGGERS: We got laid off because the guys were coming home. "Sorry ladies, bye."

DUNHAM: Was that before or after V-E and V-J Day? Do you recall?

EGGERS: Oh, let's see when--I should have looked--

DUNHAM: Well, do you remember where you were on V-E or V-J Day?

EGGERS: Oh yeah. We all gathered and got together and everything, and celebrated and all that. And then we said, "Well, we're out of a job."

DUNHAM: Yeah. So you were in Seattle?

EGGERS: We were in Seattle, yeah. We knew that they would just lay us off and everything. There was a few women that did stay on, but they had some seniority. You know, I and my friends were the last ones to start, so we're the youngest ones. In fact, in Richland there was only one other person born in 1926 on the roster.

DUNHAM: Would you have liked to have stayed on?

EGGERS: I think so. I think as independent [as] I was, I think being a Rosie and everything made us grow up, made us women independent. I think that was the beginning of real independence for women, and that kind of started a shift to give us a chance to be on our own and do our own thing.

DUNHAM: Right. So what happened after your time at Boeing and at the end of the war there?

EGGERS: I took off for LA, Hollywood.

DUNHAM: Had you checked in with your folks at all during this time? Or you were 00:46:00still just on your--

EGGERS: Oh, I wrote letters back and forth to them, and I always got somewhere. I told them, well, "Dear Mom, I'm in such," poor Mom and Dad. I just--you know, kids don't think about that! Now that I'm a mom and a grandmother and a great-grandmother I think Oh my gosh! My poor mother. But I did--she'd write, she'd say, things were hard to get, "Could you find some gloves?" Things like that, gloves and hats and things, or maybe a jacket for Allen or Terry or Walt or somebody, one of my four brothers. And I hope I did. I hope I found some and sent them. I don't remember doing it, but I just hope I did.

DUNHAM: Were any of your brothers old enough that they served in the military in World War II?

EGGERS: In World War II?

DUNHAM: Or they were all younger or didn't have to?

EGGERS: Let's see. I think--yeah, I think my future husband was friends with my 00:47:00oldest brother and another kid. And yeah, they went in the--my brother and his brother Bob went into the air force and several of them went into the navy. Yeah, they did, in the latter parts of--because see, I graduated in '44. Bob graduated in '43 and then Walt in--

DUNHAM: Bob was your eventual--future husband?

EGGERS: No, no, Bob my oldest brother.

DUNHAM: Oh sorry, oh, I apologize.

EGGERS: Robert, my oldest brother Robert.

DUNHAM: Okay, right, he was your--so when and how did you meet your husband?

EGGERS: [laughter] I was back from LA on a visit and I was sitting on a bank, because I was back out at the ranch, my folks' ranch. I was with my brother going out doing the irrigating. And I was sitting on this thing, and I was a 00:48:00city gal, and I was tired and I was hot and I was grumpy, and I told Walt this wasn't the life for me and everything. [laughter] And John came walking by--John Eggers his name was, and Walt said, "John, this is my sister Nita. And Nita, this is John." And I was sitting and I kind of--"Oh, hi." That was it. [laughter]

DUNHAM: He was won over?

EGGERS: I wouldn't have recognized him if I'd have seen him later!

DUNHAM: Well, so how did the courtship go from there?

EGGERS: Well, it didn't for quite a while. Yeah. [laughter]

DUNHAM: Okay, that was your first time meeting?

EGGERS: That was the first time meeting, yeah. In fact, I think when that happened--I was trying to remember, because I came back from LA so I would have been probably twenty/twenty-one. Yeah, something like that, nineteen, twenty, 00:49:00twenty-one. Yeah, I would have been twenty-one then.

DUNHAM: Okay--well, I didn't ask, why LA? What made you go to LA?

EGGERS: Well, I went and lived in Hollywood. I went to work for the telephone company down there and I met this gal down there. They were a Russian family. And so she said, "Where are you staying?" And I told her, some boarding house or something. She says, "Why don't you come room with us?" And I says, "Good!! Great!!" And they took me in just like I was their daughter, her parents. She was a great gal. She wanted to get into the movies so bad! She really did.

DUNHAM: Nobody in LA wants to get into the movies. [laughter]

EGGERS: Well, this was in Hollywood, right?

DUNHAM: Oh yeah, no, I'm just [kidding]--like everybody does!

EGGERS: Yeah, nobody in LA, right. You're kidding.

DUNHAM: But you didn't go to LA for the movies. What made you actually pick LA 00:50:00from Seattle? Did you go by yourself?

EGGERS: I went by myself. I just took off and got a train ticket, and when I bought the train ticket I said, "I think I want to go south to LA or Hollywood, or somewhere." He says, "Okay, let's do Hollywood." "Okay." I did!

DUNHAM: Did you have some savings at that point?

EGGERS: Oh, a little bit, yeah.

DUNHAM: Yeah, okay, so you knew you could get by for a bit?

EGGERS: I had enough saved to get by for a while and everything.

DUNHAM: And the job at the phone company--was it a lot less pay? Or was it close--?

EGGERS: No, I think it was not too bad by then. It was pretty good.

DUNHAM: And how was the work? Did you find it--was it less--?

EGGERS: I found it interesting and everything. I wasn't an operator. I worked in the business office, and it was so funny, because I was so good with numbers and they would have work orders. And the work orders were like six, seven, eight numbers long. And any time somebody wanted one, somebody would say, "Go ask Nita. If she's seen it she'll find it for you." And I did. I had that ability. 00:51:00It was weird! It was just weird. And anytime somebody was hunting for something they'd, [calling out] "Nita?" By then I was Nita, you know?

DUNHAM: How did you get the name Juanita? Do you know?

EGGERS: I told mom, I says, "What were you reading? A romance magazine or something? A romance book? Juanita?" I don't know! My brothers are Robert, Terry, Allen, Walt, Jr. Where Juanita came, I don't know.

DUNHAM: You never got an answer on that?

EGGERS: I never got a good answer from her.

DUNHAM: Okay, that's a good name.

EGGERS: And all the boys would serenade me--oh my gosh. I'd get so mad my name was Juanita, so I changed it to Nita. But the high school--

DUNHAM: Was there a song associated with Juanita?

EGGERS: Oh yeah, there's a song.

DUNHAM: I don't know it. Do you know it? What's that song?

EGGERS: I can't remember. It's just they--

DUNHAM: It was a popular song.

EGGERS: [singing] Juanita, will you be my love? Something, you know--oh God!

DUNHAM: Maybe you inspired the song! [laughter]

EGGERS: Juanita--yeah!

DUNHAM: So you'd been--?

EGGERS: I should look that up and see what it is, because there is a song about Juanita.

DUNHAM: Yeah. So you were working in the phone company, you visited home, met your future husband, and then back to LA?

EGGERS: Back down to--yeah. No, no--I think that's when I got, when I--no, that was a visit. So I went back down, and then I worked another year I think.

DUNHAM: And how was LA? You were boarding with a Russian family. What part of LA are you in? Hollywood?

EGGERS: It was in the Hollywood district, and you know, it was a quiet neighborhood. It was not crazy like it is now and everything. No, it was just a neighborhood like any neighborhood would be, and we worked at the telephone company, and I know the Universal Studio was right across the street from the thing. And I know one morning I went roaring down there because I was going to 00:53:00be late, and I never was late. And I was roaring and I ran smack into this gentleman, and he grabbed me as I started to fall, and I turned and looked at him and said, "I'm late." I went in there and I got in and I stopped and I says, "You know, I think that was," oh, what was his name, "Glenn Ford," I said. I don't know if you remember Glenn Ford from a long time ago. Anyway, he was one of the top stars.

DUNHAM: Yes.

EGGERS: And the gals in the phone company says, "Why didn't you pass out or pretend you passed out? Glenn Ford!! For Pete's sakes, aren't you--." They gave me such a bad time. [laughter]

DUNHAM: He was just in your way.

EGGERS: Yeah, but he had to park over here and he just walked--he was walking across and I just smacked him.

DUNHAM: How did you get around? Were you biking or busing?

EGGERS: Walking--

DUNHAM: Yeah, walking, you could walk--

EGGERS: Buses, walk, and everything. Yeah, all my life I've walked. In fact, I belong to a volkswalking club, and we've walked in every state.

DUNHAM: What's it called?

EGGERS: Volkswalking, people walking.

DUNHAM: Volkswalking, okay.

EGGERS: It started in Germany.

DUNHAM: Okay, so it's like V-O-L-K--like that?

EGGERS: Yeah, V-O-L-K-[S]--walking.

DUNHAM: So what's the philosophy of it?

EGGERS: It's clubs and everything, and it's keep you healthy, have fun, and stay fit.

DUNHAM: And you've walked every state in the country, you said.

EGGERS: Every state in the US.

DUNHAM: As part of the club?

EGGERS: Yes.

DUNHAM: Like long distances?

EGGERS: Ten K at least. Ten, twenty, thirty K.

DUNHAM: That's great! When did you start doing that?

EGGERS: In '87.

DUNHAM: Wow!

EGGERS: Yeah, we've walked in--we've walked all over England, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Italy, France--all of those countries.

DUNHAM: That's great. And you also were an avid bicyclist?

EGGERS: Yeah. I bicycled for years too.

DUNHAM: And when did that start, or just--early on?

EGGERS: That was these friends of mine. When I first moved up here in '79, I didn't know a soul. I transferred with my work and I started going to South Albany School for a fitness class. And there was another gal there and we kind of started talking and then we started walking. We'd exercise and then we'd walk the track. So I got to going with them, and we bicycled and we walked and we hiked. I know one day at work they said, "What are you doing for the weekend?" And I says, "Oh, I'm borrowing my friend's husband. We're going hiking." And we were! She didn't like hiking. She had done one hike, like we about wore her out 00:56:00and she hated hiking. She liked bicycling or walking, but she hated hiking up in the mountains. And so we did. We went hiking up in the mountains, and we backpacked in. He was such a gentleman. We had to each take our own tent, and he packed most of it. But we had a ball! We kept meeting--there was two guys, a little boy, and this big dog. We kept meeting them. They were always going the wrong way. [laughter] And Bill would show them the map. He'd say, "Okay, you're here. You're going to meet your wife over here. Why are you going that way?"

DUNHAM: Yeah, that might have been us. [laughing]

EGGERS: And we kept meeting them, several times! And it was funny for years after that. Bill and I--we'd be walking or biking or doing something and I'd say, "Do you think they're still up there wandering around?

DUNHAM: Not without you guys to show them the way!

EGGERS: Yeah, without us--

DUNHAM: So were you in LA all the way till '79? Or where--you said--?

EGGERS: Oh no, I was--

DUNHAM: Oh, okay. When you said come up north--?

EGGERS: No, I just was in LA for a couple years, and then I came back up to the ranch, and that's where I met my husband for good.

DUNHAM: So you guys reunited and the second glance was a little longer?

EGGERS: Yeah, the second glance was a little longer. Right. [laughter]

DUNHAM: All right, and so then you guys settled where?

EGGERS: Well first, before we got back together, I met another guy. We got married and I had my oldest son, but it wasn't very long-lived.

DUNHAM: Oh, I'm sorry.

EGGERS: He was alcoholic and he was abusive, and I was too independent for that. So--psshht. He was gone.

DUNHAM: Yeah, I was going to say--we've talked to a few Rosies who had those kind of early marriages that weren't meant to be, and I wonder what's your perspective? Sometimes I feel like if people didn't get divorced as often back 00:58:00then--maybe your independence and knowing you could work, do you think that played a role in--?

EGGERS: Yeah, I think so, definitely. I was my own woman and nobody was going to do that to me. I worked at the drive-in then, one of the restaurants there in Ontario. And one of the gals, she--when he came after me that one night, she went and jerked open the truck and grabbed the, what do you call it?--the car jack.

DUNHAM: Oh yeah.

EGGERS: You know, the--to do the tire?

DUNHAM: Right.

EGGERS: She grabbed that, and she was a husky woman and she says, "You better get out of here or this," and boy, he took off. He took off. I mean, she would have clobbered him.

DUNHAM: Yeah, well--that's good to have friends sometimes.

EGGERS: Yeah, yeah, good to have friends. Yeah, that was one big mistake. I know my sister-in-law, my favorite sister-in-law--my husband's sister, why she had 00:59:00married a guy too and the same thing happened. Things like that do happen.

DUNHAM: Sure, well--but so you were fortunate to then meet your second husband, or reunite?

EGGERS: Well, I met him again. He was around, so I met him again and we got together and we dated for quite a while and then we got married.

DUNHAM: Okay. And then where were you guys?

EGGERS: Well, we were in Ontario, and his brother-in-law lived out here, Truman Hartley, lived out here, and he called one day and said, "John, whatcha doing? And John was going underneath houses doing something about heating or cooling--

DUNHAM: Foundations--I'm sorry, yeah, okay.

EGGERS: --or something like that, heating systems--and he hated it. So he told him and then he says, "Well, they're hiring loggers." So we came out to Coos Bay, we moved out to Coos Bay then, and he worked for Weyerhaeuser for 01:00:00twenty-four years.

DUNHAM: All right. And what was Coos Bay like then?

EGGERS: It was a nice town. It was quiet. A nice, little town.

DUNHAM: Okay, and so you raised your children there?

EGGERS: Yeah, we bought a place up the Coos River, five acres, and it had water frontage and was right on the Coos River, and we raised our family there.

DUNHAM: Did you have any farm or agriculture there on your five acres?

EGGERS: No, it was just five acres. We raised berries and had a vegetable garden and stuff like that.

DUNHAM: Well, we talked off-camera about your shared love of roller coasters. When did you first develop an affection for roller coasters?

EGGERS: That was when I was in LA, or Hollywood, down there. I met these--a bunch of kids, young guys and gals, and they were a bunch of friends. And I met 01:01:00them and they liked to go on them, and so we'd go up and down the coast there and go on all of the roller coasters.

DUNHAM: Okay, at all the piers? All the piers? What was your favorite, do you recall?

EGGERS: There was one in--it can't be Seaside down there, because Seaside is up here. I was trying to think of a town which, down by--

DUNHAM: A lot of them have closed now.

EGGERS: It has been so long!

DUNHAM: Did you ever go up to the one in Santa Cruz? The Big Dipper up there?

EGGERS: Yeah, I think so. Was it open then?

DUNHAM: I think they recently had their seventy-fifth anniversary maybe, so it would be long enough, I think.

EGGERS: Seventy-fifth or something? Yeah!

DUNHAM: It would have been pretty new.

EGGERS: Yeah, there were several from Northern California down to Southern California, just there.

DUNHAM: Yeah, most of them are gone now.

EGGERS: Yeah, most of them are gone now.

FUKUMOTO: The mic.

DUNHAM: What? Oh, did it fall? Okay. Yeah, sorry, oh the mic--we're just about to wrap up, but did the mic--did it fall? I'm just listening.

EGGERS: Did it quit, or what?

DUNHAM: Okay, can you check sweetie?

FUKUMOTO: No, I just wanted to make sure.

DUNHAM: Oh no, it's fine. It's just where it is--is it clipped on? Oh, okay. Well, we're still--

EGGERS: I moved!

FUKUMOTO: [adjusting microphone] Oh, that's okay.

EGGERS: Sorry!

DUNHAM: No worries, and we'll wrap up so we make sure you get the second half--

EGGERS: Okay, get the second half.

DUNHAM: --of the game!

EGGERS: Okay, I didn't realize I'd been talking so long! Gee! [making a sound]

DUNHAM: Yeah, you're doing great! It's fascinating. Well, I just want to--how do you feel that the wartime work that you did, this opportunity to do so-called men's work has influenced your life?

EGGERS: I don't know. It seemed like it gave me a lot of independence, and my husband said, "You're too darned independent!" [laughter] But I think that was the thing, and you kind of grow up with something like that. And then when you have children and everything--it helps that you've grown up before you have a family.

DUNHAM: Did it influence or did your approach to raising--you had boys and girls?

EGGERS: I've got two boys and three girls. I lost one, but--

DUNHAM: Oh, I'm sorry. Did it affect how you raised them at all, or just your approach to life? I mean just girls versus boys, did it matter?

EGGERS: It could have, it could have. Yeah, in a way. The fact that I was independent, I taught them to be sort of independent, and they are. They're very independent women and guys.

DUNHAM: Yeah. What are some of the things that you hope this generation or future generations take from your experiences during World War II, and/or beyond?

EGGERS: And beyond? [laughter] I just--you know, it has been seventy years and I just hope that they realize that what we did was really important. It was. We were the women that had to work, had to do the job while the men were gone. So I 01:04:00just hope it's a lesson--that we can do it! We can do it! We did it.

DUNHAM: What does it mean to you now at this late date to have your contribution and your efforts during that time recognized?

EGGERS: It just makes me kind of proud. It just does. And when I talk--like I was talking to a couple of my daughter's friends, and they just--they just think it was awesome! And one thing is we haven't talked about it for seventy years, you know. We haven't. And to me that seems like--we kind of neglected something here in the way of history, because we should be recognized more.

DUNHAM: Why do you think it is, that it hasn't been more talked about?

EGGERS: We were busy!

DUNHAM: Yeah. [laughing]

EGGERS: We had families, and it's just--because I'm a mom and a grandmother and now I'm great-grandmother to four darling kids.

DUNHAM: Right, and then you stay active too. You're still an avid walker, I take it?

EGGERS: Walker and volunteer of the year!

DUNHAM: Yeah, and so I know you teach bicycling in the schools, is that right?

EGGERS: Yeah, bicycle safety.

DUNHAM: Can you tell us a little about that? Have you done that for long?

EGGERS: Probably eight or ten years now. Yeah. I do hospice, yeah, volunteer for hospice--have for twenty years.

DUNHAM: What's your role with them?

EGGERS: To help people have free time, you know, and to be a caretaker while they can go do errands or shopping or go to lunch. I know one time I went on a job and I--generally I go for a few minutes to get acquainted. And I got there and one of her friends stopped by just then as I was getting acquainted with her. And they started talking and everything, and I says, "Why don't you guys go 01:06:00to lunch?" And they looked at me and said, "What?" I says, "Well, come on. Get me started in here and you guys go to lunch." "Oh, okay!!" And they were so, things like that that you--

DUNHAM: Great. How did you first get involved with hospice?

EGGERS: I think it was after my--it was about the time my daughter had her accident, and I was getting interested. I think it was to help me as much as everybody else to, when she had her accident, so--it kept me busy.

DUNHAM: Yeah, well that's very important. And you still walk, and do you have any plans for any walking trips coming up?

EGGERS: No, not now. I've done a lot of them. I keep thinking I need to go on one more, I need to go on one more. But I haven't found one I--I'd like to go to China. That's where I'd like to go.

DUNHAM: Oh yeah. Where are some of the favorite places that you've been?

EGGERS: England. I loved England and I loved Germany, walking. Those people who 01:07:00go out for walks? Oh my gosh! They know how to party. Yeah, they know how to party and walk. Yeah. [laughter]

DUNHAM: How do they do that? They have a beer in one hand?

EGGERS: They have a big--yeah! They have a big thing there and you start the walk and they have beer and sandwiches and everything! And when you come back in you have a beer. [laughing]

DUNHAM: Okay, they've got it down. That's where it started, you said, the club.

EGGERS: That's where it started, was Germany.

DUNHAM: Wow. Well, is there anything else we haven't talked about today that you'd like to share with us before we close?

EGGERS: Well, I like volunteering. I volunteer for the hospital; I volunteer for hospice; I volunteer for the chamber down here. And I was trying to think--anything else I volunteer for? Well, bike safety. Yeah, but that just 01:08:00keeps me busy, and with the kids we're--with the bicycling it just keeps me young.

DUNHAM: Yeah, okay. Well, thank you so much Juanita. I really appreciate you sharing. It has been an honor and a privilege to record some of your story here today.

EGGERS: Thank you! [laughing]

DUNHAM: So thank you very much.

EGGERS: I hope it's good.

DUNHAM: Very good, very good. Thank you so much. [interruption in recording] Okay, so we remembered one more. So you have a motorcycle--you own a motorcycle and so let's hear the story of your motorcycle.

EGGERS: Okay. Well, I got my motorcycle and I belonged to a bunch of--there was a bunch of young men, and I think I was the first one--[mic issue] I think I was like the first woman out there in Ontario or anywhere--and they treated me so well. I just loved that motorcycle. It was a Harley-Davidson and we just went all over. I drove it to work. That was my way to work and everything and all 01:09:00that. So--yeah.

DUNHAM: Wow. And did your parents know about the motorcycle?

EGGERS: Well, eventually. [laughter] This was when I was like twenty-one or something.

DUNHAM: Okay, this is a little bit later.

EGGERS: Yeah, this is a little bit later.

DUNHAM: Okay, and did you remain a motorcycle enthusiast your whole life?

EGGERS: Oh yeah, for always. I had the motorcycle for probably six months to a year, something like that, and then gave it up because it wasn't very--what did they say?--ladylike.

DUNHAM: Was that a concern of yours?

EGGERS: No, it didn't bother me a bit!

DUNHAM: [laughing] I wouldn't think that would have been a big concern.

EGGERS: It didn't bother me.

DUNHAM: So did you ever have a motorcycle again? Or that was your--?

EGGERS: No, that was the one time I'd had it.

DUNHAM: Yeah, well that's fun! All right. Well, thank you for sharing, and yeah, I would love to see that picture. Okay, and we'll close with that then. Thank you, Juanita.

[End of Interview]