Audrey
Audrey Gertrude Grala was born November 30, 1920, on a farm in Boxborough, Massachusetts. I've also seen it spelled "Boxboro". She was the youngest of 6 children: Emily, Sophie, Helen, Vicky, and Eddie. Her father, Petre Grala, was a Polish immigrant who worked as a tailor in Boston before purchasing a 40 acre farm. The rumors in our family that he was an exiled Polish prince have proven to be very false. I could've been a princess.
Life on the Farm
Petre's first wife Mary - who he adored, died. This would be the early 1900s. He never got over his grief but he married his second wife, also named Mary.
Here's how Audrey explained it:
I was born on November 30, 1920 at home. It was a tough birth that drained my poor mama. I didn’t know it then but I realize now the hardships she endured. In the 1920s there was no running water or electricity in the house. If you’re not canning and doing everything you can to get ready for a cold winter, you won’t live to see the spring. I was the youngest of six children, five girls and one boy. See, I don’t think it was her dream to live on a farm and struggle as they had to during the Great Depression. I can’t imagine it’s any young girls’ dream to marry early, especially to someone you don’t even love, just to go to work and to have children every two years, because that’s the average it takes between pregnancies.
Meanwhile and in spite of all that, Audrey had a pretty normal life for the times. She wrote optimistically about what it was like and we published it on Amazon in 2012. Support this site and click the link (works if you open in a new tab) to check it out.
Off to Boston
When Audrey turned 18, she left the farm for Boston. She lived with her older sisters, Emily and Vicky, and many other women in a big brownstone on Westland Ave. These were "women only" residences - no men allowed. Her sister Emily had her own salon while she worked odd jobs as a waitress or receptionist. It must have been exciting to be in the big city. She dated and had fun. We even heard tell of a banker she fancied. She went to the 1939 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, New York City.
The 700-foot Trylon and 200-foot Perisphere behind her were a really big deal.
The 700-foot Trylon and 200-foot Perisphere were featured at the 1939-1940 World's Fair
That Fateful Day
She met Joe (that's what everyone called Leonard at the time) through her sister Vicky who was dating his best friend Tony. He was working as a tree surgeon at the time. They started to see each other pretty regularly. Then Pearl Harbor happened - the day that will live on in infamy. Here's the headline from the next day, December 8, 1941. This is the evening edition. Just a horrific loss of lives and a disaster for our naval fleet and the start of us joining the allies. President Roosevelt doesn't waste any time. He goes to a joint session of the senate and house with a pledge to win the war. Congress votes and off we go.
Guess Who's Getting Married
The Draft now moves from peacetime to wartime and gets expanded to include 18 - 37 year old white guys. Yeah, it was pretty racist but that will change by 1943. Joe receives his notice sometime in January of 1942 (that's a guess). He's reporting on April 1, 1942 (not a guess). I do not think this is a "let's be crazy and get hitched" spur of the moment idea but a more serious, deliberate discussion about their future. Serious enough that there's a notice in the paper. They decide to get married and set the date for March 7, 1942.
It's a very modest wedding - just immediate family and Tony. They then spend the rest of March together doing redacted and redacted. They decide that Audrey will move from Boston to live with her sister, Vicky in East Hartford, Connecticut. They'll share a trailer since they don't know where Joe will be sent. They'll find out soon enough. No spoiler alert here.
Audrey gets a job with Pratt-Whitney in Hartford, Connecticut and travels to see Joe when she can. It's over 2 hours on today's roads so must have been a rough trip back then. It's an older car and things like tires will soon be an issue. Since the war has officially become a "world" war, the country turns its focus to support the troops. War Bonds are introduced, the Voice of America begins broadcasting, and 26 countries agree to create the United Nations. There's also rationing, blackouts, and shortages. Very challenging times.
So how do a couple of newlyweds manage in the Army? The rest of the story starts on April 1, 1942. Please subscribe and follow the story. It starts with boot camp.
