I graduated from high school in May of 1943. Two weeks later, I’m working at the Kaiser Permanente shipyards in Richmond, Calif.
I am the third of four children born to Rev. Porter T. and Ethel Cargill. My father was pastor of the Church of the Nazarene in Poteau. My aunt and uncle, who also worked in the shipyards in Richmond, had come to Oklahoma on vacation.
My father and uncle decided that my older sister, Thorval, and I would go to California to work in the shipyards and to be near our older brother, “George O.” He was a sailor stationed at the Navy base in Alameda, Calif. Alameda was just across the bay from Richmond.
This left only our 10-year-old brother, Gene, at home with our parents.
We rode to California in the back of a pickup truck that had been fashioned with a tarp over the bed. Three adults rode in the front, and six or seven of us rode in the back. I remember how cold it was at night going through the desert in the back of that pickup truck — even in the summer!
We drove straight through and arrived in Richmond about 8 p.m. on a Sunday night. The next morning Uncle Erve took my sister and me to the shipyards. We were hired as apprentice burners and started to school that day!
We joined the union and were issued hard hats and goggles. We bought metal toe boots and long leather gloves. We already knew to put our hair up under bandanas.
They taught us how to mix the acetylene and oxygen and to use the proper amount of pressure to cut the metal. Then we practiced cutting metal all day long. We cleaned our tips with tiny drills. Our tips had to be absolutely clean in order to make a nice, clean cut.
The second day we were in school again for more training. Day three we were journeyman burners and were assigned to shipway 7 to build Victory and Liberty ships.
My badge was number 73917, and I earned $1.20 per hour. The first week I worked 52 hours (six days) and was paid $54.60 (day shift wages); after everything was deducted (union dues, war chest, hospital, state taxes and war bonds) ... my take-home pay was $40.65. Of this, I paid $12.50 to my uncle for room and board.
It did not take me long to realize that if I waited for him to take a nip or two, he would only take the $10 bill and leave me the $2.50.
We lived 10 blocks from the shipyard; by the time the buses got to us, they were always full, so we walked. I worked everywhere on the ship from fore to aft, the smoke stack to the double bottom. I learned to burn these tiny galvanized pipes to 4-inch thick metal where the shaft was attached to the propeller.
It was a thrill to see a ship I helped build slide down the skids into the bay. I loved every minute of those days. ... These were fun, fun days. Memories I still enjoy.
By late 1944, the war seemed to be getting better. ... Uncle Erve decided to return to Oklahoma. My sister and I lived with another uncle and his wife in Oakland for a few months. In January 1945, my sister and I returned to Oklahoma, also.
Our railroad tickets cost $40.60 from Oakland through Kansas City, Mo., to Poteau. Since I was buying two savings bonds a month, I was able to pay for my first semester of college at Bethany Peniel College (now Southern Nazarene University) in Bethany. Room and board, tuition and books!
I was still living in Bethany when I met my husband, J. Frank Fields Jr., of 48½ years. He passed away November 1999. He was a Marine during the Korean War. We have identical twin sons, Tim and Tom, and a daughter, Tamra. We have five grandchildren: Danny and Denell and Jason and MacKenzie and Joshua.
My sister, Thorval Cargill Carden, passed on Sept. 9, 2005.
Submitted by Neta J. Fields, 84, of Bethany
