Excerpt: You Thought Your Family was Strange

After Granddad had graduated high school, he was drafted. When he went to pick up his orders to report he was told that he wasn’t needed. When World War II started, he was too old for service. He did hire on as a carpenter at the Douglas plant. Since he was a master at blueprints, he was brought into the model shop. Since he needed the certification he was sent to night school. The teacher, convinced that Gratie could teach him, gave him his certification and he filled out his hours of schooling drawing and coloring movie posters. Once in the model shop, he set out to make a model of the Douglas plant. Two women were assisting by making the structure of the plant while Gratie made the planes and machines. He would carve the models first out of wood, make his molds, and then cast them out of aluminum. All were made within a few thousandths tolerance of scale. Since he worked off of top-secret blueprints, he had clearance for that and he was given permission to visit any part of the mile-long plant except the bombsite room. He told them he really didn’t need it. So he spent his days making what amounted to toys. At one time they were backed up on the line waiting for the glass nose for one of the planes. For three weeks, five days a week, Granddad and two other gentlemen worked around the clock to make a mold to form their own glass. Once the pattern was made, noses crafted and fitted, the men were allowed to resume their normal work. Oh, he had other strenuous duties as well. Since nylons were practically non-existent, he would use his airbrush to paint the secretaries’ legs with leg make-up. I would like to find a picture that was in the Douglas News showing one of the office ladies perched on his workbench with her skirt above her knees (shocking!). He was making a stroke with the airbrush. He would then hand-draw the seam down the back of the leg.