Clouatre

'Douglas was desperate for workers'

Eileen D. Clouatre

In 1943, we moved from Georgia to Venice, Calif., because my husband was in the movies.

I went to work at Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica. I had to have a physical and was told I was pregnant.

But Douglas was desperate for workers, so they let me work the graveyard shift (so my husband could be home with the other two children) "bucking" rivets on a small assembly line.

One of my children got a bad cold, and I had to stay home with him. It ruined the company's absenteeism record, so they took me off the easy line and put me on a moving assembly line.

I had to climb a ladder to the wing and attach wires inside small holes cut in the aluminum, which cut my arms and made them bleed. Every few minutes, I had to climb down and move the ladder because the assembly line moved.

It got to be too hard to climb so much as I was pregnant and my husband was drafted, so I eventually had to quit.

While I was working at Douglas, some business people came to visit. My superiors gave me some goggles to wear for eye protection, and when the people were gone, my superiors came and took the glasses back.

The baby I gave birth to grew up and moved to Olympia and invited me to come and live with her here.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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