Oral History Program Mary Mendez Interviewed by Alyssa Chaffee 7 August 2017 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Mary Mendez Interviewed by Alyssa Chaffee 7 August 2017 Copyright © 2018 by Weber State University, Stewart Library iii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. The working files, original recording, and archival copies are housed in the University Archives. Project Description The World War II "All Out for Uncle Sam" oral history project contains interviews from veterans of the war, wives of soldiers, as well as individuals who were present during the war years. The interviews became the compelling background stories for the "All Out for Uncle Sam" exhibit. The project received funding from Utah Division of State History, Utah Humanities Council and Weber County RAMP. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Mendez, Mary, an oral history by Alyssa Chaffee, 7 August 2017, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. Mary Mendez at Clearfield Naval Supply circa 1940s Mary Mendez and others in the office at Clearfield Naval Supply circa 1940s 1 Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Mary Mendez. The interview was conducted on August 7, 2017 in her home, by Alyssa Chaffee. Mary discusses her life and her memories involving World War II. Michael Ballif, the audio technician, is also present during this interview. AC: Today is August 7, 2017. We are in the home of Mary Mendez, speaking with her about her experiences during World War II for Weber State University’s World War II in Northern Utah project. My name is Alyssa Chaffee, and I'm here with Michael Ballif. Mary, what year were you born? MM: 1929. AC: Okay, and where were you born? MM: I was born in a little town called Aguilar Colorado. AC: Did you live there your whole childhood? MM: No, I didn't even live there, just long enough to be born. We lived in Grand Junction for a while. My father was in the service for a long time, and then we moved to California. And I've lived in Sheridan, Wyoming with a grandpa. Well my whole family did. And then before Sheridan was Grand Junction, Colorado. I went to grade school there, and school in Sheridan. Then we moved to California and lived in Riverside. Then when the war broke out my father came back to Utah and was over at the army depot for a long time. And then it became Hill Field. He worked there, at the Naval Supply Depot. I went to school at Davis High, then I attended Weber College. I enjoyed working. I had a lot of good jobs at the base. When I first started to work, I was sixteen and still in school. They had me doing all kinds of things. 2 They were hiring a lot of kids then, part-time workers. I was lucky to get a job and probably because of my dad. Anyway, I held jobs like time keeper, and all-around messenger. At that time there were printers like we have now, they were called mimeographs, and I worked on one of those for a while. AC: Did you work pretty close to where they kept the German POWs and the Italian POWs? MM: Well, they had the German prisoners at the Clearfield naval supply depot, and they used to come around and wash the windows and clean and stuff like that, and we always were told we couldn't communicate. I got several awards for outstanding work. I did all of the billing in collections I worked in the accounting depot with sales. I would sale charts and publication. And I was the only one that had the number to our safe. Once a week I used to have to go to Hill Field and make deposits. And then we always had an announced audit. Never, not even a penny lost. And we collected millions of dollars for our sales of maps and publications that were shipped to different shipping companies. And this was during the Korean and Vietnam War. But back to World War II, I remember when the war ended--just a teenager, you know. In Ogden Dad said it carried on like crazy. But I had a good life. I worked hard, got married, had three sons and one daughter. God loves them. Boy, they turned out to be good people. I have my oldest boy, he's in business for himself, and he's quite wealthy in money and personality-always a nice guy. And my second boy is a senior geologist. He works out of a gold mine in Angola. And my youngest son went into the military. He retired as a Lieutenant 3 Colonel. He worked in the Pentagon as a... he's a money man. He worked at the Persian Gulf. He was stationed there when Clinton was still president and Obama. Now he's retired and has a good life. He works hard. He's a deputy director at the Aladdin Bureau here in Utah. So he's doing quite well. And my daughter works at T-bell school. So you know all-in-all life has been wonderful. We struggled and we traveled. We went to Europe when my son was a commander over there and we spent five weeks traveling and oh that was the best. And of course, you know, I'm a devout Catholic. MB: Yeah, I noticed the sacred heart over there. MM: That's there all of the time. I never go to bed without kissing my Lord. Never. And I told you when I was in Germany that I went to Hitler's hideout. During the war my husband was over there. It was sad days for him but he made it home. And we went to the hideout, it's in a great big mountain you know. He said that after the war they all ran up there to try to get into his... to take things, you know, souvenirs. And he says that, when we went in 2001… When New York was bombed we were there. And he said, "Gee now they have an elevator. It took us two hours to climb the mountain." But it brought a lot of sad memories. And my father got out before all of that. He trained horses in the army. AC: What was your dad's name? MM: Well you know my father was adopted by a Spanish family in New Mexico. And their last name was Garcia. But my father's last name was Walker. So, you know. Anyway, there is a lot of history in our family. My grandma was Croix Indian. And anyway it's quite interesting. 4 But getting back to work I remember right after the war we used to collect toys for Christmas activities—everything... food—you name it—candy. We packed a lot of little bags for the military families that were coming back from the war. But I worked 35 years. Then after…We had three boys in college and my daughter was at St. Joseph's’. It was getting really costly, so I went back to work as a hostess. The funnest job I ever had was working at El Matador’s. Here I was in my late 50s but it was so fun. I met so many wonderful people. When I worked at the base there was ten of us—same people for 35 years. Well, not that many years because some of them were much younger and worked while I had already put in a lot of years. But anyway, El Matador’s—it was fun. I have to admit it was crazy. And I enjoyed it. I worked until I was 84. AC: That's great. What year did you move out to Ogden? MM When did we move to Ogden? I never lived in Ogden. AC: Oh, okay. MM When we came here from California we lived in Layton for maybe a year. And then we lived in Roy. I've lived in Roy since I was seventeen. We didn't have a car. My husband had to use the only car we had. So I had a taxi come to my mom's home here—she lived just down on six thousand—and pick up the little ones and take them to school and bring them back. And either I was home or my husband was home all the years our children were growing. AC: Okay. So I remember you told me this funny story about you and your sister going on a date with a couple of marines. Could you tell me that story again? 5 MM: Yeah, we got in trouble. I mean really got in trouble. Because my father was so protective. Oh my goodness, you couldn't look at a boy if you wanted to. And I met a couple of Marines at the base. My sister is a year younger. So I told her, I says, "Hey, I got a couple of dates tomorrow. One for you and one for me." We told our dad that if he'd take us to Ogden so we could rent some bikes to go bike riding. Which we did. And you know that darn park on 25th Street there. Well that was a hang-out for a lot of people that would go sit—watch things. Well guess what? We come out of the movie holding hands and who do you think we run into? My mom and my dad. MB: Oh no. MM: We got in trouble. We got grounded. And boy did we ever. But we did it. After that we didn't dare lie. We didn't dare. Because dad was tough. He was a good man but oh boy. He ruled. Oh yeah. I remember that well. AC: Where were you the day that you heard the war was over? MM: I was working and we were doing our thing in the office. And then when the war ended here comes a rush of sailors and marines grabbing all of the girls--kissing. And I hid under the desk. I said, "I'm not going to get kissed by all of these guys." Well, one dummy saw me. Oh boy. My lips hurt for days. I mean really. It was so funny, but. Just as I thought that they were all gone and I started to crawl out from under the desk and then I get grabbed. That was crazy. MB: Definitely. AC: What was Ogden like during World War II? 6 MM: Well you know, they had beautiful stores in Ogden. They had so much of different things that we don't have today. Today all we have is gangs and it's sad. But I do not remember as a teenager all the stuff that's going on today. We could sleep outside all night and be safe, which we used to do. We’d just slip down the road on 6000 when we were kids. And, I don’t know…we worked. There was a lot of work of course and a lot of kids were able to get jobs because they needed so much help. But, I enjoyed those days so much more. And even when my children were still in school it wasn't like it is today. It's sad. I believe in my heart because the law steps in too much with family discipline, that that's why kids turn out the way they do. If you smack a kid today, the law will lock you up for child abuse. Kids will run to the police and say, "I got hit by my mom." I paddled my kids more than once when they were little for getting into mischief, you know? Really. My kids turned out great. And their children are awesome. I just had a granddaughter that graduated from Westminster. And she has the best job in the world. And then I had the others go to the "U". The one is gonna be a nurse. But what's happened, and I really and truly believe that if parents instead of... I know there is a lot of abuse. There's a lot of children that need love. There's a lot of children that probably for one reason or another get punished because parents are sick--mentally, drugs. And that's not good. We didn't have that in my home. Never. AC: Were there any more memories about World War II that you wanted to share before we end the interview? 7 MM: Oh, I have to tell you one of the funniest stories when we lived in Layton. My dad had rented a home from a family by the last name of Adams, I can’t remember which one. But it was just a little house. And there was a mountain just not too far. So we used to go up there sleigh riding. This one day there was my cousins and I... and this was when I was still a kid, just after we came from California. We went sleigh riding and I went down and it was great. I backed up and my cousin Al says, "Well you got to lift your feet--you’re dragging them." So what do I do? I lift my feet. And where do you think I end up? In a well. A deep well. And I had my mother's good coat on. Here comes a whole big family down in that hole. They had to run home and get some help to get me out. There were bugs and I don't know what all in that dang well. It was a laugh. I got in trouble for that too because I had my mother's coat on. But that was during the war. AC: Did your schools ever help with scrap metal drives? Or selling bond stamps? MM: Davis High did a lot of fundraising. And of course when I went to work I bought bonds. I always bought bonds. I still buy them for my grandkids. I have bonds here that I have bought for my two grandsons when they were little. They are mature now. So, oh yeah, we used to buy bonds by the... every pay day my husband would buy and I would buy. That's how we saved to buy our first home. With bonds that we had. And you know what? Back then we didn't make like what we do now. But the economy is so high right now too. One of the things that I always strive for is save a little if you can. Because things are out there you never know how it's going to end up. But we bought bonds and then we had gathered cans in order to send money to some of the troops. I mailed a lot of 8 letters to the military. Didn't know who, but just to a certain military guy. To say hello and thank you for helping our country. And oh yeah, the school used to do a lot of those things. But the war itself…I was too young to really comprehend what was all taking place. Other than history. I love history. I bet I have every history book there is about the war and things. I have a grandson right now. He’s seventeen. And he goes to the military academy—4.0 kid—smart. He loves history so I'm so grateful that I have a lot of history books for him. He’s sharp. He wants to be like his Uncle Joe—be in the military. But Joseph was...Do you know, when he graduated from Weber’s ROTC program you would have thought he was the only one graduating. He got all of the awards—no kidding. And made it first in everything. He was a determined young man. And that's the way Benjamin is. Benjamin, he's not going to drag his feet and that comes from—well all of my family were military though. My dad, down. My husband, his brothers, and my sons. My oldest boy didn't go. He was at the "U" and he wanted to finish school. But Michael and Joseph did. AC: Did you have any family who served in World War II? MM: Yes, and in fact I have a brother-in-law that was killed in Normandy. He's buried in France. When we went to Germany, we went to Austria and then my husband and son went over to see if they could find his grave. But they could not. So, you know there is so many of those cemeteries over there—acres and acres and acres of crosses all over France. So we couldn't find him. But I think he died 9 about two days before they bombed. My husband Raven was there in Germany on D Day. Had lots of bad memories, he was 21 years old. And then I had an uncle that was my dad's brother. When he was coming back from Casablanca, their shipped was bombed seven times. And he made it home, but he was a nervous wreck. He lived with us for a while. And I remember every time an airplane went over our house, everything went off the table and he was hiding underneath. Oh He died a sad life. His brother was not in the military. But my uncle used to scare us to death! He just flipped that thing over and so… Then another thing: my husband got so angry at me one time because I told him that we had gone to St. Joseph's to a dance. There were Italian prisoners there. And he said, "I can't believe you. We’re out there fighting for you guys and you’re entertaining the Italians." I said, "Well, I was sixteen. What do you think?" I never dated any of them, but… my father would take us to the dance and then he would go back and get us and bring us home. But my husband got angry when I told him I went to one of those dances. AC: So one last question and then we will get out of your hair. How do you feel like World War II influenced the rest of your life? MM: Affected my life? Well, I think because of the sufferings and what our parents went through. Those that died and those that survived—I feel it has taught me to be more humble. And to reach out. I reach out to the poor all of the time, believe me. Never do I say no to the poor. It has made me realize how precious our freedom is and how we can help our neighbor. And that's what I live for. 10 I teach religion, I earned a catechist master certification and I have done it for 57 years, I kid you not. I worked 40 hours a week, sometimes 57. But I made it to my class every time we had class, which we do once a week during the winter. I still teach. I was the director of our school of religion for over 20 years. And now I don't want that job. It's gotten to be too big. All I want to do now is teach. Teach the little ones about how much God really means and what they need to do to respond to His call. So that's what I feel in my life that I… I had a lot of fun. Trust me. I was not exactly an angel from heaven. But I tried to be good. So, anyway. Life has been good, honey. It really has. And like I said I've gotten so many compliments and I did a lot to help. I still want to be involved if I can. As long as this holds out, you know. I'm 88, you know that's pretty old. I'm just lucky that God has given me health to carry on. But as far as going back to '44… We came from California in the end of '42. My father was discharged on medical it was just about a week before Christmas when my father decided to move to Utah. And so I've been here ever since, you know, and seen it all. We used to wave at the troops going down the tracks. There would be trains full of young boys going and us kids would run down to the track and wave. But that was my life. MB: Thank you so much for sharing it with us. MM: Well it's not very interesting. MB: Oh no, it is extremely interesting. AC: It is interesting. Those are great stories, thank you so much. 11 MB: Some side notes: My father was born in Montana. His mother was a Cow Native American. My father and his two younger brothers were taken to an Indian orphanage in Santa Fe New Mexico Dad was adopted by a Garcia family. Dad told us that his mother’s name was Walker on Ice. Dad was 6 years old when his mother died. We moved to Utah from California soon after the war started. My father was in an accident and was given a Medical discharge. This was in March of 1942. Dad was in the Army for a few years. Dad worked at the Ogden Arsenal and later at the arsenal Supply Depot. in Clearfield. When our brother was killed in Normandy, my husband was in Germany he was 20 years old. I met him at Weber State in 1948. He said that he did not know about John being killed. My husband said that his troop was near and there were a lot of bombs. My husband and I went to Germany in the year of 2010. We had a son who was Lt. Col finance Officer stationed at a base near Munich. His wife had given birth to a baby boy born in Munich, We were in Europe for 5 weeks. Had a wonderful time. We went to Spain, Austria, Rome, Czech Republic. We went to see Hitler’s hideout in Switzerland and the Dachau concentration camp. This was not good, my husband cried and cried. It brought back too many memories. My son and husband went to Massif to see where John was or his grave. They could not find it. We returned home three days before 9-11.