Interview by Eli Jacoby
Laura Quimby was married in WWII, but she lived with her parents because her husband was at war in Europe. During the war years she worked in a department store in Bellingham. Her reaction to Pearl Harbor was one of disgust. She wondered why anyone in the world would want to bomb a place like that. She said that after the bombing of Pearl Harbor the women were doing a lot of the work. The rationing of coffee, sugar, and gas were three big problems for her during the war. She said that it was hard to get to work because she couldn’t drive very far. Her sister Genevieve Schneider was married and had two kids during the war, so her husband (who owned a farm) didn’t have to get to war. She said the war didn’t seem to affect her that much because they grew all their own food on the farm and didn’t have to worry about rationing that much. She believes that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was stupid and pointless because it killed innocent lives. She said they should have bombed a military base instead if they were going to use it at all. Both of their most lasting memories were when their brother Cliff got back from the Pacific.