Marie Henrich was born on February 8, 1924 in Sayre, Pennsylvania. Marie is now 77. During WWII Marie’s role was to sell war bonds for $18.75. She worked at Northern Bond Site. She was one of the few selected from her department to sell war bonds for about two years.
Before WWII started, the young Marie Henrich at seventeen years old attended high school. Marie in 11th grade lived in Sayre, Pennsylvania. At age 19 she got married to a man named Dick. When Pearl Harbor was attacked she was just coming from church. She first heard it on the radio. She couldn’t believe such a terrible thing could happen to the U.S. Soon the U.S. government got involved with the war.
When the war started, Marie experienced a few changes. Her husband enrolled in the Navy, as did three of his brothers. Everything became rationed and times became hard. She was an uncertified nurse/aid. She was elected from her department to sell war bonds. Ms. Henrich said that she enjoyed visiting friends and family on the weekends. She also caught laryngitis on one of her visits to her friends. When she was leaving with her friends her father had a sudden hart attack. She took the subway home. She was bumped into a lot and she couldn’t say sorry. She then told us than she sold about 20 bonds, for $18.95 each a day. During which time she met a famous baseball player who took all the war bond sellers out to dinner. At this dinner, she met Babe Ruth. As she did her other job (timing bombs), she came closer to the end of the war. When she heard the great news of the war’s end, she felt that the Japanese deserved the bomb. When the company heard it, they stopped everything.
Marie worked night and day selling as many war bonds as she could. Then one day, as she was working hard, everything stopped. All the machines were shut off and the celebration began. The war had ended and the Allies had won. That very day, the parades had started and the people celebrated. After the war, people went back to their normal jobs. Marie had returned to school to receive her diploma. She successfully finished school. Marie had relatives in the war and they returned safely. The war didn’t change her life but it taught her a lot of important information.
Even though WWII did not change Marie’s life a great deal, she learned lots of different things and met new people. She learned that because everything such as clothes and food was rationed, that she had to make do with what she had and not worry about what she didn’t have. Marie says the most important thing that happened during WWII was that all the people were working together to achieve the same goal.