Claire V. Bogdanos

Lucky Green has gone to war! And  so has Hoboken, madly, wildly with shipyards and canned food factories in full swing, 24 hour shifts!  Tootsie Roll factory, Maxwell House, Lipton Tea, Continental Can, Hostess Bread & Cake, Van Houton Chocolate and on and on!  Lucky Strike used a dark green dye in its packaging, thus the slogan, with P. Lorillard across Observer Highway!  K Rations & C Rations were made and packaged here in the frenetic hustle of World War Two.  Keuffel & Esser churning out essential steel instruments, Ferguson Propellers, Fagan Ironworks, Tietjen & Lang, Fredericks along with Todd Shipyards and Bethlehem Steel all blackening our skies with the industry of war.  Cigarettes were sold by the ones, called Loosies, did you know that?  The trolley cars bustled along the tracks day and night!  At last, there was no unemployment!  Hospitals recruited high school students to pick up the slack as orderlies, nurses aides, school hours shifted to 7:30 AM, ending 2:30 PM to accomodate the desperate need for help at $20. per 5 day week of 4 hour shifts with hot meal including  meat.  Many stayed in the field after peacetime!  We were changing and learning to survive in this brave new world.   And we did!  P.S. I chose to work at Christ Hospital, good food, no food stamps were  required!             Sincerely,                                            Claire B.