Grandma and Grandpa Hoffmann were married in Peoria, Illinois, in March of 1938. In the 1940 census they were enumerated in Moline, Illinois; Grandpa was listed as a welder at a sheet metal factory, and Grandma as a typist for the Rock Island Arsenal.1 Soon after this, they decided to make the move to Idaho. That first fall Grandpa spent most of his time hunting, while the two of them lived in a little trailer at the bottom of Canyon Hill in Caldwell. Grandpa didn’t want employment to interfere with his hunting, but Grandma got tired of living in the trailer so found a job of her own with the Selective Service in Boise, and they moved to a little house on North 20th there. Then Grandpa did find work, at the Sawtooth Company on Grove Street.
Grandpa continued his hunting trips, though. It was while Grandpa was on one of these trips and Grandma was home alone that she learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor. That same month, Grandma and Grandpa were planning a trip back home to Illinois for Christmas on the Portland Rose at midnight. At 9 a.m., though, Grandma’s father called to tell her that her mother’s appendix had ruptured. They were able to get tickets for the noon train instead, but still weren’t sure what they’d find when they arrived. Luckily, sulfa had recently been discovered, and it was this that Grandma credited with saving her mother’s life. Grandma did stay on in Illinois for a couple of extra weeks after Grandpa had returned to Idaho, to help care for her mother.
Soon after her return to Idaho, Grandma learned that she was expecting a baby. And soon after that, Grandpa’s draft classification was changed to 1A, meaning he was eligible to be drafted. With Grandma expecting, Grandpa did not relish the thought of being drafted (he was also 34, which might have made an impact as well). So they decided to make the move to Portland, Oregon, so Grandpa could work as a welder in the shipyards. Since this was war work, it meant Grandpa’s classification was changed to 4F. After working for the shipyards for awhile, he worked for a while for a company building large metal trailers for hauling military equipment. Then he went back to his original employment with the Swan Island Shipyards. On 13 October 1942, at Emanuel Hospital in Portland, Mom was born.
Grandpa continued his work at Swan Island for a while, working on oil tankers. Grandpa must have been a skilled and fast welder; his foreman came to him and told him he needed to slow down, as he was making the other welders look bad. Grandpa refused, and his foreman told him he would be fired. To which Grandpa replied, “I quit!” The foreman told him he’d be sent directly into the service. However, Grandma and Grandpa moved again, to a small farm east of Caldwell. This was in late March 1943. They worked raising sugar beets; this was beneficial, both because it meant the sugar company would let them buy 100 pounds of sugar at a time (before that their sugar had been rationed), and also because their farm work was considered a war effort, so Grandpa was no longer in danger of being drafted.
Grandma relayed to me her memories of learning of the end of the war. She heard the news over the radio and shouted, “The war is over; the war is ended!” and began to cry. By now Mom was not the only baby in the family; she had been joined by little brother Jay, and the two of them, not understanding, stared at Grandma as if she were crazy. Two years later, Grandma and Grandpa would end up moving into the house they had had built on Canyon Hill (not the trailer at its base this time), and they would live there for the rest of Grandpa’s life, and most of Grandma’s. Grandpa would also start Hoffman Sheet Metal with his brother Lee, and he didn’t quit again.
- Year: 1940; Census Place: Moline, Rock Island, Illinois; Roll: m-t0627-00875; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 81-38 ↩︎
