Oral history interview of Paul R. Grigsby

Collection:: Veterans History Project: Oral History Interviews
Title:: Oral history interview of Paul R. Grigsby
Creator:: Eberhard, Sarah
Grigsby, Paul R., 1911-2006
Date of Original:: 2004-08-04
Subject:: Recordak (Microfilm camera)
V-mail
Atomic bomb
Rationing
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Grigsby, Emily Bourne, 1922-
MacArthur, Douglas, 1880-1964
Eastman Kodak Company
Dartmouth College
Mills College
Indianapolis (Cruiser)
San Francisco Opera
Indianapolis (Cruiser CA-35)
Location:: Australia, -25.0, 135.0
New Zealand, -40.900557, 174.885971
United States, California, San Francisco County, Treasure Island, 37.82465, -122.37108
United States, Georgia, 32.75042, -83.50018
United States, Georgia, Atlanta Metropolitan Area, 33.8498, 84.4383
United States, Hawaii, Honolulu County, Honolulu, 21.30694, -157.85833
Medium:: video recordings (physical artifacts)
mini-dv
Type:: MovingImage
Format:: video/quicktime
Description:: In this interview, Paul Grigsby describes his career in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific during World War II. Before the war, he worked in the microfilming industry. He set up V-mail processing plants throughout the Pacific Theatre. His wife also relates her wartime experiences. She was a student, a singer and also had a top-secret job with the Navy.
Paul Grigsby served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific during WWII.
Paul R. and Emily Grigsby Veterans Oral History Project Atlanta History Center With Sarah Eberhard August 4, 2004 [Tape 1, Side A] Interviewer: I'm Sarah Eberhard and I'm conducting a Veterans History Project interview on August 4th, 2004, with Paul R. Grigsby [and wife, Emily Grigsby] at the Atlanta History Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Grigsby, could I please have you state your name and date of birth. Grigsby: Paul R. Grigsby, four-fourteen-eleven. Interviewer: Thank you. Okay, to get started here I'd like to ask you a little bit about your background leading up to joining the service. Were you in school at the time, working, drafted, voluntary? What led up to your being in the service? Grigsby: Well, I was in business in Atlanta. I knew that I was gonna either be drafted if I couldn't get a commission. I got a commission. So I went on in first. Interviewer: What type of business were you in here? Grigsby: Wholesale electronics. Interviewer: Okay. So you went ahead on in voluntarily. You enlisted here? In Atlanta? Grigsby: Yes. Interviewer: Okay. Grigsby: Well, I was with Eastman Kodak Company before, at about that time. That's right. She's right. I went in the electronics business after I came back, I guess. But I was with Eastman Kodak Company. And Recordak, which was a machine to photograph your records and put them on a small film so you could destroy the originals, see. And I worked with it with Kodak Company for ten years before I went in the service. Interviewer: Okay. And that was here in Atlanta? Grigsby: Yes. Interviewer: Okay. And had you also grown up here in the Atlanta area? Grigsby: I traveled all over the Southeast, Florida, Georgia, Alabama. Interviewer: And did you have family that lived in Atlanta? Grigsby: Well, it's a long time ago. We got married in '62, didn't we? When did we get married? Mrs. Grigsby: [laughs] Forty-two. Grigsby: Forty-two. Excuse me. Interviewer: Okay. Grigsby: My family was…I was born and raised in Florida. Practically all of my family is in Florida or was at the time. However, I had some nephews at Savannah and here in Atlanta. Interviewer: And at the time that you went into the service, did you have any other family members that were also in the service? Grigsby: No. Interviewer: At that time you were the only one in your family. And were you married at the time that you went in? Because I notice you enlisted in 1942 also. Grigsby: Yeah. Interviewer: You got married shortly after… Grigsby: Got married before I went in the service, yeah. Interviewer: Okay. All right. So you were newly married when you went into the service and where was the first place that you reported for your initial training? Grigsby: Dartmouth College. Mrs. Grigsby: Hanover. Grigsby: Hanover, New Hampshire. Interviewer: Okay. And was this general training? What was your training experience like there? Grigsby: Well, we were…when I got my commission, they told me where to go to for my initiation. I had to be trained. I'd never been in the service. You know, you have to…before they'll give you a commission, you have to have a certain amount of recommendations that you're eligible for it. Interviewer: All right. Grigsby: Oh, me. [inaudible] Interviewer: Right. And so did you, at that time, know that you would be working with the V-mail and records at that point? Grigsby: Yeah, that's right. For the Navy. Interviewer: Okay. And so your training for that specific type of duty started taking place from your first… Grigsby: Well, they wanted me to come in because I knew that kind of thing and they didn't have anyone that could do it. Interviewer: Okay. And let's see. So from the training that took place there, then did you immediately go overseas from that point or did you have other stops here in the states before you shipped out? Grigsby: I don't know. When I went to Dartmouth, you're speaking of? Interviewer: Yeah, after that. Grigsby: Went to Washington. Interviewer: You were in Washington for a while? Okay. How long were you there? Do you remember? Was it a short time? Grigsby: Very short time. Mrs. Grigsby: Three months. Interviewer: For three months. Okay. And then from there looking at your service information, it looks like…did you go on to Honolulu from there? Grigsby: Well, I went to Honolulu to get my orders. Soon as I got my orders, I went to the South Pacific. I stayed in the South Pacific for three years. I never did get back to Honolulu. I never did until we got ready to get out of the service. Interviewer: Okay. And why don't you, if you'd like to, tell a little bit about, you know, when you left Honolulu and your trip over to the South Pacific and… Grigsby: They brought me in to handle V-mail, Victory mail, that went out. They didn't have enough airplanes to take the mail out. So you wrote a letter to San Francisco and they took it out and put it on a roll of film. And I put in twenty-two different V-mail stations in the Pacific. Once a week, we'd get a roll of film that'd have from three to five hundred or a thousand names on it or letters in it. And we enlarged them and printed them and delivered them to the servicemen in that area. Interviewer: Okay. So you really traveled around in several different positions, getting these stations set up. And then did you take part in training some other people in how to do this? Grigsby: Oh, yeah. I had to. Absolutely. At different stations, I'd go in and keep [inaudible word] going and once I got it going I'd go to another one. In the Fleet Records Office, we carried about…oh, I don't know, thirty or forty thousands names on little three-by-five cards of the people who were in the service. So that if we got mail, we could look up the name and find out where they were and forward the mail to them. And it was a job to keep it. Every time a set of orders was changed, we got a copy and changed his name. If he was transferred to another unit, we put that on there, too. If he died, we also put that on there. Mrs. Grigsby: Marines. Grigsby: And then the Marines. Yeah. Interviewer: So, you were handling it for the Navy and the Marines? Grigsby: And the Marines. Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. Just those two. Grigsby: That's right. Interviewer: Those two branches. Now, in regard to, as we all know, there was censorship on some of the mail that was necessary. Did you handle that or did you work with someone that was handling that? What was that like? Grigsby: I didn't personally handle it. I couldn't. At twenty-two different locations, once you trained a crew they handled it for their area. The personnel that was in their area, they received mail on a little film. They printed it and delivered it there. And the other film went to another station. They did the same thing. And then when orders were changed, they went to the Fleet Records Offices and we changed the names so the mail could be forwarded properly. Interviewer: Okay. So this was for all mail that was coming out of that particular location. Mrs. Grigsby: Out of San Francisco. Interviewer: Out of San Francisco. Grigsby: Not the mail going back. Just the mail coming out from the States. Interviewer: From the San Francisco location. Grigsby: Yes. Interviewer: Okay. I see listed some of the locations where you worked at here. Are there any of the particular stops or locations that you set up that are particularly memorable or challenging? Grigsby: No. I was so busy moving from one to another. When we got one moving and operating, we went to another location. Honolulu let us know where they wanted me to go put a station. And I'd go put the station in. They'd send the equipment to that location and I'd put the station in and train the people. Then once I was sure they could operate, I went somewhere else. Interviewer: About how long did it take in each stop? Grigsby: Oh, it took…oh, sixty or ninety days. Interviewer: Okay. So you were moving [inaudible]. Grigsby: I was busy. For the four years that I was in the Pacific, I was very busy. Interviewer: Now, during that time, your wife had relocated to San Francisco? Grigsby: No. She went to…you tell them. Interviewer: Mrs. Grigsby? Mrs. Grigsby: I went to San Francisco with him and when he left I had one more year of college. So I graduated from Mills College in a year. But he would write back these hair-raising stories of what he was going through. And he particularly liked Australia and New Zealand. And he said one time, he got to a base, I think in New Zealand, and they kept asking him if he was cleared for…what do you call it? Safety or…secrecy. And he said yes. They wouldn't let him in. So he sat in the hotel and ate cherries [?]. And then, he finally corrected the situation by telephone. And he got it fixed by telephone with one of the Recordak machines. Grigsby: In other words, out in that area you had to give each station the facilities for getting in touch with someone if the station wasn't operating properly. And it was a telegraph. It was a telephone, all right, but it was more like a telegraph except you could talk on it. But you didn't do much talking. It was all printed. And if necessary, I'd fly up to their station and get it back in shape. But if it wasn't necessary, I'd give them all the information they needed over the message center. Interviewer: So in addition to getting the station set up, you were also trouble-shooting the ones… Grigsby: That's right. Interviewer: …that were in existence… Grigsby: That's right. Interviewer: …as well. Grigsby: That's right. Interviewer: About how many people did it take to operate a facility once you got it up and running? Grigsby: Oh, I would say eighteen to twenty. Interviewer: Wow. And what about…I'm curious about the actual piece of equipment itself. Grigsby: [inaudible] Interviewer: How big was it? How can [inaudible]? Grigsby: Each station, we were equipped with two Quonset huts, one for operations and one to live in. And each station had their own little van so the people could go back and forth between where they stayed and where they worked. It was a pretty complicated operation. And of course, they had to go somewhere to eat and they had to go back somewhere to sleep and then they had to be available for any use that they were called to. Interviewer: And the actual, technical process of working with this machine, was it something that was, you know, say like the size of a room? Grigsby: You never saw a Quonset hut? A Quonset hut was… Mrs. Grigsby: She's talking about the machinery that… Grigsby: I know what she's talking about, where we operated. But we had to have a building that was four times as big as this room. I'd say six times as big as this room for the operations. And if you knew anything about photography, you had to have machinery to keep your temperature at a certain level and your chemicals at a certain level and you also had to have your electricity to where it was not fluctuating. It was pretty…actual like being at home, once you got situated. And you had to have fellas that were really interested in doing an excellent job. Interviewer: Did they have to have…were they required, the people that you trained and were selected to operate these facilities, did they have to go through any particular screening or having special requirements themselves? Grigsby: No. All they had to have was a desire and the ability. The ability to learn how to enlarge a picture, develop it, print it, put it in envelopes and mail it. Interviewer: And then, once the mail was scanned and put in the envelopes, then did they have to be physically addressed to the person? Grigsby: Oh, yes. They had to be physically addressed to the individual. Oh, they were already addressed. When you got a letter from the people in the United States, at the top of it was an area that they had to fill in, the full name and all that they had wanted it to go to. They didn't know where he was. They didn't know whether he'd been transferred or whether he was still living or not. Mrs. Grigsby: Each station had a number and they would just address this to whatever address in Honolulu [inaudible] and from there… Grigsby: V-mail one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Mrs. Grigsby: The Navy had to find out which station the person was staying in and mail it to that station all over the South Pacific. So it was complicated. They had to have a V-mail, a little tube of pictures of the letter on film, microfilm that was very small. These had to be put onto a form of a letter in a hundred and twenty-five degree heat in the Quonset huts, which was very hard to control. And then, the amazing part to me is that these enlisted men, we didn't have computers then, so they had to put every man's address on little three-by-five cards that was in the South Pacific and keep them separate whether they were in the Navy or the Marines. Interviewer: And those were…did they have to make a copy of those cards at each location? Grigsby: No, no, no. They kept a record of the man's name and address, but they didn't keep them on the cards. They just… Interviewer: That was in… Grigsby: Just on a long form. That's all. Interviewer: All right. And because these were coming in on the V-mail, they were limited. It was a pretty standard form so you didn't…you know, there weren't like packages or enclosures, pictures or anything else. Grigsby: All just alike. They came through just like that and the Fleet Records Offices had eighty or ninety thousand little three-by-five cards for people's address and the whole works in it. Mrs. Grigsby: But some people did send fruitcake and pictures. And the only picture that they would allow with the V-mail was a newborn baby. If the soldier or sailor or Marine had not seen his baby, he was allowed to have a picture of that baby on the V-mail. Interviewer: Okay. Now what was your…how often were you all able to communicate with…was it… Grigsby: Each other? Interviewer: Um-hmm. The two of you. Mrs. Grigsby: By V-mail. Interviewer: That was it? Mrs. Grigsby: Yes. Grigsby: Anytime by V-mail. But I didn't get back, I came…in four years, three and a half years, I only came ashore three times. Interviewer: Where did that take place? Grigsby: Huh? Interviewer: Where were you able to come ashore? Grigsby: One of these stations. Mrs. Grigsby: San Francisco. Grigsby: Or putting in a new station. Mrs. Grigsby: San Francisco. You came back to San Francisco. Grigsby: If I came back, I came back to San Francisco. Interviewer: Okay. Grigsby: But I only came back three times during three and a half years. Interviewer: Okay. When you were able to get back, how long were you able to stay? Grigsby: Three days. A week at the most. Of course, most of it was travel. But I could stay about three days once I got there and I'd have to send a V-mail to Emily and say, “Well, I'm gonna be in San Francisco on a certain date,” and she'd come down. We would be together for about three days, then I had to go. Interviewer: In all of this, because your experience is really unique. In all the traveling around that you did setting up these stations, was there any one in particular that was more harrowing or that was, you know, more difficult to set up or that had circumstances that really stand out to you on that? Mrs. Grigsby: Tell about…you were on an island when the ship came in with the bomb loaded on the ship. Grigsby: Oh, yeah. I was at…wait at minute. Mrs. Grigsby: Saipan or… Grigsby: No, no, no, no. I was in…I'll think of the name of it in a minute. I was in the harbor. They brought the bomb that was dropped on…they brought…one of our ships brought the utensils to where our Air Force out there could make the bombs to drop in Japan, see. Interviewer: The atomic bomb? Grigsby: Yeah. And…oh, it was a tremendous ship that came in there and it was pretty fast and he felt like he could…he came out and had to dodge this way and that way and get in there, but he thought he could go fast enough to beat them out. They knew he was there and so they sank the ship within five…fifteen miles of the port that he delivered the bombs in and we lost four thousand lives. [The cruiser USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine on July 30, 1945, four days after delivering the components of the atomic bomb to the island of Tinian. The number of men lost was 834, the greatest loss at sea in U.S. Naval history.- transcriber's notes.] Interviewer: Oh, my. Do you remember what ship that was? No? Grigsby: I forget…the Indianapolis. Interviewer: The Indianapolis. Okay. And that would have been in '45, was it? Grigsby: No, no, no, no. That was…well, it would have been close to '45 because the bombs were dropped after that. It took a while to prepare the bombs and drop them and so forth. Forty-four about. Mrs. Grigsby: The captain of that ship came ashore and he was very secretive. He didn't say why or what he was loaded with. So nobody knew except they just surmised something was going on. Grigsby: Saipan. Go ahead. I'm trying to remember what the port was that he came into. But go ahead. I'll think about it. Interviewer: That's okay. What about some of the other stops? Any particular experiences that stand out or, you know, whether they were the people you were working with or the circumstances you had? What were some of the differences in setting up a location, say in like on one of the islands versus in Australia or something like that? Grigsby: It's all the same except that if you were around civilized country, you had a chance to live with civilized people. Not that our people were not civilized, but…[paper rattling] yeah. [General Douglas] MacArthur was in charge of the forces in Australia and I met MacArthur and knew of him. That's the reason I never did vote for him. [laughs] He was the general that was in charge of the forces in Australia. American forces in Australia. Interviewer: So that's where you were crossing paths with generals when you were in Australia? Grigsby: Yeah. Mrs. Grigsby: And he objected to Paul's coming into Australia, and Paul had to prove that he had orders there. And finally, MacArthur agreed to let him on there. Grigsby: He refused to let me in and I sent a dispatch back to Pearl Harbor and they sent him a dispatch and told him to cooperate with me in every way possible. So he never did any use for me. Interviewer: Now that's something else. Grigsby: Yeah. I was a lieutenant running around telling the general what the heck he could do and what he couldn't do. Interviewer: That's wonderful. And so did you have many face-to-face encounters with him? Grigsby: No. What was that now? Mrs. Grigsby: Did you have face-to-face encounters with him? Grigsby: Oh, yeah. Two or three times he called me in his office. If something came up he'd call me in there. I said, “Well.” I forget what it was, but there's one time it was something that was real crucial and he told me to knock it off. And I said, “Well, they sent me down here to do a job. You tell me not to do it. What the hell am I supposed to do?” And I went on out. And I went ahead with mine and did it. And he called me in and was going have put under control. Mrs. Grigsby: Court martial. That was another general. Grigsby: And he got another wire to lay off of me and give me all the help that he could give. Interviewer: Right. Grigsby: So it was interesting. I was out there all that time. But I got full cooperation from Pearl Harbor. Anything that I got in any trouble or any excuse or anything I needed, I just sent them a wire and it was delivered to me. Interviewer: So it sounds like unique challenges whether it was…how civilized it was or even the people that were above you that you were dealing with. Grigsby: And my orders also included one thing. My orders, I mean my…I traveled on one set of orders for three years. I didn't get different orders. I had the same set of orders and in that set of orders, I got six dollars a day in money for my food and if I had to spend any money for transportation or for extra food or for anything, all I had to do was write a note on it and it was put in my next check. Mrs. Grigsby: To me, one of the sad things is that now, nobody has ever heard of V-mail. They don't even know what you're talking about. And it is Victory mail and it was used all during World War Two in the South Pacific. And if we hadn't had that… Grigsby: We wouldn't have had any mail. Interviewer: [inaudible] I'd like to hear from the perspective that was on the other side that was sending the mail and you knew people that were sending mail, what the procedure and the impact of it here, where would you go to get your V-mail forms, was there any cost involved and how often. You know, just from your perspective, how was it used? Grigsby: They wrote into San Francisco and San Francisco took their letter and reduced it to the size it could be sent to. Interviewer: And on your end, when you would need… Mrs. Grigsby: I had to write it on the form. I guess that was distributed by the post office. I've forgotten. Grigsby: Yeah. Mrs. Grigsby: But I had to write the letter on the form. Then it would be sent to San Francisco and reduced to the microfilm size, which would make it about a minute thing. Then sent overseas and wherever Paul was they would transform that into a letter and that letter would be sent to the sailors. Interviewer: And was there any charge at all for doing the V-mail on your end? Grigsby: Your postage to San Francisco. Mrs. Grigsby: Right. Interviewer: Okay. Was there any particular limit or could you send as many as you wanted? Mrs. Grigsby: You could send as many as you wanted, but you got it mostly on a space about… Grigsby: While you're doing all that drinking you can give me that other one. I'll drink part of it. [laughs] You want a part of it [inaudible]? Mrs. Grigsby: No. Grigsby: Well, can you get…the thing out of here. Mrs. Grigsby: The amazing part was I…when I got out of college, I got a job with the…they had APR numbers, postal office numbers of the islands and I got a job with the Navy, a secret job. So I could tell where Paul was by the number because I had the listing of the islands. So I, of course, never let anybody know where he was. Interviewer: And so your job [inaudible] involved with the mail. You were working as a civilian Navy employee? Mrs. Grigsby: Yes. I was a civilian working for the Navy in the APR offices, where the mail came in. Grigsby: In other words, the mail from the United States came into this place and she was working in there. Mrs. Grigsby: Then it was sent by number to the island, whatever island where the sailor or Marine was. Interviewer: So the sorting took place there in San Francisco. Mrs. Grigsby: Yes. Interviewer: All came to San Francisco, was sorted there and like you said, then by number you knew where… Mrs. Grigsby: Sent on to the South Pacific or Australia. Interviewer: Was there much censoring on any of this mail coming in from the States at all and what, if there was, what type of things were they looking for? Mrs. Grigsby: Do you know? Grigsby: I don't know. I really don't know. I don't think there was much censoring. I don't think they had any problem out of it. Mrs. Grigsby: We don't know. The censors did that. He was not connected with the censors and I was not either where I worked. So you could not send food and a lot of food was sent to San Francisco and it just had to rot or be thrown away cause they couldn't send it on out with the little microfilm. Interviewer: And I know it probably varied depending on location as well, but about how long would it take from the time that, say, something was sent from Atlanta that would get to San Francisco, then how long would it take to the location? Grigsby: Next morning. Mrs. Grigsby: Sometimes, next morning. Interviewer: As quick as the next morning? Grigsby: Yeah, brought in there, they put it on a film and that film went out on the next airplane that left. Mrs. Grigsby: And think of the space it saved. Interviewer: Oh, yeah. Mrs. Grigsby: Because the mail would have just bogged down. Grigsby: Yep. Interviewer: And the film was in the machine. How long did that process take to actually print it out on that side? Mrs. Grigsby: The machine was a Recordak. You talk about that. It was not very big. The Recordak was…about how big? Grigsby: Well, it was about as big as a [inaudible] but not that high. Along here… Mrs. Grigsby: Tell her in feet about how…the Recordak was a machine that took the pictures of the letters and put them on the microfilm and then that was sent to the Pacific. But the Recordak was used… Grigsby: I really don't remember that part of it because I didn't get into that much. Mrs. Grigsby: Recordak was used in banks to microfilm checks and endorsements of the checks and that's how it started here in the United States. Then he was the first V-mail officer in Washington, D.C., and he was relieved when he requested service overseas, he was relieved by Irene Rich's daughter, a movie star. But then he was sent to San Francisco and went by ship to Honolulu. And I stayed in San Francisco. And the one time that he got back for a few days was the time I was taking my comprehensive exams at Mills College, exams for four years of school. Plus, I had about seventeen boils under my arms and planter warts on my feet from standing and dancing with Mills College dances. And then I was suffering so much Paul got a sautering iron and put wet towels under my arm with the sautering iron there and it felt wonderful. But it relieved the pain. But I was singing in the San Francisco Opera Company at the same time, so I had to stand on my feet. So, it was quite an experience. Interviewer: It's like you were majoring in music specifically there? Mrs. Grigsby: No, I didn't. I majored in psychology. But anyway, I had to take my exams there and it was a horrendous experience. And then after one day, I took the exams, I sang in the opera company that night, I met Paul afterwards and we went over to the Claremont Hotel where the Officers Club was. And by then I said to Paul, “Don't come back until you can stay.” [laughter] Interviewer: And that's his very first trip back over. Mrs. Grigsby: Yes. Right. Interviewer: Oh, my goodness. Grigsby: I'd been out so long, there wasn't any chance of me having to go back. I'd been out over three years. Nearly four years. Three and a half years. Mrs. Grigsby: When he was out of the Navy, he was out, in other words. And that was after three and a half years. Interviewer: So once…that was something else I wanted to talk about. Once you completed your service, what was your last stop before you came back permanently? Grigsby: Last what? Interviewer: The last station? Mrs. Grigsby: Were you in New Zealand? Was that your last stop before you were sent back? Grigsby: I don't know. New Zealand was so far, I don't know what it was really. Mrs. Grigsby: When they declared armistice, where were you? Grigsby: I was back in the States because they knew what the score was and I had been advised not to establish any more stations, that this was coming and so forth. So I was back and as soon as the thing was signed I flew into San Francisco. Interviewer: Okay. And then how long did it take before you were then completely out of the service? Mrs. Grigsby: They sent him from San Francisco to Norfolk because he was having asthma, so they kept him in the hospital there. And then when I could finish my contract singing, I met him again in Atlanta and we've been here… Grigsby: See, I came back in July, August. August or September. And I was allergic to all of that stuff that was going on in that time of the year. And so, as soon as I came ashore I began to…my old asthma picked up and they sent me over there to the hospital. Soon as the season…all that pollen was over, they gave me pills to take and let me go on back home. Interviewer: And then you were discharged then after you're out of the hospital. So that was like late '45 or so? Grigsby: Yeah. Interviewer: And at that time, you're already decided to come back to Atlanta because that's where you were. Grigsby: Oh, yeah. Yeah. In fact, I called Eastman Kodak Company and told them I was back from the service. I was ready to take my old job in Atlanta—I was in charge of everything in Atlanta—providing they gave me more money. And they said, “Uh-huh. You're going to Cincinnati.” I said, “Cincinnati, yo' behind. I'm as far north as I'm ever going.” And I hung up and that's the last I ever heard of Kodak Company. Interviewer: Where were they located? What part of Atlanta were they in then? Grigsby: I forget where we were? Mrs. Grigsby: Peachtree Street. Interviewer: Somewhere on Peachtree? Grigsby: I don't know where it was. But Kodak Company, major thing was up East and we had offices somewhere on Peachtree Street. I don't know where it was. Interviewer: Okay. And were you…where did the two of you meet? Were you from Atlanta? Mrs. Grigsby: No, I was from Kentucky, but I was going to Vanderbilt and we met there. But during the war, I stayed at Mills College and then worked in San Francisco. And we gave blood. We wound bandages. We watched the paper. We babysat with war widows. It was sort of a nail-biting time because people were coming back [inaudible]. Interviewer: What was that…yeah, what was…um, I mean, I just can't imagine what it was like being in school and everything that was going on at the same time. What were some of the things that stand out for you in terms of what you were balancing? Mrs. Grigsby: Rationing of gas and tires. And I was going to Mills College and I would drive over the Bay Bridge to the San Francisco Opera Company. And going back and forth across the Bay Bridge we would pick up the sailors from Treasure Island, just fill up the cars. Everybody stopped for sailors. And I never had one problem with these young men. They were very protective of me. Grigsby: And yet when you got over there, you could fill up with gasoline without any… Mrs. Grigsby: Well, that's when I went to Treasure Island to use my coupons. And once in a while, these sailors would not take my coupons because they knew that I picked them up. But it was an amazing experience. Grigsby: That's back in the days when they were allocating gasoline, you know. You had to show, you had to do it in business and she wasn't in business. Mrs. Grigsby: And meat was rationed. Butter was rationed. Grigsby: Yeah. Mrs. Grigsby: I lived on eggs. I must have had high cholesterol. Eggs were easy to get. Grigsby: You want the rest of this? Interviewer: Now were you living in your own apartment or on campus or what were the living arrangements? Mrs. Grigsby: I lived on campus for one year. Then I got an apartment in the Mission District, which was the Italian district. In San Francisco, the bottom floor is not the main floor. The second floor is the main floor. And so my landlords were Sicilian and they lived on the first floor and they couldn't read or write. So it was my job to read for them and they would invite me down to these sumptuous meals, Italian food and Sicilian food. So I was very fortunate. Then, I had a Kentucky friend who came out to stay with me in this house. And then, after that, I had an apartment with a friend. So I moved two or three times. And I lived one time with WAVES. WAVES were the women Navy enlistees and officers. And we had some experiences with the WAVES. Paul would send back men officers that he knew and say, “Take my wife out dinner dancing.” And they would. And then, I went to a ship's christening one night with a man from Kentucky and he was a sailor and this officer tripped him purposely. He tried to trip him and this sailor fell and pulled me down and we slid under the captain's table. [laughs] And the captain acted as if nothing had happened. So I was helped to my feet and I got up and put my hands on my hips and I said to that officer, “You caused this. It's your fault.” Of course, he walked off. So, we had some experiences. Fun, but the war was not a good experience. A long time. A lonesome time. And Paul would send me back, occasionally, orchid leis. Have them shipped by plane back. And I never did want to brag to my Mills College people about having them so I just kept them in my room. So there were nice things going on. And people were very friendly during the war. They picked up everybody. And one time we were driving from Washington out to San Francisco and Paul had a Plymouth whose tires were rotten, and two of them blew. So we had to stop and wait for hours because the tires were rationed. But we finally…he got them because he was in the Navy and on orders. So we drove on to San Francisco. So it was an interesting experience. Grigsby: Yep. Interviewer: And so like you said, after you came back you didn't go back to your old job but you did stay here in Atlanta. Mrs. Grigsby: Yes. Interviewer: And what was the transition like after—I mean, there were a lot of people, of course, making the transition but was it like going, you know, going from that experience, transitioning back into your career and to your day-to-day routine? Mrs. Grigsby: Back into Atlanta, where I never lived before, but people were very smug. I had thought I would come back and sing with an opera company. There was no opera company, no symphony. People said to me, “I have all the friends I want. I don't care to meet new people.” And we were living with Paul's family, so it was not a happy experience. Interviewer: Where was this? Mrs. Grigsby: In Atlanta. In Atlanta. Interviewer: [inaudible] Mrs. Grigsby: Yes. Interviewer: In Buckhead? Mrs. Grigsby: In Buckhead, yes. Interviewer: In Buckhead. Mrs. Grigsby: Um-hmm. But anyway, now it's fine. Interviewer: You eventually settled down and where did things kind of start taking a turn for you? Was there anything you got involved in or particular thing that started making it more comfortable here in Atlanta for you? Mrs. Grigsby: Well, Paul had his own friends and he played golf and bridge and he was determined that I was gonna sit down and play bridge and you couldn't stop if you were winning and you couldn't stop if you were losing. Grigsby: She didn't play bridge or gin rummy, and I did and I enjoyed it. Mrs. Grigsby: So anyway, we've…as Paul says, we've lived separate lives together for a long time. Grigsby: Yep. Interviewer: And one other thing that we want to ask is are you ever in touch with or do you get together with anyone you knew from that time, people either you served with or like, in your case, the people you worked with on the homefront? Mrs. Grigsby: Granger Wiley [sp?]. Grigsby: Granger Wiley? Yeah. Granger Wiley, when I went up to Dartmouth to get my commission… [Tape 1, Side B] Grigsby: Granger Wiley was my age and he was kind of…when we were drilling, he was clumsy. I mean he, somehow I was right behind him and I always stepped on his slippers and his shoes came off and he [inaudible] and that's why we became friends. But we're friends to this day. He's still living. Most of them are passed on. Yep. But that was the only one. Mrs. Grigsby: So he and his wife and we and their children have been long-time friends. Visited each other. They're in Port Huron, Michigan, and then in Arizona. Tucson. So we can't say enough about old friends. Grigsby: He invited me, called me one day after we came back he called me one day and said he…I asked him, I said, “What are you doing these days besides playing golf?” And he said, “Well, I'm going up to Canada on a hunting trip.” I said, “Well, that's great. You didn't invite me.” And he said, “Well, I wish I could.” I said, “I wish you could, too. I'm just talking.” So about a week later, he called me and said, “You're invited.” And I was amazed. I said, “Tell me about it.” He said, “Well, tell you about it, hell. I've already told them you were coming, so I'll pick you up at the airport in Detroit on a certain day.” And I said, “Well, gee, I don't know what I'm getting into. If it's a bunch going up into Canada.” In Western Ontario, there's a great big area, it's wild. And there's a hunting group that…we went for two weeks. And every kind of hunting in the world was…we were in a thousand acres and we were the only ones there hunting, see. And I'll never forget. I think I went twelve or thirteen years with him. He'd pick me up at Detroit, we'd catch a train on up there. And that was great. Mrs. Grigsby: They would live on a houseboat and they had an Indian cook on the boat, a woman cook and then the Indian guides. And the thing that interested me was the Indian guides used to tell them, “Now save us the bacon grease because we spread it on bread and that gives us energy.” And then one day, they said, “You all want to bring back the low end of the roast of all these animals and the moose liver is the finest thing in the world.” So Paul brought back a moose liver, frozen, and it was all I could do to lift it. Grigsby: Thirty pounds. Mrs. Grigsby: I borrowed a pan and cooked it and then got down on the kitchen floor and sieved it and we had enough paté to plaster the whole inside of the house. [laughter] But it was delicious. Grigsby: It was good, but there was too much of it. Interviewer: Well, do you have anything else that you thought of or you'd like to add or, I mean… Grigsby: No. Mrs. Grigsby: No, thank you. Interviewer: You about ready to wrap it up? Okay. Mrs. Grigsby: Wrap it up. Grigsby: Thank you. Interviewer: Well, thank you very much and this concludes the interview with Paul and Emily Grigsby at the Atlanta History Center on August fourth, 2004. Grigsby: Okay. We thank you. [end of tape] Notable Pages: p. 5—explaining V-mail p. 13—on Tinian when Indianapolis brings bomb p. 15—meets MacArthur p. 17—writing a letter on V-mail p. 19—further explanation of V-mail p. 24—Mrs. Grigsby's wartime remembrances
Metadata URL:: http://album.atlantahistorycenter.com/cdm/ref/collection/VHPohr/id/184
Additional Rights Information:: This material is protected by copyright law. (Title 17, U.S. Code) Permission for use must be cleared through the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center. Licensing agreement may be required.
Extent:: 50:05
Original Collection:: Veterans History Project oral history recordings
Veterans History Project collection, MSS 1010, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center
Contributing Institution:: Atlanta History Center
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