Member Present: Lucille Sorrentino, Sue Heller, Walter Heller, Beatrice Hurwitch, Nancy Jacobs, Michael Johnson, Joe Kelly, Joan Powers, Janice Brown, Peter Rhoten
Guests: 3 Veteran ladies Eleanor Grossman, Sis Dowd, and Janet White, and Theresa Nielson, Ruth Thompson from The Scituate Mariner.
Lucille Sorrentino called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM. She introduced Eleanor Grossman, Sis Dowd, Janet White and Theresa Nielson.
She thanked Ruth Thompson from the Scituate Mariner for coming and said how good it was to see her.
Lucille said Debbie was in Colorado visiting her sister. 6 other members on vacation. She announced that Bernie’s father had died and he and Beverly were in the Netherlands.
Lucille said Dietrich said that Padraig O’Malley was looking for donations for GAME. The primary focus of GAME’s founding youth conference in October 2017 in Ireland is for a cohort of 80 young Muslims, from major cities across Europe with significant Muslim populations, to draw up a Charter of Rights for Stigmatized Young Muslims -- a code of conduct entrenching a commitment to non-violence to achieve their goals and aspirations, but also articulating their grievances rarely acknowledge & almost never remedied. At the inaugural conference they will organize themselves as a movement. You can go online to donate. Padraig O’Malley is a professor at Boston College and has led several peace revolutions.
Lucille said we are planning a event on Saturday, Nov.4th at the Scituate Library from 1-4 PM. It will be “a gifting event“. Bring something you don’t want and would be a good gift. They will make good Christmas gifts. Will serve beverages and desserts. On April 29th we will do a 50/50 drawing at St. Mary‘s from 1-4 PM. It will be a German Fest. We will have the King Ludwig’s Bavarian Band, German food . More details later.
Dinner was served.
Lucille then introduced the speakers, who are all members of The American Legion Post 144 and thanked them for their service. Sis Dowd who is 86 years old spoke first. She joined the Marine Corps in 1950 during the Korea War. She was born and lived on a farm in Scituate and enlisted in the Marines when she was 19 years old She trained at Paris Island and severed in New York City, Boston, California, , Hawaii, North Carolina, Washington DC, Baltimore, MD and Japan. She especially remembered marching in the parade for Kennedy’s inauguration in Washington, DC. And it was 28 degrees. She severed for 20 years and was 39 when she retired in 1981. She mainly was a traffic officer and then a recruiting officer. She never got married. S he came back to Scituate in 2003 after living in West Virginia and Florida. Janet White who is 89 years old. She lived in Manchester, Conn. She listed in the US Navy in 1951 during the Korean War. She was inducted in N.Y. City and went to training at the huge Great Lakes Training Center. N Chicago, ILL. She was in 9 weeks of boot camp training. She was 21 because you couldn’t join the navy until you were 21 yrs. . Women weren’t allowed to go overseas. She went to San Diego, CA to train as a store keeper. She had 8 weeks of classes. There were 79 classes. Then had to learn about pay rolls She ordered and issued supplies and did the pay rolls. She worked at Great Lakes. She served for 3 years and then retired She then took the civil service exam and worked for the Navy for 24 years and 10 years for the Air Force. She married. She now lives in Scituate next to her daughter and family. Then Eleanor Grossman, Who is 88 years old. She is Chaplain to the American Legion Post 144 in Scituate . She went to 10 years in parochial school in Boston and her family were very poor. She joined the Marines when she was 21 yrs. in 1950 during Korean War. She joined because patriotism was very high in World War II. and needed volunteers. Women then had to be 21 years old to join the military. She said it was the best decision of her life. Trained at Parish Island for 6 weeks. Had never seen Palm trees and water. Then went to Washington, DC and trained as a cleric typist. Then the typewriters had no keys. The key board was on the wall so you had to memorize the keyboard. Everything was done by keyboard. There were 38 women in her platoon then. She worked in Washington D.C. for 1 1/2 years. She married a marine. When she got pregnant she was discharged. Couldn’t stay in if you got pregnant. They came back to Boston. She raised a family. She worked for a veteran agent in Newton, MA. Part of her job was to join the American Legion. At that post she was the only women. She became their chaplain and later became a chaplain for the Scituate American Legion Post 144 in Scituate.
Lucille thanked the ladies for their service and for coming to our meeting as speakers of their experiences in the armed forces.
Lucille reminded us that the next meeting will be April 30th at The Scituate Country Club.
The program is on The North and South River Watershed Association.
Also on August 30th there will be a board meeting at 5:30 at the Country Club.
September 6th meeting will be a potluck from 6-8 PM at Lucille’s Meeting House - house estate’s function room (use entrance facing marsh)
Meeting was adjourned at 8 PM.
Joan Powers, Secretary
