The World at War.

A Bumpy Road Out.

The 1940 US Census provides some details about the family. Walter, 49, found work with other dealerships, joining Stallworth Motor Company as General Manager and Partner in 1940 with an income of $2,600.00 (the average income that year in the US was $1,900.00). He also became Treasurer of the Ford Dealers Association of Chicago. Marie, 47, had finished eight years of schooling. Ed and Don, 11, were still in school. Ed, 17, worked as an usher in the Gateway movie theater earning $80.00 for the year. Robert, at age 20 made $767.00 as a salesman at an automobile agency. Wally and Babe split a duplex with Uncle Tony Hansen at 2301 West Central Avenue. He was an assembler at the Ford Auto Plant with a wage of $1,000.

Selling Marie's new Ford, the couple was able to swing the down payment for a home at 5510 West Pensacola Avenue. It had been built in 1922 and featured hardwood floors, high ceilings and an art deco fireplace. In 1940 it was valued at $7,250.

Bob married Lorraine Press May 10, 1941 in North Austin Lutheran Church. Their first child was born in April the following year.

World War II.

And then war broke out. As before the US was slow to enter the fray overseas, but when Japanese bombs rained down on Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7, 1941 war was inevitable.

Her three oldest enlisted to join the effort (Don was too young), leaving Marie at home with a Service Flag with three blue stars, one for each of her boys. Wally, a radio gunner in the Marines, Bob, to the Army infantry and Ed, having graduated high school in January 1941, signed up with the US Army Air Force as an aerial gunner in 1942. He married his sweetheart Dorothy Snow on Armistice Day in 1943 before being shipped to England.

"Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."

With their sons overseas, those on the home front pitched in to support each other and the war effort. Though he was 51, Walter filled out the required Draft Registration Card in April 1942. He stated he was 5' 7¾" and weighed 160 lbs, employed by Stallworth Motor Company on Stony Island Avenue.

Between the Depression, the Dust Bowl and now the demands of war, everything was expensive and in short supply. The government shut down the production of civilian passenger cars in December 1941. Preserving steel, glass and rubber for the war machine meant no more vacuum cleaners, coat hangers, beer cans and several hundred other consumer items. Gas was restricted to 3 gallons a week.

Congress established the Office of Price Administration (OPA) granting it with the power to freeze consumer prices and wages to get a handle on inflation.

Anti-German sentiment, rampant after the first world war, again reared its ugly head. Nearly 11,000 were interned between 1940 and 1948. In 1941 Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 to protect German immigrants (and Black Americans) from employment discrimination.

War Ration Books were issued: Red Stamps covered meats, oils and butter, Blue Stamps divvied canned and frozen foods. A pound of coffee had to last five weeks, 8-12 ounces of sugar constituted a weeks supply. Marie may have used the General Foods Corporation tips for stretching meals in the booklet it published: Recipes For Today.

Lorr and her daughter moved in with the Petelle's, Walter, Marie and son Don who soon came to be regarded as her little brother. Walter planted a Victory Garden behind their home on Nordica Avenue to supplement the family cupboard with fresh vegetables.

Women were encouraged to step out of their homes and were drawn into the factories to fill the void left in manufacturing by the men who were serving overseas; Dorothy went to work for the Admiral Corporation which built radios and the new radar technology.

World War II lasted from 1939 to 1945 until the surrender of Germany on May 7 and Japan on September 2. The Petelle family was blessed - all the boys made it home.