Oral History Interview with Louise Pearsall Canby, March 17, 1997: Searching Inside

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... you aware of it? Oh, yes! Oh, yes! Because my mother and all her little bridge people and whatever... they did were very much America First [reference to a group of pacifistic Americans] --very much--and... for disarmament, all those big things. My father was very verbal on the other side. He'd take on these little... aware of all this, because he was very, very strongly verbal on it. And I believed as he did. And I... imagine that your mother was also strong and verbal on her position. Oh, yes, and all her friends. Oh, yes

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... cynical, and individual selfishness remained about the same. But, more so than now, Americans... accepted responsibility for their acts and did not uphold personal gratification as the be all and end all

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... Jackson: Canby: Jackson: Canby: Jackson: employees, also, had this big park and pool and all that... with German- Americans.] What was it? That we were working on some accounting equipment. Something to do

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... with] the Navy men. Were you aware of that at all? Never heard it before. They had a big problem... squashing all of that in the press. I never heard. The Navy was very careful, almost over-protective... that about the WACs all the time. The Army did not protect their women, but the Navy was very, very careful...? Weren' t you required to wear white gloves in public and all sorts of things? Yes, except in Washington... we were allowed, because of the heat in the summer, to carry them. So, we all carried one, so we

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.... We did great. Finally, the guys came around and didn't think it was all bad after all. So, no one..., they marched us to class all the time, and Madison's hilly, as you probably know. So, we're going up and down... to say, "No, you've got to break step," because we were all sliding on our asses all the way down..., yes, we were training out in the athletic field, and we were doing all that stuff and going to classes

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... with transportation. All these trains were pulling all this stuff, and the paperwork would get screwed up... young, too. There are all these people coming in in their early and mid-twenties. Oh, yes, at least.... The kids out of Hunter were all eighteen, and I think you could drink in D.C. at eighteen. It was something... where I lived- -all that kind of thing--that we used to go to and hang out in. Mostly, they were

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.... They were every year. Well, they had the bands, all the junior high and high school bands. They had all... the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts and veterans and whatever is connected with all of that. We had a National.... That went on for years, not just when we were kids. We were all in Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, and we all

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... Jackson: Canby: assigned... it was all the same department, but I was assigned to this Lieutenant... in there, because of my math background. He and I were working on permutations and all this high math... with him, and there were several of us doing that. We were getting all these figure combinations. That... through another place. They came here, and these guys did this, and we had translators, and we had all... kinds of different people in different offices. But it was all under this main deal. I think I knew some

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... Jackson: Canby: Jackson: Canby: for all of us, or somebody had. I don't know what [how much..., and here was all these people lined up, and then we found out that's what it was. Was it frightening...? A little scary to see all these people lined up, arguing. They were just everywhere out there, lined up... trying to get into the bank. Of course, it was closed, but that's why they were all out there

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..., had the male radio school been in operation before you all started, or did they all start at the same... of our instructors were male, that I can remember now, because the women hadn't been trained in it at all.... And I'm not sure that they were all Navy. There could have been some civilian instructors, too. 63

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... to the cabby, "Start up here at Constitution and just drive slowly all the way down." I'd say, "That's [that... of me, but I noticed they were too excited to get out and run around. So, we went from the Capitol all..., and there is [this] building." We got all the way through, and I said, "Now you've seen it all." "Now you can write

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... know too much, and you're enlisted, and you're not supposed to know all of this." But, see, I... little guy. Then there was, I think, just four of us girls. And that's all who were working on this one...... Working on what we did. Now we're not the kids back wiring and all that. We had nothing to do with that. I... was working with these engineers and mathematicians. That' s where I should have been all my life, you know

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...? Probably none. You never thought about it. I don't remember dwelling on it at all. I mean, there were times.... That's all I knew about the rest of the country. From personal experience... From personal experience...? No. It was all taken for granted. Yes, that everybody's patriotic. "You're a Girl Scout, aren't you

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... (laughter). After all, we'd been there. But they were coming straight in from outside, and they didn't know... customs and all that kind of stuff. All of that kind of stuff, and I was "antsy" [anxious] to get the hell

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... all over the country. Probably at least one car, maybe not more than that. We came across country..., then we had to switch. We all went into the same station but had to switch to [a Chicago and] North..., well, hell, you can't win them all. (Laughter) Little did you know. When you first applied, did you

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..., we're delayed." No. Because they stopped trains to let troop trains through, equipment trains and all... that. Were you all put right through (chuckle)? I don't even remember that. I was so tired..., and it was at night. I don't remember sleeping at all, but I may have. When you went to Dayton, you got leave

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... ever went on the same train. Really. That's true. They could have gotten you all at one time, couldn't... they? And all the top ones. That was the last time. After that, all the equipment would come on one

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... coat and pants all year, had chalk on them all year long. He'd parade up and down in front as he talked..., because, see, I was the only girl among all boys. So, you were literally the only girl in the class. Yes

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... a cab hardly nowadays. But I walked, all by myself, around nine or ten o'clock at night, in the dark..., all the way through... and these were not the busy streets. They weren't Washington and all those busy

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... one letter at a time. "This doesn't work. " I tried all these combinations with these. Then we'd get... was in charge of all this Lieutenant Howard. Yes. Then we had some other guys. But, see, we were all working