Planes, Coronavirus, and WWII on the Midcoast
Hello Readers,
It’s now been over a month since I turned off the lights at Frontier and clocked out for the last time for the foreseeable future. It’s been an interesting shift into complete stay-at-home-mom status; constantly cleaning and cooking and playing with Zeke. I find myself truly appreciating the talents of women who take on this role; past and present. I think of my own mother, other mothers, aunts, grandmothers, and great grandmothers and their struggles as I teach myself to bake bread while Zeke naps.
Lately, Zeke has become obsessed with airplanes; it’s been really cute. He loves going to visit the planes at the Brunswick Landing, he loves the sound of planes in the sky; and he loves playing with toy planes. But most of all, he loves watching videos of airplanes on YouTube. The video below is his favorite one. Totally feel free to skip it if you’re not interested.
I never had a particular interest in planes before. I’ve been a passenger in them a few times, enjoyed the flight, and then went about my vacation. However, these videos that kept popping up of WWII planes on YouTube started to peak Jake and I’s interest. Vintage war planes are pretty dazzling to watch in general, but hearing how and why they evolved for the wars turned into a unique interest for us.
When Zeke would go to bed, we started spending our nights watching WWII documentaries on Netflix. We learned so much more about the war than we ever knew before, and the particular documentary series we watched, Greatest Events of WWII in Color, had taken war footage and colorized it—making it seem so much more modern and realistic. We watched footage of D-Day and interviews with old bomber pilots and harrowing footage of Auschwitz. Back in high school, I had learned all the key concepts of WWII and memorized the dates, but I don’t think I ever really grasped the full impact and devastation on the world. Maybe it takes living through something similar to understand.
And it’s true, I’ve heard a bunch of news stories that are comparing COVID-19 to WWII. They remark on the loss of word-wide human lives, the uncertain economy, the overwhelmed hospitals, the rationing of food, American companies manufacturing equipment, the uncertainty of when it will end—wondering, when can we go about our normal lives again? Except, instead of being frightened of air raids, our enemy is microscopic, and can be found on a door handle or a grocery cart. In that way, we’re facing an entirely different war. But, in some way I feel comforted by the fact that the world has seen similar tragedy and overcome it.
The war movies and documentaries night after night were getting depressing, so we stopped watching them. But, I was still interested in what WWII looked like here in Maine on the home front. How were people in Bath handling the war? My house was built in the 1800’s, therefore, the family who lived here must have experienced both world wars and more—especially being so close to Bath Iron Works. The South Gate is quite literally at the end of my street.
I found a book online called, Midcoast Maine in WWII, written by Margaret Shiels Konitzky and downloaded it from Amazon onto my phone. She writes about the amazing stories from Bristol to Brunswick of those who were affected by WWII—it was fascinating!
I learned that BIW pumped out seventy-six destroyers for WWII—which means a new destroyer was out of the yard every seventeen days—the most from any American shipyard. Since the number of employees quadrupled, Konitzky wrote that, “By the spring of 1942, there were no rooms, houses or apartments available in Bath. Workers and their families were living in trailers parked outside the shipyard and in rough shacks with no running water or sanitary facilities on the outskirts of the city. Hyde Park, fifty-six brick buildings built in 1941 near Center Street and U.S. 1, was designed as permanent affordable housing for two hundred families.”
Picture and words taken from Midcoast Maine in WWII, by Margaret Shiels Konitzky
As someone who’s always been really interested in Bath’s old houses, I understand now why there were so many strange rooms, in-law suites, and tiny apartments wedged into the homes. There’s even a weird room upstairs in our barn. How strange it must have felt to see Bath’s population become so full, so quickly.
Picture and words taken from Midcoast Maine in WWII, by Margaret Shiels Konitzky
I also learned much about the women holding it together on the Midcoast home-front and their roles in the war effort. One of the biggest organizations being the Red Cross. Their efforts reminded me of the collective heroes who are helping our healthcare workers and citizens at home save lives as I type.
“Red Cross volunteers produced emergency supplies for war victims, collected scrap and showed people how to plant victory gardens. They rolled bandages, gathered and distributed books and magazines and made clothing for servicemen and refugees overseas. The Red Cross also ran public health programs, including first aid, home nutrition, basic nursing training and vaccination clinics.” (Konitsky)
That’s amazing. Did you know that by 1944, 40 percent of all vegetables grown in the United States came from Victory Gardens? I’d love to see a resurgence of Victory Gardens. From what I’ve heard, most of the seeds from local stores like Tractor Supply and Skillins are getting bought up. We’re also seeing Maine farmers face uncertainty, and I think it’s important to support and buy from them as much as possible, too.
Admist COVID-19, we’re seeing workers and volunteers (of course now both male and female!) handing out free, safely packaged food at the Bath Skate Park and many donating to the food pantry to help those in need. There are heroes donating free books to adults and children at the YMCA. There are countless online heroes teaching (me, especially) how to bake my own bread and get creative in my own kitchen with the limited ingredients we have. As much as I wish Coronavirus didn’t exist, I’m so proud to see our community being resourceful and coming together, apart. I smile when I drive by the houses and businesses with big red hearts decorating their windows.
Another challenge that Midcoast Mainers had to face in WWII was enforced dim-outs and gas rationing. Similar to our loss of hospitality economy and (perhaps) our summer tourism, there was an “abrupt ban on pleasure and nonessential driving in seventeen eastern states, including Maine,” (Konitsky) which made coastal Maine businesses have to either close or get creative to pay the bills. I’m wondering what this summer in Maine will look like, especially in coastal towns that heavily rely on tourism to get them through a whole year.
Senior army officials sent the Brunswick Navy Base a message that they were sure the Nazis were going to bomb the East Coast, and Maine took this very seriously.
“All lights on the seaward side of highways had to be extinguished or screened. All lights visible from the sea, including advertising signs and displays, had to be extinguished. All seaward-facing windows had to be blacked out…[they were ordered to] stay home. If you’re not at home, stay under cover and off the streets. Keep buckets filled with water for the fire department if needed,” (Konitsky). Does that sound kind of familiar?
Luckily we can keep our lights on, though. Unless you lost power during the back-to-back storms we had last week. I’m sure that was incredibly challenging for homes and businesses near the water—as well as the downtowns who endured two winters without Christmas lights.
Anyway, this is definitely a strange time we’re living in. I can’t imagine anything being more horrific than WWII’s events, but it’s hard to ignore the body count that’s accumulating worldwide—and not to mention the PTSD many of our healthcare workers will be left with.
In honor of those people, we’re staying home as much as possible. I also aim to plant my own Victory garden. This time, as hope for Victory against this deadly virus. And also, because I’m avoiding shopping for food as much as possible.
Until then, you can find me flipping through YouTube, finding more plane videos for Zeke to enjoy.
Stay strong, Stay safe,
-the rockweed writer
I failed to include more fascinating information about Brunswick’s Former Naval Base and Bowdoin College’s part in the war effort. If you’re interested in learning more, download the Ebook of Midcoast Maine in WWII by Margaret Shiels Konitsky here!
Picture and words taken from Midcoast Maine in WWII, by Margaret Shiels Konitzky
KONITZKY, MARGARET SHIELS. MIDCOAST MAINE IN WORLD WAR II. Ebook, HISTORY Press, 2018.
