My Dad and his Aunt that was only five years older than him, both worked at the Vultee Aircraft Plant in Nashville Tennessee back when I was small. My Aunt Anne had worked there back during the war. She worked moving large assemblies from one area to another where they could be fitted to other large units. She did the rigging for the lift. She always wore slacks, a nice blouse feminine shoes when she left for work. She never left the house without her hair being just so. Same for her nails. At work she changed her shoes for steel toed work boots, put on heavy coveralls and a covering for her hair. She always wore gloves to protect her nails and hands. At home she was the picture of a suburban house wife, but at work she was one tough bird according to the men that worked with her.
I will never forget when Dad took me to the plane when I was five or six. I was up in a glass enclosed area. Dad pointed out Aunt Anne out on the floor. Aunt Anne reached out and grabbed a cable, put her foot in the big hook at the end of the cable, and the crane operator lifted her up to the top of a fuselodge section of an airplane. She walked to the end of the section and bent over attaching slings. she then went to the other end and attached a sling. Then the crane operator brought down a harness that she attached to the slings she had put on the assembly. Once the hookup was complete, she grabbed a cable and slid to the floor. Then Dad told me we had to go, I never got to see them make the lift.
This was back in the Early 50s. Back then no woman went out of the house without their hair being just so. You never saw a woman not dressed nice, and with full make-up. Even the cashier at the drug store soda fountain was dressed nice, with hair fixed just so. The girls at school back then always wore nice dresses, and shoes, once we were in high school they wore heels and never came to school without a minimum amount of make-up. No shorts, slacks, jeans, tank tops, or any type of revealing clothing was allowed.
