Evelyn Virginia BIRD Linton Oral Interview

Two weeks after graduation, I remember that I was staying out in Bedford with my oldest brother, Eddie and his wife Tommie, picking strawberries when Daddy drove up and said that he was sending me to Washington, D.C. to live. Daddy's friend, Mr. Hall, had recently found a good plumbing job in the Nation's capital and had moved his family to nearby Alexandria, Virginia (near the RF&P Railroad switching yard---Potomac Yard). I was to move in with the Hall's and help take care of his children. Mr. Hall had sent Daddy money for my bus ticket. So, he took me home to pack and put me on the bus. Mr. Hall was working on the newly constructed Department of Labor building.

While taking care of the Hall's kids, I was asked to baby sit Mr. Hall's boss's (Mr. McLaren) kids too. The McLaren family also had a sandwich shop in the new Department of Labor building for the workers. One day, one of the Mr. McLaren's daughters got real sick and he asked me fill in for her. I was such a good hard worker that Mr. McLaren let me continue to work for several months. I had to ride a bus everyday into Washington, D.C. from Alexandra, Virginia.

I wanted a better job, so I applied for a temporary position at the Safeway Grocery Stores Wholesale Distribution Warehouse. After completing their comptometer school course (an early calculator) with a 98 score, I was hired. I generated the orders that were filled by the warehouse personnel. Then in 1941, through the employment bureau, I saw a job opening at the Congressional Library cafeteria for a pie-maker. One of Mr. Hall's neighbors worked there and recommended me for the job. I made 25 pies every morning---apple, cherry, blackberry, & peach. I would roll out the dough, put the fruit filling in, and then put the dough-crust on top. At lunch time, I would serve pie and coffee to the government workers who came into the cafeteria. Once I even got to personally serve Vice President Wallace. While working there, I got to see President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third Inauguration on January 20th, 1941 from the Library's upper windows. FDR's inauguration took place outside on the steps of the Capital Building-next door to the Library.

Then I went to work at Peoples Drug Store in Washington, D.C. doing odd jobs. Soon afterwards, I transferred to the Peoples Drug Store on King Street in downtown Alexandria, Virginia (which was closer to where we lived); and worked as a soda fountain clerk. I heard about the Japanese attack on the Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Hawaii (Dec 7^th 1941) on the radio while coming back from an afternoon movie with friends. I was scheduled to work the second shift at Peoples Drug Store. While working at Peoples, I met three people for the first time that I was to be friends with for the rest of our lives. They all were milk delivery men who worked for the Alexandria Dairy, and delivered fresh milk to the Peoples Drug Store. Their names are George W. Phillips, Eddie Knupfer, and Wiggie Howard. Kirk's uncle, George Phillips estabished and was the fire chief of the Mount Vernon Volunteer Fire Department, located in the community of Hunters' Station (about 6 miles south of Alexandria on Fort Hunt Road); Eddie & Wiggie were also members. It was indirectly through them that I met my future husband, your Dad, at the fire house in May 1944.

After America declared war on Japan and Germany, I was able to get a government job as a clerk typist and later as a secretary in the Railroad Department of the Pentagon in early 1942. One of Mr. Hall's neighbors who worked there had to recommend me twice before I got the job. I was still living with the Hall's and a good friend of mine, Ruby Holiday, moved in with us too. During the early years of WW-II, I would go into Washington, D.C. every Sunday with friends----Wiggie Howard, his wife Agnes, and Chancellor Wheeler (Agnes Howard's brother). We would go to see all of the Big Band orchestras play. This is when I learned how to dance the "jitterbug", the waltz, and the foxtrot. We would also go to the Redskin football games and watch "Slingin" Sammy Baugh throw the ball, as well as to the ice hockey games when they were in town.

In 1943, I moved into a 2-story house in the Pendaw district (SW of Alexandria on Hwy #1) with Sylvia Wheeler (Agnes Howard's sister). I then started going to dances down at the Mount Vernon Volunteer Fire Department with Wiggie & Agnes Howard. It was at one of these dances that I met Kirk's sister Bernie Butler---her husband Randy Butler was in the Army and overseas at that time. Bernie was living at home with her parents and with her brother Kirk on a farm about a mile from the fire house. Bernie would ask me to stay overnight with her when some of the dances broke up late. I didn't get to meet Kirk during those visits because he was working the "midnight" shift at Potomac Yards and he would come home early morning and go right to bed. I first met Kirk at a carnival sponsored by the Mt. Vernon Fire Department that was located on US Hwy #1 near the Hybla Valley community. He and Randy Butler (recently home from the war) were working one of the booths. I had volunteered to work a milk bottle game booth near them. Kirk, being bashful, sent his sister Bernie to ask me to ride the Ferris wheel with him.

In June 1944, feeling a little home sick I decided to go back to Texas for a two week visit. I went by train and "boy" were they full of soldiers on leave.  I talked with them and we sang a lot of songs.  After being home for only week, my Daddy and Earl had bought a farm moved the family to Arkansas. I stayed the second week with my brother Eddie and his wife Tommie again at their house in the town of Bedford.

When I returned to Virginia, I started dating Kirk regularly. We continued going to the Saturday night dances at the Mount Vernon Fire House. Kirk proposed to me in October of 1944, while we were riding in his car out in the countryside. Later we drove into Washington, D.C. to pick out my wedding rings. I still wear the same rings to this day! We were married on November 11 by a preacher at his home in Washington, D.C. Attending and witnessing the ceremony was: my friend and office co-worker Lt. Lorra Hoskins; Edna Crowell, who was the secretary to the General in my office; Captain Donald Frye, also from my office; and Bernie & Randy Butler, (Kirk's sister and her husband). After the wedding, Randy and Bernie drove Kirk and I to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. It seened to take "forever" to find it--we all were real hungry, by then.

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Continued on page three

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