3 minute read
Betty’s Column
from Mt. Morris Times
by Shaw Media
LOCAL HISTORY Book sheds light on “T he Girls of Atomic City”
On Aug. 21, 2020 I wrote an article about the involvement of my aunt and uncle in the making of the atomic bomb at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
I received several comments from others how they too had family members taking part in that Manhattan Project.
Comments were sketchy and very little was said by those taking part.
It seemed to be something to be forgotten and yet it was an instrumental part of our history.
A number of weeks later my cousin sent me a picture of my aunt in the nursing home beside her bed that had a beautiful quilt on it. On the quilt was a book titled, “The Girls of Atomic City.”
I had no idea that such a book existed and I immediately had my daughter, Susan, order the book for me. It was most interesting and filled me in on many details.
I found the book difficult to even put down and I had many questions I would have liked to have asked my Aunt Ruth Ann but she was no longer living.
How many times do we have questions we would like to ask our parents about the history of the family? But many times it is too late.
While the snow and ice makes it treacherous for me to get out, I am going to give you numerous details of what it was like to be a part of that time in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
The book answered many questions for me and you may be interested in what I found out as I read this book published in 2013 by Denise Kiernan.
The storyline followed 16 women and 12 men who played a part in their lives. The author called them the “principal cast of characters.”
The story started in August of 1943 with Celia who was a secretary in New York with the original office of the Manhattan Project.
When Celia found herself being transferred out of the New York office she asked of course “Where am I going?” and “What will I be doing?” The answer she received was, “She was not allowed to know any more than she had already been told.”
She was given just enough facts to be able to get on a train and head south. You right away had the feeling of secrecy that was involved in this project.
Celia had already worked long enough in her job in New York to know that one did not ask questions. When she arrived at the railway station she found herself with other young women all in the same situation.
But she said in 1943 you did not ask questions. You simply did as you were told. Complaining was not the way of life in that era.
War also had changed everything in that time frame. Most of them had family members or knew of someone fighting many miles away.
Their home lives had already been filled with rationing, scrap metal drives, and doing without.
These young women had all been given the same message, “Their new jobs served one purpose only: to bring a speedy and victorious end to the war.”
With one little suitcase, they all headed to a new venture.
COMMENTARY Betty Obendorf Polo Historical Society
This New York Times bestseller, written in 2014, tells the true story of the top-secret World War II town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the young women brought there unknowingly to help build the atomic bomb.
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