Mary Giannone discusses growing up Italian American in Burlington, Vermont during the Depression. Her family started working on railroads and as laborers while she was attending predominantly Irish Catholic schools. Her oldest sister left school to work in mills while Mary graduated high school in 1939. Mary worked in the defense plant Fellows Gear Shaper Company in Springfield, Massachusetts as a drill press on a presser to make gears for planes, tanks, trucks, Jeeps. She married her husband Ralph Carrado Giannone in 1943 and followed him by troop train in her wedding dress to his base in Alabama. Mary discusses the strong feeling of patriotism while doing hard work that left callouses on her fingers. She mentions censorship of letters from men in the military, listening to President Roosevelt's addresses, and returning to her family in Burlington pregnant while husband was at war. She describes the courage of women doing "men's" jobs to support the war effort.