Description
Betty Grimes discusses her family’s background, growing up in the Midwest, and moving to California so her mother could help her aunt run a club and steakhouse during World War II near the Richmond shipyards. She recalls her job as a scaler in the Kaiser Shipyards, the gambling and entertainment at her aunt’s Club Thunderbird, and her mother’s brushes with gangsters. She remembers home front blackouts, rationing, newsreels, and the plight of Japanese Americans during the war. She recounts experiences living and working after the war in the Bay Area, including filing in a sex discrimination grievance and helping solve a murder.