Elementary Secondary Higher Ed Common Reads
0 0
Download high-resolution image Look inside

Slacks and Calluses

Our Summer in a Bomber Factory

Author Constance Bowman
Illustrated by Clara Marie Allen
Look inside
Paperback
$15.95 US
Smithsonian | Smithsonian Books
On sale Oct 17, 2004 | 200 Pages | 9781560983682
Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

See Additional Formats
In 1943 two spirited young teachers decided to do their part for the war effort by spending their summer vacation working the swing shift on a B-24 production line at a San Diego bomber plant. Entering a male-dominated realm of welding torches and bomb bays, they learned to use tools that they had never seen before, live with aluminum shavings in their hair, and get along with supervisors and coworkers from all walks of life.

They also learned that wearing their factory slacks on the street caused men to treat them in a way for which their “dignified schoolteacher-hood” hadn't prepared them. At times charming, hilarious, and incredibly perceptive, Slacks and Calluses brings into focus an overlooked part of the war effort, one that forever changed the way the women were viewed in America.

“[A] rare contemporaneous account....Wide-eyed and witty.” - San Diego Union-Tribune
There they were the big bombers! But they weren't so big as we had thought they would be. We had been told the statistics: over 320 miles an hour, 34,330 pounds when empty, 110 feet in wing span, 66 feet in length, 18 feet in height; and I explained to C.M. that 34,300 pounds was about what 172 football players would weigh and that 66 feet was the equivalent of a whole football team laid end to end. These facts had impressed her, as things laid end to end always do; but even then she had said that they seemed a Little Small for a big bomber.
Copyright © 2004 by Constance Bowman. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Constance Bowman Reid has written many highly acclaimed biographies of twentieth-century mathematicians. She lives in San Francisco, CA.
Constance Bowman View titles by Constance Bowman
Clara Marie Allen View titles by Clara Marie Allen

About

In 1943 two spirited young teachers decided to do their part for the war effort by spending their summer vacation working the swing shift on a B-24 production line at a San Diego bomber plant. Entering a male-dominated realm of welding torches and bomb bays, they learned to use tools that they had never seen before, live with aluminum shavings in their hair, and get along with supervisors and coworkers from all walks of life.

They also learned that wearing their factory slacks on the street caused men to treat them in a way for which their “dignified schoolteacher-hood” hadn't prepared them. At times charming, hilarious, and incredibly perceptive, Slacks and Calluses brings into focus an overlooked part of the war effort, one that forever changed the way the women were viewed in America.

“[A] rare contemporaneous account....Wide-eyed and witty.” - San Diego Union-Tribune

Excerpt

There they were the big bombers! But they weren't so big as we had thought they would be. We had been told the statistics: over 320 miles an hour, 34,330 pounds when empty, 110 feet in wing span, 66 feet in length, 18 feet in height; and I explained to C.M. that 34,300 pounds was about what 172 football players would weigh and that 66 feet was the equivalent of a whole football team laid end to end. These facts had impressed her, as things laid end to end always do; but even then she had said that they seemed a Little Small for a big bomber.
Copyright © 2004 by Constance Bowman. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Author

Constance Bowman Reid has written many highly acclaimed biographies of twentieth-century mathematicians. She lives in San Francisco, CA.
Constance Bowman View titles by Constance Bowman
Clara Marie Allen View titles by Clara Marie Allen

Additional formats

Related Articles

Subscribe

Penguin Random House Higher Education

© 2025 Penguin Random House

Back to Top
0
    • 0
    Wish List (0)