Kelsey:  Where were you born and raised?

Hoffman:  Newark, New Jersey.

Kelsey:  And where did you live when the war started?

Hoffman:  Newark, New Jersey.

Kelsey:  How did you get into the defense industry?

Hoffman:  I needed a job.

Kelsey:  When did you go looking for the job?

Hoffman:  I believe it was in the paper—I went to RCA.

Kelsey:  And what year was that?

Hoffman:  1942.

Kelsey:  Had you graduated from high school?

Hoffman:  No.  I got my diploma later in what was called at that time adult school.

Kelsey:  And how long did you work for RCA?

Hoffman:  Hm, ’42, ’43—about two years, a year and a half, two years, in that category, in that area.

Kelsey:  And what did you do there?

Hoffman:  I worked in the stockroom filling orders for various defense plants and government issue things.

Kelsey:  What kinds of things did they supply?

Hoffman:  Oh! everything was stock numbers, so it was all different parts:  parts for airplanes, parts for bombs, different mechanisms that they had—various parts.  All you just got was a sheet and you had to go through the whole area and find what was on that sheet and stock it together.

Kelsey:  And then when you left RCA, did you go to work at another company?

Hoffman:  A very short time at Newark Engineering.

Kelsey:  And what did you do there?

Hoffman:  I worked a drill press.

Kelsey:  And what were you making?

Hoffman:  It was parts for what, exactly, I don’t know.  It was various….

Kelsey:  And how long did you work there?

Hoffman:  Hm, oh, maybe about six months or so, and then I went to the telephone company.

Kelsey:  What was the telephone company then?

Hoffman:  That was on Washington Street.  I worked in long distance.

Kelsey:  So you were a switchboard operator?

Hoffman:  Uh-huh, an L.D. operator.

Kelsey:  And how long were you there?

Hoffman:  Hm, up to about 1950.

Kelsey:  So you actually left the defense industry before the war was over.

Hoffman:  Yes, I did.

Kelsey:  Because you went to work for the phone company in what year?

Hoffman:  Yeah, because I was working at the phone company on V-J Day.

Kelsey:  And that was 1945, August.

Hoffman:  Yeah.  That was on Washington Street.

Kelsey:  And then what did you do after that, did you keep working?

Hoffman:  And then I had babies.  (laughter)  I had my first baby in 1946, and another one in ’52.  And then I went into my own business for a while, [unclear] caterers.  My husband died, I took over the catering business for a while.  And then I went to Marriott Corporation from service.  Then I was there for twenty-some years.

Kelsey:  Did you meet your husband during the war?

Hoffman:  No, prior to the war, because I was married in 1940.

Kelsey:  Oh, so you were already married when the war started.

Hoffman:  I married in January of ’40, and the war broke out in December of ’41.  Well, actually they recorded my marriage as January of ’41, so I was married a very short time.

Kelsey:  And then he went overseas?

Hoffman:  Uh-huh.

Kelsey:  Where did he go?

Hoffman:  He was in the European invasion.

Kelsey:  Did that have anything to do with why you decided to go to RCA, or you were just looking for a job?

Hoffman:  I needed a job.  Good reason, wasn’t it?

Kelsey:  Yeah.  And then when did he come back?

Hoffman:  1945.

Kelsey:  After V-E Day?

Hoffman:  Yeah.

Kelsey:  And by that time you were working with the phone company?

Hoffman:  By that time I was at the phone company.

Kelsey:  Okay, I think that’s good for today.

Hoffman:  I enjoyed being here with you.

Kelsey:  We’ve definitely enjoyed being here with you.  And thank you for bringing all this.

Hoffman:  Well, I’m sorry I threw a lot of things away, honestly:  that mail, where they cut out what you can….  [I asked myself], “What am I keeping this stuff for?!”

Kelsey:  Where they would redact  the….

Hoffman:  Yeah.

Kelsey:  Did you get V-mail, microfilm mail?

Hoffman:  V-mails, yeah.  And then they cut out what you weren’t allowed to see.  After a while, you just can keep so much stuff.

[END OF INTERVIEW]