Peter Cummings
Ed Levy Jr.
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Harriet Ratter
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World

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Ed Schulak
David Victor
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Evan Weiner

Encourage you to

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Love, Sex And
World War II

with BO!

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Bo Schembechler

A Leader..
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Type 1 Gaucher disease (pronounced Go
For'tunately, Gaucher disease is treatable and
Shay) is the most common Jewish genetic
the earlier the diagnosis the better, because i s
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versible problems or premature death can occur tf
Should know
it is much more common than Tay-Sachs disease:
left untreated. If you or your family members are
about it. experiencing any of the following symptoms, ask ,
The symptoms of Gaucher disease are progressive
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AUCHER 1ISEASE IGNS

YMFTOMS

•FATIGUE (ANEMIA) • BONE PAIN • EASY BRUISING AND/OR BLEEDING
•ENLARGED ABDOMEN (SPLEEN AND/OR LIVER)

If you are Jewish and of Eastern European ancestry, and would like more information,
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I, 1 1.61740

30

November 2 • 2006

had done this and survived this.
It made me wonder if I could have
done this."
For Thanks for the Memories,
Leder interviewed 50 other wives
who had followed their husbands
during stateside training. She
says this is the "love" part in her
subtitle.
The "sex" part came when she
Keri Guten Cohen
started finding out what these
Story Development Editor
young, viral men were doing when
they were cooped up for so long.
embers of the so-
A major military concern
called
was to limit venereal dis-
"Greatest
ease.
Generation" tended
"The military encour-
not to talk too much
aged the use of condoms,"
about their experi-
Leder explained. "They
entes during World
were not concerned with
War II, but now that
the women. There was a
they're in their 80s, it
lot of messing around. War
seems that loose lips
changed relationships with
can sink more than
men and women overnight.
Jane Mersky
ships.
Things not done suddenly
Leder
In Jane Mersky
were being done. There
Leder's new book,
was a lot of freedom.
Thanks for the Memories: Love,
"The 'Greatest Generation'
Sex and World War 11 (Praeger
broke a lot of the rules," she said.
Publishers), men and women shoot
"You think of them as doing what
down sexual and workplace barriers
they were told in lockstep, but it's
as they reveal a liberated genera-
not true when it came to love and
tion affected by-war.
sex."
Leder was moved to write
Her book – a very readable psy-
the book by the story of her
cho-sociological study – explores
own parents, Morris and Shirley
how the war and people's reac-
(Saulson) Mersky. Born and raised
tion to the times set in motion
in Highland Park until she moved
such things as the second wave
to West Bloomfield in her teens,
of the women's movement. Work,
Leder says she didn't hear much
a paycheck and the camaraderie
about her parents' wartime expe-
of other women prompted women
riences until a post-Thanksgiving
who returned to the home to give
dinner discussion 10 years ago
their own daughters a message:
between her mother and her
You can do whatever you set your
cousin.
mind to.
"They started Swapping stories
Leder also writes about state-
of their time on the road while
side anti-Semitism and the irony
they were service wives, stories
of fighting Nazism overseas while
of lusty landlords, shared kitchen
anti-Semitism was a significant
privileges, dusty little towns
issue in our own country. Some of
they'd never heard of before,"
her anecdotes about this are very
Leder said.
poignant.
"My mother left teaching in
She spent four years research-
Detroit to move to Coriscana,
ing and writing her book about
Texas, because she intended to
"ordinary people living in extraor-
spend as much time with him as
dinary times." She says people
she could before he went over
she interviewed were glad to talk
seas. About 1.25 million wives
about love and sex.
were crisscrossing the country
"It is important for them,"
and finding rooms like they were.
she said, "to leave an accurate
"I was blown away," Leder said
account of what it was like grow-
of her mother, now 90, and her
ing up as a young person during
father, 89. "I couldn't helieve they
the war."

Author explores
the "Greatest
Generation" amid
loosening morals.

M