Editor’s Note: The Chestertown Spy has teamed up with the C.V. Starr Center for the American Experience at Washington College to share the stories of local residents who experienced World War II, either on the Home Front or as Veterans. Students and staff have already interviewed over a hundred people about their experiences during World War II. Each installment presented in The Spy includes an audio clip of an interview, along with the corresponding transcript. You can find more audio clips and interview transcripts at storyquestproject.com. If you have a story or artifact to share, please contact Deputy Director of Starr Center, Pat Nugent, at [email protected] or 410-810-7161.
Madelyn Hollis: Brother in Service
My brother, my oldest brother, was one of the first young men in my small community that went in the war. At that time, they had what was called drafting. They drafted you. You didn’t go because you wanted to go like they do now.
Once you became eighteen, automatically, you had to go down to the — what’d they call it — the local board. It has a name, (laughs) and you had to sign up. And eventually they’d send for you, very quickly.
I remember one time this farmer in Accomack County – it’s an agrarian county – wanted my brother to work on his farm, do something for him. And he said he couldn’t do it. And I bet it was less than two weeks, you know, where he was in the service and gone.
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