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Our Families - Our Lives. Write-Link Project
Tradell T. H.
June 20, 2005 The Greatest Generation:
Featuring Drexia M. Drexia M. 88, was part of the great generation that brought us many
inventions, took us to the moon and got through two world wars. Drexia
in a recent interview discussed how natural adjusting was for her, and
living rough wasn't hard, because it was how everybody had to live.
Drexia got married in 1938 to a Mr. M., who worked for bomber plants.
He brought her from her hometown Kentucky to Indiana and to Ypsilanti.
When asked what brought her to Ypsilanti, Drexia replied "Money."
The building of the new Willow Run bomber plant was what brought her
and her husband up to this small town to live. Drexia currently lives
at a senior center in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and was born in December
1916, in Kentucky. She said she lived in a very isolated place in the
hills of Kentucky, were schools and colleges were miles away.
Her High school was about five or six miles away from her home, and
was a Christian boarding school. She would go away to school and stay
there all year long, until finally coming home in the summer. Drexia
loved school, and regrets not going to college. School was very fun,
she adds. Living with her fellow classmates she made friends that felt
like family. Graduating was very hard for her, knowing she would never
see her classmates again, considering most of them were from different
states and areas. "I cried,"
Drexia says of leaving high school in 1936.
During war times everything was rationed and one could only get so
much sugar, and meat. Stamps and shoes, she talked about a time when
someone stole her rations book and she could not get shoes for her daughter.
Fortunate to have it better than others, her husband had a car and was
able to get all the gas they needed from his work. Something that impressed
her the most was a sign up on the road, which read "Is this trip
necessary." She said, "That's something that stuck with me
my whole life." Drexia went on to say that the wars were not that
big of a burden, because they had everything they needed. Even for entertainment,
they didn't have TV's yet, but they had books, movie houses, and radios.
Being a part of that ever adjusting generation, Drexia explained how
the small town of Ypsilanti has changed drastically over the years.
Not able to remember a single store that was here when she arrived,
that is still standing. "Most of the big businesses squeezed the
little ones out." Drexia said, when she initially arrived there
were few houses, and they were shaped like "chicken coops".
There were few stores and all the streets were two lane roads. Now there
are many apartments and stores and big business strips all over, with
four lane roads. Even with all the technology and new inventions, Drexia
says those things are "Taboo" and claims she just recently
failed a, are you techno savvy quiz.
Despite the changes Drexia still enjoys the simple pleasures that have
stayed the same throughout her time. She still listens to her country
western, and other music and enjoys reading, all kinds of literature
including biographies, and romances. She also, enjoys sewing and quilting
blankets, which she donates to the nursing homes. Finally, seeing her
grandchildren are what keep her busy. "I'm always busy."
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