Military souvenirs, starched white sailor suits, tales of wartime heroism and the music and fashion of a bygone era brought World War II to life recently for a group of Shorewood 8th graders.
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Teacher Jim Wheeler said pupils could learn from activities ranging from veterans’ wartime reminiscences to a re-creation of the USO Canteens that offered entertainment and companionship to servicemen far from home, to a vintage fashion show.
“We feel (hands-on experience) is one of the strongest concepts of the middle school,” Wheeler said. “They’ll remember that war.”
The event, held this month, has grown over the last four years, he said. The fashion show, for example, featured 10 models the first year. This year, 40 1940s-style outfits discovered in thrift shops and family attics were displayed.
Even Principal Glenna Adams took to the runway, decked out as Rosie the Riveter, the archetypal female factory worker on the assembly lines while the men went to war.
After the fashion show, student model Eric Kubina, 14, Kubina ditched his Nazi accessories and portrayed a U.S. soldier socializing at the Shorewood USO Canteen, where teacher Barbara Hammerquist organized music, dance and refreshments.
“USO stands for `United States Overseas,’ ” Hammerquist explained, “and it entertained our soldiers.”
The boys were not the only ones in uniform. Ann Lavazza, 13, wore a rust-colored jumpsuit of the type worn by workers at the Joliet Arsenal.
Other girls wore old-fashioned floral print and polka dot dresses and high heels.
“We have to dance, too,” said Jamie Kapsimalis, 13.
The old songs and dances were not that hard to learn, according to Rosemarie Breske, 16, a Troy graduate who attends Joliet High School and who came back to help out.
“We learned the dance in two hours this morning,” she said.
Mike Parenti, 14, and Wesley Norris, 13, did not mind wearing their stiff white sailor suits.
“That’s what they wore,” Parenti said.
The USO represented a temporary relief from war’s grim reality, said veterans Mel Trager, Andy Vollmer and Bernie Tkazczak. They shared their memories, demonstrating infantry equipment and showing films of an oil-field air raid.
“We could see the Germans firing at us,” said Trager, who recalled that U.S. pilots were required to wear a Class A uniform to make an impressive appearance if they were captured.