Tag: Rosie the Riveter

Rosie the Riveter – World Record Event!

Valerie @ Valerie's Musings15 Comments

On Saturday, October 14th, I was part of a group of women who came together to set the record for the most women dressed as Rosie the Riveter in one place.

To give a little background, there’s a friendly competition between my group of Rosies here in Ypsilanti/Willow Run and a group in Richmond, California.

You see, the original Rosie the Riveter, Rose Monroe, worked at the Willow Run Bomber Planet located here in Ypsilanti. The Yankee Air Museum has saved a portion of that old bomber plant from being torn down and is now in the process of renovating it into a new space for the museum. My group of Rosies wants the world record to stay here in Ypsilanti because that’s where Rose Monroe worked.

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California, on the other hand, has the “Rosie the Riveter/World War II Homefront National Historical Park”, so their group wants to keep the world record there for that reason. It’s been a completely friendly competition back and forth for the last few years.

It all started in 2014 when the group that I’m now a part of set a world record of 760+ women. In the summer of 2015, California took that record away with their gathering of almost 1100 women. Their record didn’t last long. In October 2015, myself and the group I’m a part of took back the record with 2096 Rosies, including 21 Original Rosies (women who actually worked in the factories in WWII)! California took our record away in 2016 with just over 2200 Rosies.

We took it back on Saturday the 14th. The new record is 3755 Rosies!! AND we set a record for the number of original Rosies in one place with 55. It was so much fun! Our youngest Rosie was 6 weeks old and our oldest Rosie was 110! We even sent a video to the group in Richmond saying “Willow Run loves Richmond but Willow Run WINS!”

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I volunteered to work one of the clothing tables during the beginning of the event. Because this is going in the Guinness Book of World Records there are some very specific requirements.  The biggest thing people had trouble with were finding red socks and finding bandannas with the right size white dots (dots much be bigger than a dime). I was selling socks and bandannas along with a few other ladies.

It was fun to watch ladies of all different ages and races come in dressed as Rosie the Riveter. Every time an original Rosie would come through the crowd, everyone would cheer for them.  These were the women who kept our servicemen supplied with bombers and tanks and guns during World War II. They were just as integral to winning the war as the men and women serving in the armed forces during the war.

I even got myself a pair of boots to use (last time I used my dad’s boots and just darkened ’em with shoe polish) so that I can join the Tribute Rosies and do things like be at the air show, do parades, etc. as Rosie. 🙂

I didn’t get to take a LOT of pictures since I was volunteering, but enjoy the ones I did take! Forgive me for the quality of some of these, my tremor was acting up that day and my phone doesn’t have the stabilization that my good camera has.

It was a great day, though VERY tiring!  It took me about 3-4 days to recover! On one hand, I hope it takes California a long time to beat our record, but on the other hand, it’s so much fun, that I kind of hope that it doesn’t. hehe.

We even had Uncle Sam & Waldo visiting with us!!

 

END OF THE MONTH REVIEW – September 2017

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Since I had a blog tour yesterday, I decided to wait until today to do my end of the month review until today.

Personal Life

September has gone well personally. I’m settling into my job more. I learned a bit about how the finance department works, which helps me know how to prepare my invoices and get them up to the finance department on time so when they go to pay the check, they have my invoices there to verify. It’s also been busier. More shipments of books are coming in so I’m pretty busy most days (NOT complaining. I’d rather be busy than bored).

Work on my room continues. If you read my post a few days ago, you’ll know that this weekend didn’t quite go as planned, so it’s not quite done the way I’d hoped it’d be at the end of the weekend, but oh well. Extra time with my adorable niece and sweet nephew is not a hardship really.

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Things I Read/Reviewed During September

I read quite a bit during the month of September, but I didn’t review a lot. A lot of what I read were things that I’ve read before. There were little pockets of stress within the month and when that happens, I want my favorite books so there’s no surprises.  But here’s what I read and reviewed and how many stars they received.

  1. World of the Innocent – Nadine C. Keels – 5 stars
  2. A Christmas Peril – J.A. Hennrikus – 4.5 stars
  3. Body on Baker Street – Vicki Delany – 4 stars
  4. Cat Got Your Secrets – Julie Chase – 4.5 stars
  5. Murder at the River Bend Retirement Resort – Stan Schatt – 4 stars
  6. Vangie Vale and the Corpseless Custard – R.L. Syme – 4 stars
  7. Beware the Orchids – Cynthia Hickey – 4 stars (Read in September, but reviewed Oct. 1)

I also read J.D. Robb’s newest book, “Secrets in Death” but work was busy at the time and I didn’t get a chance to review it. I had other types of posts as well, several book spotlights and a couple of life in general posts.

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Site Metrics

I didn’t have quite as many visitors this month as I have had in the past, but I think that’s more because I didn’t post a whole lot in September. When work is busy, I don’t have time to post there and then since I’ve been working on my room so hard, I haven’t posted much on the weekends. Total visitors for September was 210. August 2017 was my biggest month of visitors with 263. I did gain quite a few new followers in September. Welcome to all of you new members! 🙂

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Looking Forward to October

October’s going to be busy for me both in blogging terms and in life terms. I’m not a huge Halloween fan so I don’t generally go all out for that, but I’m a big fall fan so I do the cider mills and pumpkin patches. Second, I’m possibly participating in the attempt to break the world record for the number of women dressed as Rosie the Riveter in one place on the 14th of October. I participated 2 years ago and had a great time, but I don’t really want to go by myself again so I may skip it this time. It’s not as fun when you’re alone. The original Rosie the Riveter worked at the Willow Run Bomber Plant which is here in Ypsilanti, part of which is currently being restored to be a museum. That’s why the record is important around here. Then, the Detroit Institute of Arts is opening two new exhibits. One on Monet who is my favorite painter overall and the reason I have a water garden with a water lily. The second is on Frederic Edwin Church who is my favorite American painter. I’m super excited about those. Finally, I always like to go to the zoo when they give the animals pumpkins to play with. There’s usually treats inside the pumpkins for them and it’s fun to watch them explore and pounce and rip things open.

Blogging-wise

Blogging-wise, I have 6 author interviews, 1 spotlight post, 2 Book Blast posts, 1 Guest Post, and 7 reviews already lined up. Most are part of blog tours, but there are a few that are not.

As you can see, October will be filled with fun and lots of blog posts. Plus, somewhere in there I have to find a way to get the furniture moved that didn’t get moved last weekend! But, I’m looking forward to it all!