Mumblings - Donald Lester Dewey and Vera (Tompkins) Dewey

Donald Post WWII
[Note: I don't know where else to put this information, but Donald had two nicknames that I am aware of.  He was sometimes referred to as "Ozzie" probably from the Osman family name.  By others he was called "Boston", probably by fellow Merchant Marines and U.S. Navy crewmates.]

Mumblings on Donald Lester Dewey continues with this post on life after Donald's WWII years.  When the war ended, Donald finally returned to Reading, MA.  Recall from a prior post that Donald had left Reading and his family at age 14/15 (1926/27) to learn the printer trade as an apprentice in New Jersey.  Like many returning WWII veterans, Donald was ready to settle down after the war.  I assume he lived with his sister Elizabeth's family in a two family house at 146 Village Street in Reading.  The Tompkins family owned and lived in other side of the two family house, 144 Village Street.

His first task was finding employment.  I have an application showing that Donald applied for jobs within the National Forest Service.  He didn't get one of those jobs, so he returned to a job related to something he knew about, shipping.  He became a longshoreman along the Boston waterfront after February 18, 1946.  Although he stopped working as a longshoreman before 1949, he kept his working card up to date through the 3rd quarter of 1949.  Working as a longshoreman was subject to  irregular hours and corruption.  "Bosses" selected workers daily (scroll down to "Allegations of Organized crime" under International Longshoreman's Association on Wikipedia).   The movie "On the Waterfront" probably closely resembled life for Donald as a longshoreman.  In my prior post of Donald's WWII life, I mentioned his pocket diary/calendar.  At the back of this book, Donald recorded 45 short entries showing his work as a longshoreman.  An example of these records show that for the week ending Feb 3 (year unknown) he recorded his work unloading the MS Krageholm: hours 23, pay $36.30, WH (withholding tax?) $4.95, and his SS (social security?) $0.36.  The records indicated that sometimes he worked as few as 2.5 hours to as many as 38.5 hours.  Mostly though, he worked between 10-20 hours. When he had 10 or more hours, he typically put "happy" alongside the entry.  The movie "On the Waterfront" portrayed how difficult it was for a longshoreman to get hours so Donald's "happy" notation reflects the film.  Beside the MS Krageholm, some other ships were recorded: MS Tuneholm, MS Danaholm, MS Kanangoora, etc. 

Longshoreman Pass dated 2/18/46

1949 Longshoreman Working Card

Donald and Vera (Tompkins)
As I mentioned earlier, Donald was probably living with his sister at 146 Village Street.  Next door was the family of Harold and Alice Tompkins.  Donald's niece Jeanette did a little matchmaking and helped link up Donald to Vera Tompkins.  Donald and Vera married on October 17, 1947 in a double wedding ceremony with Vera's sister marrying Bob Harrington.  During the first year of the marriage, Donald and Vera lived in an attic room and Viola and Bob lived in a second attic room in the Tompkins house. 

Donald and Vera's Wedding Photo

Brides, Grooms, Maids of Honor, and Best Men

Life must have been hectic to say the least at 144 Village Street during the14 months that Don and Vera lived there.  Alice and Harold Tompkins had five children living with them in addition to Donald and Vera and Bob and Viola.  During the same time, Alice was pregnant with Wayne (born April 1948), Vera was pregnant with Delores (born October 1948), and Viola was pregnant with Michael (born April 1949). Baby Delores started out life living on Village Street.

With a baby coming, Vera insisted that Donald find a steadier income that would support his new family.  Donald found a job working for General Electric sometime in the 1947-1948 time frame where he worked until retirement in 1977.  Don and Vera also bought there home at 123 Green Street, right around the corner from the Tompkins, on December 31, 1948 paying $7,500 for the house.
   

Donald and Vera's Deed to 123 Green St.

After moving to Green Street, Donald and Vera had two more children, Donald (born December 1949) and David (born August 1955).  Donald died at age 68 on April 28, 1980 of lung cancer*.  Vera died at age 88 on December 24, 2010. 

* A word on Donald's lung cancer:  During his life, Donald was exposed to many toxins which probably caused his cancer.  As a printers apprentice, he was probably exposed to molten lead as printers of the time used hot-metal printing.  Who knows what he might have been exposed to during his life aboard ships in the Merchant Marines and the US Navy.  He was exposed to molten metal castings and chemicals while working at General Electric.  In addition, like many his age, Donald was a heavy smoker for most of his life.  I am sure that all these influences factored into his contracting lung cancer.