GIRL IN A SLOPPY JOE SWEATER: LIFE ON THE CANADIAN HOME FRONT DURING WORLD WAR TWO.

Montreal: Optimum, 1989. 202 pp, large 8vo (9 1/4" H). B&w photographs, reproductions."(A) lighthearted but true-to-life account of Canadian home front living during the war years. When teenaged boys put on uniforms and sailed, flew, and marched off to fight in the Second World War, the teenaged girls they left behind them were in uniform too: a Sloppy Joe sweater, a string of pearls, skirt, bobbysox, and saddleshoes. Meet Mary, one of those girls in a Sloppy Joe sweater; her best friend Cath, and their friends; and follow their fortunes through these six significant years in history that paralleled six of the most formative years of their lives. Through Mary you will learn what they were like; how they passed their time as they waited for the boys to come home; their code of manners and mores; what they talked about at their 'hen parties'; the music and radio programs they listened to; the movies they watched; the books and magazines they read; their fashion 'fads'; their humour; and their contribution to the 'war effort'. Accented by newspaper clippings of the time, the reader gets a chronological review of home and war front news. These vignettes of history reflect the reality of life and death of never to be forgotten days and when juxtaposed with the author's highly entertaining text, the whole forms a record of the times as none other has." Previous owner's small label on free front endpaper, book is slightly cocked, small bump at top corner of rear board. Dust jacket has light wrinkling at top/bottom of spine and flap-folds, light fading to spine color - mainly top half, minor rubbing.. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good.