"Ethel the Riveter"
Post #25 – Women’s Memoirs, Conversations – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Ask her if she was a Rosie the Riveter, and Ethel Horbach will correct you, “No I’m Ethel the Riveter.” Today Ethel lives at Amber Court in Westbury, New York, but some 65+ years ago she worked the lathe at Toolcraft grinding and polishing bullets for the war effort.
Amber Court’s activity director Ginger Bonner first contacted Women’s Memoirs regarding our Rosie the Riveter Legacy bandana. We were still developing our new, larger design (27×27”) that is 100
Fighting for Women
percent Made in the USA and now in stock, but I helped Ginger with some ideas for creating her costume. She followed up by sending these pictures of “Ethel the Riveter” and her cohorts at Amber Court.
Show your muscle
I invited Ethel and Ginger to speak with me. Here’s the audio of our brief conversation. I think you’ll find it interesting.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Ginger "doing the Rosie"
Our Rosie the Riveter Legacy bandana is popular year round, and helps keep our collective memoir Rosie’s Daughters: The “First Woman To” Generation Tells Its Story visible and selling. But it’s at Halloween when our sales really spike. So many women want to dress up as the iconic embodiment of women’s strength and empowerment—Rosie the Riveter. You can find our original Rosie the Riveter Legacy bandana here.
They Can Do It!
And if you would like to read more about the importance of book marketing and using complementary to promote books, please follow this link to my post on Story Circle Network’s Telling HerStories blog.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I loved this interview, Kendra! What a neat idea that Ginger had. I’m sure all the residents enjoyed it.
Jinni
Thanks for bringing to light the story of ordinary women who are really extraordinary and certainly not ordinary. I really enjoyed reading, as well as, listening to the interview.
Donna
Ginger does a great job at Amber Court, how wonderful it was to find true riveters at Amber Court. This women are wonderful and are an asset to our community and our world. We will be forever greatful to them for a job well done
Please check out the website I host with a partner that focuses on the cooking with scraps issues. In addition, I’m in the process of developing a website that deals with memoir, both one I’ve published (THE SEAMSTRESS: A MEMOIR OF SURVIVAL) and short story. I’m feeling positively OVERWHELMED by the time required to post, manage, monitor, update, etc. Any suggestions? Just hired a website designer but need to limit my professional expenses. (I’m presenting at the SCN conf in Austin & need to promote that too.) thanks!