Does Rosie the Riveter Legacy Live On?

In this episode of the Sparky Live podcast, host Lia Lamela interviews Mae Krier, one of the original Rosie the Riveters. Mae shares her experiences working at Boeing during World War II, her advocacy work, and her efforts to honor women on the home front. She discusses the importance of respect, the role of women in society, and the need for equal pay.

Mae's journey from being a riveter at Boeing during World War II to receiving the Congressional Gold Medal is nothing short of inspiring. She's a living testament to the power of resilience and determination, and her stories from the Great Depression to the present day are a must-listen.

I hope Mae's story sparks your curiosity and inspires you as much as it did mine!

Connect with our guest Mae Krier: https://www.instagram.com/rosiemaepa/
Connect with us: @sparkylifeoflia

Sparky Life Supports: Raya Kenney's Foundation Women Who Worked on the Home Front Memorial

Be a part of history!
National Memorial to the Women Who Worked on the Home Front Foundation

Here's Raya and a little about her memorial
Congress approves Women Who Worked on the Home Front Memorial

Here's the link to donate.
https://marnie-kenney-sfg2.squarespace.com/checkout/donate?donatePageId=63d1d506217f9e44111ecfea

Apply for Skilled Trades the Mike Rowe Scholarship:
https://www.mikeroweworks.org/scholarship/

We support financial advancement for the skilled trades community.  You can reach out to Jennifer Markwell at Platinum Wealth email Jennifer@PlatinumWealth.net
website www.PlatinumWealth.net

Music by https://www.purple-planet.com

Transcript

Lia: Welcome to the Sparky Life podcast. I'm your host, Lia Lamela, and here we create the sparks in our lives. Join me on this electrical journey where I highlight skilled trade tales and construction career opportunities with those I've met along the way. Thank you for joining for trade tales continued. Today's guest is a personal hero of mine. She’s a national treasure. One of the original Rosie the Riveters. I am honored to have such a trailblazer here as a guest on The Sparky Life. Mae was hired by Boeing at $0.92 an hour during World War Two. She became a riveter and helped to build B-17s and B-29s, Flying Fortresses, four engined heavy bomber aircrafts. Mae has had many accomplishments in her mission to have the original Rosies marked in history for all their efforts in World War Two. She received the Congressional Gold Medal. Mae contributed during the pandemic, making 5000 masks, and she advocates for women like Reya Kenny, who is raising funds to put a memorial in Washington, D.C. to honor women on the home front during World War Two. Reya started this journey in the fifth grade. She is now in her second year of college and just got her bill passed. Reya is now working on raising funds for this monumental achievement. During my conversation with Mae, she said it best: “You can't do it if you don't try.” For women working in the trades or considering entering into the skilled trades world: you are part of history in the making. Women like Mae, who carry a fire in their hearts and wrench in their hands, have poured a lifetime of sweat, hope and ambition into championing equal opportunities for women. It was unfortunate circumstances which initially propelled women to enter the workforce, but if it weren't for history unfolding in this particular way, who knows what the world for women would look like now? Let's support Mae and Reya on this honorable journey. If you'd like to be a part of history, there is a link in the show notes below to donate to Reya’s National Memorial to the Women Who Worked on the Home Front Foundation. Now welcome with me, one of the originals, Rosie the Riveter.

Mae: Thank you for inviting me.

Lia: Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming on the show and being a part of the Sparky life.

Mae: Well, it's important to us, Rosie Riveters, to get our legacy out there as best we can. And we're doing a good job.

Lia: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Mae, can you paint me a picture of your life before beginning working with Boeing aircraft?

Mae: Yes. I was born in North Dakota. It was in the 1920s. It was during the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and the stock market crashed. And it was a terrible time. All we wanted was a roof over our head and food on the table. The only good thing that came out of that decade was my mother got the right to vote. 

Lia: Oh, yes. 

Mae: And it was a shame. It shouldn't have taken that long for women to get the right to vote, and that was the only thing that came out of it. That was a good thing, Calvin Coolidge was president. And so, you know, this was very difficult times. We had a terrible time until President Roosevelt started putting in good programs that helped us out of the depression. He put in like, WPA CTT for young boys who, you know, were so many large families at that time, and it was hard to feed everybody. So this camp, these camps, the city camps were a blessing, because not only did they take the boys out, but it helped our country. They planted trees, they took care of highways. They build bridges. It was a blessing because this all led up to that young man knowing how to work and when, of course, naturally, when the war came along, they were very well trained.

Lia: Can you tell me the differences that you notice, women working in these male dominated fields from World War Two to now?

Mae: Oh, what a change. You know, up until 1941, it was a man's world. They didn't know how capable American women were, and we certainly showed them; we were better than they were. 

Lia: Yeah, yeah. 

Mae: You know, women with our fingers and hands are more flexible that depend on what we were working on. But we could move faster. The men were stronger. They had, you know, if they had a bigger job or bigger rivet gun, it was different. But on the average, women were every bit as good. And yet we didn't get paid as much as the men. I'll never understand that. And I'm still fighting for that. Different pay for doing the same job. It just doesn't make sense to me. It's come along real good. But during Obama's State of the Union speech, he said we were, we were 90% there. I wrote to him, I said, we're not 90% yet. We're going to take us another 70 years to get the other 10%, we're working on, we're going to get there. A lot of women are doing great. We're just so proud as we're, you know, we open doors for women, but women like you, you're the ones who are doing it. We just handed you the ball. We're so proud of you. Like I said, we open doors, you are the ones who are doing it now. And it's fantastic what you are doing.

Lia: It's, it's such an honor. It's such an honor. And I'm so blessed to have you here. And it is women like you that opened the door to make it possible for women like me to work into the electrical field, in construction, I would never have the opportunities I have now if it weren't for women like you.

Mae: One of the examples I use is when we were young before 1941, they wouldn't dream of a married woman being a police officer. And yet we have Danielle Outlaw from Philadelphia. She's in charge of the police, one of the largest cities in the world. And can you imagine that now, she's a lady of color. So not only do we have a woman in a high position, we have a woman of color, and I fight for equality, too. She is, she's been outstanding. She's had outstanding record.

Lia: How has your experience in 1926 influenced how you approach things today?

Mae: It's hard to compare because I call, I said the first thing I say when I speak to that I'm very proud to be a member of the Greatest Generation. We had such respect for everybody and for everything. And, you know, we were taught to respect our leaders. It didn't matter whether they're Democrat or Republican. If they've got that, got elected, we respected them. We didn't have to like everything. We still don't like everything. And it's getting worse. 

Lia: Yes. 

Mae: But no. We're taught to respect. We loved our flag, our country. When you can imagine how it felt or what people of our age when we seen those radicals climb the capital city, the Capitol building, I couldn't believe my eyes that people would behave that way. I mean, this is America. These are wonderful people. When my face masks went out, I don’t know if you’re familiar with my face masks, I made 6000 rosy masks during the pandemic, and I got the most beautiful letters from all over our country. They're the genuine American people. They're great people. Just a few radicals stir everything up and spoil it for so many.

Lia: Yes, you bring up a great topic about respect. I am positive there's a very big difference in manner and behavior in the era of World War Two, as opposed to now.

Mae: You can always tell an older person because when you walk out of a bank or building, they hold the door for you. And that's the difference in the age too, I don't know, what they don't teach respect, but to me that's the most important word in the dictionary. 

Lia: Yes.

Mae: You respect yourself, you respect everything and everybody else. You don't have to like it, but you've got to give them the right to be who they are, you know? But don't tread on other people.

Lia: Beautifully said, beautifully said. Now you've cultivated more Rosies. Can you please, from Mae, 1st of the originals to now many little Rosies. Tell me about this program.

Mae: That's like you say that because I've gotten the nicest awards and one of them awarded to me: “Amazing Mae-sy.” 

Lia: Yeah. I love it, I love it.

Mae: You know, Lia, I just have so much fun. I just enjoyed it. And I've met the most wonderful people. I said, you know, just sit back and be nice and people are nice to you. It's rare when, I can't say as I've ever had anybody real, and I've traveled all over and most everybody is just wonderful with me. So naturally I like people, and I get the people, like me, I think.

Lia: I can't imagine why not.

Mae: You know, when I started this, I started working to get Rosies recognized more than 40 years ago, when the war was over, the women had, the men came back, they had jobs, they had parades, flying flags, and they made a big thing of the military men coming home, which they should. But when Rosie came home, we got nothing. We came home with the pink slip, just wasn't fair. And after the war, of course, the men took the jobs now and after the war there was really nothing for women. I laughed when I tell this, I don't tell the whole story, but it seems like people say, well, what happened to you women? Did you just go back into the kitchen? And I said, no, I don't want to tell the story, but the baby boomers came. This is the era of the baby boomers. When the men came home, the hospitals, everything was flooded with pregnant women. And that was the time. That was when my children were born. 

Lia: Oh.

Mae: It's a, it's a time when the then women stayed home and raised their children. I didn't go back to work. I think my youngest was around 11 years old, and I'm one of those, I can't say rightly so. I was itching to go back to work. But yet at that time the men still said, “A woman's place is in the home.” And of course that's not true. A woman has ideas and loves and wants to get a career and do things. She needs to be, a feel, more important. I mean, it's nice to be a housewife and mother. We can all do that. That's the most important role in our lives. But we can do that and also have a career now. Women have to be fulfilled too, and I think it's important if you have a desire to be an engineer, be a nurse, be whoever you want to be, do it. Because like I said, you need to be fulfilled. You're not just a body. You have a mind, you know, and we need to use it.

Lia: Mae you have had so many accomplishments advocating for women and bringing awareness to all the Rosies in the world. Can you tell me about this journey?

Mae: First of all, I worked together on the annual National Rosie day. And that was stupid because I worked hard for that. I told Senator Casey, he's a senator from Pennsylvania. Is that the reason you give us this day? Because you're sick and tired of hearing from me? 

Lia: I love it. 

Mae: But, you know, this is so important. This is what you got to remember. You know, I didn't know where I was going when I started this 40 years ago. A lot of people didn't even know who Rosie Riveter was, but they never let up. And of course, when we, when they started telling me that there's a possibility for me to get the Congressional Gold Medal, boy, did I go to town with that. I really worked hard. But you can't do these things alone. You got to have a lot of Rosies, a lot of support. And we reached out to all these women and all. Oh, it's so beautiful. We have the Congressional Gold Medal now, and the mint has invited me. They haven't released it yet. We haven't had it's going to be put in the Smithsonian soon. But it was so nice to have the mint invite me down and showed me, oh, how they, all the artists, how they did it and all. It's just amazing the things that I've been able to enjoy. I just love that. And when Senator Casey, no, the House was voted on an early date for right way, but we had a terrible time getting the Senate. So when the Senator Casey finally took it, he came and put it into another realm, and he took it to Washington. I got to Washington, watch him on C-Span while he's promoting it, and he had me a picture of me sewing the 6000 facemasks. Oh, and after he got off the air, he called me right away and he said, well, how do you feel now that you've got the Congressional Gold Medal? You've worked so hard. And I said, you know, you're elated. You're so excited. But my journey getting there with absolutely outstanding. I said, I met so many wonderful people, you know, there's so many people out there to help you. If you've got a good cause and you don't give up. That's what I really express to the young girls. Don't give up if you make a mistake, maybe you learn more from that mistake, but keep calling. Don't give up. If you have a dream, follow it. So important.

Lia: Mae I understand you would like a statue of Rosie the Riveter in Washington DC, World War two Memorial. Why is this important to you?

Mae: Well, I went there. The honor flight took me with them several years ago. When I went there and seen that they didn't have anything for Rosie the Riveter, other than that little plaque on the alcove off of the main base there, I thought that was a disgrace, because everybody will tell you they couldn't have won the war without us women.

Lia: Yes, yes.

Mae: When they built it, they built that for a men's world, not a woman's world. And I think it's time that we wake them up. But I don't know how to do that. That one in particular. We don't know how to reach out to or who I should reach out to. I'm hoping that somebody else will have that desire to do that, take that on and get a Rosie statue and in that World War Two memorial. We had a thing, Kilroy was here. I don't know if you ever heard that. 

Lia: No.

Mae: That was one of the slogans during World War Two. Well, really in there and here's, here's this quote, two different places in there. And he was nothing but an inspector. I mean, he wasn't a hero with the military. He worked right along with us. But he's got two Kilroy of sayings in there, and we don't have anything.

Lia: That needs to change that. That definitely needs to change there.

Mae: They definitely got to put something in there like, I want the statue. Are you familiar with Harry Connick?

Lia: I am not.

Mae: The singer. No, he's like Frank Sinatra. Oh, yeah. Well, anyway, he was on, he played the tail gunner in the movie Memphis Belle.

Lia: Yes.

Mae: But anyway, so cute. I was on his program and, how much fun, because of the, you know, me building the B-17s and him being in the movie on it. And he said to me, did you ever imagine that Rosie the Riveter would become such an icon? And I said, you know, we weren't doing it for honors or awards. We were doing it to save our country. We never give a thought that what would happen afterwards.

Lia: Right. 

Mae: And it was a terrible time. Think it was Truman who said, we won the war, but we haven't won the peace and think, that's so true, because when are we ever going to win the peace?

Lia: What can we do? Mae, what can we do to help make this change? I love, and I feel passionately about you wanting a Rosie, a statue.

Mae: I want a statue because that that says everything.

Lia: Right.

Mae: The ones that I've been beside had a lot of pictures taken. I'm beside Rosie and they've got the big river gun on her feet, and we're just doing our power up. And it's this, simple as that. We can earn the money to get the statue and God's sakes. And we got enough Rosies left, we could screw it to the floor.

Lia: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

Mae: There's so much politics going on in all of this, I. Have you ever heard of Reya Kenny?

Lia: Yes. Reya Kenny, who's raising funds to put a memorial in D.C. to honor women on the home front during World War two. Please tell me more about this.

Mae: Oh, this is great. It's so. We're doing it. From the time she started, she was in the fifth grade to make a memorial for the women. She never gave up. She's a second year college student now, and she is just working so hard. But she's got us all. We got to find out where they're going to let her put it into the land. And then she's got to earn the money to keep it, to build it right there on that land. Then she has to earn the money to maintain it for seven years. So we're doing everything we can. She's already got the political background, got what she needs. And so now we just got to raise the money for her to get the property and get the, to maintain it. If we ever had a poster girl, it's her. So we're doing everything we can to help raise money. And it's called a National Memorial to Women Who Worked on the Homefront Foundation. And you just love her when you, when you see her. And I've been on with her several times. I met her when you started this. And working together really, really well. So I've got two things going. I want the statue in Washington, but I don't want it to take away from what Reya's program is.

Lia: Right.

Mae: You know, I've been in Washington so many times, and one of the ladies, are you familiar with that memorial before you go into Arlington? The women's.

Lia: Yes, yes I am.

Mae: Well, she, she went bowling, invited me down to Washington. When I made my first facemask, I started doing that. Just one of the people who had helped us get Rosie recognized. Well, it went viral. And so we ended up. I ended up making 6000, but they took it going, said for took it up in space. They put it on their mannequin and took my bandana and face mask up into the International Space Station. When I came back, they invited me to Washington and they gave it back to me. It framed it and gave it back to me. And I understand now that it got put into a museum that hasn't come through yet, but mean these are things. This lady there that did that Washington thing, she told me that she's helping. You know, I'm so busy, it's hard for me to get back with everybody. 

Lia: Yeah.

Mae: Yeah, just there's so much traveling and all. And another one. I met another lady the same way, she's active in. And she said she'd helped me. She's a, I met her out in Cincinnati, so I got to get my act together. But like I said, I can't do all this myself. And, you know, I'm going on 98 years old and I have a I can't, you know, continue to do or like I did before, I still am still doing anything I can to raise money or promote.

Lia: Yes. 

Mae: This weekend I just spent the weekend out in Pittsburgh. We did a beautiful charity program, and it's so nice that they still wonder what few of us are left from World War Two.

Lia: Yes, Mae, you're, you're a powerful figure.

Mae: I don’t know about that. Like I said, I started this over 40 years ago. I had no idea where I was going. I would just write to anybody and everybody would listen to me. And one day the newspaper picked up on it just went viral. And I said to the editor, why, after all these years, did you finally do my story? And she says, well, every day so much information goes across our desk. Your story just happened to go across the day we needed a story like that. So, you know, luck plays a role, or you never know when you know how lucky you can get or just different things that happen. I was so proud of that because it went viral. And then from then on, I got a lot of help.

Lia: Yes, yes.

Mae: My biggest award is just getting the Rosie legacy to still happen. And it's now with our Congressional Gold Medal, Rosie will go down in history. I watched 911 the other day and watched this one woman just telling what fire, this fire woman. And she told why she lived and the other woman didn't. She said that it was her day to go in the tower, but the other one, there was some change in the schedule and she didn't. And she said she's so happy that they're doing this program because she figured when the page in history had turned, they'd be forgotten. And that's the way I feel about Rosie the Riveter. Now I know that we'll go down in history. I even know right now we're walking history, and soon we'll just be a page in history book, because there's very few of us that can still go there well enough to still go out and promote.

Lia: Well, that's why you've got little Rosies to follow in your footsteps.

Mae: That was so cute when I went out to this beautiful fair and we stayed at Tara. That was a beautiful building, made just like Gone with the Wind. It was gorgeous. And with these young girls, it's cute because my grandchildren make bracelets for me that say “Rosie the Riveter” or “Power Up” or, and so when these young girls come over, they don't not give them a break. We think of giving them a piece of gold or something. Because they want to be strong. And these Rosies. But these are our children. Oh, they're carrying on our legacy. Just wonderful. It is absolutely wonderful.

Lia: I wish more women would consider getting into skilled trades. It's women like you that help give women like me the confidence to work in skilled trade environments. What would you tell a young lady who's interested in getting into the skilled trades?

Mae: Well, that's really important, and I've gotten a lot of them. I didn't get them into the trade, but they were interested and we started talking about it. Just this past few weeks, I met the youngest, young girl. She's a welder that makes catalytic converters. And I said, I said, Heather, what got you into welding? I just liked it. And I said, did you have any trouble? And he said, no, no, men are pretty fine and she's a good welder. Last time I went out with her, she brings her hood, and she's got a Rosie the Riveter painted on it, and she had me sign it, and she's so happy with what she's doing. She loves her job. My granddaughter can plumb. She is married to a doctor and she's got a John Deere tractor. Huge. Then you get plumbing in her house she built. She loves, she's like me. She can’t sit still. And she did everything to interest and care. That doesn't mean anything, she just loves to do things. And it's amazing what women can do. And then you just don't say you can't do it if you don't try it and the people think, well, that's a man's job, that's not the case anymore. Unless it's physical, then we wouldn't compete with the men, unless it’s physical. But one of the programs I loved is, the CEO from Boeing, called me and went on down with the Senator Casey and our Congressman, Ryan Fitzpatrick. We had a Stem with, with eight schools and 100 students. It was engineering week, and that was the week that the astronaut and women astronauts were looking for more girls to join the NASA.

Lia: Oh wow.

Mae: That was perfect for me because I got to talk to the young girls. I said, if you're interested in this space, you need an engineering degree. But this is the perfect time. They're looking for young girls and what a better. This can, of course, I love the space program, so I can't imagine a young girl not being interested or wanting, but nursing. I just love these women that go into nursing. When we, we were lucky enough to come home on the Queen Mary Two, when we did one program and we had two nurses from Vietnam. 

Lia: Wow. 

Mae: What a wonderful story it was. What to hear them and tell them. I said they think the men, their men are in the trenches. But imagine these two nurses, how many young men they held in their arms and watched them die and said they had? No, they don't publicize what these nurses do, what the nurses go through. And I just think that's amazing. I'd love to get older, more nurses, nurses of all, look at what they did during the pandemic. I call them our modern Rosie the Riveters.

Lia: Oh, I love that. I absolutely love that. And you worked with POW too, prisoners of war, right?

Mae: Right. Italian prisoners of war. Well, no. Normally my husband, we met on the dance floor in 1945. We could dance. We were jitterbugs. We just became real good friends. In 1945, he was transferred. Well, we found out we liked each other more than we thought we would. Or did. We were married just eight days after Roosevelt died. And of course, then I went with him, which was, he was stationed in Pasco, Washington, which is Naval Air Station. And there they had to I had to, I went to work for the Army engineers for the last few months of the war, and they had an Italian prisoner of war base on the compound, and they used to come in and work with us. Now we're working, we're with, with the engineers, and now they're sending up products overseas. You know, we destroyed so much stuff. So now we're over there for reconstruction. And at that time, we sent everything that had to be in a wooden box, that we didn't have any lightweight material at that time, no packing material. Everything was pretty. So these Italian prisoners of war come in and help us lift new, different things, whatever we needed. And we just had so much fun with them. Some of them could speak, none of them could speak English, but some interpret, interpret for each other. And we just, a kid and and they thought us American women were so fresh. Yeah, but it was our turn to get back.

Lia: Yeah. There you go. There you go.

Mae: Very interesting. I often wished I'd stayed in touch with them. Found out when they went on. You know, they're just human beings like us. They want that war to be over so they can go home to their families. It was no different than us. And I just think that how cruel they were to our people and all the people in the world over what, what Hitler did us for people who said because we treated them well, the Italians weren't the only, there was Germans too. Maybe others, I'm not sure. But I just was involved with the Italian.

Lia: Right. Right. With all your life experience, with all of your accomplishments, what's something that you've held with you every step of the way? I mean, to put 42 years into something, talk about commitment. Talk about resilience. That is so amazing. Empowering. Like it gives me goosebumps.

Mae: You know, Lia, it comes on so gradually you don't realize what to do. I just sit down and write to somebody. I'll hear something on the news or something. I sit down and write to them, and sometimes they're wonderful responses. Sometimes they'll just say thank for your duty, but they never quit. And it's amazing to each response I get, I'm still waiting to hear from Gary Sinise because I think he honors the veterans. And but, you know, we hear from these people. It's amazing. And these are the people. I just can't even begin to tell you how much fun I have. I've been invited to the Pentagon for many times. They even gave me my 93rd birthday in the Pentagon.

Lia: That's fantastic. Talk about a birthday! 

Mae: And it was so nice because I hadn't met General Goldfine before and his wife was hosting it, and she told me he wouldn't be there that day because the other, other commitments and they're cutting the cake. And I turned around his general stand right behind me. I just turned around and hugged him and said, I've never hugged a general before. And he started laughing. He said, I've never hugged a Rosie the Riveter before. I'm impulsive, but it's funny. These are the things that are so enjoyable and the Air Force has been absolutely wonderful to me. They invited me down to the Patrick Air Force Base for the symposium. I didn't even know what a symposium was, and it was so funny, I read the, the what was going to take place, and here was generals and doctors, and here I am at the bottom of the, oh my God, what am I doing here? What a place. It turned out beautiful. And then before we were over, they give us a free a three hour tour of Cape Canaveral. I got to see the rocket launch from as close as we could get. I got to go to Kennedy Space Center for a gala event. You know, these are the things you don't get if you stay at home in your old rocking chair.

Lia: Yeah, that's for sure. That's for sure.

Mae: If you can just get open the door, let them know what you know. Of course. Naturally, the Air Force wasn't me making airplanes during World War two. They took me right under their wing. They flew me out to Salt Lake City a couple of years ago and gave me a lifetime achievement award. And now I've been invited to Saint Louis in March of next year already. And I said, at this age of my life, I worry about next week, not next year.

Lia: Mae, you seem to have tons of energy and you're full of life.

Mae: Even this week at the Tara, no, Pittsburgh. It's Mercer, Pennsylvania, but I flew into Pittsburgh. But that was so nice. It was a big charity affair for TV owner Doug Differ charities, but she always has some of us from World War Two, and we just have so much fun together. I mean, it's a nice balance because they're young and old. And I always say to the younger people, listen to the veterans, listen to their stories, they’re walking history. Soon they'll just be a page in the history book. There's nothing better than to sit down and listen to somebody who's been there and done that. And I think that's so important for the young people to just listen, because this freedom didn't come without a lot of sacrifice.

Lia: Yes, yes, absolutely. That's a great message.

Mae: We had no idea. So young people, average person, had no idea that we were in danger before the war. My sister and I had been it was a Sunday. My sister and I had been to a matinee and when we came home, our parents were sitting by the radio, very upset, and we said, what had happened. They said Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor, and I was a teenager. And I stood there and I kept thinking, I'm not sure I know where Pearl Harbor is. And I thought that was unusual. But as I've talked to many of the veterans, they all say the same thing. You know, we weren't sophisticated about the rest of the world. We were pretty naive, never thinking that this could happen to us. But when it did, every man, woman and child dropped everything they were doing to save our country. And it wasn't my job or your job. It was our job.

Lia: Yeah, yeah. Wow. Mae, I can't, I can't thank you enough for being here. Is there anything that you would like to leave us with?

Mae: I just want to say to you women, us Rosies are just so proud of you women, young girls. You know, like I said, we handed you the ball. You're the ones who are doing it. And I'm just, when I hear what you've been doing with your lives, it just makes me so happy you have to do it. I mean, we can do it for you. But like I said, all we did was open the doors. And what you've done is amazing. And I want you to keep doing it. I want you to train your daughters and the young girls what they're capable of. They don't know their capability and it's so cute to watch them. They're intimidated at that age, you know, they think, well, he's a boy. He can do better. That's not the case at all. And like I said, you got to use it. 

Lia: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mae. This was absolutely amazing, wonderful. I'm so, so thankful for you to be here with me.

Mae: And if you have any way of helping with this statue in Washington, that's what I would like to see it before I meet my maker. But I doubt that. But anyway, it was, this was put in there some time or another.

Lia: I will do everything within my power and reach out to my community and post, maybe we can do a fundraiser to get some attention.

Mae: We just need to get, get somebody to open your eyes, tell us how we can go about doing it more for more than anything else. And Lia, you're such a nice person.

Lia: Oh, thank you, Mae. I think the world of you, you, you're you're like a personal hero to me. So I'm so grateful to have met you and been able to speak with you. Thank you. Thank you again. This means so much to me.

Mae: Well I enjoyed doing this too. Because like I said, I'm never going to quit working to make sure that Rosie the Riveter gets her fair share of publicity for World War Two.

Lia: Yes, yes, I am with you 100%. I am with you.

Mae: That's right. Great. And thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.

Lia: Thank you for joining us. If you felt a spark in today's episode, I invite you to write a review.  I'd love to hear what lit you up. Take what resonates with you, and if you’d like to hear more of the Sparky Life, please subscribe, like, follow and share. Until next time, create the sparks in your life.