Willow Run

1944 Meggie Dillon’s life has been turned upside down by World War II. Her older brother Eddie enlisted and was shipped off to fight in Europe. And people say that anywhere else Grandpa would be turned in because he’s German, and people might think he’s a spy. Is it true? Could Grandpa be taken away? Meggie’s father has announced that they must help the war effort and move to Willow Run, Michigan, where he’ll work nights in a factory building important war planes that will help fight the enemy in Europe. Willow Run will be the greatest adventure ever, Meggie thinks. There she meets Patches and Harlan, other kids like her whose parents have come here to do their part in the war. And there she faces questions about courage, and what it takes to go into battle, like Eddie, and how to keep hope alive on the home front.

The Story of Willow Run is a success story—the life history of a small community, the "Bomber City" that had sprung up in World War II. It tells what a group of returning veterans and their families did to make into a progressive, thriving settlement. Who are the people of Willow Run? What were their needs, their problems? How did they accept and meet the challenge of making a home town for themselves? Marion F. Wilson tells their story—a tribute to American pioneering courage. Today, Willow Run Village is growing into a permanent community, proud of its schools, its churches, playgrounds, shops, and homes—and, above all, its community spirit.

Before Franklin Roosevelt declared December 7 to be a “date which will live in infamy”; before American soldiers landed on D-Day; before the B-17s, B-24s, and B-29s roared over Europe and Asia, there was Willow Run. Located twenty-five miles west of Detroit, the bomber plant at Willow Run and the community that grew up around it attracted tens of thousands of workers from across the United States during World War II. Together, they helped build the nation’s “Arsenal of Democracy,” but Willow Run also became the site of repeated political conflicts over how to build suburbia while mobilizing for total war. In Planning the Home Front, Sarah Jo Peterson offers readers a portrait of the American people—industrialists and labor leaders, federal officials and municipal leaders, social reformers, industrial workers, and their families—that lays bare the foundations of community, the high costs of racism, and the tangled process of negotiation between New Deal visionaries and wartime planners. By tying the history of suburbanization to that of the home front, Peterson uncovers how the United States planned and built industrial regions in the pursuit of war, setting the stage for the suburban explosion that would change the American landscape when the war was won.

Born and raised in the city, Michaela always harbored an enthusiasm for farm life and horses, but zero knowledge of how cisterns operate, or how to successfully employ pasture management on farm land. Join her as she shares her adventure of farmification: acquiring a Boone County, Kentucky horse farm, and attempting to operate the hobby farm with no tractor and no truck, but with plenty of coaching from local friends, and a forgiving sense of humor.

Part 41, focuses on Navy fuel purchase contracts for Saudi Arabian oil and businesses' use of institutional advertising for tax exemptions during and after the war.