Kay Starkey

Kay Starkey aided with the war effort during World War II.

In this interview, she discusses collecting Sage Apples, which maintained a key component of life vests that all branches of the US military used. She also speaks about rationing.

Collecting Sage Apples for Life Vests

We had used to pick up something called sage apples and they had kapok in them and that was used for the military for life vests. When we went out to Morgnec [Road] to the farm there was an area along there where we would search for them and I’ve seen them down here on Erie Hill Road. There still some of them around and they say that they were a good thing with crickets, that people would put baskets of them on the hearth. I’ve never tried that, but we used to collect that for sumac so they could get the material. Must have taken a lot of them to make a life vest but that was what that was for.
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