“Well Girls”, said Grandma, as she came into the factory with a piping hot asparagus frittata. “We just got another order for fringe for the USO costumes. Things are really humming at the old fringe factory now that the War is dragging on! This is the fifth order this month!  April 1942 is going to be a good month for us!”  Grandma paused as she hunted in the drawer for forks and then looked at the glum faces of the girls.  “Why the long faces?  We can keep working at this pace, with all of us here!”

“That’s just the problem” said Tia.  “Maria’s gone! She moved west! When we woke up this morning, we found this note. She left us with all our fringe hanging out to dry.”

“What? “ Hollered Grandma, waking Grandpa Giovanni from his nap, “Let me see that note!” As she fished her glasses out of her apron, she began to read.   “My Dearest Family, yesterday I got a telegram from President Roosevelt!  Remember when we watched Hemp for Victory? And sent him the note about the hemp we were raising for the Fringe Factory?  Our President needs us to help the farmers out in the West and Midwest to build our supply of industrial hemp to replace the supply we usually get from Manilla.  The president wants to nearly double domestic production of seed hemp. Because the Factory is so busy now with the war effort, I knew that we could only send one of us to help with this project, so I volunteered myself.  I will write when I am settled.  I am heading for Wisconsin now, but I hear that the western states like North Dakota and Idaho are considering hemp too!  Love and Kisses, Maria.”

“Why that cheeky young girl” growled Grandpa.  “She knows I would have volunteered to go if she had told us all about it.”  “Maybe that’s why she just took off without letting anyone know,” nodded Grandma wisely as she calmly cut the frittata.