The draft board's call came at a bad time for 42-year-old Franklin Waite of Painesville, Ohio. He had bought a lot, stacked it with lumber; he was just ready to start buildingin his spare timea home for his wife and daughter. Now the house would have to wait until after the war.
But Draftee Waite, a war-plant guard, reckoned without the men he worked with. At quitting time they bustled out to Waite's lot at the edge of town, hammered away through the twilight, strung up a makeshift electric light, kept hammering long after dark.
For five straight nights they worked: 50 carpenters,...