Harriet Augusta Frye

Harriet Augusta Reid was born November 20. 1922 to Harry Benjamin and Minnie Nelson Reid in Vicksburg, MS.  Fifteen months later a brother James Malcolm was added to the family.  When Harriet tried to say baby it sounded like Bebe thus she was nicknamed Bebe, and still goes by that name with some of the cousins and her email address.  When she was 3 years old the family moved to Mobile, AI where they lived in an apartment in her grandparents house. She started to school at Old Shell Road Elementary School. She had to walk the mile to school.  She finished 6th grade there. The 6th grade classes in Mobile joined together and sang a Cantata Hiawatha at the Murphy High school. She delivered bread for her mother for 10 cents a week, and sold penny candy with her brother to neighborhood children. There was a big old Oak tree in the back yard that they climbed, a swing, a miniature golf course made by her father, and other games played with friends. In 1934 the family moved to Washington, D. C, when her father got a job at the Government Printing Office.  They enjoyed seeing the sights on weekends.  Going up in the Washington Monument and other Memorials was a great experience.They also showed the sights to friends who came from out of town to visit. She went to Langley Jr. High School where she made new friends and started new subjects of leaning.  After living in an apartment on M St., N W they moved to an apartment on Orren St., N. E.  They attended the Calvary Baptist Church when they first came to Washington. Since it was further to go into town Elizabeth Wolfe a neighbor, invited her to Maryland Ave. Baptist Church where joined Mary Kay's SS class.  She accepted Christ as her Savior after hearing Pastor Emmans preaching about being saved.  She was baptized on March 28, 1937. Several, summers they went to Mobile on vacation when the family purchased a 1935 Plymouth, as both sets of grandparents lived there.  She went to McKinley Tech High School after completing 9th grade.  Since they lived out of the school boundaries, she had to take Home Ec every semester.  She either walked to school or rode the street car for a 3 cent student ticket. She made friends with Margie McQuary and Edna Swann in Jr. High thru high school.  She was awarded some books as the Home Ec student of the year, and some brass candle sticks from the home Ec Club when she graduated.     While in high school she was in the Girls’ Sports club and the Girls Rifle Club. Since she was 17 when she graduated there weren't many jobs open to her. When Virginia Frye, her friend from SS graduated in 1939 she invited her to her graduation at MD Park high School. She went by street car to Seat Pleasant where a friend of Virginia's took her to the Lacy farm. They had supper and then Virginia's brother drove them to the school for the graduation.  After the graduation they went back to the farm for homemade ice cream and cake.  Virginia's brother Lawrence drove his sister Irene to where she lived and then Harriet into D.C.   Since neither of them had a phone Lawrence drove into D C with Virginia and some friends   to ask Harriet for a date.  They played night tennis near where they were building the Jefferson Memorial near the Tidal basin on July 13, 1939.  They continued to date that year and both had telephones installed during the year. Since she only had 3 tickets to her graduation Lawrence was the only one other than her parents who came. After graduation they went into D C. to O’Donnell’s Seafood restaurant. She started to work At Kresge’s 5 and 10 cent store, part time for 40 cents an hour.   In the Fall she attended Strayer's Business College at night. She took shorthand and typing since Accounting wasn't open to girls at that time.  After a year she stopped going and went to the Stenotype Institute.   She took a Civil Service Exam in 1941.  On Dec 7, 1941 she had a call to go to the Civil Service Building the next day.  After a day of waiting she got an assignment to the Quarter Master General's Office of the Army at the Railroad Retirement Bldg.  After working in the files she was assigned to the Classifying Desk.  In March 1942 she was sent to the Munitions Building, where the Transportation Corps was separated from the  Quartermaster Corps.  Col Minger, Paul White and Harriet started the Mail room. Later others were transferred, but since Harriet was there from the beginning she was given a grade 4 job. In 1942 the Pentagon opened some offices and they were transferred to a new office.  She took 2 street cars and a bus to work. She was supervisor of the file clerks and a reviser of General Files. The recreation Department had a Bowling League and other forms of recreation.  She became friends with Margie Bodine and Harriett Chilton. Lawrence had gone in the Army in April 1942 when we became engaged. They wrote each other every day for 3 and a half years. One day the Rec office called her to go to the Monument where she was taken in an Army car. There were displays from different Army Divisions. Since she represented the Transportation Corps she had her picture taken on a train locomotive and in General Pershing's car from World War 1.  It was printed in the War Department’s paper.  Others had their pictures with Bazooka’s and other equipment. Margie Bodine had heard that women were enlisting in the Marine Corps.  There were already WACs, Waves and Spars. She and Harriet went to their supervisor and told her they wanted to enlist, but that they had to get a release from their jobs. At first she turned them down. Then she couldn't let Margie go without letting Harriet go.  They went to the Recruiting Office in D C. and enlisted.  They had a physical exam and were sworn in. Margie went home to New York to wait for orders to boot camp, so she was called to active duty 2 weeks after  went on October 5, 1943.  I was sent by train to Jacksonville, N.C. in a sleeper car. Then we were taken by bus to Camp LaJejune, where I was in boot camp for 6 weeks.  We learned to march, had classes to introduce us to Military life, we lived in barracks, were measured for uniforms, and had physical exercises.   We couldn't go to the P X or movies during this time. We could go to Chapel on Sunday, but we had to march. We marched everywhere, to meals, to classes etc. I was disappointed when I was sent to Henderson Hall in Arlington, Va., as I had requested Quantico or Calif.                                                                                                                                                                     Working at Headquarters had its advantages, as we were promoted quicker.  I made Corporal in 2 months and Sargent in 6 months. I had 89 roommates and we got along remarkably well. We had free movies in the Rec Hall, were transported to dances, at different bases in the area, took tap dancing classes, and had rifle practice.  Later they built a bowling alley and a swimming pool for us on the compound. We marched thru Arlington Cemetery to Ft. Myer for our First Anniversary of the Marine Corps Women's Reserve on Feb 13, 1944. We marched back after the ceremony   and had a good dinner in the mess hall. The food was mostly good, but a little heavy for a regular diet.I went to Mobile, AI on my first furlough and took a boat trip down the Potomac to Norfolk and then to Virginia Beach for the next year.Lawrence came home in Sept 1945 when the war ended.  We planned a wedding for October 20, 1945.  Virginia was my maid of honor and 4 Marines were our ushers.  Gilbert Donn was Lawrence's best man.  We went to Philadelphia for a weekend honeymoon as I didn't have any leave. We were both discharged within a week of each other. I was discharged on Nov 8, 1945.  We took a trip to Florida by car visiting different places and just getting to know each. Lawrence had been away 3 ½ years.Lawrence went to work at Enright’s on a G I apprenticeship in air conditioning. After that didn't work out he went to work for Penn Flower Shop.Lawrence Addington, Frye, Jr. was born Feb 6, 1948. We moved into a house in Seat Pleasant, we bought in October 1948. We bought Spicer’s Flower Shop for $2,000 and renamed it Frye's Flower Shop.  A daughter Marilyn Lorraine Frye was born October 1, 1949. Another daughter Harriet Jeanne Frye was born March 2, 1954.  We bought a larger home on Finns Lane and moved there in Oct 1957. We bought a house on Landover Rd. in Cheverly and had it remodeled. After we had the house remodeled we; moved the shop October 1963.  I did the billing, bookkeeping and helped in the store at holidays and when I was needed. I substituted in the Prince Georges County schools in 1960-1966. I volunteered between 1987 and 1994.  I was a Den Mother in Seat Pleasant and Lanham. I worked in Brownies and Girl Scouts as well as organizer of new troops. I taught VBS at MD Ave and First Baptist, Sunday school teacher, Principal of V BS, Sunday School Supt., on Board of Deaconess, member of Missionary Soc., adult SS teacher at United Baptist and Prayer Chain chairman. We had 8 grandchildren between 1978 and 1989. Jennifer Hamma, Stacy Frye, Crystal Williams, Stephen Frye, David Hamma, Candice Williams, Julie Hamma, and Charles Williams.We had 11 great grandchildren between 1998 and 2011.  Jacob Hamma, Luke Hamma, Justin Taylor, Elise Hamma, Rockey Jewell, Caleb Rahl, Abram Jewell,  Alena Hamma, lzzabelle Taylor, John Wayne Williams, and Lacie Rah. Since then we added Grant Hamma and Christian Frye  and when Crystal married we welcomed Stephany,Katherine and Emily Palmer into our family. We went on several nice trips, taking Virginia with us to Nags Head N. C. and Nova Scotia. We went to Ill and Calif when Larry was  in the Air Force.  We went to Niagara Falls, Boston, Cape Cod, Virginia Beach, Myrtle Beach, Alabama, and Mississippi. We took a cruise to Bermuda from New York.In 2006 Jeannie, Crystal and I flew to Denmark and then to London.  In London we saw the changing of the guard and saw castles, London Bridge, Big Ben, Sherlock Holmes house, rode a double-decker tour bus, ate at Sherlock Holmes Pub.  It was hot and the hotels weren't air conditioned.  We couldn't even buy a fan. We flew to Stockholm where we took a tour by bus and boat.   We rented a car and drove to Lund and Malmo.  We visited the House of Immigration, saw some boats go thru some locks and visited several chapels, and found the graves of my great grandmother and great grandfather  in one chapel cemetery. We visited a Cathedral in Lund where my grandmother and  great grandmother were baptized as babies. We also visited a museum in Malmo, and went to the beach.  We drove across a bridge to Denmark, where we took the plane to Dulles.