DISHPAN HANDS
RUSTY AND MARIE CLEMONS ON THEIR WEDDING DAY, JULY 20 1946.
After Hours — AVERY PARRISH, 1940
Love can make a person do unexpected things. For Rusty Clemons, it motivated him to wash dishes at his brother’s restaurant. It wasn’t brotherly love that compelled this act of service—it was a pretty waitress named Marie who caught his eye. One night when the dishwasher didn’t show up, Marie offered to pitch in and scrub pots and pans. Rusty quickly volunteered to help her. “I went over to the restaurant a lot to just hang around,” Rusty recalled. “I was footloose, you know.”
It had been awhile since the 25-year-old young man felt footloose. He’d grown up in tiny Rice, Washington, and times were tough. “I quit high school in my junior year,” he said. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1940. “I fought fires and dug ditches for $30 a month and 25 of that went home to the folks.”
By August of 1942, Rusty had a new boss. “I got drafted into the Army,” he said. He joined a group of other young men, all from small surrounding towns, on a bus that took them to the city. “Some of the guys were loggers, still wearing their boots,” he said. Assigned to the 551st Signal Battalion, he shipped out from Catalina with 4,000 other soldiers aboard the USS Wharton.
USS WHARTON
After 30 days at sea, Rusty arrived at his home for the next 15 months—Bougainville Island.
Though the island was in sight, they weren’t allowed off the ship because a beachhead hadn’t yet been established. “We were out there like sitting ducks for several days.” But eventually, with their feet on dry land, the soldiers quickly set up a tent base and dug latrines. Those latrines played a pivotal role in a practical joke played on Rusty.
The facilities consisted of a board with seats cut out, perched over newly dug trenches. Swathes of mosquito netting dangled from the roof, making up the walls and a door. One night as Rusty used the latrine, his buddies snuck around in the jungle behind him. One of them grabbed a stick and poked at Rusty’s back through the netting. Rusty was sure what he felt was the sharp end of a Japanese bayonet. “I was through the netting and back to camp in seconds,” he said. And there he found his buddies grabbing their sides and rolling on the ground with laughter.
RUSTY CLEMONS, BOUGAINVILLE, 1944.
RUSTY WITH HIS WEAPON, BOUGAINVILLE, 1944.
His fear, however, was justified. The Japanese-occupied island quickly became a focal point for Allied forces. “We set up radar to keep an eye on enemy planes and to help our own planes go on their missions,” Rusty recalled. “Our radar was going 24/7.” Even so, he said the biggest enemy he faced was jungle rot and malaria, though the malaria didn’t hit him until he’d returned to the States.
RUSTY’S HOME FOR 15 MONTHS, BOUGAINVILLE, 1944.
Due to the urgency of their mission, the troops didn’t get time off for extended rest and recreation. However, they did enjoy USO shows with Bob Hope and Jack Benny. Rusty said, “It was a nice break.”
From Bougainville, his group went to the Philippines and finally, in December 1945, Rusty had earned enough points return home. “I was gone from home 42 months.” Though none of his family knew when he’d return, the first person he saw when he got off the bus in his hometown was his brother, Clem. “I couldn’t believe it!” Rusty said. Clem showed Rusty the restaurant he’d purchased, and that’s where Marie caught his eye.
“I was in high school and waited on tables in the evening,” Marie said. She liked Rusty’s friendly manner, but his wavy blond hair really attracted her. “Boy, I wanted to run my fingers through it!” she said. The night her suitor offered to help wash dishes proved pivotal. “We got to holding hands,” Rusty said. “I don’t know whether it was during the wash or rinse cycle.”
With the dishes finished, he offered to walk Marie home. “I fell pretty hard for her,” he said, and he’s not kidding. It was a bitterly cold January evening. “I went to kiss her good night and we both slipped on the ice and fell down.” He shrugged. “I thought it was a good start.”
Seeing Marie home became a regular part of Rusty’s routine. The night policeman took a liking to the couple and often gave them a ride. Marie worried her parents wouldn’t like Rusty because of their seven-year age difference, but her parents quickly accepted him.
“He didn’t seem older,” she said. “But oh man, I just fell in love with him.”
For his part, Rusty said, “I thought she was a cute little trick, but I really didn’t have marriage in mind when I met her.”
He’s still not quite sure what happened—but on July 20, 1946, he married that cute waitress, having sold his prized 1939 Dodge to afford a wife. “I think she might have applied the pressure,” he teased. “Because the next thing I knew, there I was at the church!”
Marie just laughed. “Well, I didn’t want him to get away!”
Finding steady employment proved difficult. Rusty worked at a service station and drove truck for the County Road Department and later for a local mining company.
In May 1947, Marie gave birth to their first child, Jim. “I was too young to have kids,” Marie said, shaking her head. “What was I thinking?” The couple laughed as they recalled their rocky adjustment to parenthood. One night the baby woke and Marie asked Rusty to warm a bottle for him. “While the bottle was warming, I fell asleep on the couch,” he said. The bottle warmer boiled dry, the bottle shattered, and the baby was screaming when Marie got up to investigate.
“There was some debate as to whether I could stay around or not,” said Rusty, shooting his wife a quick grin. “It took me awhile to get back in her good graces.”
Marie shook her head. “I could have killed him!”
Their family grew with the birth of Janet in 1948 and Jerry in 1951. “My folks helped out with the babies,” Marie said. “Thank goodness!”
In 1958 they moved to the home they still live in when Rusty took a job driving truck for the Nehi Beverage Company. Unfortunately, Nehi soon cancelled the route and Rusty was out of a job. “I took what work I could get,” he said. “I dug ditches, delivered packages …” Finally, Rusty got a job at an upscale hotel in the maintenance department, where he worked for 16 years before moving on to a position at the County Courthouse.
As for Marie, she likes to say she went back to school—she became a cook for a local school district in 1960. She enjoyed her work, but after 18 years on the job, she found the kitchen innovations unpalatable. “When I started, we peeled our own potatoes and cleaned our own birds,” she said. “Things changed so much. It was all prepackaged mixes and foods—I couldn’t stand it.”
Upon retirement the couple indulged in their favorite pastime. “We loved to camp,” Marie said. “When we first started camping it meant taking the bedding off the beds and the pans out of the cupboard. We eventually bought a motor home to go visit the kids.”
They say their 68 years of marriage has gone by in a blur. Rusty still shakes his head when he recalls the night they washed dishes together in his brother’s restaurant. “I don’t have a clue why I did that! I never did like to wash dishes.”
Marie smiled at him from across their table. “I couldn’t have a better husband,” she said. “Every day, even now, is precious.”
“The best advice I can give, is look for someone patient and understanding.”
—Marie Clemons
RUSTY AND MARIE, 2011.