Local Author Book Signing at the Blue Bunny Bookstore

A book release and signing event will be held on Friday, March 8 from 6:00-7:00 at the Blue Bunny Bookstore, 577 High Street, where Jim Parr, Jim Parr is a 1977 graduate of Dedham High, and a retired Framingham teacher, works part-time as a bookseller. His new book is entitled World War II Massachusetts.

When Dedham native Jim Parr told friends he was writing a non-fiction book about World War II, most responded with “ Oh, my father served in Europe,” or the Pacific, or some other theater of the war. Parr would then tell them that this book wasn’t really about the fathers and grandfathers who served in the military, but rather about the mothers, grandmothers, children and even pets who did their part in the war effort across the state. World War II Massachusetts is a collection of stories describing the struggles and sacrifices on the home front beginning months before Pearl Harbor and continuing for several years after the war’s end.

“There are so many amazing stories from this period, some well known but many lost to time,” Parr says. “It’s really satisfying to gather them all in one place so readers can get a feel for what it was like here during the war.”

Those stories describe ordinary citizens dealing with rationing and shortages (butter, sugar, rubber, even sliced bread), blackouts, air raid warnings and other inconveniences; often while worrying and waiting for news from loved ones serving across the globe.

“It was a total team effort,” continues Parr. Adults volunteered as air raid wardens, plane spotters, auxiliary police and fire personnel. Children contributed by collecting scrap metal and rubber, and at one point late in the war, milkweed pods, to be used in life preservers. There was even a program called Dogs for Defense that recruited beloved pooches for duty at stateside military installations as well as foreign battlefields. “Bessie,” a German Shepherd belonging to the Ford family of Dedham, was one such volunteer who served In Nebraska for several years before returning home.

No story of the Bay State during World War II would be complete without mentioning the many Army and Navy facilities that operated here. Thousands of soldiers were trained at bases such as Camp Edwards on Cape Cod, Fort Devens in Ayer, and Camp Myles Standish in Taunton. Factories converted to wartime production, and ships were built and serviced at shipyards in Quincy, Hingham and Boston. Many of these locations employed civilians, including the author's mother, aunt and grandfather, all of whom worked at the Boston Naval Shipyard.

Parr’s research took him across the state to museums, historical sites, and abandoned military facilities, and revealed many surprises and a few mysteries along the way. Tales of escaped Prisoners of War, under-appreciated Massachusetts heroes, the unexpected role of horses, and a mystery surrounding a weeks-old baby on V-E (Victory-Europe) Day in Boston are just the type of quirky details Parr has included in his three previous local histories, including Dedham: Historic and Heroic Tales of Shiretown, all published by The History Press. The book contains 70 images, many never before published.