WWII was a different era; ladies wore gloves and hats to luncheon, church or shopping. Military wives followed their husbands to each new post, creating homes from ugly rented rooms. Their lives were marked with courage, humor, tragedy and the determination to help win the war. Everything from a chocolate cake that might have been a secret weapon to discovering their German maid danced for Adolph Hitler was recorded in short story form by Mary Belle during the war and afterward.