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Personal
View of Hope N. Anderson
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In the fall of
1944 I was in need of employment and the Weather Bureau needed weather
observers. So when my husband's former MIC at Lander, Wyoming, contacted
me and offered me the job, I began working at Lander as a wartime
emergency observer.
I was a high school graduate. My background experience
included being a sales clerk for Montgomery Ward, and being the wife
of a weather observer. The Weather Bureau provided on-the job training
which consisted of personal instruction by the MIC. After six months
I started RAOBs. I was the first trainee to work up a RAOB. The morale
on station was very high. I received a very friendly welcome from
my coworkers. My first impressions were that the Weather Bureau provided
important services to the public and was a good place to work. There
were two other women at the station at first, then four other women
and three men. At first my duties included taking 3-hourly observations,
and I worked mostly nights - 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. (I worked for one hour
every three hours taking the 3-hourly observations.) After six months
I started Radiosonde observations (RAOBs) and worked rotating shifts.
When RAOBs started I worked eight hours each day, five days a week.Transmitting
weather information over teletype circuits
I left the Weather Bureau in February 1944, when
my husband returned from military service and took over my job. Working
there had been pleasant work. Would I do it again? Yes, I liked the
MIC, he was a good "boss." I liked the friendly, small town atmosphere
and its recreation, especially the ice-skating in the winter. I feel
that my major contributions were accurate and dependable weather observations,
at all hours, day or night. One of the high points of my career had
been taking my first RAOB.
In April of 1945 Lander had a record-breaking snow
storm and I had to walk to work four blocks in snow up to my waist
... walked in the middle of the street where a horse had walked ...no
one else had been down the street that morning.
