The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion

At the New Castle Army Air Base in Wilmington, Delaware, Fritzi describes to Billy in a letter how she doesn’t think her sister Sophie should join the WASPs because she won’t like their lifestyle. Fritzi herself has been busy making deliveries. 

She also relays how some people don’t understand that she and other women pilots work for the military, mistaking them for Girl Scout leaders or Red Cross volunteers. One restaurant refused to serve them because they were wearing pants and not skirts. On another occasion, a group of WASPs were stopped when they landed at an airbase in Georgia because the military police thought they’d stolen a US military plane. They hadn’t heard of the government’s WASP initiative.

In a letter, Fritzi explains to Sophie that she shouldn’t join the WASPs because it is so strict, and conditions can be rough. It is hard work, often requiring that they fly in stormy weather and get up at dawn. There are also many men that she worries may take advantage of Sophie’s soft nature. She and Gertrude are tougher. She closes by saying that she loves her sister.

Sophie decides to join the WASPs, thinking she can handle all of the challenges Fritzi described. Linka reluctantly gives her blessing, saying that the war has taken so many of her children.

Five days later, Sophie arrives in Sweetwater, and Gertrude awaits her, even though, with Sophie’s arrival, she knows she’ll have to start going to church on Sundays again.

Despite the fact that the late-night news typically upsets Lenore, she starts watching it again. She calls Netta at 6:18 am and suggests that democracy is no longer functioning in American society. She’s considering declaring herself mayor.

Three minutes later, Netta calls Sookie and warns her about Lenore’s idea. Sookie goes over to Lenore’s house. She fears that her mother’s actions will warrant a lawsuit.

Later, Sookie thinks about how busy Thanksgiving is going to be. She will cook, since Lenore refuses to go to North Carolina. However, Sookie doesn’t want to make stuffing from scratch, and she resolves to order it, even if her mother complains.

Fritzi writes a letter to Billy and describes how she managed to land in New Jersey despite the bad weather. Two other men tried and flipped their planes. A third ran into a fence. However, with the weather so terrible, she and her friend were stuck in New Jersey, so they went to see a Broadway show.

Fritzi writes to Wink and describes how she stopped off at Avenger Field in Texas. She saw Sophie and Gertrude. Her mechanic friend also commented on how she and her sisters are always able to tell what’s wrong with an engine even before the mechanics look at it. The news also ran a story about their family, since there are now four flying Jurdabralinskis working for the US government.

In a letter to Billy, Fritzi talks about the new B-29 plane that has some engine problems. A lot of men are afraid to fly it, so a lieutenant colonial secretly trained women to do it. When men saw this, they agreed to get over their concerns.

At Thanksgiving, Lenore insists on using the Simmons family silver. However, she doesn’t notice that Sookie ordered stuffing from a restaurant. After dinner, Sookie takes a walk with her brother Buck and asks if he knew she was adopted. He says that he found out in high school when their father told him. Their dad gave him a letter in case anyone asked about Sookie’s birth certificate. Lenore had a fake one made in Mexico, and it lists Lenore as her mother. Their father had written a letter confessing to having the birth certificate made since it was done illegally, just in case anyone tried to arrest Lenore. Buck also says it doesn’t matter that Sookie was adopted since she’s always been his sister.

The next morning, Buck’s wife says she’s impressed Buck kept a secret for so long. She didn’t even know. Sookie is amazed at how coincidental it is that she ended up being Lenore’s daughter and Buck’s sister. Lenore could’ve easily adopted someone else. She guesses it was just supposed to work out this way.

A few days later, Buck sends along the confession letter from their father.

It is July 1945, and Lenore Simmons is in Brownsville, Texas. She’s been married for 11 years and hasn’t been able to have a child. She feels embarrassed that the rest of her friends have children, but she doesn’t. When her housekeeper suggests going to Dallas to an orphanage, she does.

After visiting with toddlers, Lenore specifically asks to see a baby girl. One of the staff members says that there is only one, but there’s another couple already interested. Lenore insists that they see her in case the other couple changes their mind. When Lenore cradles the baby, she comments that she seems to look just like her. It is love at first sight.

In 1945, Alton is furious at Lenore for having a fake birth certificate made since he’s an officer in the army. Lenore emphasizes how important it is to her that Sarah Jane “Sookie” Krackenberry have some documentation of being a Simmons. Lenore thinks that because Sookie’s birth certificate does not list a father, it will hinder her in life. Alton finally gives up his campaign to have the certificate destroyed.

They arrive home two months later. Sookie seems large for a two-month baby, but it’s because Lenore insisted on making her birthday the day she was adopted, even though Sookie is already nine months old. A year later, Lenore is surprised to be pregnant with Buck.

Lenore’s family also has a history of lying about parental circumstances. Her father and grandmother lied to her about her mother, who had not died in childbirth but who had left when Lenore was five.

In Scott Field, Illinois, in 1944, Fritzi writes to Billy and recounts a night out with her friends. She doesn’t tell him that she ran into Joe O’Connor, whom she’d known in Pulaski, and that she’d slept with him.

Fritzi starts delivering the P-47 to other US air bases. It is the heaviest plane that WASPs fly, but the cockpit can only hold one pilot. It quickly becomes her favorite to fly.

She meets a lot of men, and so does her friend Willy. However, Fritzi doesn’t want to have any more one-night stands, and Willy is engaged. Romance follows her, though, and she arrives back in Long Beach to three letters from her sister Tula and one from her mother.

Fritzi apologizes for not writing Billy in a while. In the same letter, she recounts how Gertrude’s fiancé visits the Jurdabralinskis on leave from the army and falls in love with Tula. They want to get married. Fritzi delivers the news to Gertrude, who is thrilled because she had already fallen out of love with Nard. Sophie is also in love with a British pilot.

Fritzi herself has been delivering planes three or four times daily from San Francisco to Long Beach.

Sookie comes clean to Marvaleen that Dr. Shapiro is her psychiatrist. Marvaleen suggests doing yoga because early childhood trauma can manifest in stress on the body. Sookie starts to wonder if it would help.

She remembers being seven years old when her mother wrote, directed, and acted in a pageant she titled The Saga of the Simmons of Selma. Sookie was in it too and was terrified on stage. She had also done a beauty pageant.

She goes to a yoga class.

Fritzi writes to Wink, describing how big his son is getting. She also praises how hard Americans are working to support the troops abroad, specifically those working in factories to make planes.

In a letter to Billy, Fritzi recalls a scenic flight she took recently. She can’t imagine not flying. She’s been thinking about Billy, and she admits that while she used to not think about settling down, it’s been on her mind lately. She misses him.

Fritzi writes to her mother, sharing news of her sisters in Sweetwater. One was chosen to fly to tow target in Camp Davis, which means she’ll fly a plane and pull a target behind her for target practice. Only the best pilots were chosen.

Fritzi is going to Biloxi, Mississippi, and she asks Billy if he can meet her for a few days.

Sookie meets Dr. Shapiro at a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., but she flees into the restroom when she sees Pearl Jeff, one of her mother’s friends. Dr. Shapiro grows concerned and, not knowing who Pearl is, asks her to check the women’s restroom to see if Sookie is alright. He doesn’t say that it’s Sookie. Pearl goes in, but Sookie doesn’t respond.

After Pearl and her friends leave, Dr. Shapiro asks the waitress to go in, and she returns with a note from Sookie. It apologizes for her behavior and promises to explain next week.

Sookie waits for a while longer to come out in case Pearl is in the parking lot. She feels like she can’t get away from her mother in the small town.