Forbes, Kathyrn "Hurry-Up Charlie"

World War 2 short story set in a West Coast shipyard and focusing on the men who make up the graveyard shift of the marine paint department, charged with painting new Liberty and other ships as quickly and efficiently as possible. Forbes focuses on how elderly Charlie Brandon, not particularly skilled at any task, nonethless helps pull the graveyard team together to work as an efficient team. His refrain is “Hurry-up” (and his nickname, “Hurry-up Charlie”) and by tale’s end the reader has leaned that his three sons had been at Bataan, where one was killed. His surviving sons now being prisoners under the Japanese, old Charlie sees that their return home will be greatly “hurried up” through speedy, efficient U.S. wartime shipbuilding. San Francisco native Forbes is best-known for her novel Mama’s Bank Account, tuned into the warm-hearted Hollywood classic, “I Remember Mama.” Note that “Kathryn Forbes” was the pen name of Kathryn MacLean.