Not quite :)

Think more like the story told in the Warren Beatty movie Reds. Except rather than a reporter he was a mechanic.

Well that makes an interesting family convergence then.

My paternal grandfather was in his thirties in WWII and didn't get drafted, my maternal grandfather would have been in his twenties; you know it's odd now that I think about it, I never heard about his military service. I sort of assumed he would have been in the military, but he would have been a farmer with a wife and kids and might have gotten a dispensation, since I have no idea how the family would have survived.

In the early 40's my mom, as a little girl, lived on a rented farm with no running water, an outhouse (the owner was just cheap, my grandfather even offered to pay for running water and the guy said no) and wooden stoves for heat. So she tells stories of living that technologically are older than she is.