June 13th of ’32.
Were you born in Cherokee County?
No.
Were you born at home or in a hospital?
Home.
Were your parents and grandparents born in Cherokee County?
Yes.
What is your earliest memory?
First grade, walking to school in the 1st grade, wrapping up. That was fun, it really was.
What if it was raining?
I’d put on my rubber boots. I had rubber boots, a slicker suit, walked in the rain, wrapped my hair up, it was fun.
Where did you go to school?
How did you get to school?
Walked.
What did you wear to school?
Dresses, knee high socks, sometimes blue jeans but mostly dresses.
What did the classroom look like?
It’s been so long ago; it had a lot of windows, lot of windows in it. Something else I forgot about school--in the morning they would make you put your hands out, like this [holding hands out in front of her] and they would inspect your fingernails, see if they were clean, see if you come to school clean, sometimes they would even check your ears.
Did the school have air-conditioning?
No.
How was it heated in the winter?
It was a wood heater ‘cause I remember it in the corner.
What games did you play at recess?
Baseball, gym set, hopscotch, basketball, and baseball, out there in front of the school.
What did the first house you remember living in look like?
It was frame, 2-rooms.
Did you have electricity?
No.
Did you have chores and what kind?
Yeah, we had to do the laundry on a rubboard, get the water out of the branch or drag the water up, by a bucket, out of the well. We would put milk in the bucket to keep it cool. [We also had to] strip the beds and beat them beds with a broom.
Where did you go to shop for groceries or clothes?
Mostly we had home-made clothes, out of feed sacks.
What was your favorite thing to do as a child?
Make doll houses out of pine straw! We went to church in wagons, too.
What did your do for entertainment?
Radio, Country & Western Music!
What was your favorite radio show?
Grand Ole Opry on Saturday nights.
What did you do during the summer?
Work in the field and swept yards, and made dollhouses.
What was your first job and what did it pay?
Oh, I don’t know what it paid, I guess working at that candy factory, and I also raised tomatoes and sold them.
Did you go to movies?
After I got in high school.
What did it cost to get in the movies?
About 10¢ or 25¢
What movies were popular?
Westerns.
Who was your favorite movie star?
Oh boy, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans.
When did you first start datin’?
My junior year in High School.
Where’d you go on dates?
Skatin’, movies; we did go to the drive-in movies.
What do you remember about the Great Depression?
There were lots of men hitchhiking, traveling, hoboing, and trying to find work. I remember Daddy, he would bring ‘em home, and would feed ‘em, a lot of ‘em hadn’t had anything to eat in 2 or 3 days and he’d just bring ‘em home and feed ‘em. People had to help one another, people out of work, didn’t have anything to eat. CC Camps and WPA would [let men] work for about .50 to .75 cents a day.
What do you remember about World War II when you were young?
Well, I remember my uncle getting killed in the invasion of Sicily. Mother’s brother got killed, and they took him back to the hospital in North Africa and buried him in Genoa, Italy. My eighteenth birthday I spent in Genoa, Italy.
Do you remember when you first heard about Pearl Harbor?
It was a shock to everyone. Us younger ones didn’t know what to do, and we never dreamed of something like that a'happening. It was bad.
Do you remember war rations?
Rationing, Oh Lord yes! Sugar, gas, tires. You had to get a permit to get tires.
What do you remember most about the 50’s?
Well, we got married. That was a happy year! It was a great year! It will be 49 years at the first of July!
If you could give me a piece of advice before I leave high school what would it be?
Get a diploma, go to college, get a good job, have a retirement, and
have all good benefits.