(photo: Janice and husband Hugh Cullom married in 1929)

QUESTION: What is your name?

Mildred Janice Cullom.

QUESTION: How old are you?

I will be 92 in October of this year.

QUESTION: When were you born?

October the 27th, 1907.

QUESTION: Were you born in Cherokee County?

No, I was born in Gober, Texas.

QUESTION: Were you born at home or in a hospital?

At home.

(photo:  Janice and her brothers and sisters.  Her stepmother,
Annie Groves is at the far left and Janice is standing next to
her father, C.T. Groves at far right. Janice's mother died
when she was eight years old )

QUESTION: How many brothers and sisters were in your family?

Well, I had three brothers and two sisters.

QUESTION: Are you the youngest or oldest child?

Oldest, I am the oldest.

QUESTION: How old is the youngest?

Well the youngest passed away two years ago and she was in her seventies, just about seventies.

(photo:  C. T. Groves poses for a photographer outside the family home)

QUESTION: Were your parents born in Cherokee County?

No; my daddy was born in Dallas County and my mother was born in Gober, Texas.

QUESTION: What’s your earliest memory?

Well, I really don’t know. I know that I climbed up a Mulberry tree and got up there in the fork and I wasn't allowed to do that…and my mother came out  there and tried to get me down but of course she could not reach me. And of course I didn’t come down cause I knew what was coming! (laughter)

QUESTION: So, your mom was pretty strict about what you did?

Well, she was because I was bothered a lot by this leg I have trouble with.

QUESTION: Where did you go to school?

I went to school in Oklahoma and I went to school in Garrett, Texas which is close to Ennis.

QUESTION: How did you get to school?

We walked in Oklahoma and we walked in Garrett because we lived there close to the school. Never had to go much of a distance to get to school.

QUESTION: What kind of school supplies were you required to bring?

Mostly when we were primary--when we started--it was mostly crayolas, pencil and a tablet. (That is about all you had to bring). That’s about all we brought.

QUESTION: What did you wear to school?

We wore dresses. (All the ladies wore dresses). Uh-huh. We couldn’t wear pants then.

QUESTION: What did the classrooms look like?

Well, just practically-- oh they had double desks and blackboards of course--just practically what they do now.

QUESTION: How was the school heated?

It had a big stove (in the middle). And they burned coal.

QUESTION: What did the students do for lunch?

They took it. They took their lunch.

QUESTION: What was in a lunch mainly?

Just whatever their parents happened to have to fix a lunch out of; sandwiches-- of course a lot of people killed their own meat. Things like that ya' know.

QUESTION: Where did students keep their lunch?

We kept it I think we kept it in our desk. (So it was a fold up a desk?). No, it was just a desk that had a solid board across it, that could fit two people.  And     then under that is where you kept your books and stuff.

QUESTION: What games did you play at recess?

Oh, I don’t really remember. Seem like we played mumblepeg and skip the rope. Things like that.

(photo:  the Groves home where Janice grew up)

QUESTION: Where did you live as a child?

Well, that’s where I lived. These places I’ve told you. At Garrett which is just outside of Ennis. (So from birth to about ten years old you lived in Garrett). My mother died when I was eight.

QUESTION: What were the roads like?

Just dirt roads.

QUESTION: What did the first house you remember living in look like?

It was just a frame house ( just an old wood house). Just a frame house, nothing extra special. Comfortable but that’s about it.

QUESTION: Did you have electricity?

At first we didn’t have it, then after that we did.

QUESTION: Did you have chores?

Yes. Some of us had to help mother cook supper, and of course, the boys fed the pigs. Things like that.

QUESTION: Where did you shop for groceries or clothes?

First it was just individual people that owned them (the stores). Yeah, mercantile I think they called it. And they would carry hardware and groceries, and paper goods, and cookies and stuff like that. And I remember peanut butter, they had a container that they kept that in. And the dipper would scoop it out and put wax paper over the top of it, and that’s the way that you got peanut butter.

QUESTION: So, what’s the earliest kind of car you remember?

Model-T Ford.

QUESTION: What was your favorite thing to do?

Well, read. (You liked to read?) Yeah. (What was your favorite book?) Well, I liked Zane Grey’s books…mostly Westerns.

QUESTION: Did you have television?

No. We didn’t have a radio until, oh, I don’t know how old I was. Way up in the years. Several years old before we ever even had a radio.

QUESTION: What did you do for entertainment?

Just, played games, read, and talked to the family.

QUESTION: What did you do during the summers?

We’d go fishing and swimming. That’s what we did…Course we didn’t do that all the time. A gin was close there to us and bale cotton, gin cotton and they had a cotton yard there and we played on that a lot. We’d jump from bale to bale ya' know (laughter).

QUESTION: What was your first job and how much did it pay?

The pay wasn’t much. I worked at the Ennis tag company. In Ennis, it was the first job I had before I finished school. Two years before I finished school. And, I think they paid about…oh, I’d say 20 dollars a week. Or something like that.

QUESTION: Did you go to the movies?

Yes. On Saturdays, we’d go a lot of times to the movies. It was just a theater, kind of like what they have now, except maybe not as large.

QUESTION: What did it cost to get in?

Well, on Saturdays, a lot of times, on Saturday evening, it was just a nickel or a dime.

QUESTION: What movies were popular when you were a child?

Oh, mostly, let me see, what was there? Westerns. Dick Tracy, I think, some of those. (Were those your favorite types of movies, Westerns?) No (laughing), but that’s what they had.

QUESTION: Who was your favorite movie star?

Now, you mean? (back then) Well, I know we used to watch the Little Rascals a lot. (The Little Rascals? Which one did you like out of them?) Oh, it was the fella, the one that played, well, I can’t even think of his name, but he was one stupid…(Alfalfa?) Yeah, and Alfalfa.

QUESTION: What was your favorite television or radio show?

Well, when we first got the radio, why, it was Nashville.

QUESTION: Did people tell ghost stories or scary stories when you were a child?

Sometimes they did. (Do you remember any of them?) No, I don’t remember. It was mostly…seemed like a lot of people, most people liked to scare kids. Tell em’ stories, ya' know, and scare em’ and all. It was kinda hard to go to bed.
 

(photo:  Janice's uncles, mother Minnie, and papa, C. T. (far right) homesteading land.  Note the covered wagon in the background)

QUESTION: What stories do you remember you grandparents telling?

Well, I don’t remember much about that. My grandfather on my daddy's side fought in the Civil War. He told us a lot of things that they went through during the Civil War. (Did he fight for the North or the South?) South.

QUESTION: What kind of music did you listen to?

Well, mostly it would be western music ya' know like out of Nashville.

QUESTION: Who was your favorite singer or music group?

Well, I really don’t know. I can’t think of his name. He was that fella' that died here a few years ago. Let’s see he sang. A song about…..Tennessee Ernie Ford. (You don’t remember his name?). That was his name. Tennessee Ernie Ford.

QUESTION: What did teenagers do for entertainment when you were their age?

Well, just mostly (sigh) -- we would gather at different houses. And then a lot of times back then, why they would have--somebody in the community would have--a party on Saturday nights. And they would sing and somebody there would play the piano and they’d play games of course.

QUESTION: When did you first start dating?

I was about 16-17.

QUESTION: Where did you go on dates?

Well, we went to the show and of course parties and things like that. Meet at people’s houses and just visit.

QUESTION: Do you remember anything about the Great Depression?

Oh, do I remember anything! I married during The Depression. And, it was terrible.

QUESTION: How did it effect you?

Well, there was no such thing as a job. People who lived out in the country that had their gardens and their livestock and things like that faired pretty well. But for people that had to have jobs for livehood, it was terrible. They just didn’t have any. And they had to move into houses with their parents and relatives…there wasn’t no such thing as money.

QUESTION: Do you remember the first time you heard about World War II ?

Well, yes, I remember some. Because I had an uncle that was in it. And, well let me see, I guess I had two or three uncles in it. Uncle John was in the Army, and I remember that so much because, you know, they’d have to leave. And everytime a train came by--we lived where the trains came through a lot--the trains were always loaded with the servicemen going from place to place.

QUESTION: Do you remember hearing about Pearl Harbor?

Oh yes. Pearl Harbor, I lived in Houston when Pearl Harbor happened and Peggy, my oldest daughter, was a year old, and my husband was working at the railroad. Of course it shocked all of us. Surprised and dreaded and all of that.

 QUESTION: Do you remember war rations?

Oh, yes. I still got one in there somewhere. It was just little books stapled together. Of course they had cardboard--well, it wasn’t exactly cardboard. It just had a heavier back for em’ and then they had kinda like the stamps that we buy today, perforated in between. We had stamps for sugar, stamps for flour, stamps for gasoline, stamps for shoes and just any an' everything. You had to be careful not to use up your gasoline to have enough to drive back to your job if you had one. And you took care of your shoes because if they wore out ya' didn’t have any. (laughter).

QUESTION: What do you remember most about the 50’s?

Well, I don’t really know much about the 50’s. Let’s see I married in ’29 and, just that--I was married and had one child and she was born in the ‘40’s. In the 50’s she was ten years old.

QUESTION: Do you remember what you were doing when you heard that J.F.K was assasinated?

Yes, we had a dairy and we were out milking the cows. There was a little boy that lived in the country out there and the little boy that lived up the road came in from school and came and told us. We weren’t in the house where we could hear the radio and we hadn't heard anything you see.

QUESTION: Do you remember what you were doing when the first man walked on the moon?

No, but it was, we thought it was, marvelous, you know, something out of this world really.

QUESTION: If you could give me one piece of advice before I leave high school, what would it be?

Stay in school.