Interviewer: Have you lived here all your life?

Betty: I've lived here about forty years. I've lived in Glouster nearly all my life.

Interviewer: How many brothers and sisters do you have?

Betty: I have, -uh five brothers and I have two sisters.

Interviewer: Where did you go to school?

Betty: I went up to Oakdale. They had a little school up there. It was two-roomed. And they had 1st, 2nd, ` 3rd, and 4th downstairs and the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th upstairs. And I graduated from Oakdale School to Hollister’s School.

Interviewer: How long did a school day last?

Betty: Eight hours, I think.

Interviewer: Did you have a job while you were in school?

Interviewer: Did you have chores?

Betty: At home?

Betty: Yeah, I washed dishes and stuff like that.

Interviewer: Did you get paid an allowance?

Betty: No

Interviewer: What did you do during your free time?

Betty: Read mostly.

Interviewer: What did you do after high school graduation?

Betty: Got married.

Interviewer: Talk about your wedding day? How old were you?

Betty: I didn't have a big wedding.

Interviewer: How old were you when you got married?

Betty: I was 21 when I got married.

Interviewer: How did you meet him?

Betty: I don't know. I was just out walking around. We used to walk around a lot when we was young.

Interviewer: Was television a big part of your childhood like it is for kids today?

Betty: No we didn't even have a television. We listened to the radio every Saturday night. My stepfather would get his battery out of his car. And we would listen to Minnie Pearl and `em.

Interviewer: What was your favorite radio station?

Betty: We just listened to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio.

Interviewer: How old were you when you had your first television in your home?

Betty: Um, about 36, 37.

Interviewer: Did you watch it a lot then?

Betty: Yeah, I watch the soap operas. All of the soap operas. But I lived in Columbus then.

Interviewer: How much was pop and candy when you was a kid?

Betty: Candy bars were a nickel. But we always bought brown sugar and ate it. We couldn't afford candy bars.

Interviewer: Did your family have a car?

Betty: My step-dad had a -uh Model T Ford.

Interviewer: Did you like it?

Betty: Well! It took us where we wanted to go, but it took all day to drive from here to Columbus. We'd start up there about maybe 7 o'clock in the morning and we'd get up there about 9 o'clock at night. It didn't go very fast.

Interviewer: Did you drive somewhere on the weekend?

Betty: Yeah, where we would- uh go on Fourth of July and all that. We would ride around and watch fireworks in different places. Things like that. Take our lunch and stay out all day.

Interviewer: Was there many restaurants back then?

Betty: No, there wasn't too many, I don't think. We never did go to a restaurant. We didn't have the money or anything.

Interviewer: What do you remember about the Millfield Mine disaster?

Betty: I can't remember to much about it. I was only four. But my dad got killed in the Millfield Mine explosion.

Interviewer: What is the worst flood you can remember?

Betty: Gosh, uh I don't know. I can't remember. I can't remember dates hardly. We don't have floods bad now as we did back then, before they put the dam up there. We don't have as many floods. We have some bad ones, but not as bad.

Interviewer: Now do you live in a flood area?

Betty: No, I don't live in a flood area! Everybody else down here does, though.

Interviewer: What was it like growing up in Glouster?

Betty: I always liked Glouster, but uh, it wasn't too bad. They didn't have any place to play or anything. I mean they didn't have a park. They had a skating rink downtown.

Interviewer: Did you skate a lot?

Betty: No, I didn't skate. I'd go down and watch there, but I didn't skate.

Interviewer: What change was there in Glouster in World War II.

Betty: I don't know if they were any change in Glouster. I think it was about the same. We had quite a few stores down here, but they all sold out after the war. Benny Goldberg and `em to California. Luckoff's and all them sold out after the war was over.

Interviewer: What other things do you remember about the war?

Betty: How they rationed everything. You couldn't buy coffee, you couldn't buy shoes. Unless you had stamps to buy them with.

Interviewer: Since you got a television has your life changed, is there a difference?

Betty: Yeah I know more about what goes on, than I did back when I was younger.

Interviewer: What did you do for your housework? Can you tell us?

Betty: We didn't have a washer and dryer. We washed clothes on a wash board and we'd hang them out on a line to dry, but we had a coal stove and we'd put the irons on top of the stove and then get them and iron the clothes. We did everything the hard way. We never had a washer. I never used a washer until after I was married. We always did by hand.

Interviewer: Did you have to do ironing?

Betty: Yeah.

Interviewer: Did you make a soap? Yourself?

Betty: My stepfather's mother made soap with lye. Some kind of soap with lye, and grease, and stuff. And she'd give my mom a lot of it. And that’s what we washed clothes with.

Interviewer: Have you seen that done? Do you know how to make the soap?

Betty: No, I don't know. I know she put it in a big kettle and kept stirring it. Outside. She always made it outside.

Interviewer: Where did you get the water to use in your house?

Betty: We had wells. We didn't have city water. In fact we never had electric in our house till- I think I was out of school before they even got electric in our house. We didn't have electric. We used kerosene lamps. I used to set by the kerosene lamp and read at night.

Interviewer: Can you compare the kids back then to the kids right now? When they're going to school? And when they're playing around?

Betty: Yeah I can see a lot of difference.

Interviewer: What is the difference?

Betty: They don't seem to mind nowadays like they did when we were kids. Our mom would tell us something and we did it. we didn't say `No, I don't wanna do that.' or `I'm to tired.' or whatever. We just went ahead and did it.

Interviewer: Did you cook very often?

Betty: Now?

Interviewer: No, I mean when you were young?

Betty: No, my mom wouldn't let us cook. Just once in awhile she'd let us bake a cake or something like that. Since there was so many in the family. She'd do most of the cooking unless she was sick, then we'd do it. But we didn't cook all that much.

Interviewer: Did you share a room with your brothers and sisters? Like a bedroom? Did you guys share one or did you have your own?

Betty: We didn't have our own bedroom. We shared. The girls slept in one room and the boys in the other.

Interviewer: How did you dress at the time? Were you allowed to wear pants?

Betty: Not very often. My brother, my older brother, he'd never let us wear pants, slacks, or anything. Until after he went into service, then he started to let us wear them.

Interviewer: Do you know why?

Betty: He said we weren't boys.

Interviewer: How long did your dresses have to be?

Betty: We didn't have to wear long dresses. Just down around our knees usually. Not short though.

Interviewer: So did most girls at that time finish high school and get married?

Betty: Yeah. There wasn't no jobs around here or anything. If you wanted a job you had to go away and get it. And I didn't know nobody. Only relatives I had was down around here. So I didn't get to get a job. And the ones that did had to leave home and go get it. Like Dayton or somewhere like that.

Interviewer: How did the men find jobs? Did they have to go out somewhere?

Betty: There wasn't no work around here except for coal mines and after the Millfield Mine explosion. I don't think to many men wanted to go in mines. Then they got this WPA program out and a lot of them worked on that. I think President Roosevelt got it in here some way.

Interviewer: What did you like from the past? What do you think you didn't want to change?

Betty: Oh geesh, I don't know.

Interviewer: Is there anything you liked?

Betty: No not really.

Interviewer: Now how many kids do you have?

Betty: I have seven.

Interviewer: How many grandsons, granddaughters?

Betty: I don't know. I think I have around twenty-some grandchildren. And about nine great-grandchildren.

Interviewer: Have you ever had the chance to see them together?

Betty: Oh yes. About every weekend we have cookouts. And all my kids come and their kids.

Interviewer: They are still around in Glouster?

Betty: Yeah. I have one daughter in Columbus. And all the rest of them live around here?