Billie Jo Krawsczyn Age: 69 Occupation: Housewife Hometown: Middleport Interviewer: Chris Krawsczyn

       What was the strangest thing your mother-in-law
                                      saw coming to America?

Interview

Q: What’s your name?

A: Billy Jo Krawsczyn.

Q: How old are you?

A: Sixty-nine.

Q: Who are your parents?

A: William Houchins and Jessie Houchins

Q: Where did they come from?

A: From Ireland.

Q: What did they do for a living?

A: Coal mining.

Q: Who were your grandparents?

A: Hugh Bostick and Mary Bostick, on my mother’s side of the family and on my dad’s it was Investor and Margaret Houchins.

Q: Where did they come from?

A: They were from Ireland.

Q: What did they do for a living?

A: Farming.

Q: Do you have any brothers or sisters?

A: I have two.

Q: What were they like?

A: An older sister and a younger brother, my sister was four years older and my brother was six years younger.

Q: Can you tell me what you remember about the depression?

A: Well I just remember what people told me about it how bad it was how people had to struggle through it.

Q: Did anyone benefit from the depression that you can remember?

A: I don’t know what the benefits were.

Q: What can you tell me about WWII?

A: I was just a little girl when I remember it and had been to my granddad’s funeral when they said that we were into WWII.

Q: Did you know anybody in the War?

A: Oh yes, I had uncles and aunts and all the eligible men were in the service. They were drafted.

Q: How do feel about them going to the War?

A: We missed them and it was dangerous. We just didn’t know when they’d come back or whether they survived.

Q: Do you remember when they rationed the goods?

A: Yes, and the gas was rationed it was what people missed a lot and coffee and let’s see what else cigarettes you couldn’t get cigarettes.

Q: Did you dislike the rationing program? Did you think it was unfair?

A: No, no it was what we had to do then during war you just made sacrifices you know and whatever needed to be done.

Q: Do you remember any effects that the War had on prices and stuff? Did things get more expensive during the War?

A: Yes, if you get them you know if you could find them.

Q: Did a lot of women get jobs when the men went overseas?

A: Women worked then that had never worked before you know. They had to work in the plants and do the work the men had done because the men were all gone.

Q: Can you remember anything about your school days?

A: Well sure.

Q: What do you remember?

A: What do you want to know?

Q: Where did you go to school?

A: I went to high school in Vinton, Ohio and Gallia County.

Q: What was it like?

A: It was pretty much you know just as big as the schools today. We had good teachers and good schools.

Q: How many grades did you go through clear through high school?

A: 12^th grade.

Q: Was it common for a person to finish school those days?

A: Well a lot of children didn’t finish high school.

Q: How important was it to have a high school diploma in those days? Did it help you get a job?

A: Oh yea just like now a diploma helps.

Q: Do you think people’s values are different from what they used to be?

A: No, not really. Values are always the same.

Q: Do you remember at what age parents start letting their kids date?

A: 18, 19, 20

Q: How were kids expected to treat their parents?

A: With respect

Q: What did most people think was the most unethical thing to do when it came to values?

A: I have to think about that because you know a lot of things are unethical just the same as today.

Q: Do you remember anything about the 1950s?

A: I remember a lot about the 1950s.

Q: What was Pomeroy like?

A: Well, it’s just similar to now you know I mean we were just not as old.

Q: Has there been any big changes that you remember?

A: Oh yes things have changed you know things in Middleport. They use to have a theater and skating rink and you know we have a lot of things that we don’t have now too. No eating places we didn’t have any fast food.

Q: None at all?

A: None we had one little restaurant in Middleport that was called Jack’s Dairy Bar, but no McDonald’s, no Wendy’s, and no others.

Q: Does it seem like there are more people in Meigs County now then there used to be or less?

A: I think more.

Q: Do you remember any good stories from this time period?

A: Yes we had good times back in the fifties.

Q: Do you remember anything in particular?

A: Oh they had sock hops you know at school and just dances like they do now but and you know. We had like graduation and things. We didn’t have proms like they do now because they had like a dance and a dinner.

Q: Can you tell me anything about the flood of ’37?

A: Just what I heard about it you know that uh the flood got up to my upstairs in the flood of ’37.

Q: In this house?

A: In this house yes.

Q: How did the people get around?

A: I think they sat even in boats you know they had to go in boats right in town.

Q: What’s the biggest flood that you can remember since you’ve lived here?

A: Well we haven’t had any big floods you know just what you all have seen too.

Q: Do you remember anything in particular about the mining communities where you lived?

A: Yes, everybody lived in one little mining community they had the store was belonged to the mines and you went and they paid you with script instead of money and you took this to the store and bought your groceries. They had the houses that all belonged to the mines. I never did live in the mining town. We always lived out but that’s what people did and sometimes when the miners got paid they really didn’t have any money left you know because they spent it all for their rent and their mining days were hard you know you had to really work.

Q: So the miners basically worked for food and more?

A: Yes.

Q: The mine owned everything?

A: Oh you could buy anything you wanted at the store you know. You could buy your clothes, your shoes, and everything from The Company Store that’s what they called it The Company Store.

Q: Were things pretty cheap there?

A: No, they were higher than any other stores but you didn’t get to go and get it and then when time come to get your check you just had already paid out most of it or a lot of it.

Q: How long did your father work in the mines?

A: Oh he worked in the mines from the time he was just a little boy from you know they went to work then in 14 or 15 years old.

Q: Were the conditions hard?

A: Oh yea my dad worked on the conveyer and had to be down on his hands and knees all day long he was stooped over in the mines.

Q: Was it dangerous work?

A: Yes, back then now the mines aren’t dangerous like that now you know they are safe. They aren’t as dangerous as they were back then.

Q: Do you ever remember anybody getting injured or killed in the mines?

A: Oh yes, we used to go you know they would be somebody killed in the mines and if you had somebody in the mines you went to the mines to wait and see who had been hurt or was killed.

Q: So there were a lot of cave-ins and explosions?

A: Yes.

Q: Where did you live in West Virginia?

A: Oakhill, West Virginia, close to that place.

Q: At what age did you move to Vinton from West Virginia?

A: I was a freshman in high school and I graduated from there and there was only I think 32 in my graduating class.

Q: What year did you graduate?

A: 1948

Q: What was the farm like in Vinton?

A: It was just a farm you know we had just a few cows and a pig and you just raised your own produce. Some people didn’t even have electricity then out on the farms. We did have electricity. We had things a lot of people didn’t have. We had 1 telephone with 5 people on the same line and when you talked you know when you picked it up and some other family was talking you would just have to hang up and try again. They had about 4 or 5 people on each telephone line.

Q: Did all of your neighbors have electricity?

A: No, some of them didn’t back over in the hills didn’t have electricity they had lamps and you had to clean your shade every night and get your lamps ready to read your lessons by but I didn’t have to do that and I can remember when we got our first T.V. It was black and white.

Q: Were there very many programs on it?

A: Oh no. There were just a few people who had them you know and all the neighbors would come and watch the T.V.

Q: They all came to your house?

A: Yes, or we went to somebody’s house. Whoever had a T.V. Now we have one in every room.

Q: Did you have indoor plumbing?

A: No

Q: You had to go get the water?

A: Yes, we had a pump where we would pump the water.

Q: Outside?

A: Yes, on the porch.

Q: Did you have to heat your water before you wanted to use it?

A: Yes. Times have definitely changed.

Q: Did you have a lot neighbors?

A: Oh they were like miles apart. Like 1 or 2 miles before you came to a neighbor’s house.

Q: Did you have to walk to school?

A: No. The school bus picked us up. We did have a school bus.

Q: Was school easy back then or hard you think?

A: Oh I think it might have been easier than it is now because I think that you learn a lot more then we did then.

Q: Did you have more than one teacher?

A: Yes.

Q: Did you have to change classes?

A: Yes. But we had a little school but there wasn’t anything to changing classes you know just 32 people to one room to another.

Q: Do you remember any interesting stories about any neighbors that lived in Vinton?

A: Everybody was neighbors. If one got sick, they all went and helped. And everybody knew all of their neighbors. It isn’t like now when you don’t even know who lives next door. We knew our neighbors and if anything happened we would help. They used to have like barn raises if they built a barn all of the neighbors would go and help build a barn and they all worked in the hay.

Q: So everyone helped each other out all of the time?

A: Yes. And that was good. You knew all of your neighbors and it was a good way to live.

Q: Did most people farm?

A: Yes. In Vinton there were just a few people that didn’t farm they were the ones who had business places.

Q: Were a lot of people poor?

A: We were all poor.

Q: Did people live a lot longer back then you think?

A: Oh some did you know just like now some lived to be older and some didn’t. Some worked a lot harder than others.

Q: So there were no restaurants in Meigs County that you can remember?

A: Oh no just Jack’s Dairy Bar up in Middleport then one out by the radio station that was called Bailey’s and it was a drive thru.

Q: Did you eat mostly what was grown on the farm?

A: Yes.

Q: So you said work on farms was hard and stuff?

A: Oh yes because you didn’t have equipment you had to do manual work. My dad had a tractor but it was an old tractor. Now it is in the West Virginia museum

Q: Most people plowed with horses?

A: Horses or mules. They all had at least one cow so people could have their own milk and butter.

Q: What kinds of things did you have to do around the house?

A: We had to clean the lamp shades and we had to gather the produce and then we canned. We usually canned in an open kettle because we didn’t have pressure cookers.

Q: Did you have to do your laundry outside?

A: Well we had a ringer washer and we had to hang everything outside because we didn’t have dryers.

Q: There were lots of chores to be done?

A: Yes. We had to do them. Most children had to work.

Q: Did you work everyday after school around the house?

A: Yes. And we didn’t have cars. No one who was 16 had a car.

Q: Did your family have a car when you were younger?

A: Yes. A Model T Ford.

Q: Were there roads all around ?

A: All country roads.

Q: Were they all dirt?

A: Yes.

Q: How long did you live with your parents?

A: I was 19.

Q: Did you live in Charleston before you got married?

A: Yes.

Q: What did you do there?

A: I just worked in an office for a trucking company.

Q: So how would a typical day start out for you when you were married. When you got up, what was the first thing you did and so on?

A: Just a typical day, we got up and started the day you know of course we were over here then we weren’t on the farm and your granddad’s parents come before you know from Russia right on the border and his mother was 18 years old when she came over here to this country. She said the strangest thing she saw a man in overalls on the boat. She couldn’t speak a word of English and they would just punch her and show her where to go when she came and she saw smoking and she couldn’t believe where the smoke was coming from and when she got over here her parents were already here. She didn’t get to come when they come because she had the measles or something. Her parents were here and they chose her husband and they sent your granddad to meet the train when she came in and they were married. You didn’t even get to select your own husband then, but they were happy.

Q: She couldn’t speak a word of English?

A: No. But they loved our country. They went several times to take the Citizenship tests so they could pass and get in. She said in Russia you had to have permission to buy a watch from the government.

Q: Did they come over before WWI?

A: Yes.

Q: And then they moved to West Virginia?

A: Yes and they worked in the coal mines.

Q: What year did they come over?

A: I don’t know what year it was. I just remember your grandmother said that she was 18 when she came and he was already here.

Q: When did your parents come over here?

A: They were here.

Q: They were over here for a long time?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you know how long?

A: I don’t know.

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