A: Well I've lived here 75 years son, and it's been uphill and down hill but I've done all right.

Q: We'd like to hear your takes on the coal mines and things like that.

*A: Yes, my father was a coal miner back in the, well he went into the coal mine when he was 12 years old, and he came out when he was 47. And he worked through the first world war, well he worked, that's all he ever done 'till he came to the farm. But he worked through the first world war, but he was down here in the other one. Every thing was rationed back there, just like in the second world war. You had to take sugar, you had to take cornmeal, and a whole bunch of stuff to get other things you know. And tea and coffee and all that was rationed. But my dad went in when he was 12 years old. 'Cause it was a big family of them and he had to work.

Q: Did you go to Athens (closest town) very often?

A: Sir, I never went much when I was young , I've never went since I was old. I've lived with my parents all my life. And when I got married I moved in with my Mother and Dad. And my husband used to take mother into town once a week to get groceries.

Q: What were some of the groceries prices like?

A: Well bread was ten cents a loaf. And when you could get a dollar, you couldn't get a dollar hardly ever, but if you got a dollar you could buy something with it. And you can't now but whenever you made a dollar, and you'd save to get groceries well, then you could get stuff, but we baked our bread and churned our own butter and had our own eggs and all of that. We grew gardens and fields you know with corn and stuff like that, but I've lived with my parents and all my life and I'll be 91 in March and never forget you mother son, that's right I don't care, well your dad too if he's some peoples mean. I feel sorry for the people who do et them and don't want them and I don't believe in that. I raised 3 kids, 2 boys and a girl. So, but things wasn't very, I got married in the depression, I got married in 25, and my daughter was born in 27'but it was still a depression. It’s been rough I went through quite a lot but I've made it!

Q: About the Depression how did you make it through?

A: Well, you just saved what little bit you could save you know? We never had a credit card , and you never went in debt for anything. If you didn't have the money to pay for it you didn't get it. I don't have a credit card and I never did have one. And if I can't pay for it I don't get it.

Q: Did you have brothers or sisters?

A: I had my brother died before I was bon and I had a sister. A brother and a sister that's what I had . And they're both deceased. And my dad would have been 86 and he passed away, and my mother would have been 94.

Q: What were some of the things you would do for entertainment with your family?

A: Well we generally had good meals you know. Cooked. And maybe sometimes we'd go fishing in an old creek or something like that. But nothing like a car. We didn't have stuff like that why there wasn't any cars when my daughter went to grade school, her dad took her horse back down to this next road to meet the school bus. Then my husband drove the school bus for 16 years. When he went to Shade, they call it Alexander now but it was Shade then, he road a horse every morning for 4 years, 7 or 8 miles to get to school.

Q: What are some of the things you remember that have changed a lot over the years?

A: I couldn't begin to tell you son. Well we read quite a bit, but you didn't, I don't watch television now. You didn't have television, you didn't have radio, and very few people had cars, up 'till late you know. My husband got his first car in '31 or '32, but when we went together, he came horse back to court me. Now I can remember that too. And then he got a car after we were married. But I can think of the old days and the new days too you know. We never had a tractor, we used horses. And our poor old horse was 26, 27 years old, we kept it after my husband died. We don't know what happened to it, we think maybe somebody stole him. Work horse, you know, we don't know what happened. One died and then the other, but we never did know what happened to him. But we never had tractors or anything , we just used farm machinery, horses, but that’s the way everyone’s got them now. When my husband went to school, he played basketball, he played on an outdoors court he didn’t have the you know. And when my son Jerry that lived in Philadelphia, he played baseball, he got an award for playing baseball from Athens. But he taught school, he taught out to, and his wife taught fourth grade out to Alexander. And then they decided, she’s from Hudson, but they’re in New Philadelphia. Their daughter is going to Wooster they call it.

Q: So what was school like for you?

A: Well, strict, the teachers were strict when I was in school. If you whispered or turned in your seat a little bit, I don’t know. I can remember once, I whispered, and I remember that teacher ‘till this day. She bent my thumb back like this and whipped me here with a ruler. And you wouldn’t do that now nowadays in school, y’know. And I was 10 years old when the first world war stopped. And we had to gather, I don’t know what this is ever for, but they had a nail cagier, they used to have nail cagier back then, and we had to save all the nutshells like hickory nuts, walnuts, or anything , but what they ever done with them, I don’t know. But when the war ended, all the coal the coal mine whistles blowed, the school bells wrung , and the peoples wonderin', well they hadn’t heard yet that the Armistice was signed. They was wonderin’ and then they all celebrated. But I was ten years old when that ended.

Q: Do you remember much of it?

A: Yeah, I had an uncle over there in the war. It was rough, they was in those trenches y’know, and things. My mother made taffy and sent it to her brother for Christmas and he got it, he said and then he sent me a piece to read in church and I knew two verses. In Flanders field the poppies rose, and something about crosses rose on rose, but I remember that. When we was havin’ church I always went to church, and he sent me a doll baby from over there, but he never got back. And I had a cousin over there. They never knew what became of him.

Q: Did WWII bring you out of the depression?

A: The coal mines had to put out coal and that made the production but my dad was a coal miner and he went from loading coal cut more. And that’s what he did. When he was in the coal mine, mother would put a fire in for the winter so you could have something to bake bread with. We always had a cow and when my dad was in the coal mines he had ten acres that he would farm. And we always had a cow and chickens and had hogs. That helped with the butchering and things and Mom always kept a garden and we used to churn butter and sell it to people and back then you’d skim the cream off the milk and save it to make butter. Peopled come and buy it for the skimmed milk, you know and they say its better than the stuff you get now. Well there’d be little bits of cream floating in it. Things ain’t like they used to be. Foods not like it used to be. Sugar, and they got so much dope in the stuff you don’t know what you’re eatin’ and what you are.

Q: What kinds of chores did you have?

A: We’d make our beds and help scrub but you didn’t have the kind of lawnmowers you do now but mowing the grass, most of the time the men would do that with the scythes. I never did milk a cow (when I was younger) but I used to gather the eggs, and feed the horse. But my dad did most of the work until we got big enough. I’ve worked ever since I was very old, and work doesn’t hurt you.

Q: Did you play any sports?

A: Yep, not in school, we didn’t have that but a bunch of kids would come and we’d have a board and we’d have a baseball and we’d hit it and you’d get a home run or something. You had to do something. And we used to have little glass dolls and we made dresses for them. But there wasn’t a whole lot to do. But I’ve worked since I was very big.

Q: Did you visit the coal mines?

A: The only way I visited the coal mines, I was never down in one, but my dad used to haul coal with the horse and wagon and I’d ride the wagon. And he’d pick the coal up and bring it to heat with.

Q: Where was the mine?

A: Up in Jacksonville. That’s where I was raised. I went to a big brick school house, but they tore that down. And if one mine would shut down, we was never out of a job. He’d always go to another. But he worked in ones where you had to walk like this with your bucket on your back. Back then they used carbide lights with the open flames and that was dangerous with the gas and all.

Q: If you ever did anything bad, how were you punished?

A: Well, my sister was older than me and she was boss, but I didn’t really get in trouble but for Halloween we’d throw corn and we had a thing with a wooden spool and you’d wrap a string around it and I think you used rosin on it like on violins and you’d set that on someone’s window and that would make the darndest noise. And I’ve never trick-or-treated and you weren’t allowed to be on the streets all hours of the night and my parents were strict. They knew where their parents were and their parents knew where they were. Wasn’t like some of the families are today.

Q: Did you visit the woods much?

A: I’ve been in the woods, wild grapes, hat acorns, chestnuts, couple chestnut trees here. Never cared much for walnuts, black walnuts get your hands all dirty. I’ve even been coon hunting just to get out of the house and be back in an hour or so.

Q: What were couples like?

A: They didn’t divorce. If a man and a woman can’t work out their troubles, no psychiatrist will either. In some places, I think they give divorces too easy. They don’t try to work it out. They just say " oh well get a divorce." I lived with my husband 54 and a half years, and I had a good one. He was always home when he wasn’t out in the fields working or driving the school bus. Well, he drove the school bus sometimes when he had to drive the players to the games. ‘Cause he liked it because he played basketball. I don’t believe in all these divorces.

Q: How was medical care?

A: Well there weren’t any hospitals closer than Columbus. And when the doctor would come with his little satchel, back then the doctors came to your house, but he would bring his bag with his instruments and pills and get you what you needed.

Q: Do you have any tips for staying young and healthy?