Leota Gatchel Age:72 Occupation: Nurse, Housewife,                   Personnel Department Hometown: Glouster Interviewer: Danielle Hartley

How many years did Leota work as a nurse?  

Interview

Int.: Where did you live when you were growing up?

Leota: Here. Here, honey. All my life I've lived here. I lived here when I was two years old. Mother and dad built this house and we moved in here when I was two.

Int.: What was it like?

Leota: What was what? This house?

Int.: Like being a kid. Being a child back then.

Leota: Oh great! I had a great childhood I was an only child, that was the only thing that was very sad. Always wanted brothers and sisters. Never had.

Int.: What was school like?

Leota: Not like it is today. I can tell ya.

Int.: How was it different? How was it different from today?

Leota: Well to begin with we had some discipline. I think we have very little discipline in the school now days. I worked with the school for many years and every year it gets worse. I think its horrible. I'd like sometime to be a teacher for about a month and kill about 3/4 of them. I think its horrible.

Int.: Did your school have enough supplies for everyone?

Leota: Our school? Uh, well, I really don't remember that. I know as my kids went to school that... um.. I can remember when my kids were in, like the fifth and sixth and seventh grade, in that area. Why... um.. Marybeth Parker who's husband use to have the, the uh, store downtown. She, she and I candied apples in the PTA kitchen which was about, uh, not very big and sold them. And gave teachers money to buy supplies and things.

Int.: Oh. What did your teacher do to you when you misbehaved in school?

Leota: I can't hear ya, honey.

Int.: What did your teacher do when you misbehaved in school?

Leota: Well, I, I ne- don't remember getting any wacks because I was afraid to get wacks because I knew when I got home I'd get a few more. But, um, they, they wacked and I-I am firmly... I firmly believe in it. If you can't get to a child any other way, then there has to be some way. And, um, I don't know. It's just...

Int.: What did you do for lunch?

Leota: For lunch? We took our lunch.

Int.: OK.

Leota: When I went to school, yeah. We took our lunch, yeah.

Int.: How was the, like the rooms heated? How was the school heated?

Leota: I can't hear ya, honey.

Int.: How was the school heated?

Leota: Um, with coal.

Int.: With coal.

Leota: This is a coal community. We had a coal furnace.

Int.: What did you do for fun as a little kid?

Leota: Oh. Play dress up. And we use to play dress up and play and pretend and... and it was just... I don't know. It's been a long time, honey.

Int.: Did you have any chores as a little kid?

Leota: Oh, yes. I had to keep my room clean. I had to help with the dishes and then they'd better be clean or I was in trouble.

Int.: When did you get your first job?

Leota: Oh, gosh honey. I don't know. A long time ago. I've worked a lot of years, but-

Int: And do you remember your first job? Or do you remember what you have done in the, in the past? What was the job?

Leota: Well, I'm an LPN. And for 44 years I've worked in, in, in health. I worked at Mount St. Mary's, which is Doctor's Hospital now over Nelsonville. I started there when that first opened. For five years and then I went to the Athens Mental Health Center and I worked there for 23 years.

Int.: Oh. What kind of your work there? And explain a little bit. What did you do there? What did you do?

Leota: At? Well, charge nurse. Then there was a RN that was the... came through, and... The responsibilities were mostly mine at the Mental Health Center.

Int.: Um, around Glouster, were there a lot of things to do? Like on the weekends?

Leota: No, we had nothing to do. We did like everybody else, got in a car and ran around. Hasn't changed any. Always been a lot of bars and not very many bars now. Use to be about every other door practically years ago.

Int.: Did you have bathrooms and toilets and bathing tubs and sinks in your house as a kid growing up?

Leota: Oh, yes. We built, my mother and dad built this house. We moved in this house brand new.

Int.: Did you have your own room?

Leota: Oh, yes.

Int.: Did you do a lot of things with your friends as a teenager?

Leota: Oh, yes. I have a girlfriend who... We've been friends for about 65 years.

Int.: What kind of things did you guys do?

Leota: Well, like I said we use to play dress up and, um, you know. Oh, I don't know. Dolls and you know. Just like...

Int.: Was there a place you and your friends always met? Did you guys have a certain place you met?

Leota: No, I wasn't allowed to run around anywhere very much in my glory time years. I was very accountable to my mother and dad.

Int.: And were allowed to wear pants?

Leota: Pants? No, we didn't wear pants much in my glory time years. No, not really. Dresses. And I can remember when I was a kid we, umpteen million years ago, we use to, my mother use to make me wear long socks. Oh, god. And just as soon as I go out of the house I rolled them down. Oh, gees. You know just typical kid.

Int.: What person do you remember most from your childhood? In your childhood?

Leota: Well, I was very impressed be me mother and dad. That is my mother and dad right there (pointed to a picture on the wall). I was always very impressed with them. They were good, good people.

Int.: What experiences in your life probably changed it the most?

Leota: How would I what?

Int.: What experiences in your life might have changed your life the most?

Leota: Oh, I don't know. One time my one boy, they told us that he didn't have long to live, but he lived! And we were all very, very upset about that. But we did very many... When my husband and I lived, well when my husband lives, we use to do a lot, but not...

Int.: How many kids do you have?

Leota: I have five, three boys and two girls. And Scott is-

Int.: Are they still around in Glouster? Are most of them still in Glouster?

Leota: Um, my one daughter lives here and I have a great granddaughter that lives here. In fact she's living with me right now. And I have a great granddaughter that lives over in Jacksonville. And, uh, the rest of the kids are away from here. My one son lives in Florida and the other boy lives in the northern part of Ohio and my one daughter's up in Cleveland.

Int.: Can you tell a little about your wedding day or something?

Leota: My wedding day?

Int.: Yeah. Is it different from the weddings they have today?

Leota: Very beautiful, very small. We were married in a chapel at Drew Field in Tampa, Florida. My husband was in service. And of course very small, a few of his friends and my mother and that was it, but it was very beautiful.

Int.: And how did you dress?

Leota: I had a blue dress on and, um... I mean it wasn't no fancy wedding, flowers that was it. A very beautiful dress, but I mean it wasn't long. It was just a street-length dress.

Int.: Did you hear Martin Luther King Jr's speech, "I have a dream"?

Leota: Yes, I've heard it.

Int.: What was it like for you?

Leota: Very beautiful. I think we all have a lot of dreams.

Int.: What did you feel about the speech?

Leota: Gosh, honey. I don't know. It just impressed me that's all I can tell ya.

Int.: What were some of the options against black discrimination? What were some of the... What were the opinions of black discrimination?

Leota: Well, we have never been about color bias in this town. Never. I have a lot good, colored friends. I don't know whether you remember Nelson Morris or not. They played basketball when my son played. Well, you don't remember my son playing basketball. You're to young.

Int.: Yeah, I do.

Leota: But, um, Nelson stayed with us a couple summers while he was in college and I mean he was treated just like the rest of the family, but if anyone else would have treated him any differently I'd be very mad. Because I don't... The color of your skin doesn't mean a thing. It's what's in here (points to her heart) that means.

Int.: How old were you when JFK got assassinated?

Leota: Oh, dear. Well, when did he die? I'm 72 now, I'll be 73 in July. So...

Int.: How did you know he was assssinated? Did you know it from television or-

Leota: Sweety, you're such a soft-spoken little darling that I don't hear. I don't hear very well out of this ear.

Int.: Did, um-

Leota: This is my stroke side.

Int.: How did you like find out JFK died? Did you find out from the television?

Leota: On TV. Yes.

Int.: Do you remember when you first gotten your television set? Or first see television, how did you feel?

Leota: About the television?

Int.: Yeah.

Leota: Oh. I enjoyed it. I enjoy television. My television runs all night. I never turn it off. I sleep in the living room and I never turn it off because I like the noise.

Int.: Where were you when you first heard they landed on the moon?

Leota: Oh, good grief, honey. I don't know, I have no idea. No idea. I'm- I'm not to impressed with the moon jots. I think if the good Lord wanted us to go to the moon he'd made a stairway. I think its a lot of money that could be used somewhere else. I'm not at all impressed with them. I think what I think and I say what I think and I'm me.

Int.: What do you think that the government should spend some money somewhere else? What do you mean by that? Give me some examples.

Leota: I don't know. Seems to me like they waste a lot of money. Like, I'm a widow and my pension comes to less than $600 a month. So I have a job. I'm the scho- The subcoordinator for the counties schools. Which makes me $300 a month. Which I feel I can live on what I get on my pensions, but there is nothing left for extras. So this is my mad money and it don't take much mad money because I don't require that much. But you do have to keep up your home and those kind of things.

Int.: Is there anything we haven't asked you that you remember from you know, in the past that you'd like to tell us?

Leota: I love our schools. I'm very, very disappointed with the people win this town, that they would turn down the levy that we could get money because I feel this way my school is a part of my home. I have to pay for my home, so why shouldn't I have to pay for the schools. I'm very, very disappointed in them, but I worked a lot for the schools. I mean I've... When this new school was built, I worked really hard for it and this is the only function that's a school that I haven't worked in, but I'm not really able to. I really enjoy and I want them to do good things. And I have wanted to have things. And I- I- I'm just, uh... Well, like I said, I'm a great controversial person and I say just exactly what I think just like I jumped Mr. Wilamson because the girls bathrooms over by the gym. I about died when I went in the bathrooms. And I told Dave Brown that he's lazy. And Dave Brown is lazy and I've told Mr.- I've told anybody that listened to me. He's lazy or our bathrooms wouldn't look like it looks. I bet its never been broom scrubbed since the boards been put down. I mean I know about girls, I've raised girls. They're messier than boys, but they're not that messy. This is an accumulation of messiness. And that just breaks my heart because like I say I've worked hard for that school. And when we're having a basketball game and here comes people from out of town for the game and they go in that restroom. Oh, its... And like I say, I say what I think and I say it loudly and if they don't like what I say, its tough. My son, it belongs to his father he don't belong to me. Scott. Now who are you, honey?

Int.: I am a student at OU.

Leota: Oh, OK. Fine. Lovely school. I like that school, too. My son graduated from there. Yes, good school.

Int.: What's his major? What did your son study there?

Leota: Uh, he's the health and PE teacher over here. And, um, has a basketball team. Which I'm very, very interested in basketball. Been to all the basketball games since year one and my other boys played. Attended many basketball games. And, um...

Int.: Is there any new kind of technology that changed your like a lot other than television?

Leota: What?

Int.: Is there any new kind of technology that changed your life a lot besides television?

Leota: Not really. There's microwaves, but the funny thing with microwaves is when I got my microwave I got it too late. I needed it when my son was in school and didn't have it then. You know to keep the dinner ready, hot. Uh, oh I don't think so. I mean the things that you had like washer and drier. Well, the dryer I could do with out. I can hang clothes, but they're awful nice.

Top of Page  |  Home  |   Oral History Archives