Ray- 85.

Jordan- How many brothers or sisters did you have?

Ray- One sister.

Jordan- What was your sister like when growing up as a child?

Ray- Oh they were, I had 5 sisters, 2 brothers. My sisters were all very pleasant.                                                   Never had too much trouble with them.

Jordan- When you did get in trouble, what was the discipline like?

Ray- Oh they, my parents, never used hand on us.

Jordan- What was your parents names?

Ray- My father’s name was Alex and my mother’s name was Dora.

Jordan- What did they do for a living?

Ray- My father was a farmer, that’s where we got our savings.  My mother did general house.

Jordan- Did you have any electricity growing up as a child?

Ray-  No.

Jordan- What was it like growing up without electricity?

Ray- It was kind of unhandy at times, used an oil lamp, put one on the table.

Jordan- Did you have running water?

Ray- No.

Jordan- Where did you get your water from?

Ray- Well, I lived right up the street here.  There was a well right across the road where I lived, at those times, children played there.

Jordan- What type of furniture did you have?

Ray- It was not modern furniture, but whatever we could pick-up.

Jordan- Did you live on a farm?

Ray- We lived here in Coolville.  When I was 5, we moved here.

Jordan- Did you have a lot of chores?

Ray- We kept cows in the barn here and we had to milk them.

Jordan- Did you go to school?

Ray- Yes, down here at Coolville.

Jordan- How many kids were in your class?

Ray- I don’t remember.

Jordan- Did you have to walk to school?

Ray- Yes, we lived out here where the township building used to be, and there was a house there, and I walked from there.

Jordan- Was it hard to walk to school in the winter?

Ray-It wasn’t too bad.

Jordan- Were you in the service?

Ray- Yep, during World War II.

Jordan- What was it like?

Ray- Well I had it pretty nice. I spent 4 years in the Air Force. All of it in the U.S, I never had to go over seas.

Jordan- What was it like during the Depression?

Ray- Oh, it was pretty rough, we had to do a little help. We had a big family. My mom got money by cleaning other houses. One time, she was janitor of the school.

Jordan- What was it like the first time you saw an airplane?

Ray- I don’t remember, it was back right after World War I. It just missed my house. It took out some trees and that was back in 1947. I think I’ve got a picture of it when it was in my back yard.

Jordan- Did you get to meet the pilot?

Ray- No I didn’t. I didn’t happen to be here at the time to talk to the pilot. There were 2 men in the plane and neither one of them hurt.

Jordan- How is technology different now?

Ray- The first house I lived in, it was burnt down in the war.

Jordan- What do you wish you have now that you didn’t have back then?

Ray- Nothing.

Jordan- Did you have any goals?

Ray- Ohh…I did when I was a child.

Jordan- What was the transportation like?

Ray- The transportation was in a buggy.

Jordan- Anything else you’d like to tell us?

Ray- There was a slave right down there at that house. There was 7 or 8 of them, one of them was about my age.

Jordan- Were you wealthy or poor?

Ray- Poor.

Jordan- Is that all?

Ray- Well when we first moved to Coolville, we lived in an apartment across from the mill and they had an old covered bridge, but when they built the new road they just tore it down. There was a blacksmith shop up the hill and another down this road. The old building at the top was a store, the bookstore. There was another store where Bobby Roots is. Later, the post office was where the library is now. Then they moved it beside this house. It was just a couple of months ago. There was a hotel where the service station was. The hotel was made of these blocks. They tore down the old schoolhouse.

Jordan- Had the town changed after you had came back from the service?

Ray- No!

Jordan- Did anything happen to your family during World War II?

Ray- We had one death that was my wife’s mother.

Jordan- Is that all?

Ray- That’s all I can think of.