INTRODUCTION

TRANSCRIPTION

What was your earliest childhood memory?
Mornings- my dad did construction and we moved from site to site. My grandmother lived with us, and we shared a room. When we lived in San Angelo, it snowed; that was a special day. My mom made us snow ice cream, and kool-aid with icicles.

Who was your best-friend?
Brenda- she lived next door. When we were teenagers, we bleached her hair blonde, and when her dad got home, he was really mad. I said we had better fix it back to light brown. We didn’t have enough money to buy more dye, so we brewed really strong coffee and poured it over and over her head until we got it back to the right color. She was later the maid of honor at my wedding.

What was your neighborhood like?
We lived on a street where my grandmother, four of my aunts, and a lot of my cousins were our neighbors. My family lived all around us, in several streets of the subdivision. We all rode our bikes up and down the streets, and walked to our cousin's houses to play. There was a field behind the sub-division where we played until dark everyday. We knew everyone in our neighborhood. The houses were small, with small yards and it was called Pecan Valley. The houses were very close-together. Now when you visit the same neighborhood, the houses are rental and low-income. It’s not a good neighborhood anymore.

Did San Antonio look different when you were growing up?
There were no malls. If I wanted to go shopping, I went to Joske’s shop downtown. There were small stores with animated displays outside. The traffic outside was less than today, and there were less highways. There was no wal-mart. I went to a lot of small "mom and pop" type of stores, such as Gibsons, Wynns and Cretzky’s. There was no highway 410 or 1604 either, and people had less cars than today.

What did you do for fun?
I played with my cousins- we would go on family trips and camping. I’d go fishing with my grandpa for hours. When I was old enough to date, I went to the movies, dances, and the park every weekend.

Who was your first boyfriend?
My first boyfriend’s name was Norman. We lived in a small town of only 100 people and most of them were relatives- It was hard to find a boyfriend. For my 15th birthday he bought me 12 yellow roses.

What movies were popular back then?
Elvis,The Beatles, Jail house rock...I liked jail house rock because of the dancing, and remembered everyone at the time was mad at this movie, and kids weren’t allowed to watch it, because they said it was vulgar. I never liked music, but I’d go to the movies with boys I met in the military, and we’d watch movies such as Blue Hawaii. I could not afford a color television set, but I went with my sisters to a corner store and watched Red Skeleton,which was a comedy act. There was an outside speaker and everything, and we’d buy cokes and floats, and sit outside and watch for hours.

Did times back then seem more peaceful? Explain.
I believe the streets were more peaceful. We’d be gone for hours, playing. We rode the bus downtown when we were older with my cousin, where we’d go shopping and talk to soldiers. We would even go with them to the movies, and for a coke afterwards. There were a lot of military guys downtown- they had been drafted.

What was your school like?
Schools were the same as they are today. We were allowed to go to school activities on school time. We could not wear pants or skirts to school, though. If you were married, you could not graduate with your class or join clubs. If you were pregnant, you had to quit. You don’t know how important school is until you look for a good job. If a girl was wearing pants, she was sent home. There were no computers or air conditioning. We typed on type-writers. For lunch, we usually left campus , ate at home ,and came back later. They did not offer free lunch to anyone.

Do you remember any discrimination back then?
I went to a restaurant with a group of friends, and two of them were a mixed married couple. The girl was white and her husband was black. They asked our whole table to go to the back and refused to wait on us. Also, when I'd go to eat with my friend’s David and Rosemary (a mixed couple) many waiters refused to help us.

What were the special places in San Antonio?
Downtown was special, because there were a lot of things to see, like museums and the Alamo ,and a lot of restaurants to go to. When I was young, a lot more people spent time shopping downtown ,and a lot of kids took busses there and went to the movies.

Did you travel? Where?
I traveled a lot. I've been to Chicago, Houston, Flordia, Georgia, Nevada and Dallas. My favorite trip was Chicago. One time in Chicago, I didn’t have a cab reservation, so none of the cabs would take me anywhere. I finally found a guy that took me to a hotel, and he said his friend would pick me up from the hotel later. I ended up calling a friend to get me instead ,and I later found it was a huge scam and they were robbing people. I enjoyed their blues clubs, the sears tower, the pretzels and the pizza. I went to the Wrigley gum factory too.

What school subject did you like?
My favorite subject was history, but I did not finish school ,so I did not get to study it as much as I wanted to. I took book-keeping classes, because I needed a job. A lot of the girls would take home ec. classes, but there were no boys in them at all. If you were a boy taking that class, everybody would laugh at you and call you sissy.

What kinds of things do you do for fun these days?
I like bowling , a lot. I go bowling with my friends every single Tuesday. I also love arts and crafts. I was the secretary of the CB club with my husband. (That’s what they call the radios they keep in big trucks). My husband loves to work on cars and go to car shows. I love going antique shopping and to different restaurants.

What is your dream job?
I always wanted to be an airline stewardess ,because you get to travel everywhere, and meet all kinds of people. I never pursued this dream , though.

What is your political affiliation?
I consider myself to be a Republican.

Would you like to add anything?
My mom taught me to sew when I was about 12- she made all my clothes when I went to school. I made clothes for both my children and myself. I do a lot of crafts, and sell them at shows. I really like to meet and talk to people and share ideas. I have two children- a boy and a girl. I have six grandchildren- four girls and two boys. My daughter was the first girl born on my husbands side of the family for five generations. I had always been married longer than my mom. My dad died at 34, a year after I was married. My mom later re-married, and her husband died after 17 years of marriage.