TRANSCRIPTION
Describe your childhood.
Yes, it is a long time ago. I can still remember it. The part that I remember the best was summertime which I loved. I loved the summertime up in Hunt, Texas on the Guadalupe river and learned to swim when I was very young everyday we would swim two or three times a day. And the rest of the time ran around barefoot all summer. And a lot of my child hood , four years was during World War Two . And all the dads were gone away to the war. And I remember hiding under the bed when I was supposed to go to bed. I wanted to listen to the radio because I wanted know when that war was going to be over. So I would listen to the radio at night. I was under the bed so they could not hear me.
How was it to be waiting for the war to be over and waiting for your father to come home from the war?
Everyone's father was gone to war. All our relatives and even some of our cousins and some of them did not come back. And so it was a hard time for everyone. And we were also restricted we had to have coupon for butter, sugar, tires, and shoes. You could not just buy those things the way they do know people have all these pairs of shoes and we were restricted because so much of the material had to go for the war effort. And so people, everyone in the country was involved in sacrificing although some more than others. The one that had to go and be a part of the military.
Do you remember how you felt when your father came home from the war?
I remember we celebrated like everyone. But my dad and mother were divorced. So I didn't get to see him very often in my childhood. And he remarried and two more children. And I saw them now and then actually I have more contact with them now than I did when we were children.
What was life like in the Hill country as a child?
We had a lot of freedom as long as we stayed in our boundaries. We did a lot of reading. There were no televisions so I did lots of reading books during the summer and also we were all very fond of comic books. I would say in the complex of cabins there were about twenty little kids an we all hung out together. We were all different ages and we would play games together. We had swimming games and we had games that played on the land. It was just a big adventure really and that part was great. School not so much. I went to school here in San Antonio, Alamo Heights schools, first grade through high school and I remember elementary school I spent as much time being sick as I could. So I could stay home and read books.
Was the Hill Country part of San Antonio?
No, it is not a part of San Antonio. It is near Kerrville, and Hunt Texas near the Guadalupe River.
Is it (the Hill Country) different now? If so how?
It (the Hill Country) has been developed so much now. The city, well the town of Kerrville is a larger place now and there're more people now. And we have problems with the water. Developers coming we spent ten years nearly fighting with one neighbor who dump a lot of sewage in the water. And it took a lot of effort from a lot of people to prevent that pollution from happening.
You have lived in different parts of the country. Why did you move to Texas from Ohio?
My husband had a job on the faculty of Baylor College of medicine. He waited until I completed my PhD then he accepted that position on the faculty there.
Which Baylor campus?
College of medicine in Houston, Texas. Not Baylor University it is a separate thing.
What is your favorite place to live and why?
You mean of all the time? Hill Country because I have so many happy memories and I have relatives there. And our family comes there from all over the world top visit with each other. And a number of us own the cabins together so we come and stay there.
Do you all get together in the summertime or other times of the year?
Mostly in summertime because we do have central heat also because that is when people have vacations.
How would you compare your life now from when you were growing up?
I have to use more technology. I started driving a car when I was thirteen years old. So I have been driving a car for a long time. I drive a car more than I like know. I use to enjoy it (driving) not anymore. It's a chore.
You have accomplished a great deal educationally by obtaining your PhD. What obstacles did you have to overcome to reach this goal? Do you think it was would be easier for you to reach that goal in this generation?
I did not know how to use my type writer. The fact of the matter is that my husband typed my master's thesis and dissertation because I could never type. But now that we have word processors I can do that. But I use to feel that you an obstacle during that time period.
Do you think it would be easier to reach your goal of obtaining a PhD if you started school right now in this generation?
I have to say in the first place it wasn't my goal to get my PhD. It just kind of happened I was encouraged to keep doing that (get PHD). I never thought that oh I'm going to do this. But I found school to be easy and I would say that I really do know if it was easy or not easy a lot of things are life events like getting married and actually in my life some people well I finished my PhD and I did a lot of work but then I had three children. That I didn't have before. Before I only had one child. When I had four children that slowed things in the career down but I had a lot of fun and I learned a lot from that. I don't know how to really answer that but I will say there are fewer obstacles for women and very much how they were treated in the 50's and 60's.
Did your parents instill the importance of education in your life? How far did they go in school?
I would so my mother definitely did. My mother graduated from college was nineteen years old she was a Phi Beta Kappa. She was a reader she read to us she told use stories. And it was always understood that we would go to college and that was never a question. It was a given understanding we just know that it was going to happen.
Did your siblings go to college?
Yes, they did they all graduated from college. And lets see, yes all four of them
What was your first job?
Oh, I can't really think when you say first job, I was a camp counselor back in the day. And then I had jobs on campus (Ohio State) I was assistant to my laboratory and in the summers I was a camp counselor. And I taught canoeing and swimming. And then after college my first job was working in a research lab
What jobs were available for women when you were old enough to get a job?
Well, I really don't know but I would say they where more likely to be a teacher, nurse, secretaries but you seldom would see a women in a hired in administration positions. But there were women who were physicians, for a long time and researchers. If you go back and look at Marie Curie she was a long time ago that's a long time a go but she was a remarkable young person. Still it was more you would be discourage from doing things like that than you been prohibited from doing things like that.
What jobs did women have in you family? (mother? grandmothers? aunts?)
My grandmother was a homemaker. My mother worked as a teacher very short time she could not stand it. Most of her working life she worked as an accountant. My father was an artist. And I was thinking most of my female relatives that I remember that some where artist and one was a registered nurse, most of them were homemakers.
How many years have you been teaching?
Okay here 1990(Palo Alto College). Before that a couple of years in high school. A total of twenty years of teaching.
Church was important in your life, would you say that you attended almost every Sunday?
Throughout my life not every Sunday, but regularly. More well it just depends.
You are a part of the Spirit of Peace how did you get involved with the cause for peace?
Well, I guess I go off of what Benjamin Franklin "There never was a good war, or a bad peace." And I don't she anything to be accomplished by hurting other people badly or at all. And so I just thought that for ever. But that I' m in now is because of the person that started it was a Sunday school student of ours when who was a child. And so when she came to san Antonio and wanted to start this church we (my husband and I) decided to support that.
What are some of the biggest changes that you see in life for women today?
I think that they're well in America they have in some ways more challenges because they are expected to be wonderful homemakers, wonderful fulltime mothers and wonderful career people all at once. And I think it is hard to balance it out. So I think that they are challenged in a lot of ways, more than they used to be. Just good but it is not like you have option you have to do everything it seems to me.
So you feel that before you had to choose to be either a homemaker or if you wanted to go in the work force. Yes, but you weren't encouraged to go in the workforce. But know you are encouraged to do well at everything. But I think that is true of both men and women. The role models that are put out there for women are not realistic they are supposed to be emaciated but very strong. Glamorous but very intellectual there is not end to it. I just think it is hard for people. But anyway.
Do you think women were treated differently in other parts of the country that you lived in? If so how?
I would say interesting enough, I would say that there was more courtesy shown towards women but on the surface in Texas, a lot of guys would open the door for ladies and show a certain kind of courtesy to women that in I don't want to say exactly where because it sound like I knocking these folks. But they'd be what I would think is discourtesy in the way they spoke to women in compare to what I had seen where I was going up.
What advice would you give women of today?
I guess the same advice that you would give to men you know is do the best you can and keep feeling a lot of hope enjoy your life.
Is there anything else you would like to add to this interview?
While no I have enjoyed talking to you. Thank you, Dionne, I have enjoyed having you in my class.
Thank you for your time.
You are very welcome
