Sally's Story
Were you born in Ingleside Texas?
No, I wasn't I was born on a ranch in San Patricio County. My older sister was born in a hospital so I'm not sure why I was born on an old dusty ranch, but that's where I was born. The ranch belonged to my aunt and her family and she assisted in my birth, maybe that's why we were extra close! You just don't see many home births anymore, or doctors making house calls. I was born on a ranch but the doctor had driven out there to help deliver me. But after my birth we moved to Ingleside and lived in the same house my entire life.
How big was Ingleside when you were growing up there?
Not very big, it was a class A school district and I only had 28 in my graduating class in 1958. We didn't have a kindergarten or even a school cafeteria. We took our own lunches or walked home, but usually you didn't get to go home for lunch till sixth grade, which was a big deal.
What was the average day for you growing up in Ingleside?
No one had air-conditioning so the windows were open a lot of the time, which meant you heard everything and everyone. You always knew your neighbors business which was okay because they had heard yours the night before. We did our chores before we left for school and then we started walking to school. Most of us walked cause the bus only ran to the houses over two miles away from campus. In the lower grades mom would have other kids walk with us like a buddy system and then in sixth grade when we started walking home for lunch we usually walked by ourselves.
Is this you in the picture as a child in the old timey wash tub?
Yep, that's me…. All exposed to the world. Those were different times when we all ran around without much clothing as kids. There I am even without panties.
What are some of your favorite memories of growing up in such a small town as Ingleside?
Having true good friends and knowing everyone in town. It was such a safe town and time, we walked everywhere even at night. Us girls use to walk up to Hubble road to the Community Youth Hall on Friday nights to dance and would walk home late at night with no worries. Pearsall is a small town but it's far from a safe one. Now I don't like even walking to get my trash can after dark, but then we were safe. It was a really safe town and we could have fun times out on the town because it was a safe place. We rode the bus up to A&I college, which is now A&M in Kingsville for the day to watch Basket Ball games or go to banquets yet we were never scared to. Now It's not safe to ride the bus, it all changed around 1963. Last year I went back for my fiftieth class reunion and as we all sat there and talked what we kept saying we missed was living somewhere safe like where we grew up.
What was the role of the church in Ingleside?
Oh my, they didn't like me dancing, oh no they thought it was shameful, but I did it any ways. We all danced though at the Youth Halls for 25 cents a time and you had to sign in and out. I don't know why the church didn't like it, there were always a lot of parents volunteering as chaperons at the dances. Besides the " Park and Eat" that was open on weekends there was nothing else for the youth to do but dance and it was always clean, but usually people would question you at church about it. There was a Church of Christ, First Baptist, Methodist, Assembly of God and the Catholic church. If you didn't show up to church the preacher would come by the house and ask you why you missed, so you better truly be sick or you were going to get an ear full. Nothing was open on Sundays; you went to church and then spent the day with family.
Is this a picture of you as a toddler trying to push a car?
Yes, that was my dad's car I was playing with. . I guess I was pretending I was driving like daddy. Mother didn't have her own car till much later so dad did all the driving.
Did you feel that the education you received in Ingleside was of the same quality as other kids were receiving at the time, or did you think it was less because of how small of a town it was?
No, it was fine. Us girls though were not schooled to go to college, I think only one girl went to college right out of school, out of my class and I don't think she finished. We were expected to be homemakers and to get a "female job" but I didn't do either right away. I didn't get married straight out of school, I waited till I was 21 or so and I got a "man's job", I sold shrimp boat insurance on the docks along the southern coastline of Texas. Isn't that a strange first job? I started in boat insurance and now I sale life insurance, I guess there really isn't that big of a difference. My education did me well in all my jobs, because I knew how to learn something if I didn't already know it.
Were schools segregated when you were going through school?
Yes, we didn't integrate until 1956 and until the whites we differently the majority in school and town. I only had two Hispanics in my graduation class and they came in during our senior year. It was not a very diverse town at the time, but we didn't know any different, it wasn't really that we didn't want other skin colors there just wasn't many in the area.
Was there discrimination between the different social classes when you were growing up?
There was and will always be "clicks" but it was not vicious and mean like it can get now. I was probably one of the poorer girls in school, but I never was made to feel like I was less than the other girls. Most of the other girls' daddy's worked in the umble , owned their own stores, or worked at the big newspaper office in Corpus, but my dad worked construction and often had to hunt and peck for work. Though we didn't have money mom always kept us clean and if we wanted a new dress she could usually come up with neat fabric to make one. It was always hard for my family but I didn't yearn for stuff cause we didn't have TV yet so I didn't know what I was missing. I never felt left out, but I just love everybody so I wasn't picky who I hung around I with. Times were different, you didn't have to have new everything like you do today to be cool.
Did you have an after school job?
No, most girls didn't work outside the home during school session but some boys would work for their fathers. Us girls would sometimes work during the summer times but usually we had other things to do. This is what we would do instead of a job; the homemaking department at school was in a large house by the high school. So during the summer then we would take homemaking classes at the house for some school credits. We would also have free babysitting there and would sew new outfits for each other too.
Do you feel that growing up in a small town was of benefit or a hindrance to your life?
Oh no! It was wonderful, it was more like a village then a town and you've heard the saying " it takes a village to raise a child" and in Ingleside that's how it was. Everyone helped everyone and that made it wonderful.
Did your mother work when you were growing up, or did most women stay home?
My mother worked, and actually a lot of my friends mothers did too, but they didn't work as long of hours as men and the only worked at "female Jobs." It was uncommon for a woman to work full time but women did work at grocery stores, fabric stores, dress shops, many were telephone operators and some were teachers, but you were not a teacher if you had kids at home. The kids either had to be grown or you didn't have any because you had to work too much to be a good mom as a teacher. Mom worked at a privately owned department store, but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. Before I started school I often went to work with her. Though the women worked they didn't forget their family role of a mother.
What age were you allowed to start dating and what were the rules for dating?
Dad said we could start dating a sixteen which was the average age to start. We could have boyfriends but for the first few dates we had to eat dinner with my family then attend church together and then we were allowed to walk together to get ice cream. The boy always paid for the date of course. Then after dad had built up trust in the boy we could go dancing at the Community Youth Hall dances in Ingleside and every once and awhile we went to a picture show. Once you had been dating awhile and you both could drive, you could travel to Corpus Christi to their Community Youth Hall to dance, but never on a church day, remember? We could never do anything on Sundays or Wednesday's except go to church together, but that was never a bad thing, we usually had fun. We sometimes could ride home with a boy before we got our driver license but only if it was preapproved by dad and it wasn't dark yet. Mom always drove us to our dates in town until we could drive.
You said you were not schooled to go to college because you were a girl. Did you feel that because you were a female and you lived in a small town that your opportunities were limited?
You know I really don't know why more girls didn't go to college. Maybe it was the stay at home mindset or the cost but we all could find descent jobs after we graduated. I wouldn't say we were deprived of the opportunity of a good life, just maybe of a life different then we had known. We all just kinda followed in the footsteps others had taken. I went to work making 50 cents a hour for the ford motor company after I sold boat insurance for a season and was able to buy my first car before I had even been out of high school a whole year. I thought I was living it big! I think my monthly payment was $ 74 and I was so excited I was making enough I could buy a car and survive. I think the biggest deal about college was that our dads felt it was a waste of money to was education on a girl who would just be at home cooking most of her life. It was hard enough to send boys to college cause everyone was poor, though we didn't know we were poor, because we were content with what we had been blessed with.
Did you ever regret not going to college?
Not really, I went to night school and then went to Del Mar which was enough for me.
After graduation did you always think you would live in a small town, or were you ready for city life?
I knew I would always live in a small town because I dreamed of marrying a farmer and you can't farmer potatoes or any other crop in the big city concrete jungles. I had dated a black dirt farmer's son for a few years and though I would probably marry him and knew the black dirt crops were stable and so I knew my live in Ingleside would be okay. Then I met and married Clifton and came to Pearsall to see we were going to be farming peanuts in red clay. I about lost my mind! All I knew was that red clay stained clothes, was not stable for farming and that peanuts were a gamble form year to year. It was a very scary change for me until after the end of the first harvest.
Was Ingleside affected by the Vietnam War?
Besides guys being deployed I don't remember much, if anything it helped our economy, because we were a coastal town so when ships came in there were jobs available to work on the ships for the men that were still at home plus the sailors would buy stuff in town. I do remember something funny though that we all did, it was "Sky patrol" at the fire station. Looking back it is so funny, but at the time we all took it very seriously. Everyone in town would volunteer to sit at the fire station outside and watch the skies for planes, and then we would record everything we could. There were always two assigned to every fire station in the coastal area all the time, day or night. You just had to be over 13 years old to do it, so some kids would sit after school. I didn't many of night shifts because I liked to swim until dark then would go report to "sky patrol" and enjoy the stars. We all did it, I guess it was our way of feeling like we were helping. If I suggested we do that today, I would probably get thrown in the loony house!
Was your family accepting of the TV invention?
I think so, our first one was a black and white 12 inch that sat on a rod iron stand. It only had two channels which went off at ten p.m. with the national anthem playing. I don't remember a big fuss over the TV, but I do remember when we got our first electric stove, we all were amazed. I think mom thought dad had gone crazy when he bought it, but she soon learned to love it. Can you imagine getting excited over a new stove these days? It was so cool to get one though. But I didn't have a telephone in my home until I got married and moved to Pearsall in 1960.
How did you meet your husband?
He was a student at A&I college in Kingsville and during dead week he came home with his roommate who happen to be my neighbor and we were introduced. Then we started dating. That would have been around the first week of May 1960, we were engaged by that June and married in October 1960. I know that sounds rushed but short engagements were not uncommon then because we didn't hope into bed with men before we were married to them, so if you loved him you married him and quick. I was still living at home when we got married even though I was 21, but that's just how it went, you didn't move out until you were married. I got married and moved out of my parents' house to Pearsall and within two weeks of being here Clifton got drafted into the Air Patrol as a mechanic and left within a month of our wedding so I moved back home to Ingleside till he returned. Our First child was born while he was away.
Where did you get married?
At the First Baptist Church in Ingleside. It was October 1960 and I married Clifton Stacy and we are still happily married to this today. Oh it was such a nice wedding for the time. We were pretty poor and so I sold my first car to pay for the wedding of my dreams.
The picture of Mr. Stacy as a young man, when was that taken?
That was taken on his fortieth birthday in 1978. Doesn't he look like a Texas Ranger? He never did age much, that's why I married him, he makes me look younger even though he is ten year my elder.
How many Children did you have?
Well, I only birthed two, Clifton Jr. or Son as I call him and Amanda, we adopted Tracy. Adoption was real popular here at that time and it wasn't as expensive as it is now. I got Tracy off the black market but there was eight adoptions in Pearsall that year, some from the Methodist home in San Antonio others from private agencies. Pearsall was very excepting of it at that time when kids got to picking on them most of them would usually say "at least my parents picked me, your parents just were stuck with you." When I said "Black Market" what was meant by that was that doctors here would call families in town if he had a mother who didn't want her child and you would just got pick the child up at the hospital and pay the doctors cost and go to the court House and change their name.
What was the center of town, where everyone gathered when you moved to Pearsall?
It was definitely Danchak's Ben Frankline's store. Everyone went down there to socialize, catch up on good gossip and try to solve all the world's problems! There was always a fresh pot of free coffee and plenty of places to sit and talk. Usually there were other kids in there so my children always thought it was fun. You didn't buy something every time you went in, just when you needed something, but most people went in a few times a week to catch up.
What was the Industry in Pearsall when you moved here and what is it now?
The Medina Electric Co-op had just been opened when we got to town. Besides offering jobs to the men of town, it brought with it a lot of new families to the community. Now I would say Medina still has a strong hold on the industrial side, but also all the prisons in the area and our local immigration facility sure has boosted our work force. Strange how a jail can be a life saver for many unemployed people .
What jobs have you had in Pearsall?
Well after I sold shrimp boat insurance and worked for the Ford Motor Credit Company, I moved to Pearsall and Substituted as a teacher in junior high and High School. When I substituted I made $ 10 a day so after taxes a brought home around $7. 15. Then as the kids got older I opened Pat Walker's figure Salon , it was an exercise parlor for women only. I had it here at the house in a closed in garaged. I helped the women with their nutrition and gave suggestions on how to eat healthier, then laid them on a hug couch like thing that had rollers and went back and worth and tried to work to fat away. Boy how stupid I feel now and to think I actually made money with it! It was a franchise that you owned and there could only be one every 50 miles so when I was ready to get out there were woman itching to buy me out. After that I didn't think I needed to work but I soon realized I had to work for my sanity. With three kids at home I was going to go crazy! So I made jewelry for awhile and sold it to friends and door to door. Then I opened a flower shop on Main Street in Pearsall and ran it for four years. Then I was run out of business by Wal-Mart and so I got my insurance license and went to work for New York Life Insurance Company and have been the local agent for the past 16 years. I have had a lot of jobs, but I never worked when the kids were little, no one did until all your kids were in school. Kids were your most important jobs!
Did you ever find it hard to raise your children in a small town like Pearsall?
Not at all with Son, we were still the majority but it soon changed. By the time my youngest Amanda was in 6th grade we were the minority by far. In school there were only 24 Anglos in the junior high of 180. When the switch happened more problems arose with schools. I had all the junior high cheer moms who happened to be Hispanic mad at me because I wouldn't spend $500 on a cheer leader outfit for my 11 year old when they were willing to yet they couldn't pay their light bill or buy groceries for their six kids without governmental help. It made me so mad! Most of them spent their money on stuff they shouldn't and didn't pay their bills in town. I hate to say it but that's when our crime rate went up and town became not safe. We couldn't let the kids walk or ride their bikes alone and we started worrying about our daughters. We immigrants started settling here and not adopting our way of life but keeping theirs, drunk driving went up, rapes went up and the town became the violent drug ring we see today.
What was the occasion for your whole family to be dressed in vintage clothing in down town Pearsall?
It was the centennial of Frio County in 1971. There were all kinds of festivities that week in celebration. You would never believe everything that we did for it! There were Kings and Queens and even plays. Every night at the High School foot ball field, the town's people put on plays that reenacted some of the historical events of our past. The plays were really big productions with a producer and all. Everyone had fancy clothes that were made to fit the part and the whole community was involved. Some where there is a picture of Clifton in a bath tub in front of the whole town, but I forgot what he was playing, I just remember it was hilarious. It was a BIG DEAL , we had luncheons, talent shows, pageants and the nightly plays.
Because Ingleside was not a very diverse community, was it hard for you when you moved to Pearsall that is mostly Hispanics?
Yes, it was a major culture shock. Schools were still segregated in Pearsall when I moved here in 1960. If you didn't speak English you went to the West Side campus and if you spoke good English you went to the Grammar School campus. You didn't even have teachers of different nationalities at the Grammar School they were all white teachers until the new Grammar School campus was built in 1966 and everyone went to school at the same place.
Which Christmas did you receive the cup towels we see a picture of?
That was Christmas 1977. I friend of mine gave me those Strawberry towels for my kitchen. We had just built a new house and everything in my kitchen was Strawberries. With how excited I was over those towels you would have thought they were made out of gold. Could you believe someone could get so hyper of pieces of cloth? Is Sure was. That was a great Christmas!
During the economic struggles of the past, do you feel the small towns weathered the time better than the city or was hurt worse?
No I think that we always did okay. Yes times got tough sometimes but none of the working class here lives high on the hog so we never felt it really. Even today our economy is growing here in town while the nation is facing a recession. I look at Dilley and see that a family can live nicely still for $21,000 a year, Pearsall for about $ 36,000 and San Antonio for around $63,000. Here we know how to make do very well.
What do you think has added to Pearsall slowly dying away?
For one Wal-Mart. When it moved in during the early 80's it forced Robert's Grocery out, Danchak's out and all the mom and pop places. Then we started getting all the fast food joints. First to come to town was Dairy Queen and then Pizza Hut followed by a few more. I don't understand how so many people can survived to eat out, besides the cost of it, the health ramifications of the greasy junk.
