Lois Kosub
I have a fond memory of one house we lived a long time in one house in San Antonio and
I had fun in that house. As I recall the house it had a picket fence around it, and we had a
friend down the street that we used to play with. They had an old wheelbarrow that we liked to
be pushed around, so we always had parades up and down the street. Peggy (my sister) was
always the clown, I don't remember what outfit I wore, but since I was a majorette, I would get
my baton and march backwards, leading the parade, and one time I fell in the garbage. Everybody
laughed and it was so humiliating, two legs sticking up my head sticking up. Then we would go
down to Virginia Nolan's house and we swore we saw little fairies in the grass along the fence
line, just fantasy and I really enjoyed those times.
How did you spend holidays?
At Easter we would go get long green grass and make Easter baskets. We would get rocks and colored them. That's all that mattered. We didn't care that we didn't have candy. At Christmas time we never got anything. We didn't even have a tree. There was one time I recall when daddy went to the lot where the trees were being sold on Christmas Eve and they were just giving them away. He brought us one that looked like Charlie Brown's. And that was the year we had a tree. On Christmas day, the fire trucks would come around and throw candy to all of us and we were just scrambling for it. We thought all the kids in the United States got candy; we didn't know they were doing it for the poor kids. We were really so poor.
There was a bus stop on the corner and there was a bench that people could sit on, a man in the neighborhood made the bench and everyone was so happy that he made that bench so they could sit on it, it was probably the first bus stop in San Antonio.
And there were bad memories there too.
What types of chores did you have to do?
The chores, well I'll tell ya, school was a block away, about two blocks away actually, and we would get up at about five in the morning and we had to have the house spotless before we left, so the beds were made and everything was done before we left. Which was very good training for us and that left momma free to do the washing and ironing and things like that, and to go and play bunko (laugh, laugh), and have a good time.
Did you ever learn to cook, and or sew?
No I never learned to cook unfortunately, especially for Leo when we got married I had to learn, and sewing I was still trying at the age of 65, I finally gave up it was a hopeless situation, in fact I gave mama's machine a beautiful, almost brand new Singer away when she was put in a nursing a nursing home. Because I couldn't use it I didn't know how to sew.
Did you know about the Great Depression and the war?
Oh yeah, oh yeah, Herbert Hoover was President and the Depression was terribly, terribly hard, for most people. And we were so hungry we had a bowl of fried onions twice a day, for the whole family and that was it, and Daddy would get in the bread line and they would give him a burlap bag with carrots and potatoes and lye soap, the carrots and potatoes were rotten and tasted like lye soap, and they were really not good eating, I guess that why we just lived on fried onions. And to this day I like fried onions. I feel sorry for any kids today if that should ever happen because they couldn't cope.
During the war we dragged the wagons around picking up cellophane and scrap paper and scrap metal and chewing gum wrappers. It was a terrible time for all of us. Today, kids think it's a terrible thing if they don't have the shoes they want. We used ration stamps during the war. I remember the red stamps were for meat. There were ration stamps for shoes. My brother was so hard on shoes that the nuns would give us their ration stamps to buy him new shoes. Back them they were not leather, they were more like cardboard. Everybody had cardboard inserts inside their shoes to cover the holes until you got more coupons.
Did you work anywhere when you were young? When I was younger I worked at Joske's and on our lunch hour we would go down Houston Street, which was the only street in San Antonio to buy clothes. If you didn't go down Houston Street, you had nothing to wear. We went to Mode-O-Day, I don't think they are in business today, and put a lot of things in lay-a-way. We only made .50 cents an hour at Joske's and we had to put every thing on lay-a-away get them out later. Most of the suits back then were corduroy and only cost about $10.00. It took forever to pay them off. Do you have any stories to tell? I wish Mike (my sister) were here because between the two of us we could probably tell some good stories. Some I can remember part of and some she could. We lived about 70 miles away from Camp Stanley and he had to take three buses to the end of the line. His boss, I'll never forget his name, Mr. Hammond, had a car would pick him up and take him to Camp Stanley. But if the bus were late, Mr. Hammond wouldn't wait. He'd just go on. I thought that was cruel. Daddy had to trudge along in the rain. Back in the 40's we had quite a bit of snow. Not much, but about two to three inches and daddy had to walk all the way. I don't understand why someone wouldn't wait until the bus got there. He worked at Camp Stanley, as a government employee. I never knew what daddy did. Did your husband go into the service?
Yes, he went into the service in October or November of 1950. He was in the navy, and he was supposed to get a six-week leave after boot camp. We were going to be married and he called me from San Francisco and he said he would be leaving any time for the Philippines for the next three years. I was totally devastated. For some odd reason there was a plane that was supposed to have eight seamen and at the last minute they dropped one seaman and put one airman on the plane. He had three days at home and we got married. So then he left for Tennessee for a very extensive course that he took. Then we moved to Memphis, Tennessee and then we were transferred to Corpus for three years. When we were in Memphis he was only making about $86 a month. They don't pay much better now. The rent was $42 and we lived over 30 miles from base and at time they were not allowed to hitch a ride. During the war anyone would pick up a service man, but not afterwards. So all we had every day was a can of pork and beans. He would get a ride and what little money we had we would get a bus pass and take a bus to the end of the line and walk the rest hoping someone would pick him up. For lunch, which he could be court martialed for, he would borrow one of his buddies' chow passes once his buddy had eaten and go through the line again. He got away with it, which I am grateful for because he was not that kind of person. Then we finally got on our feet eventually. Thank goodness. Sherrill lived. (Her Daughter)
Thank you for letting me interview you
No thank you! I'm glad my story could be told.
