Eva Blackwell Oral History Interview, February 21, 1979

JL: Eva, why don't we start with what you remember about your grandparents?

EB: The only grandparent I really knew was my father's mother, my grandmother.

JL: What was her name?

EB: Her name was Mariah. I don't know what her maiden name was. I have the family Bible. I could look it up. My dad was born in Missouri. And then they lived in Colorado. I remember him telling when he was 16 they lived at the foot of Pikes Peak. He used to get to go with the pack horses up the Peak with people.

JL: What do you remember about that?

EB: That's all I remember. He just told me how he enjoyed going with the tourists. He'd help out. I don't what they did or anything. He was 16 when they moved from there to Oregon. He told me one time how they came and I 00:01:00didn't pay any attention. I was just a kid and it didn't mean anything. Now I wish I knew. I don't know how they got from Colorado to San Francisco. I have no idea.

JL: Why did they go to San Francisco?

EB: They were coming to Oregon and that is they way they had to go. Then they took a boat from San Francisco to Newport. Then they rode the train from Newport, I guess to Corvallis. That's all I know. I don't know how they got to Smith River. I never did pay any attention. Didn't mean anything. I was a kid you know.

JL: Do you know why they came to Oregon in the first place?

EB: No. I guess they just wanted to get to the coast. They were on a farm up Smith River. A dairy farm.

JL: Your grandfather?

EB: My grandfather 'n grandmother. My dad was the youngest. He had three older sisters. They dairied. I don't know how long they had been there. He 00:02:00worked for different farmers around the river. He was a young man. My mother came from Roseburg to Smith River to teach school. That's how she met him. And then they were married.

JL: Do you know how they met each other?

EB: No. I suppose at a dance, or something on the river. Everything was rowboats. There were no motor boats then. You rode a boat. And if you needed a Dr., you took 2 or 3 good men who could row real fast and you rowed wherever you lived. Smith River has tidewater to Sulphur Springs, which is about 20 miles. Some of the people lived that far. You'd have to row clear to Gardiner to get a Dr. and row him back up the river. You could die two or three times while you were getting the doctor. But, that's the way they lived. Dad 00:03:00worked in a logging camp because his parents were on the farm. And after he married he worked different logging camps, in that area.

JL: In the Sulphur Springs area?

EB: Still on the river down there. See, there was no Reedsport then. There was just Gardiner. Gardiner is one of the oldest towns in the state.

JL: And it was established as a fishing port?

EB: Well, it was a lumber town. It had a big sawmill. And he worked there. Then in about 1902, I guess, his father was drowned. He drowned working in a tidebox, or something, on the farm over a little creek and he drowned.

So I think that's when dad took the farm over. By that time his three sisters were married. Well one never married.

JL: He took your grandfather.1 s dairy farm over?

EB: Yes, I don't know. I suppose they all dairied. So he took the farm over. 00:04:00We lived on the farm until I was seven. I went to my first school over there. We usually boarded the school teacher and the school house was across the river. So, when I was five, she took me to school with her.

JL: Where were you born?

EB: In Roseburg. JL: When? EB: 1900. Yes. When I was seven, by that time I had a little sister; and Dad they sold the farm. We moved to Gardner and he worked the mill, well he worked for the mill. He drove team and hauled freight back and forth from the stores to the schooners. See, everything that you didn't raise on the farm came in on a schooner from San Francisco or San Pedro. Like, we'd get oranges for Christmas.

JL: Do you remember the schooners?

EB: I don't remember them. I was younger than that. I guess they moved to town when I was about three, because I don't remember it.

JL: When you moved from the dairy farm?

EB: Yes, from the farm. They left that farm and moved down there. And then I don't know how long they lived there, but they moved back to the ranch, because my sister was born on the ranch in 1906.

JL: So let me get this straight. Your father and mother took over your grandparents dairy farm?

EB: Yes.

JL: Then moved back to Gardner?

EB: They had never lived in Gardner up to then. I don't think so. I don't think they had.

JL: OK, they moved to Gardner?

EB: They moved to Gardner in probably about 19--? I don't know. They must have lived in Gardner because I was just two or three years old when dad would 00:06:00take me over to the schooners with him, and the sailors would give me a nickel or something like that, and I don't even remember that.

JL: Do you remember Gardiner at all?

EB: Oh, yes. It's still there. I remember because we moved back there. So, then we moved to the ranch apparently when I was about 3 and then moved back in 1907. So and that's where I went to school, tell well we lived in Gardiner 4 years. When I was 11 we moved back up on the Umpqua River on another dairy farm.

JL: Why did you father give up working in lumber camps?

EB: Well, he was just working for wages, you see, and he always loved cows. So he just wanted, as soon as he got able, to swing it, get the money, why he moved back on a farm. Now he rented this farm. This was on the Umpqua this time 1911. And we had a dairy there.

JL: Did your mother continue teaching?

EB: No. No, she quit teaching when they were married. She never did work again. So we moved to the Umpqua. Well, by that time see I was 11. I was that's when I had to go a mile and a half to school, half way in a rowboat. We usually boarded the teachers. We lived right out on the Umpqua River, on the edge of it and the school was up a little creek called Dean creek and we had to row the boat 3/4 of a mile and then walk 3/4. It was a mile and a half to school. So the teacher which were always women, usually single women, just getting started you know, they always boarded with us. I guess mama was the only one that would take them. I don't know. But, anyway I was always thrilled because I liked somebody around and so we'd, by that time my sister, so we lived there for 4 years, and I got ready for High School by that time.

JL: Did you get private lessons from the teachers that?

EB: Well usually, yea we had an organ and then they traded that in for a piano. And usually if they could they'd get the teacher new music, so I took some music from the teachers there. And then, um, in 1915, in 1914 I was ready, well for my 8th grade I moved back to Gardiner and stayed with my Aunt and Grandmother, to take my 8th grade cause it was a better school you see, this was just country school. And during that time my Grandmother died, but I finished that uh, 8th grade in Gardiner school. And then, went back up on the ranch and took my first year high school from a teacher who boarded with us. She had everything from the first grade to me thru high school. Well, then they...

JL: Just a minute, you're going too fast and I'd like to hear your, what you remember about your living on the dairy farm and something about your parents.

EB: Well, my Dad he never would let, at that time.

JL: What was his full name Eva?

EB: Lincoln, Lincoln A. Lincoln A. Blackwell. He always went LA. Everybody called him Line, and course during all these times there was dances around and for, you rode a boat, when we did move to the Umpqua, then he bought what they called a Columbia River fishing boat, it was a big boat, I think 26" feet long and had a big uh, place in the rear end for they net, and they would set nets in the river, he could do that, you see , set the net in the afternoon and pick it up the next morning.

JL: He liked to fish and he...

EB: Well, it was just another way to make some money.

JL: Oh, he did this for money?

EB: Yea, you see there weren't, weren't a lot of jobs around, and butterfat, we shipped cream, we had a separator, we fed the skim milk to the pigs, so we 00:10:00always had some pigs, and uh, to sell, and they the cream was shipped to Gard, to uh, by that, no to Gardiner to the creamery. And they, it was butter.

JL: Did you have to help on the dairy farm?

EB: He never would let us milk, he said we'd ruin the cows. I never did learn to milk, by hand. Later he got a milking machine. And then course my younger sister who now lives in Portland, her last few years on the ranch, she run the milking machine. But I was gone by that time, but uh, no he never let us, he usually had hired man. We, had had my...

JL: So, did you help at all in the process?

EB: Oh yea. I uh.

JL: What did you do?

EB: Oh washed the separator dishes, and...

JL: What was that like?

EB: Oh, a big old thing that you turn it, it has a big tank on top, and milk goes in and then, now I suppose there all mechanic, uh mechanical, but this was by hand. And then they had to wash this tank, and it went thru and separated 00:11:00the cream and the milk. And there was things in there to wash, the, each morning you see, because the uh, of kinda a, well what would be a kind of a scum out of the milk. My mother always saved milk that had come to the separator, she saved separated milk and cream and they mixed it cause she said that after she washed that separator, and saw what came out of the milk why she didn't want any whole milk. (Laughing) But it would be just uh, not dirt of course because the milk was clean, but uh, anyway we had that, and later.

JL: How many cows did he have?

EB: Oh, we had about, well I don't know how many they had when I was a youngster, I suppose at least a dozen, 15, up on the Umpqua, or on Smith River, later he had oh, 20 - 25. Some of the herds on the river were bigger an that.

JL: Did you ever have to tend the cows and take em out to pasture?

EB: No, we just turned em loose. And uh, it was all fenced you see. I used to...

JL: Did you have any other animals?

EB: Oh we had a couple of horses, I always, I used, when I was, well I'll get to that. Then we uh, as I say my la, the last year on Dean (?) Creek, I was 14 and I been stayed this, took, taken the 8th grade in the Gardiner school, we had to take State Examination, then in Oregon to get out of the 8th grade. We had to take a state exam. And then course I was ready for High School. Well then the next year, we got this teacher who would teach, she boarded with us, and she had all the grades. Now this school up Dean Creek, there was 2 families of us I guess, who were ordinary Oregonians, and the rest were Finnish. 00:13:00Finn, yea she only had about I suppose maybe 15 or 20 in school, but there was all grades. And this last teacher we had, before that, at recess the Finn kids would talk Finnish you know, to each other but she made em all talk English, on the playground.

JL: Why were the Finnish there?

EB: Well they just moved there, there was lots of Finns in that area. They're fisherman you know. And uh, there's still Finnish people down there. Just like Astoria you know, it's full of Finns.

JL: Did you know any of these Finnish people?

EB: Oh went to school with em, oh yea, but uh, I...

JL: Did they accept?

EB: They were ju, you wouldn't know em from anybody else, cept on the playground. They'd talk among themselves, Finnish, cause that's what they spoke I guess, at home. I didn't know any of their parents. I never visited, you see each farm was a mile or 2, 3, 4, 5 miles apart, so you didn't visit. You went to town, or went to school or you went to a big picnic, 4th of July or 00:14:00something where the whole community would congregate, somewhere.

JL: Did they keep to themselves or did they?

EB: No they'd play with us, but if they, like ball or anything, playing or yelling back and forth, it would be in Finn. But uh, we got along alright. I don't mean, didn't know em all, they, but they could talk English to, and she made em talk English on the playground, I member that, that part. Well as I say, I took that first year of high school, when the folks decided they were gonna have to get out of there because I was ready for high school. My sister was 6 years younger, we were, there were 3 of us and we were all 6 years apart. So, uh, Dad was renting that place, my mother had a brother who lived in Riddle, that's down in Southern Oregon, south of Roseburg, and uhm so Dad went out there and bought a farm out there.

JL: Down in Riddle?

EB: A mile south of Riddle. And we moved there.

JL: So you could go to high school?

EB: And we moved there in 1915. And that's...

JL: Was he sorry to leave?

EB: Well, yea he hated to leave, well as I say they only stayed 2 years, because when you've got, down on the coast you have green grass all summer for cattle, you know the heavy dew and all, out there, southern Oregon, and out in the valley, you don't have that, green grass. You had to feed em the summer, well when you have to feed more than you milk, it's, you don't earn too fast, but anyway, they stayed 2 years. Now when we, when we moved there, that was in 1915, we moved an, well I was about a week I think getting into school, so we must a moved in August - September. But, by that...

JL: Were you sorry to move yourself?

EB: Huh? I didn't care. I mean, I grew up in the days when you did what the family did, you didn't express yourself like kids do now, (A Small laugh) 00:16:00you know

JL: Were you sorry to leave your friends?

EB: Well they were so far away, you see after we moved up there from Gardiner, I didn't see em only when we'd go to town, maybe once every 2-3 weeks, so...

JL: What kind of things did you do when you were alone, on the dairy farm?

EB: Well, I was the outdoor one, I was always out with my Dad. I had no problem finding something to do, I don't know what it was, it wasn't very constructive (Laughing) but.

JL: You mean you went out and tended the cattle?

EB: Oh yea, well and I always helped in the hay, and I drove the horses on the hayfork and...

JL: Tell me about that, what was that like?

EB: Well, you just d hitch em to a, your aren't familiar I don't suppose with a hay fork.

JL: Tell me about it.

EB: But it's, well you load this wagon with your hay and up on top one end of the barn's a big hole where the, see the barn has a ceiling like this, so my attic would have a big hole in it up there, and you had this fork that you, loaded you hay from the wagon, drove it to the barn, and forked right at the end 00:17:00under this hole up there, and you had this big fork that was shaped like that two big, oh it was about that long, bout that wide.

JL: Bout a foot by a foot.

EB: Yea and, uh, it had down at the end a little, well it was po, you stuck it way down in the hay and then hooked it onto this rope that was gonna go up in, when the rope tightened it bent some little things out from here that held it onto the fork, and then you drove the horses way out here and pulled that up, and then it hit a, ah, track up there, and went into the barn. And then when it got in there, certain place, Dad would yell WHOA and he'd yank a rope from that and trip it. And the hay was all up there in the loft. You see. And you could drive it all the way thru or you could trip it anywhere, so a , so then the, when he'd yell, the horses would stop, they all I had to do really was 00:18:00hold the lines up, they knew exactly , and they'd start turning around and go back and do it all over again.

JL: How many horses?

EB: Just 2. And uh, so I did that, and I, I don't know what I did. I didn't do much in house if I could get out of it. As I remember we, my sister and I we had to do the dishes, and, we washed the dishes.

JL: How bout fishing? Did you help your father fish?

EB: Well no, that uh, he uh, that was the man, some, now that was a big fishing area and all the big floats ah, the men would put their nets out at night and drift with the tide. And they would, this boat had a big cover kinda over the front end of it, and they'd have a mattress up there and they'd maybe take 2-3 hours and just drift with their nets strung out behind em. But he didn't do that, because he had to be home for milking, so he set his, one end on the river and then the other end out a ways. And he'd go pick that up, and 00:19:00I don't member going with that, and I know one summer he and one of the neighbors up the river fished, and they camped up there. And he had a hired man who milked that summer. But uh, fishing wasn't a big deal, just a side issue, because the dairy was the, was the uh, main object.

JL: What kind of fish did he catch?

EB: They were salmon, big chinook. I, I went with him one day, I can just remember, and I don't know how come, see, where Reedsport is now, was just a huge cannery, and it was oh high as this ceiling on posts, because Reedsport where Reedsport is now, was all under water. When the tide would come up, that was water, and these big pilings, and this cannery stood up on them. And uh, in fact, when Reedsport first started, it uh, the lower part of it would get under water and then they sucked all that ground in out of the Umpqua River, 00:20:00filled it all in later, but it, Reedsport the streets and everything used to be upon big high logs. The whole town.

JL: Would you go there very often?

EB: No we went mostly to Gardiner, because as I say we left, went to Riddle in 1915, and there wasn't any Reedsport, We came back in 1917, why it was a a flourishing little city. And now it's pretty good.

JL: Why was that? Why were people going to Reedsport?

EB: Well, tor the fishing I guess. I don't know who promoted that. This is a history of the Lower Umpqua River that the Reedsport, here's', I was gonna show here's my first school house.

JL: Why don't I take a look at this afterwards?

EB: You can take that, that was taken, you can take it with you and look at it. It's real interesting. The uh, Umpqua River, Historical Society got that out a 00:21:00couple years ago, and uh, I know a lot of the people in it, but it shows Reedsport, what's this now [looking at other papers], Oh this is Salmon Harbor, that's down Winchester Bay, that's like a city almost now. It got they got room down there now for 80U fishing boats. Winchester Bay area.

JL: Well getting back to your, the dairy farm, did your Mother object to your going with your father?

EB: Oh no.

JL: And doing man things?

EB: No.

JL: She encouraged it?

EB: No, my Dad was real good at, we could do, oh she always thought, she let us do a lot of things, she'd say would you let her do that? And he said well she knew what she was doing. He never uhm, he'd show us, you know, how to do it, and then think we could do it. Women would be more afraid I quess, but uh, No he nev, he always watched, always knew what we was doing, we couldn't do 00:22:00anything, well I member once 1 was 13, he let me, my Grandmother and Aunt still lived in Gardiner, and we were 8 miles up the river from Gardiner, and he let me take the boat and go to Gardiner alone when I was 13. And Mama says you gonna let her go down there alone? Well, he says, she's been running the boat all around the river, she knows what she's doing. And course I got down there, called em out there the phone and told em I had arrived, and I don't member coming back. But I member going down. It was, I came back the same day. I know that.

JL: Would you say you were closer to your Father than your Mother?

EB: No, I don't think so. We weren't a real close family. We just got along and uh, I don't know. But uh, he, well I just liked the outdoor. Now my sister 6 ½ years younger.

JL: What was her name?

EB: Her name was Ida. She passed away, her husband's married again. Still lives here in town. But she, she hated to even go to the barn to get some 00:23:00milk. She had no part of the outdoors. She liked to cook and all that.

JL: Did you do many things as a family together? Did you go to church, or?

EB: No, we couldn't go, well when we lived in Gardiner, I went to Sunday school and church, My Mother sang in the choir. Dad didn't go very often. Went to the Methodist, that's the only one they had. I hey had Methodist and Catholic. Once a month I think, a priest came up from Coos Bay to the Catholic Church, give mass once a month. And I guess they had an Episcopal to, and that was about the same deal. But the Methodists, I went there to Sunday school, my Aunt was a Methodist, Sunday school teacher, and uh, then course when we lived at, up the River we didn't, but uh, oh, like 4th of July, and some of those holidays, they'd have a big picnic, well they had a grange, they had a grange 00:24:00hall, the grange was quite active, and they'd have a picnic and every body from 10 - 12 miles would all come.

JL: Tell me about that.

EB: Well, [Laughing], they'd bring their lunches in clothes baskets, took a friend down with me one time after I lived down here, and we went down there and had one, said she'd never seen so much food in her life. But, that didn't happen more n 2 or 3 times a year. Then we had 4-H clubs, on, the river, and I belonged to that, I...

JL: Did you have many girl friends?

EB: Well I had the ones l had in Gardiner when I was a youngster you see, and then weren't, and they up Dean Creek, I was about the oldest again, Most of the children up there were boys, seemed like.

JL: So you were very independent then would you say?

EB: Yea, apparently, l still like to do things alone. I mean I uh, it I, if it's something I know how to do, why 1 like to do it. I guess I'm too much 00:25:00like my own way, I don't know, (Chuckling). Anyway, we uh, they, the uh, 4-H people from here would come down there, once a year and 4th of July they'd always have a big deal on the river, everybody would come and...

JL: What would they do on the river?

EB: Oh, we'd have firecrackers and, course they didn't stay late because by 5 o'clock everybody had to be home to milk the cows. You know when you got a cow, if you don't milk her regular, almost by the clock, well you don't get as much milk.

JL: So these were all dairy farms?

EB: Yea they were all dairy.

JL: Did you play games, or?

EB: Oh yea, at these places we'd play games, and course we'd do school, oh I don't know. Baseball and running, 'n then my dad used to play checkers with us, at home, course we'd go to bed early cause we got up.

JL: What time did you get up?

EB: Well Dad I supposed get up about 5 o'clock, but uh, then uh.

JL: Was you father active in politics?

EB: No uh, he was Republican, but he uh, the one thing he was active in, you see down there that, that area, the county seat was Roseburg, it's like uh, Lane county runs to the coast out at Florence, and their county seats Eugene, well both counties had the same problem. Roseburg didn't know we existed down there, and Eugene didn't know the people on the coast at all, all the roads and everything were built out there. And there was another man that lived up the river past us, and I think almost ever year that I cam remember he and my dad would make a trip to Roseburg to the county Court, trying to get a road up Smith River.

JL: How would they go?

EB: They'd go by stage Scottsburg(?)and stay all night and ride the stage to Drain and down on the train and...

JL: Did you ever do that?

EB: Oh yea, when we'd go out that's, uh as I said, we'd go to Portland to 00:27:00visit, why

that's , we'd ride this paddle wheel boat, it went from Gardiner to Scottsburg every day, round trip...

JL: A paddle wheel boat?

EB: Uh huh, they'd go paddling.

JL: Tell my about that.

EB: Well uh, the name was Eva, but I had nothing to do with it, it was there before I was. It was a long, oh as long as this house probably. Big boat. And a great big paddle wheel, and it ran by I guess steam, I don't know, I suppose the engine was steam. But it had a deck and uh, then when we lived in Gardiner, oh bout once a year, everybody in town would get up and we'd all go to the beach. Go down the Umpqua River and land at Winchester Bay and have a day at the beach. Whole town would be a big picnic.

JL: And you'd take this boat?

EB: And that boat would take us, we was only I think it's 9 miles around that way and now you go by car, it's 4 miles. See the Umpqua River made a big turn, Winchester Bay is here, Gardiners up here. We had to go this way, and not they 00:28:00just shoot across, it's 4 miles.

JL: What was uhm, did people when the boat came by did they wave or have any reaction?

EB: Well, oh no it wouldn't, the Umpqua River is pretty wide up that area, and you paid no attention, now if uh, certain days they brought mail I'd say, if we, if we'd telephone down for some groceries, now we were on this little creek and the boat couldn't get in there, the big boats, so we had to take our launch and go out in the middle of the river and get our things off the boat. And they'd whistle, bout 2-3 miles down, that'd give up time to get out there. And get.

JL: Would they have a pattern of whistling? Or.

EB: Well they had regular, pulled a string that whistled, I suppose it was steam, but uh, if uh. Oh we'd probably get uh, if we'd call up the store. When I was fir, when we first lived in Gardiner, anything we got you see that wasn't grown, like dry goods and sugar and flour and oranges for Christmas and 00:29:00machinery, everything you didn't raise on the farm came in on the schooner from San Francisco, or San Pedro and then they'd go out with a load of lumber, Gardiner was, had a big mill, and uh so they came in. I don't remember.

JL: Was that always an exciting time, when a schooner came in?

EB: I don't know, I suppose. But uh, I don't remember cause I was little then. But then this Eva, that ran even after we moved back to uh, out to Riddle in 1915, IT WAS still running, and then uh, I don't know when they built. Well my Dad passed away in 1936, soon after he passed away they built the road down Smith River, so he never got to ride on it, but he'd spent most of his life trying to get it. County commissioners to do something bout a road down there. But both my sisters, they finally built a High school at Smith River bout half 00:30:00way up an they had school boats, a boat from each end of the river each morning, my sisters both went to high school up Smith River on a school boat. It's pictured in this, in that book you've got.

JL: They went to school on a, a school boat they call it?

EB: Uh huh.

JL: They called it a school boat.

EB: Yea, there was no road. The boat.

JL: Now, let's go back. You were telling me about the picnics, the 4th of July picnic.

EB: Oh yea. And then I think they, as I kinda remember, they'd have a District Fair, then the 4-H people from here d have a 4-H picnic down there. Smith River, there was a lot of us belonged to 4-H. And they'd exhibit, at these fairs. Take their cows, or there.

JL: What did you exhibit?

EB: Oh I had chickens (Laughing). I think I had canning one year, but I wasn't interested in that stuff, I had chickens. And I member in 1916, we still lived in Riddle, 1916 I took chickens to the County Fair which would be Roseburg 00:31:00and I got a blue ribbon on em. So that qual... (TAPE CHANGE)

JL: OK you were telling me about the prizes you got at the County Fair.

EB: Well I took my chickens, it was 2 pullets and a rooster I think, and Dad built me a little pen for em, to Roseburg, that was the County Fair and I suppose that would be in August, and I won 1st prize.

JL: The County Fair was where?

EB: In Roseburg, that was the county seat. This is when we lived in Riddle, 1916 And then, I won 1st prize at the State Fair, so I mean at the County Fair, st that qualified me for a free trip to the State Fair, and I took em again that 00:32:00was the same, just later, the same fall, and I got 1st prize down there on my chickens, and that qualified me for 2 weeks Summer School at, no I must have taken em in 1917. That qualified me for 2 weeks Summer School in 1918 at Oregon State.

JL: And that was the prize, to go to Summer school for 2 weeks at O.A.C.

EB: Yea they had, have it now you know, but it's a week, 5 days I think, I think they come on Sunday now and leave on Friday.

JL: Well lets retrace and talk about your move to Riddle and you moved in 1915.

EB: We moved in 1915, oh yes that was, that was a move. Well the folks got all their things packed, and you know what a scow is? Well (Laughter), you'd call it a flat boat probably, just a great big, oh it's a HUGE thing, big at this room.

JL: A scow? How do you spell that?

EB: SCOW and uh, you uh, you load things on it. You'd call it a barge. Now 00:33:00they call em barges and they're a lot bigger, but they were a scow, and they had a railing on the side, and you towed em with a boat. Well they loaded all their household goods on that scow.

JL: They had rented the scow?

EB: Yea, you could rent em I guess that's what they did, I don't know. And uh, all their household goods and then uh, 7 head of cattle. Dad's dairy cattle we were moving em to Riddle, and 3 horses, so they moved those from Dean Creek to Scottsburg.

JL: I bet that was a spectacle.

EB: I can't remember, all I remember, I know my Mother, my younger sister was 2 years old and the other sister was 9, and Momma and the 2 youngsters then went on the stage just like we used to go to Drain and got the train and went to Riddle. And I guess they stayed with my Uncle. Till, but Dad and I had these 3 00:34:00horses and the 7 head of cattle, and we drove them all the way from Scot, took us a week from Scottsburg to Riddle.

JL: Drove them?

EB: Uh huh, I rode my pony and he rode the other horse, and led the colt, and we drove the horses, or I mean the cows.

JL: How many miles was that?

EB: Well from Scottsburg to Riddle's quite a ways, took us a week, and we'd stay at night with farmers, who'd come along. They'd let us stay, put the cattle in a field, and...

JL: Did you know these farmers?

EB: No, we didn't know em. That's the way people lived then.

JL: Would you have to pay them?

EB: I don't know whether we, well he probably tried to, I suspect he paid them cause they, I don't suppose there'd be any cow feed, just be grass, see it was in I think September. Must a been cause I was a week late getting into school. Took, took Dad and I a week...

JL: Was that a tough trip for you?

EB: Oh, I loved it, but uh the only thing that bothered me I member he had got 00:35:00me this pony, she weighed bout, oh about 700, little black pony, and course cows you don't run them, you just walk, you can see a cow walk along, you know what pace you're going, if you're walking yourself, you can out-walk em, so with a long, a long day, and I can remember stopping, I'd stop and wait a long time and then I'd just gallop as fast as I could till I caught em up.

JL: You liked, you liked to go fast?

EB: Yea, I, I Oh I loved the pony, but that took us a week, and then course we got out there, then I got into school. We lived a mile south of Riddle, so I walked to school.

JL: A mile south of Riddle on a dairy farm?

EB: Uh hum, right down the railroad track. The tracks' still there Your parents, your parents encouraged you to go to High School then?

EB: Well they moved just for me, I just, just I think now, I wonder how many parents would do that now? I suppose they would, but uh, well as I said, then 00:36:00the year after we moved, one of my friends who lived in Gardiner, her father owned about half of Gardiner, I had my best friend down there, was Eva Reed, Reedsport was named for her Father.

JL: Oh, what was he?

EB: Well he owned half of Gardiner, he had cattle and lumber and all kinds of things, and the Jewitts (?), just about owned the other half. And Narcissa Jewitt was a year behind me in school, so the year after me, we moved she was ready for High School, so her Dad built a High School in Gardiner. So (Laughing) I could a gone there. But anyway, I'm glad, well we uh, we moved out then and uh, and uh...

JL: Your Father bought another dairy farm?

EB: He bought a little, he bought the farm in Riddle and uh, lived...

JL: What was Riddle like at that time?

EB: Oh it was a small town. Well lets see, what it'd be bout like, probably about like Philomath.

JL: What did they do there? In the town?

EB: Oh, it was, some mining and uh, I guess some of em worked in the railroad. 00:37:00Southern Pacific went right through it, we used to run up there at noon, from High school and watch the train go thru, wave at the Engineers, that was the our, but uh...

JL: Tell me about that.

EB: I suppose there'd be, be about, well there was nothing to it. Would, you know nothing to do, and it was during the war so there was lot of war workers and that kind of stuff, it's not on the highway now the freeway doesn't go thru Riddle. It goes from Roseburg right thru Glendale, and on South, Riddle is a curve now. But I suspect it'd be, as I remember it now, bout like Philomath. Bout that size, had a store and good High School , well there was bout 50 in our high school I guess was all. And we had no extra-curricular like uhm, ball games, or I mean teams, basketball or any of that.

JL: Well, was it common for girls to do sports?

EB: Well, we, we'd play on the playground, I can't member what we did. I member I belonged to a, what did they call it? We had a, a trained nurse lived in town and she had a group of us high school girls that, and I can't remember what we called ourselves but we rolled bandages and all that stuff, this was during the war now you see.

JL: Well now wait a minute. You moved there in 1915

EB: 17, 15

JL: 1915, and lived there for 3, 2 or 3 years

EB: The folks moved back, they stayed 2 years. And I stayed another year and lived with the sister of my Aunt, they owned the hotel and I lived at the Hotel and waited tables for my board.

JL: You did that? Was that a common thing for young girls of your age? You were only 17 at the time.

EB: Oh I don't know, I was 17. Her older daughter was uh, at the University of Oregon so it was a big thrill when she'd come home for holidays, and I can't remember whether I came home for Christmas or not. Or whether I stayed there I 00:39:00don't know. But I know I lived there and waited tables for my board and went to High School and graduated in 1918, and I member still there was no uh, you still had to come up on the stage, you see. Mom and my youngest sister came out for my graduation I member.

JL: Well, why did they move back before you were done with High School?

EB: Well you just couldn't make a living out there on the dairy. You had to spend so much for feed that you didn't make anything. Dad had grown up on the coast where there was lots of green grass and all that, and he just couldn't take it. He had to get back to the coast.

JL: Well, did you like school, was that why they encouraged you to go on to?

EB: Well, I just knew, I don't, yea I liked school, but I knew that's the thing you did.

JL: For girls too now.

EB: Yea, and then So after uh, well I had kinda set, I wanted to come to college, I'd planned on coming, so then in 1918 after I graduated, from high, I 00:40:00came back down to the farm. And by that time, the uh, dairymen all up and down the Smith River and part of the Umpqua had formed a dairyman's association they called it, and they, they tested the butterfat content of the milk of each cow, and if it didn't produce enough butterfat, you got rid of it. See this is all, you sold cream, you didn't sell milk. There were all jerseys, cows, see they give a rich milk. Jersey or Guernsey, not Holsteins, Holstein milk is pretty blue. Bout 2%, and they wanted em, they wanted butterfat you see, so they had a, by that time they had formed a Dairyman's Association and uh, oh they'd had it 2-3 years I think, and that summer, 1918, they had had a , uh, young fellow as 00:41:00their milk tester, they called him, you went to each farm once a month and saved.

JL: This was in the Winchester Bay area?

EB: No this was in the Smith River, Reedsport, Gardiner area. We'd uh, you saved a little sample of milk, night and morning, from each cow, and you measured it out on a, well you had, oh what do you call these long necks with the graduated thing on the end. Chemistry people use, we saved this little sample in there, and you put in a certain amount of sulfuric acid, then you put it in this machine and whirled it around and the butterfat came to the top. And you measured it, it would be,-well if it was a Holstein it'd be bout 2%, but you wanted a Jersey, tested about 5%, which means, I think now, I think I'm right that out of every 100 pounds of milk, you'd get 5 pounds of butterfat. Something like that, I mean and it was butterfat they was after, the skim milk 00:42:00they fed to their pigs.

JL: So Jersey cows were the best kind to have?

EB: Jersey, I had all Jersey, but

JL: Your Father had Jersey?

EB: He had Jerseys, and uh, so when I came back home that summer from Summer School in 1918, I didn't know what I was gonna do.

JL: That was after you won the county prize?

EB: Yes, that's after I'd won the prize on my chickens at State Fair. Out here, I went home and uhm, this fellow who had been testing, working for the Dairy Association all summer was a Senior, he was, it was to be his senior year at Oregon State, Bob Watt, real nice guy, and course he was gonna come back to college. Well they didn't know who they were gonna get, they needed another milk tester, so one of the farmers there who'd known me all my life, Mr. Smiley, he told, he got hold of my Dad , he said Eva could do that just as well as that boy. So uh they paid my way I guess, I came out to Oregon State again, it must a 00:43:00been in August and stayed 2 weeks and took a short course in uh, in milk testing.

JL: How did you get to Corvallis?

EB: Oh, by the stage, well when we came we took a train, by that time, there was a, by that time Reedsport was there, kinda a town, and they What started Reedsport, they ran a railroad from Eugene to Powers, which is way down south Coos county, they put a railroad through there. That's how I came to college was on the train, and they had to get off out here in the middle of the valley somewhere and take a red electric over here, where the crew house is now was the depot and it connected with a main Southern Pacific out there in the valley, over, can't remember the name of the place.

JL: You mean the Willamette River where the crew dock is, there was a depot there?

EB: Uh huh, that was the depot uh, right where, well right in that area, wasn't in the same building, but, and it was a little red electric ran from there out 00:44:00to the middle of the valley out there somewhere connected with the regular Southern Pacific. Portland - San Francisco train.

JL: What was it like riding on the train Eva?

EB: Oh, just like it is now I guess (Laughing). I mean you know, you just got on so I came out and took that course, then I went back and I tested milk then for 2 years, and a half. See, I suppose I started in September, he must a come out school and I quit in August. 2 years, that how I got money to start school. I got 2, $2 dollars and a half for each, no 2.75 for each herd, that would be a day.

JL: How, what's, how many cows?

EB: Oh, some of em had 15 - 20, some of em had 40, just depend on the farm.

JL: And you'd test every cow?

EB: Uh hum. I stayed all night at these places once a month, I'd get up there in the afternoon and save a sample of milk that night, and stay all night and 00:45:00save a sample in the morning. Then I'd do the testing and be, and usually eat my noon meal there and then they had to move me to the next place.

JL: How did they, how did you move from place to place?

EB: They took me, some of em had cars, some of em wagons, some of em in a boat. Just depended on, when I got out in the area out near what's Florence now why they, there was roads and they'd be cars.

JL: So you, it was common though to take?

EB: So I had a clean bed every night and 3 good meals, and didn't cost me a thing see, they did that and they had to move me, so what I earned, that $2.75 a day was clear.

JL: So you were working for the Dairy Association?

EB: I, I was working for the, I think they called it the Lower Umpqua Dairyman's Association.

JL: Was you Father part of that to?

EB: He belonged, yea and they, I think they paid so much to belong to it, so much per cow I guess, I don't know. But that way they weeded out their cows that weren't doing well you see and got new ones.

JL: Then they had quality milk

EB: Yea, Yea they had, they had quality butterfat. I had just one, one herd I think of uh, think they were Guernsey's, but most of them were Jerseys.

JL: Did you like doing that job?

EB: Oh yea, I liked it. Saw, I saw the same people every month but it was, I made a lot of friends and if I was at a place Saturday night a lot of em would hade Saturday night dances and I'd, and we'd have fun doing that, but see I worked on Sunday same as any other day cause, One place where I went, he was, he had his cows on a National Butterfat test, and uh, they milked 3 times a day so I stayed there, stayed there 2 nights I think every month. And uh, they were a nice family. But, they had to move me to the next place, so I had good food, but it was, I can remember one place I stayed, but I can't member who it was now, but they had all these cows, maybe 25 or 30 cows with all this 00:47:00cream and they used skim milk on the table. And I thought boy, that wouldn't a gone with my Dad, he would use pure cream if my mother hadn't a mixed it, he said I'm not gonna milk an old cow and drink skim milk.

JL: Was it common Eva, for a woman to be doing this kind of job?

EB: No I guess I was the first one. I guess.

JL: So were people receptive to you?

EB: Well, in those days you see it was pretty much divided, that was a mans' job in those days, but the, the girl who took my pi, the person who took my place when I came to college was another woman, young girl who'd whose home I'd worked, been every month and she took it over.

JL: So people were receptive to you?

EB: Oh yea, that didn't matter. Yea.

JL: Even though you were a woman.

EB: Yea, no they didn't make any difference then.

JL: Well Eva before we go to you starting school in Corvallis, I'd like to talk about what, what you remember about the war years. And what...

EB: Well now that was during the war. That's 1918, well I don't know, I member I, I remember my senior year in high school, we bought war stamps, they were 25¢ I think.

JL: This was when you were alone?

EB: No this was, Yea when I, that year in Riddle, when, I can remember rolling these bandages and buying stamps, I think they were 25¢. We got so many in a book, I don't know what we did with em, I guess we, I don't know but I can remember buying war stamps. And then I can remember the uh, well lets see, when was Oh the 41 war, we rolled bandages here in Corvallis, and bought bonds, and...

JL: Were you affected much? I mean was it hard at all? Or, did people talk about the war?

EB: Well, I don't know, don't member a thing about it. I know uh, quite a few of the boys down there, young boys joined you know and were gone, that's 00:49:00probably one reason I got that job, because young men were scarce. That was 1918.

JL: What about fishing? Did it affect the fisherman?

EB: Well I don't know. Now that's not a big fishing area anymore, now Winchester Bay is a sports fishing, oh it's a big place now. They have room in that Corps of Engineers finished up, couple of years ago, they have room down in Winchester Bay for bout 800 boats and you go down there on Memorial Day or Labor Day, and it's just like a city. The cars are packed as close as they can get. Fishing, it's a big fishing center now. But it's sport fishing you see. Now I don't think urn, I don't think there's any commercial salmon fishing anymore anywhere. Except the Columbia.

JL: OK, so in 1918 you went to uhm, you went to Gardiner to your parents dairy 00:50:00farm, and then you started this job working for the Dairy Association, and worked for 2 years.

EB: Yea I worked, and I guess through, I probably quit in August and it was 2 years. I think I quit in August to get ready to come out to school.

JL: How did you decide, why did you decide to come out to school?

EB: Oh, I'd had my heart set on it. There was a young man down there who was older that I was but he'd graduated from Oregon State, and I don't know why I was just gonna come to college and I, I don't know why. Don't think anybody urged my and nobody else down there came.

JL: What were you planning to study?

EB: I was gonna be a bookkeeper, but I didn't turn out that way.

JL: Did you have any boyfriends at all?

EB: No not, oh I went with, none serious, no, I went around with the boys, course in school, and played ball with them, and all that, I used, I member in Gardiner when I was little and we lived there when I was bout, oh I'd play ball 00:51:00with the boys one week, and they next week I'd play dolls with the girls But I was always with my Dad, and I still like outdoor things the best.

JL: You were quite a tomboy?

EB: Yea, I guess you'd call it a tomboy, yep. I didn't like to sew or cook or Now my meals are simple. (Chuckling)

JL: You even like, you gave to the Museum a uh, fish.

EB: Yea, Dad had this, he didn't do, he wouldn't of been called a fisherman, he just did it on the side but you di, uh, I don't know, I found that in my trunk in the

attic when I was looking for my varsity sweater to take over to the Women's Building the other day, and how I got it, how it's ever got in that trunk, I don't know, it must a been there forever, but I, I remember helping him mend his net, I couldn't do it now.

JL: You helped him mend his, you didn't have his old boat though? Did he have his old boat?

EB: Yea uh hum, Yea he had his own boat. That's the only boat we had, was 00:52:00called a fisherman boat, and as I said it had this big space in the backend of it, and then the engine was what they called a marine engine, There was no outboard motors then at all, just never heard of em. And it sat right in the middle of the boat. And then up in the other part was built back over a ways, you could crawl way up under there. Oh it was a space that high. And the men that, drifted, they put their nets out at night at the head of a tide, and drifted down with the tide with their nets behind em and they'd have mattresses up there. And uh, take a nap while they were drifting, you know. They'd have lunch with em and coffee and stuff in their boat I guess, but that back end was, oh it was big. I member Dad and I used, we used to move a cow in the back, and if you wanted to move from up the ranch down to the other end, there was no road, why we'd get her in that back end, be a small cow or calf, just take her 00:53:00down to the boat. Cause it's so pretty good size back there. And the boat, they called em Columbia River fish boats, they were built up there, I've never, haven't seen one of em for years, but they had no cab up there, they were open, the engine set right in the middle, They did have a pole you could put up this way which was like a tent deal back, just over the engine, canvas and it hooked all round the bolts, so if it was real stormy you could have that but you had to have it was low, fairly low and you had to be able to see out around it to see where you was rowing, to steer the boat.

JL: When did they stop using these boats?

EB: I don't know. Now everything's outboard and course these boats that go out fishing now pleasure boats down there, they're big and they have, their uh, they have these big poles that stand up and they flip em out with their cords on

JL: How many Columbia River boats do you remember?

EB: Well, I don't, as I remember most of the ones they used down there were that kind but uh, as I say I was just a kid and I didn't pay any attention to it. There were a lot of people fishing, most of em had that kind of boat as I remember. You couldn't upset one of the things they were , were sturdy. I guess the uh, what do they call that? Cross em was at least 6' I think. They were pointed at both ends. Rounded at the back and then, but they were wide.

JL: Did you like riding in them?

EB: Oh yea, well I don't know. I guess so, just, just a way of life. Just did it. And I can remember if it was cold, had a seat up in front just outside a that top that came over, so Mamma and us kids would sit and Dad was back behind steering, If it was real cold, we'd put a lantern down there and 00:55:00then a blanket round our feet and that'd be warm cause it'd take, take a couple of hours to go from our ranch to town. 8 miles. If the tide was with us. See it makes a lot of difference in a boat whether you're going with the tide or against it.

JL: So what time of day would you go?

EB: Oh we'd go early in the morning, 9 soon as we'd get the chores done. And get back by 4 o'clock, cause the cows had to be milked again. Be just a day trip. My Mother took my sister and I, she was bout 6 I guess, my Mother's sister lived out in Roseburg, and now she had 5 or 6 kids, and we spent Christmas there one year, and Dad couldn't go cause he couldn't leave the cows, and I remember we uh, we stayed all night in Roseburg. That was a big deal I think. As I remember, first time I ever stayed in a hotel. Then we had to, I guess they came into Roseburg and got us, I don't remember. But I remember I was 12, and 00:56:00at breakfast we got butter plate with little pats of butter you know, like you get now. Only they weren't on a little paper, and I think there was 1 of those, on your bread and butter plate. Which I probably had never used before, and a slice of toast I suppose, and I can still remember saying Is that all the butter we're gonna get? (Laughing) Cause we had a whole dish full of butter on our table. We, course we made our butter, Momma, we had home made butter all the time, and the first year I came to college, 1918, I lived at Waldo, and that was.

JL: Well wait a minute, lets, before you go on to that.

EB: That has to do with the butter.

JL: Oh, Oh.

EB: First, first year we came it was 1918, and we uhm, that was right after the war,

JL: You came to O.A.C.

EB: Yea and stayed at Waldo, and for, for lunch we didn't have, for dinner at 00:57:00night we didn't have butter, we had potatoes and gravy and meat of course, but for lunch, we had butter and probably hot rolls or something. So I was insulted a meal without butter. So when I went home for Christmas, I came back in January there was a coffee can full of homemade butter, like that. It was cold you see, and that sat on my window sill up in the dormitory until it was gone, every night our table had butter, by golly! (More chuckling)

JL: Going back, before we go on into you going to college, how did your mother make the butter?

EB: Oh, we had a churn and you'd, it was, as I remember let's see, what kind did we have, I think it was a little barrel that we turned, we had to turn it by hand, I, I thought, that's another thing, maybe they'd li, I don't know whether they want it in the museum or not when I was looking for my sweater last week I found the last churn she had up in my attic, it's a glass jar about that 00:58:00big, bout that high I think, bout that big with a paddle wheel in it. Why I got that I don't know. Suppose when she passed away she probably had it, and I've got a lot of stuff in my attic that belongs to my sister, and she's gotta come down and get it out of there, cause I'm not gonna live here forever. (Laughing) But I'll bring that down some time. I didn't know whether you had a churn or not. You probably have got, but we had a wooden one I remember, a little barrel.

JL: Did she make the butter or did you?

EB: Oh yea, oh I think she did I didn't do much in the house, as I say, yea I fed the chickens, and I was out training around with my Dad most of the time I guess.

JL: How did she do it? Tell me about the process.

EB: Well you just put the cream in this, then you just turn it, after a while it'll separate, You'll have your buttermilk and you drain that off - put it in a colander or something, drain all the milk off, Course we drank that, well I 00:59:00don't think anybody drank buttermilk but me, but she'd make biscuits and stuff out of it. And then the butter, you have to work that with a paddle and work salt into it, and some more of the whey will run out of it while you work it, She had a kind of a, let's see what was that? Oh it was a wooden bowl, I guess a big wooden bowl that she'd put it in and work it with this paddle like that, and then every so often, pour the whey off, would work all the whey out of it. Then she'd mold it in little, no I think she would pack it in a little jar. Can't remember, I know oh, when I was real little she sold butter, I think. To the uh, store in Gardiner, you'd take butter done and trade it for sugar or something, like that. I think they'd did, but I don't remember that. I was too little.

JL: OK, lets' go on to another part of your life. Coming to college - what did your parents think of you going to college?

EB: Oh they were all for it.

JL: They encouraged you?

EB: Oh yea. But I had, they didn't, oh they, they helped me some, all they could, and uh, I went home ah the first, first summer, I went home and worked on the farm. Dad payed me I think $2 and a half a day. Helped hay and all that stuff. Worked just like a man out on the, well he never let me do heavy things, but I helped with haying and the gardening and all that, and he paid my and the second year I went home with my roommate up in Washington. Her sister was having a new baby and she had 2 little youngsters and I worked for her that summer. For my board, and then I can't, guess I probably the next summer I went 01:01:00home and worked on the ranch. Dad payed me $2 a day. I think it was 2.

JL: Well what was it now? How did you move your things up to Corvallis?

EB: Oh, (chuckling) I've got a little trunk upstairs, it's about that long and bout that deep, and I had that trunk with my clothes in, and uh, a big suitcase, and I guess my bedding must have been in a roll. See we had to bring our own bedding, except sheets.

(TAPE CHANGE)

JL: You were telling be about packing to come to Corvallis.

EB: Oh yea, I had my trunk, that was my clothes, and then I had a uh, my bedding was in a roll, I member.

JL: You had to bring your own bedding? To college?

EB: Uh huh. I suppose they still do, and a great big suitcase, that was it. And I guess I've always been kinda, had some screwy ideas because my, my 01:02:00Freshman year, my younger sister who was 13 years younger, when I was testing milk she would have been about 7-8, 2.3 times I took her with me, she'd, it'd be a ball you know, we'd go - she'd stay all night and we'd meet all these people, she had long curls and I had to curl her hair every morning. But she was good as gold, she would just do anything and she made a lot of friends that way. So then my freshman year, just before the end of it, she came out and stayed a week with me, at the dormitory, went to class, I think she was about 7.

JL: What was her name?

EB: Her name was Peggy, she's, she's the one in Portland now, and has 7 grandchildren. But uh, she was about 7.

JL: So when you came out?

EB: But, but uh, think of a college girl bringing her little sister to stay a week in the dorm. Screwy idea.

JL: What dorm did you stay in?

EB: I stayed in Waldo. 2 years, and then uh, they were building Snell then, and when they got Snell done, the first year or 2 only Juniors and Seniors could live over there cause it was new you see, and supposed to be a lot nicer, so I stayed 2 years in Waldo, and then 2 years in Snell.

JL: That was.

EB: Which is now Extension Hall.

JL: 1923 and 24 you stayed in Snell?

EB: Yea, that's right.

JL: Well what, now when you first came here, was it, were you frightened or [unintelligible] what was your feeling?

EB: I don't know. I was always rather quiet I think, I think much more quiet than I am now. I can't remember being afraid, I remember doing everything they told me to, and all that stuff, I wasn't one to venture out on anything new and I can remember, I'd never heard of a sorority, and when they'd, they were, they did their sorority rushing then after school opened, and I could remember these girls coming up to Waldo and getting girls from Waldo and 01:04:00taking em out, and I had no idea where they was going, course they was taking em to dinner, and rushing and all that. Never heard of a sorority, didn't mean a thing to me.

JL: Were you interested in joining?

EB: No. No. I guess it's a good thing I wasn't, cause nobody else, I didn't know a sole you see, when I came.

JL: What were you studying when you first came?

EB: I registered in what called Commerce, and that would be School of Business.

JL: Commerce?

EB: Uh huh, and that's what my degree was in, they called it Commerce, I thought I was gonna be a bookkeeper, but...

JL: Why did you want to be a bookkeeper?

EB: I don't know. I was always keeping books on the ranch. I knew every egg and how much I sold and how much the feed cost, and then I'd, didn't do anything with it, but...

JL: What were the classes like? Can you remember any of the Professors that you had?

EB: Well, let's see. They're all gone now. But, I enjoyed all of em I remember.

JL: Do any stand out in your mind? As particularly [unintelligible].

EB: Well Jackie Horner, you've heard of him - Horner Museum, he, he taught 01:05:00History, only reason he stands out is, he was a fabulous teacher and he'd take, he'd go, take you on field trips, I think I just went on one but was always digging out here for old artifacts and things you know.

JL: Tell me about that field trip. Where did you go?

EB: Well I can't remember, I think it was up out Monroe area somewhere, but I, I've forgotten. I don't know.

JL: And this was a History class.

EB: That was in history, but boy you did, if you were late in his class, OH BOY! He'd always make some remark, he'd say "Who were you standing out there talking to?" or something, or "Can't you get up a little earlier", or something like that, I never was late, but people'd come in, he'd embarrass you no end by something that he'd say like that, you know. But he was...

JL: Was he liked though?

EB: Yea, I guess so, he was a good teacher. I know one the churches, one of the windows in Presbyterian Church is dedicated to him. To uh, he was a apparently a good Presbyterian, I don't know, but he was fabulous at History, 01:06:00and he's written, he wrote a history book, you've probably seen that. Big thick one.

JL: He was a, a good speaker? Made the history come alive?

EB: Yea, Yea he was a, I don't remember him being anything special to me, but I do remember that you were careful not to be late at his class, and that you, he knew a lot of history and he did, he did have these field trips. I only went on the one and I can't remember where it was or what we were looking for, but I think he's I guess you still have that great big old bone or something down there, used to stand in front of the, when it was down in what's Mitchell Playhouse now. There was a big whalebone or something out there, I think that he had something to do with.

JL: Do you remember him being in the museum, do you remember him associated with the Museum at all.

EB: No. No I don't. I think that I took history probably my first or second year and uh, I don't remember.

JL: He stands out most in your mind of all the Professors you had?

EB: Oh I liked em all, I know, but uh, oh let's see, well none of em stand out specially good or I liked all of em, but uh, none of em were, they, they would all help you if you needed it.

JL: What was the dorm like? It was a girls dorm...

EB: Oh yea, definitely. And the doors closed at 10:00 o'clock. LOCKED. PERIOD. And uhm, you did, your lights in your room were supposed to be out at 10:00, We had pers [unintelligible] Miss Hadwin. And she, she'd make, well Waldo had uh, 3 floors, and just before 10, she made the rounds to see if any transom lights 01:08:00were on. But uh, course I'd been raised to uh, do what I was told, period. Right now. And so, that's what I did in the dorm. Never had any, any inclination, oh once in a while we had a feed or something and we'd cover the transom and leave the lights on but we sure to be real quiet, like a birthday cake or something like that.

JL: What kind of activities did you do with your friends?

EB: Oh, I was in, well mostly sports, baseball and volleyball and basketball.

JL: You were on the school teams?

EB: Uh. Yea. I took uh, that deer hide out there, one summer I went home, a boy-friend took me hunting, and I killed that deer. And uh, those numbers on there - 24 - were class numerals, we, I, and then uh, Yea and then I got 01:09:00if your in athletics, you got numerals for your winning teams, you know, and I don't know which one those are now, but uh,

JL: I see 3 a, 3 numbers, all with 24 on em.

EB: Yea. That was my year, for 3 different sports.

JL: What sports?

EB: Well, ah, I liked baseball the best. And volleyball and then I played basketball some. In those days you had 6 on your basketball team. Now a friend who just passed away, here this spring, was, she was real tall, she worked the Dean of Men's office, all the time after she graduated, and uh, she was a basketball center and I was...

JL: What was her name?

EB: Edith Wilkenson. And I was running center. They had 2 centers cause I was short. She would jumping center and I was running center. But I liked volleyball and, I liked baseball. I was a fielder, way out by myself. I 01:10:00never liked any contact. I guess I was a coward, I don't know. But uh, anyway,

JL: Was it, was that?

EB: And when you earned 8, you got so many points for those and when you earned 800 hundred points, you got this white sweater with an "O" on it. So I took mine over to the, this new Mrs., what, what's her name? Mrs. Jervo or something, New Athletic Director, she'd spoke at faculty women's club here, 2, 3 weeks ago. About their program, and uh, she mentioned she'd like to start some of the trophies you know, eventually, so I told her afterwards that I had this sweater, and uh, my family won't want it or anything, she was tickled to get it, so I took it over there.

JL: Was it, was uhm that respected, for women to be in sports?

EB: Oh yea. We, we competed with, well mostly class sports I think, mostly class competition, although in the old Beavers that you look at, I used, you saw 01:11:00pictures of teams competing with University of Oregon, but I can't remember that we did that. I think ours was mostly class. Each class had a teams.

JL: Were you very good?

EB: I don't know, I wasn't, I don't think I was too good at basketball. I liked baseball and, well our team won several I noticed in an old BEAVER, this woman wanted me, I found 2 pictures and I want, and uh, she wanted me to identify em and I, and I got out some old Beavers and looked at, I took em back the other day, I said I, I can't, they don't look the same. But uh, they were for group pictures of the teams. I couldn't identify very many of em.

JL: Is that what you remember most about being at O.A.C.? Is the sports that you were involved in?

EB: Well, yea, and then uh, I wasn't involved in any political things or any of 01:12:00that. The most, most of the rest of it was my work. I guess.

JL: What kind of political things were going on?

EB: Oh, bout same as they are now. You know, uh, student politics, I wasn't in any, I didn't know what they was doing, I didn't care. Apparently.

JL: What kind of work were you doing?

EB: I was in the Registrars' Office.

JL: Oh, you were working while you were going to school?

EB: No, after I got out, No I work, well I worked uh, I worked some in the office of the Women's Physical Education, typing and that kind of stuff, and then I worked uh...

JL: Something like Work Study?

EB: Yea. And then I worked, 1 year, my Sophomore year, I worked in a little tea room over on Monroe St. for my board. The lady had, had been one of the cooks in the dormitory, my Freshman year and uh, I waited tables part-time in 01:13:00there now and then.

JL: Where was this?

EB: In the dorm. And, in Waldo, and uh.

JL: Waitresses would serve the students?

EB: Yea.

JL: At that time? EB: Apparently, I did something in there, cause I know I got paid for it. Can't remember exactly what we did, no we didn't have waitresses, or maybe we did, I don't know. That I'll have skip. But anyway I got so I knew this woman. She was a real good cook, and the next year, my sophomore year, she left the dorm and opened a little tearoom up over on Monroe Street, right in the corner of where that, oh what is it now? A Pizza place or something there I think, by that grocery market over on Monroe and, and uh, Monroe and what's that - 25th? It's the street that turns on to Oceanography, only you can't go that way.

JL: [unintelligible]

EB: Yea, right in there. She had a little tearoom. And so I worked there my 01:14:00sophomore year for her, for my board. Boy she was a good cook, I got real good food. And then...

JL: You um, OK you were living in Waldo Hall, and this was in 1921...

EB: 20 and 21, and 21-22...

JL: And you were also working in the tea room. What was the name of the restaurant?

EB: Well that was for this lady, I've forgotten what she called it. She'd gone over there, Kopper Kitchen - it's not there now, but she bought if from a lady and it already had the name, and she, she served quite a few people. Real good cook.

JL: So you helped her out there?

EB: Yea, I waited tables for my, I think I ate my breakfast the dorm and waited tables for my lunch and dinner.

JL: Was that common to do for girls that went to college?

EB: Yea they worked. We worked anywhere we could.

JL: Eva, were you older than most of the

EB: Yea I was 20 when I entered. See I'd been out, I'd been working 2 years 01:15:00on the milk testing.

JL: Were there other people that age? Like...

EB: Yea, yea, Well I guess so. Yea there were some that age. Because you see, that was uh, well in these 20 there was a lot who were older, bee - lot of the young fellows you see were back from the war. They'd been...

JL: What do you remember about them?

EB: Nothing especially.

JL: Didn't have much effect on your life?

EB: Uh hum. They didn't bother me a bit. But uh, and there were some, one girl I know lived in Waldo, who'd been a nurse in the War. I member she smoked but she was very careful, cause you didn't smoke even on campus then. Every campus entrance had a red line about that wide, painted on the sidewalk. Every college entrance, and you didn't smoke inside that line. Period.

JL: Around the whole campus?

EB: Whole campus.

JL: How many - How many girls smoked at that time?

EB: Well she was the only on, only one that I ever knew, and she was very careful -she'd go way downtown or somewhere to smoke, but she'd been in the Army, she was a nurse and uh...

JL: Nobody else was tempted to smoke?

EB: No. I think I did, somebody gave me a, I smoked a half a cigar once, it was somebody's charivari, and I don't even remember where I did it, but uh I know it didn't make me sick or anything, but that was probably off campus. It was a dare or something, but no, nobody smoked.

JL: Not even the boys?

EB: Not even the faculty, No. No, nobody smoked on campus. Period.

JL: How times have changed.

EB: Oh Boy, Yea they had those lines, there was, over where Sheppard Hall is now, right next to there, where the Commerce building in, was the SPE House, Sigma Phi Sigma fraternity. And it was right on the edge of campus, it had a big line right where you entered campus right off a their sidewalk, and you 01:17:00didn't smoke past that line. Faculty or anybody else.

JL: What do you remember about Corvallis, did that play any part in your life?

EB: Oh well, ah they had good movies, but we didn't go very often. Didn't have the money, but we walked everywhere. We walked down to Didn't you have bicycles? No. I didn't, don't remember bicycles, I suppose somebody - some people had em, I suppose.

JL: What about cars? Did many students have cars?

EB: No. Nobody had cars. No students, no. The uh, right down where the, uh well it's right on the corner where the Administration building is now, right across that corner, which would be just other side of a, well it's where 15th comes in, right in that area was the tea room. Real nice, well its a co-op bookstore, and they had a little tea room in there, real good food, it was 01:18:00if I went down there to eat a piece of pie or something, it was a big event, cause I didn't have that much money, so. One thing I did learn in college, was to eat a lot of things I'd never eaten before.

JL: The food was good in the dorms, huh?

EB: Well, it was things we just had never had, like oh my Dad liked certain vegetables, and he didn't, we never cooked turnips, or parsnips or cabbage, we had coleslaw but no cooked cabbage, any of that well, I didn't have the money to get up and go out and eat, so I ate it, and I like all of it now.

JL: Did you parents come and visit you much, or?

EB: No they couldn't. My mother came out for commencement, my mother and my little sister, and the little sister stayed a week with me in the dorm, no I'd go home but uh, the home coming and that parents didn't come so much then. Bell Field, the football field was right where uh let's see, where would it 01:19:00be? Be right where the administration building is now I guess, was right the other side of the armory, it was sawdust and it was just sawdust base, if it was raining the football team was just like playing in mud pies almost,

JL: Did you go to the sports events?

EB: Oh yea, I didn't, I didn't miss a thing, I just used to about one of the first ones at the men's gym. Basketball was played there and course it was small. And it would fill up then, and some of us lived at the dorm and we'd be right at the door when it opened, to get into the basketball games.

JL: What kind of places did you go to, uh when you went on dates?

EB: Oh there were usually college dances

JL: Like what? Like what kind of dances?

EB: Oh I can't remember, it, some house dance or uhm, well they used to have 01:20:00just dances in the dorm now and then you see, and dorm dance or a house dance. But I didn't go to many dances

JL: What kind of dances did they do? Do you remember?

EB: Oh, waltzes I guess, and I suppose 2 step, when I was testing milk we used to waltz a lot, I uses, they used to have some real dances, I used to plan so I'd be out there on that weekend

JL: You liked to dance?

EB: Yea I loved to dance. But uh, I don't know. They had well they had College Place like they now, and they had good movies, I think movies were about a quarter, maybe...

JL: Do you remember any movies?

EB: No I don't member any special ones. No, that I saw that far back.

JL: Where would you go to the movies?

EB: Downtown now, the main theater was, well was the main theater that were then, I think I think they call it the Varsity now, down on 2nd street, is that 01:21:00the Varsity?

JL: I don't know.

EB: And then the uh, Whiteside, I don't know when that was built, whether that was built at, when, I don't think it was there when, I think they just had the one, I can't remember for sure.

JL: Would you go downtown to shop to?

EB: Yea, we didn't shop much you know you'd get you clothes before you came to college, and then you didn't but much in between. Then they had the bookstore. But course it didn't have near the stock, it had mostly books then.

JL: You mean a downtown bookstore?

EB: No it was right down where the administration building is. Had a nice little...

JL: On campus? What was the name of the bookstore? Co-op.

EB: Same ole name.

JL: Do you remember any activity on the Willamette River?

EB: I uh, well only the tug-of-war. Sophomores and I guess it'd be Juniors, Freshman-Sophomore I guess, used to have the tug-of-war down near Mary's River 01:22:00Bridge, every spring. And uh, they'd get one on each side of the river, and course one team'd pull the other in, and uh...

JL: What was that like? Was that a spectator thing?

EB: Well you'd just go watch and yell or whatever you wanted to and finally one of would go in.

JL: These were always men, not women?

EB: Yea. No, no women. No, women had just intermural...

JL: And this was inner-class rivalry?

EB: Yea, that's all they had then.

JL: Was there any, ever any alcohol at these gatherings?

EB: I don't, I don't think so. I wouldn't have known if it was, but I doubt very much that there was. Boy if they'd a found that on the campus, it'd President Kerr would a just upended the whole institution. I get so provoked now, at this outfit trying to get another beer place down there on Monroe Street. They need that like another leg, that's street used to have the nicest 01:23:00shops up there and now they're getting all junky.

JL: What kind of shops were there?

EB: Oh, oh well, the bookstores still nice, and then the Lectric Lunch used to be a real nice restaurant, and that was along in there somewhere, that was there for years. And they served a lot of people. But uh, then there was a shoe shop. And a barber shop, and I don't remember else.

JL: This wasn't when you were going to school?

EB: No, I don't know what, I suppose, I think there was a barber shop there, well this Electric Lunch was there when I was in school, cause it was there, after I remember it had been there a long time, and it was oh it was up near 23rd street. I mean the upper half of that, long where maybe where that donut shop is now or something, but they served, oh they had real good food.

JL: Well Eva, now as you look back on those 4 years in college, does anything 01:24:00stand out? As particularly significant in your life? I mean do you remember anything.

EB: No. It all went along very smoothly I never was in any trouble, and never did anything too spectacular. Oh it was a big deal course when I got my Orange 0 sweater and then uh, they had a our honarian in Commerce, Phi Chi Theta, but that wasn't a big campus deal, that was just a society.

JL: You, this, all - you mean a...

EB: And then after I uh, after I graduated and worked, I guess it was uh, oh when was it? My, right near my 50th year anniversary Phi Kappa Phi took me in. That was a, I was staff then. And before I retired, but it, they had, Phi 01:25:00Kappa Phi when I was in school was called Forum. Well they got, they, they went national. Phi Kappa Phi I think maybe my senior year or something like that But they had an honorary, an all school honorary, called Forum. And uh, only the top-notchers got into that.

JL: Eva, what did you do during the summer? You mentioned something about going home?

EB: Well 2 summers I went home, one summer went up to Yelm, that's right near Tacoma for this sister of my roommate that year, and I worked, she had, she was having new baby, they had 2 so I did everything. Just you know, housework. And uh...

JL: What did you do when you went home?

EB: Oh worked on the farm. Helped Dad hay and, I don't know what all I did.

JL: What you had done when you were younger then?

EB: Yea. Just general work. There was always something on a farm. I 01:26:00didn't do much in the house but I did, oh well course there was haying, and then you had to get your winters wood in, I'd help Dad haul wood.

JL: You must have been a very strong woman?

EB: Oh, I, I've never been sick a day in my life. I had, I, well I had flu, my mother and 2 sisters and I, Dad had us all in bed with the flu. That was uh, before I came to college. Must have been 1918. I wasn't real sick.

JL: And that's the only time you remember being sick?

EB: Yea, and then the other time I was sick, I had measles, and I was in Gardiner then, that was my 8th grade I guess, because I was staying with my Aunt and Grandmother, and my grandmother died in the spring so I stayed with a doctor's wife, they had a daughter just my age. I finished my school 01:27:00out staying; with them and we both had measles, that same time, but uh, And then after I was working, about 19, oh it was after I built this place, I suppose about 19, in the 30's - late 30's or early 40's, my roommate here, family, mother lived in

Tulsa, Oklahoma, and she used to go home every Christmas, she worked in School

of Education on campus, so she was home and I felt kinda sick one day at work, but I didn't come home, and uhm, it was in December, real cold, I had some chickens, and I got up next morning and I felt terrible, I was, I it was all frozen and I got a bucket of hot water and put my bathrobe on and took it out to the chickens and, cause there's was all frozen, I knew. And I looked and my 01:28:00face was all red and I called my Doctor, told him I felt real bad and uh, how I felt, and he come out and looked at me, says you've got scarlet fever. And here I'd worked the day before, nobody took it, but uh, they put a sign on my door. I was, I was up enough to get my meals, wasn't that sick, but he said to stay in, well before she came back in January, I had to fumigate the whole house. But, that's the only, oh I've had a flu a time or 2 but lightly.

JL: OK, going back to 1924 - you graduated from OAC in the School of Commerce, then what happened?

EB: I graduated in June something or other, and went home for, by that time I had been in the registrar's office once, I had to drop a course because they didn't give it. I had to drop it to get off the record, that's the only time I'd been in there. Well then along sometime, oh I suppose in May, they called 01:29:00me over to interview Dean Lemon for a job. My Dean apparently had recommended me. And so uh, they, I got the job, so I went home right after commencement.

JL: They offered you a job in the Registrars Office?

EB: Uh huh, which was about the 6th of June I guess, and stayed till I reported July 1st for a job in the Registrar's Office, and I stayed there till I retired.

JL: Is that what you wanted to do?

EB: Yea, some kind a office work's what I wanted. I done, did everything, at first I was uh, I guess a secretary and then I worked on admissions, and then I worked on the statistics and then I got in, the lady retired that had done all the commencement, and that how I got into Commencement.

JL: What did your parents think of you getting a job so far away? From home?

EB: Oh they didn't mind. I went home every Christmas and in the summer vacations

I'd go home. I'm not a traveler. Well I did one summer, summer of 29, 01:30:00By that time I was living with this woman, who was uh secretary in the School of Education, she had come out with the new Dean from Arkansas, and we got to be friends and so she went home every summer and summer of 29 I went home with her, to Fayetteville, Arkansas, and that's the longest, I guess that's the longest trip I've had out of Oregon. I've had short trips around, California and but, I'm not a tripper. I'm perfectly happy. I'm going on some of these bus tours they got lined up but, some of those I've been on, you know.

JL: But you like to stay around?

EB: Yea, I'm too much that way I guess. Well I like to have a, I'm not one to take a long trip and leave everything. I guess I'm scary or something will happen, I don't know. But I like short trips, but I don't like to repeat a lot of em. I like to go different places. I like to go and be gone, if I've 01:31:00been gone for 2-3 days I have a friend in Winchester Bay now, and I go down there twice a year and stay couple of nights, and I've had a big trip. Been in Portland, my sister up there.

JL: Eva, have you ever been married?

EB: No. No desire and no, sides I've been too busy I guess. I've always liked men but uh, to me they were just my equal you know, I liked the same things they did. Never depended on em or anything.

JL: Did you ever do activities outside like backpacking or skiing?

EB: No, I used to hi, well I have a friend here, we used to go hunting every year. I used to love to hunt. We got lost on Mary's Peak one time and laid out all night. But uh, yea we used to hike a lot and I still go camping. This camper down here, and uhm I like trips like that, but they aren't too long 01:32:00you know.

JL: Do you go alone?

EB: No. No I always have, I've always had a friend with me who's uh, well got several who like to do that kind of thing.

JL: You must have seen a lot of changes take place in Corvallis, and that...

EB: Yea and I can't remember em all. You know they just come along gradual and first thing you know, there they are. But uh...

JL: Well, so then you worked, you started working in the Registrar's Office in 1924.

EB: Worked there 41 years. And I still go back every time uhm, I started going back helping with uh Commencement. See it's quite a little uh, it's a lot of meticulous checking to be sure everybody gets their own diploma.

JL: Maybe we can talk about you years when you started at the Registrar's until the year that you retired. And what, if any particular events stand out in your mind.

EB: Oh boy. Well I used to always enjoy uh, after I was there a while, see 01:33:00every fall they have a Registrar's Pacific Coast Conference Convention, and they have em would be up in Seattle one year and then we had one here, several times and they'd go to the south. And uh, I used to enjoy going to them, after I had worked quite a few years. And uh, you meet a lot of people, and uh, then we used to have, in February, round Washington's birthday years ago, Oregon State had what they called the Educational Exposition, it was the weekend of well I suppose the visitation now would cover, but High School kids from all over the state, and all the departments would put on big exhibits. Engineering would have all kinds of things going down there, and they'd have a speaker and 01:34:00uh, It was promotion deal. Always enjoyed those, we had to get ready for, course I didn't have anything to do with em, but uh...

JL: What about the Depression? Did that effect you at all?

EB: I can't remember, honestly I can't remember it. Always got ah, never asked for a raise, you just got em when you, when they came along and they budget approved em, but uh, I don't remember going without anything.

JL: It wasn't hard for you? What about your family? Was that difficult?

EB: No. Apparently they just went along with, course they always lived on the ranch, and when you're on a farm, you always have enough to eat, and you get used to not having too many other things, See they never had a car. Never had use for a car.

JL: Your parents never owned a car?

EB: No. They had no place to drive one. All they had was a boat. If you had a good boat you were satisfied. And that was uh, that's all you needed.

JL: Did you sister go to college?

EB: No - well, one sister went one year. The one that's dead now. She went one 01:35:00year. The other one didn't. Yes the other one did to, Guess they each went one year. Then they both married.

JL: What about World War 11? Was, did that have any effect on you? Or what?

EB: Well, no uh, I guess we uh, well I'm sure we conserved on things and as I say we rolled bandages every week down at the Red Cross. I remember.

JL: Where was that?

EB: Oh, see I don't know whether the buildings even there now. The building down-town, was thru the Red Cross and I know I got extra gasoline. I know we sa - we rode uh, my roommate here and I rode bicycles to work. We did have bicycles then. We rode bicycles to work and didn't drive the car all week, and we saved our gas so we could do something with it on the weekend. And we could take a little trip maybe, somewhere. And then I got extra gas cause I 01:36:00picked up a carload of people for the bandage rolling. We rolled every Monday night. Downtown somewhere, and I can't remember where the building was, or if it's even there now.

JL: Do you remember the feeling of the country? At that time? Whether everybody was pulling together?

EB: No I member what I was doing was a Sunday morning, and I was out spading my garden. And my roommate come out, she'd heard it on the radio and told me that Pearl Harbored been bombed. But uh...

JL: What did you feel then?

EB: I don't know. I suppose I was shocked but uh, I guess I'm not one to get all way up or way down. Kind of a leveled off (Chuckling)

JL: When did you, What, When did you say you moved into this house? That you're living in now?

EB: 1937.

JL: And you had it built then?

EB: I had it built, yea I uh, I uh, we lived together and we'd have apartments, 01:37:00and then in 192 - 1930 we built a cabin out on the Alsea, 5 miles this side of Alsea, and every summer, we'd move out there. We were renting.

JL: Who's we? Who was she?

EB: This roommate and I. Ruth Layno was her name. She works, she was secretary in the School of Education. She had come out from Arkansas with the Dean when he came. And uh, so we, we'd move out there every summer and we'd, in those days you could come in and rent an apartment anywhere in the winter you know. It wasn't a lot of people in town then. So we'd live out there Oh one year we moved out in May and we'd commute every, it's 25 miles. We'd commute every morning, and uh we loved that. And so uh, then uh, one year, we decided, well that year to rent we found a little house over on uh, 17th street 01:38:00I guess it was, I can't remember now. And uh, Dean Lemon up here had a young man student doing yard work for him. And I, when we lived over there that winter, I got to thinking Well I'd like to build a house. So this boy, he was an older student, he was married, lived about 2-3 housed from us on the same street, and I met him and uh, so - I got talking to him about a house and he said Well he'd build me a house. He was bout 30, he was older, but he was real handy, and uh, so I had him draw plans and I got hold the Bank and the FHA and decided to build, and Dean Lemon up here, who was Dean, for whom I worked - 40 years - well not all of it. He moved to Presidents Office. But he owned this whole corner. So he said he'd sell me this corner, so I got Clifton to draw the plans and all. I got em approved thru FHA and he started it right 01:39:00after school was out in June. And uh, finished it up, we moved in in November I think, this floor wasn't laid yet. But uh, I told him, I wanted 3 things: I wanted a, uhm fireplace - a basement - and a kitchen window low enough that I could look out, cause I'm short and so many of em you can't see out.

So uh, he built it and this room, this lumber is all out of one tree. Big Fir tree. His father had a little saw mill over at Salem. Clifton was meticulous and very uh, ingenious too. And he went over there one Sunday just to see his folks, and somebody hauled in this great big fir log and I had 01:40:00wanted knotty pine, but course it was expensive. This fir would be expensive over at Bend and Pine would be cheap, but over here pine, So he told his Dad he said saw that up and uh, in 1 x 18 boards for a house I'm building, so it's all out of one tree. And some of those knots, it looks if you could fold the board over you could match em almost. And I've never done a thing, I don't know what they put on it, but I've never refinished it. I should be ashamed to say that, I bet anybody else would a had it varnished a dozen times by now. But uh, and so when, he got a real good uh report from the FHA.

JL: Eva, does anybody stand out in you mind in these later years, like uh, a President, of the University or...

EB: Well I didn't know them too well you know, then, then we were, well in those 01:41:00days, until the Strands came when they'd have Presidents reception, which they still have you know in the fall, everybody went. All the hired girls and the janitors, everybody went. But after the Strands came and they got academic and classified, well then it, it's not the same over there. And I didn't know too many academics people, although...

JL: How did it change?

EB: Hum? Well, the Strands, when they had a faculty reception, they invited the teaching staff. I think they're the ones. Don't quote me on that. Is that on there? (Laughing)

JL: Don't worry.

EB: Because, well it was about that time that they got classified and academic and but they use, everybody used to be one big family. Well then course I can understand it, it got too big, and uh, but in the meantime I had, I guess all that to Dean Lemon. I got academic. Assistant Professor, so, but I don't go to too many of those things, cause my friends, practically all my friends are 01:42:00classified. Now I go to the faculty luncheons on Thursday and they're all academic, so I'm, but they're aren't close to me. I just go cause it, they always have a good program and it's a main meal for me. I don't have to cook that night. And I enjoy it, but they're not, not close friends. See all my close friends are classified.

JL: Eva - in retrospect, are there things that you would have done differently? If you had, had...

EB: Well probably not that innovative. (Laughing)

JL: Are you pretty satisfied?

EB: Yea, I was all, I think I'm too much that way. I belonged to Business and Professional Women since 1928, boy that's 50 years!! But I never, held an off, I wouldn't ho - well I was , I, I've been a Treasurer. Now there's another side of me. I can do that myself. But I wouldn't be a chairman or 01:43:00something, that I had to influence other people. I'll go along with other people, but I never have any ideas. I never had any innovative ideas. But I was State Treasurer for 2 years I think.

JL: Is there anything that you learned from personal experience that'll help the rest of us have a better life?

EB: (Big Laughs) Oh boy I don't Know. No I, I think you, you're kind a born with it, either a go along physique or one that's gonna, wanting to change all the time. Don't you think those people that all have ideas are born? I mean the just, I mean you couldn't a influenced me I don't think if I'd a had a, well course in the era that I grew up, there weren't so many people that were always changing things. You know, they weren't so easy change.

JL: Do you, you retired in what year?

EB: '65.

JL: '65, I see. So what are your goals for the future?

EB: (Chuckling) Just stay alive! No, I've slowed down a lot, I used to do almost all my yard work, but I don't do it now, I have an arthritic knee that I can't get down, You have to get down on the ground if you're gonna do good yard work, but I've had real good High school girl and course this is no time to do yard work anyway. But uh, Oh I go to, as I say those luncheons. I belong to AARP, that's once a month, OSEA's once a month, but I'm not one to go to Senior Citizens. I'm not going over there and play pinochle all day, or, I don't know what they do over there, but some people are over there, people I know, they're there every day, and they play cards. I have a friend who goes every Friday night and plays pinochle. Well I might like that if I played pinochle, but I don't play cards very much so, I play Scrabble with Dean Lemon now and then, but uh...

JL: What do you attribute your energy to?

EB: Huh? Well I don't know. I guess the good Lord just made me healthy. I've never been ill, as I say, had measles and the flu, and Scarlett fever, but uh, I, I've always been healthy. I eat what I want. So far anything I can swallow, I can handle, so, but uh, I eat too mu - I mean I like ah, I like too many cookies and cake and that stuff, I sho - but so I've always fighting getting too fat, I could be fat, but, real easy. (More chuckles).

JL: Well as you look back then, you're pretty satisfied with you life it sounds like.

EB: Yea, I think it's, I don't know whether its a good feeling, or bad. I should be reaching out for something, I guess, but I think I'm past that age. I should a reached out 50 years ago.

JL: Is there anything else that you'd like to say about anything?

EB: No I don't think of anything, That's about covered it. I'll probably think of something after you go. Other night, I'll get something, I think I'm gonna do at night, and I'll wake up in the morning, and I'll think Well that wasn't what I was gonna do at all. I forget an awful lot now. I keep, I think.