Leah Brown oral History Interview Audio [transcript]

00:00:00:00 - Corkie Bush: September 22nd 25. Corkie Bush interviewing Leah Brown in Taken under home for the Rural Women’s History Project.

00:00:21:29 - Corkie Bush: Just making a list.

00:00:23:11 - Leah Brown: Of so many people will.

00:00:26:09 - Corkie Bush: Hopefully be available to forget about their things. We want to ask you just our information about yourself and about your family and things like this. for that we have information about you.

00:00:42:05 - Leah Brown: Yeah.

00:00:42:26 - Corkie Bush: And if we don’t get it first, we get so wrapped up in the interview that we forget together. So I’m going to ask you a few questions. If you have anything that you want to talk about that these questions remind you of, just.

00:00:53:22 - Leah Brown: Feel free to come right ahead.

00:00:54:26 - Corkie Bush: But I’m going to ask you some kind of question, okay. First of all, what’s your name?

00:01:00:11 - Leah Brown: We have found this bell and you’re a Katie. And.

00:01:11:06 - Corkie Bush: What was your maiden name?

00:01:12:18 - Leah Brown: Martin. It is spelled out for your Mark II.

00:01:21:08 - Corkie Bush: And did you have any nicknames? Either now or would you go lean?

00:01:27:07 - Leah Brown: My husband and my dad called me.

00:01:30:01 - Corkie Bush: And then the new guy. And confusing. Does anybody know anything? No. What’s your date of birth?

00:01:39:05 - Leah Brown: July 4th, 1908.

00:01:46:01 - Corkie Bush: That’s fantastic. Do you like being born on the 4th of July?

00:01:50:27 - Leah Brown: you have three bandages and that has its this time. they. Are we going to go fishing on my birthday? And I don’t like to fish.

00:02:03:08 - Corkie Bush: But then,

00:02:04:29 - Leah Brown: It’s okay. We are. And we usually end up having fun.

00:02:09:27 - Corkie Bush: Because everybody is celebrating something else besides your birthday. They’ll be like.

00:02:14:22 - Leah Brown: Yeah, they celebrate my birthday whether they want to or not.

00:02:19:14 - Corkie Bush: My birthday’s on the seventh. Are two on. I like having been born in July. My mother’s cancer, and I’m a cancer therapy, and they’re really lucky.

00:02:31:00 - Leah Brown: Oh, yeah. What’s your address on route one?

00:02:38:10 - Unknown: Fox 61.

00:02:42:07 - Leah Brown: My mom.

00:02:42:29 - Corkie Bush: I’m not. And you just get one more Ali.

00:02:46:20 - Leah Brown: Him or a.

00:02:51:26 - Corkie Bush: Oh, no. That’s that’s further away than almost anything else. It.

00:02:56:19 - Leah Brown: Oh, it’s down the hill here. About 20 miles. Comes up on the route from come my.

00:03:05:20 - Corkie Bush: Where were you born?

00:03:07:00 - Leah Brown: Joplin, Missouri.

00:03:08:09 - Corkie Bush: That’s the accident. Be. Okay, okay.

00:03:17:27 - Corkie Bush: And do you have a phone now? Four. Seven.

00:03:21:23 - Leah Brown: Six.

00:03:24:21 - Corkie Bush: Four. (670) 037-6267. No, that’s pretty easy to read. when you first came to Idaho, where did you live? Where were you born?

00:03:40:13 - Leah Brown: I wasn’t born here. I was born in Joplin. We moved back to the time I was five years old people. And then we moved up here to the ranch when I was 15.

00:03:56:03 - Corkie Bush: And it’s the ranch. Is this the ranch we would now know.

00:04:00:04 - Leah Brown: the ranch is, about four miles through the Indian reservation here. Way over on the breaks. It would be right on the banks of Dawson Dam.

00:04:15:08 - Corkie Bush: When? Which wasn’t a dam? No.

00:04:18:01 - Leah Brown: All wilderness at that time.

00:04:22:16 - Corkie Bush: Did did you homesteaded? You put down. No, no.

00:04:26:21 - Leah Brown: Well, we cut trees for wood, but we did get call. It was, it was partly cleared. It had couple of fields who we found half way coming from town. We didn’t know much about farming.

00:04:47:01 - Corkie Bush: was it scary? I think it would be friendly.

00:04:51:24 - Leah Brown: I think it was my mother and dad. Of course, as kids, we know and, you know, to be frightened about it. But.

00:05:02:08 - Corkie Bush: we walked.

00:05:03:20 - Leah Brown: the four miles to south from school, and we got plain home around 7:00 in the morning, walk all the way through the timber. It’s heavily timbered all through there. and, then sometimes we’d be almost dark and we’d get home at nine. In the wintertime, we’d have to wait the snow. Ride a horse or something? Quite sure.

00:05:32:10 - Leah Brown: Just just to get to school.

00:05:35:26 - Corkie Bush: Might make education more valuable, but we didn’t.

00:05:38:02 - Leah Brown: Know. Well, we should have realized it. But I don’t know. I don’t think we thought too much about it. We didn’t go on. My brothers went on the high school, but I didn’t. So, I don’t know whether we thought too much about it or not. It is something we had to do.

00:05:54:19 - Corkie Bush: The picking schools have to pick in school. Went to what, grade.

00:05:58:13 - Leah Brown: Eight grade.

00:05:59:04 - Corkie Bush: Screen, and then you’d have to go to board if you’re working or someplace. Okay.

00:06:05:13 - Leah Brown: If we high school at that time.

00:06:11:15 - Corkie Bush: So you arrived in Idaho approximately 1925 was 16. And how did you come from, traveling to Clark?

00:06:25:08 - Leah Brown: My dad had an old Maxwell car. Touring car. And we were so afraid of the hills. We hadn’t seen Hill, you know.

00:06:36:06 - Corkie Bush: That in Joplin. I’m sure you.

00:06:40:16 - Leah Brown: we got as far as Wichita, Kansas, and our car broke down, and, my dad stayed there and work, and my mother and her children came on. Clark. And we followed later.

00:06:54:27 - Corkie Bush: Did you come on the train? On the train?

00:07:03:16 - Corkie Bush: I didn’t think Max was supposed to break down.

00:07:11:27 - Corkie Bush: And on this trip, you came with your. Your mother. And your brothers.

00:07:20:06 - Leah Brown: And I think, You mean on the train behind my mother and two brothers and myself?

00:07:32:14 - Corkie Bush: What is your mother’s maiden name? Gaia. Keystone.

00:07:36:25 - Leah Brown: Going like you are.

00:07:39:09 - Corkie Bush: G e y e r k. And when would you know? Pool?

00:07:49:14 - Leah Brown: When?

00:07:49:29 - Corkie Bush: Approximately just the year before. Max should be.

00:07:56:18 - Leah Brown: We would be about 85 years old.

00:08:00:21 - Corkie Bush: she was born in 1890.

00:08:03:13 - Leah Brown: I would say somewhere around,

00:08:07:25 - Corkie Bush: And do you know where she was born?

00:08:10:10 - Leah Brown: She was born in, Dad was born in Kansas. Mom was born in Arkansas.

00:08:22:14 - Corkie Bush: And you know, the year that your mother and father got married.

00:08:27:03 - Leah Brown: Roughly, it would be back. be about 70 years ago.

00:08:37:01 - Corkie Bush: that might, you know, final five. She would go about 50.

00:08:42:06 - Leah Brown: I think 15 or 16, something like that.

00:08:46:27 - Corkie Bush: so. But now 1905. Okay, okay. What were the main jobs that your mother did either in the house throughout putting out the timber work outside of the out of your home? Okay, we her,

00:09:05:18 - Leah Brown: You mean, did she hold down a job? She worked for the, Del Monte camera. You know, some when she worked at a hospital, and dad had to have an operation.

00:09:25:09 - Corkie Bush: I didn’t even know there was a cannery.

00:09:27:18 - Leah Brown: At least two years ago. They found all kinds of fruit.

00:09:32:15 - Corkie Bush: Fruit, apples to.

00:09:36:01 - Leah Brown: Apples, peaches, pears, cherries.

00:09:41:06 - Corkie Bush: I, Lucy is actually an ideal fruit county.

00:09:44:19 - Leah Brown: I don’t know why they ever took it away. They have, down where the cannery was. They have these, green pools where they freeze the green beans.

00:09:55:16 - Unknown: And, I don’t know why they ever took families. Like, I don’t know.

00:10:00:23 - Corkie Bush: There would be lots of water, good transportation.

00:10:04:01 - Leah Brown: Well, I think it’s because they did away with so much of the orchards down around Boston. They don’t have the trees down there that they used to have. So that’s pretty.

00:10:14:07 - Corkie Bush: Good for me, man. I’m a close friend. Thank you for.

00:10:21:15 - Corkie Bush: And she worked at the hospital for your father’s operation.

00:10:27:14 - Corkie Bush: How long did you work at the cannery?

00:10:32:03 - Leah Brown: her dad worked there for years. For a long time. For like, 10 or 15 years long.

00:10:44:09 - Corkie Bush: Okay, I’m gonna ask the same kinds of questions about your dad. what was his name?

00:10:49:19 - Leah Brown: His name is Charles Edward Martin Chaffee.

00:10:56:23 - Corkie Bush: I guess we should find out your mother’s maiden name to your voice. First name? Charles Edward. Martin. And what was your mother’s? Christy. Hattie.

00:11:11:27 - Leah Brown: Okay. Keeping.

00:11:15:22 - Corkie Bush: was that short for anything?

00:11:17:05 - Leah Brown: No, that was when I.

00:11:19:15 - Corkie Bush: I a go. Okay. And you know approximately they. Is it from his birth?

00:11:26:06 - Leah Brown: dad was 90 years old and, two I believe that would be,

00:11:33:03 - Corkie Bush: They still have to subtract, by the end of 1975, 90. Three could be 1984, 88.

00:11:48:14 - Leah Brown: 85

00:11:58:16 - Corkie Bush: And where was your. Oh, I’m. Joplin.

00:12:01:15 - Leah Brown: No. Let’s see. Where did I say mom was born?

00:12:04:16 - Corkie Bush: Said your mom was born in Arkansas.

00:12:05:28 - Leah Brown: That was born in Kansas.

00:12:07:18 - Corkie Bush: Okay.

00:12:11:19 - Corkie Bush: And both your parents are still alive?

00:12:14:08 - Leah Brown: No mother’s here.

00:12:15:18 - Corkie Bush: Only 50.

00:12:16:13 - Leah Brown: Has been there about five years.

00:12:18:18 - Corkie Bush: And.

00:12:21:24 - Corkie Bush: So your father’s still living?

00:12:25:21 - Leah Brown: Yeah, he’s in Yakima. Question for my mom. Madison fountain, that’s call.

00:12:39:04 - Corkie Bush: You and your father’s job. Well, we know he worked in the county, right?

00:12:42:28 - Leah Brown: Yes. in Missouri, he worked at the smelter mill.

00:12:54:14 - Corkie Bush: I can see maybe why he wanted to leave the smelter mill to come to work.

00:12:59:22 - Leah Brown: Then the smelter mill. And also at the, junkyard.

00:13:06:08 - Leah Brown: I don’t remember just how the yard was. I remember you work. I think it’s a junkyard. And then got the job at the smell of it.

00:13:15:03 - Corkie Bush: That is, if you liked it. Why do you think.

00:13:17:21 - Leah Brown: He never did say that? I know I it was a job. Okay. Yep. The family going.

00:13:27:14 - Corkie Bush: If you have any sisters.

00:13:30:01 - Leah Brown: no. They had, my little sister after they left the ranch up here and moved back to Clarkston.

00:13:37:24 - Corkie Bush: You have a sister who’s much younger than you?

00:13:40:09 - Leah Brown: Oh, yes. She’s, Let’s see. She’s about three months older than my oldest daughter.

00:13:48:19 - Corkie Bush: Wow. Well, what’s her name?

00:13:51:21 - Leah Brown: Georgiana.

00:13:53:11 - Corkie Bush: G e o r g e t t a okay. And she is an old who was born here.

00:14:04:18 - Leah Brown: My oldest daughter is 43, 44. So she could she be that close to 47, 46? My oldest daughter. Yeah.

00:14:18:12 - Corkie Bush: So Richard is 47.

00:14:25:10 - Corkie Bush: And what’s Georgette? His last name?

00:14:27:26 - Leah Brown: Yeah. Now cannot. Okay. And then. And who are you?

00:14:38:10 - Corkie Bush: And your brothers. Yeah. I know we had two brothers.

00:14:40:04 - Leah Brown: Yeah. John and Paul.

00:14:50:12 - Corkie Bush: And how old are they? Who are they? Both older than you are?

00:14:55:22 - Leah Brown: No, they’re younger than I am. Say.

00:15:00:25 - Leah Brown: My brother John must be. 61.

00:15:11:23 - Leah Brown: And my brother Paul must be 54. 58.

00:15:18:21 - Corkie Bush: So your parents actually waited at least five years from the time.

00:15:22:18 - Leah Brown: They were married. And I have a brother and sister. Dad older than me. Oh, my brother was drowned and my sister died in good area.

00:15:31:29 - Corkie Bush: Do you remember that or were they. Did this happen? The name?

00:15:35:02 - Leah Brown: I don’t remember my sister. She was older, but I took Diptheria from her and, they didn’t have too much in those days to, to, take care of someone with something. I know she died with it, and I nearly died. My folks always says it was prayer that saved me.

00:16:01:01 - Corkie Bush: The a such a danger that was. Do you remember being sick?

00:16:04:19 - Leah Brown: No. I was a baby. I’m sure.

00:16:09:12 - Corkie Bush: We were lucky.

00:16:10:13 - Leah Brown: But I remember my brother and I remember the day he drowned. Everything was very.

00:16:17:07 - Corkie Bush: Good. You fall into the river?

00:16:19:12 - Leah Brown: no. They had these, Or is it where they had mine? Them left for the hearings?

00:16:29:09 - Corkie Bush: Yeah. I don’t.

00:16:30:04 - Leah Brown: Remember what they called.

00:16:31:28 - Corkie Bush: Those, but those big pits put them up with water.

00:16:35:15 - Leah Brown: You drowned in more involved?

00:16:38:23 - Leah Brown: Yeah. Miss, boyfriend.

00:16:42:05 - Corkie Bush: And how old was he?

00:16:43:02 - Leah Brown: About nine.

00:16:46:08 - Corkie Bush: Your parents together?

00:16:48:15 - Leah Brown: Yeah. It was hard on my folks because he was what you would call, model boy. He was just. He never disobeyed. And he was always curious. He was always kind and wouldn’t hurt anything. And this is the only time he ever disobeyed default. And he and this boy got together and went up to the coal mine.

00:17:15:14 - Unknown: I got down. To.

00:17:20:15 - Leah Brown: I couldn’t feature a perfect boy. Well, mom. And to,

00:17:26:08 - Corkie Bush: well, he probably had his normal boyish things.

00:17:29:07 - Leah Brown: Oh, yeah, he, you know, but, as far as obeying the folk, they said he he never disobeyed him or anything. Only that one time. And that could be sure that.

00:17:43:15 - Corkie Bush: Children that age have no sense of danger, though. No. and so really, Missouri wasn’t a very happy place for your family.

00:17:53:01 - Leah Brown: Well, in that respect, no.

00:17:59:11 - Corkie Bush: Okay. Now, I’d like to know about your husband. What’s your husband’s name?

00:18:03:07 - Leah Brown: His name is Gifford. Chief National Party.

00:18:13:00 - Corkie Bush: Do you call him anything? For sure. Does he have a nickname?

00:18:15:20 - Leah Brown: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

00:18:21:19 - Corkie Bush: Okay. And approximately one. Was he born?

00:18:24:08 - Leah Brown: He was born in 1906.

00:18:29:05 - Corkie Bush: And we’re.

00:18:31:03 - Leah Brown: Right here to.

00:18:31:22 - Corkie Bush: Take him home.

00:18:37:04 - Leah Brown: Back to the 8 p.m.. A, m a.

00:18:43:20 - Corkie Bush: Okay. Really quick to thank you. And where did you get married?

00:18:49:08 - Leah Brown: And when we got married in Lewiston.

00:18:56:11 - Corkie Bush: 1920

00:19:01:10 - Corkie Bush: Three. You’ve been married?

00:19:04:00 - Leah Brown: Earth? 747, 40.

00:19:07:11 - Corkie Bush: Seven years, almost 50 years. And what’s your husband’s occupation? C farmer.

00:19:13:27 - Leah Brown: Farmer. He’s retired now. But he married Palmer.

00:19:22:29 - Corkie Bush: Okay, I but you can’t guess. Next, people ask you about your children. what are your children’s names? I mean, a r l e n e r o. That’s pretty. And where and when was Arlene Field?

00:19:43:10 - Leah Brown: She was born here at Pekin. Well, I don’t know if you called Pekin or not. It was back on the ranch over there. Okay. You can pick em through at home. at home.

00:19:59:11 - Corkie Bush: And with.

00:20:03:10 - Leah Brown: 1920, a 1929.

00:20:07:28 - Leah Brown: And,

00:20:10:08 - Corkie Bush: What what is her occupation? Which you do.

00:20:14:05 - Leah Brown: You right now? He was working in a bank, but she took. I don’t know.

00:20:20:14 - Corkie Bush: Who put her work in the bank.

00:20:22:21 - Leah Brown: She just got this job. She did work for Canning. She just got this.

00:20:26:06 - Corkie Bush: Job, if you like.

00:20:27:20 - Leah Brown: She says she does. She can.

00:20:29:00 - Corkie Bush: Training and if you work in Lewiston?

00:20:33:05 - Leah Brown: No, she’s in Santa Maria, California.

00:20:38:23 - Corkie Bush: What? A long ways away.

00:20:40:06 - Leah Brown: Yeah.

00:20:41:04 - Unknown: Too far.

00:20:46:13 - Corkie Bush: Okay, now I know.

00:20:47:29 - Leah Brown: Are you going gonna ask me the rest of the kids when they were born? And, you know, I can’t remember, That’s something.

00:20:55:20 - Corkie Bush: No, I think that must happen. I bet my parents couldn’t go and all five of us were born. I mean, I couldn’t. I think they could give you the. You would have to count back.

00:21:05:18 - Leah Brown: Let’s see now. Viola is the next one. Viola Marie’s.

00:21:13:07 - Leah Brown: Come. she also was born here at Pekin. Right down here. And left green House.

00:21:21:17 - Corkie Bush: Oh, yes.

00:21:25:17 - Leah Brown: Let’s see. She was Corky. She was 41.

00:21:36:27 - Corkie Bush: Just another day.

00:21:38:16 - Leah Brown: So 41 from 1931.

00:21:42:04 - Corkie Bush: One, 1934 34. He came. And where does she live and what she does?

00:21:51:17 - Leah Brown: She lives right in my front yard, in a trailer house.

00:21:59:23 - Corkie Bush: And what is she doing living there?

00:22:04:21 - Leah Brown: she’s the cook over at the school.

00:22:12:08 - Corkie Bush: Good. Okay.

00:22:13:15 - Leah Brown: Now then, Mariam.

00:22:17:11 - Corkie Bush: Two. Two. One.

00:22:18:21 - Leah Brown: Two and three. Okay.

00:22:23:29 - Corkie Bush: We’re washable.

00:22:25:20 - Leah Brown: She was born in our female.

00:22:27:22 - Corkie Bush: Oh, but I remember her.

00:22:29:12 - Leah Brown: We ran up a degree or two.

00:22:33:06 - Corkie Bush: How did I. How did you like that? I always wanted to talk to someone who has had their children, some at home and some in the hospital, but,

00:22:46:10 - Unknown: I don’t know.

00:22:48:00 - Corkie Bush: Was it different?

00:22:49:06 - Leah Brown: Oh, yes, it was different.

00:22:51:16 - Corkie Bush: Did you feel safer? Do you think that the hospital or did you feel more comfortable?

00:22:56:04 - Leah Brown: I had a lot of confidence in my doctors, but of course it was hard on the doctors at that time, for them to come all the way out here, which they don’t do anymore.

00:23:08:13 - Corkie Bush: you got to get there if they don’t do. Oh.

00:23:11:05 - Leah Brown: But, it was a pretty hurry up affair. I was only there 15 minutes, and she was here, so it has its advantages, and it does require, I had good care of my daughter and had confidence in my doctor.

00:23:30:08 - Corkie Bush: Have when you had Arlene and file, where did the doctor come up to? The house. Actually.

00:23:38:18 - Leah Brown: Yeah. When I was born, he came up and stayed all night.

00:23:44:26 - Corkie Bush: he didn’t have to feed him to coffee, I trust, or everything.

00:23:49:10 - Leah Brown: Hello? Yes, I think I mean, coffee.

00:23:56:27 - Corkie Bush: Right. I trust or everything.

00:23:59:25 - Leah Brown: Well, yeah, but they gave him coffee.

00:24:03:03 - Corkie Bush: But he didn’t have to do that.

00:24:04:10 - Leah Brown: Oh, no, I.

00:24:06:13 - Corkie Bush: Have I’m people. When was Mariam for issues?

00:24:13:24 - Leah Brown: for years.

00:24:14:28 - Corkie Bush: 1930. She was born in 19.

00:24:23:05 - Corkie Bush: Okay. And where she was?

00:24:24:25 - Leah Brown: She lived in Spokane.

00:24:32:11 - Corkie Bush: And this. Is she working there?

00:24:34:08 - Leah Brown: Yes, she’s a waitress.

00:24:39:25 - Corkie Bush: Okay, now, I know you’ve got one, son.

00:24:41:28 - Leah Brown: But, Well, we call in Billy. His name is William Edward Kane.

00:24:50:20 - Corkie Bush: Who got the room? Okay.

00:24:59:15 - Corkie Bush: And was he born in Reno? Yes. I bet Marion was born in 1938. She’s four years younger than Howard. Yeah.

00:25:08:11 - Leah Brown: Okay. Oh, yeah, I was subtracting, and after that he was on.

00:25:14:19 - Corkie Bush: But. But what got me was that she was born in Phenix. I had to be. And it was Billy born in our van. Okay. And proximately.

00:25:25:24 - Leah Brown: He’s, three years younger than.

00:25:28:10 - Corkie Bush: So he was in 1941.

00:25:32:25 - Leah Brown: Yeah. That’s right. Thank you for your life.

00:25:35:29 - Corkie Bush: He’s only two years older than I am with that right? And, is he his for me?

00:25:46:19 - Leah Brown: Yeah. Farming and logging. Yeah. Logging crew.

00:25:57:25 - Corkie Bush: And your children.

00:25:59:11 - Leah Brown: Actually. Yeah.

00:25:59:29 - Corkie Bush: That’s it for us. Enough. Oh, okay. Lots, lots. People don’t even fill out that many. Yeah. Okay. you told me you went to the eighth grade. Yeah. So you school?

00:26:28:18 - Corkie Bush: Skills. Oh, you can do. Oh.

00:26:37:25 - Leah Brown: Well, I consider myself pretty good cook and true.

00:26:41:25 - Corkie Bush: Probably.

00:26:48:00 - Leah Brown: And I so.

00:26:51:06 - Corkie Bush: It’s this pattern sewing with patterns of,

00:26:55:18 - Leah Brown: Making, clothes and, hobbies. Okay. Stuffed animals and anything comes along.

00:27:12:23 - Corkie Bush: Any other skills?

00:27:14:05 - Leah Brown: I crochet a little embroidery.

00:27:22:03 - Corkie Bush: Okay. Nice brown boy.

00:27:23:23 - Unknown: Right.

00:27:30:26 - Corkie Bush: any jobs or occupations which felt.

00:27:35:00 - Leah Brown: I just worked 2 or 3 years at the cannery with my folks.

00:27:40:17 - Corkie Bush: That’s been awfully.

00:27:42:08 - Leah Brown: hum.

00:27:45:16 - Corkie Bush: How did you like working? Okay.

00:27:47:23 - Leah Brown: Well, it gave me a little money I wouldn’t have had otherwise. That’s about the only thing I can say about it.

00:27:55:29 - Corkie Bush: But obviously you were working before the child labor laws went in because you couldn’t get been more than ten.

00:28:02:09 - Leah Brown: No, this was after I quit school or, let’s see, I was 14, 15. No, 15, 16 and 17 over here. I was 17.

00:28:21:17 - Corkie Bush: Okay. Do you have any other hobbies or interests, things that you’re interested in, in besides the cooking and the sewing, crocheting and embroidery? Oh, what do you mean now? Oh, reading books, listening to music. hiking. You were told you don’t like fishing, but.

00:28:40:01 - Leah Brown: I play the piano. I entertain myself playing piano lessons and.

00:28:50:06 - Corkie Bush: that’s exactly me.

00:28:52:24 - Leah Brown: And then I make all kinds of little, Where would you come? I make some little things, pearls, refrigerator, things like that. Oh, little kit, I think.

00:29:06:09 - Corkie Bush: I know what you call, And it does very have some that very have refrigerators that, to a chicken, two chickens and roosters, probably.

00:29:16:10 - Leah Brown: I didn’t make those. I made, I made some of pearl. I have some. What would you call those over here? I don’t know. Anyway, they have all kinds.

00:29:31:25 - Corkie Bush: To give you. Would you put these in bazaars? Yeah, fairs and stuff and.

00:29:37:21 - Leah Brown: Yes.

00:29:47:07 - Corkie Bush: Have you ever entered anything in a fair in marketing? But do you usually enter.

00:29:55:12 - Leah Brown: I just had a whatever I happen to have on hand. Last year, I entered the, beautiful wall plaque that I made out of, you know, these schools that the big sewing machines run the trade off from their country? I a bunch of I was in a circle passing them with the old fashioned clothes.

00:30:21:24 - Leah Brown: Pam made a great big rose, and I put flowers in the middle. Ooh, yeah. Painted all gold. And.

00:30:31:03 - Leah Brown: I ended that, and then I added some crochet bead. And, I made some chenille fish for a bathroom, and I and her gold.

00:30:46:16 - Corkie Bush: And did you win prizes with me?

00:30:48:06 - Leah Brown: I got all blue ribbon.

00:30:49:16 - Corkie Bush: Wow.

00:30:51:17 - Leah Brown: I have never ventured into the baking part of the fair. I often thought of my why should I? I don’t know, just go back word about it again.

00:31:06:09 - Corkie Bush: I’m working on something else now.

00:31:10:19 - Corkie Bush: Finally. And giving it could be.

00:31:13:10 - Leah Brown: So it’ll stay white. Yeah, it doesn’t turn brown.

00:31:16:18 - Corkie Bush: It takes a while. I’m sort of practicing on it. I think if my apples are right enough by next year, and I found that they can’t be too ripe.

00:31:26:01 - Leah Brown: And not.

00:31:27:04 - Corkie Bush: Green, and if they’re ripe enough for the fair, then I’ll be able to do it. But if they’re overripe or not, I don’t know.

00:31:34:12 - Leah Brown: They’ll turn brown and go over right then. The main thing is to get them cooked before they start turning brown. So they stay clean like I’ve.

00:31:43:04 - Corkie Bush: I’ve been really working on my apples. I just got lots of I’ve gotten lots of apples and I can experiment. The first batch batches just really not good. And the second batch was better. And I think I’ve I’ve just about that apple. So if it if it turns out next year I’m really.

00:32:02:10 - Leah Brown: Going the way I do mine, I, I have me a pan of cold water and I put for tablespoons of salt in that water and stir it up. And then if I corn spike my apples I go up and down that and they stay white. They don’t turn, they don’t turn dark blue. And then, I’ll only do enough for maybe 2 or 3 jars.

00:32:26:10 - Leah Brown: And then I put it on, cook it.

00:32:27:24 - Corkie Bush: Yeah, that’s all I’m doing.

00:32:28:29 - Leah Brown: And the salt within the water is just enough. you can’t taste the salt. It’s just enough to give the greens a good flavor.

00:32:39:20 - Corkie Bush: I had lemon juice in that little batch. You know, water and lemon juice to try to keep it simple and brown. That was okay, but the apples were too tart, and the lemon juice finally got. It wasn’t sour, but it was the salt.

00:32:55:26 - Leah Brown: Excuse me. The salt will take some of that part. So I do.

00:33:00:07 - Corkie Bush: Think. So no, I go. Okay. Thank you. Now, I do have some questions to ask you. And these I’m not going to write down to convert.

00:33:15:22 - Leah Brown: I may not hit all.

00:33:16:24 - Corkie Bush: These or we may I may do one here, and we may end up talking about one on the back. Take a time. But these are just some questions that, we’ve found help people think of things that they might want to say better than the questions we were asking for. Yeah, we talked a little bit last night about this, but what do you think are some of the advantages and disadvantages of living in a rural place?

00:33:43:28 - Leah Brown: I think it’s better for children. they always have something to do. Where? In town after they leave school. There’s nothing else for them to do. on the farm, the way it was with my kids. Anyway, they came home from school, they had chores to do, and they didn’t think. I have time. Think about going out and going in the next year.

00:34:12:02 - Leah Brown: And, then I think it we weren’t, we weren’t one of the.

00:34:21:09 - Unknown: What would you call it?

00:34:24:18 - Leah Brown: We were very small farmers. We didn’t have much money. And, our kids had to learn to take care of what things they did have. And I think that’s good for kids. Now that they’re married, they all know. They know the value of money and how to take care of it. And and how to spend it wisely. Or if it’s just handed to them, I, I, I don’t think they, appreciated this much.

00:35:02:24 - Leah Brown: I am them the air is clear and fresh and I think people do feel better. Of course, we get sick up here too. But then, our air is clear, fresh. Our water is pure.

00:35:23:18 - Leah Brown: It’s just a good, clean living, I think. Just good for people to live that way.

00:35:29:19 - Corkie Bush: How many disadvantages you see?

00:35:33:09 - Leah Brown: Oh, I think every place has its disadvantages. When you get up by age and. And you live out like this in the winters or long, we get lots of snow. We worry about getting sick and getting out to the doctor. My husband and I both are seriously ill and I think that’s a disadvantage. But, my husband was born here and lived out here all his life.

00:36:05:08 - Leah Brown: he doesn’t seem to want to live somewhere else, so we just go through it.

00:36:12:12 - Corkie Bush: But it’s cause it does worry.

00:36:14:03 - Leah Brown: It does.

00:36:15:06 - Corkie Bush: Come from. From a good doctor hospital.

00:36:18:23 - Leah Brown: It does worry you. And that scar.

00:36:25:26 - Corkie Bush: We could. How could you go through?

00:36:28:10 - Leah Brown: No. We both drive and we go, at least twice a month to.

00:36:34:00 - Corkie Bush: Town for groceries. I wouldn’t say to come see me know if you know, mostly nothing.

00:36:39:16 - Leah Brown: Because that’s where our doctors are. And I have to get my blood tested every month. And, so while we’re down there, we just get our groceries. Once in a while, we go, doctor, you know?

00:36:53:07 - Corkie Bush: But tell me when you think.

00:36:54:28 - Leah Brown: It means less than most likely,

00:36:58:20 - Corkie Bush: Because there used to be a store or anything like that in Beacon Hill around here. Yeah. Mr. town.

00:37:06:07 - Leah Brown: Oh, father in law had a store right up here to cook.

00:37:12:18 - Corkie Bush: And mail back.

00:37:13:18 - Leah Brown: That’s gone.

00:37:17:03 - Corkie Bush: The. When we were in Kendrew, we were a women. What? Worried them about their community. And the thing that worried the most. Or one of the things that was losing the stores and having to go to Lewiston to go to to Moscow or someplace to go to get groceries and bread and just the things you basically need every day.

00:37:40:08 - Leah Brown: Well, these big, chain stores are running all the little stores out of business again, the big taking over the small things that is here on the farm. The big farmers are taking over the small farmers, and pretty soon it’s just going to be big farmers. And I suppose it’s the same way with their stores. It’s not going to be the supermarket or nothing.

00:38:08:14 - Corkie Bush: Yeah. How would you compare your life as a woman who’s lived on a farm? Almost. Well, all your married life, right? Yeah. You numerate your husband, you move to his farm and you go through life. How do you compare your life with, say, the wife of a woman who who lives in the city?

00:38:29:01 - Leah Brown: Well, I don’t know. There’s never a dull moment. I know that there’s always lots to do. like they said last night, I’ve worked side by side with my husband, to do the farming and,

00:38:45:20 - Leah Brown: I did just almost everything on the farm that is to be done. Have milk cows. I’ve drawn tractor. I drove track.

00:38:58:16 - Corkie Bush: I learned to do things. Many girls more fortunately situated don’t even know what needs to be done.

00:39:03:12 - Leah Brown: That’s right. and, I had to sew for my children. back when my children were small, we didn’t have mixers and things. Everything was made from scratch. And with four children at home, I baked something almost every day. And then I bake bread once or twice a week. We butchered our own meat. I had to take care of that.

00:39:31:11 - Leah Brown: We didn’t have any electricity or anything that all had to be taken care of.

00:39:35:25 - Corkie Bush: How did you did to smoke it?

00:39:38:14 - Leah Brown: the pork. We smoke the sausage we got to call fried it down. Do you know what that means? No. You fry your little. Take the sausage, you pack moonshine, jam for the beer, lard that comes out. Sausage over it, And that keeps it sealed tight. And you set it in your cellar where it’s cool. And then, as you want it, you just step out of the fridge and cook the pan and warm up, and you have your grease for your gravy or whatever.

00:40:12:24 - Leah Brown: And then I can buy a lot of meat.

00:40:16:12 - Corkie Bush: I’ve never tried to carry meat. Haven’t you? Actually, it scares me.

00:40:22:07 - Leah Brown: Oh, really?

00:40:23:02 - Corkie Bush: I would worry about not doing it for some reason. Canning. Oh, put us doesn’t it would seem it seems dangerous to canned meat.

00:40:34:14 - Leah Brown: Oh, I’ve always canned meat. We like it. It’s delicious. And it’s handy. there’s been times, when the children were home, we’d run off. Or. What are we gonna have for supper? Well, we put a pound of potatoes on fry. I’d go up to the cellar and I’d bring in a jar. Fruit jar made this jar me.

00:40:57:18 - Leah Brown: And there was our our dinner.

00:41:00:28 - Corkie Bush: Real handy when you could actually sort of decide that day. Well, now you have to plan two weeks in advance what you’re going to eat.

00:41:09:27 - Leah Brown: When you go to.

00:41:14:01 - Leah Brown: Canning. My my son says, mom, he says, what ever happened to our cellar? he says, I can remember going out there and all those jars of fruit lined up there, and that’s potatoes. And the them and apple, two of them and vegetables sitting there ready to take to the house to fix for dinner and everything like that, he says, I miss that old feller.

00:41:39:03 - Corkie Bush: I’m gonna go, what is it doing now through summer?

00:41:43:28 - Leah Brown: It’s been torn down a long time ago. And, the inside of it has my son’s gas diesel tank up in the loft of it, and the oil and things is down in the cellar park. It was above ground, cellar.

00:42:04:11 - Leah Brown: For that long time. And I owned which has been tore down.

00:42:08:08 - Corkie Bush: Because not use a wood stove.

00:42:09:12 - Leah Brown: Do you know.

00:42:10:21 - Corkie Bush: Do you miss it?

00:42:12:07 - Leah Brown: You know I do. I like the old wood. Still, my got times, I think. Oh, how am I sitting there? I up your wood stove again for several loaves of bread in the oven and fool around with it. First electric stoves much more convenient. And then two. That was a chore to get wood.

00:42:33:11 - Corkie Bush: Yeah, okay. What is a chore? We have a wood stove, and then I’m just learning how to cook. I mean, it’s really an art I found. And I know some things I can do, okay. And other things I haven’t mastered the art of doing it yet, but I’m it’s the thing that I like the most is the warming ovens.

00:42:55:07 - Corkie Bush: Yes. I, I can’t imagine why they ever took those off new stoves, because they just are the handiest things in Europe. That’s right. I would, I would like if they even if they have to have like cookstoves to have little warming ovens because they are just so, so good. And that means that you don’t have to finish everything all at the same time, like you do on modern cooking.

00:43:17:04 - Corkie Bush: Everything has got to finish, right?

00:43:19:15 - Leah Brown: Yeah. Center. And then put it right on the table.

00:43:22:06 - Corkie Bush: And, with our wood stove, you know, if something, you know, I can, I can make the bread or the rolls or something like that. And when they’re done, I put them up in the warming up, and I know they’re going to stay warm, and then I can be cooking the other stuff. That’s right. Okay. And I miss it.

00:43:38:04 - Corkie Bush: I can’t I’m not even that good a cook on my wood stove. And when I’m back, you know, in Moscow not cooking, I mean.

00:43:47:04 - Leah Brown: And I always like the old cook stove. I still wish I could cook on again for a little while, I guess. But every person, when I get older look back to the old days and think, well, I’d like to do that. Just one more idea. I don’t know.

00:44:04:19 - Corkie Bush: I should have to come up to my cabin. You could.

00:44:08:09 - Leah Brown: Well, that would be fun.

00:44:09:24 - Corkie Bush: It’s it’s fun. It’s nice. And I. I really need to teach her because it’s hard to learn these things.

00:44:15:19 - Leah Brown: Well, it’s been so long. I’m afraid I’d be a poor teacher right now, but.

00:44:20:05 - Corkie Bush: I think it’s like riding a bicycle. Well, there are so many things that people pass down to each other that they don’t even realize, and I’ve never cooked on a wood stove before. I’ve got to learn it all by myself from scratch. It’s hard.

00:44:37:01 - Leah Brown: Which reminds me, how much longer are we going to be here? I have a meatball from the, Well, they’re not turned up kind.

00:44:44:09 - Corkie Bush: We we talked about some of these things, so I’m going to go on. Can you describe some things you and your brothers and sisters did when you were children?

00:44:56:09 - Leah Brown: Get in mischief.

00:44:57:11 - Corkie Bush: Get into mischief. What kinds of things did he do?

00:45:01:09 - Leah Brown: Well, not really too much. My mother and my dad both worked.

00:45:08:02 - Corkie Bush: It wasn’t that pretty unusual.

00:45:10:22 - Leah Brown: And I was only nine years old. And I had to take care of my two brothers. really? I can look back and see where I didn’t have too much of a childhood. I had to grow up too fast. They were younger than I was, and I had to take care of them. When the folks came home from work at night, I had to have a potato field and I had to go to store and get meat, have it ready.

00:45:39:14 - Leah Brown: and then when mom got home, she put on a cook. And before I went to school in the morning, I had to wash up for breakfast dishes and come home at noon. And. And my grandpa came home at noon, man. And he fixed lunch for the two boys. And I. Then of the evening, I had to, like I say, get everything prepared for the evening meal and take out after my brothers from that took place as long as we lived in Clarkston, until we moved up here to the ranch.

00:46:21:14 - Leah Brown: as far as I was concerned, that was about all I. I couldn’t go to my girlfriend’s houses, play or anything like that. I have to be home. My brothers, they, of course, they played, just like boys.

00:46:42:27 - Corkie Bush: They were expected to help out as much as you want.

00:46:45:18 - Leah Brown: Nothing on in getting in the wood, but you had to make sure the wood was in and we did have running water and we had electricity after a start. In those days, it was, something to be desired, you know, just a light bulb. And that was about all right. We weren’t we weren’t some of the more fortunate ones.

00:47:08:06 - Leah Brown: We were quite simply. I don’t know, I, I took music class and my mother insisted I take music lessons. And where she found the time to do it, I don’t know, but she, did sewing for my music teacher to pay for my music lessons were okay.

00:47:34:13 - Corkie Bush: I guess it’s a little incongruous that she’s expecting you to be home and to work and everything. And then just having you learn music. But what do you think she was thinking?

00:47:45:23 - Leah Brown: I don’t know, I, I just don’t know. But she insisted that I take music.

00:47:51:18 - Corkie Bush: Through that kind.

00:47:53:18 - Leah Brown: And she bought me a piano. And of course, I helped to pass part of my time while I was looking after my brothers and gave me something to look forward to. My music teacher came.

00:48:05:08 - Unknown: To the house. And,

00:48:10:13 - Leah Brown: The mother did beautiful sewing for her. She made her beautiful colored.

00:48:17:17 - Corkie Bush: I was the oldest, and I always resented. You know what? not having the freedom. I thought that I gave my brothers and sisters.

00:48:29:11 - Leah Brown: Well, I don’t know if I resented it at the time, but I think back, and and I see so many things that I missed.

00:48:44:00 - Leah Brown: I just wasn’t, I just wasn’t a little girl. I had to grow up. I had to have a level head. I remember one day I started a fire in the cook stove, and I didn’t. I didn’t know the dangers or it was to happen or something, I don’t know. Anyway, the fire had gone out and I presume the stove was still warm and I poured coil in it, and I got down and opened up the front of the thing and live it.

00:49:18:11 - Leah Brown: Well, it just popped right out in my face. It burnt my hands terribly bad, burnt all the hair off my face and around the edge. And that was one of the tragedies of being left alone like that.

00:49:33:25 - Corkie Bush: What did you do? How did you get help?

00:49:36:15 - Leah Brown: I went to one of my neighbors, and they called mom over the counter, and she came home and took me to the doctor. my hands were burned terribly. Oh, hurt. I couldn’t remember yet how bad they hurt.

00:49:54:06 - Corkie Bush: Are they scarred badly?

00:49:56:13 - Leah Brown: Not too badly.

00:49:57:25 - Corkie Bush: The doctor was concerned. A good chance.

00:50:00:05 - Leah Brown: They may not have been burned as bad as I thought they were, but. Oh, they hurt from.

00:50:04:23 - Corkie Bush: Burns other worse things. Well, discuss all the things you remember about your courtship. how do you meet your husband?

00:50:16:05 - Leah Brown: Well, he was just here, and we moved here. Of course. I was a little girl. taken you.

00:50:27:13 - Corkie Bush: He had this. I have.

00:50:29:04 - Leah Brown: We just met, I suppose. I don’t remember the first time we met. I don’t remember where it was. After he passed him on the road somewhere. Going school or something. I just don’t remember.

00:50:45:00 - Corkie Bush: How did you start?

00:50:49:28 - Leah Brown: He made word for my dad over on our place, and he was there quite awhile. Quite a bit. And I guess that was the start. And then it was kind of hard to get around up here in those days, and he’d ask me to go with him to a dance over to Cavendish. And he didn’t have a car and he was going to borrow a car.

00:51:18:17 - Leah Brown: Well, he couldn’t get the car, so you had to call me up and tell me that we couldn’t go to the dance. So then we went down to a soccer, to a dance one night, and my folks went along. I didn’t trust Mario. Anyway, we wrote the first down. Mom and dad walked down. So coming home, I.

00:51:47:02 - Leah Brown: We put them on the horses, and you sent them on home? We walked. That’s the night he proposed. Oh.

00:51:53:16 - Corkie Bush: How long have you known him? Before he.

00:51:56:08 - Leah Brown: A couple of years.

00:51:58:07 - Corkie Bush: So you actually had sort of dated and courted. Didn’t see each other for a long time.

00:52:03:28 - Leah Brown: Well, he didn’t go with me very much until just before we were married. He had other girlfriends who.

00:52:13:04 - Corkie Bush: Are high three. You have to tell us some.

00:52:19:05 - Leah Brown: after we started going together, I was. And when we were first married, apparently jealous, we were two.

00:52:26:14 - Corkie Bush: It was very.

00:52:30:01 - Corkie Bush: Well, some of the reasons that you got married.

00:52:33:11 - Leah Brown: Some of the reasons. Love. I guess.

00:52:39:19 - Corkie Bush: Good to. Did you think it should ever have to be taken, or did you pretty much know you could stay?

00:52:46:20 - Leah Brown: You know, I figured that this would be it. And I was a city girl. And now you take a city girl and put her on the farm, and she has to learn everything.

00:52:57:17 - Corkie Bush: Yeah.

00:52:58:07 - Leah Brown: I was raised in the city and then became a farmer’s wife.

00:53:03:05 - Corkie Bush: Was that hard for you early on?

00:53:05:28 - Leah Brown: Well, it all came gradually. He, His mother, his folks were. They were pioneers of Tucson. They homesteaded here and, they were the some of the early settlers. And she did all these things. And I learned a lot from her.

00:53:27:10 - Corkie Bush: Was she nice to I mean, did she help you learn them or did she not at first.

00:53:31:29 - Leah Brown: And she’s like me at.

00:53:33:01 - Corkie Bush: First and she didn’t, did she think you were too 35 for her son?

00:53:41:03 - Leah Brown: I don’t think it would have made much difference who married her son. I don’t think she would have been the right one, no matter who it was. But as it turned out, in later years, I was the one that took care of her. I took care of her for about 20 years. her and her. How?

00:53:58:19 - Corkie Bush: Did she grow to. Not to be crazy.

00:54:01:06 - Leah Brown: Think a lot of me and, grandpa has told me a good many times. Lee, I don’t know how to do a question for you, but at first they they just couldn’t accept me at first that it she couldn’t. And grandpa quick.

00:54:19:09 - Corkie Bush: Enough that she just wasn’t about to think anybody ought to.

00:54:24:09 - Leah Brown: Know. Nobody was good enough for her. Something like that wouldn’t have made any difference who it was.

00:54:31:13 - Leah Brown: I think all mothers, to a certain.

00:54:32:29 - Corkie Bush: Degree, that way. Yeah. And that way you think you do you think that you gotten more?

00:54:40:09 - Leah Brown: My daughter in law. I like my daughter in law real well. She’s real sweet.

00:54:44:28 - Corkie Bush: I so you’re trying not to act quicker than what you said.

00:54:49:09 - Leah Brown: I hope I haven’t, evidently I haven’t, because I think she thinks the world of us. Because she’s real good to us.

00:54:58:02 - Corkie Bush: She’s real nice and, what factors do you think affect the number of children that she had?

00:55:08:02 - Leah Brown: Good luck. Factors.

00:55:10:12 - Corkie Bush: Would you like to get more? I guess is really what I’m asking. More or fewer children.

00:55:15:02 - Leah Brown: I have, I would have had two more children, but I miscarried. in those days, we didn’t have contraceptives and things. I have now and then. if you got pregnant, you were pregnant, and that was it.

00:55:33:25 - Corkie Bush: Were they were the miscarriages that you have before?

00:55:37:20 - Leah Brown: that’s the reason there’s so much difference between my daughters. They were between. Right. They were boys.

00:55:45:12 - Corkie Bush: And that is so good. Not having that was close around and everything was.

00:55:49:20 - Leah Brown: Really I think so now with, when I, when I was pregnant, probably I would lost him. But I went to the hospital. I had the, six month, I believe, fifth month. It was right along there where I lost the other two. And, so we saved him by me going to the hospital, and then I was bad fast.

00:56:14:10 - Unknown: For the rest of my life.

00:56:19:22 - Leah Brown: And we finally got our boy. Then we call it quits.

00:56:23:06 - Corkie Bush: Oh, yes. For four months, you were in the hospital?

00:56:28:01 - Leah Brown: I wasn’t in the hospital. I had to go home and go to bed. I couldn’t be up.

00:56:36:12 - Corkie Bush: What did you do? You must. I would have been bored to tears, I think.

00:56:40:08 - Leah Brown: Well, I did what I could for the family in the bed when they wanted biscuits. they would bring the bed board in and put it on my lap, on the bed and bring me. Had I told them the vain for the ingredients, and I mix them up, roll them out, cut them, put them in the pan for them, and then they would they come the same way with other things we got by.

00:57:05:13 - Leah Brown: We couldn’t afford hard health. We did hire, our little niece for a little while to help out. we couldn’t afford, you know, constantly covered family dinner. My oldest daughter was old enough to,

00:57:27:29 - Corkie Bush: To be a pharmacist.

00:57:29:08 - Leah Brown: Yeah, and to go ahead and help.

00:57:31:26 - Corkie Bush: Which I don’t have any trouble with the girl.

00:57:34:02 - Leah Brown: You know.

00:57:35:13 - Corkie Bush: Just just just.

00:57:37:09 - Leah Brown: Pick on,

00:57:39:16 - Corkie Bush: Some strange or some strange, but I certainly believe it. How do you see the future for your grandchildren.

00:57:52:02 - Leah Brown: Or my grandchildren?

00:57:56:27 - Leah Brown: some of them. I can see where the future looks good. And from, I can see where it doesn’t work. Very good.

00:58:06:06 - Corkie Bush: What makes a difference?

00:58:08:07 - Leah Brown: What makes a difference? my daughter that is here.

00:58:15:14 - Corkie Bush: Who lives in your front yard.

00:58:16:21 - Leah Brown: And lives in our front yard. She has some children, but has given her a real hard time. And, I can’t see their future being too bright. And my oldest daughter has two children.

00:58:38:14 - Leah Brown: But, has given her problems. The one is retarded, and that makes it hard for him. Makes it hard for the family. He’s of age now, and I can’t see the future being provide for him. my daughter Spokane.

00:59:00:16 - Leah Brown: She has pretty good children. Only I can see. I can see where.

00:59:07:13 - Corkie Bush: She’s.

00:59:09:10 - Leah Brown: Giving them too much rope. They’re, They’re smoking and they’re drinking. And how breaks my heart.

00:59:19:28 - Corkie Bush: How old are.

00:59:20:25 - Leah Brown: They’re? 14 and 15. Billings. Children, I don’t think you could ask for, more levelheaded or. Or better children in this day and age.

00:59:37:20 - Corkie Bush: How old are they?

00:59:39:23 - Leah Brown: Billy is the oldest, and she said she was 12 and junior is seven. Of course. Now, what will happen later? They’re young now. And the little girl that Bible has with her, she’s her baby. She’s a nice little girl. She’s. I think the future looks good for her.

00:59:57:24 - Corkie Bush: Do you think any of them will stay in taken?

01:00:01:21 - Leah Brown: I think Billy’s children and Pam will.

01:00:06:11 - Corkie Bush: And the rest you see. Going where?

01:00:09:24 - Leah Brown: I don’t know, just out. I just don’t know. Now, our school girls that she has at home are. She says she has no problem with them, but she’s had a lot of problem with the other three. But now, the oldest grandson of Irene just turned out real nice. He lives right down here by the lake, and he has, three little children with him.

01:00:39:11 - Leah Brown: They’re building them a house over South Lake and they’re. He’s turning out pretty good now, but, he got married when he was only 17. I think it was. And, of course, that marriage went on the rocks. But he’s married now to this little girl. And they seem think they’re doing pretty good. So one of our main problems is sort of work itself out.

01:01:08:00 - Leah Brown: But the other two children, I don’t know. I guess every family has their their ups and their down from their problem.

01:01:21:05 - Corkie Bush: But can you, Do you think that the way children have grown up with change to that. That’s the difference here?

01:01:30:03 - Leah Brown: I think so. It’s. And then two divorce. this is the problem with these children is divorce.

01:01:40:14 - Corkie Bush: First. Comes to.

01:01:46:25 - Leah Brown: That’s like the old saying when they’re divorced, the children phase. And that’s what happened here.

01:01:54:11 - Corkie Bush: Do you feel sort of helpless?

01:01:56:15 - Leah Brown: Yeah. Because there’s nothing I can do, I. You can advise your children after they’re grown and married, but, you can’t tell them like you did before, how you got to do this. You’ve got to do that. You can’t do that anymore. and then you can advise them unless they ask you. Because I feel you’re interfering. So that makes a difference, too.

01:02:22:00 - Corkie Bush: So you sort of have to sit back and.

01:02:23:22 - Leah Brown: You just have to sit back and watch it and just just pray that everything’s going to be all right.

01:02:34:27 - Corkie Bush: That’s hard though. Yes. I think a hard way to place could be serious.

01:02:39:01 - Leah Brown: And if I stop and think about it, it would, I would just worry myself sick. And I can’t do that because I am sick anyway, and I just can’t do it.

01:02:50:04 - Corkie Bush: Would you mind talking about what you’re sick with?

01:02:53:12 - Leah Brown: I had open heart surgery.

01:02:55:06 - Corkie Bush: You did.

01:02:56:03 - Leah Brown: All right. So car, that was,

01:03:00:13 - Corkie Bush: How long ago? Four years ago. I was 60.

01:03:04:02 - Leah Brown: MoPac, 60 highway 65. My.

01:03:07:13 - Corkie Bush: I first you seemed to be doing pretty well.

01:03:12:03 - Leah Brown: Well, yes. I mean, heart surgery. I guess I, well, I’m here, and I wouldn’t have been here and been broken.

01:03:22:21 - Corkie Bush: Heart surgery like it. Where was.

01:03:24:19 - Leah Brown: This guy? In Spokane. At the hospital. And my husband has cancer.

01:03:32:18 - Corkie Bush: So, you know, we are. We are serious. We’re. Do you think that your children come to you or not? You wish they were.

01:03:41:27 - Leah Brown: My children are just wonderful cars. now, the one foot away from home. Of course, they can’t come as often as the others, but they come when they can, and they’re there. They’re all real good to us. And the daughter that’s living, in the trailer house, over by us. She moved down here specially so she could take care of us.

01:04:13:02 - Leah Brown: And between her and, my son and his wife, I.

01:04:20:04 - Corkie Bush: So used to cook here.

01:04:22:08 - Leah Brown: Oh, yes.

01:04:23:21 - Corkie Bush: There are lots of parents who are that way.

01:04:26:06 - Leah Brown: I know, and I think I’m fortunate.

01:04:31:02 - Corkie Bush: You talk all the time about being this. What do you do for recreation and for relaxation?

01:04:36:02 - Leah Brown: For recreation? We set watch television. My husband and he has recliner chair in me and mine.

01:04:42:20 - Corkie Bush: What are your favorite shows?

01:04:47:07 - Leah Brown: Oh, we like peacock. You. We like, any Western music? We listen to all the western music on Saturdays, Saturday evening. We like Lawrence. Well, we’re just real old fashioned. We like Gunsmoke.

01:05:02:21 - Corkie Bush: These are cool. I’m really mad they took it off. Yes.

01:05:06:09 - Leah Brown: And, Oh, just things like that. We like comedy. We like music.

01:05:19:08 - Corkie Bush: We watch The Waltons.

01:05:20:18 - Leah Brown: We watch The Waltons, and we walk through a house on the prairie. We alternate between little House on the Prairie and Tony Orlando and down.

01:05:32:20 - Corkie Bush: Is that because you can’t decide which one you want to watch?

01:05:35:01 - Leah Brown: They’re both at the same time. You know.

01:05:38:23 - Corkie Bush: And which one is it that you like and which or do you both like them? Both. So you just can’t.

01:05:43:04 - Leah Brown: We both like them both. So sometimes we watch little House on the Prairie, and sometimes we watch our land on Tony Orlando. And that.

01:05:54:21 - Corkie Bush: and then of course, we’re doing all the.

01:05:56:19 - Leah Brown: I.

01:05:57:11 - Corkie Bush: Crocheting.

01:05:58:06 - Leah Brown: I other evening. I can’t sit idle. I have to have something to do. So I’m either crocheting beads, embroidery or crocheting on pillowcases, or maybe basting up a stuffed animal for Christmas present or my little grandkids is always bringing me something to pass or something to. So off a little Chris is, real slender. Yeah, I agree with you.

01:06:25:24 - Corkie Bush: I can’t.

01:06:29:08 - Unknown: I couldn’t, I am sure, Carol, I could probably do that. Where are you? Pregnant. You were supposed to have another time. you know, how hard can.

01:06:52:03 - Corkie Bush: And there’s a lot more.

01:06:54:05 - Unknown: Yeah, and I don’t have a problem. Know you have a lot.

01:06:59:07 - Corkie Bush: Of chocolate.

01:07:01:25 - Leah Brown: Right? I have, I love.

01:07:04:02 - Unknown: That I can been proud of that. Yeah.

01:07:10:17 - Leah Brown: Sorry about the fact.

01:07:11:22 - Unknown: That you and your. Insects are a part of your life right now. Yeah, yeah, I back. Yeah, I was kind of getting.

01:07:31:01 - Unknown: Back. how long have you. So I, this was, this was long and, hard and very hard. Been.

01:07:50:03 - Unknown: We give you a break, you know, there’s no way. Because we tried really hard for taking care of them, and now they probably.

01:08:03:07 - Corkie Bush: Just going back.

01:08:04:06 - Unknown: To, And, she was born with a stone or something like that. How long have you been there? That’s not. Well. You have my son by myself. The same way I.

01:08:19:18 - Corkie Bush: To tell you, my husband and I are getting married to town. I was going out with some, you know, people.

01:08:27:29 - Unknown: Well, I find myself in the parking lot. Where, And they’re right here and within my block to preserve. I didn’t mind, Perish my hair. And I don’t even have your hair myself. I think you’re, probably have fun with my my brothers. Now. I have, and I have, I have, I have been called,

01:09:09:27 - Unknown: But I can say,

01:09:15:29 - Corkie Bush: One way to contact one of you about what you and have to call this was home.

01:09:24:09 - Unknown: And,

01:09:27:16 - Unknown: Well, I did like. Oh, I. Yeah, I think I have. Yeah. I would rather die. Think I have, I might do more from the beginning of the time. I would go and I did have, Yeah, I have my, And I did everything I could that I had do. I had one where the girl. Thank you very much.

01:10:07:06 - Unknown: That’s been really helpful. And they. I would be able. You know, have been there before. So I have a good memory and everything. You have been great. So you feel really good. How do you want to go home? That’s right. You know.

01:10:30:03 - Corkie Bush: I felt that.

01:10:31:13 - Unknown: I did. I can do what I, you know, I can get along and I feel where they want to go.

01:10:42:24 - Leah Brown: Right? By United. Do you think that there.

01:10:49:21 - Unknown: They go from here to here.

01:10:56:16 - Unknown: And, I have to of.

01:11:06:29 - Unknown: Work. It’s tough. I mean, we go down to the nursing home.

01:11:13:21 - Leah Brown: The fear she would just bear to bring her home. According to our mom, we have got.

01:11:21:02 - Unknown: Room for you. We can’t take everything I take. We’re gonna come back because I.

01:11:28:14 - Corkie Bush: Oh, that must have hurt.

01:11:29:29 - Leah Brown: They wouldn’t let.

01:11:30:16 - Corkie Bush: Us bring say that I needed that person. Okay. You’re gonna be.

01:11:35:26 - Leah Brown: Here for heard 2 or 3 times, Few times.

01:11:39:18 - Corkie Bush: A few times. It takes good pictures. It takes lots of them. So I think it’s cute to choose the ones that she likes better.

01:11:47:12 - Leah Brown: Oh, I see.

01:11:48:15 - Corkie Bush: And that’s why there’s so many that want to do it for you.

01:11:53:04 - Leah Brown: Yeah. For you. That was something broke down. So I was like, well, yeah, just asked the wrong come.

01:12:02:20 - Leah Brown: Well, you got a subject where you, when you take mine.

01:12:05:29 - Corkie Bush: Well everybody say that everybody’s pictures turn out really nice.

01:12:11:01 - Leah Brown: Well that’s good to.

01:12:13:07 - Corkie Bush: Did you wear a white dress for your wedding? No, it was just very casual.

01:12:17:16 - Leah Brown: It was, it was a new dress. Gifford Buck material for it. And it was what they called, boiler room. what color? Any. It was blue and a little blue and white. A little darker blue and white flowers. It’s pretty, but there was nothing fancy about our ceremony or anything. Just. Just said the vows, and that was it.

01:12:46:15 - Leah Brown: We didn’t go on a honeymoon.

01:12:48:12 - Corkie Bush: Okay, Mike, I got to go.

01:12:49:28 - Leah Brown: Google came right back up to take him. My mother and dad had a dinner for us, and, His sisters that lived here on the hill came. And his uncle and his dad. But his mother wouldn’t come. And,

01:13:13:00 - Corkie Bush: Must’ve been really hard.

01:13:14:27 - Leah Brown: It was.

01:13:18:29 - Corkie Bush: Thinking. Well, we’ve talked about so many things.

01:13:25:04 - Corkie Bush: Has. Has there ever been a time in your life when you had to take the major responsibility for the financial support of your family, like when your husband was sick?

01:13:36:07 - Leah Brown: yes. In 1949, my husband got a fever and he was in, Saint Joseph’s Hospital down lost. And for 21 days. And we didn’t know if he was going to live or not. We’re lucky they knew what he was. now, I had to leave the children at home on the ranch. The daughter that’s living up by us now was,

01:14:04:28 - Leah Brown: What was she, 17 or 18 up? Get now? And we had cows to milk. We had just bought a hundred little chickens, and she took care of them. And, the other two children, my oldest daughter was married at that time, live and lost them. I stayed with her and I had leave the children on the ranch, and I had to take care of everything.

01:14:31:12 - Leah Brown: You, I. And again, that’s where our good neighbors showed up. They came and put our hay in the barn, and, our son in law lost and did our combined for us. when some of the other neighbors got through with their combining, they came and helped finished ours here. And we. That’s right. The the neighbors have always been good that way.

01:15:04:20 - Leah Brown: this community of. Well, we’ve always felt responsibility toward one another.

01:15:12:24 - Corkie Bush: There are people that we’ve talked to who’ve lived in communities for 30, 40 and sometimes 50 years who still feel they’re not a part of the community. Do you feel that way in taking.

01:15:25:07 - Leah Brown: I felt that way. Part of the time that we lived here, I always felt that a lot of the people in the community felt they were a little better than we were, because we were small farmers and we didn’t. We couldn’t dress our children as nice as some of them could, and we couldn’t do some of them.

01:15:47:02 - Leah Brown: Some of them could, now, whether they felt that way or not, I don’t know. But. I felt that way.

01:16:01:12 - Leah Brown: it seemed like if anybody was ever left out of anything, it was always, I be,

01:16:10:16 - Leah Brown: Yeah. If, Something was done and we held that seemed like our name somehow or another was always left on. Maybe it wasn’t intentional. Could it just happened that way? But it did happen. And so it made us feel that we just weren’t part of it. You know, we weren’t accepted as part.

01:16:34:12 - Corkie Bush: Of the community because that’s ceased.

01:16:38:23 - Leah Brown: Well, I feel better now. I feel like people have is, Well, I feel like that they’re all my friends now. I don’t feel that way anymore.

01:16:51:18 - Corkie Bush: But you remember.

01:16:52:26 - Leah Brown: I remember feeling that way. Especially when our kids were or.

01:16:57:26 - Corkie Bush: Yeah, I guess. Do you think that there was a lot of pressure against, children who were poor? Well, in one of the presentations we have, we couldn’t do it this time, but, the woman is talking about her, her life and how she felt that the community always looked on her because she didn’t. They had children, have had doctors in here without clothes, and they were afraid.

01:17:24:22 - Leah Brown: I don’t know if they looked down on a person or not. They. I don’t have to say that. But anyway, when my girls are talking, especially when my girls are in high school down there, if you didn’t wear a Jansen sweater, you just weren’t. They they just had nothing to do with you. You were too poor to wear a jacket and sweater so that they just have nothing to do with you.

01:17:51:13 - Leah Brown: And they were hurt that way. they always were clean. They always look nice.

01:17:59:07 - Corkie Bush: Put it in the waist and chance. And they didn’t.

01:18:01:22 - Leah Brown: They didn’t have Jansen sweaters. We couldn’t afford Jansen sweaters.

01:18:07:12 - Corkie Bush: Too. So. But then they come back and put a lot of pressure on you and your husband. Why can’t we? Okay.

01:18:14:07 - Leah Brown: Yeah. They were. The children. well, the kids, the schools got them. If we don’t have them, they don’t have anything to do with it. Well, I said, if that’s all that they want, their friendship isn’t worth it. just find someone that will accept you as you are. and forget about it, because we just can’t.

01:18:35:28 - Leah Brown: We can have checks and sweaters and and the things that go with them.

01:18:42:00 - Corkie Bush: Cargo for children to understand that.

01:18:44:02 - Leah Brown: Come on. Yeah. But at that age, they. When they went to high school, they they were pretty good. They.

01:18:52:18 - Leah Brown: They finally came around to feeling they were just as good as the next woman. And they just suffered through it.

01:19:03:21 - Corkie Bush: Where there always passes. But from what I recall.

01:19:07:06 - Leah Brown: No, no. our children walked to school. All through their grade school.

01:19:20:25 - Corkie Bush: And where did they go to school?

01:19:23:24 - Leah Brown: they came over here, the schoolhouse sat right here by the Grange Hall.

01:19:28:22 - Corkie Bush: Because the church and the Grange and the school, at one turn. How did you feel when the school got close to.

01:19:38:10 - Leah Brown: We felt sad. Of course. They built this other school over at Cavendish, and the children went over there and then they were passed. Now the only one of our children that was back to, over to Cavendish, Mr. Bell and the other children went to.

01:19:54:19 - Corkie Bush: This other school. They miss it, the school and the community.

01:20:01:16 - Leah Brown: Well, since I don’t have any more children, I don’t. But I think it would be nice if there was. Well, the one over at Cavendish worked out pretty well.

01:20:11:22 - Corkie Bush: grades to go through the eight.

01:20:14:18 - Leah Brown: And that’s all my grades. And, But of course, at that time we had there was a school, Cavendish, there was two schools here at Pekin. And they had, oh, they had 20, 30 children go to school at that time, you see, because.

01:20:36:27 - Leah Brown: there still was that many children going to school because, like we said in those days, people were living and making a living on 40 and 60 and 80 acres, you see. So they be a lot of families around. And they could, they could take care of that many children. But for three schools, then there was one, that Cream Ridge to, hang on.

01:21:00:29 - Corkie Bush: Over the hill here. So that’s why schools of color.

01:21:05:04 - Leah Brown: But they were they had plenty of children going. And then at that time to, this is several years ago, they had a high school at Southwick. You can see the old building over there, broccoli films that now broccoli seed house, kindergarten and, ami some of our nieces and nephews went to that high school. And,

01:21:35:24 - Leah Brown: really, I think the children when when they were kept up on the farm and up on the hill away from town, I think they were better children and then what we have now, when we have to send them to town and it’s with the kids, it’s taking dope, drinking them, all this stuff. I know my children are just worried about their children having to go where there’s so much of that stuff.

01:21:59:09 - Leah Brown: And, our little country schools, I think was good for the kids. Of course, that’s all done away with. All pass now, so we have to.

01:22:08:26 - Corkie Bush: But still be entitled to, you know, most people we talk to our our group all throughout the country school go because some so much of the community disagrees with it.

01:22:23:16 - Leah Brown: That’s why I.

01:22:25:10 - Corkie Bush: Don’t have them. And we we really have influencing children with children.

01:22:29:16 - Leah Brown: We’re struggling now to keep the one that we have your brother taken in Cavendish now they’re trying to, bus the children to our final. And, some of the young mothers are really fighting a whole lot to keep going. I think sooner or later they’re going to take it. Maybe. Maybe from the sixth grade on up.

01:22:53:19 - Leah Brown: I don’t believe they’ll ever take little children, because I don’t really think it’s down the street working on the bus. I’ll be along to knock together the little children. Okay.

01:23:09:01 - Corkie Bush: Well, what kind of suggestions would you give to somebody like this? a young woman who served going to come to live in, taken from our school from a small, small town, if you could, if you could make up a list of suggestions that she would follow, what would you tell her? What would your advice be to.

01:23:32:01 - Leah Brown: about thought.

01:23:33:07 - Corkie Bush: Yeah. Anything. Whatever you think it is, she needs to know.

01:23:39:21 - Leah Brown: We all, like, I tell my kids.

01:23:46:25 - Leah Brown: I have got them so that, now, my son’s wife and my daughter. I’ve got them canning and, laying up for the winter and doing a lot more of their own cooking.

01:24:06:26 - Leah Brown: As far as telling them what to do with their children, I, I can’t if they ask me, I do.

01:24:13:16 - Corkie Bush: Well, if they just pretend that somebody is asking you start your own children.

01:24:19:12 - Leah Brown: But I, I keep them on the farm as long as you can keep right there, as long as you can give them plenty to do. You don’t want her kids to work for me. that is, if you don’t, over load them. You know, I think it’s good for kids to work and let them learn. I like my son.

01:24:43:20 - Leah Brown: He won the car. Well, I says I’m not going to buy your car. If you get a car, you to make your own money. You got to get it yourself. And ever since he was 12 years old, he’s got a bank account. when his dad would go out to thrash, he’d go out to the field with him.

01:25:02:16 - Leah Brown: And there’s always some around the edge that the combine or the. At that time, they had a binder, and they don’t always get. So he took him a spoon and a little save and a little backup. And he ran this through there, and he had him some sacks of grain and some sack for cover to sell, and he did it all out by hand.

01:25:24:18 - Leah Brown: It was all nice and clean. Thank so. Yeah, I know my bank account money is 12 years old and, any little extra things that he want we couldn’t afford by I’d say, well, you just take your money and buy it and then you know how you got. And then when he won the car, I said, you just got to find a way to make the money to buy your car.

01:25:48:29 - Leah Brown: And I said, dad, I’ll furnish the gas because we don’t want any of this going to the neighbors and fighting gas. And, but we said we’d furnish the gas. But you got to get your own car. You got pay for your own license and your own insurance. And he found a way to do that, and he got in a car.

01:26:10:20 - Corkie Bush: And around a lot more time.

01:26:12:02 - Leah Brown: And he knew how to take care of it, because he knew if that was gone, he’d have to make money to get him another one, which, he did go through 2 or 3 before he finally settled down.

01:26:25:11 - Corkie Bush: To be of them having the accident.

01:26:27:12 - Leah Brown: He never had an accident? No. He’s always been a good driver. sometimes I think he drives too fast. I think all young fellows do. But so far he hasn’t had an accident.

01:26:42:22 - Corkie Bush: Okay. Do you worry about the future for yourself?

01:26:46:20 - Leah Brown: For myself? I don’t worry about it. I wonder sometimes what would happen if. If we had to. To be sick or in a rest home for any length of time. and I tell my children that, I don’t want them to be burdened with me, that if they are, it’s their own fault that I don’t want to be a burden to my children.

01:27:17:20 - Leah Brown: And, as long as I can get around, take care of myself, I hope I can live. But when I can’t, I don’t want to live.

01:27:25:07 - Corkie Bush: I do have Social Security, and.

01:27:28:21 - Leah Brown: We have Social Security. We have, Medicare, and we have, medical service. But we don’t have any life insurance. You don’t want us. So. But we sold our 160 acres to our son, and, we do have enough stashed away to various in case of death from that. other than that, he pays us so much each year on the place.

01:28:03:07 - Leah Brown: And then with our Social Security, that’s how we live.

01:28:07:09 - Corkie Bush: When it is to camp and stuff like that.

01:28:10:09 - Leah Brown: Oh, yes.

01:28:11:20 - Corkie Bush: So you do a lot of living off the.

01:28:13:06 - Leah Brown: Land through the. I can’t do any gardening or anything like that. Our daughter and.

01:28:17:20 - Corkie Bush: Sister.

01:28:18:12 - Leah Brown: Gardening and, but she helps me pay on. We put pretty, almost 100 years of corn in the deep freeze the other day. we farm lives, but we have our. We still have our own meat. And, so we do our right.

01:28:39:09 - Corkie Bush: But magazines and newspapers, TV.

01:28:43:10 - Leah Brown: I like, I like the Ladies Home Journal, and I like, Good Housekeeping, and, I like the rural white people. And, we take a look at the Morning Tribune and we buy a Clearwater Tribune once in a while, and that’s about it. My husband takes, outdoor magazine hunting and fishing. Can’t remember the name of it.

01:29:12:00 - Leah Brown: And that’s about something I think that’s. Yeah.

01:29:18:27 - Leah Brown: and my Bible. I read my Bible a lot. I, I don’t go to church, and I, go to.

01:29:25:22 - Corkie Bush: Church to go over to Cavendish. The church.

01:29:29:00 - Leah Brown: Now, I go when I go to church, I go over to Cream Ridge.

01:29:32:27 - Corkie Bush: It’s still a church.

01:29:34:29 - Leah Brown: but it’s been, almost a year since I’ve been there. It seems like something is just kept me from going. I don’t know what. I just don’t know. I just, for the last year, I just haven’t, something just has.

01:29:53:28 - Leah Brown: Pressured me to stay away. I don’t know why. Because it’s a good church, and I don’t know why. I just haven’t wanted to go.

01:30:03:00 - Corkie Bush: To see what’s the distance. Or is it the temple? It’s not really your community.

01:30:08:25 - Leah Brown: it isn’t our community. And I don’t belong to the church. Yeah, that is a church. I. I just go to go to church and Sunday school. It is a good church. The people make me feel welcome. There is no, friction there at all and make you feel real welcome. But it seems like either in Sunday morning I either have company or it’s snowing in the summertime.

01:30:36:16 - Leah Brown: We have lots the company almost every Sunday. Then in the wintertime the roads get bad and I feel, well, maybe I shouldn’t go. And then part of the year. This year we were both sick, we both had pneumonia and it took a long time to get over that. And it seems like it’s just been something like that to keep us from going to.

01:31:05:25 - Corkie Bush: Do you feel good you’re able to sustain your faith here by yourself?

01:31:12:12 - Leah Brown: I think so. we both watch church Sunday mornings on the TV. We play singing church songs a lot. I read my Bible a lot. My husband isn’t too religious, he believes, but that’s about it.

01:31:31:28 - Corkie Bush: Why do you think that is? That seems really to be true. A lot of a lot of people say that I was not as religious as I am.

01:31:39:13 - Leah Brown: So I don’t know why that is. But you know what it comes down to? To faith and believing. Things are going to be all right. He has a stronger faith in things like that than I do. I get worried and crap and do all. It isn’t going to work out. It isn’t going to work out. And according to the Bible, that is being a good Christian, you know you’re supposed to have faith enough to know it’s going to.

01:32:00:21 - Leah Brown: But, I’m the one that always worries about it. And he says it’s going to be all right.

01:32:07:27 - Corkie Bush: So, maybe it’s just different kinds of faith and different kinds of beliefs and.

01:32:13:17 - Leah Brown: I could be, I don’t know.

01:32:16:10 - Corkie Bush: What are the most common things that Gifford asks you about? Well, looking back over the.

01:32:21:26 - Leah Brown: Night, he asked me about.

01:32:27:15 - Leah Brown: I don’t know.

01:32:36:14 - Leah Brown: What things? What things in particular do you.

01:32:39:24 - Corkie Bush: Well, people give all kinds of answers. Is does he ever ask you about the family or how the children are going to. Does he ask you about.

01:32:49:23 - Leah Brown: Oh, yes.

01:32:50:19 - Corkie Bush: There’s that I ask you about what’s going on in the world. Has he asked you about politics? I did it all kinds of things.

01:32:57:19 - Leah Brown: He doesn’t usually ask me. He usually tells me, oh, he’s tied. I’ve always more or less leaned on him for advice and things like that, and I think I made a mistake. I think I should have been more,

01:33:17:13 - Corkie Bush: Left leaning.

01:33:18:06 - Leah Brown: Yeah, yeah. took more of a stand against things. I always would just give in and say, okay, we’ll do it your way.

01:33:28:10 - Corkie Bush: Even when you really didn’t work.

01:33:29:29 - Leah Brown: Yeah. And I think I should have stood up for my rights. Maybe. Said we’re going to do it this way, but I didn’t. That they will do it your way. And so naturally. Well, now he will ask me about finances. Should we do this or shouldn’t play? And then if there’s some the kids are having problems or something, he’ll ask me about balls.

01:33:57:13 - Corkie Bush: Is this more now? Yes. Recently?

01:34:00:02 - Leah Brown: Yes. As he gets older and more dependent on me, it comes more that way now.

01:34:06:16 - Corkie Bush: And you would have liked that relationship even earlier.

01:34:09:12 - Leah Brown: I think I would have come to think of it now, as I look back, I think I would have. Because, he made decisions that if I were doing it. And since I look back now, I think we would have been a lot better off. I think I’m a better manager than he glasses.

01:34:31:02 - Corkie Bush: And of course he never, since he never said what he wanted, you never really got a chance to make a choice.

01:34:36:12 - Leah Brown: No, no, I never made any decisions. I let him make them. And I think I should have, because, like I say, I think I can manage better than money. Did.

01:34:56:06 - Corkie Bush: So anything else you want.

01:34:57:23 - Leah Brown: To to know? What would you like to know? Anything you want to tell me? Anything.

01:35:02:25 - Corkie Bush: Okay. Any questions? Okay. I have no idea. Well, here’s a question. Just. Do you wish you had more school?

01:35:14:28 - Leah Brown: Yes. If I had it to do over again, I would have at least went through high school. I would just love to learn to do typing and shorthand. I’ve always. I’ve always had a desire to do typing and shorthand. I believe I would be good at it.

01:35:30:07 - Corkie Bush: You look good. You pretty good.

01:35:34:20 - Leah Brown: And, my music, I believe I would win on with my music. Music was hard for me. I, I didn’t have any musical talent at all. It just had to be drummed into my head. Practice, practice, practice. But I had a good teacher. And what she taught me stayed with me. And I believe I would have liked to have went on the music.

01:36:00:22 - Leah Brown: I, both playing the piano and singing. Pearl’s daughter and I, we have played and sang for, oh, I don’t know how many funerals and weddings and things. We were called on a lot until we both got sick. Her daughter had open heart surgery to, since we’ve both been sick, we haven’t been called, but, we’re hoping one of these days someone will ask us to play him sing game.

01:36:30:24 - Leah Brown: But of course, now they go to the, funeral parties anymore now, and they have the organ things. Of course, I could play the organ with a little practice. I go down to my brother’s, she has an organ, and I, I would love to have an organ, but,

01:36:55:07 - Leah Brown: I believe I would have, like. I believe I’d have been happier if I went on to school.

01:37:02:27 - Unknown: A little further anyway, because maybe I school.

01:37:06:14 - Leah Brown: At least through high school.

01:37:08:25 - Corkie Bush: And learn some of these things.

01:37:10:14 - Leah Brown: That’s right.

01:37:12:14 - Corkie Bush: Did, your husband go through high school now? Do you think he wishes he would?

01:37:18:02 - Leah Brown: he tells his grandchildren, you get you an education? I think he would, because he’s always. And he insisted that our children go through high school, and, they’re all glad to be dead. Of course, if they’d.

01:37:34:23 - Corkie Bush: Wanted to.

01:37:35:17 - Leah Brown: Go on to college, we would have helped them. They would have had to have worked their way, our way. But we would have helped them.

01:37:43:21 - Corkie Bush: So you weren’t really antagonistic code execution? No. Do you wish that, But maybe you’ve gotten away from taking and gone to another, to a city, or traveled more, or done.

01:37:59:18 - Leah Brown: More things? If we got away from taking.

01:38:03:00 - Corkie Bush: Well, no, just that might be one option. Did you do you wish you’d traveled more? Been more?

01:38:09:06 - Leah Brown: I love to travel. Yes, I love to travel. My husband doesn’t. but I love to go. As long as my parents lived, I went down to see them at least once a year, sometimes twice a year. I still go once and twice to see my dad. but, as far as traveling, as far as we’ve been as down California to our daughters, that’s been it.

01:38:36:14 - Leah Brown: We just we go left to maybe Spokane to go to. And that was our dream. After we got our children raised, we were going to travel, go and see TV, but neither one of us were in a condition to to do it. Now. So I say, when you’re young to do things.

01:38:57:19 - Corkie Bush: Because you may not, and.

01:38:58:29 - Leah Brown: When you get older, you may not, that’s for you. My husband gets a little irritated at me for telling our children they’ll take off and go, you know, and just walk off me. Thank God I know Mom and Dad look after me and he gets the lyrics to me because I encourage them to go. And I say, go while you’re young because you could.

01:39:22:04 - Leah Brown: You might not get to them when you get older.