Helena Carlson Oral History Interview Audio [transcript]

00;00;00;00 - Unknown Interviewer: For.

00;00;04;20 - Unknown Interviewer: Marvel, how much the women could get them back way back to all the modern conveniences.

00;00;11;08 - Unknown Interviewer: We have now. And yes, it seems like I know myself I can’t get things done. And I have everything, you know, dishwasher and washing machine. It is remarkable.

00;00;24;05 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Turn the faucet and get hot water.

00;00;26;25 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And then.

00;00;28;00 - Unknown Interviewer: Get them. First I want to tell you that if there’s any questions that I ask for, you don’t want to answer, don’t answer them. You don’t have.

00;00;35;22 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: To. Okay.

00;00;37;09 - Unknown Interviewer: And drink or have.

00;00;38;09 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Any ill will consume. Like for example.

00;00;42;07 - Unknown Interviewer: you know, if something’s too personal or you don’t want to discuss it, that’s fine. The first thing I want to do is I’m going to fill up this, data sheet, and I’ll just go through some of your family and your mother and intake and things like that. And it’s just. So we have a record and I think the neat thing about this data sheet is that.

00;01;07;14 - Unknown Interviewer: It’ll have your family sort of like your family tree and like your, generations gone can come back and listen to your interests scream.

00;01;18;08 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I think I heard one of my sisters was going through our family tree, and she’s way, way, way back, you know, and there were so many interesting things that took part. And then we went back to some very interesting people that.

00;01;36;18 - Unknown Interviewer: Would be interested in me. I’d like to. I wish something was available on my family because you just you don’t know.

00;01;43;10 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And I know it takes a lot of time, a lot of correspondence. She even had to spend money to buy.

00;01;51;14 - Unknown Interviewer: To farm.

00;01;52;03 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: To find out. but she got way back. Way back in the long time.

00;02;00;12 - Unknown Interviewer: I have you. Okay. This is your name. Halina. Is that right?

00;02;06;08 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Helium cleaner.

00;02;11;21 - Unknown Interviewer: your maiden name?

00;02;13;09 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Kurt. Right?

00;02;19;20 - Unknown Interviewer: Okay. And do you have any nickname? There you go.

00;02;23;29 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: By. Well, prior. Well.

00;02;27;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Not particularly. No.

00;02;31;29 - Unknown Interviewer: And date of birth?

00;02;35;01 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: December 30th, 1899. I could have just waited two more days. I in the green tree.

00;02;45;05 - Unknown Interviewer: You sure would have. You my birthday. I was just a couple couple hours late for Christmas.

00;02;51;23 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh, for goodness sakes.

00;02;53;11 - Unknown Interviewer: That’s rough. When you get Christmas and birthday, your parents.

00;02;56;20 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Are bad time to have it. But I said that I believe it was better than when one of my friends come here. Hers is the 2nd of January and all the holidays are over. Man is a rough one. Yeah, that would be hard to deal with.

00;03;12;08 - Unknown Interviewer: And your place of birth? I was just looking at Minnesota. Minnesota?

00;03;23;02 - Unknown Interviewer: I wonder if they want city.

00;03;27;28 - Unknown Interviewer: I wonder, I was just questioning whether they want to the younger, Your local. The first resident in Idaho was your first location, and I got hurt. Okay.

00;03;45;05 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Here you are here. April 1st, 1912, April Fool’s Day.

00;03;49;22 - Unknown Interviewer: You remember the exact day? Yeah. Okay. original. Well, before immigrating.

00;03;58;27 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, we were around Spokane. When we we can. We were born there, so we moved to South Dakota, and I believe they said they spent two winters there. Of course, that was I couldn’t remember when we were Minnesotans, really, that I can remember about that because I was very small, but naturally. And, then we went to, a tractor, a small farm south of Spokane, and we bought a farm north of Spokane.

00;04;29;17 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Then we lived in Spokane, okay. Martha’s Vineyard. so I guess it would be around the Spokane area.

00;04;37;10 - Unknown Interviewer: Spokane area. Okay. Approximate year of arrival in Idaho. And you just told me that junior and I don’t remember.

00;04;47;19 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: April fools. Very 19. Well.

00;04;50;22 - Unknown Interviewer: Okay. 12. Okay. Motor travel. Well, we came.

00;04;55;20 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Down on the.

00;04;56;06 - Unknown Interviewer: Train, okay.

00;04;58;23 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And we stayed overnight in the hotel. It was here at the time, and then the man that we had bought the farm from came down in the lumber wagon. How deep in the mud and got us and our stuff and almost took us out to the farm.

00;05;16;18 - Unknown Interviewer: Pulled out of mud and to back to the farm. Okay. Yeah, that was my.

00;05;22;01 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Main street to see. There was no no pavement.

00;05;24;29 - Unknown Interviewer: No.

00;05;25;23 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: No nothing.

00;05;29;11 - Unknown Interviewer: companions on your trip.

00;05;32;00 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Companions? Well, it was just, I have two sisters and my mother and father. And then one of my sisters.

00;05;40;11 - Unknown Interviewer: And I, we each.

00;05;43;06 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Had one of us had a a kitten in a box, and the other one had a pull in the box. But I remember I don’t remember anything.

00;05;53;09 - Unknown Interviewer: Kicking in or whatever.

00;05;54;18 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: But kicking in a pool.

00;05;55;23 - Unknown Interviewer: It was a period little hand.

00;05;59;11 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: A perk.

00;06;00;19 - Unknown Interviewer: Yeah. I’ve never heard that many chicken called pork.

00;06;04;05 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh, well, a little farm before. She’s old enough to,

00;06;09;06 - Unknown Interviewer: Lay eggs. Is a pullet. Oh. That’s interesting. Your mother’s maiden name was a bird.

00;06;17;29 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Edgar Burton.

00;06;22;02 - Unknown Interviewer: Yep. Burton. And, her date of birth.

00;06;33;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: November 27th. And and, 23 to my age, 24.

00;06;46;19 - Unknown Interviewer: In reaffirmation, I do.

00;06;47;26 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: 81 years old. Was a hundred years old. Mother’s birthday.

00;06;52;08 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Before you.

00;06;57;14 - Unknown Interviewer: So she was born about 1876 or 1874.

00;07;09;01 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Right.

00;07;19;18 - Unknown: This. Okay.

00;07;26;08 - Unknown Interviewer: And of course, this recorder.

00;07;31;03 - Unknown Interviewer: I hope I had the time. I had.

00;07;38;07 - Unknown Interviewer: Moving.

00;07;42;17 - Unknown Interviewer: Are you working? Recorded? Never work.

00;07;52;28 - Unknown Interviewer: I can get.

00;08;02;05 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Up.

00;08;06;27 - Unknown Interviewer: Like this. This was here. This is it. Look down in the couch. Oh!

00;08;15;12 - Unknown Interviewer: There. Yep. All right. back in business now. her date of death. The nurse. Did I tell you 1875. Is that what I gave you for her birth? You said 1859.

00;08;32;13 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh, I looked at the wrong one. It was 1875.

00;08;36;05 - Unknown Interviewer: But that’s it. Because you said about a hundred year. Yeah. Okay.

00;08;40;08 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And then she died in 1959. After 1915. Right.

00;08;53;11 - Unknown Interviewer: And the year she got.

00;08;54;08 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Married.

00;08;56;00 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: she was.

00;08;56;11 - Unknown Interviewer: 23. Who? Let me think. They were married in March. I. Haven’t said it, but you heard it for the second time. And the day she moved.

00;09;15;10 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: must have been.

00;09;16;17 - Unknown Interviewer: Oh, 1899. 18. That was the year she got married. Yeah, well, you have those dates just on your finger, too.

00;09;25;11 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: It was a good thing. Us I don’t have.

00;09;27;13 - Unknown Interviewer: Very good, remember? Well, that’s a lot to remember. And. Yeah, it is. And the next thing is, her occupation or any job she had.

00;09;36;00 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh, well, she was a teacher till she got married. And then. I don’t know if you call it that. She was a teacher there, and she did.

00;09;44;13 - Unknown Interviewer: But she was at.

00;09;45;11 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Home because I was in a real hurry. I didn’t have much to. How it’s time to think of anything else. Because here they were, married November. November 27th. February 1st.

00;09;59;00 - Unknown Interviewer: To.

00;09;59;03 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: December 30th. The next year. Oh, wow. Same year.

00;10;03;21 - Unknown Interviewer: But she was working with her? No. Well, she was a housewife for her, but when she. I thought maybe she could use, in the home. No, no.

00;10;13;02 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: No, no, she taught school. Okay. Who’s taking to school? You’re reading?

00;10;24;13 - Unknown Interviewer: And your father’s.

00;10;25;05 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Name? Herbert.

00;10;27;16 - Unknown Interviewer: Herbert.

00;10;33;16 - Unknown Interviewer: And I don’t know what kind of family him. Oh, I’m not prepared for my man. no, no, no, I was just going to let you go first.

00;10;47;03 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I want to before you.

00;10;53;04 - Unknown Interviewer: And Paul paint. Paul, are you from the Saint Paul area?

00;10;58;05 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, it’s about, 75 miles south down there in the. Oh, it was Mandeville, I think. Dodge Center. And around in that neck of the woods.

00;11;11;16 - Unknown Interviewer: here’s our date of death.

00;11;14;26 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: 1951

00;11;19;18 - Unknown Interviewer: And what was his job? Right. Occupation? Armored bomber. Definitely bomber. And a teacher. Here. Oh, you should have a copy if you want him in. No.

00;11;32;10 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: She’s supposed to be here to do. Oh, I hope she’s not. This course.

00;11;36;12 - Unknown Interviewer: Is. I’ll have to let her in. I thought I heard something. Maybe it was just the one.

00;11;45;06 - Unknown Interviewer: 30, in the same room. Hey, we need Sam. He’s not over there. It’s time to, oh. He’s kind of current. That’s the only.

00;11;55;01 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: One that isn’t in your slips. And that’s her complaining.

00;11;58;17 - Unknown Interviewer: Oh, did you not, Sam? Did you want a recollection? Oh, she’s too rambunctious. I love animals. Yeah. You want her in? Yeah. You’re very quiet over you. Well, I guess it would be hard for you. I wouldn’t mind if.

00;12;16;27 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: That’s what matter.

00;12;17;27 - Unknown Interviewer: That’s what she said. She passed out.

00;12;29;20 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh, yeah?

00;12;31;20 - Unknown Interviewer: And I don’t get your hair on my camera. I don’t want your haircuts. Oh, she’s a pretty dog.

00;12;39;09 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: She’s really cute. When she has her poodle haircut, you know, she really looks nice.

00;12;45;21 - Unknown Interviewer: She’s a lot younger, and she, you know, we both went really?

00;12;52;02 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Looks like we’re sort of jealous of each other, but, boy, do they love each other. But they didn’t really make a getting one over mean they.

00;13;02;06 - Unknown Interviewer: You know, I believe you could tell a lot about a person by their how they feel about animals has animals.

00;13;09;16 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: It’s got to be really perfect person.

00;13;14;06 - Unknown Interviewer: Oh yes. Oh, yeah. I like.

00;13;17;25 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: A girl I ever.

00;13;19;25 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Think I.

00;13;20;06 - Unknown Interviewer: Don’t know, Mac. Your, You said you had two sisters. And what are their names? the older.

00;13;28;13 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: One is Alva. Alva Alva Edison. And the younger one. That’s great. Yeah. Steve h e is t h e r.

00;13;41;25 - Unknown Interviewer: And. What was her last name?

00;13;45;28 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, it’s perio now. P oh, a real.

00;13;57;13 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: So that’s.

00;13;59;02 - Unknown Interviewer: That. I’ve just had the two sisters.

00;14;05;26 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: the one sisters did.

00;14;11;24 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: You. Julie, miss Amy.

00;14;15;13 - Unknown Interviewer: Your spouse’s name? Edward.

00;14;23;02 - Unknown Interviewer: And his place of birth. Mother. So on a Saturday, we were all the whole family.

00;14;30;28 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: We,

00;14;35;27 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: his birthday was, February 9th, and he was born. And.

00;14;45;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I made a mistake, and I know now it was 1892.

00;14;53;21 - Unknown Interviewer: And, date and place of marriage.

00;14;59;05 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: oh. It was November 27th, 1926. So, I hope.

00;15;07;08 - Unknown Interviewer: 1927

00;15;09;10 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: 1926, November 27th. that’s the Mary Ellen mother’s birthday. Thanksgiving day. And with her finger and other and pretty. I loved her.

00;15;26;16 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Beautiful orange color.

00;15;28;25 - Unknown Interviewer: Was he deceased?

00;15;30;26 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I guess, and the August of his second was just this past.

00;15;39;21 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: He was, a little orphan, you know, and, Oh, it was just a tiny little thing on the doorstep of my home, you know, that had to feed him with a medicine dropper and everything. And there were five kittens, and, they all got sick. So my son said, oh, I’m gonna have to kill him. He said, you almost had an affair.

00;16;02;05 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Afraid? The yellow one. So I got the yellow one. So, baby, this alone is, Definitely.

00;16;10;26 - Unknown Interviewer: I’m trying to get you both in the.

00;16;11;29 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Picture, but.

00;16;13;09 - Unknown Interviewer: He’s trying to get the kitty in the water to the moon.

00;16;16;01 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: You put your ears up.

00;16;18;01 - Unknown Interviewer: A couple of cream. Somebody just left the kitties on your doorstep.

00;16;23;02 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh, no. They had the cat there. Mary had, like, it was somebody got poisoned. They were two weeks old. So we took turns bathing and babysitting them, trying to get them to, Do you want your picture taken?

00;16;39;23 - Unknown Interviewer: Don’t you want you because you know what.

00;16;41;11 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: You could do to, you know, you, like, take the.

00;16;44;09 - Unknown Interviewer: Affectionate animal. You know, your spouse’s occupation.

00;16;51;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, he was a lawyer to begin with, and then he was a carpenter. That was. What do you really love to do? It was just a walk to the houses around his boat to remodel to just a lot of you could say that it would go that way, maybe do.

00;17;10;14 - Unknown Interviewer: We did this one?

00;17;12;00 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, no, this one was for his moved every I think he moved practically every door, every window all the day and and the, like that part there that was just straight across. It was a porch all the way over. So they don’t really call him that one out there.

00;17;28;20 - Unknown Interviewer: He built that when I come here is nice. That’s very comfortable.

00;17;33;17 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Know. So a stairway that went up here and we never did like that. We couldn’t figure out where to put it. Finally we remembered or thought of a place and it’s just perfect. Goes about the dining room and it’s this ideal spot. Oh, look at this. You just rightly because I wanted to have where the heat gets so high now.

00;17;57;05 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yeah. Compared. I don’t know what kind of background it.

00;18;01;12 - Unknown Interviewer: You get tired of having, you know, having the and having probably put me through there when you have children.

00;18;09;21 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, we adopted a boy and his name Gerald.

00;18;21;16 - Unknown Interviewer: And place of birth.

00;18;23;27 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, it was Minnesota.

00;18;25;23 - Unknown Interviewer: No, the Spokane. Spokane. So.

00;18;34;06 - Unknown Interviewer: The town looking at later and his, date of birth May 30th.

00;18;45;24 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: 1931. Starting to think I’m an occupation.

00;18;51;00 - Unknown Interviewer: But he’s not.

00;18;52;02 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Home. A man no longer married.

00;18;56;10 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: He’s. That’s something he likes to do so well, first and foremost. And always go back the whole lives.

00;19;04;08 - Unknown Interviewer: Does he live around here? And this is.

00;19;06;24 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Just on the other side of Kreuger. Oh, that’s right.

00;19;11;18 - Unknown Interviewer: Now we don’t have too much going to go on this. this is is personal information. Your education? Well.

00;19;20;24 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I graduated from Lewiston Normal School back here, and I took some. Personal education over at the University of Idaho.

00;19;37;10 - Unknown Interviewer: You know, you just took some classes or did you get a degree? No, I never.

00;19;44;06 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Did get a degree because some. I was teaching in the opportunity school over there. And, I had a life certificate which was referred as employee. There was no question about that. But I got familiarized. And I know that they ask us if we would take a refresher course or some courses. and it was when, substituting over here was to I’d ask we just substitute the class and so on my all I thought, well, I should go and take a refresher course because, the methods had changed since I had gone to school there, and that’s how I got, in a class over there for a row.

00;20;31;13 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: These, the special education work. And there was a lady in there that was having, opportunity school over there, and she asked me if I would like to teach. She said, some way you just kind of seemed to me like you would fit better. I often wondered if she thought I was sort of handicapped or she thought I had some material.

00;20;56;05 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Anyway, I taught there for ten years. Oh, well.

00;20;59;12 - Unknown Interviewer: You met her at the university and she suggested you work at opportunity. Oh, I know right where that is.

00;21;05;25 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I was in Doctor August class. and, I was very much interested in her, and I guess she thought I seemed interested in. I was. So then we went. Every so often I would take a course, and I got up into my senior year and then quit. But,

00;21;29;21 - Unknown Interviewer: Oh, we were so close afterward.

00;21;32;18 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: When all these women around here went up and got their degree. Then I kind of thought, well, I wished I had gone ahead, but it didn’t seem like they were offering any courses that would help me any, you know, that would fit in with what I was interested in. But afterward, long as I stated it soon as I did, I kind of wished I had gone to Pullman because they offered the courses that I used and wanted and if they had it, it had worked out all right.

00;22;05;26 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I would like to have gone, and then I would have go ahead and work for a degree in that. But what they offered over here didn’t fit in with what I.

00;22;14;11 - Unknown Interviewer: Was going to be that close. But. I didn’t really.

00;22;19;26 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Get acquainted with it home until I was taking my husband over there. He’d had a stroke and lost his speech and and, it was on his right side. So he was he did gain ability to walk with a cane, but he never got the use of his arm or hand. And they never talked for nine years.

00;22;44;27 - Unknown Interviewer: Is that.

00;22;45;08 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Right? We went over to and over there at the Pullman. I took him over there to speech therapy. I don’t know, I think we went twice a week for a long time, and they got him so he could say the words and he could recognize the pictures and he could recognize words, but he never got so he could just give them out without.

00;23;08;12 - Unknown Interviewer: Oh, terribly frustrating. Who did you communicate then with? sign language or with your hands?

00;23;15;17 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, we did a very good communication. Some lawyer rather, but, That’s it. if you come right thing right out of the air, round it, you know, then I just have to start him again so he could either not his hand or shake his hand, you know, till I got it.

00;23;42;05 - Unknown Interviewer: Wow. I imagine after two years, you would get. So you could just be very normal. Very you.

00;23;48;05 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And we just kind of recognized when he started, about what he was interested in or what he wanted. And at one time, I think that was shortly after he’d gotten home, not too long after he got home from the rest home for him, wanted something. And you see, he had a good pointer. I told him he had the best pointer in town, and he points and it kept pointing like that.

00;24;18;19 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And I said, you have something you want some? So he can point. And that’s if you want somebody. So you want to go someplace, you want something and, and just went on down. So finally I just practically started moving into the street and came up, you know, finally when I get to the grocery store, that was it.

00;24;45;26 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: He wanted to go. I said, you want to go down to the grocery store.

00;24;49;25 - Unknown Interviewer: To meet you? My Mr. Brown also had I knew too well.

00;24;53;07 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: It was very frustrating. Time was it was just really rough.

00;24;57;16 - Unknown Interviewer: But, couldn’t you just write what you wanted? No.

00;25;00;16 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: You didn’t know some things that affected his brain for speech that it his mind. And he couldn’t write the word. Never say it.

00;25;08;18 - Unknown Interviewer: Either. Yeah. He could. His thinking wasn’t impaired. Oh, I never heard of an another.

00;25;14;22 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Anyway, then then he was able to get around and and at that time. So he got the car. But I took him down there. He got out of the car and he just went right down through the store, went in front of the coffee counter. I said, you want some coffee? And I had instant coffee on him, and he didn’t like, oh, so we get down reported that was it.

00;25;41;26 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: You wanted coffee. So when I get a of coffee and brought it up and percolated some coffee and he was happy. But he liked this coffee.

00;25;52;09 - Unknown Interviewer: I didn’t have music that he could eat with his left hand.

00;25;56;19 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yeah, he learned he could write. He could treat, you know, coffee. But to actually start out to write a word, you see, couldn’t because it was warm in his mind.

00;26;08;24 - Unknown Interviewer: So he couldn’t really draw a picture of what he wanted either. No.

00;26;14;04 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: One. No, it was it was rough. But before, before he died, I took the book and, and I found a bunch of words, and I held them up in recognize, too. And name them. so we.

00;26;33;15 - Unknown Interviewer: Had.

00;26;34;08 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And and I knew he had because he used to read books all the time, you know, looked at books and looked at books, and then he watched TV and he could tell which channel was which program it was. And apparently he understood, what they were talking about. And he could also read, take a newspaper and look at the headlines.

00;26;58;14 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And I think he knew what it said. So he had gained a great deal, but he couldn’t, speak.

00;27;05;10 - Unknown Interviewer: It was just a gradually kind of relearning thing. What a different sort of life after you’ve been married for all those years and then for many years with a handicap.

00;27;19;28 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I have to ask.

00;27;20;22 - Unknown Interviewer: You, what are the jobs you had, besides working in the Opportunity school?

00;27;27;03 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, I did, I worked as a telephone operator, and, then I had this federal Indian instructing job during World War two down here at the warehouses.

00;27;46;02 - Unknown Interviewer: what was the title again? Federal.

00;27;48;21 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Him being Inspector Horn. Oh, well, yes. And these things.

00;27;56;11 - Unknown Interviewer: And I didn’t.

00;27;57;21 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Do the week, but I did the peace means when, the farmer would come in mid unload his sacks and I’d have to go punch the sacks and take out a sample, see, and, Keep a record of it and. Have in a little sack, little card with the like. I didn’t actually do the inspecting, but I think that’s what it is.

00;28;26;04 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I just ran into my little card here later the other day, and I said, I forgot about that one here. I had my little federal inspect your.

00;28;35;02 - Unknown Interviewer: Little tag,

00;28;36;21 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: To show that I was a qualified and qualified punch sack puncher. So he made get a load, carload of, beans. Well, they may not go punch him, you know, says to have it make out the record of their. If it was a little piece what I made on, I would go down to you.

00;29;00;07 - Unknown Interviewer: How long did you do that? Just during the war. And during the war. So you were, worked as a PM bean inspector and then you were a telephone operator and then you went to normal school and became a teacher and then, and then taught in the opportunity school.

00;29;14;23 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yeah. I was I had my, I had my education before I was married. I taught before I was married to. And then, then, after World, I was teaching in the opportunity School at. That was quite a few years afterward, but that’s what I was doing when I had a stroke. I finished up that year.

00;29;41;19 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, that one year I was doing Troy and Dairy in commuting between the two. So.

00;29;49;09 - Unknown Interviewer: So you were actually also a teacher and a regular, school, high school?

00;29;55;28 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, no grade school, grade school. I substituted some in high school, but I didn’t like that. Okay.

00;30;07;17 - Unknown Interviewer: do your, interests, hobbies or talents?

00;30;12;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, I got a lot of hobbies. I don’t know, I think maybe it’s a I said one of my, is Mrs. Clipper. I clip everything, scrapbooks.

00;30;28;13 - Unknown Interviewer: Okay, so maybe out of town. You’re an avid collector?

00;30;31;15 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yeah.

00;30;33;26 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: we collected coins and stamps.

00;30;41;06 - Unknown Interviewer: Any particular clippings? Back of history. just of interest, probably.

00;30;47;27 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh, to start out, I had a scrapbook. It had just about anything and everything you could imagine. He was. And, spatially, I did a lot. A lot of, they called on me to, have readings, you know, bridal showers, some baby showers and things like that. So anything I could find along that line that would serve that way?

00;31;12;10 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Those clipped, those, say, those. And then after World War II, they come here and. Have you got a reading? You see, we could use so I you’d have great ham on hand. And then I liked a lot of the religious ones too. Very much so.

00;31;35;07 - Unknown Interviewer: how about,

00;31;37;13 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And the course flower and gardening. Go, dear friend, had a girl has plans. How to make a garden. How to make it grow. What? I have learned that. Yeah.

00;31;48;17 - Unknown Interviewer: I think I have some beautiful plants out there and a kitchen. They’re really pretty. One. Oh, they’re.

00;31;54;10 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Doing pretty good. This is the one in here. My neighbor, gave me that one. She had. Well, I had them to begin with. I think I gave her the start and then made all those. I felt terrible about that because they were beautiful.

00;32;12;13 - Unknown Interviewer: It’s a begonia is new.

00;32;14;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Beautiful. she asked me if I’d like to have a start, and I said I sure.

00;32;18;13 - Unknown Interviewer: Would, because it orange blossom like that. It was.

00;32;21;10 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And ever since again two she gave it to me. It was a little bit of a thing. Just go with it. Has a bunch of blossoms on there all the time.

00;32;30;18 - Unknown Interviewer: Oh it’s beautiful. I’ve seen a begonia and I, you know, it’s one. I’m a house plant too. I mean, I like houseplants, but, I’ve never seen one with blossoms like that. That was unusual.

00;32;43;15 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I had another kind that was had green leaves, and they’ve had all great big bunch of blooms on it, you know? But like I say, I lost them because they all froze. So this is all I am.

00;32;57;04 - Unknown Interviewer: What goes into her. And before.

00;33;00;27 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: No, I had them down in my makeshift greenhouse down here. And I hadn’t seen off all my. Well, I know for me one night was just too bad.

00;33;11;21 - Unknown Interviewer: And you’ve got African violets here. You do have a green thumb, but yeah.

00;33;17;16 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Mainly on my house plants. I live outside in the garden. It was so good.

00;33;23;26 - Unknown Interviewer: Well, because of the water.

00;33;25;00 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Though, look at them all here. That’s where I want the water.

00;33;31;27 - Unknown Interviewer: Yeah. And those. That’s the. That’s not your fault. That’s.

00;33;35;24 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: No. You ever had any kind of potato growing in Missouri? Does sweet potato.

00;33;49;24 - Unknown Interviewer: I don’t know if I could along here really, really.

00;33;55;28 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I had a big, long philodendron in there, and it. Oh, it was real pretty wound around there. one of my grandsons was sleeping here one night. I don’t know what he did. Threw his arm around, I guess. Broke it all. So I had to stack something else.

00;34;09;23 - Unknown Interviewer: But I put it in the.

00;34;10;29 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Can out through its growing mill.

00;34;14;16 - Unknown Interviewer: And you have a mason here? Fern in there, too?

00;34;17;07 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yeah. Get some of that other. That’s just imitation, I guess. I bring.

00;34;21;26 - Unknown Interviewer: A take it out.

00;34;23;10 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Pretty soon. This Lima potato.

00;34;28;14 - Unknown Interviewer: Have you ever had any awards, honors or ribbons? Well.

00;34;37;05 - Unknown Interviewer: Of course.

00;34;37;16 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I was PTA president for a long time, and I did. I got a life, Kim, on that one.

00;34;48;03 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: But, yeah, I used to give speeches at the institute, and I got, started in the beginning and wound up and got my diamond pin through.

00;34;58;07 - Unknown Interviewer: Oh.

00;35;00;16 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: For, got the bronze, the silver and gold. And then we we work for the diamond, and I got them all.

00;35;09;13 - Unknown Interviewer: What’s WAC to you?

00;35;10;29 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Women’s Christian Temperance union. And we had speech contests. I remember I used to go to him and I sit there and just practically sweat when I watched the women getting up there and reciting these things. You to go to school. Horrible. How wonderful I can do that. Was scared to death for fear they forget. You know I never can do that.

00;35;35;29 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: So somebody asked me, said why don’t you take part of hottest new thought just scares me to death. So they persuaded me to learn it. We a scripture to begin with. Learn one and try it. My one. And so the.

00;35;52;12 - Unknown Interviewer: World amazed yourself,

00;35;54;17 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yeah, I scared herself on that one. So then I thought, well, if I can do one, if I do, you know. So I did my one. Thank you. But I’m going up, you know.

00;36;05;29 - Unknown Interviewer: And one every time I tried did you feel gradually more confident.

00;36;10;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh yeah. Finally it didn’t bother me.

00;36;13;08 - Unknown Interviewer: After winning all those times. I guess you.

00;36;17;05 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: The last one to get the diamond one we had to. That wasn’t scripture. That had to be oratorio or what you call it. You know.

00;36;27;16 - Unknown Interviewer: That was a little harder, I bet. Yeah, that’s me, I because I am I have a hard time speaking in front of people and I wonder if maybe with practice you just.

00;36;40;05 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: You could.

00;36;41;09 - Unknown Interviewer: Get better. But I don’t know, you sound exceptional without your, you know, winning.

00;36;47;11 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, I’ve had a lot of, to begin with. I was, I really was shy, you know, I was born that way. I was shy, in fact, when I went to school, my sister, I always figured I was the dumb one, you know, in the family. And, my sister was the smart one. So when we went to high school, why, I was one to sit beside her so as to get moral support or maybe something else.

00;37;16;06 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: All along. We never cheated. We didn’t. We were tired.

00;37;19;07 - Unknown Interviewer: You thought she was smarter?

00;37;20;20 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yeah, because she was smarter and she could help me. So we take the same classes so she could help me study, you know, get study. And we were normal school together, and I was scared to death I wouldn’t pass. And then she decided to quit. So I said, well, I do like it. I can’t do it alone. What’ll I do?

00;37;43;09 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And imagine my all I can just remember yet how hilarious and joyful I felt when I made the Science club. Because that was as close student and I made it on my own.

00;37;57;10 - Unknown Interviewer: Oh what?

00;37;57;22 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Plus student s s plus. Oh, excellent.

00;38;02;04 - Unknown Interviewer: Oh, excellent.

00;38;03;16 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Excellent. Oh, excellent. Student. And here you can be a member of that club. Unless you were an excellent student and a s pluses almost straight through. And on my own. I did it. And you just know what that did to me. I found out I had a brain tumor and the ability, you know, and.

00;38;27;12 - Unknown Interviewer: Then you you felt pride and thought you you could go.

00;38;30;10 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Was satisfied then that I had did have something on my own that I could work by myself. You know. And it was it was just really I can just think yet how happy I was when I found out that I didn’t have to depend on somebody else.

00;38;47;08 - Unknown Interviewer: To get our sister.

00;38;49;29 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Home. And it was kind of funny. But then I went home. And then those days, of course. And, we were rich. We didn’t have a lot of money. So I went to summer school, got a job at six weeks of summer school to teach her six weeks or nine weeks that first year, taught school, had 24 kids, all grades.

00;39;22;01 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Wow.

00;39;23;22 - Unknown Interviewer: So once you found out you had the ability, you really went through.

00;39;28;00 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And then I went back to summer school next summer and got another job kept on. And then I decided that I was missing too much fun. And so I said I was going to take a year off and go to school because I don’t have my picture in the paper, and I wanted to see what they call me.

00;39;45;00 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: You know, they put nicknames with them and everything, and their pet peeve and their little choices this time. So I always enjoyed looking into annuals, and I wondered, what do they say about next year? So I wanted to be sure and be in on it. So I decided to, go to school at year and so I could just be right there with the rest of them and do like the rest of them did.

00;40;10;07 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And. Over the year, my dad called up and said, would you consider coming up teaching because, teacher had to leave the whole school and I needed a teacher, and, oh, dear. And then I agreed. And of course, I did get my picture in the paper, so I didn’t get any of these. Little did I.

00;40;34;03 - Unknown Interviewer: Mention,

00;40;35;28 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: This, that all of it meant I had to go to summer school before I could.

00;40;40;03 - Unknown Interviewer: Graduate. and so I missed it.

00;40;43;21 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I always felt kind of sad about because I thought I was having a lot of fun. Yeah, this broken tooth here, I had, we putting on a clown act campus, and that was pretty new. I like to be clown. And, and they decided that we’d have a boxing bout, and there was one girl that was real short and kind of broader than I know her tall, skinny.

00;41;11;09 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: So we were going to have a boxing bout, and, we were to, Have a knockdown, but we were to just, you know, box for two rounds. And then she was to give me, put me out because that would look familiar. The little one put the big one down. Right. Yeah. So it worked out fine. And, but she did well enough, and she gave me a swift uppercut.

00;41;38;25 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh, that was really nice. We’re supposed to do a kick. You don’t feel.

00;41;43;20 - Unknown Interviewer: So bad.

00;41;44;13 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And sharp. My teeth.

00;41;46;11 - Unknown Interviewer: She kicked it when she hit you. She must be really important to you. And she.

00;41;50;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Pretty.

00;41;50;24 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Decent. Built.

00;41;53;07 - Unknown Interviewer: And what did you do to her?

00;41;54;22 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I think it was as four seven in the act. But I’d like to get another one for you. And then when I found out, it really my dues. And I’ve had to put up with that all these years for her. I think her name was Gladys Knox. Oh, my God, boy, she sure had it all right.

00;42;14;16 - Unknown Interviewer: Sure did. Oh, I wonder what that did to her hand.

00;42;18;16 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I hope it hurt.

00;42;19;28 - Unknown Interviewer: Yes. I didn’t know you could do that.

00;42;22;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: She just came right up to your own desk. Helped me the gym. And she wasn’t supposed to have done it yet. We were supposed to have her in a couple of rounds before.

00;42;33;11 - Unknown Interviewer: And she wasn’t even supposed to hit you. Really? Oh, no.

00;42;37;05 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Not really.

00;42;37;27 - Unknown Interviewer: So. Well, she, an accident or do you like it?

00;42;41;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: So she just hit harder, and she thought she was going to.

00;42;46;10 - Unknown Interviewer: Get funny how that little things. And then you can just discard them.

00;42;53;16 - Unknown Interviewer: Well, I better start with a few of these questions. Your life really sounds fascinating. Maybe we can get into a little bit more with some of these. I hope they don’t take us off the track. what are some of the advantages, or maybe even disadvantages of moving in here, like in a rural area like here.

00;43;16;16 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Than the rural area?

00;43;19;01 - Unknown Interviewer: Well, living in a rural area, this considering this being a rural.

00;43;24;04 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Area or a rural area. Well, of course, I was brought up on the farm and when we lived a year and a half in Spokane, we didn’t like it. We were just, all of us, just wild to get back on the farm.

00;43;38;28 - Unknown Interviewer: There was the big city and.

00;43;40;16 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: You know, big city. We didn’t like the big city. Nothing about the big city, did we?

00;43;45;19 - Unknown Interviewer: Like what didn’t you like just the crowds or.

00;43;48;22 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh, I don’t know. We didn’t like the sidewalks. We didn’t have the freedom that in a big we had a big play yard too. But, I don’t know. Of course, I enjoyed school there too, in a way, but I don’t know, I guess when you you’ve got the farm in your blood, you’ve got farming your blood, and there’s just no nothing really quite big place there.

00;44;14;26 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: But that’s what I. That’s why I like this, small town to a big city. But anyway, I like close to the earth.

00;44;23;21 - Unknown Interviewer: Is close to the earth.

00;44;29;23 - Unknown Interviewer: Just trying to think more. Definitely. What? What exactly that would be that, you know, attraction for living in, a farming area. Of course.

00;44;40;05 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Up there we had, we had skates and we we could go skating in their backyard. But when we got out on the farm, we could take a sled and coast down the big long hills. Nobody would see us. We didn’t cross anybody’s land. We were out in our open, and that was ours. We could have our dog, but you can’t very well have in town.

00;45;06;02 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Of course, this little stray kitten had come. We adopted it. This little chicken had come. We adopted it. And when we moved down the farm was we going to take the little chicken? This name was Becky and my kittens name was Tommy. So tell me. And Becky came to Troy with us and you know, that little thing laid eggs?

00;45;28;18 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: till. Well, I don’t know how old she really was. She got crippled up with arthritis. Everything she followed us around was like, oh, yes, ma’am, we are a little brown ham. Oh.

00;45;41;01 - Unknown Interviewer: How cute. So really, it’s the city. Life is just awfully restricting.

00;45;46;08 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: You know, it was too alive.

00;45;50;01 - Unknown Interviewer: That’s interesting. Do you consider this the same way. Do you miss the farm now would you like to be on.

00;45;55;21 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh yeah I really would wear this.

00;45;58;01 - Unknown Interviewer: You probably feel the same way. This is the city. And you’re, you know that’s what I said, I wished I was out.

00;46;03;24 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Of where I could let the dogs be outside without having the marshal down my neck. I have the cats outside.

00;46;18;10 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Some point we were children and we played like children. We were coerced into taking ballet dancers.

00;46;28;25 - Unknown Interviewer: We do what you want.

00;46;30;03 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: We could do what we wanted to. And we didn’t have a lot of money to buy Morton toys because they didn’t probably even have moved in as far as it goes. But we concocted our own. And I remember one of the things that we had just loads of fun. In fact, I could see a stream of water going down there.

00;46;52;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yeah, what? I just almost have a urge to get out and wade in a, When I watch the kids down over here damming up these little streams that go along. We did used to do with them those streams, you know, and just had more fun floated loose from those little pieces of bark and.

00;47;13;16 - Unknown Interviewer: But I had the idea, too, that on a farm, you have a lot of farm responsibilities where you don’t have as much time to play, because we had lots.

00;47;24;07 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Of time to play. But yes, we did. We had to work because the farm that the folks got didn’t have very much in cultivation. It had trees that grew almost to the house, so they had to clear the land, and we had to pick up sticks and broom bonfires and week. Right? Just like kids do now thing until we arrived.

00;47;47;18 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: But now, when I think back why I love to go out and and burn now and pick up sticks is was instilled in me I guess, you know. But at the time we thought we were being abused and I know dad had a, well, they call it a stone ball or horse. Pulled it around, you know, and on that we put some sticks and things like that before so we wouldn’t have to carry or, and they had my dad had cows.

00;48;21;20 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: That’s one reason why I came here, because, he said if you ever found a place where they could raise both grain and hay, he’s going back on the farm. And when he came down here, this is this place. Edward advertised for sale, and he came down, and sure enough, they could raise grain and they could raise hay.

00;48;44;08 - Unknown Interviewer: That was.

00;48;44;19 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Troy. That was Troy.

00;48;46;02 - Unknown Interviewer: And that’s what attracted him here.

00;48;47;17 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Hot attracted.

00;48;48;10 - Unknown Interviewer: You here?

00;48;49;00 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh, okay. Well, there wasn’t very much just really, it was just the meadow was in cultivation and all the hills around were covered with trees. So they had to cut the trees to get more land into cultivation. You know, and have these cows and of course, they, Well, I guess I don’t know what they did for water before we got there anyway.

00;49;15;22 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Or you say, had a dog. Well, maybe I don’t. I don’t recall. Anyway, he had a drill, a well drilled, and there was this little saying that owner needs. So it filled up. So he never had a very deep well. So we didn’t have a lot of water. But now we had enough for the horses. And then down below there was some spring and that was for the cows.

00;49;42;01 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Go down Marietta, put in a handful. This group that we had at the house with a handful, but that was the well and the one down below. Was it, he didn’t have been ready to make a. Well, there. And that was for this dog. My mother used to say that had his council spoiled. He said they want really deep water to go and drink.

00;50;06;08 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I would come then and.

00;50;10;07 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: There was a troop.

00;50;11;08 - Unknown Interviewer: Was not very far from here that you farm? No, it was.

00;50;14;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Just out three miles.

00;50;16;28 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And we, we didn’t keep it. We let them sell it. my sister and I, we’ve just hated ourselves ever since. But my husband wasn’t interested in farming. He had worked so hard ever since he was just a little boy farming that he just wanted to get off the farm. And he was really.

00;50;38;08 - Unknown Interviewer: Interested in getting a farm. Now, how about a farm now? Or maybe you and your sister get a farm. A new far.

00;50;45;08 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Right niece wants to get a farm. So then she wants to get that one. But that’s the same. Like we’re gonna be able to.

00;50;54;02 - Unknown Interviewer: Wouldn’t that be nice?

00;50;55;03 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yes it would. Oh, dear. All memories up there. We had a a meadow down there, and that was, what we played where you call them fancy ladies. They were high weeds came out when you pulled them up and held about like this. They looked like they were just dressed in, you know, fancy dresses. we take hollyhock flowers, pants for them.

00;51;26;01 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: We just had more fun with those. And, I know my sister had a wonderful imagination, so we kept paper dolls by the hundreds. That was the catalogs.

00;51;37;27 - Unknown Interviewer: we catalogs.

00;51;39;01 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh, there we, bill, I don’t under the trees. I see we have trees there. We have one tree out there. Yes. That’s over. That was our riding horse. Oh, we rode it. What? It was a little enough, so finally got a permanent build on it. And so we rode that jump.

00;51;58;16 - Unknown Interviewer: But you made the bend in the crew would almost be almost too many memories. Do you think.

00;52;04;09 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: There’s an awful lot of memories? That’s for sure.

00;52;09;05 - Unknown Interviewer: oh.

00;52;09;10 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: That’s great. These little squirrels that their dad cut down a tree and there were these little squirrels, maybe squirrels in there. I don’t know, some of them got killed when the tree fell or what. But anyway, there was two of them, and I had to go to them. And they were the great escapes you could ever imagine there.

00;52;30;23 - Unknown Interviewer: Were you eating them?

00;52;31;27 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh, you.

00;52;35;06 - Unknown Interviewer: You’ve always been an animal lover, haven’t you?

00;52;37;28 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: That’s for sure. And those little things with Chase around me like I was a trunk of a tree. They chase each other just like running around a tree. They go up on the shoulders, up on your head and down there until they get tired. And then I had a special dress that they like. They had great big pockets, great time in those pockets to sleep.

00;53;01;13 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: So I go around with a squirrel in each pocket.

00;53;05;01 - Unknown Interviewer: Did they live in the tree? And you just came out and fed them? I kept them in the house. You kept them in the house? In a cage?

00;53;12;20 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: No, maybe just loose. But they they did have a box there that I could keep them in. It was so funny about those little things. You know, when I give them food, they’d always soak it water first.

00;53;26;29 - Unknown Interviewer: Oh, you must have never had cats to bed with.

00;53;30;24 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Squirrels with cats? Where in the house of cats? Or outdoor cats?

00;53;37;20 - Unknown Interviewer: Oh, I’ve never heard of a squirrel being a pet.

00;53;40;19 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yeah. They were. They both got sick, they got diarrhea, and I was just terrible. Felt terrible about that. I think I’d and I got careless. Let them have some milk and diarrhea. So they had a medicine at that time we took out called Mother Crow and then the castor oil. So I don’t want them with castor oil, one with another crow.

00;54;06;24 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: One of them died. I don’t know which one never did find out which were, but so I only had the one left. And then when I got ready to teach that, one mother said, well, meanwhile, the little rascals, knowing the stairs Gypsy. And she said, got to get rid of that squirrel because I can’t take care of that squirrel that ever, you know.

00;54;30;17 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: So I just buried my heart out in the woods just about. And took that squirrel out, you know, left him. I went out every day. I’d whistle, become, it rope and play with me. No need to curl up my little sleep.

00;54;46;12 - Unknown Interviewer: And you think he learned to live out there.

00;54;48;09 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: In the water like he did? He got, At least I hope he did. Anyway, I don’t know how long it was that I went out there and took him in. He’d come there, he got little, so it took me longer to call him in, and he’d come up to, you know.

00;55;07;03 - Unknown Interviewer: Help me recognize, you know.

00;55;09;07 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yeah, he knew it was me. But it take him longer to be here, you see. And then when it came, pretty unique and down, you know, way about there. One day I come with old and he never did come or seem to me like. Then I kept going and seemed like it did come back once more after that.

00;55;31;06 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And then I couldn’t get him anymore. So either you got while or something.

00;55;35;21 - Unknown Interviewer: Sounds like he just went right back to the wild.

00;55;39;03 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And it was early in the fall so he could go, I think, you.

00;55;43;02 - Unknown Interviewer: Know, so like he was just getting more and more back to nature. Yeah.

00;55;49;07 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And that was one of the hardest things I to do is to part with that little squirrel girl.

00;55;57;02 - Unknown Interviewer: I hate to get back to these questions, but yeah, it’s always more fun when you, you know, I always it’s that’s part of what we want, though. We always. Okay. We just want, you know, your history and we always just.

00;56;11;16 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Tell you about working that.

00;56;12;28 - Unknown Interviewer: We hated.

00;56;14;04 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: But it’s just you’re not just lose that job. But, my dad, of course, was very proud of his dairy cows and carrots were supposed to be very good for cows. So we put in stock carrots, putting quite a large garden stock for, carrots for the cows.

00;56;35;24 - Unknown Interviewer: People can eat them. They just for years you can

00;56;39;00 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: But they were extra big and everything I guess they grew. They did they really. But they call it the stock carrots. I don’t know, as I recall, they were good eating too. But anyway, I guess they were as sweet as the garden carrots. Maybe. Anyway, did we hate that? We had to get it on our hands. Knees?

00;56;59;00 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: We’ve been those carrots that we hated and we made so much fuss over that they finally gave up baby carrots. I thought they were good. That was good to me.

00;57;12;12 - Unknown Interviewer: That sounds like quite a job. It was all the carrots for all that cattle to do.

00;57;18;15 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: It was quite a job and we raced here today. It was hot crawling in that all dried, you know. We had to walk to school. It was about, our our place. We were so moved.

00;57;37;20 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I don’t know if it’s my old, my older half. We went. I would imagine when we walked to school home, we then we we went to high school down here. Why? We danced. And when we’d get hungry or we’d get homesick, which we got homesick quite often. But I go home, we walk all three miles, you know.

00;58;05;23 - Unknown Interviewer: What did you say? You bet.

00;58;07;09 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh, some. The families just expected the country kids to come in and they fixed up a room for them.

00;58;14;18 - Unknown Interviewer: And that’s called that. I’m learning to work.

00;58;18;27 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And we had our little stove, and we considered everything there. So we were supposed to do our own cooking, do our own dish, I think in our little room, had a.

00;58;28;02 - Unknown Interviewer: Bed and so I tell you what, your family, I expect to them.

00;58;33;06 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Who always liked it as most anytime, I guess.

00;58;36;01 - Unknown Interviewer: But they didn’t worry about you. They knew you were out betting.

00;58;39;16 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yeah, they knew we were where we worried they’d gone. Got a place for us with a nice family. And when we were there, we were there to go to school. We didn’t stay weekend was we just, with them during school? In fact, when it was nice and we could go out, we walk back and forth all the time, which is back to the winter, when the road.

00;59;02;17 - Unknown Interviewer: When it was too hard to get home.

00;59;04;17 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Otherwise, we walked back for school. We didn’t want to stay. It was terrible. We hated to, I don’t think either one of us was happy in high school. Yeah, we were from the sticks and the town kids were snooty and they had their their fame, their things that they liked to do. And we didn’t do. We weren’t interested in them.

00;59;32;12 - Unknown Interviewer: They had all the other different one.

00;59;34;18 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Completely different.

00;59;36;20 - Unknown Interviewer: And they were kind of.

00;59;39;17 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: we were from the country. We were country.

00;59;41;20 - Unknown Interviewer: So country picks. And they thought they were sophisticated.

00;59;46;23 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: so I knew I didn’t like high school. We finished in three years. There were three years too much even for me. But, a lot of them look back on their high school days, you know, happy with and happy. What fun they had. Really fun. But I make good grades, you know, and I’m sure that if that were, if they they had a valedictorian at that time, my sister would have been a go see and and then a friend of ours, she was a whiz to they would have been there, but they were girls from the country.

01;00;22;08 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: So probably that’s why they didn’t have big dreams.

01;00;27;14 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I don’t know. Anyway, that’s where it was.

01;00;30;12 - Unknown Interviewer: How how did your family life, now compare to, when you were child?

01;00;36;20 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Did. Yeah. I started to tell you about this, this article that I read that, when I think back in my childhood on the farm. Listen, we had, no pressures, nothing like that. I feel sorry for the kids. Well, a lot of them, because they were allowed to be children. They’ve got to go, and they’ve got to go to Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts and, the parade to ballet and music in.

01;01;14;26 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: All and all.

01;01;15;27 - Unknown Interviewer: They have to be. They’re going to be entertained.

01;01;18;03 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: They gotta have something to entertain them, to fill their time. We had no time to waste. We didn’t need to have anything read our all. And,

01;01;27;18 - Unknown Interviewer: You kind of made your own world. Instead of having somebody.

01;01;30;29 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Who, you know, and I feel sorry for the kids still that aren’t allowed to just be kids. Simply like kids, for instance, these little girls that have to wear early bras when they have nothing to brighten.

01;01;46;00 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And those little second graders that can’t think of anything but their boyfriends, their girlfriends. We didn’t worry about that. I don’t ever remember even thinking that we were just kids. Were you?

01;02;00;14 - Unknown Interviewer: So kids nowadays are getting a lot of responsibility real early and.

01;02;05;14 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Too much to make them grow up, grow too fast. I don’t know if they’re making them do it, if it’s the way they’re taught that this was just the time. So I don’t know who.

01;02;17;02 - Unknown Interviewer: That girl in. Interesting. Good. It certainly is true. You can see it.

01;02;20;13 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: But you think of it. You watch, you know, like this grandson that stays with me. He’s 13 now. And last summer this little boy crossed the street. Now they were playing like I think kids would play. They would out. They built roads. Of course, you read your put your head when they started hauling it over and the neighbors don’t it.

01;02;46;27 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: The next clue. told them they weren’t home or yard away at least. And here I was, gone. And they just took wheelbarrows, the dirt, the precious dirt to hold them, put in the neighbors yard. so I said, that’s all going to come back? Got to come back. I needed you don’t take the farm away.

01;03;11;14 - Unknown Interviewer: But how do they do it? Did they bring it back? No.

01;03;15;24 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Still here, but I’ll probably get some more of it when frost goes out.

01;03;20;19 - Unknown Interviewer: The snow goes off right when you live in the city. you have is precious on that soil you have here.

01;03;27;01 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And and our yard here. That was all hauled in and filled in. All of this was just an old dry all the way down. Like there. So we’ve put in a, wall and had all this dirt called in here to live a little.

01;03;43;29 - Unknown Interviewer: I was curious, do you have any, granddaughters?

01;03;48;00 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: We don’t, see. Yes, we claim mom, I have three granddaughters, and, seven year olds by, by proxy. This way. About that way. You know, my son was married and he had two sons and two daughters. And then he was married again. And, the woman he married has two sons and a daughter. And then they have two sons.

01;04;19;25 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: So old, old while we have two grandchildren that way,

01;04;24;09 - Unknown Interviewer: If you put them all together.

01;04;25;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And you put them all together, consider.

01;04;28;07 - Unknown Interviewer: I’m just wondering what kind of life you see for for those.

01;04;33;04 - Unknown Interviewer: Daughters, for the granddaughters. You know, you were talking about, you know, how life is changed. I wondered how you see their future.

01;04;40;28 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, there you see, this one granddaughter is lived with us for a long time, and, she and the and the girl across the street. They had lots of fun, too. And, I tried to keep them just so that way, as much as it was possible to. But, I don’t know. There again. Well, then when you get up there, she.

01;05;09;24 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: She went away to school. It’s. You seem to have mind. You didn’t take her too long, for she was looking at the boys.

01;05;21;02 - Unknown Interviewer: Instead of being a child.

01;05;22;20 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Instead of being a child and just a teenager, she quit school and she had. She has two babies now that her husband is divorced. And the maintenance man. Oh, here’s one of the grandsons I love and.

01;05;39;20 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Happy about it says posted on that.

01;05;41;08 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Savior. Okay, well, this is Connie.

01;05;45;02 - Unknown Interviewer: Hi.

01;05;45;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Hello again.

01;05;49;13 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: You’re going out to, the country. Where are you headed for?

01;05;55;07 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I’m headed down the house, kitchen garden store to get groceries and.

01;05;58;17 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh. Then are you going up to. You don’t know for sure. Well, sometime when you go out now, you can think about. You can bring me some milk.

01;06;07;20 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yeah.

01;06;07;27 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: You just down the cellar.

01;06;10;16 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, if I do, then I’ll let you know.

01;06;12;10 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Okay? Okay.

01;06;14;04 - Unknown Interviewer: Otherwise I’d say different.

01;06;17;26 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh, yeah, I see, like.

01;06;18;28 - Unknown Interviewer: I don’t really great kind of. So, she you were talking about your granddaughter. She got married and and had two children. Now she has two little babies, two.

01;06;35;23 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: To four year old girls who. Yeah. Back there she is over there. to these.

01;06;47;10 - Unknown Interviewer: Are here with your children? Oh, is this the premise? She’s a pretty woman, isn’t she?

01;06;54;15 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Very pretty.

01;06;57;00 - Unknown Interviewer: so. So what kind of life you see for her?

01;07;00;29 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, I said she lived. Oh. What did she have left to the lives? So just living it over there. Is she just 20 and, really should. She should have been going to school very senior school. And, well, so now what she probably will do is if I ever get married again, this. She’s going with somebody.

01;07;25;01 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I just have feelings. Well, we get married again. She seems to be happy, though, so I guess that’s her life. But I thought she missed a lot because the other the girl that she was crooning with, she’s going on to college and she didn’t tie up with anybody. You know. And it seemed to me, like I said, you meet a girl once, you’re only a teenager.

01;07;53;19 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Whether to have your friend now and then.

01;07;57;18 - Unknown Interviewer: Doing all the responsibilities.

01;07;59;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And then your responsibilities.

01;08;01;23 - Unknown Interviewer: Maybe she’ll go back to school. Except that it’s so hard with children, isn’t it?

01;08;05;16 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yeah. She did, she did that. She did. Or whatever. Tuesday. Collar her her got her high school diploma. So she does have that. Then she worked over here at the nursing rescue like that. But if she had just got her education so she could have gotten a better job, you know.

01;08;28;00 - Unknown Interviewer: But do you think this is part of growing up in a city that caused her to.

01;08;32;29 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Go.

01;08;33;21 - Unknown Interviewer: To?

01;08;35;02 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yes, I do, I think had she been out on the farm and had responsibilities. So doing that, nothing. I just can’t help but feel maybe she would have been, I don’t know.

01;08;47;23 - Unknown Interviewer: Happier in her life, more fulfilled.

01;08;50;28 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Who? Of course, it’s hard to say. You can’t live someone else’s life. And now the the other girls do. Well, anyway, one of them is down there and she works at Albertson’s and, she is so very I don’t think she has any intention of being either zero one at tires or down here. And the younger girl is, well, right now she’s with her with her stepmother.

01;09;24;14 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: They went back to Missouri on a visit. She left. She ran away from home because she didn’t like it. There. She will live with her dad.

01;09;35;28 - Unknown Interviewer: Who?

01;09;37;08 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, I don’t go this year, so, you know, such a funny thing. So it’s a funny thing.

01;09;44;01 - Unknown Interviewer: You’re a lot different than. Than it used to be. And living on the farm, who? It’s almost like people had it easier.

01;09;52;20 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well.

01;09;53;24 - Unknown Interviewer: Do you think the life was easier?

01;09;57;04 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, in some ways it was. I suppose in some ways it wasn’t. When you stop and think, oh, of course, the women, you know, we had to carry water, we had to keep the water on the stove and we had to wash the clothes on the board until we finally got a little hand wash that you could run back and forth like this.

01;10;18;22 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: We had just these little stupid little card rubber ringers to bring the clothes through. We hung them out on the line.

01;10;26;26 - Unknown Interviewer: So you spent a lot of time with the household responsible?

01;10;29;26 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, yeah, we did them.

01;10;32;04 - Unknown Interviewer: That was one of the questions I was just nursing. It says compare your life, now with how it was 30 or 50 years ago.

01;10;41;14 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And you seem like in some ways it was simpler then we had our three meals a day and we had good meals, you know, but we had to work two because we had we had chickens, we had chicken houses, we had beer. And I helped my dad out on the farm, on the field in preference to working indoors because I like the outdoors.

01;11;11;06 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I helped him whole, hey, you and put the hay in the barn and all the great little stuff like that. Milk the cows. I liked milk.

01;11;23;24 - Unknown Interviewer: Do you think you would I just, I curiosity would have been happier. so being born now and would have had more opportunities now than, well, rather like not really. No. I guess what I’m asking is, do you think there’s any more opportunities for women now than there used to be?

01;11;46;27 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, if they want to leave home and work too, probably is. But we weren’t interested in doing that. The women didn’t leave the homes to work. They stayed at home and worked. They didn’t have any time to leave home with work. So the farm and yes, they had time to get together, they’d get together was widely known to have, community gatherings.

01;12;11;10 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And they had the women had got together and had a sewing circle.

01;12;16;04 - Unknown Interviewer: So the women enjoying themselves? Yes they did. It wasn’t all work and responsibility and fun.

01;12;21;27 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And we went to, well, remember, we went to the fairs and and things like that. Of course we didn’t travel very far because so to begin with, we had two horses. But when we were teaching them to this with a three pack and the horses and took us back and forth to school, they was just awful good about them, took us to our job, they came over and get us for the weekend.

01;12;52;08 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: If we come home. And I know when they watched over us very closely because I remember if we want to stay down for a party down town, dad would bring us and he’d stay downtown until it was over and he took a school, so there wasn’t much opportunity for us to get the school.

01;13;14;19 - Unknown Interviewer: He really did keep close tabs on you, didn’t he?

01;13;17;29 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And I was real thankful for that.

01;13;20;23 - Unknown Interviewer: You know, he really was wonderful.

01;13;23;03 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I said that was one thing. I think the parents don’t take pains enough to keep their kids under the watchful eye. But it’s too soon, too often, too young. They’re they don’t know enough to handle them.

01;13;42;28 - Unknown Interviewer: And that causes them to just.

01;13;46;06 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Do it freely. When they don’t, they shouldn’t. The house was freedom. What I think causes them to get into trouble. They get in the trouble. And if you’re out on a farm, you’ve got. And that’s one of the things that is lacking. I remember we’ve talked about that before on On the Farm and even they got too many conveniences for the farm, you know, even too much equipment.

01;14;16;07 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: For instance, when they wanted wood, they had to go out and chop it and carry it in. And, when they wanted to. Oh, just about anything. Water, they had to go home to carry it in their lead. When you were supposed to have the freedom, you had to hang the clothes on the line and go and get them.

01;14;37;09 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: They had to hold them. They had to iron those miserable little irons. I remember, though, when I was growing up, I learned to bake bread real young, and I must have had that because it’s kind of bragged about the bread. So that kept me going on that baking cakes to make bread. And when we’d have a hired man, why am I remember I used to get tools to make something, you know, that way I never was any hands on to make the milk from the beginning.

01;15;11;15 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I didn’t like that. But I make friends. Big pies, cakes, things like that.

01;15;17;09 - Unknown Interviewer: So you were saying that the the children and the farm now have all these equipment? They and they don’t have.

01;15;25;23 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: To actually go out.

01;15;27;18 - Unknown Interviewer: And do it. So how does that.

01;15;29;10 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Whole Bruce, since we had to go out in the whole our garden where they get down the rain this big, we the garden, you know, things and then the plants.

01;15;39;26 - Unknown Interviewer: Now they have a row to tell her to do it. So children have no appreciation for, work. You say?

01;15;46;08 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Her absolute handwork. They don’t have to. They griped with the barn. Now, if they had to get out and do it, I’m sure.

01;15;54;26 - Unknown Interviewer: So they get spoiled and they’re small.

01;15;58;22 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Too rare. I think this does not good old fashioned. Just plain old simple work for them to do now. Too many, maybe too many kids. Not enough jobs. Oh, what is need more work? Oh, we would take care a lot of their spirit I yeah, they really wouldn’t.

01;16;19;22 - Unknown Interviewer: Be getting in trouble.

01;16;21;24 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: That’s for sure. But, Well, I was doing the work. Oh, one of the things that we had, of course, you know, I mentioned about we didn’t have bathtubs, so, you know, that was added.

01;16;39;08 - Unknown Interviewer: What did you do before.

01;16;40;26 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: We had these big galvanized tubs? We heated the water on the stove, poured the water in the tub, took a bath that you don’t have to wait. Well, so when we finally get water in the house, cold water in the house. Wonderful. And a tub. We get an indoor toilet that, you know, I used to go out on the farm and I’d go to the outdoor one purpose because I thought it was, and we had a good board catalog.

01;17;14;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: We could sit and study the catalog, which was the wish book. And, it had a double use.

01;17;29;18 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Now, of course, we have all this beautiful tissue paper.

01;17;32;26 - Unknown Interviewer: Too pretty to use. Almost.

01;17;37;16 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yeah. And, I used to just love to go out and sit that old outdoor thing.

01;17;45;21 - Unknown Interviewer: To take a bath. We used to go out and pump the water and then heat it up, and then put it in a tub and encourage you to do, that would take all day. Just take a.

01;17;56;02 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Bath.

01;17;57;28 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I didn’t think so. And it didn’t, but we very didn’t take a bath every day, that every day.

01;18;05;28 - Unknown Interviewer: And probably have to use the water over, wouldn’t you? Not for every person. Because we do wasteful labor.

01;18;13;19 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I, guess we probably didn’t use an awful lot of water because we’d have to heat it, you know, and, I think maybe that we did. I think the likely we kids think we’ll probably use the same bath water. I get really recall about that was. But I wouldn’t be surprised what we did.

01;18;36;13 - Unknown Interviewer: Tend to people also used to be a lot more conservative minded as far as ecology. Know the environment. Too much change to waste.

01;18;47;00 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And another thing too, we didn’t have all these fancy shampoos and I was just talking to, you what was here this morning. I said, you know, I here and I’m going the next time I get some of good, I’m good. I have it because it was the best. We use big black tar soap for shampoo, and it was the best that you could ever imagine.

01;19;12;04 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: That’s all I ever had been washed with this tar.

01;19;16;02 - Unknown Interviewer: Same color. So did you make it at home?

01;19;19;07 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: No. We could buy that big, big black bars smell like tar.

01;19;25;10 - Unknown Interviewer: Did it clean pretty good?

01;19;26;17 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: You bet.

01;19;30;04 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: It was good. I don’t know why we ever got away from it. I said I’m going to go next time. I said, I wonder if you can even. But she said, yes. Same as employers and gangster. There probably little bits of ours now, I don’t know, but I’m going to get one.

01;19;44;26 - Unknown Interviewer: I’ve seen car shampoo.

01;19;47;05 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Everywhere.

01;19;47;17 - Unknown Interviewer: In the store, but it’s supposed to be for, special medical things like scalp problems like dandruff or something.

01;19;56;29 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, they haven’t.

01;20;00;29 - Unknown Interviewer: Given. That’s what we hear.

01;20;02;19 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yeah.

01;20;03;18 - Unknown Interviewer: Oh, hi. You’re here.

01;20;05;04 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Don’t let the dog out. Whenever you out there, shut the door.

01;20;08;08 - Unknown Interviewer: Oh.

01;20;08;27 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Okay. Let’s go.

01;20;09;28 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Out. Let the dog out, Dixie.

01;20;12;29 - Unknown Interviewer: We’ll get her. Okay?

01;20;15;15 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Okay.

01;20;25;00 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh, so.

01;20;29;18 - Unknown: Open the car door. Open.

01;20;40;10 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Okay.

01;20;42;27 - Unknown Interviewer: I’m coming in. Yeah.

01;20;51;17 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Okay. See if you can get.

01;20;54;17 - Unknown Interviewer: Don’t you go outside there.

01;20;57;15 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Okay.

01;20;58;09 - Unknown Interviewer: Well, I turn.

01;21;02;28 - Unknown Interviewer: Okay.

01;21;03;29 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yeah. We had, even her underwear was made out of flour. Sex.

01;21;10;27 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Slippers and dresses and aprons and even underwear and.

01;21;15;14 - Unknown Interviewer: Underwear was made out of flour.

01;21;16;27 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: So I couldn’t. The dresses were the colored and colored women’s. Then where was that? All right, I’ve got a slip in there. Part of one. Yeah, that was a loan to my mother because she liked it. And I did too. I work until we’re out.

01;21;32;23 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Okay.

01;21;35;00 - Unknown Interviewer: Did you make the bras out of those two here? And you had to change that.

01;21;40;22 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Because treadle sewing machines and even being interviewed.

01;21;44;27 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yeah.

01;21;47;11 - Unknown Interviewer: You tell a lot to.

01;21;49;05 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: You know, I.

01;21;49;22 - Unknown Interviewer: Think I run the whole tape up.

01;21;52;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: You were out.

01;21;53;04 - Unknown Interviewer: There. Okay? You’re still working. Did you tell her about the stock takes that what you said. Did you have a statics? Yeah, we had statics, but I didn’t mention the mattresses.

01;22;03;14 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: They didn’t have mattresses, but they made, laid them out. Taking my children from a store and was there for me to practically had a ladder to get up on or, you know, smooth them out. And it smells so fresh and delicious. Then we left our statics. That was our mattresses. And when they got dirty, then we’d take it out and dump that out.

01;22;26;27 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: But freshen.

01;22;29;17 - Unknown Interviewer: Up. And did you have to do that? Where did she.

01;22;32;19 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Tell you how often? Or twice a year, I imagine that. Did she tell you about the statics? Oh well, I know, I’m sure it was about twice a year, especially when it was nice when they got through harvesting and all this nice, fresh straw that they thrashed, you know, and then we’d get all that nice restaurant. Still, our slavery was just once a year and oh boy, they do that.

01;22;57;29 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: They call that and get out there and and it would pack them.

01;23;01;12 - Unknown Interviewer: What was the outside maybe taking.

01;23;03;15 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Regular like, pillow taking, you know, this regular cotton taking.

01;23;09;17 - Unknown Interviewer: Well, I think it would take I think of something that was on the know, like scrap it.

01;23;17;04 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: You know, we had, it was blue and white striped with taking when it seemed all up and then leave it open in the middle where you step it in and dump it out. See.

01;23;29;02 - Unknown Interviewer: That does sound comfortable in them.

01;23;31;26 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Let me see what else. Oh, yes. Another thing that we had on the farm and that was, that is, makes me just homesick yet to buy go buy one a smokehouse. If you build a little building there and then you can seal it up home there, meat in there that they was going to smoke, and then they’d keep hickory or will or apple, something like that.

01;23;58;22 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: They keep a fire in there. So to smoke it for a long time.

01;24;03;03 - Unknown Interviewer: Did you smoke, Mason.

01;24;05;02 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, so they they have. No, no. We had their butchered fresh beef. They can live. But the pork, the hams, the shoulders and the bacon did that old.

01;24;22;23 - Unknown Interviewer: In the smoke at the smokehouse preserve the.

01;24;25;07 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Meat? You bet. Oh, yeah. That would be. And they used to. Mother used to put down the pork chops, and she put it down in lard in the stone crocks and put it in and put layer lard, and it would keep it indefinitely that way. Fry it first.

01;24;46;13 - Unknown Interviewer: Did you ever worry? Oh, you know, you sounds like you can do a lot during farming. Had to can’t everything and and now they say you don’t care because of botulism and things. Did you ever worry about that?

01;24;58;25 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: No. Getting I don’t know. We ever heard about it. And they didn’t have until later. We didn’t have pressure cooker. See that and boil it, you know, for hours. I know mother got a pressure cooker among the first. And so she had one. Did we never did get the soup. We were good eaters, too. And another thing we always look forward to at least when we were younger, we did I don’t know, the mothers didn’t, but I think maybe they did was when the threshing crews came, say, now they come by, go around.

01;25;39;25 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: But then they’d come with, it was a steam engine and a threshing rig, and they pull from one farm to the other, and then whichever farm they were on had to feed them. Oh, and of course we thought that was loads of fun to go down, watch them. So the sex and violence.

01;25;58;04 - Unknown Interviewer: And we do hope that they will end up at your farm.

01;26;00;28 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh, we wanted to. We’re hoping they’d be there for several meals, but mother didn’t know a lot of work for her. Well, lot work, I’ll say. But we thought it was fun. And we get to take them coffee and see that they have lunch, and they sit there and get to do that. And corn in the afternoon, too, if I remember rightly.

01;26;22;08 - Unknown Interviewer: Well, she went in for her. So was she waiting.

01;26;24;13 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: For the Idaho Indians to come to deliver the papers? So yeah, it’s about time that they see me coming. They should be coming pretty soon. And, and of course we had horseback horse drawn vehicles, as I said. And that was one of the things that I was.

01;26;54;16 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Let’s go, go, go go find that right. Yeah.

01;27;07;28 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh.

01;27;08;13 - Unknown Interviewer: Okay. What are.

01;27;09;08 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: The name? grapes that we had about horses. They said here. And when we start out, you know, I knew the horses were sitting where the healers here would come back in our mouths and in their face and on their clothes, and they smelled like a bar.

01;27;27;27 - Unknown Interviewer: Or even if you brushed them.

01;27;29;18 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: You mother used to accuse my dad. She said, all you do, you just go and curry and loose stood up.

01;27;36;10 - Unknown Interviewer: For what? If you’re going to church or something and you got all this horse hair all over you just brush it off.

01;27;43;16 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Well, we could wear something else around. We could take off. Otherwise we would have been loaded with horse hair. stinky. So that was one of those things that.

01;27;55;15 - Unknown Interviewer: You don’t didn’t miss.

01;27;57;03 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I was just perfectly happy to do without that one. And we had a car, and we had a Ford.

01;28;10;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Come some bread and cakes. Cookies, donuts. And we didn’t have a chance to go to the store and buy it. We made it from scratch, made everything. It was a lot better.

01;28;23;09 - Unknown Interviewer: How did you preserve it?

01;28;26;07 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I’m trying to think. How about, we finally got ice boxes, and then we get the ice and they put up ice. Ice? we cut the ice and stacked it and put the saddest over it and have to see people ice almost all summer. And then they put them in these ice boxes. It had a place to stick to the ice.

01;28;51;08 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: There.

01;28;53;21 - Unknown Interviewer: So you just keep your butter and things like that on the ice.

01;28;58;11 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: You know? And only we didn’t, we had enough. So I don’t think mother ever kept blotting anytime. I know we didn’t.

01;29;07;19 - Unknown Interviewer: Just made it up when you needed hours.

01;29;09;16 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: You needed it. And that way they didn’t have to worry about it. But, And the eggs, because she sold it, she sold butter and she sold eggs and the cottage cheese. She just did make it when we wanted some. And the bread, we made it up anyway, in the cake, we these donuts, I loved it. Oh, that’s one thing I miss.

01;29;32;05 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I love homemade donuts.

01;29;34;15 - Unknown Interviewer: You sound like you’re quite a cook. You said something earlier about your mother teaching you how to cook bread and reacting that if you always like to cook.

01;29;42;10 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Yeah, I like to cook, but I like to work outdoors better.

01;29;47;01 - Unknown Interviewer: Work in the garden?

01;29;48;23 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: No, not necessarily the garden. I worked out in the field with my dad to go forth on my hay for the long road in the wagon, and.

01;29;58;24 - Unknown Interviewer: Maybe you should have been a farmer instead of a teacher. You should.

01;30;02;19 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: that’s.

01;30;03;01 - Unknown Interviewer: What I said. Well, I started out.

01;30;05;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And then mother said, well, I couldn’t afford to do any more and take us through high school. And then we had to, put ourselves if we wanted to, further education. I said, well, anything that came to her would be a teacher.

01;30;19;06 - Unknown Interviewer: One. Did you ever think about having children when you were young? You know, you were saying, like, your granddaughter wants to have children and started. You didn’t feel that way when you were in high school? No. You didn’t want to get married and have children. Oh, you wanted to go out and be outside and farm,

01;30;38;12 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: And I know them well. I tried to pick out jobs that I’d like to do. It wasn’t too to let it just that was the easiest to get into the quickest. So I guess where I wound up, oh, I guess that was funny.

01;30;54;07 - Unknown Interviewer: Part about that sort of to get stuck, you really thought you’d like something out there was little.

01;31;01;01 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: In fact, right about the fact that I was here considering that telegraphy. And I thought that would have been such fun.

01;31;09;21 - Unknown Interviewer: Telegraphy? What’s that?

01;31;12;26 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Let’s click the little keys like they do in the old fashioned post, which you probably don’t even know about.

01;31;19;21 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Oh.

01;31;21;14 - Unknown Interviewer: Like sending.

01;31;22;23 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Messages. Fact I even got some material on letter, but I people. That was.

01;31;29;25 - Unknown Interviewer: So how did you get hooked up with Edward was teaching.

01;31;37;18 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: I was boarding with his sister, Riggs, and we had what they call, was the Lyceum. I can’t remember the name, but anyway, the each district would, have a gathering, and then they’d go at it and they’d have they write up a paper, drives jokes, and everybody in the neighborhood, you know, and in that, one paper, one was out there.

01;32;08;14 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: So Edwin Carlson called after I read Greg’s at home when he died Tuesday night. I regret, Edward Carlson called it Grace. The whole Edward Carlson was a beast. Released it always do.

01;32;23;21 - Unknown Interviewer: I first do a.

01;32;25;03 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: Pretty good second. We can see sister. Of course. That is there. Wasn’t too long. Wait. You said he was able to see his sister.

01;32;41;16 - Helena Cartwright Carlson: So that’s how we get started. Oh, and I want to get married in a may, so to have apple blossoms. And he said no, we’d have to do it in the fall when the when the there was a let down, this would work. So you’d have to go home.

01;32;59;15 - Unknown Interviewer: That surprised me because I always thought that that the one brother, the farmer.