Olive Randle Oral History Interview Audio [transcript]

00:00:00:00 - Erma Wood: Telling interviewers of Olive Randle June 20th, 1975 at Saint Mary’s, Idaho by Irma Wood.

00:00:15:19 - Olive Randle: What do you want to start with? Like. the things you enjoy about living in Saint Mary’s or the Vatican.

00:00:27:13 - Erma Wood: Well, I think it’s a small place. And where, you know, everyone.

00:00:33:29 - Olive Randle: And I think that’s the advantage, though, is that, you know, everybody in town, everybody a grand.

00:00:46:14 - Erma Wood: Well, that’s, I think it’s, more enjoyable in a large place because, you know, you don’t hardly know anyone. Your next door neighbor in these large cities.

00:00:58:19 - Olive Randle: Yeah, but I think that’s an advantage. Definitely. How does your family life compare with the life when you, as a child?

00:01:13:12 - Olive Randle: Family life compare with the life when you as a child, maybe either financially or free time or.

00:01:24:26 - Erma Wood: Well, I was live. I was raised in a small place too, and everybody knew everyone those days. Two in, in the community where I grew up.

00:01:39:13 - Olive Randle: did you, live on a farm.

00:01:44:01 - Erma Wood: Or on a homestead?

00:01:45:12 - Olive Randle: On a homestead. You have to.

00:01:48:04 - Erma Wood: Have a garden and we lived, just out of Sandpoint, away from.

00:01:59:02 - Erma Wood: I went to a river school until I went to high school. Sandpoint.

00:02:08:04 - Olive Randle: let’s see. How long did you know the man you married?

00:02:13:02 - Erma Wood: three years. I knew him three years before you married.

00:02:17:19 - Olive Randle: That’s really unusual circumstances about Vietnam. Or where did you move?

00:02:21:21 - Erma Wood: You all came to a dance and the. And the, roller girl. She chose me to dance her first. so, I don’t know. I guess you just love me.

00:02:38:04 - Olive Randle: Yeah, well,

00:02:46:05 - Olive Randle: Let’s see. What did you expect? what was your expectations of marriage?

00:02:54:16 - Erma Wood: I don’t know, just do marriage. well, the main thing was to. Loving each other and to get along, and, I always figured it was a 5050. Around 40 or 50.

00:03:13:14 - Olive Randle: 50. Yeah. No. 5050 arrangement. Yeah. and it says what medical, services were available to you when you were having your children.

00:03:27:27 - Erma Wood: well, remember.

00:03:30:09 - Olive Randle: That was the doctors, you know. Did the doctor come to your house or did you go somewhere? You went to the hospital. Hospital? In fact. What?

00:03:41:15 - Erma Wood: Yeah. And in Saint Mary’s, too, when my children are born.

00:03:47:26 - Olive Randle: Yeah. What factors most affected the number of children you had?

00:03:59:22 - Olive Randle: I just don’t know about that. where did you get, your knowledge about childbirth? I didn’t read these questions. well, child rearing.

00:04:11:07 - Erma Wood: Well, I don’t know. I just, I suppose from older women.

00:04:18:06 - Olive Randle: probably maybe your mother.

00:04:21:05 - Erma Wood: Oh, yes. I to my mother, neighbor, maybe.

00:04:27:17 - Olive Randle: how has the role of your children changed since you had children? Okay, there are all these children change that. You have two children.

00:04:42:01 - Erma Wood: Well, they’ve grown up and. And, on their own have families of their own. I guess that’s.

00:04:51:08 - Olive Randle: Now you have.

00:04:53:01 - Erma Wood: Grandma and grandchildren.

00:04:55:05 - Olive Randle: Great grandmother.

00:04:56:03 - Erma Wood: And great grandchildren, which I enjoy.

00:05:02:20 - Olive Randle: And what do you personally do for recreation?

00:05:09:21 - Erma Wood: Well, I belong to so many lodges and 2 or 3 clubs and the senior citizens, we dance every Saturday.

00:05:19:24 - Olive Randle: Oh, you do, but that’s the main thing. Did you go to the Elks? To that?

00:05:25:04 - Erma Wood: Well, I haven’t in quite a few years because my cousins actually, you know, I used to when they were here, but to me, we’d go over here to the Eagles and bands were mostly down to center.

00:05:41:04 - Olive Randle: So after.

00:05:41:26 - Unknown: New.

00:05:57:28 - Olive Randle: relaxation.

00:05:59:08 - Erma Wood: thinking back.

00:06:00:18 - Olive Randle: What are some of the things you have done to help support your family? And I suppose that would be raise the garden and the ham.

00:06:11:00 - Erma Wood: You know, just made a home for them and raised a nice garden and.

00:06:17:07 - Olive Randle: Did you have counter.

00:06:19:18 - Erma Wood: Well? Oh, yes. We had cows and chickens. Took care of the farm and horses.

00:06:31:10 - Olive Randle: let’s see, how do you, Has there been, ever been a time when you have, had the major responsibility of your family?

00:06:44:25 - Erma Wood: well, yeah. Part of the time when the children were growing up and going to school here in town, my husband.

00:06:52:17 - Olive Randle: Worked out.

00:06:54:14 - Erma Wood: In the timber and.

00:06:56:26 - Olive Randle: Would be gone a week at a.

00:06:58:00 - Erma Wood: Time, and he was gone a week at a time. So.

00:07:02:01 - Olive Randle: Yeah, then you had to have the full responsibility of some children. Not that you have never had to help support them.

00:07:10:25 - Erma Wood: Oh no, I know you have to know.

00:07:14:22 - Olive Randle: And, what community activities are you, have you been involved in or what is the,

00:07:27:04 - Erma Wood: Oh, I.

00:07:29:08 - Olive Randle: Think, you know, all those clubs in the.

00:07:33:01 - Erma Wood: And home demonstration part of my lawn. I’m trying to.

00:07:37:09 - Olive Randle: Remember the home demonstration. All right? I didn’t put that down.

00:07:41:16 - Unknown: I belong to that. and.

00:07:47:10 - Olive Randle: I heard you mention senior citizen and that you thought.

00:07:56:08 - Erma Wood: Well, I was taking an active part for my senior citizens club and have to get it going. you know.

00:08:05:22 - Olive Randle: And the grandmothers club. Could you tell us a little bit about that?

00:08:10:07 - Erma Wood: Well, I have learned quite a number of years for that. I have never been one, in fact, in my grandmother of the year to.

00:08:19:11 - Olive Randle: All that great. And, what do you do with the grandmothers club?

00:08:25:27 - Erma Wood: Well, we have a business meeting once a month, and then my second meeting of the month. We play cards and so. We’ve had quite inactive,

00:08:44:05 - Olive Randle: Club and, would you tell something about the senior citizens? A club where?

00:08:55:17 - Erma Wood: We have, a potluck. dinner once a month, and, every Saturday afternoon we dance.

00:09:08:03 - Olive Randle: oh. You do?

00:09:10:14 - Erma Wood: and for we have, two meetings a month, business meetings, and, once a month, I, we gather and, take part in putting out a little paper. We put out a little paper called the sparkle.

00:09:32:06 - Olive Randle: All the senior citizens have written. Oh. That’s good. And.

00:09:36:03 - Erma Wood: And then, of course, there’s, two of the ladies that kind of go ahead and and, I plan the articles to be put in the paper, and then we, gather there on a certain date and address those and send them down in the mail.

00:09:58:00 - Olive Randle: Oh. And who did they go to?

00:10:02:07 - Erma Wood: to all our members. And we have about 300 members.

00:10:05:21 - Olive Randle: Oh, well, that’s quite a bit of doing.

00:10:08:14 - Erma Wood: And then we, kind of take turn around and two of us will, take care of a media club for a week at a time and do the janitor work, sell a rummage and, and through the telephone and.

00:10:31:14 - Olive Randle: And, somebody told me that the club was funded by any money you earn.

00:10:39:01 - Erma Wood: No, we had government help to start with, and, we paid for the sales through rummage sales and on different, things to bring in money. And we finally. Well. And we, the business man of the town, donated money to help us get started. And, we soon was able to, get away from the government help, and, that’s so we paid for our building, which was $16,000.

00:11:21:17 - Erma Wood: We paid for that in just a little over a year.

00:11:26:03 - Olive Randle: and you earned all your money.

00:11:28:12 - Erma Wood: and now we’re independent and and, and, rummage that we sell house, pay the, expenses. And also we have every Tuesday night. Bingo. Oh. Which brings in money. Yeah. And for a long time, we, saved the aluminum beer cans and full bowls and got quite a bit of money. Yeah, we, sell, we go through our rummage and, pick up to, things that don’t sell well and, make good rags to sell to the powdered milk.

00:12:09:10 - Erma Wood: Oh, yes. and that brings in quite a little bit for us.

00:12:26:05 - Erma Wood: Thank you.

00:12:38:20 - Erma Wood: Came to Saint Mary’s and went to work for the Milwaukee Lumber Company. And, scaling. And, he worked at my friend one. And then they changed and decided to go up all the time on that. So my husband found, homestead, cabin, forest, alluvium, and, So we moved up there, just took a girl some bedding and dishes and clothing.

00:13:19:04 - Erma Wood: And so they camped out all winter. And we didn’t have only one near neighbor. And I thought I’d just moved to the end of the world when I got there, six miles from the railroad.

00:13:38:20 - Erma Wood: Well, but anyway, we spent a good winter, and, yeah, there was a post office about a mile and a half from us and a little grocery store called Sylvester’s Post Office. Oh, and I was on there for work. You know, I found it. Creep. All of them. What they call the mama law out of the barn. A lot country and, we used to buy fresh meat and eggs from this little store.

00:14:11:16 - Erma Wood: Okay.

00:14:13:09 - Olive Randle: Talk to me. Deal about the, the shoveling.

00:14:17:16 - Erma Wood: Oh. Well, I think it’s, the part that my neighbor wanted me to tell was, how I came from Spokane on the train, change trains here in Saint Mary’s and went up the branch line and got off at the mouth of Alder Creek and rode a long train about four miles up the canyon and a lunch.

00:14:47:01 - Erma Wood: Our logging camp then rode the log train. I never 2 or 3 miles. And then, that’s where we went to find this cabin and moved into it. Yeah, but if you shut it off, I’ll tell you. I’m. So when I start.

00:15:11:12 - Olive Randle: when you said you belong to the Spokane.

00:15:14:26 - Erma Wood: well, I lived alone in Spokane a month, and. And my three year old lonesome. And I told my husband that I would gladly live in any kind of a little cabin if I could be close to where he could be home. And so he found a cabin for us to live in was a homestead cabin. And, he.

00:15:38:13 - Erma Wood: So I came to Saint Mary, found the train, and then I came on up to the branch line on the train, and a log train met me at the mouth of all the creek. And I rode the log train for about four miles and got off and ate lunch at a logging camp, and then got back on the log train and rode, oh, by three miles farther, and then finally got off and lost in about an inch of snow.

00:16:13:05 - Erma Wood: And five who were shoes. And finally came to the cabin. But the funny part of it was the way I was dressed. I had on, real nice dress, black satin skirt, majestically poised with a and, black plush coat with a big fur collar. And there I was, riding on the greasy engine and, I don’t know why I didn’t have presence of mind to have robbers.

00:16:49:21 - Erma Wood: So I’m leaving Spokane, and knowing I was gone to the woods.

00:16:54:24 - Olive Randle: But you said the humble skirt was kind of hard.

00:16:58:09 - Erma Wood: Well, now I had to climb up in the engine, which was a, real tall staff and I had on a hobble skirt, had to pull myself up to said mat greasy.

00:17:11:07 - Olive Randle: And you.

00:17:14:21 - Erma Wood: But we finally came to the log cabin and and lived there all winter, and I thought I had just come to the end of civilization. I was six miles from a railroad. Never had been that far away, out in the woods, and had one neighbor, an elderly lady that hadn’t been to Saint Mary’s only once in eight years, so she couldn’t tell me very many interesting things.

00:17:45:29 - Erma Wood: but we were one mile and a half from a little grocery store and post office. I am where you used to buy fresh meat. Maybe there. So we managed to live all winter, and I did lots of fancy work and read lots of stories and. And I thought if I ever lived through this winter, I’ll be glad to go back to town.

00:18:16:02 - Olive Randle: But I lived there nine years. Oh, afternoon.

00:18:20:00 - Unknown: I suppose, did you have a good show? Oh, yes, we have.

00:18:24:21 - Olive Randle: Wood stove, probably. Jerry. Brother.

00:18:27:17 - Erma Wood: Have a nice spring course. Timber. Well, we finally brought my hand out there and lived for nine years out there. And then the youngsters who were old enough to go to school and so I moved into town. And I’ve lived in Saint Ruth ever since.