Myrtle Berg Interview Audio

00;00;00;00 - Isabel Miller:: Yeah, well, we run into the same thing here. People refer people to us that are mostly teachers. We keep getting a lot of.

00;00;15;00 - Myrtle Berg:: Complaints.

00;00;16;02 - Isabel Miller:: Because they see them as articulate people who can talk well, and we’ve made it nice. And that bothers me sometimes cause I come through better than psychologist. All right. So here, here for you. Yeah. I really try to get it. Place, you know, so the subject comes through a little stronger. And I think Tony mind down because they don’t want me to talk down here.

00;00;40;02 - Isabel Miller:: Well, this is the August the 20th. I’m at Myrtle Burke’s house in Kellogg, and, the interviewer this time is Isabel Miller. That’s my name. and your myrtle.

00;00;55;12 - Myrtle Berg:: Myrtle Berg.

00;00;57;17 - Isabel Miller:: Berg. The yard.

00;01;00;03 - Myrtle Berg:: Right.

00;01;01;05 - Isabel Miller:: And what was your name?

00;01;02;26 - Myrtle Berg:: People say 80.

00;01;05;06 - Isabel Miller:: Clearly the 80. If you ever have a nickname.

00;01;11;27 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah.

00;01;13;25 - Isabel Miller:: and what is your address here?

00;01;15;19 - Myrtle Berg:: It’s 405005.

00;01;20;27 - Isabel Miller:: That’s miles an hour ago. I didn’t say oh in the month. And when you were born?

00;01;29;29 - Myrtle Berg:: April 24th. Right. 134.

00;01;37;05 - Isabel Miller:: Where were you born?

00;01;38;13 - Myrtle Berg:: And, Melvin Canseco, your mama.

00;01;41;00 - Isabel Miller:: Over here in.

00;01;45;21 - Isabel Miller:: Do you have a telephone here?

00;01;47;08 - Myrtle Berg:: Yes. 077868332.

00;01;55;05 - Isabel Miller:: So where did you first live when you came to Idaho? Oh, Caroline. You’re right. The Kellogg. Came from Kentucky?

00;02;05;08 - Myrtle Berg:: No. North Carolina.

00;02;11;24 - Isabel Miller:: And you’d gone in Kentucky to North Carolina, right? How did you happen to come to Idaho?

00;02;17;27 - Myrtle Berg:: Well, I had my sister had her husband came out here and found work. And so then when she moved out with her two children that came out to help her on the trip by the train with her to little.

00;02;32;07 - Isabel Miller:: Where were you? Not married.

00;02;33;29 - Myrtle Berg:: No.

00;02;34;18 - Isabel Miller:: Oh about what year was that.

00;02;38;05 - Myrtle Berg:: 1952. Oh.

00;02;42;20 - Isabel Miller:: You came with your sister, right.

00;02;45;01 - Myrtle Berg:: And her children.

00;02;52;28 - Isabel Miller:: This is sometime, you know, we get this information on sometimes older women who immigrated with their families. You know, you know, our background. I’m in covered wagon.

00;03;02;23 - Myrtle Berg:: That was the train. And it was really slow. It’s an old southern train we took to Cincinnati, Ohio, and it was so slow. That was that when they had, they segregated the blacks from the whites. You know that right here in the South, that was a part time. And then when we arrived in Cincinnati, we were mixed with the, the color.

00;03;25;28 - Myrtle Berg:: And and I cross and I was different, but it was such a slow train up to 1580. I remember the southern Railway. I think that after that it seemed to move faster, to get farther north and then speedier trains and so forth. Oh.

00;03;44;15 - Isabel Miller:: That’s interesting. And, what was your mother’s maiden name?

00;03;49;05 - Myrtle Berg:: Apple may Walker reveal.

00;03;53;14 - Isabel Miller:: In 18.

00;03;54;12 - Myrtle Berg:: Very.

00;03;57;26 - Isabel Miller:: You know, when she was born.

00;04;00;09 - Myrtle Berg:: It was 1890 or.

00;04;06;24 - Isabel Miller:: Where was he born?

00;04;08;18 - Myrtle Berg:: He was born. And these are the places, go Fontana, North Carolina. If I went to.

00;04;23;00 - Isabel Miller:: Let me.

00;04;23;27 - Myrtle Berg:: No. Dykeman who died in 1906. To whom?

00;04;31;04 - Isabel Miller:: You know, when he was married. You know.

00;04;35;13 - Myrtle Berg:: I, I just kind of lost track because after moving away from her, I wasn’t able to be with her or.

00;04;42;04 - Isabel Miller:: Her.

00;04;42;22 - Myrtle Berg:: And to find.

00;04;43;14 - Isabel Miller:: Out and start a new life after I.

00;04;46;03 - Isabel Miller:: And that did, was he employed?

00;04;51;27 - Myrtle Berg:: she was employed, there was a plant, the factory.

00;04;55;08 - Isabel Miller:: About the.

00;04;55;21 - Myrtle Berg:: House where we lived a few plant matters. And so she worked at kind of a part time basis and ended up in the plant, working in the plant.

00;05;07;10 - Isabel Miller:: Which she eventually worked full time down.

00;05;09;26 - Myrtle Berg:: She worked for her home.

00;05;14;28 - Isabel Miller:: had she worked before she was married or. This was just all her.

00;05;18;20 - Myrtle Berg:: Life where she raised her family. She had 11 children. She was always in her later years when the kids were older and we moved into this situation where there was plants in the industry and she was able to she could grow, work, from the plant at home. And our kids help. Oh, it was in those days where they lay flowers and they lay so on the upper part.

00;05;43;27 - Myrtle Berg:: This is that.

00;05;44;16 - Isabel Miller:: We haven’t heard of that. Could you talk a little bit about what that was like?

00;05;48;04 - Myrtle Berg:: Well, I remember that it was we didn’t like the kids because we had to contribute work. And when we’d come home from school, we had food supplies and we ate in, like.

00;05;59;10 - Isabel Miller:: Less than great quantities.

00;06;00;20 - Myrtle Berg:: Oh, that did to so bringing home here. And then it started being mailed out to bring more of the kids to do the more work we did, and we would be divided out for kids.

00;06;12;14 - Isabel Miller:: We did a truck bring this stuff.

00;06;14;16 - Myrtle Berg:: No, I my we live so close that they would just bring them home in a big box and go up to the plant and get them.

00;06;20;22 - Isabel Miller:: So it was piecework with shipping.

00;06;22;25 - Myrtle Berg:: At $0.11 a pair, and then they raised it for I think in the end they raised it to about $0.55 a pair, which is great, you know, because but they increased it. Then I guess you demand, you know, that.

00;06;38;09 - Isabel Miller:: They got unionized before they have a union.

00;06;40;20 - Myrtle Berg:: You know, they just work before.

00;06;44;01 - Isabel Miller:: As much as they could. Right?

00;06;45;19 - Myrtle Berg:: And they were getting home. It and then they would have shoes that it would have like the tang lays down in the vamp and the parts lace together as well, wasn’t it was so. So it was a lot of places.

00;06;58;22 - Myrtle Berg:: It would trigger it like you would most. Maybe if you were real good. You can make like five pair an hour. So.

00;07;06;10 - Isabel Miller:: But it really took concentration. Was boring.

00;07;08;23 - Myrtle Berg:: But I remember if we had to do it was just to contribute to the income in the family. and, but we didn’t like it because we didn’t have time to go out and play and be required or.

00;07;20;24 - Isabel Miller:: Other things to.

00;07;21;24 - Myrtle Berg:: Do. Right. so that was early and.

00;07;26;17 - Isabel Miller:: Old, where you, when you were doing.

00;07;29;08 - Myrtle Berg:: in junior high eight, like grade.

00;07;32;12 - Isabel Miller:: And so this was after the Second World War.

00;07;35;29 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s it was in the 40s. Yeah. Oh okay.

00;07;44;16 - Isabel Miller:: And did I suppose a lot of people in that area, did they did.

00;07;48;08 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah. Right. a lot of them in that town did it. And for a long time, you know, my dad was kind of semi-retired. he was kind of full of it would work at a job. And you get caught or something, and then he would.

00;08;06;09 - Isabel Miller:: Raise a garden, and.

00;08;07;10 - Myrtle Berg:: He was. And family home.

00;08;08;25 - Isabel Miller:: So. And your mother kind of filled in right.

00;08;13;02 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah.

00;08;13;10 - Isabel Miller:: Supplement it.

00;08;14;05 - Myrtle Berg:: And then he took it up from there. And then he worked at one with her. And then, then he went, well my mother went into the plant and then my dad part of your house.

00;08;26;25 - Isabel Miller:: Oh a lot of them people, students particularly seeing this as a more ideal way to live is people having options to do what they wanted to do and trading off a little bit. How did you feel about this at the time?

00;08;42;29 - Myrtle Berg:: Well, I was kind of happy when my mother went into the plant because that way it kind of like delivered at home as far as you know, was having the kids having to help, you know, with the worm. Except for we started with the housework, then we contributed with, fixing the meal at night, you know, having ready for her.

00;09;02;02 - Myrtle Berg:: And when she came home.

00;09;03;09 - Isabel Miller:: So instead of your father taking the major responsibility for supporting the family, you’re all kids.

00;09;09;06 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah, right.

00;09;09;29 - Isabel Miller:: You know, how did you kind of feel like he was sloughing off over here?

00;09;14;20 - Myrtle Berg:: Well, kind of it times, you know, kids will do that. Now I can see that, you know, if he really wasn’t that much. But at the time, we thought, well, he should be working steady.

00;09;26;25 - Isabel Miller:: And it seems like you didn’t have as much time as you felt you should have for recreation.

00;09;31;28 - Myrtle Berg:: Well, we just didn’t, you know, we had we contributed. Everybody didn’t weaken.

00;09;36;26 - Isabel Miller:: And you were expected to go right to work when we got home from school, right?

00;09;39;23 - Myrtle Berg:: We had.

00;09;41;02 - Isabel Miller:: You know.

00;09;41;23 - Myrtle Berg:: A meal, you know, and help with the dishes and so forth. So that’s you were and he was good. You know, he would get up in the morning and fix the fire and have coffee ready for him. He really did. And he and he raised the garden and and so he wasn’t lazy really. You know, that way as we looked at it then.

00;10;01;15 - Isabel Miller:: But you he had some friends who didn’t have to do quite.

00;10;04;07 - Myrtle Berg:: Right. Is it, oh. He had more time to go to movies and and play ball in front of the house, in the street and, things like that.

00;10;15;22 - Isabel Miller:: And how do you think your mother felt about it?

00;10;19;21 - Myrtle Berg:: I think she felt that she was doing more than her alone, and she felt that, you know, she was kind of she was really a hard worker. And,

00;10;31;08 - Isabel Miller:: She would rather have stayed at home and just taken care of it.

00;10;33;23 - Myrtle Berg:: I think if my dad would have been working stand out way, she would have, you know, she would have.

00;10;38;10 - Isabel Miller:: Indicated an income that she could do.

00;10;40;05 - Myrtle Berg:: She kind of liked her own. Like, you have the money, you know, and and she liked her independence where she wouldn’t have to ask.

00;10;48;09 - Isabel Miller:: Me or wouldn’t have it.

00;10;50;03 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah. Yeah, she did. When she earned her own money, she took care of it. And she controlled the purse strings. And she liked I think she liked that part.

00;10;59;04 - Isabel Miller:: Or she can say whatever. So she managed and figure out like she had a little bit more autonomy say about.

00;11;05;21 - Myrtle Berg:: Right.

00;11;06;10 - Isabel Miller:: And then she’d been a traditional house.

00;11;09;00 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah. See I think she liked that.

00;11;13;08 - Isabel Miller:: I guess this is interesting to me because a lot of students are dealing with this and they see this as more ideal way to live, sharing.

00;11;23;25 - Isabel Miller:: Earning income and everything. it seems like this would be more acceptable today than than maybe. How did neighbors do this?

00;11;37;04 - Myrtle Berg:: Well, they they just, I think they viewed it as the stuff of, you know, a job and that you’re.

00;11;44;08 - Isabel Miller:: Earning a living, but your family was a little different, maybe. And his not assuming the major portion.

00;11;50;11 - Myrtle Berg:: But I think they found a little, Yeah, resentment, I do, I feel like. Yeah.

00;11;55;24 - Isabel Miller:: So outsiders, we were doing a little bit different than what they expected a man.

00;12;01;13 - Myrtle Berg:: To do after parenthood. Kind of an early retirement thing where the wife, you know, goes out work. And the man stayed home. And I don’t know if he felt that he wasn’t doing very his work. I think the feeling was in the family that he needed at that time.

00;12;20;27 - Isabel Miller:: So, The way society is teased and maybe people are thinking differently now that it might be more acceptable.

00;12;30;13 - Myrtle Berg:: And more enlightening. but this was all right, and we just didn’t look at it that way there.

00;12;36;17 - Isabel Miller:: It was a little variation from what the expected roles were then.

00;12;41;13 - Myrtle Berg:: It was a variation because the man earned the living. And, you know, he went to the plant, that there was a lot of industry around there. And we were staying in the wife stayed home.

00;12;52;28 - Isabel Miller:: And. But your father must have been very sure about what he wanted to do.

00;12;56;20 - Myrtle Berg:: He was a real fair man. I mean, he and he was really trying new things, you know, he would be one that would move in homestead. And we did a lot of that when I was little. I remember we moved around, you know, I don’t know if he was chasing rainbows, but if he was, if he made up his mind to do something, that’s what he did.

00;13;21;12 - Myrtle Berg:: If you were to go into a new area and clean them the land and do that, it didn’t have to be done before him or anything.

00;13;33;05 - Isabel Miller:: If he’s still.

00;13;33;20 - Myrtle Berg:: Living. No.

00;13;34;25 - Isabel Miller:: I think that’s interesting and I’m glad you talked about that. But that’s a trace of kind of a forerunner of what people are thinking about today. at least younger students are saying, trading off of family responsibilities. And it’s very not such strict role. Behavior, sex role behavior.

00;14;00;26 - Myrtle Berg:: The man does this normally,

00;14;03;22 - Isabel Miller:: In fact, that it seems as though that’s put some people in the women’s movement are trying, you know, like some women have been confined to home and have to take care of children and stay at home because they’re women and get a chance to try some other roles. And, it seems like today, if your father would have been, maybe have been more acceptable or would have had a little more freedom to be accepted by others in the society.

00;14;34;29 - Myrtle Berg:: Let’s see what school.

00;14;38;11 - Isabel Miller:: But I think that’s interesting that that happened so long ago and somebody tried it before.

00;14;43;06 - Myrtle Berg:: Well we now it’s seems I get the impression that they look at it as innovative or in their and or this is something that would be great. But at that time we didn’t think it was so. You know.

00;14;59;03 - Isabel Miller:: Right I.

00;15;00;03 - Myrtle Berg:: Understand Bible.

00;15;02;00 - Myrtle Berg:: And that we didn’t think it was really.

00;15;04;12 - Isabel Miller:: At that time that’s where you felt how do you feel about it now.

00;15;07;06 - Myrtle Berg:: Well now I think it, it was, it was different and I appreciate it more now. We, we did this and helped contribute. But now that I’m older.

00;15;19;09 - Isabel Miller:: But part of it was the fact that your friends were not doing that.

00;15;22;27 - Myrtle Berg:: That’s that’s. Yeah. And sometimes the things we could do differently to come in and help us and here and get our work done and all that kind of things that were better.

00;15;33;09 - Isabel Miller:: Did you have a certain amount of to do before you could go.

00;15;36;10 - Myrtle Berg:: Out in four years?

00;15;37;12 - Isabel Miller:: Because it had to.

00;15;39;07 - Myrtle Berg:: Be that way because, there would be, the discussion or an argument about me has to be more than I do. Oh, and.

00;15;50;14 - Isabel Miller:: Your parents had to divide.

00;15;51;18 - Myrtle Berg:: It, and they said, you this is the way it is. You know, you do that when you’re here.

00;15;55;28 - Isabel Miller:: Was there any, separation? The boys did certain work and the girls did certain work with it.

00;16;01;25 - Myrtle Berg:: Pretty much. The boys didn’t contribute to the house at all. And the irony and such.

00;16;09;01 - Isabel Miller:: That was Strictly Girl was.

00;16;10;17 - Myrtle Berg:: Right, because I remember all those shirts that I had. my brothers, I had done.

00;16;17;14 - Isabel Miller:: Did they had comparable things outside to do or.

00;16;20;27 - Myrtle Berg:: Or. Yes, they were in an industry, you know, they were for the older brother record plant around the house. They had work for them. Right.

00;16;31;09 - Isabel Miller:: But where they passed as a home.

00;16;33;09 - Myrtle Berg:: No, it.

00;16;33;27 - Isabel Miller:: Was no yard work or anything.

00;16;36;12 - Myrtle Berg:: I think that my dad, when he was, you know, he.

00;16;39;16 - Isabel Miller:: Did the gardening.

00;16;40;11 - Myrtle Berg:: Right.

00;16;41;14 - Isabel Miller:: There to get the boys to help in the gardening or.

00;16;43;27 - Myrtle Berg:: No, no, no.

00;16;47;05 - Isabel Miller:: But you were expected to do housework and ironing and garden.

00;16;52;01 - Myrtle Berg:: Work if there was waste.

00;16;53;16 - Isabel Miller:: We did gardening.

00;16;54;14 - Myrtle Berg:: Too. We could, you know, it was. We’d stay home.

00;16;58;23 - Isabel Miller:: And then you had this assignment, this piece. Work from the factory, right. In addition to.

00;17;05;08 - Myrtle Berg:: And as far as you any a school homework? We could never have time to really do any of that. Because if you got your work done and was able to play with the other kids and go and do things, go to the movies, or take part in social activities, there certainly wasn’t much time for spending.

00;17;29;21 - Isabel Miller:: you probably just too tired to go and ride in into bed. Oh, you really did. No reading. And that kind of had a low priority.

00;17;38;09 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah, I did, I never did, not with my mother, but with my dad. It was.

00;17;44;16 - Isabel Miller:: She thought it was more important. She thought she wanted children to have spend more time on my.

00;17;49;18 - Myrtle Berg:: Right. Well.

00;17;51;02 - Isabel Miller:: She could see that, you know, be we needed here.

00;17;54;22 - Myrtle Berg:: But he was mostly concerned with survival.

00;17;58;18 - Isabel Miller:: I think, you know.

00;18;00;29 - Myrtle Berg:: Feeding.

00;18;01;13 - Isabel Miller:: And that’s very interesting. What. What year were they married. Oh I asked you that and you can.

00;18;08;14 - Myrtle Berg:: no I don’t. Well I’m trying to think now she probably was surrounding four at that time when she married older. So you could just.

00;18;20;07 - Isabel Miller:: Figure it out.

00;18;21;00 - Myrtle Berg:: Figure it out from 1989. You know, about what year? Yeah. My brother in school can have pictures and all this information that, when they passed away, one stipulation of being one of the pictures. And did you get one with the pictures in the Bible with the dates and.

00;18;45;07 - Isabel Miller:: what was your father’s name?

00;18;47;03 - Myrtle Berg:: William Alfonzo.

00;18;53;17 - Isabel Miller:: You know, the date of his birth.

00;18;55;11 - Myrtle Berg:: You? No, but he was married when he was eight years older than my mother, so I think they were aware of him.

00;19;02;16 - Isabel Miller:: You know where he was born?

00;19;04;18 - Myrtle Berg:: Probably in the same area. Fontana, North Carolina.

00;19;10;23 - Isabel Miller:: And,

00;19;14;14 - Isabel Miller:: His general occupation.

00;19;18;03 - Myrtle Berg:: Well, I would say, we probably construction, I know, during the depression. For a road project and so forth. And, then for kind of a temporary farmers that, you know, you stay with him or her kind of farm, foot farm or whatever, you know, garden.

00;19;42;09 - Isabel Miller:: Did he work in factories?

00;19;44;05 - Myrtle Berg:: He worked in factories. Is there in the in where we live in Hazelwood, North Carolina. There are plant like all rubber plants that make tires or furniture factory cotton.

00;20;01;10 - Isabel Miller:: Very just changed the life of his.

00;20;03;18 - Myrtle Berg:: Hands. He’d worked like he worked at the rubber plant or who were prepared for him through factory work at the shoe plant. It’s a nice.

00;20;11;26 - Isabel Miller:: Mostly his volition. He. He got fired for anything? No, no, I mean, yeah, he used.

00;20;18;21 - Myrtle Berg:: To try different. You know what I think they got, they received about $0.40 an hour their furniture factory when he first went in. And it might never change for more money that way. I’m looking back now.

00;20;36;16 - Myrtle Berg:: wondering one thing if I could get an expert.

00;20;40;15 - Isabel Miller:: And when did you die?

00;20;42;12 - Myrtle Berg:: he died, let’s say, a year later. And so it would be 1963. He lived the year after my mother from.

00;20;50;06 - Isabel Miller:: And he had lots of brothers and sisters. Right. how about their first name?

00;20;55;20 - Myrtle Berg:: Okay. earning.

00;21;01;22 - Isabel Miller:: Your.

00;21;04;23 - Myrtle Berg:: Second. Or when? When? And Bill. Robert. I can’t remember that. Right. For six. But I mean, anybody who grew six very. Old people could. Yeah.

00;21;42;01 - Myrtle Berg:: And when we have three children that passed away and one was very. And then I had two sisters that passed.

00;21;51;23 - Isabel Miller:: Away.

00;21;52;24 - Myrtle Berg:: And a pearl or three. And Pauline.

00;22;00;04 - Isabel Miller:: Died. Children.

00;22;01;07 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah. And then I have a sister that lives here in Kellogg, north of the country.

00;22;12;07 - Myrtle Berg:: You know. How many is that?

00;22;13;15 - Isabel Miller:: There’s 11 sisters and there’s seven brothers.

00;22;17;18 - Myrtle Berg:: There was no. Brother.

00;22;25;11 - Isabel Miller:: yeah. How about your husband?

00;22;27;07 - Myrtle Berg:: Okay. Don’t even deal in a really in kind of in big.

00;22;37;05 - Isabel Miller:: And when was he going?

00;22;39;00 - Myrtle Berg:: Oh, he was born in 1932.

00;22;45;24 - Isabel Miller:: Where was he born?

00;22;47;08 - Myrtle Berg:: He was born in Campbell, Minnesota.

00;22;56;00 - Isabel Miller:: Where we were.

00;22;58;09 - Myrtle Berg:: We were married in 1952. We are in Palo.

00;23;07;13 - Isabel Miller:: That’s right. what’s he do?

00;23;10;19 - Myrtle Berg:: He’s a maintenance mechanic, I think, for. The local.

00;23;18;03 - Isabel Miller:: He’s done that for quite a while.

00;23;19;19 - Myrtle Berg:: Right? For about. Well, he’s 20 years, so.

00;23;23;22 - Isabel Miller:: 20 years.

00;23;24;19 - Myrtle Berg:: Old. Member of the 20 year party near me. Oh.

00;23;30;20 - Isabel Miller:: do you have children?

00;23;31;28 - Myrtle Berg:: Yes, we have three children. we have, Don is the oldest girl. She’s 23, and we have Carolyn at 13. Since the. And aquarium with Mike. Is it? The universe is share.

00;23;50;12 - Isabel Miller:: Okay. Can I have a date and a place?

00;23;52;23 - Myrtle Berg:: Okay. Don is in 1953, in, Hazelwood, North Carolina.

00;24;07;11 - Isabel Miller:: And what is he doing?

00;24;09;08 - Myrtle Berg:: He’s, telephone operator calling.

00;24;19;07 - Isabel Miller:: The callers.

00;24;21;07 - Myrtle Berg:: she was born here, and, Come on. And I think it’s two.

00;24;28;15 - Isabel Miller:: And she’s two.

00;24;29;29 - Myrtle Berg:: And she’ll go into the eighth grade.

00;24;35;03 - Isabel Miller:: And can you say he’s got started where.

00;24;37;21 - Myrtle Berg:: He is a sophomore at the university.

00;24;43;19 - Isabel Miller:: And when he was born.

00;24;45;11 - Myrtle Berg:: In 1956. We’re very kind.

00;24;53;23 - Isabel Miller:: Okay. What’s your educational background?

00;24;56;14 - Myrtle Berg:: Okay. University of Idaho and Cortland.

00;25;03;27 - Myrtle Berg:: O’Hara, B.S. in education. Elementary and.

00;25;14;15 - Myrtle Berg:: And that’s a I picked up some credit for for picked up primary frequency. Just. I’m working toward a.

00;25;22;15 - Isabel Miller:: Master’s in Annapolis.

00;25;26;18 - Myrtle Berg:: So these days, I hope to make that.

00;25;29;05 - Isabel Miller:: So you keep teaching.

00;25;31;01 - Myrtle Berg:: Teaching?

00;25;31;17 - Isabel Miller:: What are some other skills that.

00;25;34;17 - Isabel Miller:: So I put everything in, but involved in that, like,

00;25;41;11 - Myrtle Berg:: Not too many skills.

00;25;44;08 - Isabel Miller:: is there any part of it you like doing better than in that?

00;25;47;10 - Myrtle Berg:: In the decorate, decorating.

00;25;50;06 - Isabel Miller:: The home decoration.

00;25;51;13 - Myrtle Berg:: Decoration.

00;25;52;25 - Isabel Miller:: I think that’s important.

00;25;56;24 - Myrtle Berg:: If I just had the finance to back it up, I’d have fun.

00;26;00;22 - Isabel Miller:: That’s only limitations. All right. What are your teaching now? Art. In sixth grade. I have.

00;26;09;09 - Myrtle Berg:: Been teaching the fifth grade out at Canyon School.

00;26;13;01 - Isabel Miller:: For four years.

00;26;14;08 - Myrtle Berg:: And so I’ll be going up here now.

00;26;16;06 - Isabel Miller:: So it’s, silver cane, different picture security, right? What other jobs have you had in the past?

00;26;23;10 - Myrtle Berg:: Well, I’ve worked in cafes like Pickwick Grocery and Kellogg.

00;26;28;14 - Isabel Miller:: And, these have been part time jobs or part time, right? When your children were younger.

00;26;35;25 - Myrtle Berg:: Right. I worked as secretary at one time, part time. And, so now it’s about it just. And I have cafeteria work and and, part time.

00;26;56;02 - Isabel Miller:: did you ever stay at home full time with your children?

00;26;59;08 - Myrtle Berg:: Yes.

00;26;59;23 - Isabel Miller:: And when they were very young.

00;27;01;02 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah. Right.

00;27;05;06 - Isabel Miller:: I suppose there’s mixed motivation, but what are some of the reasons you go to work?

00;27;11;01 - Myrtle Berg:: finance is.

00;27;12;18 - Isabel Miller:: Mainly.

00;27;13;04 - Myrtle Berg:: Was the one. And then later with my education. So, I always wanted to be a teacher I loved working with.

00;27;21;08 - Isabel Miller:: When did you get your education? Since you were married.

00;27;24;29 - Myrtle Berg:: So it’s, er that that’s one of these in turn, people that, you know, in later life. I work for 34.

00;27;34;22 - Isabel Miller:: And you commuted from here to Courtland.

00;27;37;15 - Myrtle Berg:: For two years, and then, and then work picked up nine courses and so forth here as much as possible, and then went down to the University of Maryland campus for.

00;27;48;26 - Isabel Miller:: How did you manage that? Did you? The family.

00;27;50;29 - Myrtle Berg:: Stayed here. Yeah, they were very cooperative. And my husband was a wreck and never been to have so I know he would take over the.

00;27;59;25 - Isabel Miller:: Role.

00;28;00;21 - Myrtle Berg:: Of.

00;28;00;28 - Isabel Miller:: The father and mother during the week.

00;28;03;08 - Myrtle Berg:: And then my daughter, our oldest daughter was, a senior that year. And between all of my kids schooling and, survived through the week, I mean, I was not that indispensable, you know, they were they.

00;28;20;00 - Isabel Miller:: Came home on weekends.

00;28;21;04 - Myrtle Berg:: And and did the Washington Avenue get the clothes ready for the last week? And then Don was real good. You know, she could she didn’t.

00;28;29;10 - Isabel Miller:: Have the work that that was pretty good. Family cooperation.

00;28;33;04 - Myrtle Berg:: Oh, they just they were super because if they if it isn’t that way, I don’t know how it could be done.

00;28;39;12 - Isabel Miller:: A woman needs that much support more especially. Did you cook up extra things to eat.

00;28;44;27 - Myrtle Berg:: Right. And we shop on the weekends, like buy enough meat for every day, you.

00;28;49;10 - Isabel Miller:: Know, same sort of idea for the week.

00;28;52;25 - Myrtle Berg:: So they make very good. so it worked out for us. Survived.

00;29;01;16 - Isabel Miller:: How do you. It was worth it to.

00;29;02;29 - Myrtle Berg:: Oh, yeah. I would give anything. I wouldn’t ever give it for free education. I thought it was really great to be learning, you know.

00;29;15;13 - Isabel Miller:: It really helped how you feel about.

00;29;16;23 - Myrtle Berg:: Yourself. Yes.

00;29;19;10 - Isabel Miller:: when I.

00;29;19;20 - Myrtle Berg:: Went to Cortland and they accepted me because it’d been so many years, there was too many married people going back to school at that time. Since 267, I went to, and there just wasn’t we were very there was very few older people and we were in the the young kids and everything, and no one. But when I walk down the hall, I’m so proud because I always wanted to go to school, you know.

00;29;50;11 - Isabel Miller:: And you hadn’t had the.

00;29;51;03 - Myrtle Berg:: Opportunities had, you know, raising a family.

00;29;53;17 - Isabel Miller:: So did you graduate from high school before you were married?

00;29;56;26 - Myrtle Berg:: Right?

00;29;57;10 - Isabel Miller:: Yeah. Have you started any university at all? no. No, but this is something you just.

00;30;02;20 - Myrtle Berg:: I just always wanted to do it, and, So I felt really good. And my girlfriend went with me. We both went, and she felt the opposite. She was kind of embarrassed because she is the older we were, and, you know, she didn’t want to tell me I’m going to school. She thought that that was kind of, well, shouldn’t you be doing it well with her age?

00;30;28;24 - Myrtle Berg:: I suppose.

00;30;29;26 - Isabel Miller:: It’s not really.

00;30;30;16 - Myrtle Berg:: A had.

00;30;31;13 - Isabel Miller:: Course. did she continue with it?

00;30;34;11 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah, she she went for two years and, received a, degree, and she’s working as a secretary at the bank.

00;30;44;19 - Isabel Miller:: How do you think she feels about it?

00;30;47;02 - Myrtle Berg:: I think she’s real happy. Maybe she gave it or.

00;30;49;27 - Isabel Miller:: You kind of kept her at it.

00;30;51;14 - Myrtle Berg:: Well she wanted to go back but I think she, I just think she was kind of an embarrassing pinch at the time. And she was going.

00;31;02;18 - Myrtle Berg:: But now I’m sure she goes, you know, I feel.

00;31;05;20 - Isabel Miller:: Happy to have the two of you went, right.

00;31;08;05 - Myrtle Berg:: We kind of had each other’s support.

00;31;10;24 - Myrtle Berg:: And we found there’s other women doing the same thing, but not too many or. Okay, going every day. It was a night course or a summer course for the older people. But we, you know, it wasn’t okay.

00;31;25;16 - Isabel Miller:: And how was it? How did you feel welcome at the school with the, it shows and the teachers and they were over.

00;31;34;22 - Myrtle Berg:: They just really went overboard to make us feel comfortable. And and they were they were so good to help get us their schedules lined up and everything they could do right. And I think the kids resented it more than the older of the instructors.

00;31;51;24 - Isabel Miller:: But how would they show that?

00;31;54;17 - Myrtle Berg:: Well, testing time if they didn’t study and they would make a very good.

00;32;01;17 - Isabel Miller:: Grade, and then there would be.

00;32;03;19 - Myrtle Berg:: Some in the class it could it more serious, like the older people especially, I know they would make maybe a better.

00;32;09;14 - Isabel Miller:: Grade.

00;32;09;25 - Myrtle Berg:: And in that.

00;32;10;22 - Isabel Miller:: The curve of.

00;32;11;20 - Myrtle Berg:: Grading would be lower for them. And some of them really didn’t want to apply more and more. And then it kind of put pressure on them. I think grade one. If they resented it that way.

00;32;30;22 - Isabel Miller:: I mean, maybe.

00;32;31;12 - Myrtle Berg:: A mother image too. You know, we can’t do this because you working. You sort of don’t approve of it or something. I don’t know, I definitely.

00;32;42;20 - Isabel Miller:: Did you get acquainted with them? Did you talk with them very much in class?

00;32;47;25 - Myrtle Berg:: Yes. They they were real, you know, it was kind of students, like, you know, they they were in and I met Nancy and everything.

00;32;58;02 - Isabel Miller:: So there was no, resistance or there was no division in the class. You just no classmates, right?

00;33;05;13 - Myrtle Berg:: It is. Okay. we just had things different, you know, our way of life, you know, as older, I mean, people. And so we, I think the older people kind of clicked more clicks more than the younger kids.

00;33;21;15 - Isabel Miller:: Did you have more in common?

00;33;22;23 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah. So we ended up with visit with each other that way. But kids, when it come to.

00;33;28;27 - Isabel Miller:: Common.

00;33;29;21 - Myrtle Berg:: Subjects.

00;33;30;22 - Isabel Miller:: You know, and something.

00;33;31;16 - Myrtle Berg:: In common.

00;33;32;01 - Isabel Miller:: They were very.

00;33;33;15 - Myrtle Berg:: Very nice.

00;33;35;17 - Myrtle Berg:: Very sweet.

00;33;36;04 - Isabel Miller:: With mostly the ones who were trying to goof off.

00;33;38;24 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah, I think that was the calories in a day, and.

00;33;43;00 - Isabel Miller:: It kind of showed in that. But we didn’t really need to.

00;33;46;20 - Myrtle Berg:: We were just kind of.

00;33;47;22 - Isabel Miller:: You know, what are we all going to be doing the right thing. You had to make your time. Hey.

00;33;53;01 - Myrtle Berg:: Well, we knew we had our goal going and we were working toward it. And yeah, I think sometimes the kids aren’t sure of what they want to do and they just kind of take it. And that would have made a big difference with us if we just been going, keeping it for, interest.

00;34;13;05 - Isabel Miller:: We met somebody. Our parents had been paying the bill. That’s kind of different.

00;34;17;02 - Myrtle Berg:: That’s it. Yeah, we were part time, was valuable.

00;34;20;14 - Isabel Miller:: And, in your own money.

00;34;21;29 - Myrtle Berg:: Costing and, we had some goals and we wanted to accomplish big. So it’s different. Okay.

00;34;32;01 - Isabel Miller:: How do you how do you think about some of these kids that are going to school like that?

00;34;37;15 - Myrtle Berg:: well, it’s.

00;34;41;12 - Myrtle Berg:: My opinion and I it’s too bad they they don’t maybe, work Ohio or something planned out what they want to do. Maybe, wait until they’re really ready and some of them are going, I know my daughter went for a year and a half ago because it really wasn’t right. She she work and now she’s working in and she’s getting a place to the outside world and, earn a and so forth.

00;35;12;12 - Myrtle Berg:: And I think now she goes back to, you know.

00;35;15;06 - Isabel Miller:: She you think she will go?

00;35;16;14 - Myrtle Berg:: I think she will eventually. But until she’s ready, it was just kind of she said it was, you know, so nice to come in here.

00;35;24;29 - Isabel Miller:: How about your son now? Let’s go.

00;35;28;25 - Myrtle Berg:: he, is kind of mixed on which direction he wants to go because, he is the type of person that he could go any direction, whatever he takes, how could he be good? I think whatever he thinks. And so, right now, he hasn’t declared a. I what is.

00;35;53;22 - Isabel Miller:: A made.

00;35;55;15 - Myrtle Berg:: And,

00;35;57;02 - Isabel Miller:: More general study.

00;35;58;13 - Myrtle Berg:: So he’s in liberal liberal little art. The in he’s a real good at, acting and perform. And so his teachers in high school have encouraged him to go into that. And who, he’s kind of looking into the future about how he’s going to. He knows that if he goes into that, he has to be to be really great.

00;36;28;07 - Myrtle Berg:: you just told me so. I think this is what’s holding him back about declaring his major. Right. So he’s, taking it kind.

00;36;38;00 - Isabel Miller:: Of a basic.

00;36;40;21 - Myrtle Berg:: Education, you know, courses in English, and it knows he’s.

00;36;45;22 - Isabel Miller:: Going to have to doing maybe to teach dramatic.

00;36;48;16 - Myrtle Berg:: This is what he thought about that maybe going into the, the education side. And then if something fails, like with his acting and so forth. So he could fall back on that.

00;37;01;01 - Myrtle Berg:: But he is really he was in some plays already been to play down university music, dancing and it was different because he’d acted in plays. Here was musicals and so forth. But down there it was, kind of Krusty’s or something. This man was, doing his play for his degree, and we are still living it. And it was the highwaymen.

00;37;31;12 - Myrtle Berg:: And, it was real deep, and there was very many props, and they did the acting themselves. If they needed a prop, they had to act it out.

00;37;42;14 - Myrtle Berg:: But it was it was really a different play and we enjoyed it. So he’s getting.

00;37;49;08 - Isabel Miller:: Involved?

00;37;50;09 - Myrtle Berg:: Yes, I know that down there.

00;37;52;11 - Isabel Miller:: So I mean, he must be enjoying it.

00;37;55;08 - Myrtle Berg:: He likes it. He said that was a real strain on that play because he was a freshman and he was just getting ready and it. And then he took that off. And then he had to put a lot of time in. and so he just kind of jumped in it. He got involved real quick. And I think now he’ll tell.

00;38;18;02 - Myrtle Berg:: He said if he really I wondered if he would have been, if ever, you know, only been that much work. because they gave him.

00;38;25;08 - Isabel Miller:: The lead role in it and he had.

00;38;27;27 - Myrtle Berg:: He had page after page to memorize them and he gave a really good job. And they they were real proud. I mean, I know the guy that got his masters or whatever he was working or he was real pleased and pretty smart to take the responsibility. Yeah. Okay.

00;38;47;13 - Isabel Miller:: Good. Oh, that sounds great. How do you feel about your daughter? and you see, when you get married?

00;38;57;20 - Myrtle Berg:: No, because she’s just kind of a buddy to the fellows, you know, she just.

00;39;02;12 - Isabel Miller:: Doesn’t.

00;39;03;14 - Myrtle Berg:: She has lots of friends and family. Friends?

00;39;07;04 - Isabel Miller:: How do you feel about her getting married? You know, makes a big difference to you whether she marries or stays single or works.

00;39;13;03 - Myrtle Berg:: You know, I just want her to be happy, you know? I don’t want her to jump into marriage. And then she wouldn’t be. It would be so many of the kids now are finding problems and divorcing and so forth. So I hope that when she does marry, she she finds somebody that, is real sincere and, you know, support the family.

00;39;34;22 - Myrtle Berg:: And that kind of just, I guess, for security reasons. I want her to, you know, get somebody nice.

00;39;45;22 - Isabel Miller:: Did you have options? Did your family expect you to get married, or do you have pressure to get married? Or was it up to you?

00;39;53;28 - Myrtle Berg:: it was kind of up to me and whatever, because there was no pressure. I think that my mother had, like, boyfriends, you know, and look nice. And she she helped us to look nice so that we would attract the opposite sex. But there wasn’t any pressure of that, you know, she’d get.

00;40;13;29 - Isabel Miller:: Married, or.

00;40;15;24 - Myrtle Berg:: So I with my family. I try not to to do that and push them kind of out, you know, like, however, Don is happier where she is. She’s an apartment girl. I mean, she’s a lot happier living by herself and being able to go and come when she wants. But as far as Mary J. I just think that she wait until she finds so many things will work for her, you know, and help, you know that her food from her home have gotten married and divorced and have problems so much right now she has a girlfriend living with it.

00;40;55;02 - Myrtle Berg:: It has a little baby in her divorce and so it’s really rough on. Know some of the kids right.

00;41;05;23 - Isabel Miller:: what are some of your other interests? Do you have time for anything else?

00;41;09;27 - Myrtle Berg:: I’m just a you. Yeah, it’s about in Peoria. You call. That too much church work? And a couple of years ago, I taught, Sunday school class. And I get it back, because when I’m teaching, the weekends are really nice to have. So you don’t have to get up and get ready to go to church or so it can raise you down.

00;41;44;09 - Isabel Miller:: In your home decoration, are there things you make or, it’s just assembling things.

00;41;50;08 - Myrtle Berg:: It’s just trying to find something to decorate the whole. You’re not that way. there’s been some home decorator parties. You probably have found some of those. Have you would share with your group. So ways to decorate walls is.

00;42;04;18 - Isabel Miller:: Is a kind of organization.

00;42;06;21 - Myrtle Berg:: It’s a kind of like a pit where.

00;42;09;27 - Isabel Miller:: Oh, it’s like a Tupperware party.

00;42;12;12 - Myrtle Berg:: And so.

00;42;12;28 - Isabel Miller:: We wear those.

00;42;13;23 - Myrtle Berg:: Around.

00;42;14;10 - Isabel Miller:: We kind of have an agency for selling some of these items.

00;42;18;05 - Myrtle Berg:: So then we.

00;42;19;06 - Isabel Miller:: Decided.

00;42;22;20 - Isabel Miller:: Yeah. So have you ever gotten any award? So we’re going to go right back to.

00;42;31;04 - Myrtle Berg:: Working with, Cub Scout. So don’t ask me what it is. It was a plan.

00;42;39;09 - Isabel Miller:: Service.

00;42;40;04 - Myrtle Berg:: Working with the Cubs and my husband. Okay. So you’re.

00;42;45;03 - Isabel Miller:: Coming soon, so you could.

00;42;47;24 - Myrtle Berg:: That for a while. We used to be quite involved and go. We just got involved in planning for the family, so we kind of back, And we started something one at a time. and so.

00;43;02;16 - Isabel Miller:: You have to, you.

00;43;05;05 - Myrtle Berg:: Just get, you know.

00;43;07;01 - Isabel Miller:: Really, people are just kind of worn out.

00;43;11;02 - Myrtle Berg:: We go to Girl Scouts because scouts see a lot when the kids are little and over it is getting involved in the Fort Worth because, you know, it’s somebody else home, you know, and, within the club for responsible if right now we don’t have, Boy Scout troop and community because I know maybe this is for having people at work in a month, and then it’s somebody else’s care, and then they if they didn’t pick it up or go hard to get people.

00;43;52;13 - Isabel Miller:: What do you have time to do things just for fun? You and your husband?

00;43;57;07 - Myrtle Berg:: Well, we have to thing about what we love food. We’re great eaters. And, we go out to dinner and find different places, different kinds of food, and instead of going down to to the bar and drinking, like, we do to eat, and so we find different plate, we go to prepare. we’ve gone over for entertainment, country music.

00;44;25;18 - Myrtle Berg:: And that’s about the extent of your favorite movie theater you go to. For the layman, dance involved in, softball, too. We’ve gone over there this summer, and then we go up the river. Okay. We love to go to.

00;44;42;27 - Isabel Miller:: The family or, your husband or.

00;44;45;06 - Myrtle Berg:: Family or kids, and we don’t like to go there because.

00;44;49;20 - Isabel Miller:: We’re older, but they will come.

00;44;51;28 - Myrtle Berg:: Up very quickly. But Carla Young.

00;44;55;00 - Isabel Miller:: When he goes with it, it’s a take the freedom thing.

00;44;58;05 - Myrtle Berg:: And then we use the camp for years. We go up and and maybe we get things some years, a couple of days. Yeah. I think it gets to be a week and then we now we say this summer, we say three.

00;45;11;29 - Isabel Miller:: Weeks that we, we are still with a tent.

00;45;15;24 - Myrtle Berg:: You know, we went to the trailer, the camper trailer, and now we are able to, you know, put pots and pans, the black and, it’s kind of like having your house with you. And so we’ve gone up three different weeks now, and we parked it along the riverbank.

00;45;35;17 - Isabel Miller:: To keep, you know, you know, and just enjoy the.

00;45;40;15 - Myrtle Berg:: Quiet nature of cooking over the open fire outside and the campfires and the, atmosphere and going swimming. And he likes the relaxation because we have, busy at the point where he’s built our home here. And he just loves to just like we sit around and relax. He.

00;46;01;18 - Isabel Miller:: And the only way he can do it is to get away from from things that he needs to get done, I suppose.

00;46;07;28 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah. I feel like because if he’s here, he sees a door, trained me for the big or done. And undergrad needs to be completed here. So he gets away from yeah, he was so involved that he worked himself into a heart attack or from it. And, it was just kind of a warning as it was in Maryland.

00;46;32;12 - Myrtle Berg:: and so when we back off from working at the point here, it’s good for you to. Go up the river.

00;46;42;24 - Isabel Miller:: There must be for you, too.

00;46;45;12 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah.

00;46;45;25 - Isabel Miller:: It’s gonna take you away from the things that make you.

00;46;49;04 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah, I think that is because. And that union thing, you know, they. We get this big, and he knows it to be takes that if it’s not enough, and that and relax and.

00;47;05;29 - Isabel Miller:: So you found a way to to make yourself your guy and.

00;47;10;19 - Myrtle Berg:: Just go and and no telephone. No. You know, nobody to call him on the phone because, you know, climb up to where?

00;47;28;00 - Isabel Miller:: And I just had some general, questions down to ask about, you see the advantages of living in small towns or rural area.

00;47;38;13 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah. I mean.

00;47;40;08 - Isabel Miller:: You wouldn’t live in a big city if I thought.

00;47;42;02 - Myrtle Berg:: I wouldn’t want to at all. I really and, I wouldn’t want to fight the traffic. Driving would be the thing that would stop me. I wouldn’t want to have to to fight the traffic when I go to Spokane. And when I was getting service to the ground and between, I wouldn’t like.

00;48;03;21 - Isabel Miller:: You for children.

00;48;05;12 - Myrtle Berg:: And for the children in the street. It’s a place to play unless you’re lucky enough to live near the park. And. And here we have the open spaces. In fact, it’s the man house here. It’s a haven for children play. And the whole mountain side.

00;48;21;08 - Isabel Miller:: You know, all kinds of pretend games, right?

00;48;23;27 - Myrtle Berg:: And and they do. They really enjoy that. So I wouldn’t want that for the children.

00;48;30;20 - Isabel Miller:: So it really are some advantages they have.

00;48;33;06 - Myrtle Berg:: Really enjoying living out in the country might be

00;48;42;02 - Isabel Miller:: A lot of these questions you’ve already answered, we sometimes ask about I see you were pretty young during the depression, but some of your family situation was, result of the depression.

00;48;56;29 - Myrtle Berg:: I was more in poverty during.

00;48;59;03 - Isabel Miller:: The.

00;48;59;26 - Myrtle Berg:: War, but I know that, oh. Or only small things were. Really? Yeah. I mean, that money was not available now even in the 40s.

00;49;15;28 - Isabel Miller:: Right. In some areas it didn’t loosen up.

00;49;18;10 - Myrtle Berg:: So especially you know, wages in the factory consistently you’re really low on benefits with that money. Right. You know what we have.

00;49;31;25 - Isabel Miller:: we feel like those young youthful experiences change the way you manage money as compared to some younger people. Now.

00;49;42;15 - Myrtle Berg:: I think so because we we just didn’t have too much for them. And when we did receive family, we’re very fearful of spending.

00;49;54;18 - Isabel Miller:: However charging environment.

00;49;57;18 - Myrtle Berg:: We didn’t buy it back in our first in line with. We have the money to pay for stuff and now you know, how are you going to school? I think anything more to get really in debt and go deep and then have a lot of obligations aren’t being able to go, yeah, right. And my folks just couldn’t because maybe they just couldn’t get there and it couldn’t get credit.

00;50;25;20 - Myrtle Berg:: And I think they were the type of people really taking it easy. Well, we didn’t mind people to have the money.

00;50;32;11 - Isabel Miller:: Yeah. That pretty much true for you know. If you loosened up a little bit and that was the opposite.

00;50;43;02 - Myrtle Berg:: Levi I’m fine and pay for it and then we’ll pay for an item and then we go and we can get something else, you know. And then we’ll go in there for something else, and then we’ll work for that. And, and then so it’s always mind and credit for us. I don’t know, I just felt that way.

00;51;04;13 - Isabel Miller:: But it’s kind of changed all over the whole society. When I’m driving.

00;51;10;11 - Myrtle Berg:: In cars, it’s so easy to get it. You just go up and buy almost anything, you know, credit, regardless of the amount of money.

00;51;19;23 - Isabel Miller:: Course, there seems to be no limit.

00;51;22;02 - Myrtle Berg:: For.

00;51;22;20 - Isabel Miller:: You. Have some collateral.

00;51;24;11 - Myrtle Berg:: Where you can get money, so it’s really easy to get in there.

00;51;29;23 - Isabel Miller:: Where do you prepare yourself now so that you have, a way to make? When the children were younger, did you worry about what would happen with.

00;51;42;07 - Unknown: Credit cards?

00;51;47;21 - Myrtle Berg:: Well, I guess I really didn’t have my thought at the time. I just we were in love, and and I, you know, I didn’t really think about finances that much. And then I think we found this about $80 a room, and then I work part time to supplement, and, I really couldn’t go buy a lot of things, but we, you know, we were comfortable.

00;52;20;23 - Myrtle Berg:: Well, I don’t know how. Now looking back over. Homeschooling costs so much inflation on the dollar. Pardon my $25 a week that I supplemented. Really helped out for me working in a grocery store here.

00;52;39;28 - Isabel Miller:: So you could buy that.

00;52;44;21 - Isabel Miller:: If you ever raised gardens.

00;52;47;07 - Myrtle Berg:: and here you can’t, not too much work for gardens because where where we live on the other side of town, we live for about three minutes over there, and the soil is just it’s too, it just wouldn’t leave the garden with our Colin Farrell and all that, and we couldn’t afford it. And now, with the Bunker Hill has from the top.

00;53;13;01 - Myrtle Berg:: So you probably heard about that.

00;53;14;19 - Isabel Miller:: Yes, I’ve read some about.

00;53;15;29 - Myrtle Berg:: It, and I’m very proud of that hometown. And so now that that was available for was of the garden and, for 140 native plants out there and doing great.

00;53;31;26 - Isabel Miller:: Good.

00;53;32;20 - Myrtle Berg:: So, 25 and 42 might be permanently, they’re doing five or right now. I’m looking over here on this parking lot in the mountain close. Took a cactus from the smell. This, I think, would have been a local garden.

00;53;52;06 - Isabel Miller:: It is turning freezing.

00;53;56;25 - Myrtle Berg:: when we moved over here the first year, we had five apples. We have two apple trees out here. They’re just loaded in their own tree. And we have a good. But I remember that first year we filled out the cooler here with your little friend is. Now, I don’t even.

00;54;15;13 - Isabel Miller:: You know what I mean? I bet your time’s ticking up now with other things.

00;54;20;05 - Myrtle Berg:: And we we made a terrible idea the first year. We were clear this was in our homestead course in the summer. Containers, so forth. Fill in the ground and park the garage, and we’ll, you know, they’re going. And there was an old copper kettle, you know, those old boilers. And we made that full half full of jelly and not knowing that we just left her back to the car and we had jelly on the floor and this cookie and all that.

00;54;53;14 - Myrtle Berg:: We gave away feeling. And I have jelly down here now for him because mold on it. Now, you know, I gotta go to alcohol. And it was we really we didn’t have the fruit or we’re all excited about what you know Benjamin Franklin. we still have Apple Valley.

00;55;15;26 - Isabel Miller:: So that was kind of a learning experience.

00;55;22;22 - Isabel Miller:: The things you talk that you and your family do now for recreation, and you found a lack of recreation as a time, just didn’t have time for your mother and father were too busy surviving. Well, that’s different things. You think?

00;55;37;25 - Unknown: Yeah, well, it think to families.

00;55;44;01 - Isabel Miller:: Other things, changes have taken place in a rather short time. Are people having options to limit their families more? how do you feel about.

00;55;56;11 - Myrtle Berg:: Limiting the family? Well, I would hope that come from family. You know, parents weren’t able to support the family, and,

00;56;10;04 - Isabel Miller:: The children had to work.

00;56;11;18 - Myrtle Berg:: Go out, and it goes back and work. And I suppose when I was a child, you know, helping contribute back to, around practicing and move forward. so we kind of close and so forth.

00;56;25;15 - Isabel Miller:: And the school teacher.

00;56;27;18 - Myrtle Berg:: I’m in the classroom. Right. And so I think it’s a form of care about for the children in the world and not being able to support them and give them a good education, have them, provide for them. So living their families.

00;56;45;05 - Myrtle Berg:: All over that.

00;56;47;28 - Isabel Miller:: kind of taking on responsibility.

00;56;51;03 - Myrtle Berg:: and the ones that can afford to for local government, you know.

00;56;57;00 - Isabel Miller:: You think your, your parents wanted 11 children know we’re going to.

00;57;01;19 - Myrtle Berg:: Go in a.

00;57;02;04 - Isabel Miller:: Bathroom.

00;57;04;05 - Myrtle Berg:: Or just, well, they didn’t ever say, you know, we were allowed to talk to them and all that, but I just I know that it was a struggle for survival, and, I don’t want my dad, who didn’t have a terrible problem. And I don’t feel that he could support that for the people. And so that’s the one.

00;57;27;15 - Myrtle Berg:: And my mother was concerned that we didn’t have enough family from to play. Well, now, you know,

00;57;34;13 - Isabel Miller:: She says it in.

00;57;36;00 - Myrtle Berg:: A roundabout way, and she would cut the cord across and then come right out. So I didn’t have a big bowl. Okay. Back in principle, when we did the most, you could really take care of. when I was or, she had no.

00;57;58;07 - Isabel Miller:: Doctors.

00;57;59;15 - Myrtle Berg:: Well, the, the the the three legged children, my two brothers and I still had to do it for the family. Down for the country, doctor. But I believe with the other C program system worldwide. she had her children about three years apart. As soon as you can figure out the ranges from.

00;58;23;26 - Isabel Miller:: There was just a regular thing. She just accepted them and she had no choice.

00;58;28;12 - Myrtle Berg:: She just had children. When she got pregnant, she had the child care for her and she’s going to nursing the child if that would keep down fertilization or work because they’re working with their brains to get pregnant. Women. And so that’s the way that they didn’t have enough control. What was then?

00;58;53;25 - Isabel Miller:: How did she you suggest that you limit your family?

00;58;59;16 - Myrtle Berg:: Well.

00;59;03;23 - Myrtle Berg:: I’m trying to think what kinds of conversations we would have together that no one should stress a little of the caution with formula. We should go on to school. But, she. I can’t really think of any answer that we’re thinking right out of school. You know, it shouldn’t have a big formal.

00;59;28;04 - Isabel Miller:: but it was subtle. And you got the message.

00;59;30;21 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah.

00;59;34;04 - Isabel Miller:: what were the warriors like for you.

00;59;37;24 - Myrtle Berg:: Know,

00;59;39;02 - Isabel Miller:: You were still in school.

00;59;41;20 - Myrtle Berg:: I remember.

00;59;42;06 - Isabel Miller:: Brothers.

00;59;42;22 - Myrtle Berg:: And sisters. I had three brothers and sisters or two in the army and one went into the Navy. well, over over a year later, the career that was really, when it was in the Navy was mostly just transport, travel between South America. but I remember that, my mother had a flag that she put in the window and stern.

01;00;12;23 - Myrtle Berg:: Oh, dear. Dad, you know, you’re, you’re having the family. that was from emblem or symbol. And so that she had put some I remember the little.

01;00;28;03 - Isabel Miller:: Bible.

01;00;29;04 - Myrtle Berg:: Little question that you remember that with the metal cover. Maybe they didn’t have it around here. they born and they purchased those and sent them to the children of Cleary. And supposedly this is if you had this in their PA, there was a story about they were shot and wounded. Well, this would stop the bullet or something.

01;00;49;21 - Isabel Miller:: There have been various stories about certain soldiers. This supposedly happened.

01;00;55;07 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah. And so this is metal cover. I remember seeing that around home. I had to buy for one. And. That was hard, I guess, to stay home and work. Right. better support, the cons about war bonds and ask you about war bond. And, and one of my brothers, Tacoma, Washington, he gets money each month for him to say when it came out on that money, a quick.

01;01;24;29 - Isabel Miller:: Oh, that was important. Did your brothers take advantage of the G.I. Bill?

01;01;31;08 - Myrtle Berg:: like two people who were where they grew up? and my brother came out here from the Farragut when he had the removal of the head of college for our parade, because the school and, he remember I had the paper back in his,

01;01;54;01 - Myrtle Berg:: Trying to figure out which direction to go. And he had worked with my personal service and father, who came up further from his family, out my school. I think that’s why we are here.

01;02;06;24 - Isabel Miller:: So your sister.

01;02;07;17 - Myrtle Berg:: Followed of three and then that, you know. So that’s really how we ended up here. But who wants to go home with you?

01;02;16;14 - Isabel Miller:: He’s the one in Spokane.

01;02;17;21 - Myrtle Berg:: Right? He works for Washington Waterfront.

01;02;21;09 - Isabel Miller:: So actually, the service was an opportunity for families like yours to. And I suppose your your parents saw that you got through high school because the the boys and girls go to school.

01;02;32;16 - Myrtle Berg:: most of them I don’t think.

01;02;35;08 - Isabel Miller:: And they got beyond that was their.

01;02;37;08 - Myrtle Berg:: Their doing.

01;02;39;12 - Isabel Miller:: family service help and the boys if any of your sisters you only have one sister.

01;02;46;26 - Myrtle Berg:: Right now or she work during the war who worked, near her from the Rio Big Dam going down in the valley and working she river and Fontana, North Carolina, and, this was to go to Rome.

01;03;05;08 - Isabel Miller:: Okay. And, who work there?

01;03;08;16 - Myrtle Berg:: That was going on during the war. And so she worked for, my dad worked there, and my, one of my brothers were killed when he went in service.

01;03;21;27 - Myrtle Berg:: and, some of the people at home or would go to Rome, up in Detroit, Michigan, and work in the factories, local or municipal something. I know my neighbor, my cousin who lived there across the street from us.

01;03;39;07 - Isabel Miller:: So, so.

01;03;40;04 - Myrtle Berg:: Her husband and they never got in the car and work on the farm and then moved back after the war and, we got something off the property.

01;03;54;14 - Isabel Miller:: We’re going to wait for her to work on.

01;03;58;25 - Myrtle Berg:: It was my neighbor.

01;04;01;15 - Isabel Miller:: How long did you go together?

01;04;04;00 - Myrtle Berg:: And the together from like, your mother and like about. Well, and when they come back and we were eating mangoes from the fort. Cool. Before we know each other that you remember you.

01;04;22;28 - Isabel Miller:: Did you have, You’ll think of any reasons why you got married.

01;04;30;03 - Myrtle Berg:: And and I. Martin, you know. I met somebody that I was from always barking. At the time, I was working our work in Afghanistan. Yeah. Kellogg. So. Norton sounds good. the.

01;04;49;24 - Isabel Miller:: Did you stop.

01;04;50;13 - Myrtle Berg:: Working at home and then, I was going to school, and I work in summer, and then I work after school.

01;04;59;00 - Isabel Miller:: And then there was this, high school, and that. Is this my high school? You finished high school here?

01;05;05;10 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah. I went my junior year here.

01;05;09;28 - Isabel Miller:: You came to help. Said that you lived.

01;05;11;16 - Myrtle Berg:: With your sister band. Yeah.

01;05;14;02 - Isabel Miller:: And worked in the dime store. Helped her home.

01;05;17;15 - Myrtle Berg:: And went to school. so, and went my, we were here and then I started my senior year when I was, I married my husband and my son and then moved to Minnesota and he wanted to go back there. So when he knew that he was going on the service because it was from the war, one Korean War was going on and we move was going to be called in.

01;05;43;03 - Myrtle Berg:: So he was working. It wasn’t quite for he wanted to go back home to go. When they called, we wanted to go there and further and we were married in Kellogg, and then we went back to and went in a little house and I enrolled in school again from the war. And that was something cool. Was unmarried people.

01;06;06;13 - Myrtle Berg:: You had a bit closer to home.

01;06;09;22 - Isabel Miller:: Talk about that. How did that make you feel?

01;06;13;01 - Myrtle Berg:: Well, I had to go up to the principal and confirm that it was at home, and I see no reason why no one called. or it was really no, in fact, it were. I think it was a better adjustment from going to college after seven years when he was going to try to car, you know, it could be going on.

01;06;36;18 - Myrtle Berg:: Locust or an uncle that is there. I don’t think I really spoiled, you know.

01;06;44;11 - Isabel Miller:: Did did he stay there then? Was was he in the service?

01;06;47;29 - Myrtle Berg:: Yeah. No, he had a girl who went in and, everywhere in Urumqi September before going.

01;06;55;12 - Isabel Miller:: And he was working.

01;06;56;16 - Myrtle Berg:: There and he worked. So he sold insurance for his brother. And his brother was responsible for the from, for insurance. And so we would go and then he went in and then our company delivered his brother, his mom, and in about a month went to her, finished high school. And I was expecting, my oldest one. And she was born and, and and I went, I.

01;07;23;02 - Isabel Miller:: Said, you were pregnant when you were school. Did anybody object to that?

01;07;27;20 - Myrtle Berg:: You. No, because I am doing here my claim I’m trying to conceive in a hard.

01;07;32;08 - Isabel Miller:: It’s just working out there.

01;07;34;09 - Myrtle Berg:: And as far as she was born, I. And I, it’s this is. No, Well, for a while, I was able looking back in a room.

01;07;49;09 - Isabel Miller:: With this wasn’t something that. The last thing you were asking for me.

01;07;53;07 - Myrtle Berg:: No, he didn’t ask, you know, because I was working on him. I got my two legs, you know, that kind of thing back then. After that, I went down to the North Carolina for my mom. And when I joined my husband broke the, off. I was the only one really, that was going to school. Was married at that time.

01;08;17;14 - Myrtle Berg:: And that little school, it was, it’s about 300 people. 400 people. So for me, girl and, of course, you know, I just was not doing that, but and it.

01;08;32;05 - Isabel Miller:: Was kind of a you.

01;08;34;12 - Myrtle Berg:: So I guess it.

01;08;36;00 - Isabel Miller:: Seems like you have a history of doing exactly what you want to do and do it.

01;08;41;17 - Myrtle Berg:: Well, I would recommend to, you know, a little more than going on that way because of two months or more.

01;08;51;17 - Isabel Miller:: Kind of distracted schoolwork. Yeah, I do a lot of things in the home and.

01;08;59;02 - Myrtle Berg:: her office, you know, sister, I’m. Your schoolwork alone?

01;09;06;02 - Isabel Miller:: Oh, it’s hard to keep up. Well.

01;09;08;19 - Myrtle Berg:: But I guess you could do all around breakfast. One girl, you know, on a roll. And I’m looking for a local newspaper talking about doing, for for me. There are things that were very hard. Struggle. Kind of some in the office. Everything. Well.

01;09;35;00 - Isabel Miller:: You’d rather your daughter would not get married? definitely do one thing at a time.

01;09;39;20 - Myrtle Berg:: Well, that’s why I go for college. I didn’t find this very attractive to girl. So. Boyfriend in football. And then, my family a a weight problem. it’s, you know, it’s also something I think that family boys like most form girls. And I think overall, you know, for the marriage is going for.

01;10;13;15 - Myrtle Berg:: You know, you’re going to crack what is necessary most in school for some people are obviously very concerned. But so just looking at, you know, family love that.

01;10;28;14 - Isabel Miller:: And it wasn’t a high priority for more.

01;10;31;06 - Myrtle Berg:: So now. A little girl there are little habits and so forth and so so for the first 2 or 5 it was still working well or trying to do on a good day. Of course.

01;10;47;15 - Isabel Miller:: That’s hard to do when you when you go out for fun, but that’s your.

01;10;51;11 - Myrtle Berg:: Opinion. So I guess, you know, living in that, you know.

01;10;55;26 - Isabel Miller:: In between where, you know, you were you have a long dry spell and then you go up to, you find a nice place to eat and then daughter. So you kind of have to prepare ahead of time, don’t you.

01;11;07;06 - Myrtle Berg:: Right.

01;11;11;11 - Isabel Miller:: let’s see if I have my daughter using our house to get off my questions here. would you like to add anything about your life in general or or how you feel about being.

01;11;27;24 - Myrtle Berg:: Well, I don’t really have. So. I mean, I feel that I am a real, you know, most what you can’t yourself. Or how do you.

01;11;40;14 - Isabel Miller:: And your husband make decisions?

01;11;44;02 - Myrtle Berg:: Together we talk about, sex or the kids we always included in our discussions. If you were going to buy something or. How people feel when they ask for money. If we didn’t have, they would understand why. and they’ve always portrayed consequence for my, for example. Or, maybe even when they were young, I might have been kind of not like that.

01;12;14;24 - Myrtle Berg:: Maybe we were hard for them. But before school, even, talking about sex and so forth, we have openly discussed, our finances for school. And so they really haven’t been the dark.

01;12;32;25 - Isabel Miller:: Uninformed, really. And they’ve learned a lot about many things in the same.

01;12;37;11 - Myrtle Berg:: Way I feel too. Have I ever gone through all kinds of problems, marriages. we supplement her, but she has homework, and she only has enough food and the money to be able to live love, and was so, so so that’s the problem more. And then, you know, we don’t you know, everybody learns over hard one.

01;13;03;00 - Isabel Miller:: Does your husband never make decisions or decide to do something with he don’t like?

01;13;10;21 - Myrtle Berg:: well, you know, we we talked it out and. my husband was a pretty level who, I, you know, we I usually end up listening to what his suggestions and managing, you know, money wise and so forth. Looking, he doesn’t himself. He doesn’t feel that way. sometimes I think he feels like he’s being control, but can we talk about it?

01;13;47;20 - Myrtle Berg:: And, I said it, for example. Obviously.

01;13;57;07 - Isabel Miller:: You can kind of drive into.

01;13;59;24 - Myrtle Berg:: A room that when.

01;14;02;04 - Isabel Miller:: You think he feels like other man. Harper. control of things than he.

01;14;08;18 - Myrtle Berg:: Does in the bedroom? yeah. I think we have more of a wife. We have several friends. or who are kind of who? Not because we have one dominant, also feel for us. Plus, if we want for one person or for other, you know, for someone to adjust to.

01;14;45;04 - Isabel Miller:: It since there’s so many, seems that it’s of money.

01;14;50;29 - Myrtle Berg:: and then of the other family who controls the purse strings, and if he wants to buy stock or something, I think we can go spend a lot of money to buy groceries. Of course she does. Or she’s the housewife. the feels if they have more. The boss has more to do with them.

01;15;19;04 - Isabel Miller:: As you kind of envy them if you like.

01;15;22;17 - Myrtle Berg:: That very quickly. Because he likes to work more about, he likes to make the final decisions and doesn’t like it. Of go out and buy something and don’t discuss it with, you know, we just have this, suggestion going someplace simply doesn’t know about it. And all my commitment not included. I feel like he likes to be the one.

01;15;51;13 - Myrtle Berg:: Well, that’s just what we do.

01;15;55;00 - Isabel Miller:: That’s kind of no the man’s role in the past.

01;16;00;02 - Myrtle Berg:: And some he used to work for before food. And then we are getting the cultural him now where.

01;16;10;08 - Isabel Miller:: You’re earning a good portion of the universal.

01;16;12;09 - Myrtle Berg:: Male.

01;16;12;18 - Isabel Miller:: That I’m.

01;16;12;27 - Myrtle Berg:: Working for so long.

01;16;16;05 - Isabel Miller:: So there’s some recognition. Oh, you’re contributing.

01;16;20;00 - Myrtle Berg:: I’m sure he wouldn’t. For high bacon is definitely what you do. What he’s.

01;16;25;23 - Isabel Miller:: Come.

01;16;27;02 - Myrtle Berg:: Up with some sort of a rule. But I have heard this before.

01;16;32;29 - Isabel Miller:: But if you’d stayed in the strictly homemaker, stay at home dad, you don’t have much to say. I know, and it’s. See, it was a little more justified just making a decision over whether or for. That you, as you grew up, you saw your mother as having a certain experience.

01;16;57;08 - Myrtle Berg:: You kind of see this more and more. What about those two different women? So, for instance, I thought, well, you you’re gonna have to, well, or some money or,

01;17;21;14 - Isabel Miller:: You do have a hard time doing.

01;17;23;19 - Myrtle Berg:: What you say. it would be very difficult. I.

01;17;30;09 - Myrtle Berg:: Had to, I was a real independent thought on my card or something from that.

01;17;38;16 - Isabel Miller:: And women who have grown up seeing their mothers, being very much, different.

01;17;45;19 - Myrtle Berg:: From the partner.

01;17;46;27 - Isabel Miller:: Or they don’t, you know, another don’t have other experience and don’t know how good it feels.

01;17;54;22 - Myrtle Berg:: Oh, no, no.

01;17;55;25 - Isabel Miller:: I can see how that could go.

01;17;59;19 - Myrtle Berg:: Where I feel I have more, more aware of this for my husband’s, for. Well, he doesn’t want more control over what he has. The father will. And I really am thinking about that over the last. So. So I try to situations and talk and and so forth to. To staff or whoever you want to listen to is very important.

01;18;41;11 - Isabel Miller:: Do the children go to one or the other?

01;18;46;14 - Myrtle Berg:: for financial help? I think they come to me because they’ll know I broke down and, you know, you know, for me, in close proximity to who’s very good. Oh, no. You know, formal situation has I gotta have some money. I think, you know, talk to me. And then if I disagree with him, and then we’ll get together.

01;19;13;20 - Isabel Miller:: Some guys. Yeah, sometimes they have to work.

01;19;19;13 - Myrtle Berg:: Work? You know, I’m a girl.

01;19;21;27 - Isabel Miller:: I don’t. They never have.

01;19;27;26 - Myrtle Berg:: whatever. Where they want, whatever they’re working for, who?

01;19;32;00 - Isabel Miller:: What are some of the most common things to ask your opinion about?

01;19;43;12 - Myrtle Berg:: About, jobs for children, certain things going on. Okay. So we want my opinion. I mean, what opinion? On something. oh. No, ma’am. No. Oh. If we go in and close. Up or something. We want to know how we feel.

01;20;13;17 - Myrtle Berg:: Or if this man just took a corporate job from calling women. Make some cover for him. We had the courage to go in her home, and she wanted to give him a little Barbie doll. he talks about long business, and we talk about in. I don’t know if he’s always made up his mind or what if he’s just looking for viewpoints and, well, this is about figure it out.

01;20;42;15 - Myrtle Berg:: You know.

01;20;42;27 - Isabel Miller:: All he wants your approval and to support make the decision.

01;20;46;19 - Myrtle Berg:: That things are necessary a little towards, popular.

01;20;57;20 - Isabel Miller:: Well, that just about takes care of all my questions. And unless you think of something else you’d like to ask.

01;21;03;00 - Myrtle Berg:: But I don’t have that much follow. No.