Interviewer: Joan Warner LAS project with Grandma Griffin. We're ready to start then. We were starting back on uh you were gonna tell me about who was on which side of the Civil War. 703: My my grandpa Worthing Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Was a confederate. I don't know if he fought in the war or not. But anyhow he was for the South. Interviewer: Okay. 703: And his first wife's people were were Mitchells and uh my mother that was my mother's mother and they were for the North. {NS} They were for the he was for the Confederacy and and her but the his first wife's people were all for the North #1 for freeing # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm. # 703: the slaves. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. So 703: And and uh he he was when he married her he just didn't know how how it was gonna work out on that account. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: But she lived to have I believe it's six or seven children and died in childbirth. Interviewer: Mm. 703: And then one one of the little children died. The youngest one they called her Little Susan. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And they first lived in a little log cabin he built. #1 On the farm. # Interviewer: #2 Oh they did? # 703: And then he built a nice little country home Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: and painted it and it was all painted. And he uh planed it by hand. Interviewer: Did you see it? 703: #1 Oh I've s- been to the # Interviewer: #2 You have seen it? # 703: home uh lots of times when I was young wasn't married. Interviewer: Oh tell me about it. 703: Well it was just a nice country home. Interviewer: How many rooms and what what'd it look like? 703: Uh let's see there was five or six rooms and one of those big wide halls that all of the southern the colonial homes have in them Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Hand-planed. Interviewer: Mm. That's a lot of work. {NW} 703: He was a hard worker. Interviewer: Did they have uh helpers did the community help build it or did he build it #1 by himself? # 703: #2 He built it # by himself. As far as I know. Interviewer: Yeah. Did they live in the log house until he finished it? 703: I suppose so. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Um and you said six children so 703: Uh six children lived. He had seven by his first #1 wife. # Interviewer: #2 Okay. # Did the did the #1 Did they share # 703: #2 And but # Interviewer: bedrooms then and and were most of the what were the rooms? Were there 703: Oh yes they had to share. They had to put #1 two beds in one room for the children. # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. # Uh what were the rooms that were in the house? Were there were they all was there a living room or 703: No. Nobody in those times. Why even when I was raised Mom and Papa had a big house and they didn't have a uh a living room 'til about time I was married. Just took the front bedroom and fixed it up nice and that was uh where they courted. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. And then uh what were the other rooms? 703: Well uh you talking about my grandfather #1 where he # Interviewer: #2 Yeah. yeah. # 703: Well he had a living uh had bedrooms and dining room and kitchen and hall and back porch. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. And the bathroom was outside? 703: Uh-huh. Outside bathroom. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: The- he built a little a bathroom close to the well. Just an outside and uh of course they didn't have to use just a wash tub. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And uh #1 I just # Interviewer: #2 Is that where the- # they took a bath? 703: {NW} Y- he built this little house out close to the well Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: So they wouldn't have to carry water so far but they'd have to take it and heat it though I suppose in the house on cookst- stove. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. So she had a cookstove. 703: Oh yes. Interviewer: A wooden stove. 703: Uh-huh. A fireplace at the end of the kitchen where they could cook on the fireplace too. Interviewer: Okay. How many fireplaces did they have? 703: Two. Interviewer: And did they have any type of an attic? 703: No. Interviewer: Uh any type of a cellar or a basement or anything? 703: I don't think so. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: They had a uh smokehouse in those days where they sm- like we was talking yesterday even your father remembers them those old smokehouses and things how they treated the meat. #1 Well they didn't # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm. # 703: they had a smokehouse out behind this house. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Did they have a place where they kept the animals? 703: Yes. They had they always had the barn. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And lots fence around the barn. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Keep the uh workstock in and the cows. They milked cows. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And brother get the milk and butter. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Did they raise crops? 703: Oh Grandpa Worthing I'll say he raised crops he's the hardest working man you ever saw. Interviewer: What crops did he grow? 703: Oh cotton corn peanuts pot- potatoes. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Sweet potatoes, mash potatoes. Everything to eat. They practically grew in those days everything that they ate except uh like flour. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Then they'd raise corn and take it to mill and have it ground and uh milled. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. What were his work animals? What did he have for work animals? 703: Horses. Interviewer: You don't was it horses or was it something else? {NW} 703: {X} I think he had some horses and mules. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Did he do all the work himself? Did the family help? 703: The family all worked. My mother worked in the fields. Between schools. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. So 703: And the boys he had several boys my mother's youngest brother now is all that's living of that family. He's ninety years old. He lives 'til the sixth 'til the tenth ninth of April he'll be ninety-one years old. Interviewer: Mm. 703: Lives in Pine Bluff. He's all that's left of the family. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. What did you do when you visited there? 703: Just played with Mama's half sister and had a good time. Interviewer: What'd you do? What games did you play? 703: I don't remember any #1 special games. # Interviewer: #2 You don't remember anything? # 703: Cause we didn't stay that long when we'd go up there. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: But uh cause we had to travel uh in the buggy uh our horses {X} wagon. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: To get to go up there. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Weren't any roads in the country anywhere at that time. That was worth anything I mean just to an old dirt road. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. How long would it take you? 703: Oh it wouldn't take the- they wasn't so far from the park It'd take about four hours. Interviewer: And how far was that? Approximately? 703: I forgot My father and mother lived just down over the line into the county. {D: And they lived out of this uh Derrieusseaux} {X} and uh they'd have to cross what they call {B} to get up there. And I imagine it was about fifteen miles. Interviewer: Fifteen miles in four hours. {X} 703: But when I was going to school at Rising High school at Rising Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Why um the roads were so bad that I boarded with Miss Chowney. She was a widow-lady then. She had three children. Two two girls and a boy. And the boy Frank Chowney who's a lawyer now and they say he's a millionaire. Lives in Little Rock. Uh he {D:taught at} and boarded at papa's and mama's my father's and mother's and I boarded with his mother. And when my father was going to school at Rising before he star- started teaching he boarded with the Chowney's. Mister Chowney was living then, she- but when I boarded there she was a widow woman Interviewer: What'd you have to pay to board there? 703: Ten dollars a month. That's then that's all Pop and Mama charged Frank to board with them. Ten dollars a month. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. #1 How's it # 703: #2 I too- I took music. # And that cost three dollars a month and then pay pay for your meals. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Oh. Pieces of music that I got a whole drawer full in there. Yeah. Interviewer: What instrument did you play? 703: Just just the piano. Interviewer: Just the piano. 703: Mom and Papa just had a organ in the home. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: So I couldn't play all my pieces that I really learned because the organ didn't have enough. Interviewer: Keys? 703: Keys, yes. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Like a piano. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. {X} for some reason {NW} 703: {X} There's was a Kimbell organ. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Not in those days. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: They have some now I don't know. Interviewer: What was your house like? #1 Your your childhood house. # 703: #2 Out in the country? # Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Oh well it was one of those big old colonial homes with twelve foot ceilings. Interviewer: Oh boy. 703: And uh a front porch and one of them wide hallways that was wide enough that we made a summer living room out of that hallway. And then the back porch and yes it had uh one two three four six rooms. Interviewer: #1 Six rooms. # 703: #2 Besides the # Besides the big hallway and front porch and back porch and the well had the well porch out for the well. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: I had a porch Interviewer: Oh you did? 703: to the well. Interviewer: Now what were the rooms in the house? 703: Like I said front bedroom was where my husband and I courted. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: When it's too warm we'd sit on the front porch on Sunday afternoon. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. And then you had the rest were bedrooms? 703: Well let's see. No we had a living room and di- I mean dining room and kitchen. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Separate. Interviewer: Okay that's three rooms. 703: That's why I had to that's what I was counting. Had the front bedroom the boys' room and the dining room and kitchen were all on one side. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And then that great big hall. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: and then mama's papa's room Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And the j- and a fireplace at each end of the house. Both of the the both of those front rooms. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Had a fireplace at each end of the house. And uh then there was a room attached we always just called but uh we've had a bed in it. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: A small room the the they those rooms in those days they were high ceilings and large rooms. Interviewer: Uh-huh. And uh then you had the outhouse out back. You didn't have it in the house did ya? 703: No. Interviewer: It was outside. 703: But mama always had a big range stove Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: course it had to be uh it's wood had burnt wood. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Uh but it had six eyes and a big and it had a uh tank for heating water. Great big held ever so many gallons I don't know on the side of that big range. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And that's the way we had our bathwater. Interviewer: Mm. 703: Coming from there. Interviewer: Did you have a big tub that you put in the kitchen? 703: No we just take that water to where i- uh well in the summertime uh we might take it out to the smokehouse and uh and and in wintertime we'd take it to one of those rooms where the fireplaces were where it's warm. Interviewer: Did you uh did ya take 'em often or did you back them did you believe in taking that bath often or did you just take it once a week or? 703: Oh we take it more than once a week that's one thing my mother did believe in she {X} she always told me said never put on clean clothes over dirty skin or dirty body. And uh maybe it would just be a bowl bath. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Didn't make it didn't get the tub bath but it would be a bowl bath. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Something like that bowl in there. See there's the when I married went over to the Griffins at Kingsland. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Why they had what they call a wash stand. My mother had a wash stand and she kept a pitcher and bowl like that. And there she bathed her babies in those. Oh in those big bowls. Interviewer: Did she make you clothes or did you buy them or? 703: Oh she s- she sewed for everybody in the community mama was my mother was a Dorcas. She sewed for all her children and herself and everybody in the community you don't know how many people uh would praise her name I said she ought to be I don't know how to say this but there were s- there were some orphan children in the community that is their mother had died and their father was living and she sewed for them just all the time besides her own children. And uh she sewed for everybody else and they I don't know how many different ones that they took into their home that were half orphans or orphans. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And helped to finish raise 'em. Had a cousin Velma West that her mother and father separated and he died and then she was raised by her grandmother which was a sister of my grandmother Belle. And uh when gr- when Aunt Elizabeth West passed away why uh then she came down to live with my father and mother who had just lost my older sister a year or so before that. I was ten and Bertha was twelve when she was g- at Sheridan staying with Mama's younger sister who was married to doctor Butler. And uh she was up there taking music between the school terms. We still had shirts, we'd have four or four and a half in the winter two or two and a half in the summer. Well between that she was she went up there pretty soon after the winter term of school was out and was there three was gonna stay there three months to come back to go to summer school. And she uh she was taking music up there staying with my aunt Fanny her name was Francis but they called her Fanny. And married to doctor and uh Interviewer: You you said something about 703: And she died when while she was up there she too- she got sick and died of typhoid fever never got home. Interviewer: Mm. You said something about her being called uh you called her a dorcas did you say? 703: Uh-huh. Interviewer: Is that the 703: You know Dorcas in the Bible? It uh she she dies and uh they were all weeping in the upper chamber and uh and they called Christ to come to see her and they were all telling him about how she had sewn garments for our for our chi- for everybody and what a good woman she was and he raised her from the dead. I believe. {X} Interviewer: No I don't #1 know. # 703: #2 {X} # And so I know one church of Christ that had a room atta- they took one room and well they do that up here and so garments the people would bring in there and they'd work 'em over and fix 'em and give 'em to poor people called the Dorcas room and that's what I said about my mother. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And that little woman that oldest girl that where her mother died Mama sewed so much for her why uh she'd write her a letter and a Christmas card every Christmas as long as my mother lived always tell her how she loved her for what she'd done for her. And others too did the same thing. Interviewer: Mm. That was wonderful. 703: She sewed for Velma, the girl they took into their home just like she did me. And long time after Velma married she couldn't sew at all and she'd bring her sewing back for Mama to do for her children. Interviewer: And you mother washed. Did she? 703: Yes. Interviewer: Well how did she 703: But she always had some of the children helping her. Interviewer: #1 How did she # 703: #2 Wa- do that # washing by hand. But she had uh before I married she had a wringer. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: That she could put Interviewer: But when you were a child how did she go about doing that? 703: Washing? Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Well we just had the rub boards and tubs and Interviewer: She do it outside #1 or inside or # 703: #2 Uh-huh. Outside. # Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Down close to the well. Interviewer: Oh. Mm-hmm. 703: And uh so it wouldn't be so far to and the well had a windlass. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Rope would go around bring up the bucket of water one bucket would go down and the other one would come up. Interviewer: Oh. 703: And had two had the biggest washpot I ever saw in my life because had so many to wash for. {NW} My sister has it down here yet. Interviewer: Oh, really? 703: Mm-hmm. Oh goodness it was a huge one mine that I had when I first married is small compared to and uh so uh then as I said then before I married she had this wringer Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: that she put in there between the tubs before you wash the clothes, put 'em in a pot and boil them and then took 'em out and put 'em in the ri- we had two rinse waters it'd through. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And she's use that wringer to wring 'em from the through the rinse water. Interviewer: And then you'd hang 'em up or someone else did or? 703: Mm-hmm. Yes we all did. Interviewer: {NW} 703: Hang 'em on lines #1 to dry. # Interviewer: #2 What were some of # your chores that you had to do? 703: Well just help around the house like that I never did work in the field but barely because my mother had so much to do that way. That uh I just mostly helped around the house. And uh things like that. And went school she wouldn't let us miss one day from school for nothing. Unless we were sick ourselves. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: I've seen my mother so sick and I was be afraid to go off and leave her and I'd just beg her to let me stay with her and she'd say no you go on to school I don't want you to miss school. Said you go on to school said uh Benny my husband that's my father his name was Benjamin called him Ben or she called him Benny. Well he'd be out uh seeing what the uh see he had uh a lot of houses on our farm he had a big farm. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And he had tenant houses. And he'd be out seeing what they were doing. And uh I remember that s- one particular time that I begged her so hard to let me stay with her cause she's so sick I thought as a child I was afraid she'd die ya know. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Said said uh he'll be back uh she called him Papa. She said Papa will be back after a while and he'll tend to me he'll wait on me said you go on to school. I don't want you to miss any. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And then besides having the the tenant farmers I don't have any houses. And I guess I had a dozen or more around scattered over the place. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Why he ha- he'd hire hands to do his part of it he never plowed any but very little maybe in the garden some. Interviewer: #1 How much # 703: #2 Not much of that. # Interviewer: #1 How much did they give them of the # 703: #2 He just he just he was just the uh # What would you {D: call to} the boss? #1 He was just # Interviewer: #2 Overseer? # 703: Overseer of all that. Interviewer: Um. 703: I think he bought seven hundred and fifty acres when he and my mother was there a whole {X} call that? Interviewer: Acreage? 703: No there's a name for it. A whole {X} is so much you know? and uh Watson Chapel is so much but uh this is uh I just had to say he bought about seven hundred and fifty acres. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: {X} Mister Muddish he was going to move to Texas and he just paid a dollar and a half an acre for that. Interviewer: Mm. Then how much did he give to the tenant farmers of the crops and things that you don't have any idea? I was just curious about how how he worked it out you know so that 703: Well Interviewer: They got to live in the houses. 703: #1 And they got # Interviewer: #2 And they got so much of the food # 703: #1 And they got # Interviewer: #2 {X} # 703: so much of the crop. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: money from the crop. Interviewer: What crops #1 were they # 703: #2 And he # Interviewer: #1 {X} # 703: #2 furnished 'em # don't you see? He had a had a commissary-like store Interviewer: Oh he did? 703: Uh-huh. Attached out there by the well. And and he furnished 'em. Interviewer: And he lofted them? 703: What what they uh yes they'd keep it locked because it didn't stay in there. My mother waited on it lots of times. Pa- if my father wasn't there why somebody'd come after something why she had to had a way from the well from the kitchen a door back where she could just go back down. There was a front front door to the store and a back door back there close to the kitchen and she could just go in the back door there without having to walk clear around. To the front door had this the commissary store had a porch on it and uh she'd go in there and get whatever they wanted and then she'd lock it back up because uh you know they it wasn't the whole community came there and bought whatever they wanted to buy but he furnished these tenants. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And charged it to 'em 'til the crops were all gathered and everything. And then whatever was left why was divided between I mean if they made more m- crop than they had to have charged to 'em. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Why uh then they divided it some way I'm not sure about. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. What crops did they sell? 703: Cotton and sweet potatoes orange potatoes fruit my father always had a lot of fruit growing on his plants. Interviewer: Like what? 703: Apples and uh we had nearly every kind of fruit raised. We had grapes apples and peaches and uh Oh what is this fruit that's smaller than uh small peaches. Interviewer: Nectarines? Cherries? 703: No. I have Interviewer: Plums? 703: Well they did have plums. They had the yellow the blue yellow plums and the big and the big little ye- red plums that came on early. And then they had the big Japanese plums. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Great big ones. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: But these were Something else. Interviewer: Apricots? 703: Apricots. Interviewer: Oh did you really? 703: Uh-huh. {D: And quinches.} Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: So I said we had nearly every kind of fruit that grew. {D: We'd bake those quinches.} Interviewer: Mm-hmm. And uh what kind of vegetables besides your sweet potatoes and potatoes did you grow? 703: Oh mama grew everything in that garden just practically cause I said they grew nearly everything they ate. Interviewer: Like what? Like what? 703: The vegetables? Interviewer: Yeah. The greens and all 703: Well in the early Spring like before my youngest sister was born the fourteenth of February she had done got her garden in because it was all high dry hill. And she had boys old enough to help her get it done. And hard hand plowed up and everything like that and she just supervised it and got and planted the seeds and they and they'd put out onions they'd plant uh mustard lettuce turnips turnip greens that would make turnips later cabbage and then later they'd have plant corn oh yeah and the and early they'd have the early early uh beans. {D: that they're running} early. They anyhow they'd have uh two crops of green beans. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: One early and then they'd have the pole beans that'd come on later. Kentucky wonders is the kind they mostly used grilling and they uh green beans and then they'd plant peas but that wasn't they'd plant them mostly out on the farm somewhere. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. #1 What kind was what kind would they have of those? # 703: #2 Great great patches of # Uh well they they'd plant uh purple hoe Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And black eyed and even the speckled peas. Interviewer: And then would he use all these in his store to sell too? Those crops are just for your own use. 703: That was just for our own #1 use. # Interviewer: #2 Oh. # Mm-hmm. 703: And they'd we'd uh pick 'em they'd have 'em picked. and put up shelled out and put up to eat in winter. Interviewer: And how'd you put 'em up? 703: Well they used formaldehyde to keep the weevils out of 'em. Interviewer: So you put 'em in in what? Jars? 703: Yes. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Uh and {D: prox} jars. Mm-hmm. You shelled them and then put 'em in the in the in formaldehyde? And the butter beans I forgot to mention that. Hmm. 703: She'd always raise a lot of butter beans. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And now she'd just leave them in the shelf. Seemed like the uh weevils didn't get in them like they did the peas. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And Interviewer: Any yellow vegetables? 703: And we'd chill them out and got ready to cook 'em well. We'd just go get so many of them and shell 'em out. And English peas she'd raise t- two kinds of English peas the early and the late. Later on in life she grew even grew carrots. Interviewer: Yellow vegetables any of the yellow vegetables? 703: Carrots #1 was all. # Interviewer: #2 Carrots?. # 703: #1 And # Interviewer: #2 Um # 703: that was later on after I was married before she knew about carrots. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Any squash? 703: Oh yes. She uh she always raised squash. Interviewer: Which kind did she raise? 703: She raised the white pan squash. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. And um I'm trying to think what else. What kind of corn did you raise? {NW} 703: White and yellow. Interviewer: Which was your favorite? 703: We had the sweet corn.? Interviewer: {X} 703: Uh-huh. To to eat mostly and then grew a lot of corn put in the barn feed the stock and that's it. They take that corn shell it off. My father would go out there to the bar- to the in this uh barn and where the corn was and he'd pick out the nicest ears and he'd at the end if there was any uh bu- bad grains or anything right then he'd he'd shell that off. {NW} Would feed it to the chickens. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And then he'd shell the corn. First at first by hand and later he got a corn sheller. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Just for that purpose. That you could put a cob of corn in and just turn it around and shell it into a box. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Take it to a uh grinding mill have it ground into cornmeal. Interviewer: And then what'd you use your cornmeal what'd you make? 703: Just cornbread. Interviewer: Just cornbread? Did you make any other kinds of breads out of those or 703: No. Interviewer: Different ways to fix it just that #1 one way. # 703: #2 Just cornbread. # Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Um. 703: Some people done other ways I guess but #1 we didn't. # Interviewer: #2 Yeah I just # wondered how many different kinds. Um what other breads. Did your mother make her own breads? I guess she did. 703: Sh- she just made biscuits. My grandmother made uh yeast bread. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And we just tickled to death. After my grandfather and grandmother got old people in those days couldn't live by themselves because they didn't have any conveniences you know. Interviewer: Mm. 703: And so they broke up housekeeping and uh they came and and they had three children living they had had four children two girls and two boys. The older girl was teaching the younger girl was teaching her first school when she came home sick and she was teaching at the Mother's Schoolhouse. Papa brought bought the mother's place when he went to Texas and they called it the mother's schoolhouse. And she was teaching there when she came home one afternoon sick with a fever. And she died with uh typhoid fever when I was a baby. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Then that just left three. Two boys and one girl. Interviewer: And the two boys worked on the farm and then 703: Well uh they d- I I suppose they helped. Grandfather Bell 'til they broke up 'til they married Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: or went ou- and went out to teach just like Aunt Mary was teaching that was her name Aunt Mary. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Aunt Mary was teaching when she got sick and died and uh and uh father was teaching before he married and Uncle Johnson was teaching before he married. So you see they'd leave home and go off to these places to teach but I I suppose they I'm sure they they helped 'em as long as they were at home. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And then as I said they had to break up housekeeping uh what we'd consider early in life but when they got to where they couldn't uh farm. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: and do these things for themself why they had to break up housekeeping. Children were all married. Aunt Mary had died. And uh so they'd spend part of their time at my mother and father's part with Unc- Uncle Johnson part with Aunt Alice. That was the other sister. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And I I was always so glad when she'd come. I just loved her to death. My grandmother Belle was such a sweet person. And I well I was so glad when Papa'd come to town here to get a load of groceries or feed or something for the store and she'd come back with him out there and then that's first thing she'd do is start making that bread. Yeast bread. And I thought it was the best stuff in the world. Cause my mother always had so much to do 'til she just would never try to make yeast bread she made awfully good biscuits and cornbread. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: She wouldn't tr- Interviewer: You didn't grow your own wheat for that bread #1 did you? # 703: #2 No no. # Never saw any wheat growing except when we went through Kansas. When we went out to west. Interviewer: When did you go out west? 703: Well now that's {X} let's see. We went out west for {X} my daughter and her husband {X} mother father even {X} What year was it? It must have been about nineteen hundred and fifty-six.{ For one day Interviewer: Mm-hmm. Did you just take a trip and 703: We sh- we were gone about a month. We went {X} picked up two of my husband's sisters. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And from there we went to Colorado. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Went up Pike's Peak the next day. In a limousine. We wouldn't ride those old buggy things they had taking you up there we was afraid of 'em. Interviewer: {NW} 703: And he w- and the car was just real new he bought it just specially for this trip he wouldn't go off with a bad car. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And uh an old car and uh so he wouldn't take his new car up there afraid it'd s- do something {D: dead} because Pike's Peak is the highest one out there in the west it's fifteen thousand feet high? Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: Well. Interviewer: Something like that. 703: Uh-huh. And uh then from there that's when we turned north and went to Yellowstone. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And then he had cousins in Idaho that he'd never seen. And they had gone out there years before when and uh settled on that land out there. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And uh so uh it was his his father's two sisters that made the trip out there from Missouri with their families and settled out there. Well they were dead but the cousins were there Interviewer: #1 don't ya see. # 703: #2 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. # And so we went to Yellowstone National Park and from there we went down into Idaho. To vi- Twin Falls Idaho. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And visited with those two different families. That one of 'em was one of grandpa Griffin's sisters. One of them was from that fam- one family and one from another family. But they were brothers {D:though}. I mean no they wasn't brothers. Cousins. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And we visited both those homes and they had nice brick homes the both of them by that time. They said they {D:likely} starved dead when they first went out there. Because they just didn't know what how to grow things and no market for 'em. But during World War One they got rich. I forget how how much they did get for the potatoes and they grow them white potatoes Interviewer: Oh. 703: out there. And uh a lotta and they grow a lotta wheat and stuff out there. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And then through Twin Falls Idaho then we went on down to and crossed into California. At the Golden Gate Bridge. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: {D: Lost} on that and went down to California line and he had a niece living there and uh {X} Where the actors are. Sandy. Interviewer: San Diego? #1 San Francisco? # 703: #2 San- uh # Interviewer: Um Hollywood? 703: Ho- well they didn't call it Hollywood then. Interviewer: {D: San Angelos? Sa- uh Los Angeles?} 703: Los Angeles. Interviewer: Yeah. 703: Los Angeles. I knew she lived in Los Angeles. And so we went there. Stayed a few days. And from there then we cut across the country and come home another way. #1 Down by El Paso Texas na- # Interviewer: #2 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. # Did you go through New Mexico? 703: No we not that time. Interviewer: Oh. 703: But when we went to Arizona when my husband had that asthma the first time we drove out there and uh we went down by El Paso and stayed the night there and I have we had a friend there and I had got in a card in the letter from her this Christmas that I haven't answered yet. {NW} And uh they took us over into Old Mexico to eat. Interviewer: Ah. 703: So I have been into Old #1 Mexico. # Interviewer: #2 Uh-huh. # 703: #1 # Interviewer: #2 # Quite an experience [X} 703: Yes it was. Interviewer: Then um you came on back here you just stayed how long in 703: In Arizona? Interviewer: Uh-huh. #1 {X} # 703: #2 At that time we went to Tucson Arizona. # And at that time uh my mother had a stroke. And they called for us to come back. Now now now now this is two different times. Cause my husband was real well when we made that trip and took his sisters all out there Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: And then uh but when we went down to El Paso and spent the night we were on our way to uh Tucson Arizona. Far as see if it help his asthma that he was having so badly. And uh we'd just gotten there good when they called us and said my mother had had a stroke. Well we called back and forth back and forth didn't know what to do we just had gotten there hadn't had time to see if it did any good it was in the summertime. Hot weather. And uh they said my mother couldn't live. And we talked about leaving Anne and my husband out there and me flying back here to be with her. And then just decided we'd just all drive back home which was an awful mistake. Cause he wasn't there long enough to see if it'd do his asthma any good. And it was a hot dry summer and it probably would've helped him a lot. And then we went back later and it was too late. We stayed there January February March out at Tucson and we went to a place called Well it was two miles elevation higher than Tucson proper. Can't recall the name of the place. I'd have to look up some of my history. Interviewer: {NW} 703: Got it all down but uh and uh anyway it didn't seem to do him any special good. Even if it was a health resort. There was no dust there. The streets were all just paved even right up to the yard. There was no distance like we have out here. Interviewer: Mm-hmm. 703: You know there was just just no dust it was the cleanest place I'd ever seen. And then the place we lived in was a mobile home. And that was most of what that was all that was up there. It was. Tuscon.