LoNetta White

Regan Siler This is Regan Siler with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma. This interview is part of the Historical Society's ongoing oral history project. The date is July 23, 2024 and I'm sitting here with LoNetta White and her son, Jimmy White, at the Bristow Library Annex. She's going to tell us a little bit about her life and her history living in the Bristow area. Can you please state your full name?

LoNetta White LoNetta Faye Dowdy White.

Regan Siler Okay, and do I have permission to do this interview?

LoNetta White Yes, you do.

Regan Siler Okay, so can you tell us when and where you were born?

LoNetta White I was born approximately two miles or so south of Bristow, in a 00:01:00two-room log cabin on August 24, 1940.

Regan Siler August 24, 1940.

LoNetta White Yes.

Regan Siler Okay, well, that's interesting. So can you tell us about the log cabin? Do you remember?

LoNetta White No.

Regan Siler You don't.

LoNetta White No.

Regan Siler How long were you in the log cabin?

LoNetta White I don't even know that, because my folks would tell about my dad's sister lived there after they had moved out,or before, and different people that all were related to each other seemed to live there at one time or the other. And so I guess there was no date.

Regan Siler So, I guess there was no doctor or anything at your birth?

LoNetta White No, I don't think so.

Regan Siler Don't think so, okay.

LoNetta White Maybe that's why I'm like I am.

Regan Siler So can you tell us about the people in your family? Let's start with your parents. Can you tell us what your parents full names are?

LoNetta White Okay, John, well, JB, 00:02:00and a lot of people called him John, and then they'd say John Buster. And then some of them called him Buck. And so he had several names, but usually Buster is what my mom would call him.

Regan Siler And his last name was Dowdy?

Regan Siler Dowdy, and I have his date of birth as September 19, 1907.

LoNetta White Yes.

Regan Siler Okay. And then what about your mom?

LoNetta White Ollie Belle Dowdy. And well, it was Williams and Dowdy, and she was born June 10, 1911.

Regan Siler And just by the way, I love her name. I think Ollie Belle is the coolest name. I loved that when you told me. And do 00:03:00you have any siblings?

LoNetta White Yes, Shirley Jean. Shirley Jean Dowdy.

Regan Siler Okay.

LoNetta White Groom and she is deceased.

Regan Siler Okay. Is that your only sibling?

LoNetta White No, it's the only sister. I have a brother, Roy Dean Dowdy, and he's deceased.

Regan Siler Okay, so what type of work did your parents do?

LoNetta White Well, farming was one thing, because they would just at a moment's notice, get up and head for California. And she had two sisters out there. My mom did, and they would go out there and stay maybe during the picking of the lettuce and all that stuff, you know, and then come right around and drive back home.

Regan Siler So they would stay out that, when you say the picking of the lettuce, do you mean out there or here?

LoNetta White No out there. 00:04:00Regan Siler So they would go out there and help. Is that what you mean?

LoNetta White What's that called.

Jimmy White They would go out to California before they ever had any kids in the 1930s during the Depression.

Jimmy White And one of grandpa's sisters, Bessie Christian , and her husband, Earl, would go with them, and they didn't have any kids either. And so this was all during the 30s, and then they kind of sharecropped and stuff in the 40s.

Regan Siler Okay.

Regan Siler Oh!

Jimmy White So grandpa went to work for that oil field.

Regan Siler Okay?

LoNetta White And that was back here. But they would go just to visit and then work while they were there, you know?Because when they leave Bristow, one night, the first night, and I think they said they had, like, a quarter in their pocket. They spent the night at parked alongside the road at the round barn up at 00:05:00Jimmy White Arcadia.

LoNetta White Yes, and that's as far as they got that first night.

Regan Siler Oh, my goodness.

LoNetta White So it was a chore just to drive out there.

Regan Siler So, do you happen to remember, like, what type of car they drove at the time?

Jimmy White They would buy something as cheap as they could, and then when they got back to Oklahoma, they would sell it, because that's what they would live on through the winter, whatever they had made and sell on the car.

LoNetta White No.

LoNetta White And one winter, I guess everybody was nearly starving, you know, and my dad would go out and kill rabbits, and then he would hang them on the clothesline. And anybody that came by that needed them could takethem.

Regan Siler Oh, well, isn't that kind?

LoNetta White So that went on, I guess all year.

Regan Siler Right, so was this when you were young? Or do you remember was this before you?

LoNetta White Yes, they were married for 10 years before they had children.

Regan Siler Oh, okay, okay, so, and I 00:06:00don't think we can fully understand the times that they lived in compared to how we are or how we live now. So growing up, do you? Did you have, like, extended family that lived nearby you growing up?

LoNetta White Everybody you knew was.

Regan Siler Okay, so you had family near you?

LoNetta White Not really family around Bristow, you know there would be some family, but not near enough that you could just walk and go see them or anything.

Regan Siler Okay? So, like, grandparents or, like, what?

LoNetta White Well, I never knew either grandmother.

Regan Siler Really?

LoNetta White They were, they were dead before I was born. And had one grandfather that lived in California and one that lived here. But you know, after his wife died, he was, he didn't care about being around anybody. So Jimmy White She had a lot of cousins that lived around Bristow, because grandpa had, 00:07:00there was seven brothers and sisters, and then some of them had 13, 14, 15 kids that lived around here. So she had a lot of Regan Siler There was a lot of cousins.

Jimmy White Aunts and uncles, yeah.

Regan Siler Okay, so how long has your family lived in the Bristow area? Would you say? Or do you even know?

LoNetta White No, I really don't.

Jimmy White They moved here from Arkansas when her dad was little, like, he's born in 1907 and so it was around 1914 they've got a family picture.

Regan Siler Okay.

Jimmy White And he was like, seven, and he said that was taken about the time they moved from Arkansas, Regan Siler And they moved to the Bristow area?

Jimmy White To the Bristow area.

Regan Siler To the Bristow area. So that was shortly after, I guess Bristow became Bristow, huh?

Jimmy White Yeah, we don't really know the reason they did 00:08:00move here.

Regan Siler Okay, it seems like in some of the other histories I've done, it's been because of, like, cotton early on, and then, of course, the oil boom happened. But that would be, that would be an interesting thing to know.

LoNetta White I've got an old letter, if I can find it, where it was sent to my granddad. And of course, he's the one that brought them all here, and said something about he still owed for some cattle, or something like that. And apparently, Grandpa came from Arkansas to Oklahoma brought the cattle with him, and I don't know if he ever paid for. he may still owe them.

Regan Siler So he brought, they not only moved, but they brought their cattle too. I bet that was a heck of a journey.

Jimmy White He sent his wife and the small kids on the train, and him and the older boys came by horseback.

Regan Siler Oh my goodness, and brought the cattle. Oh, my gosh.

LoNetta White Probably ate them before they got here. 00:09:00Regan Siler Um, okay, well, let's talk a little bit about your early childhood and home life. Do you remember having any favorite toys or childhood games that you enjoy playing?

LoNetta White Yes, around the house. Mainly, we would play house. We would have a spot out in the yard, you know, around close, and we would have our old dishes or whatever, you know, and we would play with all that stuff. And there were, like, right at 10 families, I think, that lived on the lease, the old lease, and gosh, we would get together day or night. You know, at midnight, we may all be out there playing somewhere.

Regan Siler So now, whenever your family came here, where did they end up settling? And is that where family land still 00:10:00remains today?

LoNetta White No, and I really can't tell you the first place that they stayed.

Regan Siler So, where were you? So were you still south of town, whenever you had like, you know when you're talking about playing house and all that where LoNetta White We had moved and that probably was when my dad had gone to work for the oil lease, for the Tibbens lease and Regan Siler Tibben lease?

Jimmy White Tibbens lease, T I B B E N S.

Regan Siler Tibbens, okay, gotcha.

Regan Siler Okay, soyou were there, you were there for a little while.

LoNetta White And so when, after we moved down there, we stayed there until between 00:11:00the sixth and seventh grade.

LoNetta White Yeah.

Regan Siler Did you have chores that you were expected to do around your place when you were young?

LoNetta White Chores?

Regan Siler Chores.

LoNetta White Oh, chores, yes, anything I was told I was supposed to do so as far as just regular chores? No.

Regan Siler So did you have, like, farm animals and stuff like that, or, and I'm guessing farm, you farmed or, LoNetta White Yeah, well, he didn't farm much after he went to work for the oil company, because they would be out every day.

Regan Siler Didn't have time.

LoNetta White He would raise a garden, but it would be, you know, much smaller than Regan Siler Manageable for the family to handle. Okay, yeah, um, did you have any friends that would come over and play with you, or was it mainly like your cousins and stuff?

LoNetta White No, it was all different families that lived there on the lease and Regan Siler But not really families that weren't related to you, just families in general. Okay, right, okay, um, did you have any favorite activities or hobbies 00:12:00as a child?

LoNetta White No, not well, fishing.

Regan Siler Fishing.

LoNetta White My brother and I went fishing every day, and it was across the road from where we lived and go up just up a hill, and there was a farm or a pasture, I should say, up there, and we would come in from school and get our fishing pole up the hill, we'd go.

Regan Siler I think that sounds like a good after school activity.

Jimmy White Her school was right down the road, at Iron Post.

Regan Siler At Iron Post, okay, okay, um, did you collect anything as a child?

LoNetta White No.

Regan Siler Not that you 00:13:00remember, okay, um, well, let's talk a little bit about your school life. Where did you first attend school?

LoNetta White Iron Post.

Regan Siler Iron Post, and so, I wonder how long that school was there, because it's not there now, right?

LoNetta White No, the school isn't, but the old cellar is still out there, where they used to stick all of us. And it was a big cellar. It would hold 20-30 people, maybe, and it's still there, but they've taken the school down, but there's a house that sits there now.

Regan Siler Okay, and how long did you attend school at Iron Post?

LoNetta White Through the sixth grade.

Regan Siler And how many, how many kids do you do you remember like, how many kids approximately went to that school? Was it a small school?

LoNetta White Very.

Regan Siler Very.

LoNetta White My class, usually, from the first time 00:14:00I went to school until we left, had like three people in it, and they were brother and sister.

Regan Siler Okay, do you remember having any particularly influential teachers during your time in school? And it doesn't have to be just at Iron Post, just any anytime throughout school?

LoNetta White Well, at Iron Post, we only had two teachers. One taught from the first through the sixth, and Mrs., her name then was Dykes, and she taught the seventh and eighth. But they closed the school, and that was why we went, why we moved and went on to Bristow from there.

Regan Siler To Bristow, okay, um, do you remember how you got to school as a child? Did you just walk and so, like, how far? How far again, was the school from your house?

LoNetta White About a half a mile.

Regan Siler Okay. One way? Okay.

LoNetta White 50 miles going on. 00:15:00Regan Siler Well, so I guess then, probably, being a little small school like that, there probably wasn't, like, a lot of clubs or organizations or anything like that that you would have been involved in. Did you get involved in anything like that once you came to Bristow schools?

LoNetta White Yeah. First of all, down at Iron Post, the only thing they had was, once a year, they'd have a pie supper, and they would use the money from the pie supper to buy candy and oranges and apples and stuff and sack them up for all the kids in school.

Regan Siler Oh, that's neat.

LoNetta White That was the only that was really the activity that they really had.

Regan Siler Well, and then, so did you enjoy school?

LoNetta White Oh, yeah!

Regan Siler Okay, 00:16:00but now you told me something interesting about when we talked on the phone, because I understand you didn't graduate. Is that correct? But, but tell me about, tell me about your GED. That was an interesting story.

LoNetta White I heard, I quit school.

Regan Siler And why did you why did you quit school? If you don't mind me asking you just didn't like it?

LoNetta White Didn't want to go. I got married during the summer between my junior and senior year.

Regan Siler Okay.

LoNetta White And I just didn't want to go, and so I quit.

Regan Siler You quit. Okay, so then LoNetta White Not that I am strong headed, or everybody around here that hears this annoys me.

Regan Siler Is this why your son's shaking his head?

LoNetta White He's got it, too!

Regan Siler So the apple doesn't fall far from the tree? Okay?

Jimmy White No it doesn't.

Regan Siler So tell me about, I we're kind of fast forwarding a little bit, but tell me about, tell me the GED story, if you don't mind.

LoNetta White Okay, I was 00:17:00just listening to the radio one day, and they had an interview with Waylon Jennings, and he was talking about that he had quit school, I don't know, senior year or something, you know, and he said, but I got my GED, and he said he took classes somewhere and was able to go and pass the test.

Regan Siler And I'm not even sure I knew that about Waylon jennings, so that's news to me.

LoNetta White I didn't either, but there's a film of it somewhere. And so anyway, he he got his GED that way. And I said, well, you know, because my husband played music all these years, and Waylon was talking, and so Harold and I were talking, and 00:18:00I said, Well, that's what I ought to do, is just go over and take the test. And he said, Well, you take classes, you know. And so I went to one class, which sounds like me. And I said, well, you know, there's no problem going to that class. So I just packed up and went over and took the test and passed and so Regan Siler But how old were you?

LoNetta White Fifty! That's why, how old he was? I figured, if he could do it, I could.

Regan Siler I think that's amazing! I really like it. Yeah, that's amazing. That's a neat story. So when you were in school, did you have a favorite, do you remember having a favorite subject?

LoNetta White Yes, biology.

Regan Siler Really?! That's interesting. And so what?

LoNetta White I made good grades in biology but, gosh, Regan Siler So what would I mean that's to me, it's kind of a, not a super average thing for a girl to like, is biology. What made you LoNetta White Raised in the country I imagine.

Regan Siler Okay. So that 00:19:00that just piqued your interest, then, huh? Okay, um, so we talked a little bit about the little cabin you were born in. Um, so from there, where did you what type of house did you move to? Do you remember?

LoNetta White Um, no, because on the lease, the men, and I don't know how they did this, were in different grades of where they worked and different things like that. And, like I say, I don't know how they judged all that, but could have been by age, because the older ones lived closer to the front of the of the leasse than the younger ones did, and we had, you know, three or four houses in a row, and then there might not be one for maybe five acres on up.

Regan Siler So, I guess so let's clarify that, because I don't even know that I've heard of such a thing. So at that time, they would have, like, an oil 00:20:00lease. So you would work for a company and that, and the workers would actually live on the lease?

LoNetta White Yeah, but what it was was Paul Tibbens ran the lease and owned it, and of course, he lived here in Bristow, and they had a large house type shop, I guess, what you call it, in one center spot on this, I don't know, maybe 20 acres there. And they had a guy that lived up on the hill, that was one of the older ones. There was two of them up on this hill. And then you start down here 00:21:00with a house, and that old boy had been there, say, 10 years. And then you go over and you'd have three or four houses and and the people that lived there may have only been there three or four years.

Regan Siler So, were these houses that people, own? Did, did the Tibbens oil lease own the houses and you guys rent them? Or did you guys own the houses?

LoNetta White No, they owned. Tibbens owned the house.

Regan Siler You just rented from them?

LoNetta White I don't know how they did that. They may have been part of their Regan Siler Package of work.

LoNetta White It may be. I don't, I don't know how that Regan Siler Okay. And, so, how do you remember how long you lived on this oil lease?

LoNetta White No, it had to be at least, probably six years, because then we moved.

Regan Siler And that's when you moved to the town of Bristow, or outside of Bristow?

LoNetta White Outside of Bristow, out on Red Bank Road, which my dad bought a little farm out there and Regan Siler And you said, Red Bank Road? 00:22:00LoNetta White Yeah.

Regan Siler Okay.

LoNetta White And we lived there, well, I got married between my junior and senior year, so then I left and moved to town, so they lived out there three or four years after that.

Regan Siler So in these houses that you lived in, did you like did you have your own room?

LoNetta White My sister and I Regan Siler Shared a room?

LoNetta White Yeah.

Regan Siler And where did you spend most of your time? Did you it seems like most people from that era spent most of their time outside, but I don't want to assume that.

LoNetta White Well, they really did, and I think a lot of that was because of air conditioning. It was too hot!

Regan Siler Amen to that!

LoNetta White In fact, after we had moved out on Red Bank Road in the summertime, we would take an old pair of wire springs, bed springs, and throw them out in the yard and spread a quilt 00:23:00over them, and that's where we slept.

Regan Siler Are you serious?

LoNetta White Yeah. We woke up one morning and there was a skunk right up in the corner of the fence.

Regan Siler Well, I can't imagine. I'm too soft. I can't imagine trying to sleep. My air conditioner goes out at this point in time. I'm, you know LoNetta White Looking for a motel!

Regan Siler Exactly! I can't sleep if it's hot. Um, I think we're, we're probably pretty spoiled now. Um, okay, well, let's talk about meal times in your family and what that was like. Did you guys eat together as a family every night?

LoNetta White Oh, yes.

Regan Siler Okay, and so, did your mom do all the preparing...did you have any role in the preparing or cleaning up?

LoNetta White Oh yeah, Shirley and I did the dishes.

Regan Siler Okay.

LoNetta White I can remember standing on a chair in the kitchen doing the dishes of a morning after breakfast when, of course, my dad had gone to work and she was getting Shirley ready for school, and it was before I went to school, and I had to wash dishes until she got 00:24:00Shirley's hair fixed because it was long, natural curl curlies.

Regan Siler So you would have been little. You would have been pretty little.

LoNetta White Yeah.

Regan Siler Do you remember having like, a favorite meal or recipe that your mother cooked? Was there anything that youreally looked forward to or that was made?

LoNetta White Every meal.

Regan Siler So she must have been a good cook.

LoNetta White She was.

Jimmy White She was a good cook.

Regan Siler So, did she teach you how to cook? Did you inherit...so you're not a good cook?

LoNetta White Well, I like it, as you can see. I like it all right, I guess.

Regan Siler Did you inherit any special recipes that you have today 00:25:00that were, that were your mothers?

LoNetta White Yeah, and there was a few of her dishes broken, you know that we have a piece or two here, there, and Teresa [Teresa Lynn White Alred 8/24/1961] took a piece and, or whatever she wanted, you know, and Jimmy's got some and I've got some now. He took some of her recipes and he's put them in frames and they're hanging in his kitchen.

Regan Siler Oh, that's cool. Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. So what are do you remember maybe what some of the recipes are?

Jimmy White One was lye soap she made homemade lye soap in a big black cast iron kettle. I've got it in my yard with flowers planted 00:26:00in it. Later she planted flowers in it. Another one is cough syrup, where you would use whiskey and butter and lemon.

LoNetta White And she wouldn't take a drink or nothing.

Jimmy White I think maybe meringue for a pie. I don't, I don't remember the other one right now?

Regan Siler Oh, that's cool!

LoNetta White Probably her biscuits because Regan Siler Good biscuits?

LoNetta White Yeah, we've never matched them.

Regan Siler That's, that's awesome. Um, so thinking about thinking back to town life and growing up, do you remember having any favorite, like Bristow community activities, for instance, say, like maybe Western Heritage Day, day camps, county fairs, things like that. Do you remember participating in any of those things and what was your favorite?

LoNetta White Yes, when I was still at Iron Post, we used to always make stuff and take to the fair there at school, you know? And we always enjoyed that. And I've still got some of the old ribbons that Regan Siler Do you remember, like what types of things you would make? 00:27:00LoNetta White The first thing I ever made was a head scarf. And of course, they were made out of just cotton material back then. And they it was made a certain size, of course, and then you had to go by on the edges and pull certain threads and ravel out all the edges and stuff, you know. And so that took a lot of time just to do that. That was the first thing.

Regan Siler So, so mainly, the things that you made were like clothing items?

LoNetta White Yeah, maybe tea towels.

Jimmy White And she used embroidery a lot too, Regan Siler Okay, but that was hand embroidery?

Jimmy White Yes, yes.

LoNetta White That 00:28:00was later, but I lost my left eye in '17 and I haven't embroidered since.

Regan Siler Kind of changed your activities?

Regan Siler Yeah, okay. Do you happen to remember the biggest or most popular businesses around town? Maybe, like growing up and through your early married life, like what businesses stick out to you?

LoNetta White Yeah.

LoNetta White Kemps, Penneys, there used to be a Sears and Anthony's.

Regan Siler Bristow used to be happening at one time.

LoNetta White My kids, of course, when we had Mistletoe Express, the kids were right there. They would come to the shop andstuff after school, and like Jimmy, in between pay day, when he went into Anthony's to deliver a package or something. He and and 00:29:00Mr. Evans were good friends, and he could go in there and charge anything in that store and walk out with it.

Jimmy White Because I was working at their shop. Yeah, getting paid.

LoNetta White And he would Regan Siler Now, is this a good thing or a bad thing?

LoNetta White It was good.

Jimmy White I learned a lot of responsibility, and taking care of bills.

Regan Siler Well, good, it could go the other way, but you were responsible with it.

Jimmy White Yes.

LoNetta White And Eddie [Edgar Angel White 7/2/1964-7/24/1987] did the same thing at Western Auto. He came in one day with a brand new bicycle. He charged it up at Western and then when he got paid on the weekend, you know, he'd go up, pay, probably $2 or something on it. But he brought the bicycle on the first day, you know.

Jimmy White He's probably like, 10 years old then.

Regan Siler Oh, wow! 00:30:00LoNetta White And so we had Regan Siler Maybe some of the financial lessons some of our our youth are missing.

LoNetta White Yeah, because they can't count change even now.

Regan Siler I know, I know. Did you have a favorite place to eat, or did you primarily eat at home?

LoNetta White Usually at home.

Regan Siler But if you did get to go out, do you remember like a restaurant in town that you really liked eating at?

LoNetta White Lyons Cafe.

Regan Siler Lyons Cafe, and where was that?

LoNetta White Where the where they took all the stuff out and built the Jimmy White Town Square.

LoNetta White Yeah, the Town Square.

Jimmy White The building is just south of the Town Square, and if you'll on the east side of Main Street, between sixth and seventh. And if you look up at the top of the buildings, you can faintly see where it's painted on there, Lyons Cafe. The building is still there.

Regan Siler Okay. 00:31:00Jimmy White You can faintly see it.

Regan Siler Okay. Now I'm going to have to look for it.

Jimmy White Yeah, I can show it to you.

LoNetta White Also the Harvey House was good. The Highway Cafe, we had several good places.

Regan Siler You said the Harvey House, and where was that located?

LoNetta White Where, let's see, where the Dollar Store is now.

Jimmy White It was next to where the Dollar Store is now.

Regan Siler And then what was the third one you mentioned?

LoNetta White Highway Cafe.

Regan Siler The Highway Cafe. Where was that one at?

LoNetta White At the end of ninth on the corner, and it's got a real estate office there now.

Regan Siler Okay, gotcha. Okay. Well, see, these are a few that I haven't I haven't heard or been familiar with, so that's, that's good information LoNetta White The school logs back then would help you a lot, too.

Regan Siler Okay, all right. And did you have a favorite hangout as a teenager? Where did you hang out when you were a teenager? 00:32:00LoNetta White On a horse.

Regan Siler Good for you. So you liked to ride a lot, I guess?

LoNetta White Yeah.

Regan Siler Can you tell me any, anything about that?

Regan Siler Oh, my. Margaret Styles (ph) and I were good, good friends. And of course, it was Garrison in the last few years,50 years, maybe. But you know, every every chance we got, we rode, and I tied my ol' horse up at her place one night, and spent the night, and it came a bad storm, and I tied her up real short. I went out the next morning, and, boy, she was split from, you know, on her face all the way down, but Margaret's horses had got out, and so they tried to fight, you know, in the barn there. And when we finally got her cut loose, which she she kicked me one time when I was trying to cut the rope to get her loose, but it took two weeks to catch her.

Regan Siler Oh, 00:33:00 boy.

LoNetta White So we didn't even know then if we'd catch her or not, you know, but she was all healed up and mean as ever.

Regan Siler So you just enjoyed so did you just, like, pick an area and ride and yeah, I mean, do you just just just rode, where ever?

LoNetta White We rode to Depew [Oklahoma] one day and and pedaled around. And I don't, we never did take anything to eat, or I don't even remember taking anything to drink.

Regan Siler Oh, my goodness.

LoNetta White I don't know what we did for all that, but Regan Siler I think sometimes when you're young and a kid, you just don't even think about stuff like that. You just get up and go.

LoNetta White Well, we probably knew somebody along the way, and if we were thirsty, we stopped and got a drink.

Regan Siler So instead of dragging main, you were riding horses?

LoNetta White Well, we drug main after dark. Yes, ma'am.

Regan Siler So draggin main was a fun thing to do?

LoNetta White Oh, yeah.

Regan Siler Okay, alright.

LoNetta White Half the night.

Regan Siler Um, where did you shop for clothes? And how often did you get new 00:34:00 clothes?

LoNetta White Not very often. And what we had, we usually made. We would buy the material.

Regan Siler And so, did you make your clothes? Or did your mom make your clothes?

LoNetta White Well, of course, the smaller I was, Mom made them, and the older I got, I made them, and Shirley did too.

Regan Siler Wow. Okay, LoNetta White So they cut her down to just my brother, and wasn't hard to get him an old t shirt.

Regan Siler Right, right. Um, so do you happen to remember your first family car.

LoNetta White Family car. You mean Regan Siler Like that you had when you were young, like it whenever you were a kid, like, what was your first family's car? Do you remember?

LoNetta White About the only one I remember, like when we lived down on the lease, was a 00:35:00 Jeep.

Regan Siler A Jeep, okay, all right. Did you ever get to go on vacations?

LoNetta White Well, once a year, probably vacation for the whole lease probably at the same time, we used to go to one of the lakes. And I'm talking about like mostly the whole lease went.

Regan Siler So when you say one of the lakes, do you mean one of the lakes around here?

LoNetta White Yeah, we went to Greenleaf and Ten Killer. Okay, color places like that, you know. And Paul paid for all of that and took his boats and different things. And everybody partied for two or three days there. So that was more or less vacation.

Regan Siler Got a little R&R that way?

LoNetta White Yes, we did.

Regan Siler Do 00:36:00you remember who taught you how to drive?

LoNetta White I guess my dad.

Regan Siler Your dad. And do you remember what your first car was?

LoNetta White I didn't have one. I drove his old pickup sometime. And then after I got married, Harold had a Pontiac, and I drove it some but as far as me having a car, I never did.

Regan Siler Didn't have one. Okay.

LoNetta White Margaret did. We wore that sucker out.

Regan Siler Well, you had to drag main in something.

LoNetta White It was a station wagon, too.

Regan Siler Oh, my goodness. Well, I guess you could haul your friends around.

LoNetta White Yeah, we did some of that.

Regan Siler So what sort of entertainment did you enjoy growing up? Did you get to watch TV? And if so, did you have a favorite program?

LoNetta White Hmm? Uh, yeah, 00:37:00we watched TV some, but the main thing that we would look forward to was on Saturday morning, even though we had tons of laundry to do, which was on an old Maytag, you know, and especially in the winter, because you had the windows shut and stuff, and you couldn't hear any any radio or anything outside. But we would want to listen to the Lone Ranger and all of that good stuff they used to have. 00:38:00Regan Siler And on the radio, you're saying? Okay.

LoNetta White Yeah, and so we would turn the radio radio up about as loud as it'd go. And then we were hanging the clothes out, we catch up on everything. So probably the Lone Ranger and the Creaking Door, and the radio shows.

Regan Siler The radio shows. Did you have any particular style of music you liked at that time?

LoNetta White No, just about everything, which I still like, about everything. But of course, really like country music.

Regan Siler Country music.

LoNetta White Not hillbilly music, country music.

Regan Siler Okay, I'm glad we have that clarification. Do you recall witnessing any pivotal events in history that you watched on TV?

LoNetta White Oh, yeah, of course, Kennedy 00:39:00being assassinated. Even part of the conventions that they have every year or every election year. There were some of them that were really good, really good.

Regan Siler So how did you so do you remember about how old you are, you were, when Kennedy was assassinated?

LoNetta White Well, that would be in 1963 so Jimmy White 23 she was born in '40.

Regan Siler Okay, so Jimmy White Three, she had three kids. She couldn't have watched it too much.

Regan Siler Yeah. Seriously. So do you remember, remember how you felt at that time, whenever you you saw the assassination. Do you remember how you felt?

LoNetta White Yeah, because we were, we had the shop and the TV shop, and so I was right there, you know? And then Harold came in from, he'd 00:40:00been out working and stuff, and we just, we watched TV the rest of the day, just, youknow, just couldn't believe that somebody would do that.

Regan Siler Right.

Jimmy White Like we would have done it 911.

Regan Siler That's, that's exactly what I was getting ready to say, because I felt like I was weirdly glued to the TV when that happened.

LoNetta White And you were right there.

Regan Siler Yes, yes, yes, yeah, yeah. Okay. So what was medical care like for you growing up? Did you have a family doctor, or did you mainly try to take care of things at home? I know, apparently, we had a recipe for cough syrup.

Jimmy White Yeah!

LoNetta White That was at home.

Regan Siler Yeah. But did you, did you have medical care? Did you have a family doctor, or did you mainly try to take care of stuff at LoNetta White Most of it, you took care of at home.

Regan Siler At home.

LoNetta White Deep cuts.

Jimmy White Tell her about your hand when you burned it.

LoNetta White Oh, yeah, that was done when I was before I was a year old, and my folks had gone out to hang up clothes to dry, and Shirley was, 00:41:00supposedly, watching me. Well, she was only, what, 16 months ahead of me as far as age.

Regan Siler So you were both really little?

LoNetta White Yeah, but it was cold until they left us in the house, and I suppose that they heard me crying. I don't know just how that all took place, but anyway, I had crawled over to the stove, and of course, it was one of the old wood burning iron stoves, and so they ran in the house, and my dad lifted the lid off my hand. When I pulled my hand back, it was stuck to my hand. And so it was over a long time before that healed up, but they put unguentine on it.

Regan Siler They put what?

LoNetta White Unguentine.

Regan Siler Unguentine. I don't know what that is.

LoNetta White It's an old salve.

Jimmy White Yeah, 00:42:00it would probably had some antibiotics in it, yeah.

Regan Siler Because if that was, like, literally sitting on your hand, that had to have been like the worst, yeah, degree of burn.

LoNetta White Yeah, it was.

Regan Siler Bless your heart, that was so LoNetta White That would have been one of them. And then Regan Siler And, so, you never went to the doctor for it? Oh my gosh!

Jimmy White They were still in the log cabin then.

Regan Siler Oh my gosh.

LoNetta White It was before I was a year old.

Regan Siler It's a wonder anybody survived anything back then. I mean, my goodness.

Jimmy White That's why they're so tough now.

Regan Siler I know, exactly.

LoNetta White That's my problem. And so anyway, then after that, we went to visit a cousin out north of town, and all the kidswere out playing and stuff like that, and I had climbed up on a rock. And, of course, first thing I did was 00:43:00fall off. And when I fell off, I landed on a half a fruit jar. And so I had seven cuts on one leg that they had to bring me to town, get me sewed up.

Regan Siler And so about how old were you, then, do you remember?

LoNetta White Maybe 10 or 12.

Regan Siler So you did actually have to see the doctor on that one?

LoNetta White Yeah, they had to sew it up. That was Dr Hollis [Joseph E. Hollis 10/13/1885-3/15/1968], which he was our family doctor. But now, you know, back when I don't really remember much of this, but they told the story later, when I was real small, it was around war time, you know. And my dad didn't, couldn't get in the service because he had a big knot that had grown at this side of his eye, not in it, but beside it. And they wouldn't 00:44:00take him because of that. And so he said, I'll just go get it cut off. So he did. And the doctor, which was Dr. Hollis, let me stand on the stool and watch him. And I wouldn't do that now for anything.

Regan Siler Times are so different!

LoNetta White But I had to see what was going on, you know. He let me stand up there on the stool watch him all the time.

Regan Siler Oh, my goodness. Well, so then, did your dad go, did was he able LoNetta White No.

Regan Siler He still wasn't able to get into service after that? Well, I don't think you find that, now, people like doing whatever they can to get into the service. That's, yeah, the difference in then and now, I think. Do you recall any, I mean, I know you've talked about a couple of your accidents, but any like serious, serious illnesses or epidemics that you or your family incurred 00:45:00in the time you were growing up?

LoNetta White Not, not really, because we had, I mean, this wasn't an, I guess it was an epidemic like measles and, oh yeah.

Regan Siler All the stuff we're vaccinated for now. Did you, like the measles, the mumps and stuff like that? Yeah, even chicken pox.

LoNetta White Well, they gave me the chicken pox virus or the shots three times, and I never did take so they decided I wasn't going to take chicken pox, so Regan Siler Okay.

LoNetta White And then, let's see, in the 70s, let's see, I had a horseback accident in when I was a senior in high school. 00:46:00Margaret, and I were riding to double on double and and the horse slipped on pavement and fell, and that put us both in the hospital. And they put me in the room, or brought Mrs. Corey (ph), which was the dean of girls atthe time.

Jimmy White You broke your leg.

LoNetta White Yeah, broke my leg. Margaret broke hers. And they brought Mrs. Corey (ph) in and put in the room with me, because Margaret got to go home a couple of days before I did.

Regan Siler And when you say the dean of girls, what is, what does that mean?

LoNetta White She told you what you could or could not do.

Jimmy White Be like a counselor now.

Regan Siler Oh, okay.

LoNetta White But you couldn't wear blue jeans to school. I mean, that was you didn't do that. Okay, okay, but the doctor said you have to keep your leg up when you sit down. You have to prop that leg up. 00:47:00So I told Mrs. Corey (ph) and I got to be the one to wear the blue jeans to school. We just put a long zipper in them so that I could zip them, unzip them up over the cast.

Regan Siler Oh my goodness.

Jimmy White Because girls had to wear dresses at that time.

LoNetta White Mrs. Corey (ph) had to keep her leg up, too. She broke it, and so, we all did that, you know.

Regan Siler Okay, well, so did you happen to attend church growing up?

LoNetta White Yes, we did.

Regan Siler Okay. And if so, where did you attend?

LoNetta White Christian Church.

Regan Siler Christian Church. And so, where would that...is that building still around?

LoNetta White Yes, sixth and Elm Jimmy White Here in Bristow.

Regan Siler Okay, okay. Do you remember what like a typical service was? Did you have favorite hymns or songs that you sang, or any specific memories from being in church that that you enjoyed? 00:48:00LoNetta White Nothing extra special. I met Harold [Harold Jason White 2/14/1935-11/14/1992] in April. We got married in August, and he went to the Church of God, and so that's where we went, yeah, after that, so, and Margaret Regan Siler The Church of God that's still where it is now?

LoNetta White Yeah, Jimmy White But it was the old Church of God then.

Regan Siler Okay.

Jimmy White Then they got married at the Presbyterian Church.

Regan Siler They were married at the Presbyterian Church? Okay.

Jimmy White Yes.

LoNetta White Because we would go to the youth group during the week, and that was held at the Presbyterian Church.

Regan Siler Okay, okay.

LoNetta White And the preacher at the Presbyterian Church married us.

Regan Siler Okay. So thinking back to holidays when you were young and with your family, 00:49:00did your family celebrate holidays in a big way? Like, can you remember what Christmas was like, or any other holidays that you really enjoyed?

LoNetta White Yeah, lots of people.

Regan Siler Lots of people. Lots of family?

LoNetta White Yeah.

Regan Siler Okay. And where did you usually celebrate Christmas?

LoNetta White In most cases, at our house.

Regan Siler Okay, and so was it, did you have a lot of decorations?

Regan Siler No.

Regan Siler Was there gifts? Was there just a lot of people and food, maybe?

LoNetta White Yeah. Now, as far as the gifts go, most of your gifts are at our house, of course, came from your mom and dad, and if we were lucky, we would get, like, a toy or something for Christmas, and mainly Shirley and I would get a new doll, something like that. And I don't remember what Dean got, probably 00:50:00a truck or something, you know.

Regan Siler Do you, do you remember any particular gift that you got that maybe, really stood out to you, or a particular doll that you just absolutely loved or was excited about?

LoNetta White No, not especially, but I did get hair clips one year. They were blue birds. About so big. And gosh, they were the prettiest things I've ever seen. And not long after that, we had company, and they had a little girl, and I don't even remember who it was, but she liked my hair clips so much that my mom gave her my hair clips.

Regan Siler Oh, no!

LoNetta White Yeah. Oh, I thought I was gonna die, right there.

Regan Siler Oh, my goodness, yeah, you were probably heartbroken, weren't you?

LoNetta White Yeah, that was terrible.

Regan Siler Did you celebrate any other holidays, like Fourth of July or Easter or 00:51:00Halloween? Were any of those a big deal in your family?

LoNetta White Halloween wasn't because we stayed scared half the time. We were somebody was always hurt or something.

Regan Siler So mainly, Christmas was Jimmy White Thanksgiving would have been a big Regan Siler Thanksgiving.

LoNetta White Yeah.

Regan Siler I was going to ask Thanksgiving.

Jimmy White The Fourth of July, they would have been outside, whether they had any firecrackers or not.

LoNetta White Yeah.

Regan Siler Right.

Jimmy White They would have had homemade ice cream, watermelon.

LoNetta White Gone fishing, yeah.

Regan Siler Right.

LoNetta White We spent a lot of time on Deep Fork.

Regan Siler On Deep Fork?

LoNetta White Yeah.

Regan Siler Oh gosh. Okay.

LoNetta White Yeah.

Regan Siler So you probably have some Deep Fork stories, don't you?

LoNetta White Yeah. And they would, of course, we'd spend the night.

Regan Siler Oh my gosh. On Deep Fork?!

LoNetta White Yep!

Regan Siler You really weren't too scared, then, were you?

LoNetta White Not of anything, I don't think.

Regan Siler I think are areas of Deep Fork that I don't even know what goes on.

Jimmy White Yeah.

LoNetta White Well, down there where Three Bridges is 00:52:00Regan Siler Oh gosh!

LoNetta White All of that was, you know, a favorite fishing place.

Regan Siler Right, right.

LoNetta White Still would be if you could get to it.

Regan Siler So this is, like, a random thing that's on my list, but it makes me think, when you start talking about being on Deep Fork and Three Bridges and all that area, what did you do back in the day for like, ticks and chiggers and mosquitoes and Jimmy White Pull the ticks off and scratch the mosquito bites.

Regan Siler So did you just, I mean, you didn't have any way to prevent any any of that stuff, like ticks or chiggers?

LoNetta White We were tough.

Regan Siler Oh, lordy.

LoNetta White And, not only that, but in the summertime, you practically had to go without shoes because you couldn't affordto buy another pair. And if you outgrew what you had on, then you usually didn't get them to school.

Regan Siler Right. You were just, wow, you were just barefoot, then.

LoNetta White Yeah, and that sand, oh, it would be hot. And them old, great, big old stickers.

Regan Siler Oh, gosh yes, because we've got the stickers like crazy. 00:53:00LoNetta White Think of a, what they call a goat head, which is a huge sand bur. And when you got them, boy, you knew it.

Regan Siler Like I said, I'll reiterate, I don't know how anybody survived. Okay, well as a child, do you remember what you wanted to be when you grew up? Did you have any like, oh, I want to be a particular something or other when you grew up?

LoNetta White Not really. After oh, I don't know, later years, after I'd been going to Bristow Schools, I had another friend. Her name was Margaret, also.

Regan Siler So, you had two Margarets?

LoNetta White Margaret [undecipherable].

Regan Siler Oh, my goodness.

LoNetta White One was a Sipler and one, which was Theodore Abraham's stepdaughter.

Regan Siler Okay.

LoNetta White So we had to be good. And the other was Margaret Stiles [Margaret Stiles Garrison], which I met her about the time we moved 00:54:00over to Red Brick [Bank] Road, and that's what it was.

Regan Siler So do,do you did you have something that you wanted to be when you grew up? Do you remember anything?

LoNetta White We were gonna join the Navy.

Regan Siler Join the Navy?

LoNetta White And so Margaret did. I got married, and then Margaret went and joined the Navy. And so, Teresa [Teresa Lynn White Alred], my daughter, when she was old enough, she joined the Navy. So she took my place.

Regan Siler That's interesting. Well, let's talk about some of the different jobs you had during your life. I know when we had talked on the phone before, maybe specifically, like your businesses that you had here in town. I think you said you started at the garment factory. So start from there and tell me, tell me what all you've done.

LoNetta White Okay, I went to work at the well, if I start the very first one, I'd have to go to seventh grade, because I worked 00:55:00at the cafeteria at Washington back in the seventh grade.

Regan Siler Wow, okay.

LoNetta White And there was a little boy and girl, brother and sister, and they were really pale looking, you know. And he would go and get her and bring her to class, or bring her to eat every day and then take her back to class. And so once in a while, we'd buy them a bottle of milk, because they never had anything to drink, like that. Me and the girl that worked with me and Regan Siler And this was you in the seventh grade?

LoNetta White Yeah.

Regan Siler Okay.

LoNetta White And so they brought their lunch in a syrup bucket, and they had biscuits and stuff like that, you know. And so we kept 00:56:00talking to the lady that ran the cafeteria, and we kept buying their milk out of our paycheck, which was $7.50 a week, yeah. And so she finally got their milk for free for the kids. And about a week they both had big old rosy cheeks. And so she got their lunches for them for free. So, so it was Regan Siler You're, I can tell you're a tender hearted, caring, loving to do that as a seventh grader. I mean, my goodness, soyou recognize that they were probably malnourished.

LoNetta White Yeah, yeah.

Regan Siler As a seventh grader.

LoNetta White Biology.

Regan Siler Biology, yeah. Well, bless you for doing that.

LoNetta White So then I went to work at the garment factory. 00:57:00Regan Siler And how old were you then?

LoNetta White Well, I was probably here. Probably Jimmy White You would have had to been 18, because she'd been she was 19 three weeks when I was born.

LoNetta White Yeah, but I was working there before you were born.

Jimmy White That's why I said you had to be 18.

LoNetta White That's true.

LoNetta White Because when she got married, she had been 17 for like a week, so.

LoNetta White Yeah. And then he, that was in '57 and Jimmy [James Allen "Jimmy" White] was born in '59.

Jimmy White And so you would have been 18.

LoNetta White Yeah. And then we Harold put in the radio and TV shop and Regan Siler And that was called White's, right?

Jimmy White White's Radio & TV.

Regan Siler Okay.

Jimmy White Repair, yeah.

LoNetta White And then when we moved to the down on Seventh Street, we rented from Mr. Slyman. And then 00:58:00later on, we were able to buy the building just two doors up, and so we bought it, and we were still just right there on Seventh Street, and we're across the street from, well, it's Dr Cantrell now.

Regan Siler Okay.

Regan Siler Okay.

LoNetta White And so that's where the shop was, and worked there. We had the shop for 20 some years.

Jimmy White They also had Mistletoe Express.

Regan Siler And she mentioned that, and I can you tell me a little bit more about that? Like, what did you do? Like, what was that?

LoNetta White Okay, it was a, like, a 16-wheeler that come through here with hauling freight and Jimmy White Like, a precursor to UPS.

Regan Siler Okay.

LoNetta White Yeah. Only it was out of a Regan Siler So, were you like, a distribution place, or did Jimmy White People would mail boxes or whatever, engines, meat and would come in and we would deliver it to the businesses, 00:59:00homeowners, whatever.

Regan Siler So you were kind of like a hub then?

Jimmy White Yeah.

Regan Siler Okay, okay.

Jimmy White Had two trucks a day. One the middle of the night.

Regan Siler So they would bring and then you would deliver, right? And I guess you were part of that delivery service?

Jimmy White Ever since I was old enough to walk.

Regan Siler Okay. And so you had told me you had Whites for 25 years, and then the freight company, Mistletoe Express for 22 years, and that was kind of simultaneously, kind of during the same time you had LoNetta White Yeah, yeah, the guy that used to deliver the freight here, I don't remember if he passed away or what happened, but anyway, they were looking for a place to put it, you know. And you needed a they needed a place that would be have people there that could, yeah. And so somebody had sent them down to us. And so we went ahead and said, well, we'll try it, you know. So 22 years or so later. 01:00:00Regan Siler So your family, obviously, worked with you in this business. Did you have other employees that helped?

Regan Siler Help with deliveries and stuff. And then, I guess also, simultaneously, you had something with the Greyhound Bus?

LoNetta White Yeah, yeah, because we still had the guys would do antennas, or if you had a TV, you had to pick up and deliver, or anything of that nature. You know, you still had all that to do. And then we had, usually high school boys that would come in in the afternoon and work.

LoNetta White Yes.

Regan Siler What so explain that, how that worked, what LoNetta White That was just across the alley from our shop up down there, and Regan Siler So you were on seventh, across from doctor, from the Vision Center, Dr Cantrell, so you were on that block on the south side, okay. So that's where White's and Mistletoe was, but then the Greyhound 01:01:00Bus, was it a bus station? Or, I didn't even know Bristow had a Greyhound Bus station.

LoNetta White Yeah.

Jimmy White Yeah, yeah, it was a bus station.

LoNetta White That was all it was. And they the guy that ran it, George Burkle (ph), he had a heart attack. And so they needed a place, until they could find a place to put the bus station, because they had busses coming in during the day or people needing tickets to go somewhere and different things like that. And so they came to see us. And so Regan Siler It sounds like everyone came to see you when they needed a new business.

LoNetta White That was a busy place.

Jimmy White They had two busses from Tulsa every day and two from Oklahoma City every day, seven days a week.

Regan Siler So, you know, I've lived Jimmy White You didn't grow up with a bus.

Regan Siler I know, 01:02:00and so like I've lived through the time of, I hate to say it, but kind of Bristow's decline, I guess. I feel like we're kind of on an upswing again now. But to hear and to listen to these different oral histories of how Bristow used to be, and I'm not, I mean, I know it was booming during the oil boom, but I'm saying like in the time that you're talking about. I'm just like, I can't imagine that Bristow was ever even like that. So what happened to make the bus station not be here anymore?

LoNetta White They quit running busses.

Regan Siler Oh, okay.

Jimmy White Gas wars in the 70s, we would have been in the 70s the gas wars and people had cars. People, everybody didn't used to have a car. It was easier and cheaper to ride the bus.

Regan Siler Okay.

LoNetta White Mm, hmm.

Jimmy White And we had people that would ride back and forth every week to Tulsa on the bus, stay up there all week, and then on the weekend, come home.

Regan Siler Okay.

Jimmy White And if you could do it for $1 or two, that was cheaper than having to Regan Siler Own a car. 01:03:00Jimmy White Right?

Regan Siler Wow. So you were extremely busy.

LoNetta White Yes!

Regan Siler You had to have three businesses that you were trying to run. You had to have been extremely busy.

LoNetta White Well, we'd start about 7:00, between 7-7:30 in the morning, and you worked until it was done, you know. But usually we would try to get out of there by 5:00 or 5:30 or something like that. But now around Christmas time, sometimes you couldn't do that.

Jimmy White And on Thursday you couldn't. That was Avon day. Oh, that was the day all the ladies got their Avon in, and we had to deliver it.

Regan Siler Oh, man!

LoNetta White Big old boxes, and you'd go home smelling like every bit of it.

Regan Siler Oh, that's good. Okay. Well, let's, let's talk about your spouse, when and where did you first meet your spouse?

LoNetta White Okay, I met him April. I was in the hospital 01:04:00from the horse accident.

Regan Siler The broken leg?

LoNetta White Yeah, and he had caught his hand in the printing press. He worked at the Bristow News. He had been putting paper on, and the guy reached up and turned on the press, and it caught his hand in there. And so he would, that's what he was in there for. And then we ended up getting married in August.

Regan Siler So you met in the hospital?

LoNetta White Yeah!

Regan Siler Oh, my goodness!

LoNetta White Played checkers all day.

Regan Siler Oh, my goodness. Um, okay, well, I missed getting what is his full name, LoNetta White Harold Jason White [2/14/1935-11/14/1992].

Regan Siler And I have his date of birth as February 14, 1935?

LoNetta White Yes.

LoNetta White Is that correct? Okay, and he's deceased?

LoNetta White Yes.

Regan Siler Okay, um, so what was your first impression of Harold?

LoNetta White Oh, glad to see anybody beside Mrs. Corey. 01:05:00Bless her heart.

Regan Siler He was a friendly face, then?

Regan Siler Oh gosh! Do you, so, did you get engaged? Did you have an engagement period, or did you just decide you were getting married and got married?

LoNetta White Yeah, because he was in the room with a boy that we went to school with, which he, supposedly, had pneumonia, but he spent a lot of time out in the hall, you know. And he and Margaret Ann got put to bed for racing in wheelchairs down the hall.

LoNetta White No, there was, yeah, we got engaged. And, you know, they used to put your picture in the paper and, and, well, they just plastered stuff everywhere, like that, you know? And yeah.

Regan Siler So, you had your engagement period, and then ,so, and you got married at the Presbyterian Church.

LoNetta White Yeah.

Regan Siler What was your 01:06:00Jimmy White Tell her how you bought your wedding dress.

LoNetta White Oh, I worked for a lady at Sapulpa that needed someone to stay with her.

Jimmy White Help take care of her.

LoNetta White Yeah, just help take care to be there, in other words, and from there, that's what I used to buy my wedding dress.

Regan Siler So, wait, you said the chickens and what?

Jimmy White Tell her about the chickens with it, Ella and Everett, oh, that was to help pay for her wedding dress also.

Jimmy White Ella and Everett, that was LoNetta White My mom's cousin.

LoNetta White Her mom's cousin, okay, and her husband.

LoNetta White They lived way out in the country, and they farmed and sold a lot of chickens. They raised chickens, and she would I went to stay with her to help her one summer, 01:07:00and she would get me up early of a morning and have breakfast. And then we would start killing chickens at like, maybe seven o'clock of the morning, and do it all day.

Regan Siler I feel like you've done and seen pretty much all of it, haven't you?

LoNetta White Pretty close. I'm trying to go on for some more here if I can get these durn doctors on the stick.

Regan Siler Oh, my, so you killed, you killed chicken to earn money to purchase your wedding dress.

LoNetta White Oh, I can cut a good chicken up fast.

Regan Siler Oh, my goodness. Um, so what were your early years of marriage like? I mean, obviously, you were young. Um, what did was it a financial struggle? Was it, I mean, was it, tell me about it. What was it like?

LoNetta White Well, kind of was because 01:08:00Harold had just got out of the Navy, and he went back to work at the news office. And, of course, I quit school. That's why I probably went to work. And, you know, everything was just tight, but we were young and happy and didn't make any difference, so Regan Siler It didn't matter to you, did it?

LoNetta White No.

Regan Siler Yeah. So how many children do you have?

LoNetta White Three.

Regan Siler Okay, can you tell me their full names and their dates of birth? If you know them.

LoNetta White James Allen White, which is Jimmy here.

Regan Siler Okay.

LoNetta White Teresa Lynn White Alred.

Regan Siler Okay.

LoNetta White And a little story with that is when she was going to marry an Alred, I said, well, you're going from White to Alred, so all your children are going to be pink! And then Edgar [Eddie] Angel White.

Regan Siler Okay.

LoNetta White And he was killed in a car accident 01:09:00in '87.

Regan Siler Okay. And I have, I have Jimmy's birthday is 9/17/1959 and I have Teresa's date of birth of as 8/24/1961 and then and he went by Eddie?

LoNetta White Yeah.

Regan Siler Is that right? Okay. And so date of birth 7/2/1964.

LoNetta White Right.

Regan Siler And passed away 7/24/1987.

Jimmy White Okay, his birthday was 7/3/1964.

Regan Siler Okay.

Jimmy White And Teresa was born on mom's 21st birthday.

Regan Siler What a birthday present?! So what were you, what would you say would be the challenges of being a mom to to three little kids back in the day? What kind of challenges did you experience?

LoNetta White Other than Eddie was accident prone. He kept us pretty busy.

Jimmy White We 01:10:00stayed with Grandma a lot when we were small and they were working at the shop.

Regan Siler Trying to work?

Jimmy White Right, yeah.

Regan Siler Because they had all these businesses they were trying to run.

Jimmy White Grandpa was still working, so grandma took care of us a lot in the summer, but then we were down at the shop before school and after school, and definitely were down there at an early age.

Jimmy White That's a family business.

LoNetta White Yeah. We had a baby bed set up down there for Eddie, because he was pretty small when he was born. He justweighed like five pounds, and so he was a month early, and instead of crying, he just made a squeaking sound.And they called him squeaky for years, and we had to really watch the trains down there. When he got where he could walk.

Regan Siler He wanted to go see the trains.

LoNetta White He would go see the trains.

Regan Siler Oh mercy!

LoNetta White Climb out of his bed, and he would go to the track. 01:11:00So everybody got to where they would just drop whatever they're doing and go look, you know, I'm talking neighbors around there, down at the shop, and they just Regan Siler Because they would know to, like, look for him?

LoNetta White Yeah.

Regan Siler Oh, my gosh!

LoNetta White Yeah, and then one day Regan Siler That's the true meaning of it takes a village.

LoNetta White Yeah, we had that. And one day down there, I was sitting at my desk, and something goes out front. You know,we had those big old windows. In fact, they're still there. But anyway, I got up and went and looked, and here goes this old wooden wheelchair down the street, down the sidewalk, and Adam Titus and he was pushing, andEddie was riding, and they were headed for the train track just as hard as they could go and, shoot, they were maybe five years old!

Jimmy White But they found an old wheelchair. 01:12:00LoNetta White Yep, and they were coming down through there, just lickety split.

Regan Siler Oh my gosh. You didn't have to worry about creativity back then. You figured out what to do to be able to play.

LoNetta White You got an imagination, you could do it.

Regan Siler Right. Do you have any grandchildren?

LoNetta White Yes.

Regan Siler How many grandchildren do you have?

LoNetta White I have three.

Regan Siler Three. Do you want to tell me their names?

LoNetta White Yeah.

Jimmy White Well, four.

LoNetta White Yeah, one passed away. Yeah. Okay, yeah. Kenneth Alred.

Regan Siler Okay.

LoNetta White And he's in the Air Force, and he's in Florida right now.

Regan Siler Okay.

LoNetta White Justin, do you want their middle names or Justin Alred?

Regan Siler That's okay, yeah, Justin Alred and who else?

LoNetta White And Jimmy White Daniel, Daniel Alred, he's the one. 01:13:00He drowned when he was 14. Those, all three are brothers.

Regan Siler And so these are your sister's children?

Jimmy White Yes, yes.

LoNetta White Okay. And then Eddie had one.

Regan Siler Okay.

LoNetta White And it was Brandon Dale White.

Regan Siler So all of them are living except Daniel?

LoNetta White Yes.

Regan Siler Is that correct? Okay, okay.

LoNetta White And there are, what, 10 grandkids?

Jimmy White No, 11. She's got 11 great-grandkids and one great, great, Regan Siler Eleven great-grands and one great, great.

Jimmy White There's five generations.

Regan Siler Okay.

Jimmy White I've had to step in for my brother, for his generation, you know. But there's five generations.

Regan Siler Oh, my goodness, okay. I'm going to ask you a little bit of a hard question. This one might make you think a little bit. What would you consider to be the most important invention 01:14:00during your lifetime?

LoNetta White Hmm. I don't know, unless it's the way electronics have gone that, you know, being involved with all of that when it was coming up the first time around. And some of the things that I see now, I think, you know, how did they do that.

Regan Siler Right, right.

LoNetta White So, it's not biology, I'd say electronics.

Regan Siler Electronics, okay. How do you feel the world is different than when you were a child?

LoNetta White Well, we were a village raising kids back then. If you did something wrong, you got a whippin' for it. And you didn't do it again. And nowadays, you know kids, I don't know, some of them are, 01:15:00are just not looked after.

Regan Siler Or maybe they lacking discipline?

LoNetta White Yeah, lacking discipline or missing love somewhere along the way.

Regan Siler Yeah, okay. What do you feel our nation's biggest problem is currently?

LoNetta White Ooh! One president quitting and the Vice President taking over, and then the election that's coming up, and the FBI agent quit this morning, and Regan Siler I feel like we're living in some pivotal times right now.

Jimmy White Yeah, we are. It's scary.

Regan Siler Which I think is good to document, too, just because who the heck knows what's gonna happen in the next four months! Quite a cluster. How have any historic events affected you? For instance, like the Oklahoma City bombing, 9/11, maybe COVID, 01:16:00natural disasters? Have there been anything like that that's personally affected your life?

LoNetta White Yeah, I think so. Back I wrote a poem back then, which I did bring to show you that, you know, you just, you just don't know what's going to happen. And I think everybody should stop and take a second look at all that. And we don't want that in our country. We don't want to be scared like a lot of them are.

Regan Siler And so what inspired your poem?

LoNetta White Oh, just the guys coming back from overseas.

Regan Siler Okay, well, I would love to get a copy of it if you're if you're okay 01:17:00with that.

LoNetta White Yeah, you bet.

Regan Siler Okay, um, is there anything else that you would like to tell us, or any wisdom that you would like to share for future generations?

LoNetta White Oh, my.

Regan Siler This is your chance to leave your mark.

LoNetta White I think I've marked everything around town.

Regan Siler No, I mean any, any, any wisdom that you can think of that would be good for future generations to take to heart.

LoNetta White Main thing, I think would be one thing, is that I feel like that a lot of them live way beyond their means. One of these days that's all going to catch up with them, and when it does, then there's going to be lots of problems, you know, home, work or anywhere. And 01:18:00if they would take the time to look at what they say or do, there's enough mistakes made, accidentally, rather than planning them. And just be kind to each other.

Regan Siler Okay, so am I hearing you say that maybe, like materialism is kind of a problem. People wanting material things versus LoNetta White I really believe that is Regan Siler Putting an emphasis on material things versus maybe family and time and that kind of thing.

LoNetta White Well, if they take care of the material things the way that they should, there won't be near as many family things go wrong. I mean, you can look around and you see all these brand new cars sitting out at school. Who's paying for them? I mean, you know, the kids don't, because 01:19:00they can't afford $1,000 a month for a car. They don't even work. And so you've got things like that, and then you've got all the groceries. Well, you gotta have all the cars, the clothes and the shoes and stuff to go with that. Someone's gonna sink one of these days.

Regan Siler So basically, get back to the basics.

LoNetta White Absolutely start there again. And I think everybody would be a lot happier. And, you know, get rid of the drugs.

Regan Siler I can't disagree with anything that you've said, and honestly, that's been something we've talked about in our own family, as far as you know, what are you doing? Why are you working so much, like, for what?

LoNetta White Yeah.

Regan Siler When I think time and family and is really what's most, most important.

LoNetta White Well, to just show you the difference, back when we worked and and we worked, you know, 01:20:00long hours and andgradual years added on even to what we were doing to start with. And, gosh, I moved to town about a year ago from the country, and my house had been paid for for what, 30 years?

Jimmy White No. Probably 50.

LoNetta White Probably 50, because I've been out there 60-some years. And, you know, I didn't owe a bunch of bills. I still don't.

Regan Siler Stay out of debt. That's another good word of wisdom, huh?

LoNetta White Absolutely. So it doesn't take near the money for me to live. That's what most people just fluff off.

Regan Siler Right, right. Oh, I agree. I agree. Well, we appreciate you taking the time to visit with us today. Your interview will become an important part of our oral history archive for the museum. 01:21:00We really appreciate you and thank you.

Regan Siler Thank you.