Bunny Baker

Interviewer: Georgia Smith (GS)

Interviewee: Bunny Baker (BB)

Other Persons:

Date of Interview: September 11, 2020

Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma

Transcriber: Abby Thompson

Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc.

Abstract:

Preface: The following oral history testimony is the result of a cassette tape interview and is part of the Bristow Historical Society, Inc.'s collection of oral histories. The interview was transcribed and processed by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc., with financial assistance from the Montfort Jones & Allie Brown Jones Foundation. Rights to the material are held exclusively by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc.

The reader should bear in mind that he or she is reading a verbatim transcript of spoken, rather than written prose. Insofar as possible, this transcript tries to represent the spoken word. Thus, it should be read as a personal memoir and not as either a researched monograph or edited account.

To the extent possible, the spelling of place names, foreign words, and personal names have been verified, either by reference resources or directly by the interviewee. In some cases, a footnote has been added to the transcript in order to provide more information and/or to clarify a statement. Some uncertainties will inevitably remain regarding some words and their spellings. In these scenarios, a (ph) follows a word or name that is spelled phonetically. The notation [indecipherable] is used when the transcriber has not been able to comprehend the word or phrase being spoken. The notation [inaudible] is used where there is more mumbling than words, or when interference on the tape has made transcription impossible.

GS: Testing. There we go. Okay, Bunny, I'm going to sit this right here so it'll pick you up good. Let me check the volume on it. Oh yeah, it's up there. Okay. So. This is Georgia Smith with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma, and this interview is part of the Historical Society's ongoing oral history project. The date is September 11, 2020 and I am sitting here with Bunny Baker at her house, who is going to tell me a little bit about her history in the Bristow area. Now, give me your full name.

BB: The real name?

GS: The real name, Bunny.

BB: Herpal (ph) A. Baker.

GS: Okay. And where were you born?

BB: Six miles south and a half mile west of Bristow.

[muffled sounds]

GS: Sit that right there so it'll get ya. Don't touch anything on it, just--we'll just let it sit right there, so.

BB: Okay.

GS: Yeah, 'cause I want to make sure it's still recording. Yeah. So we'll just sit it right there, and it'll pick it up. It's not gonna fall, I don't think. I think you might've just told me, but I was paying attention to the recorder. Where were you born?

BB: Six miles south and one mile west of Bristow.

GS: In the family home?

BB: Yes.

GS: And what was your date of birth?

BB: May the twenty-third, 1926.

GS: Aww, how wonderful. What were your parents' names? We'll start with your mother's maiden name.

BB: Hester Mae Foster.

GS: Hester Mae Foster. And when were your parents married?

BB: I don't remember.

GS: That's okay. Do you know where they were married?

BB: In--no, I don't.

GS: Okay, that's alright too. Do you know--were they all, were they raised, born 00:02:00in this area or did they move in to this area?

BB: They were born in this area.

GS: Okay, alright. How many children did your parents have?

BB: Six.

GS: And what were your siblings' names?

BB: Nonna (ph) Mae (ph)--you want the full name? Was Dowdy. Nonna (ph) Mae (ph) Dowdy. Junior Frank Dowdy. Herpal (ph) A. Baker. Dorothy Jean Bak--Baker. Oh, not Baker.

GS: Dowdy.

BB: Dowdy. And John Joseph Dowdy. And Bobby Donald Dowdy.

GS: Okay. What work did your father do for a living?

BB: He was a ninety-eight percent disabled World War I veteran. Before that, he 00:03:00was a barber. And then he was always in and out of the hospital. The rest of his life he was disabled.

GS: Bless his heart. What about your mother? Did she work out at the home?

BB: No, she worked in the home for everybody that came by.

GS: So how did they get by if your dad--

BB: Well she drew a small oil check, her mother had five oil wells on her land, and she drew it. Of course you know, that oil.

GS: 'Cause the government didn't have disability back then, did they?

BB: No no no, no.

GS: Did he farm or anything?

BB: Yeah we farmed.

GS: Did you sell any of the produce?

BB: Yes

GS: At a farmer's market or a little bench alongside the road or what?

BB: No, just brought it to town.

GS: What were some of the crops you sold?

BB: Oh, peanuts, cotton, cotton first, then peanuts, and--so much of it like corn we used to grow on the farm

GS: Oh

BB: But we sold the peanuts and the cotton.

GS: Okay. What was your spouse's name?

BB: Merle Baker (ph)

GS: And what was the date you got married?

BB: June the thirtieth, 1945

GS: Oh, right after the war or during the war?

BB: Right after

GS: Right after. How many children did you have?

BB: None.

GS: But you did adopt some?

BB: Yes

GS: What are their names?

BB: Cathy Rae (ph) and Donna Rae (ph)

GS: Okay, now were' gonna get into what it was like when you were a kid at home. Tell me about what life was like when you were a kid, as a young child living at 00:05:00your house

BB: Well it was a riot

GS: (Laughter) Of course it was

BB: My mother was a disciplinary, disciplinary--

GS: Disciplinarian

BB: Yes, I can't think of words. But she was a lady, but she would've been a wonderful children's teacher

GS: Uh-huh

BB: She punished you in such funny ways. She thought of things like--she said that on a moonlit night if you had been good enough, you could watch the fairies dancing on the east side of the house out on the lawn. Well, we had a bedroom with a window in the east side of the house. So every night when the moon shone, we'd gather at that window to look for fairies.

GS: Oh how wonderful!

BB: But we had to be good enough, if you weren't good enough you couldn't see the fairies. So every night after we couldn't see the moon when we were younger, we'd swear we was gonna be better. And then she had another one if we got into trouble, she made us play on opposite sides of the house, that way you didn't 00:06:00have anybody to play with. Oh she was something else, and she--we asked her where calves came from, and she said the old cows found them in the woods. Well we figured if a cow could find a calf we sure could. And that was her way, I now know, of getting us out of her hair. But we would spend hours out in the woods looking for calves.

GS: It sounds like she was a pretty smart lady!

BB: Yes, she was

GS: Besides thinking outside the box

BB: Yeah, yeah she's--

GS: Very clever!

BB: She had it all going, but if you didn't behave you was in trouble. We found out early that she could run faster than we could then you got a whoopin' for running. And we were punished with peach tree limbs and we had to get our own 00:07:00switches, they were switches, but if you got one too big then you got--you know, on purpose, you got two switches instead of one. And girls wore dresses and it stung like crazy. You didn't ask for that very much.

GS: Oh I'm sure not, I'm sure not. Who was the oldest child in your family?

BB: Norma Mae [Inaudible]

GS: And where did you fall in there, Bunny?

BB: In the middle, naturally.

GS: In the middle, of course. So what are some of the things--chores that you had to do when you were a kid?

BB: Well milk, feed the hogs, feed the chickens, feed the cows, anything outside, I worked outside with my big brother 'cause dad wasn't there. He's--I didn't remember my dad until I was probably a young teenager because he was in the Hospital, [Indecipherable] hospital, and then [Indecipherable] for years

GS: Oh, how sad.

BB: And then as he'd go back, he'd--he could just, later he could come home maybe for a week or two, but then he'd have to go back. But he suffered from the [Indecipherable]

GS: Aw, I'm so sorry. That's sad Bunny.

BB: Yeah, like he couldn't--if he was home, we had to cool our own lamps, and somebody had to fill the lamp every evening because the bowl would hold enough cooler oil for the night, but if he woke up during the night and it was dark, he would see Germans and stuff.

GS: Aw, we just don't know how thankful we are to--

BB: Boy that's right

GS: Not have had to go through that. What kind of house did you live in?

BB: Well it was just a wooden house, it had three rooms then dad built on a small room for [Indecipherable] because--so she could have a room to herself. So it was, I guess a four room house.

GS: And this was still six miles south?

BB: Right.

GS: Did the kids have to share beds?

BB: Oh yeah, three to a bed

(Laughter)

GS: What were your favorite toys as a child?

BB: I don't know, we played house we just did everything.

GS: Did you make most of your toys or did you have store bought toys or?

BB: We didn't have many store bought toys. We played house, like we played house with broken dishes, pieces of broken dishes. And we played hopscotch, my brother had a pocket knife and you'd throw that--we played marbles, tin can shinny, and you saved your--we very seldom got ahold of a tin can, but when you did you saved it to play hockey with. Then you'd play hockey with the tin can and you've got sticks out in the woods to hit it with.

GS: How fun! Out in the pasture probably

BB: Yeah

GS: Okay you've kinda already told me this, but if--case it triggers anything else, it says "What role did your mother play in the home?"

BB: Well she was the boss.

GS: And she was pretty much everything. She was the provider wasn't she?

BB: She was everything

GS: Cause with your dad being off in a hospital, she had to shoulder it all. Did she get any help from relatives?

BB: Once in a while when she was--no from relatives, but we didn't have any relative around there, but when she was pregnant, or just had a baby, she would hire Missy Shepard (ph), a black lady, who lived down at the depot and she would 00:11:00iron for mom till some of us got older, you know. And then Bill and I, my brother, we did ever except when it was harvest time, she would hire somebody to help us, you know. Well we didn't--we made some molasses, Bill and I did all of that except that's why John got attached to horses because we had to ride the horse turn the table, you know.

GS: So did you grow your own sorghum?

BB: Oh yes, and he used to love to ride the horses, he's just about three years old, and that's why he loved horses. But we bailed our own hay, we got people that had machines would loan them and they would loan us their hay bailer and it was scary because I put the hay in the trolley, whatever it was, and Bill put the blocks in, and you had to put enough hay in there for a block. And if you 00:12:00got caught in there, some people got damaged getting caught. And a horse turned that too and it just kept going, and you didn't get your hand out in time you're in big trouble.

GS: Yeah that would be scary work. You had to stay on top of things and not goof off

BB: Nope

GS: What kind of stove did your mom cook on?

BB: A big wood stove, wood cook stoves had a warming place on the right side and then--what's the other one for?

GS: Burners

BB: Burners

GS: Did you and your brothers have to take care of getting the wood for the stove?

BB: Absolutely, we cut wood and we got and we got into more fights for accusing each other for riding the saw

GS: (Laughter) Now what does it mean by 'riding the saw'?

BB: Well, he's on one end it, you're on the other.

GS: Uh-huh

BB: And if you don't do your part; the other guy has to do the part.

GS: I see, I see.

BB: You get kinda slow or lazy, you'd be riding the saw.

GS: Yeah you don't want somebody riding the saw when you're working. What are your--what are some of the normal means that you had?

BB: Oh, we raised everything we ate, and mom was a wonderful cook and had on the small cabinets, she had--I don't know. But we had cornbread and beans of course, but we had always had meat, we had always had pork and chicken.

GS: Who did your butchering for ya?

BB: We did it.

GS: Did your mom butcher?

BB: No, she ground the meat and the sausage.

GS: But I mean as far as killing the animal and everything, who did that?

BB: Well usually a hard man, what you did you put the hog in a pen by himself to 00:14:00fatten him up before you get read to kill him. Somebody went and got a big sheet of tin, and then we fed him and when he had his head down, this guy would hit him in the head with a sledgehammer to kinda knock him out, and while he was not doing-- then somebody else jumped on his back and cut his throat, and then we let him bleed out and then put him on the sheet and took him to the house where people had already got their water in the-- boiling, wash the kettle, and dug a hole in the ground and buried half of the barrel, you put the water in the barrel and just get all the hair off of it. And you know, I never could-- and then you start scraping the hair off of it and pull it out of the barrel and scrape the hair off of him--but I never could do the head because those eyes would be looking at you weird

GS: Oh yeah that'd be hard

BB: I couldn't do the head

GS: That would sure be hard. Okay now you mentioned before we started the interview about a hog wallow, what is a hog wallow?

BB: No just a wallow

GS: Oh, just a wallow.

BB: Yeah

GS: Okay, what's a wallow?

BB: It's a buffalo wallow.

GS: Okay

BB: There's one, I guess it's still out there, but when I was a kid, it was on the west side of the barn out in the pasture. And it was completely-- absolutely round, and it was-- I don't know how big, big enough for a buffalo. And it wasn't but about maybe four inches or maybe six inches deep, it wasn't very deep at all. But the bottom of it was coal black, and nothing grew in it, not one weed grew in it.

GS: Wow

BB: And so I asked my grandmother about it, and she said that black was the oil off of buffalo hides where they would rub [Inaudible]

GS: Oh my goodness, really?

BB: Yeah, and when I was a teenager, I went over there, might have been after I was married, but anyway I was over and there were a few springs of grass growing through it for the first time, and I don't know what it looks like now but like I said, about two weeks later I thought about writing that for an article in the paper about two-- and I thought well nobody will believe it 'cause nobody heard of that-- of a buffalo wallow. And so I saw a buffalo heard on the news and it showed this hog, this-- buffalo and a hog and a buffalo wallow and it was doing just like my grandmother said it was even rubbing its heads and just rubbing and turnin' over and just rubbing all of its body in that.

GS: I've never heard of such a thing, that's really interesting

BB: Well I saw it so-- but I believe my grandmother saw it, you know, she saw a bunch of those. And-- but I didn't figure anybody else would believe it, and I couldn't prove anything so.

GS: But there it was in a movie so evidently other people have seen it

BB: [Inaudible]

GS: Did you shop for groceries? You said most of the food you grew on your own farm, but I'm sure there's some stuff that you bought.

BB: In the fall mom bought a hundred-pound sack of sugar and that had to last us all winter

GS: Wow

BB: And to the next summer, 'bout a year I guess. And when we ran out of [Indecipherable], well we made our own meal when we needed meal dad would, when he was home, he wasn't-- me and my brother would fix mom up with a sack of corn, we'd grind out corn and then send it in and they'd grind it into cornmeal

GS: And you had a grinder to do that with?

BB: Yeah

GS: Did you have to turn it manually or with a horse or?

BB: Yeah, no no no.

GS: Manually?

BB: It was- you put your corn in your thing like this and--

GS: So it was a small handheld type grinder

BB: Yeah not-- not small but it was a grinder.

GS: Okay, okay. And you've told me mostly about daily chores I think. So-- and you've owned livestock and you did your butchering so we got that. What kind of clothes did you wear?

BB: Well, we got a new dress for Easter, and mom made the rest of our clothes. And, 'course I wore-- my brother would outgrow his overalls so I'd take them

GS: Yeah

BB: 'Cus I was always outside all the time, and--

GS: Were you a tomboy Bunny?

BB: I was a boy

GS: (Laughter)

BB: I just filled the place of a boy

GS: Uh-huh

BB: And I was never in the house except the evening-- or asleep

GS: What about your sister, did she do housework or outside work?

BB: No, my oldest sister, she was such a lady and one-time mom told us she thought she was-- I was already milking, I started milking I think like six or seven years old, and she told us she-- maybe you should go to the barn and help you know, and so she took off for the barn, she came back to the house crying, and mom asked her what was wrong and she said "That old cow looked at me"

GS: (Laughter)

BB: I never saw her anywhere near the barn after that.

GS: I love that, what about shoes? Did you wear shoes all the time or did you go 00:20:00barefoot a lot?

BB: We went barefoot a lot, but we-- we bought shoes in the fall for school, but if you outgrew 'em you're in trouble. And then by high school, I had some kind of moccasin type, and I know my heels hung out about that far out of the back 'cause I, you know, outgrown them

GS: Yup, yeah. And that probably wasn't unusual, you probably didn't stick out that way

BB: Oh everybody else was-

GS: Was in the same boat, weren't they?

BB: Yeah

GS: What about friends? Who did you play with?

BB: Oh, uh Tibbons had an oil lease about half a mile from our house, half a 00:21:00mile south. And my grandfather built the first tool house a mile south of iron post, and it was of logs and it burned down, 'course they burned wood for heat. And then they built one of boards, and then when Tibbons got this oil, they built a brick schoolhouse down there, and they had a croquet court on this lease, it was sixteen families there at one time.

GS: Oh my.

BB: And they had a flaming torch all the time, and so we kids would go over there and play until after it got dark, went and got dark, you know. But I just had plenty of things to play with.

GS: What were some of your favorite games that y'all played? I think you kinda talked to me about that earlier already.

BB: Oh, well when I got to be in the seventh-- eighth grade or something, they 00:22:00had-- they called it swinging parties, and it was really square dancing but we didn't know it

GS: Oh okay!

BB: But you-- everybody sang the songs and it was really square dancing, but I didn't realize that until after I was married and joined the square dance club. But it was swinging parties and we played those, and we played croquet and basketball and--

GS: Did you join the square dance club that was in Bristow?

BB: Yeah

GS: What years were you in that?

BB: Oh it was the year of the first western heritage days, and I don't remember when that was

GS: 50's or 60's?

BB: No, it wasn't in the 60's I think. I'd say in the 40's

GS: Oh really?

BB: Well seems like I was-- I don't know how old I'd be.

GS: That's okay, that's okay. Let's see.

BB: With the round up club they had, you know, square dancing. After the rodeos and all

GS: Oh how fun

BB: Yeah, we had a lot of fun

GS: Do you remember the first time you heard a radio?

BB: No not really

GS: Did you have a radio in your house?

BB: Yes, with a battery. And dad-- they just listened to it for the news, except when Joe Louis (ph) was gonna fight and of course I loved anything tomboy, and so me and my dad would hear the Joe Louis fights and then mom led us-- when the grand the Grand Ole Opry came into be on Saturday nights, she let us hear the Grand Ole Opry. Well then after that we would play Grand Ole Opry and that's a hard hand taught me how to play the guitar when I was nine years old, and then we'd play like we were Grand Ole Opry and one by one I taught my brother John to 00:24:00play the guitar, and my sister she wasn't very interested in it when I started playing the fiddle. Anyway, got them all together, and only two kids-- two grandkids are following the music tradition and (Muffled noises) they're good. Little John, he plays the fiddle really good.

GS: Oh he does?

BB: And little Joe, Bobby's boy, he plays the guitar and he plays with a band occasionally

GS: Well how wonderful. And so you play?

BB: Yeah I learned to play everything. And I keep thinking I'll take time to learn to play the piano, that's all I think I could handle. Playing guitar and all that you've got to build calluses on your hand

GS: I've tried, it's not pleasant

BB: No it takes time to build that. Well this finger used to be, it's still kind 00:25:00of lopsided

GS: Yeah

BB: Because of a callus on it. But I've still got all kinds of musical instruments in there, but what I'm gonna do is [Indecipherable]. But I'd love to have time to--

GS: Mess with them

BB: At least play the piano better [Inaudible]

GS: What about a TV, do you remember the first TV you saw?

BB: Not really

GS: Do you remember the first TV you watched in the house when your family got a TV or when you got a TV?

BB: My family never had a TV, they didn't even have running water or electricity or anything else. Yeah, it was accurate I guess, we built our house without a television, so

GS: So you say you didn't have running water, did you have a well and you had to haul the water or did you have a pump outside that you hauled it from?

BB: We had a well with a bucket, and that was my job to draw the wash water 00:26:00every Monday

GS: Oh my!

BB: And I had a twenty-one-inch waist, and I think that's why because pulling on that rope, you know.

GS: Yup

BB: But we had that for a long time, then we got a pump. And we-- I don't know when we got, I don't remember when we got electricity. Mom finally got a kerosene stove

GS: Now when I did another interview of the Indian lady, Conasiny (ph) Tiger

BB: [Indecipherable] that's what we called her

GS: Okay, which means grandmother

BB: Mhm

GS: She said that when I interviewed about Conasiny (ph), she said that her 00:27:00grandmother was the first to have electricity taken out there so that might be maybe when your family got electricity.

BB: It was after we were married

GS: Yeah, ok.

BB: Yeah I'll tell you something about Conasiny (ph), my mother went to school with her children

GS: Okay!

BB: And she's-- I won't tell you that because [Inaudible] but anyway, Bill in 44' died. He was some kind of a chief I guess, I can't remember. But they just lived through the woods from us, and they celebrated his funeral a week, and all night every night beating the drums and yelling and stuff, and us kids were scared stiff.

GS: 'Cus you had never heard that before, had you?

BB: Well no you could hear them through the woods and we could--

GS: Your imaginations ran wild, didn't they?

BB: Yeah, it was wild.

GS: Okay you mentioned your grandfather earlier built the first school. Tell me about your grandparents. First tell me their names.

BB: Well his name was Foster William, William-- William Orange Foster (ph). He was from-- shoot I can't think of it.

GS: That's okay

BB: But anyway, he and my grandmother were-- my grandmother had lived up there when she was little, but they lived in Farmersville, Texas and they got married in Farmersville, Texas. My grandmother's dad was in church and he picked her up in a buggy and they eloped. And then they wanted to come to Oklahoma, and they came in a covered wagon, and they stopped through Shawnee town, which no longer exists, but it was down somewhere near Shawnee. And he had a friend a mile west of Iron Post that ran-- had a dairy, and the friend told him that he could work 00:29:00for him, so they lived in a dugout on the east side of their house till he could buy some land. And my grandfather bought-- they had a, Indians had an auction and he bought land from the Indians and I can't remember but it was, he didn't pay much of anything, seemed like a dollar for ten acres [Indecipherable]

GS: Wow

BB: Bought forty-five, a forty acres we added on the five acres. And that was next to the [Indecipherable] place, and--

GS: Who is Conasiny Tiger, right?

BB: Yeah, but we always called her that, you know

GS: Uh-huh

BB: And that-- it connected her land and that's where my grandmother got the five oil wells.

GS: Woah, okay

BB: Yeah [Indecipherable] was the richest person in the country

GS: Yeah, that's what I've heard. So what was your grandmothers full name with her maiden name, if you know.

BB: Yeah it was Nettie Alice Foster

GS: Okay, do you know what her maiden name was?

BB: Foster

GS: Well she married a Foster

BB: Yeah

GS: But her maiden name was Foster too?

BB: Yes

GS: Okay. Do you have any memory of your great grandparents?

BB: No

GS: Yeah

BB: My grandmother would be 145 or 46 years old, she was--

GS: Long time ago

BB: Yeah

GS: Who's the oldest person in your family that you can remember from when you were a little kid?

BB: My grandmother Foster

GS: Okay, and do you have any special memories about your grandmother Foster that we haven't mentioned already?

BB: Oh yeah, well I would do my chores, she-- her husband, she married a man older than her, he was-- died at 42 I think. And she lived by herself out there half a mile east of us, and I would do my chores of a night and eat my supper 00:31:00and then I'd walk to her house a half a mile and spent the night with her, and then walked back the next morning, do my chores then go to school, you know. But I was with her so much and she's the one that's told me so many tales about the Buffalo wallow and all this-and-that and she had a real interesting life.

GS: Do you remember how-- how so it was interesting? I mean--

BB: Well yeah, she loved-- that's where I got my love of flowers I guess because she didn't allow a weed to grow in her entire yard, it was rows of flowers

GS: Wow

BB: And you weren't allowed to play in her yard, you could play in the driveway, that was the only place you could play. But we would work outside and feed the 00:32:00chickens and do chores and everything and then in the evening when it was still clear outside, she always had a quilt out and she taught me to quilt when I was just a kid.

GS: Wonderful!

BB: And we would quilt till the night, and I've got one of her quilts she gave me for a wedding gift, and her son-- abacko (ph)-- tobacco used to come in little bags and men had to roll their own cigarettes

GS: Uh-huh

BB: And her son smoked cigarettes. She saved those little tobacco sacks and she washed them and then she dyed them and she made quilts out of them

GS: Well how wonderful!

BB: And I've got a quilt that she gave me for my-- I don't know how old it was when she gave it to me for my wedding gift, but it's made out of pink and something-- anyways got pink squares. She cut the sacks into patterns, you know, 00:33:00and then we would save our best cleanest cotton for her to-- to pad her quilts with. So it's padded with homemade cotton

GS: Wow

BB: And I've still got it.

GS: Oh, that is so wonderful! So special!

BB: I'm thinking of giving it to the museum

GS: Oh isn't there a-- I mean as much as we would love to have it, isn't there a family member that it should go to?

BB: No I'm the only one that sews so--

GS: Oh. Okay, now we're gonna--

BB: [Indecipherable]

GS: Now we're gonna head off to school

BB: Oh

(Laughter)

GS: Where did you go to school first?

BB: Iron Post

GS: Iron Post, and that was how many miles south of Bristow?

BB: Would've been 7 miles south and a mile west.

GS: Okay, who was your teacher?

BB: Mrs. Howell (ph)

GS: And did you go to first grade there and all through high school?

BB: No through the 8th grade, and that's as far as it went. But I'll tell you 00:34:00about my first day in school. Mrs. Howell is so sweet, and you came in the door and she would greet you and then assign you a seat, and of course we knew better than to, you know, get out of line

GS: Oh yeah

BB: But there was a boy, I won't tell you his name because he's got kin folks living here. But he was-- his family was a real rough family, and the boys had two older brothers and they just came to school to fight and cause trouble. Well he strolled in one morning whistling, you didn't whistle then or talk out loud period without permission. He strolled in whistling and Mrs. Howell asked him, says "Good morning Bobby" she says "How are you this morning?" "Fine" she says "Bobby do you know your ABC's?" he says "Hell no, how you expect me to know em, 00:35:00I just now got here"

GS: Ohh!

BB: And he later became a mayor of some little town in California

GS: (Laughter) Oh, that's a good story.

BB: Scared me to death, I thought 'man he's gonna get it'

GS: Did he get it?

BB: No, he didn't. That was the first day of school, she was good to everybody I guess

GS: Did-- did all the different ages go to school in the same room--

BB: No

GS: Or were there grade levels?

BB: There was a first and second graders and-- I think it was first, second, and third. Anyway, fourth and fifth and a sixth, seventh, and eighth.

GS: Okay, so they did have them separated a little bit by levels

BB: Yeah, three different rooms [Inaudible]

GS: Okay

BB: And we-- when before school started, everybody gathered out in front of the school house on a wall sort of, and we saluted the flag and we had the Lord's prayer

GS: How wonderful

BB: And uh--

GS: That's good. How many hours did you go to school?

BB: I think it was from 9 -- 4

GS: Ooh, okay. And did you walk there or?

BB: No we walked unless it was raining and then mom would take us.

GS: And how-- what would she take you in?

BB: The government gave the veterans-- the WWI veterans a bonus, and it was either six or eight hundred dollars, and they bought a new Pontiac, which was--

GS: Oh how wonderful!

BB: [Indecipherable]

GS: Was that a wooden building or brick or-- what kind of building was it?

BB: It was brick

GS: Okay, did they have any clubs or organizations or anything there? It's awfully small

BB: Yeah, we had 4H club

GS: Okay

BB: And the women had a Home Demonstration Club I think they called it

GS: Did you go to any of those?

BB: To the 4H club

GS: I figured that, okay. Did they use the school for anything else like church or anything?

BB: We had Sun-- my mom and Mrs. Bourget had Sunday School every Sunday, but we didn't have church often, just when we could find a preacher. And the girl that married Joe Isle (ph) the last time

GS: Uh-huh

BB: Her dad was a preacher and when she was a little girl, they had several kids and they always came to our house for dinner and how mom made dinner for so many 00:38:00people and what she had to cook, I don't know. But we had that-- but we put on plays every so often to raise money for Christmas

GS: Oh, uh-huh

BB: And-- and I know I was always part of it, and I think I can remember a poem I was supposed to say and then I was supposed to bow and of course everything was boards, and I think the poem that said "My momma's little girl, don't you think I'm sweet? Something--" and then I was supposed to bow and I bowed too hard and nearly broke my knee

GS: (Laughter) You're always doing something Bunny

BB: Lemme turn on the air conditioner, I don't have it on

GS: Oh okay

BB: Hold on a minute

GS: Do I need to move that seat?

BB: No

GS: There we go; there we're running now. Okay I'll sit it right back here and we'll finish. We-- we took a break to turn the air conditioning on, but we're 00:39:00back now. And we were talking about school, did your mom pack a lunch for you?

BB: Yes, that's the only-- I didn't-- I didn't taste homemade bread till I was in the 8th grade

GS: Wow

BB: Yeah, we had-- we had a sixteen-pound lard bucket, or was it-- was it that eight pound? It would've had to be an eight pound, big ol' tin bucket. And we all put our lunches in that, and bless our hearts she'd send a napkin, you know, mom was kind of proper

GS: Aw

BB: And we had biscuit sandwiches and we had sausage sandwiches and we had ham sandwiches and we had a big orchard and we always had a piece of fruit, but we-- she never-- we never had sweets except on Sunday. She would bake cakes and pie on Sundays.

GS: Well that sugar had to last all year

BB: Yeah, that's right. But this girl, her dad worked for Tibbons and they had money, you know, and she would bring sandwiches with store bought bread and she wanted-- everybody loved the biscuit sandwiches and so she traded with me one day, and that's the first time I tasted that. But there was one family that they had a huge orchard and all they brought was fried pies. They didn't have money for anything else

GS: They ate fried pies for lunch?

BB: Mhm, but they didn't always do that because a bunch of us was anxious to trade

GS: Yeah well sure you were!

BB: Yeah, hey and later they started a program, the government furnishing food for kids, you know, and I still got my tin cup, we-- each kind had a tin cup and you had to bring your own spoon and that's what you got, a tin cup full of stuff, macaroni and tomatoes, I never will eat any more of those.

GS: (Laughter)

BB: And soup, but whatever was in that tin cup is what you got.

GS: Wow

BB: The boys could get seconds, but the girls couldn't

GS: That's just not fair

BB: Well, and we had-- we had a drinking water bucket set in the corner in the hallway where everybody could have access to it and we all drank out of the same [Indecipherable]

GS: This isn't on my list, but did you have any other cultural people attend your school, or was it a strictly a white school?

BB: It was a white school. There was a black school just about a mile and a half east of us.

GS: Do you remember the name of the black school?

BB: No

GS: That's okay, we've been talking about the schools lately

BB: Well I've got it down someplace because I knew all the people.

GS: Was your teacher very strict?

BB: Yes

GS: What would happen if you misbehaved, what would she do?

BB: Well she'd send you to the office and you'd get a whoopin', or if it wasn't 00:42:00very bad you'd have to stand in the corner with your whole-- stand in the corner or at the black board with your nose in the hole, or sit on the stool in the corner.

GS: Okay, did you-- did they have a Duns cap?

BB: Yeah

GS: Did they really?

BB: Yeah.

GS: Wow. Okay did you-- you already talked about your mom had Sunday school in the school building, did they attend church anywhere else when you were a child?

BB: No, and I taught my first Sunday school lesson when I was sixteen, taught the first graders

GS: In that school building?

BB: At Iron Post, yeah.

GS: What were Christmases like as a child?

BB: Oh, they were great! We didn't have wrapping paper, we didn't have money for 00:43:00it, you know. And we-- seems like we got a dollar for-- to buy with. But there's a big joke there that if you can get jigsaw puzzles for a dollar, for 25cents, either 25cents or a nickel, I think it was 25cents, but there was all six of us to buy for, you know, and so we would--

GS: I's just checking making sure it's still working, it is

BB: We would buy our brothers Bob and John, they just hated jigsaw puzzles, but my sister and I we just loved to work them. So every Christmas we'd buy them a jigsaw puzzle, and well-- to tell you what you wanted, you know. They, Tibbons, 00:44:00furnished a great big Christmas tree for the Iron Post school, and with the money we made off of putting on plays at Gypsy and Iron Post and whatever, they bought candy and they made they a sack for every family whose children went to school at Iron Post. It had an apple and an orange and package of gum and miscellaneous candy, and some nuts, it was real nice.

GS: And it was one per family?

BB: No, it was each child

GS: Oh okay

BB: Oh yeah we looked forward to that, but nobody wrapped their gifts and-- oh and we had Pie Suppers to raise money for Christmas too. But they put them in 00:45:00and under the Christmas tree, well every year me and my sister we got dolls, I still got my dolls that I got when I was 12 years old.

GS: Aw

BB: Mine would have blue dress and Peggy's would have a pink dress, and the boys got guns and I wanted a gun so bad

GS: I figured that

(Laughter)

BB: But I never did get one, like I said 12 years old got a-- we were still playing with dolls, you know, 12 years old. But when mom made the boys play with us half the day and the girls the other half of day, play house-- girls games and vice versa, so I got to use the guns, you know, half hour of the day. Oh and back to the puzzles, the boys hated them and we loved to work them and my 00:46:00brother John died at 75 I think it was and I bought him a puzzle every year, for him and Bob both for Christmas and then Bob would just get so mad after he got about, oh 18 years old or something, he would-- he's gonna throw it in the trash and then he learned I was putting money and stuff in it. But this year was Bobs birthday in March and he hasn't been here, but he loved John Wayne and I ordered a book of John Wayne and his life, and he came home and I found a puzzle box that the book would just fit in and I wrapped it and then I gift wrapped it real nice, and he hasn't been here yet, he's coming Saturday and he'll get his Christmas present

GS: (Laughter)

BB: And when he unwraps that and sees it's a puzzle, he'll give me the dirtiest look

GS: Surely he'll know you've got something else inside of it

BB: He'll see that box, puzzle box and he'll just know he got another puzzle

GS: I love that; I just love that. Do you remember going to any weddings when you were younger?

BB: No

GS: Okay we're gonna skip now to medical care.

BB: Uh-oh

GS: What was medical care like when you were a kid?

BB: Well there wasn't any really. I broke my collarbone and didn't go to the doctor, you can feel it.

GS: Oh my word

BB: When I was 19, I went to the doctor with the flu and he said "When did you break your collarbone?' well I knew when I broke it but I didn't tell him about it. 'Ol Dr. King, his mother and my mother-- my grandmother were good friends and he took care of us and every fall, he would mix up liniments and it was just 00:48:00his own secret and bring it out and it'd be a quart in a big bottle and mom called it horse liniments. That boy would cure your colds and whatever.

GG: Wow

BB: And he would bring his mother and leave her at my grandmother's house so they could tear all the neighbors apart

GS: Do you remember his black powder that he used to give people?

BB: Oh well I had-- I was-- it was actually, we were married and I was in Texas and I had a goiter and they wanted to operate and I said "No I'll, I'd rather see my doctor at home" and I-- and he gave me, I've still got it, but a little compact about that big that's full of something sad, but looked just like axel grease, black. And he said "Lay down, rub this on that place on your neck and stay there for an hour" that was during the noon hour, "And do get up, just lay 00:49:00there" and I said Ok, and it just got rid of it.

GS: Wow

BB: It was his own mixture, and I talked to his nurse later and I did his books and one time we visited, like one time I asked him, I said "How come you been married so many times Dr. King?" He says "Well, my daddy said it wasn't meant for man to live alone, and I believe him" He was a mess, he was a sweetheart

GS: I went to Dr. King when I was little

BB: Really? I just came across a clipping of, I'm gonna see if they'll put it in the paper about old time doctors and it's about him

GS: Oh yeah, we need that!

BB: It's real interesting, it's real interesting

GS: Yeah

BB: The buggy, horse and buggy doctor or something but it's the title

GS: How wonderful

BB: He was a great old man, you couldn't read his writing

GS: And the women usually gave birth at home, didn't they?

BB: Yes [Inaudible]

GS: Were you ever hospitalized? I don't think you were--

BB: Not that I remember

GS: Since you broke your collarbone and didn't get it fixed

BB: No not until after I got married, or you know.

GS: Okay let's skip now to Bristow, and we're still in early childhood here, so what was Bristow like in your early childhood? Did you get to come to Bristow often?

BB: We came on Saturdays a lot 'cus we brought stuff-- vegetables and stuff to the poor farm, and--

GS: Did you sell them to the poor farm or give them to the poor far?

BB: No we just gave them to the poor farm. But I know where the, it's the dollar store on main street, what's the name of that store?

GS: Dollar General

BB: Yeah Dollar General. Well around the corner, there was a bar and we would 00:51:00try to park across the street because every night there'd be a fight at the bar and they'd take it outside, you know. But we would sit in the car and watch the people go by or walk up and down the street and then we'd hope to see somebody we knew.

GS: Were was the poor farm located back then Bunny?

BB: Well, it-- I don't, I can't remember exactly but it was south of town and west off of the highway on the other side.

GS: South on 48?

BB: Mhm.

GS: How did most people travel in your childhood?

BB: Well, my mother still had a buggy, my grandmother still had a buggy, but we always had a car.

GS: Good, yeah. But were a lot-- were there kind of a mixture of cars and horses and buggy on the road?

BB: Yeah

GS: Okay

BB: And when you took cotton to town, of course you took it by wagon

GS: Yeah

BB: And they always let--a hard hand would take to town and my brother Bill always got to go, and I picked the same amount of cotton he did and I never could understand why they wouldn't let me go to town too

GS: Aww

BB: And then I, now I realize that--

GS: It wasn't safe

BB: Women didn't do that

GS: Yeah, yeah. What kind of businesses were in Bristow? What were some of the biggest businesses?

BB: Well JC Penny because that's where we bought what clothes we bought, and at Strongs (ph) they had a shoe store and all, but they had a thing that you stepped on to get the size of your shoe, it was real interesting, and--

GS: Was it like an x-ray machine?

BB: No, don't think so. It just-- might've been, it just showed up what size you 00:53:00wore. Might've been x-ray because there was a light under it

GS: Huh

BB: But--

GS: Or they maybe just called it that and it wasn't

BB: Yeah, Hamburger King and-- gee I can't remember.

GS: Did you ever eat at the Hamburger King as a child?

BB: Not as a child, nuh-uh. We never ate in town.

GS: What kind of clothes did people wear? How did they dress?

BB: Well, girls and women wore dresses

GS: How long were the dresses?

BB: Well some of them were back- way back when, well when school teachers couldn't wear anything, it had to be just above the ankle. And my grandmother boarded two school teachers who taught at Iron Post, so I can't remember that. 00:54:00But they were below the knee, I'd say, and my mother was-- had a lot of pride. She wouldn't go to town without her hat, her corset, and purse

GS: Aww

BB: Everybody wore a corset I guess

GS: And did she mostly make her clothes too? She made--

BB: Yeah, we bought feed sacks, feed at Cantrell's feed store and if we-- mom was wanting a dress, she'd buy two sacks alike to get the print.

GS: Enough material

BB: They were printed, yeah. Most of them were made out of them feed sacks.

GS: Did you ever come into Bristow for holiday events, or did Bristow have holiday events back then?

BB: I don't remember coming in, of course that was seven miles to drive over a 00:55:00rough road

GS: Yeah, yeah. What did you want to be when you grew up?

BB: Everything

(Laughter)

BB: Mostly a hunter and fisherman. Me and my brother John, we started hunting and fishing together when we were both super little. But when we grew up, we wanted to go to Alaska-- live in Alaska and hunt and trap fish.

GS: Did you ever make it to visit Alaska?

BB: No, made it close but we once lived in [Indecipherable] North Dakota fifty miles from the Canadian border

GS: Aw

BB: That's close as I got.

GS: What was your first job Bunny?

BB: Piggly Wiggly Grocery store

GS: Where was it?

BB: It was on the west side of main street down from, it was in the block south 00:56:00of, can't even think of what's there now, sixth street or something. You know where the bank was.

GS: Spirit or Community?

BB: First National

GS: Okay

BB: On the corner of main street, it was down south of there. That was during my junior and senior year, and then I went on to work with Maxine Jenkins at Lions Café as a soda jerk.

GS: Now just for generations that have never heard of soda jerk, what was a soda jerk? I know but let's hear it explained

BB: I don't really know myself, but it was when you made sodas, soda pop for people, you know. Had a tab.

GS: Did you do the ice cream too?

BB: Don't remember that.

GS: What kind of jobs have you had in your life? You've said you've had several.

BB: Maybe. First I took typing and short handing in high school. My first job after I graduated from high school was a friend got me on at Hamburger Kings, she was, I can't remember his name [Indecipherable], but she managed it--

GS: Was it Horainy (ph) that had it or was it Maxis? Maxis had it first, and then he sold it to Johnny Horainy (ph)

BB: It was Johnny

GS: Okay

BB: Yeah, and she-- all she did was boss me and I did all the work and she was making twelve dollars a week and I was making ten

GS: Aww

BB: And I thought "This is ridiculous" well my girls that I graduated with had all gone on to Tulsa and got jobs, so I said "well this is a mess" of course I 00:58:00wanted to be at home, and so I quit and went to Tulsa.

GS: Yup it's still running

BB: And got a job as a typist, me and Wanda Sanders at the candy building, and from there I got a job with a wholesale drug company and that was a riot, and I worked over night as a curb hawk for drive in and that was the money I earned to come home on, be there by bus or train.

GS: Now come home, where were you?

BB: Back to Bristow, in Tulsa

GS: Oh okay

BB: I was in Tulsa. Yeah and one night we girls decided that we were gonna [Inaudible] and we decided we would just-- the soldiers were crowded up there, they were saying you're in the big crowd, we thought we'd go shopping, in the shop to see what was going on. And we noticed all of the girls had their pant 00:59:00legs cuffed, ya know, so we thought that was in style, of course we was in the country and didn't know anything and so we rolled our cuff lengths up. Well some soldiers joined us, you know, but they didn't start walking with us and talking and so they said something about a hotel room, we didn't know what they was talking about, and they said well how come you've got your pants legs rolled up, that's what that means

GS: Oh my word, I never heard that!

BB: Well we rolled our pants legs cuff down so fast it's make your head spin

GS: So if a girl was easy, so to speak, they rolled their jeans up and the guy knew to take them out

BB: Right

GS: Oh my word, I never knew that. That's interesting

BB: I didn't know it either

(Laughter)

GS: You learned real quick though, didn't you?

BB: And the first-- on the first job I got, was just typing, and I had 01:00:00interviewed, you know, been interviewed you know, and well the first time Wanda and I, we'd just never been around stop lights

GS: Now who's Wanda?

BB: Wanda Sanders, she was my best friend

GS: Okay

BB: And we were walking across the street, crossing the street and a car honked at us and we weren't paying attention, you know when we had walked across the street, we got to work and to was our boss, we were crossing at a red light. And momma told us don't get in a car with strange men, she said whatever you do don't get in a car with strange men. Well, I was standing out in the rain one time waiting for the bus--

GS: Uh-huh

BB: To get to work, and a car stopped. It was pouring down rain and he was honking, you know, I wouldn't [Indecipherable] I looked the other way and kept 01:01:00waiting, and finally he drove on, well that was our boss too. I had-- it was always something like that going on with me

GS: (Laughter)

BB: And you had to ride-- we rode the train home and we couldn't get a seat, you had to hold on because it's so full of service men and people who couldn't get a seat, and Tom, my oldest nephew, he-- of course his dad was killed in [Indecipherable] and he wanted a rabbit so bad, and you couldn't get a rabbit in Bristow, so I bought him a rabbit from Tulsa and you weren't supposed to take things like that on the train, so I hid it under my coat and I looked like I was pregnant and everybody was giving room for me, you know. And then another time he wanted a stick horse, so I bought him a stick horse, I [Indecipherable] everybody on that train, [Indecipherable]

(Laughter)

GS: On purpose or accidently?

BB: No, accidentally because it was long, you know, it was sticking out from under my coat. I've always had a lot of fun, usually at my expense.

GS: Okay I wanna know about when you met MerleBB: I knew him all my life, I guess. They played, you know, music for the Pie Suppers and everything, so we'd go in and hear them

GS: Was he from the Iron Post area also?

BB: No he was from down by-- well at first he was over on the east of Talaha (ph) [Indecipherable]

GS: Okay

BB: And then they moved to south of town, I think he went to school at Valentine maybe

GS: Okay

BB: And, but he-- I don't know they might have had a bus running from Gypsy down 01:03:00there, but I never knew him until he was, you know, he was in school at Gypsy.

GS: So did he ask you out on a first date?

BB: No, they would come to him and Dilmore would come to that place on Tibbons lease, you know, where we had the games and all, and he would walk me home and there were a bunch of people on north of me that walked, we'd all walk together and he would walk me home. And he played the banjo, and his brother played the guitar at that time, and I wanted his brother to walk me home, but every time his brother would ask to walk me home, well Merle would intervene, he wouldn't have it. Well I didn't like Merle very well. But anyway, he never-- Merle never turned loose, and one time I told him, you know, I didn't wanna see him anymore, 01:04:00I couldn't run him off, and my sister and I in our old smoke house we made it into a bedroom for us, and mom, well she wasn't well then, and we had an old wire couch that folded up that I [Inaudible]. And so us kids would play music out there, well Merle he would come and he left his banjo out there, and he would come up and he would play the banjo and I'd play the basket or guitar, and he'd get ready to leave and he'd say "You gonna kiss me goodnight?" I thought "I don't kiss boys". Peggy would say "Well I'll kiss you Merle" So [Indecipherable]

(Laughter)

GS: Now who's Peggy?

BB: My sister

GS: Oh

BB: Just younger than me

GS: Okay

BB: But one time he came to the house and he-- I didn't let him stay he threatened to kill himself he had something in his hand, and I said "Well kill 01:05:00yourself if you want to" but he says "I'm not coming to see you, I'm coming to see Bobby" and he just kept coming to the house, you know. And then come to find out in later years, he told all the boys in High School that I dated [Indecipherable] just one or two or three, and well I'd get tickled, you know, sometimes I'd get tickled. I wouldn't date him anymore. But he told them to lay of off me, you know, and if some- only way you knew somebody was coming to see you was going to show up because there's no telephones or anything. And I remember Francis Wrestler had come to see me, and we were outside of course talking and Merle came up and he stayed till after he left. Uh he was-- I couldn't get rid of him

GS: So what did he do to finally win your heart?

BB: Well, when I was 14 or 15, and Kenneth Mann had- that was when they were 01:06:00building ships for the war and paying good money, so Kenneth left school and went to California and told Merle that, you know, it's a good deal out there. So Merle went, and he-- well Kenneth, they tried to get us girls to go with them and marry them, and Marie went; she was just 15.

GS: Oh my goodness

BB: And I said "I don't wanna get married" and I wasn't about to take off with him, and I didn't let boys kiss me. I didn't want any, if they weren't fun, forget it. And so Merle ended up sending me a set of rings, and I told mom "What am I to do with this?" I said "I don't want them, I'm not gonna get married" and she said "Well if you don't want them, send them back to him" so I did. And he- 01:07:00there was a peach orchard between the highway and their house, he had stopped there before he left trying to get me to marry him and I told him, I said "No, I'm not interested" And so after he was in the service and got out, he was in there for four years, and he got out, and we were going-- he came, of course to the house, and he was going to move down, I was with him to [Indecipherable] his house, well we stopped at the peach orchard, and I thought "Uh-oh" he pulled out those same rings, well what do you do? So, we got married

GS: (Laughter) Not exactly sweeping you off your feet, was he?

BB: Yeah and then after we moved to town, well you know back then the soldiers whistled at the girls and when we would go out, you know, any place, we had to 01:08:00go out to eat a hamburger because I didn't cook, I didn't have anything to cook with. And if somebody whistled at me, he'd say "wait here" and he'd be ready to fight 'em.

GS: Oh my goodness

BB: So I quit going out with him, I just quit going out with him. And come to find out, after he died, somebody, I can't remember his name, he told me that Merle told those boys [Indecipherable] that they better keep their hands off of me.

GS: He really was smitten by you Bunny

BB: He'd kill me if I run around on him as they say.

GS: Yeah sounds like it, what was your wedding like?

BB: Well it was night,'course it was nice because I had to keep laughing. Well, he bought me a big bouquet and I was shaking and the leaves were rattling.

GS: (Laughter) And that got you tickled

BB: Well the preacher was my cousin and he didn't look at me afraid he would laugh if I was looking. Didn't look at him afraid he would laugh, but my daddy gave me away, and my sister, oldest sister was my bridesmaid, and Johnny, Nathans mother mother had a flower shop here and so [Indecipherable] his best man. And I was-- I had a date Saturday night before, and on Tuesday, Tuesday I had told him I would marry him. I felt sorry for him, he couldn't even eat, you know, couldn't keep food down his stomach, he just weighed 120 pounds

GS: Oh my word

BB: He lived on rations all those years and he couldn't eat, and I felt so sorry for him so I thought "Well, I'll marry him and get him on his feet then he can marry somebody else" and I had told him that on Tuesday night, Saturday night I 01:10:00had a date with somebody else, and I wasn't about to give up the date, so I had a date. Anyway

GS: Did you ever go to the bigger cities like Tulsa or Oklahoma City?

BB: I don't ever remember going to Oklahoma City till after I had Donna lived up there

GS: Did you ever take the train back then?

BB: No

GS: Anywhere?

BB: Just to Tulsa; well yeah I was in Tulsa a lot, 'cus I worked up there

GS: Yeah once you started working there

BB: Yeah

GS: Do you remember when, well no 'cus you were born that year so you wouldn't have remembered when route 66 was built.

BB: No

GS: Okay, let's go--

BB: I had two cousins that helped build the road to Slick from Bristow

GS: I'm gonna skip some of these questions and ask you about your involvement 01:11:00with Western Heritage Days

BB: Well, I helped-- I guess I helped get it started and all-- we were all working together. Merle, he learned to weld in the shipyards, you know, and Doy Cochran (ph) was a welder, he had his own business, and they were the special welders that built this arena in there where the chestcord (ph) is now. And, but with help from everybody, everybody was interested, and as they welded the pipes together, Warren, well shoot I can't think of her name, he was a policeman

GS: Hall, Freddie Hall?

BB: No

GS: No

BB: Warren

GS: I don't know, that's okay

BB: But anyway we painted them, we painted them the same

GS: And what did you do with them?

BB: Well we painted the corrals 'cus they built them

GS: Oh okay, for the rodeo?

BB: Yeah. And uh--

GS: What about the parades and everything? Did you help with that?

BB: Well not particularly.

GS: What about that picture of you that we have when you're all dressed up in your costume as a Saloon lady

BB: Yeah

GS: What about that?

BB: Well if I was meeting a man on the street, he would've looked at me kind of questionably. And if he had on a hat, he would-- he would be smiling too. But I had a Gingham dress too, but that was the most popular. And one time at the end of the parade, I went to stand on the west side to watch the rest of the parade 01:13:00and Mr. Poston (ph), highly a religious man was there, but I standing kind of against the building about that far. But he looked at me like that and he scooted over

GS: (Laughter) He thought you were the real thing, didn't he?

BB: Yeah, but what the funniest thing was, Merle had told me I was-- you know wore a dress one day then the other, the next day, and I was-- had that red dress on and so Merle told me he said "I'll pay for your lunch if you meet me down at the J&J at 12 o'clock" and I said "okay" and I'd made my little, little bag, ya know, to match my dress and so he said, I told him I'd be there at 12 o'clock. Well, I was late and he says "How come you're late?" and I had took a ten-dollar bill and had it changed into quarters and I just threw that on the table and I said "Well what do you think?"

GS: (Laughter)

BB: He just gave me a dirty look; he knew I wouldn't have been worth a quarter

GS: Now you've told me some stories before about the-- some of the pranks and jokes you and Merle would play on each other. Your marriage was pretty much--

BB: Play

GS: Play. Can you recall any of them?

BB: Oh, that's all you can do that, if you recall it it's something. We were always at each other, we were trying to put something off on each other, and just like that quarter game. But, well for one thing he would-- he would, he was ornery. And one year for every fourth of July, all the family was at the house and the boys would go play golf and we had a big ice cream freezer and we'd make ice cream. Well his birthday was the twelfth of June and so he told me what he 01:15:00wanted for his birthday was an electric ice cream freezer, so I-- that's what I bought him for his birthday, I had no idea what he was thinking. And the boys, Merle of course beat them all at golf so he didn't have to turn the freezer but all the other guys took turns turning the freezer and it finally froze so hard that they had to quit. Well Merle came out of the house with his ice cream freezer and he says "boys look what I got for my birthday" I thought they were gonna kill him

GS: Oh after they had made it the other way

BB: Yeah

GS: (Laughter)

BB: Crazy thing

GS: Oh my goodness

BB: And then, oh one of the good times I got off on him, I was planting flowers along the fence and then we had a yard fence and then two strands of barbed wire above that, and he came up behind me and I didn't know it and poked me with his 01:16:00ho or something, and I jumped and I jumped between those two barbed wire fences and my hair, of course I had long hair and it was all tangled up, and he was just dying laughing until he saw my head was bleeding. Then he started helping me get out, get untangled, you know. Well that was fine; but wasn't long after that that we had this 8-foot picture window in the living room that you could see clear down to the end of the road. And so he came in, took a bath, and he was in his shorts sitting in his chair, he was on this side of the window and I was over here, I could see down the road. And we were sitting there watching television and I had that table that's-- that's table for the old home, and I said "Oh gosh Merle here comes a car" and he jumped up and he jumped across that table and hit it and fell off of it, and he jumped up again and he took off down the hall

(Laughter)

BB: And pretty soon he came back dressed, you know, and he says "Who was it?" and I said "Oh it wasn't anybody, I just thought it was somebody" he just gave me a dirty look. That's how I got even with him.

GS: That sounds like you sure did. Do you remember when Bristow was segregated? Do you have any memories of that?

BB: No I don't because we weren't segregated, we had a family called Mason family and they had a lot of kids and they were poor. They picked our cotton every year, picked for but we had to pick too, but they picked for us. We [Indecipherable] a lot of cotton, but we-- we helped black people all we could.

GS: Yeah

BB: We didn't-- but when we went to build the barn, it's build on telephone poles that was disbanded, and Merle was trying to get one of them down the road 01:18:00to help him and he said he was afraid that he would lose his assistance from the government, so I had to help him. And I was up on top of one of those telephone poles. We were building it, and the poles were in the ground, but we were stretching woods across from one pole to the other. And I got on top of one of those telephone poles to be sure we got this board leveled, and he was gonna- looked down and he was about to poke me with a stick, I'd have fell off of that telephone pole.

GS: Oh my goodness!

BB: Crazy thing, and he would weld. He built our pens and everything and I would help him. And one time he tried- he was gonna hand me a red hot piece of pipe, you know.

GS: Oh gosh that would've hurt

BB: Yeah, you had to keep your eye on him! Of course he kept his eye on me too

GS: I was gonna say I bet he had to keep his eye on you too

BB: Yeah

(Laughter)

GS: Do you have any memories of the great depression? I know you were pretty small and--

BB: Yeah but all I remember is we were poor, you know. If we didn't raise our food, we wouldn't have had any food.

GS: Did any of your-- was any of your family involved in any of the government assistant work programs?

BB: No, but at one time the government at Iron Post, they sent beans home with each family according to the size of the family and we had six of us, we had a big stack of beans. Well, guess who had to do the carrying 'cus he's biggest? And we quit-- we traded off some but I had to carry them mostly. And--

GS: I bet they got pretty heavy

BB: They did after a mile

GS: How far did you have to walk?

BB: A mile. But I was always stout, you know.

GS: Yeah

BB: Working outside and everything

GS: Do you remember any of the-- I know you said none of your family worked for the WPA, but do you remember coming into Bristow when they maybe built the amphitheater or when Mrs. Roosevelt came and dedicated it in the building?

BB: Well mom would bring us to town like there was somebody, Landon I think it was, ran for president. He'd come on the train and talk on the back of the train, and she would bring us to town to see those people, she was always very good with--

GS: Political binded

BB: Yeah political binded. But I don't remember that

GS: Okay, okay.

BB: I might've come, but I don't remember it.

GS: She was [Indecipherable]. Was she involved in politics in any other way?

BB: Well, I don't know if she was always-- she, there was a mayor Brong (ph). Anyway, she always came to their meetings, you know, she was always interested in the government, whatever was going on so I guess she was interested in politics.

GS: Did any of your family members ever run for office?

BB: No

GS: Did your mother mention when women got suffrage when they got the right to vote, anything about that? Now you've mentioned the 40's, what year did you graduate? Well, what year did you-- well let me just skip that part. What are your memories of WWII?

BB: Well, foil. I'm reminded of that every day, I just hate to waste a piece of foil because we collected foil, they needed it for armory. And even chewing gum, each stick was wrapped in foil, and boy we-- if somebody was chewing gum, we would watch and the one that had the biggest ball of foil at a certain time, we'd turn them in every so often. And the one that had the biggest one got a package of gum

GS: Well

BB: I remember that.

GS: That's the way they got kid to recycle.

BB: Yeah, and I've got some things about that over there to get toothpaste or something, you had to bring an empty tube.

GS: Do you remember your ration books that your mother had?

BB: Yeah, yeah. Sugar and gasoline and everything, but mama Foster got a ration book and she didn't go anyplace so we got to use hers

GS: Well that helped a big family

BB: Yeah, yeah it did.

GS: Did she live very far away from you?

BB: Half a mile

GS: Half a mile, that's good. Did anybody, I know your husband Merle served in WWII, tell me about that.

BB: Well, he-- he was on, he was on the [Indecipherable] canal and all those little islands around there, [Indecipherable]

GS: What, was he in the marines?

BB: Yeah, my brother was in the navy

GS: Okay

BB: And he burned his feet, they were fighting with fire on the walls I think it 01:24:00was. And a boy worked for us, the neighbor boys would work for us and just come and live with us. When they got sixteen, their dad's would run them off and they'd come to our house and they'd [Indecipherable] and moved on. But Alfred Dobson (ph), Pete's brother, he was working for us and he quit to join the navy, and he was on the wasp, and we never found his body.

GS: Aw, was the wasp, did it go down?

BB: Yeah, Japanese.

GS: In Pearl Harbor or out on the-

BB: Out in the

GS: Out in the ocean, in the ocean

BB: Yeah in the ocean

GS: But your brother survived

BB: Yeah he had burned feet, but he got out

GS: Good, was your brother and Merle the only two who served in-

BB: In WWII

GS: In WWII?

BB: No.

GS: Did you-- were you, did your family listen to the war news on the radio?

BB: I don't know because I wasn't home [Inaudible]

GS: You mentioned the radio battery earlier, was it a car battery that you used on your radio?

BB: I don't--

GS: I've heard some people used car batteries

BB: I don't know

GS: Don't remember, okay. Did you read any newspapers as a young adult?

BB: Yes

GS: What newspapers did you read?

BB: Tulsa

GS: Tulsa World or whatever it was back then

BB: Tulsa World. Yeah, that's where I have all these old clippings because there wasn't anything to do, and I was always interested in History, and so I've got a box full of old newspaper clippings

GS: Oh

BB: Even at the beginning of World War II

GS: That's wonderful. What would you consider to be the most important inventions during your lifetime?

BB: Wow so many

GS: Yes, there are. There's so many that have impacted life, it would be hard to 01:26:00pick just a few favorite.

BB: Yeah, I guess most important would be the computers. But I don't have one, don't want one. I've gone this long, long time without one, don't need one.

GS: What event would you say influence the world the most during your lifetime? Event or events?

BB: I would say World War II

GS: Did you-- were you aware during WWII of what Hitler was doing?

BB: Yes, I kept up with the news. Mom insisted on a daily newspaper, so.

GS: Oh, this is a loaded question; how different is the world today than it was 01:27:00when you were a child?

BB: Just as different as you can get

GS: Yeah

BB: Absolutely just exactly different. There's no-- you can't punish children for anything, you can't punish murderers for anything, there's no laws, no regulations, everybody can do whatever you want you, and you won't get punished very bad for it. No manners, kids don't have manners, they're not being taught manners and good behavior.

GS: And that has to come from home and they're not getting it at home.

BB: That's right, that's right. I can remember mom was pretty good, she was bad on manners and we weren't allowed to eat until everybody was seated at the table, and if you wanted to leave earlier than most people, you had to be excused from the table. And you didn't slam doors, and Tom was about three or 01:28:00four years old and he was at our house and we had a door between the living room and the kitchen, and he was upset about something, he-- mom had got onto him for some reason, and he slammed the door, but we didn't hear his footsteps leaving, so he just there waiting. He came back, opened the door and he said "Anytime I slam a door like that, you know I'm mad" and he [Indecipherable] and she said "You go home before you get in trouble".

GS: Ooh! I think you kind of alluded to the problems, but I'm gonna ask this question anyway. As you see it, what are the biggest problems that face out nation today?

BB: Love

GS: What?

BB: Love

GS: Love

BB: If you love people you wouldn't treat them like you do. Everybody's greedy, everybody's ready to cheat anybody out of a dollar, and--

GS: It is a sad state

BB: It really is, don't look out for one another at all. And that's the way we were raised, we were raised to look out for one another. Backed people whoever

GS: Yup, okay we've talked about a lot; is there anything else you'd like to tell us that I haven't thought of to ask ya?

BB: There's a lot of things I'd like to tell you but I don't-- wouldn't want it on tape

(Laughter)

GS: Is there anything of historic significance that you could tell me that you would want to have on tape?

BB: Yes, there's one thing I'm so proud of. I worked for the first CPA in Bristow

GS: And who was that?

BB: C. C. Wilson

GS: C. C. Wilson, and what did you do?

BB: Kept books.

GS: K, okay. And what year was that, years? Decade would work.

BB: Probably not, I don't remember

GS: Was it after you and Merle were married?

BB: Yes

GS: So sometime after 45'

BB: Yeah

GS: When did you stop working for him?

BB: Well see, when he died, he left the office-- office, he had five offices and he left the offices to the manager [Indecipherable] Bristow office, the Johnny Simmons (ph)

GS: Oh okay

BB: And I remember Johnny Simmons, but-

GS:I think I knew that and had forgotten.

BB: I have no clue, don't know how long.

GS: Okay. Well I'll tell ya Bunny, if you think of anything else that you think "Oh man this would've gone good in that", you call me and I'll bring the little recorder back and we'll get it taken care of, okay?

BB: Well, I-- My ambition was to be a-- was a reporter

GS: Court recorder, or reporter?

BB: Reporter, I worked for a, what was his name, out at the house, I typed for 01:31:00him. The court reporter here. I can't think of the name, but we had money for a camper, fast boats, anything you wanna mention, but we never had the money for a machine so I could be a reporter.

GS: Now I didn't ask you how long you and Merle were married

BB: It was sixty- no fifty-eight years

GS: Fifty-eight years

BB: Because I was looking forward to sixty

GS: Aw

BB: He didn't make it

GS: When did he pass away Bunny?

BB: Hm, can't remember

GS: That's okay

BB: I've got it down

GS: It's okay; that'll work, that'll work. Well I really appreciate your doing 01:32:00this, we at the museum were all excited! Linda said "Oh those are two heavy weights you're doing, you and Caroline Webb" so, I haven't got to do Caroline yet but I think I should've stopped this before I rambled. Yup it's still going.