Bowman Transcript

Retha Bowman 4/15/03, T1, S1 RB: …till I was at five. And then we came back to Union County and my mother taught at the old Ladd Canyon School. And this would be...shoot…seventy-some years ago ‘cause I’m eighty-four now. I: So you’ve been here since then? RB: I…oh, yeah. I’ve lived here all my life really, then, see, except for those. And my mother taught there and taught at Blue Mountain and Willow Dale and at different small schools around. And so we lived here and then…does that…I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what that says for ya. I: That’s fine. What schools did you go to? RB: I went to Ladd Canyon and then to Perry. My mother was…there were two…there are two buildings up there in Perry, or were, I don’t know, there were two school buildings, quite nice ones. And my mother was…taught the upper grades and was principal. And then another person taught…usually a woman…taught the first four grades like one, two, three, four in one building and Mom had five, six, seven, eight and was principal of both buildings. And so we lived at Perry for a while. And then we lived in La Grande a while and then I went… When I was seventeen I went out to teach in North Powder out there. So taught there three years and got married. I: Did… Do you remember anything about going to school in the little schools? RB: Oh, I was gonna say… Oh yeah, I remember about going…goin’ up there. And when I was in eighth grade I came…I went to Central and then I went to high school here and I graduated from Eastern Oregon three times, one for my bachelors, one for a masters and…I shouldn’t say three times…yeah, well, the first time I had a certificate. When you first went to…when…when I was going to college it was a normal…what they called a normal school and all we…all that was there were people who were gonna be teachers. And so…and you’ve probably heard this from other people, too. I: Yeah, I know a little bit about it. RB: And then I…when I graduated I had a teaching certificate, I didn’t have a degree. So I had that one. Then I went back and got my bachelors and then I got my masters and I was within just a few hours of a…well, I could’ve taken my orals if I’d ‘ve wanted to for my PhD, but I didn’t…I didn’t go to…I didn’t think I’d probably ever need that. But I don’t know, you’re…this is hard for you because how do you know what…! I: We have some like generic questions. RB: Hmm? I: We have some generic questions and then we can… RB: I don’t care what you ask me. I just don’t think my answers are very good. I: No, no. Anything is good. Do you remember what it was like at the normal school? What classes you were in? RB: Yes, I know quite a bit about it because it was all in one building, in the administration building. And down on the west end was the library. And there was a music room. I think there were two…three floors, I think. But we did everything right in that building. And then while I was going they finished Ackerman my first year so I did my…I went three terms and then one summer and then winter term and I did my student teaching in Ackerman then. I: So when they built Ackerman did they move the kids out of the Inlow into Ackerman or did they keep ‘em…? ‘Cause before weren’t they… RB: You had to…you applied…you applied to put your children or signed up or whatever for your turn to go to Ackerman because it was supposed to be the school they were using innovative ideas and all this stuff. And actually…and they had a lot of student teachers and I’m not too sure whether they’re good for the kids, but… [laughs] I: I bet it was interesting, though, to go to college… RB: We didn’t know anything else so we really enjoyed… And in those days people didn’t have a lot of money, cash money, and so I was very fortunate…my sister and I both…I felt to get to even go to college. You know, most people when I was…like when I was sixteen or seventeen a lot of people had never been to the ocean yet. I mean you had one family car. When we lived in Perry we drove…Mom had got a new Model-T and I can remember riding in the front seat and we’d go to Perry and this little Model-T had bicycle wheels it looked like, you know, and we didn’t have studs, we didn’t have…I don’t know about chains, I suppose we must’ve had chains because… And it used to snow a lot more than it does now. I can remember stickin’ my head out the windshield and tryin’ to keep a lot of the snow off of the windshield for Mom just gettin’ from here… And then we just did that…we lived in Perry and we bought some property in La Grande and Dad built us a home out on H Street so that last year I rode…we drove to Perry instead of renting a place up there. I: Is it… RB: Go ahead. I: Was it dirt road out there at that time, too? RB: The highway? I: Yeah. RB: No, I think it was paved, but it was not very…you know, it wasn’t… I: Like one lane? RB: Well, you could… You know, we…you know, remember…do you know where the viewpoint is goin’ to Portland when you go up out and you get down there near Hood River and…? Well, you can drive on this little narrow road and it takes you way up here like this and then you go back down to the… Well, that’s what…that’s the old highway. And actually, if you had a flat tire or something you pretty much took up a lot of the road, you know. But it’s like a lot of people were…see, I was born in 1918 right after the war and people…people had jobs pretty much, but there wasn’t a lot…you didn’t have a lot of cash in your…in your house, you know, I mean… And everybody was in the same boat. You were all kind of what you thought were poor, but everybody was poor, too [laughs] as far as cash and money goes. I’m probably not answering you like anybody else you’ve interviewed. I: No. You’re actually my first interview. RB: Oh, you’re just…you’re workin’ on me. I: Yeah. RB: Okay. I: So, I’m tryin’ to see… RB: Who asked you? I: I’m volunteering as…I’m a college student… RB: I figured. I: And I’m doing it as a school project as a volunteer. RB: Good. This Dr. Johnson that just died…did you read about him in the paper? I: No, I didn’t. RB: He taught Oregon history at…well, other things too, but mainly his field was Oregon history and he was…Lee Johnson, he taught in the college. I: Did you remember him? RB: Oh heavens yes! I: Take classes from him? RB: He’s ninety. See, he’s only six years older than I am. I: And he was your professor? RB: He was one of the professors, yeah. Very good. And he knew his Oregon history, that’s for sure. I: Did… Did you have any experiences with the health care at that time? RB: Health care? I: Did they have the… RB: They gave us a little small pox shot. I think it was small pox. I: Yeah, I think that’s the one __. RB: Yeah. And made a big __. I: Did they have the hospital here then? RB: You mean…you’re talking about… I had the shot at college. Did we have a hospital here when I was little? I: Yeah. RB: We had when my kids were born. I think… I think probably the old Grande Ronde hospital…which was as you go out of town… I: Mm-hmm. On the old highway. RB: On the left on the old highway. It was there when I was… I don’t know about when I was a little kid, I don’t remember that, but… I: So were there many doctor…just small practices? RB: What? I can’t hear you. I: Were there mainly small practices of independent doctors? RB: We had doctors in those days who even made home visits. I mean I wouldn’t mind goin’ back to the good old days at all. I think medical…I really think that…even when like when my Mom and Dad were ill their doctors would…I don’t mean they always made…had to make a house call, but they’d come and visit you.

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