Richard Overton's Oral History Interview MIKE ZAMBRANO: This Is
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Richard Overton's Oral History Interview MIKE ZAMBRANO: This is Mike Zambrano. Today is December 3rd, 2013. I'm interviewing Mr. Richard Overton at his home in Austin, Texas. This interview is in support of the Nimitz Education and Research Center Archives for the National Museum of the Pacific War in Texas, Texas Historical Commission for the Preservation of Historical Information related to the site. Good morning, sir, and how are you? RICHARD OVERTON: You have to turn on the light, because I'm telling you, I don't know why I got a little weak (inaudible). MZ: Oh, that's okay. RO: Yeah. MZ: Can you give me your full name, please? RO: Richard Arlen Overton. MZ: And what year were you born in? RO: Nineteen-oh-six, May the 11th. MZ: Where were you born? RO: In St. Mary's Colony. That's down here between Larcourte and Bastrop. MZ: Okay. Would you have a -- I'm sure you had brothers and sisters, right? 1 RO: I did, but I don't have any one now. All of 'em dead. Mother, father, and all. MZ: How many brothers did you have? RO: Four brothers, with myself, and six sisters. MZ: Wow. RO: Ten children in all. MZ: Where were you in that? Were you in the middle, were you the oldest, the youngest? RO: I was the -- about the fourth. I was about the fourth one. MZ: What did your father do for a living? RO: Well, we lived in the country. We picked cotton, chopped cotton, shuck hay, pull corn. All ton of country work there out in the country. MZ: And I -- I'm just guessing, your mother was the -- was a homemaker? RO: Yes, she was a homemaker. She didn't work too much. She'd take care of the kids. MZ: And I'm just curious, but as you all got older, did you also work to contribute to the family? RO: I didn't understand you. MZ: When -- as the kids, as your brothers and sisters -- as -- and you got older, did you all contribute to working for the family? RO: Yeah. 2 MZ: Can you tell me a little bit about your schooling? RO: Schooling? I went to school in the country. I didn't go to no college. I went 'til 11th grade, and that's far as I got. I had to quit and take care of my family, take care of my mother. MZ: To take care of her? Did she get sick? RO: No, I just take care of the family. MZ: Oh, okay. RO: And my father died, and so I just remembered one year, he died (inaudible) I had to stop -- had to take care of the kids, 'cause the older boy, the older sister was (inaudible) than I was, they was working, you know, they'd come to town. And the oldest brother, he married and left. Oldest sister married and she left. And so -- and left me there with the family, and I'd take care of the family. MZ: So, did -- what school were you at when you were in the 11th grade? RO: Pleasant Valley. MZ: Pleasant Valley? RO: Yeah, Pleasant Valley. That's the -- out there between Creedmoor and Lockhart. MZ: Okay. So, you were born in 1926. RO: Nineteen-oh-six. MZ: I'm sorry. I'm sorry, that's right -- 3 RO: Yeah. MZ: -- 1906. What's it like before the Depression? RO: Hmm? MZ: What's it like before the Depression hit? RO: Depression? MZ: Well, before the Depression, what was it like? RO: Well, it wasn't so bad with us. But I did start -- when I started to work, I working for 50 cents a day. (laughs) MZ: Wow. RO: And worked a long time that way, until it went up to, I believe, about -- dollar a day or something like that. MZ: And you worked, like you said before, picking cotton -- RO: Oh, yeah. MZ: -- and other things? RO: Picked cotton, chopped cotton, build -- helped the white folks out to build houses, and I worked on cars. I used to be a good mechanic. I work on cars -- MZ: Wow. So, you did a little bit of everything, then. RO: Yeah, and I had me -- I had some cattle. I didn't have no cattle, but it -- the -- on the -- they had big dairies out there, too. And whenever the calf have a -- whenever a cow have a little calf, they couldn't keep the calf. They'd give 'em to me. I was a good fellah in the country with the white folks and the people, and they'd give me the 4 calf. They wouldn't sell me the calf. They'd give me the calf, and I'd keep the calf up until he get big enough to sell, and I'd sell him. MZ: What could you get for it? RO: We get 25 and $30. That wasn't no money, I was living off of $30, $20 a month. You can -- everything's very cheap there. Soda water was a nickel, chewing gum was a nickel, and gas was -- I think it was around 15 cents. Yeah. Yeah. MZ: Well, that's different from today, huh? (laughs) When the Depression does come around, how does that hit your family? RO: When the Depression comes? Well, it wasn't -- it come round in '25 -- 'cause '25, we didn't have a drop of rain. That whole year, we didn't have any rain at all. But we did have a well right down below where I live in the -- had a home in the country there, and had a well, then. So, that well saved us a little water. But we didn't have a rain -- no rain whatsoever, but we had a lot of storms. This time of year, that's when -- the cloud looks funny now. They change from time -- these clouds -- changes -- back before wintertime come, they -- it's a -- look like a bigger cloud. And then -- but right along until this time of year, they gets more storms in East Texas, and high water. But here in Austin, here in this area, we didn't 5 get much rain and much high water until that water quit raining down yonder, and now it's going to start to -- the weather change up here. The cloud get difficult -- which - - people say the other day, "Don't that cloud look funny?" But I try to tell them that, but they don't ever pay me no attention. It's different in the clouds. (laughs) The cloud makes a bigger difference. It's a bigger cloud, darker cloud down here next month from now, this time of year, then the cloud is more of a -- now, it's a pretty slick cloud and it looks like it's higher. MZ: So, sounds like you know your clouds. RO: Uh-huh. MZ: It sounds like you know your clouds. RO: Yeah. MZ: Does the -- how -- but the Depression, how -- did it hit your family pretty hard or did you not even (inaudible). RO: Well, it -- MZ: -- no matter what? RO: No, it hit some people pretty hard, and it hit lots of 'em -- hit 'em pretty hard, because they didn't have no way to -- there wasn't nothing to do. Well, they couldn't plant no cotton. It wouldn't grow. And you couldn't plant no (inaudible) food, and -- they used to plant corn and go out and take the corn when it get hard -- they take it and 6 (inaudible) shell it and grind it (inaudible) to the grinder, and they would make meal out of it. That's where they'd get the cornbread. But flour, you get a little sack of flour for a dollar and a quarter. But it was a big 24- pound sack of flour. MZ: (laughs) That's incredible. RO: Yeah. And then, we had -- well, always -- we always had chickens, turkeys -- see, I was out there raising that. That's what I used to do: raise chicken, turkeys, and had some birddogs. I would get a hundred dollars a birddog. I always worked. I always tried to know how to live. (laughs) I know it -- I didn't have no trouble. And that car sitting yonder, that's the first car I bought. MZ: The one on the TV set? RO: Yeah, $2,400, but -- MZ: What kind of car is that one? RO: Mercury. MZ: What year? RO: Nineteen seven -- nineteen twenty-five, I believe. So, back in '24. I bought that in, yeah, in '24. I paid $2,400 for it, 'cause I had another car -- I had another -- no, that wasn't the first car. I had another old car I traded in on that car. Cars was cheap then. They're like 7 gas. Gas was 15 cents and a dime, some gallon -- some different gas. MZ: So, it sounds like your family at least had enough to eat during the Depression. RO: Oh, yeah. Yeah, during Depression, yeah, we had hogs, we (inaudible) hogs. And we'd kill a hog every year. We had chickens, and we were -- we had a kind of a nice place out there, and we would raise our own stuff. And one time, we was at church one Sunday, and four boys was talking. And they say to her, "I wish I had a way to get to West Texas. I would -- I had a way to get to West Texas, I could make a living." I say, "What happened?" He said, "The cotton out there is $100" -- dollar a hundred, I mean to say.