Interview of Grace Walsh
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INTERVIEW OF GRACE WALSH (Start of tape- Side A) (No date, no introduction) GW: Some of the shows. These things are dated way back. 1925, 26. A mutual cousin- one of my cousins was Bing Crosby, and we went in Seattle , Tacoma, and Spokane. He had this little , this little band stand and I never could go to school during the first month of school, because I had hay fever so bad I would have to wait until the first heavy frost and I would go to school. Wherever I happened to be. I was sent all over. Out to Seattle, and I would beg to come home. School was starting, I was lonesome, I would follow the mailman for blocks, and finally convince my father to let me come home and they carried me off the train because when we got across in Spokane the sneezes started and it never stopped until I got to St. Paul. Well, I brought that memory book ofthose happy days. I brought you the yearbook of the Class of 1928 from New Richmond High School. One of the smartest I ever knew was one of my debate colleagues Dick Thompson, special agent for the FBI for many years. He has a place up at the Apple River. Here is a scrapbook, which I think has value. This is from all the years of high school in New Richmond. I have in there the basketball scores. We used to put out plaques in the city streets when we had a debate and people paid to come to them. George Oaks was the chairman, and he would give a long talk about the value of debate. How our hearts would be beating, we knew the values. We wanted to know whether we won the debate or not. Our speeches were always interrupted by Harry Smith. He was on the school board, and if he liked the argument he would say, Ata boy, atta boy. Our speeches were punctuated by "Ata boys" from Harry Smith. This is the thing that some of you would have fun looking over. Over here is something I think is of great value. It is a collection of newspapers that came from the Washington Star and I have never opened them. A relative was married to a man that was head of the government printing office and this was from the Evening Star in Washington, DC. It is the 1961 presidential, enogral addition. They are all here. It is now 25 years old and it is all for you. Now I have a little quotation to put at the end. I have left out an awful lot that I have missed about class reunions, we had a 50th one. I have some fun here about words that meant things different when we were young. "Erastondal says, in the misfortunes of life true friends are a sure refuge", and I think that these great friends are New Richmond people who have been a great refuge to me, and so I will end with this. Wishing you always walls from the wind, and a roof for the rain, and tea beside the fire. Laughter to cheer you. And those you love near you, and all that your heart may desire. God ~·.. ' 1 gave us memories that we might have roses in December, and in my life I've had many roses in December. When I remember bygone days I think how evening always follows morn. So many that I loved were not yet dead then, and so many I love now were not yet born. Thank you. (clapping Now I said I would answer any questions that I could if you have anything that you would like to ask me. About old days and old times. As I approach the 77th year of my life. It was a great school, I hope you intended to support it. We thought it was a great school when what is now the middle school was in the new high school. Times have changed. Any other questions? Don't ask me how I am related to whom in this town because it could get . If you belong to the clan of Stevens or Early you are related to half the town anyway. (clapping) End of side A (Start of Side B) I stumbled over a piece of luggage and hit my head against a bed at my house. Knocked myself out, thought I was dying for sure. But after crawling to the kitchen and applying ice all I have left now is this one big bump, and the doctor told me that if I had not put that ice on it or if I had hit that hard an inch the other way I wouldn't be here. The other example that I have to bring the bare on this is that having been on October 3 rd experiencing the merger of Northwest with our local airlines, when I say I am glad to be here I mean it again. I spent 15 hours in the airport in London. No explanation ofwhy we were being kept there. We waited and we waited and we waited. And finally we boarded and we got out over the ocean and for an hour when the captain said, I am sorry to tell you people we are dumping fuel as fast as possible. We are going directly back to London. We have a cracked wing on this plane. The woman sitting next to me turned to her husband and laughing feebly she said, well dear I always said I wanted to see London before I died. We prayed all the way back. In the six hours that ensued we got- a number of people got acquainted. A man said to me, where are you going? I said, I am on my way to Wisconsin. He said, we are on our way to Iowa, where are you from in Wisconsin. I said, I am from Eau Claire. Well, he said, we are from Roberts. I met Dr. Clap from the University oflowa and we had a regular old home week there. You know, people from New Richmond just get around. You have to realize that. I was visiting some friends of mine out in Boulder, CO a few years ago, and one night my host said to me, I am in Whites Law Firm in Denver, and I said, oh he was a friend of my neighbor Johnny Blood. She said, oh where was that? Do you know Johnny Blood? I said, 2 sure. He is from New Richmond. The next night there was a telephone call for me. My host said, Mr. Wade Halvorson. He said that man is the President of Supply. Is that the same man who is calling you? I said, sure. That is my friend shorty. He said, how do you know him? I said, we were kids together in New Richmond. The following night Shorty called me up and said, guess who has just come to Boulder. He said Butchy Jackson is in the law school. Let's go out and see him. I said, I'd love it. So I came back that night and I said to Mr. Neason, well I just met the new head of your law school. Oh he said that is interest, he said, my niece is going to be his secretary. Then he paused, and he said, he isn't from- how do you know him? I said, he is from New Richmond. Then my hostess said, you know I am taking a marvelous course in history from a man who heads from that part of the state. I am not sure - he is from western Wisconsin. I said, what's his name? She said, his name is Dr. Hew . I said oh he is from New Richmond. At that point Mr. said to me, say Grace, how many people are there in New Richmond? Well, when I lived here it was 2,248 with a guaranteed addition from the Snoose Larson family every few years. I am a very absent-minded professor and there are many reasons why this is so. My former secretary at the University, Mrs. Sullivan, knows a lot about these things, and she can verify that they are true. But they say that you should laugh at yourself, because other people are going to laugh at you anyway. Moments to remember I thought. Well now, I'll divide the speech in half and I will talk about moments I remember from all around the world, and then half of it I will spend on memories of New Richmond. So I have got Mary clued. The first half is going to be on anywhere, and the second half is going to be exclusively New Richmond. After I got through with the tenth inning of the World Series last night I started jotting this down and I realized I could go on for several hours, so we have got to have some terminal facilities. Now my losses, well I could write a book about that for sure. My travel agent says that he is going to have a special chapter in his memories just about me. Oh Carl I said, what are you going to put in? Well he said, I could tell about the time that you lost all your money in London. Do you remember that? Oh yes, I remember that very well. He said, I could tell about the time you booked a cruise on the ship that never got to shore.