Whether or not genealogy is your thing, I encourage you to take the time to sit down and listen to your family members. Have your children interview you. Interview your children. Are you going on a long road trip? Pass the time interviewing one another.
I plan on adding a transcription as I get time. To listen to the interview from the StoryCorp website click here.
Until next time,
Becky
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| The Chillicothe Constitution 15 May 1936 Newspapers.com |
Transcription:
Interviewer: This is Becky Drake and I am interviewing my Grandma and Grandpa Melson, Thanksgiving 2017 (Sat 11/25/2017). We are in Siloam Springs, Arkansas
Becky Drake: Ok. Grandpa, what was Thanksgiving like when you were growing up? And where did you celebrate it?
Leroy Melson: Always at my mom's house. Always good. Seems like we always had company.
Becky: So cousins came over?
Leroy: Her sister, Aunt Bea. You probably know about her
Becky: Yeah
Leroy: They were always there. Especially during the war, they was around us all the time, while Dennis was in the war.
Becky: Yeah
Leroy: We always had it together most of the time. They lived about half a mile up the road... quarter mile... half a mile... quarter and a half mile up the road (laughs).
Becky: Was this in Oark?
Leory: Eh, out on the mountain there, South of Oark.
Becky: Okay. Did Grandpa's family ever come or just Grandma's family? Did Grandpa's brothers or sister ever come?
Leroy: Yeah, Tobe and Annie, his brother and his wife, come once, once for sure, pretty regular, I can't remember how many times but they was there.
Becky: What kind of food did she cook? What kind of food did your mom cook, for Thanksgiving?
Leroy: Uhh, we had a pecan pie always.
Becky: Always had a pecan pie.
Leroy: Because we had a pecan tree out in the yard.
Becky: Oh really? Neat!
Leroy: I would gather them up, crack them, and she'd make 'em. She made them pretty..every little bit ... every time I wanted one all I had to do was crack out a couple of nuts and she's make me one.
Becky: Wow, that's great. What about you, Grandma, what was the first Thanksgiving you remember?
Reba: Really I can't remember any when I was at home that they was anything different than just a regular day. I don't think that we made a big thing out of Thanksgiving.
Leroy: After we got married I spent Thanksgiving at her house. They celebrated Thanksgiving (referencing the fact that they were married the day before Thanksgiving 1955).
Reba: Yeah sometimes
Leroy: Her mother (surely bound to before ?)
Becky: Your sister said you guys didn't celebrate birthdays much either, so you just didn't many holidays at all?
Reba: No
Becky: Huh, was that just your family or just that area or...?
Reba: None of my family did ya know momma's brothers or sisters and them, it just wasn't any different than any other day.
Leroy: I remember we always had pork of some kind Momma always butchered a hog right before Thanksgiving.
Becky: Yeah, I had read somewhere where a lot of people butchered their hogs right around Thanksgiving.
Reba: But after we got married, we celebrated it. And we would go over to Momma's and Daddy's a lot of times at Thanksgiving after we got married.
Leroy: And deer hunted.
Reba: Yeah
Leroy: That was when we lived in Tulsa
Becky: When you lived in Tulsa you'd go back and deer hunt?
Leroy: Yeah, during that Thanksgiving season. Three days. Got three days deer season.
Becky: What do you remember most about your mom, Grandma Bondell? What do you remember most about her?
Leroy: Ah, she worked all the time. SHe was busy all the time. And she'd always... I remember when I used to smoke... and hiding out smoking and she'd give me, she got to where she'd give me quarter so I could buy a pack of cigarettes.
Becky: Really? She would pay so you could have cigarettes? Wow.
Leroy: Cigarettes was 21 cents, 22 cents, and they'd have 3 pennies down the side of the package.
Becky: Really?
Leroy: Yeah. And uh, the machines, put a quarter in the machine and you get a pack of cigarrettes with 3 or 4 pennies in it up the side.
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