StoryCorps And The Great Depression

A few years ago, I mentioned a website and App called StoryCorps when I interviewed my maternal grandparents during the Great Listen that takes place every Thanksgiving. Well, today I wanted to share an interview that my husband made of his maternal grandparents for a 10th grade American History assignment in high school, using the StoryCorp program. He went to school in Jay, Oklahoma and the year of this interview is 1991. I hope you enjoy this 2 part series.





My husband has decided to return to school. I am beyond proud of him for this decision. He works a very physical hot job 40-50 hours a week and is going to school full time all for the betterment of himself and our family. One of his writing assignments is to write about a story he has been told. If he chooses this interview to write about and gives me permission, I may add it later as a guest post. Fingers crossed!

Until then,
Becky

Hilltop 45's

Today's blog post is written by my mother-in-law and was prompted by the Instagram photo-a-day challenge #records put together and hosted by Genealogy Girl Talks

In 1959, 1960 maybe 61, my mom and dad, Lum & Jessie Bates owned and operated a cafe in Sulphur Springs. It was located at the top of the hill on the way out of town. Hence the name Hilltop Cafe. When you entered the door there was an eating bar that had stools. To the right of this was the main dining area. In the dining area, besides table and chairs, there was a pinball machine and a jukebox. The jukebox is the focus for this post.

There was a vendor that would come regularly to change out the records. Once the records were removed. These could be bought for about 25 cents and sometimes they were just given if they were not played a lot. There was a counter inside the jukebox that kept a count of how many times a record was played. To encourage playing music, Dad would put money in the machine. This money was returned to him when the vendor came. They could tell what money was Dad's because he marked his with red fingernail polish. That money he got back before his profit was calculated. I don't know how his profit was calculated . That was how I got my 45's. Many of them I still have.

The labels of the ones pictured:

• Liberty, Willie Nelson, Touch Me
• Sun Records, Johnny Cash, The Ways Of A Woman In Love
• RCA Victor, 'Nita, Rita and Ruby, Last Night In My Dreams
• Mercury Records, George Jones, Out Of Control

At the end of mom and dad's cafe was a shop and dad built truck racks there. Here is a picture of the tags he put on those racks: