00:00:01.640 - 00:00:17.560

We were on a trip, I don't know where, coming back, we were in a motel when they were showing that funeral and got to see the funeral. But wouldn't it have been wonderful to have had his interview with him talking about the wasp.

00:00:17.740 - 00:00:21.720

Talking about the wasp. Talking about the wasp. Oh, that would have been— Isn't it, money is just—

00:00:21.740 - 00:00:25.800

Oh, you're about— Yeah. Okay, I'm ready. Did you want to talk to her?

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I'm going to roll. And if I start to cough, you will turn it off. I am Deanie Parrish. We are interviewing Gerri Nyman.

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She was a WASP, Class 43-1. I am with Wings Across America. We are in Gerri's home in Casa Grande, Arizona. Today is the 6th of November, 2001.

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Gerri, if you will give us your full name and when and where you were born, and we will go from there. Geraldine Lamphere Niman, and I was born in Emmett, Idaho. Do you need the date?

00:01:06.060 - 00:01:14.800

1920. Okay. Tell me about your parents. My parents were, I would say they were almost gypsies.

00:01:14.920 - 00:01:34.360

They loved to travel, and they did travel. And I spent most of my time wandering the country in a Model T with all our belongings. to school in seven different states, ten different schools. >> Tell me what you remember about that first school that you went to.

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>> It was a Catholic school because we were living with another couple and the girl was a year older than I was and she went to school. And I bawled and cried day and night to go to school, so they took me, they wouldnít me to public school, so they took me down to the academy, and they took me at five.

00:01:56.740 - 00:02:13.940

What did your dad do to support you as you traveled? He was a barber, and we would go into farming towns where he could work all night, Friday night and Saturday night, cutting hair. And then we would take off come Monday, and off we would go.

00:02:14.360 - 00:02:27.580

And when I started school, he would usually buy a barber shop in the fall, and then he would sell it come spring and off we would go again. And would you sell all your furniture? We didn't have furniture.

00:02:29.980 - 00:02:50.320

What we did, we would buy a little furniture and we would rent a house and then everything would go and we'd be off in the Model T. Tell me about your grandparents. Well my grandmother, my grandfather died before I was born.

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And they lived around Hipner, Oregon. My father, my grandfather was a Methodist minister and years later my grandmother lived with us. And very, very wonderful.

00:03:05.390 - 00:03:25.940

And your other grandparents? Well my father's mother died when he was born and he was sent to a grandmother, to his grandmother to live, and his dad went off to Wyoming and married another lady, so I never knew. Well, later I did meet this lady, a very wonderful lady.

00:03:28.320 - 00:03:51.260

Were you ever able to visit your mother's parents, your grandparents? Oh, my mother's—I never knew my grandfather, but the mother, she lived with us even for many years. After a while, she was a very part of our life after I got--just moved around with us

00:03:51.260 - 00:04:12.800

some, but it was after I got out of high school that she came to live with my mother and dad. In this first school, or in your early elementary school, do you recall any teachers that might have influenced you? Oh mercy no, because I just wasn't there long enough in any school to be influenced

00:04:12.960 - 00:04:38.560

really by any of them. Do you remember what subjects you were interested in when you were in school? No not particularly, only when I went to college I majored in drama, and so that was the only And that's about it.

00:04:39.340 - 00:04:55.780

And in junior high, were you still traveling around? Well, pretty much. I think I spent, in junior high, I might have spent two years in one spot. And in high school, I might have spent one, I think I spent two years in one spot.

00:04:56.200 - 00:05:07.480

But nothing dramatic in any of the schooling. Did you make any lasting friendships during those twelve years? Not particularly. I was an only child.

00:05:08.160 - 00:05:34.520

I never really, only this one that we lived with when I started school, I still see her and that's about the only one that I have as a lasting friendship during school. It was a weird situation because I went to two one-room schoolhouses during that time and skip grades because they only had one person in the next grade and they didn't

00:05:34.550 - 00:05:47.600

want to put that person back. So they promoted me and as a result I graduated from high school at fifteen. Okay. Were those last two years of high school spent in one school?

00:05:47.840 - 00:06:03.940

Yes, that was in Wallace, Idaho. I graduated from high school in Wallace, Idaho. What were your outside activities other than? My parents had bought a variety store, and I spent all my time practically working in

00:06:03.940 - 00:06:23.680

the variety store. So I had no outside things except just work. Do you recall, did you have a high school prom? Yes, and I had boyfriends, but nothing dramatic.

00:06:24.460 - 00:06:47.700

Nothing dramatic at all. Tell me about your high school graduation. How many were in your class? Probably 360 and I have gone back for a couple of reunions. We have had some and I have some friends out of the, in fact I have several close friends out of the high school, my high

00:06:47.820 - 00:07:02.600

school days and they are still alive, several of them. In high school, were you into music or drama in high school? Any of that? No, I was not into anything really in high school.

00:07:02.780 - 00:07:14.100

I was working all the time. Did you have caps and gowns when you graduated? Yes. After graduation, or when you were about to graduate, what were your ambitions?

00:07:14.660 - 00:07:36.720

What did you want to do? I wanted to go to college, and the principal of the high school came to my folks and he said, "She's much too young to go to college, and if you make me, I will send her credentials into college."

00:07:37.060 - 00:08:01.980

And they gave in to him, so I spent the next year before I went to college, and this was very memorable because in the mornings I went to the Home Ec department, and then in the afternoon I went back to the variety store to work. But this Home Ec teacher was a very valuable part of my life.

00:08:02.740 - 00:08:20.940

She taught me to knit, to crochet, to sew, to do everything, and I would never have learned to do that otherwise. So that is, Mrs. Anderle was a very, very important part of my life. But then I went on to college after that, to the University of Idaho.

00:08:21.540 - 00:08:41.780

Well, I went to Washington State College first, and then over to the University of Idaho. When you were growing up, what was a Christmas like? Work in the variety store. In the high school days, we were all worn out.

00:08:44.800 - 00:09:05.140

And otherwise, in grade school days, we tried to be festive, but I just cannot remember one festive thing growing up, until I got into the variety store, until we were in the variety store. Do you recall ever having a Christmas tree?

00:09:05.540 - 00:09:18.920

Oh, yes. I can remember that we had a Christmas tree, and we had presents, but being an only child, it wasn't as easy. And your grandmother at that time, would she come?

00:09:19.580 - 00:09:33.800

She was living with us about the last two or three years, about the last two years of high school when we were in Wallace. She lived with us. But that's another one.

00:09:34.310 - 00:09:52.280

Kelly: Were your parents involved in the school itself, in PTA or anything like that? Beck: No, absolutely not. They were not. My mother and father were very active in Eastern Star and Mason's, but otherwise, just in

00:09:52.340 - 00:10:04.700

the store. Did your grandmother come to your graduation? No, she was not there at that time. She did not come until a year after, or the next year to live with us.

00:10:06.120 - 00:10:17.300

So after your graduation and after you had worked for a year, then you went to college at Washington? At Washington State University. It was Washington State College then.

00:10:17.720 - 00:10:30.900

And what was going to be your major? I was very interested in drama and radio, and they had a radio station there, and that was my main interest. Do you know where you got that interest from?

00:10:31.080 - 00:10:40.320

Have no idea. >> Yeah. [ Laughter ] Only that I did well with it.

00:10:40.740 - 00:10:49.060

So. >> Okay. In the radio department, what were you able to do? Were you on air broadcasting? >> Yeah, I was on the air.

00:10:49.500 - 00:11:00.000

We did that and then I learned the basics there. And then with the drama, I was in a number of productions there at the university. >> Do you recall?

00:11:00.580 - 00:11:11.580

I was very active in debate. So that was an interesting— Kelly: Is there one play that is outstanding in your mind? Beall: No, not a bit.

00:11:11.800 - 00:11:21.840

I cannot even remember what they were. That is a long time ago. Kelly: And what did you intend to do with all those— Beall: Well, I really did not know.

00:11:22.480 - 00:11:47.140

And then when I went over to the University of Idaho, I stayed at Washington State two years and had friends who were at the University of Idaho, went over there and I joined the sorority Alpha Chi Omega and met many friends and many of my Wallace friends were there. And I continued with debate, very strongly with debate, and they did not have a radio

00:11:47.440 - 00:12:02.400

station there, but I worked in many of the different plays and various things. I do not think I had a foggy notion what I wanted to do. How far was Washington College from where your mom and dad lived? Did you live at home?

00:12:02.450 - 00:12:19.440

It was very close. I stayed on the campuses in both places, but they were too far. Were you in dorms? Well, I was in the sorority house at Idaho, but I was in a dorm at Washington State.

00:12:20.660 - 00:12:38.860

When you were on these debate teams, would you debate, go in competition with other schools? Oh yes, yes, very much so. And that was a fascinating part of life in there. Do you recall one teacher in college?

00:12:39.780 - 00:13:02.960

No, I do not recall one single teacher that was specific. that I did not graduate from college. I got up and walked out of a Chaucer class because it was so boring, and my folks needed me at home by that time, too, and I had one semester left.

00:13:03.640 - 00:13:27.940

And by that time, well, the war was not going on, but I was very disorganized, I think. But then I went over after that to Portland, Oregon, and took my grandmother with me to live with me. And I was working in a radio station over there, just writing copy, but the most boring

00:13:28.240 - 00:13:41.540

job I ever had in my life. And I could not think, "How was I going to get out of this?" And I was only making twenty-five cents an hour, and then they did promote me to fifty. I decided one day to go out and take a flying lesson.

00:13:42.340 - 00:13:52.380

That is how the flying started, and I was hooked. That was what made you— Kelly: What made you— Reedy: Haven't the foggiest notion again what made me do this.

00:13:52.540 - 00:14:06.440

I am a weird person. But I decided I wanted to be a pilot. And I did not realize at the moment that it was a man's world and I was going to run into difficulties.

00:14:07.740 - 00:14:24.520

But on my fifty cents an hour and the fifteen dollar an hour flying lessons, they didn't quite jive. So I begged, pleaded, told the flying instructor that I'd come out and wash airplanes and do anything weekends if he'd.

00:14:24.980 - 00:14:46.480

He said, "Well, you can do that, but I need a ground school instructor. And if you've had college, if you'd get your ground instructor ratings and teach from me, I'll give you free flying lessons." Within a year, I had my ground ratings, I had my private, I had my commercial, and I

00:14:46.480 - 00:14:52.020

had my instructor's rating. I must have lived at that airport. (Laughter.) You must have.

00:14:52.660 - 00:15:08.440

What did your mom and dad and your grandmother do? My mother and dad didn't even know it until I had an instructor's license. They hadn't been over there, and they were busy. My grandmother was just delighted that she was in on all of it.

00:15:09.580 - 00:15:27.760

Were you ever able to take her up? Never took her up, but the first time—my dad never wanted to go up. He said, "I did not lose anything up there, and I am not going up and find it." My mother went up with me once, and we took off.

00:15:28.900 - 00:15:37.180

We got to the end as we came up, and I started to turn. "We are falling out! Oh, oh, oh, oh! "Oh, we're falling over, we're tipping over!"

00:15:37.620 - 00:15:48.040

I came right down, put her on the ground, and that was the end of that. But years later, she flew all over the world. - Right, did you know any other girls who were flying?

00:15:48.420 - 00:15:57.340

- No, not really. - Can you, what was the first airplane you flew? - We flew Porterfields out there. - Okay, do you recall your first solo?

00:15:59.220 - 00:16:14.380

- Let's see, my first solo, I can't remember. It seemed to me I was a little terrified, as most people are. And at this point, you are what, eighteen? Probably, I would say eighteen.

00:16:14.480 - 00:16:34.640

I had been to college then, and I was probably about twenty by then, pretty close to twenty by then. During those early flying days, were you ever afraid? - No, but we had, I guess I wasn't smart enough

00:16:34.720 - 00:16:49.600

to be afraid, but we had a lot of forced landings because the airplanes just weren't that good. And I did have one experience that was very fascinating. We took, this other instructor and I would take

00:16:50.000 - 00:17:03.580

two airplanes, or just two planes, and we'd go over into Oregon and land on a dry lake bed, and we'd take hunters over with us. One hunter would go with me and one would go with him.

00:17:04.940 - 00:17:32.260

We had some people who would rent us a night's lodging very close to that little dry lake. We'd walk over there, and then the next day we'd take them hunting. Very often they went night hunting, illegally night hunting. Then when they get a deer, we would prop the deer up in the front seat, and one of us would

00:17:32.320 - 00:17:42.040

be in the back. We would leave the hunter there, and we would take them back to Portland. It was legal because they had their tags. They did not know it was night hunting.

00:17:45.280 - 00:17:57.980

Somebody would meet us there, and they would take the deer out. But when we would stop for gas, along the way it was quite an arrangement. I'll tell you, to have the deer sitting up in the front seat. But it was fun.

00:17:58.580 - 00:18:14.080

That was just fun. Everything about my flying before was wonderful, until Pearl Harbor. Kelly: Do you recall where you were, and how did you hear about Pearl Harbor? Oh, I was flying.

00:18:14.540 - 00:18:31.700

I was flying on Pearl Harbor. Then it was just not any time, it seemed to me, until they came along and said, "We're shutting down all private flying within two hundred miles of the Pacific Coast." Well, we were within that area.

00:18:32.580 - 00:18:54.940

So it meant taking our airplanes and storing them, and I was out of a job. So that is when I headed for New York on a bus. And along the way, tried to get jobs, but I would get somebody that would say, "Well, I do not think a man would want to take a flying lesson from a woman."

00:18:54.940 - 00:19:10.300

Of course, I had run into that when I was instructing them. They would send me out to the airplane and say, "We have got a student for you." And the man would come out and look at me and rush back in and say, "I will not take a lesson from her, from this kid.

00:19:14.140 - 00:19:42.520

I ended up with a job up in upper New York State, and that is when I heard about Jackie. I kept harassing the government, and every time I would get an answer back from the people in charge there at the recruiting place, said, "Oh, women will never be able to fly our military aircraft."

00:19:43.280 - 00:20:03.260

Then I heard about Jackie sending these women to England. I said, "Well, they don't want me here." She had already taken over sixteen, and I signed up with her to take the next batch. During that little time of just weeks, Nancy contacted me about the WAFs, too.

00:20:03.440 - 00:20:27.440

I said, "Oh, I've already told Nancy I was going to take the job in England." I wasn't delighted to think I had turned down Nancy, but I kept on with Jackie. Two weeks before I was to go to England on the second batch, she called me and said, "Get up to my New York apartment.

00:20:27.640 - 00:20:46.520

I've got news for you." I got up there, and she said, "I guess we've harassed them enough." Because she said, "I have just had authorization to take twenty-five women to Houston, Texas to start the Women's Air Force Service Pilots.

00:20:47.420 - 00:21:08.120

But I've got to tell you, you not only need lots of hours, but you need lots of stamina." And she shoved a letter at me. She said, "This letter was, I'm not supposed to have." To this day, I don't know how many of our W-1 girls saw this letter, but it was from

00:21:08.220 - 00:21:30.240

the Air Force to the commanding officer who would be in charge of this First 25. And it said, "We have been told we must give these women an opportunity to fly. We know they will never be able to fly military aircraft. Get rid of them as soon as possible."

00:21:30.320 - 00:21:44.920

I guess we thought we could beat the odds. And maybe not. Maybe a lot of them hadn't seen this letter. The fact that I had seen it in Jackie's home, I knew what we were up against.

00:21:45.400 - 00:22:06.880

Kelly: Did that make you more determined? I think so. I think so. I had lots of hours and I was an egotist. I guess all the rest of us must have been egotists. But we went to Houston. Well, four of us from New York went down together in two cars, Bird and, let's see, I've forgotten now, Magda Tack.

00:22:08.540 - 00:22:33.700

I went with Bird, I rode with Bird, and Magda and I think Mary Mackey went together. Now, I could be wrong on the other one, but we got down there and Magda, when we found out that there would be no housing, why, Magda and I had paired up by then, and we found a nice family who would take us and give us a bedroom.

00:22:33.780 - 00:22:52.420

Then back up and ask you how you met Bird. On this trip, because I had called to ask who else might be going from New York. That's how I met Bird. When you met Jacqueline and she showed you the letter, was that the first time you had

00:22:52.420 - 00:23:02.720

met her? Oh no, see I had signed up to go to England with her second group, so I knew her well by that time. >> When was the first time you met her?

00:23:04.170 - 00:23:17.000

>> Well, let's see. I guess when I had heard from someplace at the airport where I was working that she had taken some girls, and that's when I called her.

00:23:17.140 - 00:23:31.480

>> Okay. When you got to New York, you got a job? >> I got a job teaching in Upper New York, Poughkeepsie area. >> Okay. >> But--

00:23:31.480 - 00:23:49.220

>> And then where did you meet Nancy Love? >> Let's see now. Nancy called me when she was recruiting the WAFs. And I don't-- I can't remember if-- I didn't meet with her.

00:23:49.260 - 00:24:01.180

I just talked to her on the phone at that time. At that time, yes. >> By the time you started to Houston, How many hours approximately did you already have?

00:24:01.210 - 00:24:16.400

I had over two thousand. And what were some of the other aircraft that you had flown? Very little of anything except those Porterfields and Cessnas and things of that sort. They were not any big things.

00:24:17.680 - 00:24:42.340

Oh, I did have some experience. I went over to Montana and worked with the planes that we flew over there. I cannot remember what they were, but we let out the firefighters over the fires. So I did get a little experience over there.

00:24:42.400 - 00:25:02.840

I cannot remember what I flew, even, over there. Of all the students that you have taught, did you keep up with some of them? I don't think a single one. I had very few women students, and the men students, I think they resented a woman, but

00:25:04.160 - 00:25:20.620

after they flew with me once, why, they were accepting. So the four of you went down to Houston and then you got a motel room? No, no. We went around looking for houses.

00:25:21.460 - 00:25:40.120

And Magda and I found a couple who would let us have a bedroom. Of course, we weren't going to eat with them. And then Bird, I think, went by herself and got a house by herself. I know Marge Gray had a house by herself out there in this Garden Villa area.

00:25:41.580 - 00:26:04.720

And then Marion Mackey, and my memory is waning with old age. I have forgotten who was with Marion, but another one was with Marion. And I do not think there were too many of us out there. Most of them were in at the hotel or motels, and they did not have transportation right

00:26:04.980 - 00:26:24.460

off as you probably have heard too. They finally found an old cattle truck for them to come in on. But when we got to Houston, they put us in an old shack down at the end of the field. And at first, there were no bathrooms, unless we wanted to go to the bathroom.

00:26:24.640 - 00:26:39.080

If we wanted to have anything to eat, we had to walk there up to the terminal. Finally they did make some arrangements down at that end of the field, this municipal airport, the only municipal airport we had there. Who was in charge of you while you were in Houston?

00:26:40.440 - 00:26:56.900

Well, the commanding officer mostly. But we did have Dede, who was kind of in charge of the girls. Then we had a nurse. Was Dede a pilot?

00:26:57.100 - 00:27:25.880

No, Dede was just to look after the girls, kind of a chaperone to look after us. What did Ms. Cochran tell you that you could expect? What did she feel this would lead to as far as you girls? Steele: Oh, she told me many, many times, "If you have the stamina just to not give

00:27:25.940 - 00:27:41.040

in on these things and work as hard as you can to overcome the obstacles that they will put in your way. I actually think that they made a little mistake. They did bring in some civilian instructors a little later, and they were very nice to

00:27:41.160 - 00:27:56.700

us. But these young fellows they brought in right at first were right out of flying school. They had for us—they didn't even have any military aircraft on the field right at first.

00:27:57.600 - 00:28:05.860

These were the planes we'd been flying. So they didn't know how to fly them. And I think that's what saved us. I really do.

00:28:06.020 - 00:28:16.400

I just am sincere. Maybe some of the other girls won't feel that way, but I sincerely feel that's what -- Kelly: So they were Porterfields and others?

00:28:16.400 - 00:28:24.940

Roslyn: No, no. There were no Porterfields. Porterfields were what I learned. And that was—I don't think anybody's ever heard of a Porterfield since then.

00:28:25.880 - 00:28:50.580

But no, there were Cessnas, and there were Bryans, and there were all old airplanes that they brought in. I do not know whether anybody has ever told you the story of the—when we looked out one day, they were tearing down the fence between us and Ellington Field, and we could

00:28:50.580 - 00:29:07.380

not imagine what was happening. you have read this story in Bird's book. But I could not imagine what was happening. Pretty soon the fence was down, and they brought through these little bamboo bombers that we

00:29:07.400 - 00:29:21.380

talk about, and they brought them through that fence onto our field. They did not. It had taken them five minutes to fly them around to our field, but they came through There are about five of them, and we just did not understand it.

00:29:24.380 - 00:29:41.920

The other girls will tell this story too, because it was just fascinating to us. That night, I had a friend who was at Ellington Field, and he called me. He said, "Well, I hear you got our planes today." He said, "Do not fly them."

00:29:41.920 - 00:29:59.640

I said, "What is wrong with them?" He said, "They all have termites in the wings, and that's why we wouldn't even fly them over to your next door." And he said, "The commanding officer said, 'Well, take them over to the women.

00:30:00.200 - 00:30:15.900

They won't last that long anyway.'" And I actually, the only one I told about that, I was afraid the girls would just be terrified, and if they would say they wouldn't fly them, we would be kicked out. We were this close to being eliminated.

00:30:19.940 - 00:30:28.880

One of our—called Pappy. He was a wonderful instructor. I do not know his name. I do not know who he was.

00:30:28.960 - 00:30:42.800

I just remember Pappy. He was so good to us, because he knew what we were under. I told him about it, and he said, "Do not tell anybody." I told Magda, and Magda said, "You and I are the only ones that know."

00:30:42.800 - 00:31:03.320

But he said, "It'll get out, but we just pray that nobody will be killed in one." And he said, "Well, the one thing that I will do," and we were just about to graduation at that time, he said, "I will see that none of these get over to Sweetwater." And they didn't.

00:31:03.640 - 00:31:17.820

Kelly: Would he fly in it? Oh, yes, he said we had to fly in it. Kelly: But he personally would also— McIntyre: Oh, yes, he would, but I do not remember that any of those young pilots flew

00:31:17.960 - 00:31:31.640

in it, in them. We had five of them. But it is a story that goes back in your memory, and all of us—and I was talking to Jane Straughan not long ago about this incident, and she said, "I remember that so well,

00:31:32.140 - 00:31:51.020

That fence going down and bringing those through, and we never knew why they did it and why they didn't fly them in. But this friend of mine said, "Oh, we wouldn't even fly them over there." Kelly: While you were in Houston, did Ms. Cochran come down and check on you?

00:31:51.080 - 00:32:04.980

Dunn: Oh, very often, very often. And when one of the girls was killed, she came down, of course, very upset with that. And I remember when that happened, I cannot remember the girl's name now, it is in our books.

00:32:04.980 - 00:32:20.540

Kelly: Margaret Oldenburg. Rueben: Yeah. And I remember when they brought this body in and we did not know what had gone on. And we did not hear anything about it for a little while there, because everybody was

00:32:20.940 - 00:32:30.900

wanting to keep us from knowing what had happened. But that was the— And while you were there, did another class then come in? Oh, yes.

00:32:30.960 - 00:32:49.740

When they saw that we were going to make it, Jackie got the second class in, and then she got the third class, just barely in. And we were the only ones who graduated from Houston. By the time, before you graduated then, did they get some military aircraft in?

00:32:50.280 - 00:33:11.440

Oh, yes. We had all the military aircraft by that time. We had the one comical thing about when they brought—it was winter with the PTs. We did not have very heavy clothes, but your feet were always cold and frozen.

00:33:12.960 - 00:33:33.020

We were frozen, too. Then we complained so bitterly that one day here came a big, big box of clothes and shoes. There wasn't a flying suit under size 40 or a shoe under a size—I think it was 12 or something like that.

00:33:34.140 - 00:33:52.060

If you put the boots on, you couldn't feel the rudder, and if you didn't put it on, you couldn't feel it anyway because you were too cold. We had two little five-foot girls, and we dressed them up. It was a riot, really.

00:33:53.140 - 00:34:09.780

We did not, but we got our clothes. There were a lot of interesting things that happened there, but we tried to do our best to make it. But no, we flew all the ones they brought in.

00:34:11.860 - 00:34:25.980

Kelly: In addition to the flying training, did you get also some ground school training? Reid: Oh, a lot of it. And we particularly had to know our Morse code, of course, because in those days, as you know, there wasn't any VOR station.

00:34:26.640 - 00:34:38.180

You had to watch for a place where you could listen to the Morse code when you got close to an airport. Kelly: And those instructors, were they Army Air Force or civilian? Roslyn: Oh, yes.

00:34:38.840 - 00:34:53.560

Except for the few civilian they brought in, they did bring in some civilians who were very nice to us. Kelly: What was the most difficult ground school course for you personally? Roslyn: I don't think any of them were particularly difficult.

00:34:53.880 - 00:35:15.880

I remember meteorology was easy. It seemed to me all of them were very easy. I do not know whether I had had, because of the college background or what I had studied in any place, that would make it fairly easy.

00:35:16.900 - 00:35:38.520

Were you required to have physical training in addition? Oh, yes. We had one instructor who would get up and take us through every day physical training. What was the biggest adjustment you had to make to go through that training?

00:35:39.320 - 00:36:05.840

I think the biggest adjustment was just knowing that we had to work in order to get through it, that we were always on tenderhooks, more or less, and that they were apt to get rid of us. Did you feel the pressure of having to blaze that trail?

00:36:06.310 - 00:36:25.060

Oh, I think all of us felt that pressure, really felt that pressure, because I remembered that letter. And I knew in the back of his mind. And then the food, they finally gave us a lunchroom.

00:36:25.800 - 00:36:39.220

And they would sit down in here, and we were up around eating. And they would have their steaks down there, and they would give us horrendous food, it seemed to me. We never got salads.

00:36:39.440 - 00:36:58.420

We never got things that we needed. We got just things that men would want, not what women would want. Kelly: And they would be Army Air Force officers? Beall: They would be down below, sitting in their little place down there eating.

00:36:59.280 - 00:37:21.780

Kelly: During the time you were in Houston, did you get any time off? Beall: Well, I guess we did, but none of us really. We were studying when we were off, but we did not want time off, really. As I recall, we were almost seven days a week doing something.

00:37:24.420 - 00:37:58.380

Kelly: During that training period, did you ever experience fright? Oh, I had one time when I went to—I can't remember what I was in, but I—I don't know if it was a BT or an AT-6, but I went to—I was just at the end of the time when we were to graduate.

00:38:00.540 - 00:38:27.220

I saw that my gas was low on one side, and I changed to the other, and nothing happened. I thought, "Well, I got to get down." All I saw down below were farmer's fields where they plowed about this high. I remembered back when I was flying—I have forgotten the airplane now.

00:38:27.220 - 00:38:54.600

I remember when I was on forest fire, I flew Ford tri-motors. But this instructor I had on the course of tri-motors did not have retractable wheels. But he told me, he said, "Now, you can land on top of trees. And if you have a plane that you can retract, do it.

00:38:55.460 - 00:39:10.000

And then make a soft stall right on the trees, and you will live. Plane may not look like too much, but you can land on making a soft stall right on the trees. I thought, I see those furrows down there.

00:39:10.880 - 00:39:35.220

I am going to try something. I could not retract the wheels, but I landed crosswise of the furrows. I came in and I just dropped it into those furrows, just bent a prop. But I had forgotten to put my shoulder harness on and all this thing.

00:39:35.780 - 00:39:53.200

Turned out I had a vapor lock. And then they came to me and told me I had a vapor lock. But I also had an instructor come to me and he said, "Well, don't you ever mention this, ever."

00:39:53.200 - 00:40:08.980

But he said, "You were sabotaged." But he said, and to this day I don't mention that in any of these things, but now I don't think it would matter. But he said, "We don't want to ever let anybody know."

00:40:08.980 - 00:40:24.720

But he said, "There was sugar in that one gas tank." And he said, "But we'll call it a vapor lock." But it turned out that what I had done was land in a Mexican farmer's field. Nobody spoke English.

00:40:25.780 - 00:40:49.720

And I finally got to a telephone and was able to call them and tell them that I had to hire somebody to watch the airplane, hired a Mexican who couldn't speak English. And they had to come and get me, and I turned out all right, but I did have a slight concussion that took me out of circulation.

00:40:51.740 - 00:40:56.520

Go ahead. >> Okay, she has to change tape. >> Okay. >> Oh, that's interesting.

00:40:56.520 - 00:41:09.280

>> God's watching over you. >> Well, that isn't the only time God watched over me. I had a couple of other ones that He watched over me, and you'll hear about those. >> I love this because I've never heard all of this before.

00:41:09.900 - 00:41:21.380

Most of the interviews, you know, I know before they tell me, not this one, which makes it-- >> Makes it-- [ Inaudible Remark ]

00:41:22.440 - 00:41:34.740

>> OK, when you landed out in that field, who-- did you sit there until somebody came? >> I got out in my foggy state and walked to a house. And of course, people started coming out then.

00:41:35.160 - 00:41:53.460

speaking nothing but Spanish. And finally, I managed to get telephone, which was teléfono, you know, all I could get out and got to a telephone. But they were real sweet and nice to me, but they were just shocked to see a woman get

00:41:53.480 - 00:42:06.740

out of the airplane, of course. That was the big thing. They just did not know what to make of this. But I felt very fortunate that I had had background that kind of—I was just experimenting, really.

00:42:08.160 - 00:42:29.220

I really did not know what else to do. I could not land with the furrows. You know from your flying experience that it would be difficult to land with them. But we were able to fly it to come out and pay him and clear the field.

00:42:29.460 - 00:42:43.000

And as soon as they fixed the airplane, I flew it out, and I happened to be out there helping to fly it out. Kelly: Good. Jerry, how was your training, your flight training, different from what the male cadets

00:42:43.080 - 00:43:04.340

were getting? Do you know? don't really know. I think we were harassed, maybe. Maybe I just felt it. Now, you may hear from others in W1, because the only two that you'll probably—Mary Lou is very,

00:43:04.560 - 00:43:25.600

very active, and she flew P-38s, and I didn't fly. The thing that bothers me more than anything Something else is, some of these girls never had the opportunity to fly in the later classes any bigger airplanes. It didn't bother me as much as it did some of them who didn't.

00:43:27.360 - 00:43:53.640

A P-38, for instance, I never got near a P-38. But then Betty Blake had interesting experiences, and the three of us are about the only ones and W-1 who are capable of talking to you. LaValle is foggy as she can be, and of course Marge Gray is in a real fog.

00:43:54.400 - 00:44:11.580

And there are some of them who don't even want to talk. Kelly: Well, we're grateful to you for doing this. How many hours were you required to get in this flight training program? Do you recall?

00:44:11.860 - 00:44:23.220

I do not remember one bit about that, how many hours we had to get in. Now graduation is coming. Do you practice? What happens?

00:44:23.900 - 00:44:32.260

Well, I do not know. Did you have a ceremony? Oh, we had a great ceremony. In fact, we flew, each one of us flew a plane over to Ellington Field.

00:44:33.320 - 00:44:47.820

And I think, as I recall, we graduated at Ellington. And what were your uniforms like? As you'll see in some of these videos that they've had on the Fly Girls and everything, they'll show the women.

00:44:48.580 - 00:45:03.420

In fact, this book has a picture of our class in it. It's within Florine's, where she's talking about it, and they also served. In fact, I know I've been- Don't care about your watch.

00:45:03.420 - 00:45:05.740

You're on your own. I'm all wired. Okay. I'm all wired.

00:45:05.740 - 00:45:25.940

Go ahead and talk about it. I think we had tan pants and tan—I think you can see our first class in there. Kelly: Were they snappy? Kelly: No, heavens no.

00:45:26.160 - 00:45:38.880

We were right here. I remember seeing it. Here it is. Hold it up so the camera can see it.

00:45:39.120 - 00:45:50.280

That's our first class, and I'm back here. Kelly: Okay, good. And each of you flew an airplane over to Ellington for graduation? Kelly: Ellington, and then we marched.

00:45:50.740 - 00:46:02.520

>> Okay. Did any other class come over to watch your graduation? >> I don't think so. >> Were there any special celebrities that came for your graduation? >> Jackie was there, as I recall.

00:46:03.200 - 00:46:09.660

And she, in fact, she pinned on the wings. >> And where did she get the wings to pin on? What kind of wings? >> She bought them.

00:46:10.620 - 00:46:17.840

She bought them for the first class. >> Okay. What kind of wings were they? Were they Air Force wings? >> Oh, they were our, this wing.

00:46:18.400 - 00:46:26.000

>> Okay. Our W, 43-W-1. And how is that different from a cadet who was graduating at the same time? I have no idea.

00:46:26.480 - 00:46:44.880

No idea. Ours were, and up until, see, they had 43-1-2. I don't know how long they had these 1-2-3s on before they went into the diamonds. Did you know when you graduated, did you have a choice of your assignments?

00:46:46.040 - 00:46:56.980

Yes. We kind of drew straws. They gave us a choice, and I wanted to go to Long Beach. I had always been a Westerner, so I wanted to go to Long Beach.

00:46:59.660 - 00:47:26.800

Then some of the girls had been New Yorkers, they wanted to go to New York. This one picture I have out here of four of us, one was a Texas girl, one was Magda from New York and myself, and I've forgotten who's in that other picture. But it was on the front page of the New York Times and on your Texas paper, and then the

00:47:27.540 - 00:47:47.120

Oregon paper, the Portland-Oregonia was on the front page, and the four of us as we graduated. What do you feel that training at Houston gave you that you didn't already have with two thousand hours? Oh, the big military aircraft.

00:47:47.560 - 00:47:57.060

It gave us that. I think that was what did it. And as far as discipline or any of that? I don't know.

00:47:57.160 - 00:48:19.480

I don't think we paid much attention to discipline because we were such independent souls. Bird was as independent as anybody, mostly, because—and she wrote our little newsletter. And we, every once in a while, we just get angry and say, "Well, we're going on strike

00:48:19.600 - 00:48:35.660

for something," and then we'd get knocked down because we didn't get this or we didn't get that. But mostly, it didn't—we just were independent. as independent as we could be.

00:48:36.160 - 00:48:58.540

How did you feel when you graduated? I was elated. My mother and my dad could not come back, but my mother and my uncle came back to graduation. That was the interesting part, was that on the trip back on the train, my uncle met this

00:48:58.540 - 00:49:21.200

young lieutenant on the plane, and it turned out to be my present husband. And they sat and talked about—they had been in the Tetons at the same time, and all their experiences in the Tetons. My husband had climbed the Grand Teton and worked on and worked at the lakes and things,

00:49:21.260 - 00:49:33.960

and my uncle had built the bar there at Jackson. So they had a fabulous time, and I was not in a uniform because we did not have a uniform then. I was in my tan pants and stuff.

00:49:34.460 - 00:49:55.040

But it turned out that this picture of the four of us that had been in the Portland Oregonian was being circulated around the train. And I said, I always say to my husband, "Well, you fell in love with my uniform and wings. You did not fall in love with me.

00:49:56.980 - 00:50:07.300

But that brought on a romance that ended up with us getting married. He went overseas later too. Kelly: Did you go home on that train? Reifeldt: Yes.

00:50:07.420 - 00:50:18.880

He was headed out of—he had been to basic training. He was going to Salt Lake City. He got about four or five days before he went to his—I cannot remember where the base was.

00:50:19.940 - 00:50:34.320

And I could go to Portland with my folks for, I think, three days is all, and then I had to head to Long Beach. So we were both heading home before we were assigned our bases. On the same train.

00:50:37.580 - 00:50:48.300

When you left then from Seattle, where did you leave from? Oh, I left from Portland. From Portland. How did you get down then to Long Beach?

00:50:48.700 - 00:51:09.280

Oh, I think I took a train or a bus. I cannot remember, maybe either one or the other. Kelly: When you got to Long Beach, to whom did you report? McMillan: Well, we went out to the—I cannot remember where, but I think we each ended

00:51:09.280 - 00:51:34.400

up there separately in taxi cabs or something. We got out to the base, and this was strange too. He said, "Well, I have no place for you to live out here, really." He said, "We have the barracks for you.

00:51:34.780 - 00:51:54.640

I don't know what we're going to do with you." And then one of his men spoke up and said, "Well, we've got this old—it used to be the insane barracks over here, and we can put them over there." So all of us trooped over there to that, and it had no blinds up at the windows.

00:51:54.980 - 00:52:14.160

It was just bare with beds with a little table. And in the end were the showers with no fronts on them. And we thought, "Gee, we're going to have a lot of peeping toms tonight." So they got busy, and they didn't put any—as I remember this now, maybe Betty, one of the

00:52:14.220 - 00:52:31.180

girls will have a better memory than I did. But we moved in there with the windows covered, and then we got pretty disgusted with the whole thing. And eight of us went downtown Long Beach and rented the top floor of the Villa Riviera.

00:52:32.440 - 00:52:53.600

And I cannot remember if we charged it to the commanding officer or not, but we wanted to. So we lived there, not very long really, I cannot remember, several months that we lived there and went back and forth, took buses or whatever, back and forth to the base.

00:52:54.460 - 00:53:11.060

So then they evacuated one floor of the WAC's barracks, gave us the one floor. So they moved us in there, and that was quite satisfactory. That worked out. Kelly: And what was your assignment when you went to Long Beach?

00:53:11.890 - 00:53:25.560

Beall: Just as a ferry pilot. All of us were ferry pilots there at Long Beach. That's all of us. Could you tell us about some interesting ferry trips that you might have made?

00:53:26.080 - 00:53:43.700

Steele: Well, I can tell you about a couple of harassing—not harassing, but I mean harassing as far as I am concerned. One time I took off from the factory. And it is very vague as to what I was flying.

00:53:43.800 - 00:53:58.900

You know, this has been so long ago, as you know, too. off from the factory and I was to go to the East Coast. And it did not sound right. From the time I took off, that airplane did not sound right.

00:53:59.840 - 00:54:16.960

And as I kept going, I kept thinking, "Now, what is going to happen?" Then it would make a funny noise and it would shake. So I kept listening for an airport. Then I finally got to the place where I could listen for the dots and dashes at Abilene.

00:54:18.760 - 00:54:33.100

I called in and I said, "Clear the airport," because I said, "I'm coming in, but I don't think I'm going to make it." I said, "The minute I bring back on this throttle, I'm going to have a dead stick landing." So I came in.

00:54:33.460 - 00:54:53.320

Instead of making the regular approach, I had never, as I recall, flown this before. I cannot remember what it was, but it was a strange airplane. I thought, "Well, if I come in regularly with no power, I might not make it to that airport."

00:54:53.320 - 00:55:11.500

So, I came in high over the end of the airport, and I sideslipped right in, down, and landed. They towed the plane. Of course, the minute I brought back on the throttle, I had no power. So I brought all that in with no power.

00:55:13.180 - 00:55:33.140

They towed it over to the mechanic's shop. I went over to the office, and pretty soon the mechanic came in and he said, "Well, lady, I want you to know that you must have come in on a wing and a prayer." Because he said, he held in his hand two valves, and they looked like cauliflower.

00:55:34.620 - 00:55:52.780

And he said, "If you'd have gone a few miles further, they'd all look like cauliflower." He said, "They had put the wrong steel in at the factory." And he said, "They had never pre-tested this either. We looked it up and found they'd never pre-tested."

00:55:53.740 - 00:56:10.700

And at that moment, I was calm, but then the tears started to go. And he said, "Why are you crying? You made it." And I said, "All I can think of is how many other airplanes went out of that factory today

00:56:10.800 - 00:56:24.720

with the wrong steel in the valves, and people who might not have made it." So that was quite an experience. Of course, I had to head back to Long Beach right away. Kelly: And that was a brand new airplane?

00:56:24.720 - 00:56:47.600

McMillan: Oh, yes, brand new with not very good shape. Another time, you want to hear this one too? Well two more times, but one time I had gone in, we had gotten in a windstorm, in a tornado, and there were a number of us.

00:56:48.620 - 00:57:07.180

Now where am I? I've got it down in the book. But we landed and ran into the office, and as we ran into the office, the roof flew off of the office, and every plane on that field, even though they had tied them down, tipped

00:57:07.240 - 00:57:22.840

over, just tore loose from the moorings. We were huddled under tables, and we were the biggest mess. We had on our tan pants and tan shirts, and most of them were men. I think there was one other woman there with me, but I cannot remember who it was.

00:57:25.720 - 00:57:44.360

Anyway, after this had calmed down, we had orders. The women had orders. They had to get back to their base immediately, as you probably might know there, too. And the men were all headed for town for a roaring time.

00:57:45.160 - 00:58:04.660

And so I had them call. They were able to call over to the airport. The other side of town had not been affected. I got over there and took a cab and went over.

00:58:05.740 - 00:58:24.840

I left my chute to be repacked, because all I had grabbed was my briefcase when I got out. My B-4 bag was solid water. But I grabbed it, went across town with it, and nobody wanted to touch it because it was

00:58:24.960 - 00:58:40.240

drippy. And I did have all my credentials, however, in my bag. Got to the airport, and they were not going to take that B-4 bag on, but I finally convinced them they should get it on.

00:58:41.200 - 00:58:51.780

on the airplane, and I just went to sleep. And I was the worst mess. My hair was a mess. My clothing was a mess.

00:58:51.840 - 00:59:08.460

I did have my wings on. And I woke up, and sitting next to me was a spotless general who had just come up from South Africa. And he said, "I've been waiting for you to wake up.

00:59:08.600 - 00:59:26.560

What in the hell are you?" I had to tell him about this wild, wild time I'd had. And we got real well acquainted. He signed my short snorter bill, and we had a wonderful visit.

00:59:27.200 - 00:59:40.380

I can't remember his name. I don't know where the short snorter bill is. But it was quite an experience with him, and he just had a wonderful time hearing about the WASP and so forth.

00:59:41.180 - 01:00:00.120

You want to hear another one? We took off from Long Beach, and we were headed east. I think there were about five of us, and we were in small airplanes. I think, I do not know whether they were BTs or something like that.

01:00:00.940 - 01:00:22.340

Anyway, we ran into one of Phoenix's dust dorms, or that they are famous for. And finally, we had to go down at Buckeye, in a field at Buckeye, because we could not see anything. And then we called in Phoenix Airport, and it was getting dusk, it was just getting night.

01:00:22.440 - 01:00:39.120

And said, "Can we get in?" And he said, "Well, I think the dust is away from here, so I think you can get in." I was the last to take off, and I got right into the middle of another one the minute I took off.

01:00:40.060 - 01:00:58.120

And they had gone on, and I remembered a little airport, the Goodyear out here, and I remembered that as being here because I knew the area pretty well. I thought, "Well, if I can just get down there and get a peek at that, I think I can get down because I don't know what I'm going to do otherwise.

01:00:59.560 - 01:01:16.460

I don't want to hit anything. So I got down and I started to make, and I vaguely saw that little airport. I thought, "Oh, great, I can make a perfect landing there." Came in, and just as I got, I was just coming in beautifully.

01:01:17.900 - 01:01:26.940

Something took over my airplane. I will never know. I couldn't move anything. I couldn't do anything with it.

01:01:27.960 - 01:01:46.940

I landed right against the fence, and I sat there madder than a wet hen, because I had come in for a beautiful landing, and here I was right at the fence. People before that, as I came in, I could see people out there waving their hands at me.

01:01:47.000 - 01:02:04.280

I thought, "Oh, they are just so glad to see that I am getting in." They came rushing up to me, and they said, "Thank God you did not land. We just put fresh asphalt on this, and if you had landed, you would have probably killed yourself.

01:02:06.120 - 01:02:29.060

And I told them my story, and they said, "Well, you really have an angel on your shoulder," and truthfully, I did have. And I will never forget it, and I don't know what happened, but I know it was. When I told the story, before you go before a group of people, they said, "Well, we

01:02:29.200 - 01:02:40.600

won't call it a pilot error, but we sure don't believe much of your story." I said, "Well, you don't have to believe it. I know what happened." Kelly: And you're alive.

01:02:40.600 - 01:02:47.560

Reedy: I'm alive. Kelly: Wow, that's a wonderful story. Reedy: It really is. It really is.

01:02:47.560 - 01:03:01.360

Kelly: I bet she tells that to all the kids. >> I tried to, but you know in school you wonder can you tell them, can you mention God or angels? >> You can keep talking.

01:03:01.490 - 01:03:06.640

>> Well what are they going to do to you? >> They aren't going to do a thing. >> They can't fire you. >> No they can't fire me.

01:03:06.640 - 01:03:20.540

>> Jerry, when you got to Long Beach in the beginning, were there already some WAFs there? >> One WAF, Barbara Erickson. She was in charge. Right. And how did she feel about the WASP? Do you know?

01:03:21.060 - 01:03:41.460

Not well. Not well. Who made actual assignments? I don't know ifóI don't think she did, but she had little to do with it, I think. We were on theówe'd go up every morning at ten o'clock and find out what our assignments

01:03:41.680 - 01:03:57.900

and planes and so forth. As a general rule, how many missions would you do during a week, for example? Well, we never knew. We could go and sometimes we would be gone a week if we were going to the East Coast.

01:03:59.380 - 01:04:21.180

Sometimes it would just be a little tiny trip up. I can remember, I think Betty was on one with us when we went to where they made these experimental airplanes down in Ryan, was making experimental airplanes. And we went down there and picked up some of them to take them to the place where they

01:04:21.280 - 01:04:34.640

were to be tested. And we kind of flew the highways. But that was quite an experience, and it was just day. And a lot of these things were day things.

01:04:35.700 - 01:04:47.960

What were the majority of your missions? Was it from factory to base? to base, factory to someplace, wherever we were supposed to take them. Kelly: Did you take some to points of embarkation, for example?

01:04:47.960 - 01:05:03.900

Beckels: I do not think, I cannot remember anything like that. I think we took them to a place where they were to go. But it was not, I did not feel it was fun, really. It was not that.

01:05:05.800 - 01:05:36.760

The experiences, the people, and so forth were fun, and I made good friends there. I had days I was remembering of the fun I had when I was there. I was very anxious to get back. And then when I had this accident, the last one there where I said you had an angel on

01:05:36.820 - 01:06:03.760

my shoulder, I was injured to some extent, and I wanted to take some time off. Kelly: Were you injured physically or just mentally? I had hit pretty hard right there, and my leg was injured, and I ended up hospitalized. Did you hurt the airplane?

01:06:04.120 - 01:06:12.080

No, not much. Not much. And you had to go before a board, though? Oh, you always went before a board.

01:06:13.760 - 01:06:30.260

But do you feel that the things that you did were worthy? - Oh, I think everything we did was very worthwhile. And yet, as I say, I had in the back of my mind the fun I'd had, and this was not fun.

01:06:31.060 - 01:06:38.160

And I felt I was doing my duty, no doubt about that, but I was not having-- - And was that important? - I was not having fun.

01:06:39.120 - 01:07:01.080

- Was that important to you, to feel that you were doing your duty? Yeah, oh, very much. I felt that I was doing my duty. And the men there were very nice. The men at the base were nice. And so I did not feel that we were harassed there at all

01:07:02.120 - 01:07:18.140

in Long Beach. Kelly: While you were at Long Beach, did you ever go on temporary duty at another station? Or to the OCS thing? Or any additional training that you went to?

01:07:18.140 - 01:07:33.300

No, not really too much additional training. I had a lot of hours back there, but nothing, no additional training. Did you ever get into fighters or bombers? Well, I had the training.

01:07:33.700 - 01:07:50.380

Yes, I did, but not bombers, no. And I had to, but that was, yes I did have that additional training, yes that's true. Kelly: And then did you fly pursuits? Beall: Yes, I flew some pursuits.

01:07:52.300 - 01:08:08.200

Kelly: During the time you were at Long Beach, did you get some time off to go home? Beall: I can't remember if I ever went home during that time. Maybe I did. Maybe I did. I don't think so, though.

01:08:09.000 - 01:08:29.000

I'm going to go back here. I forgot to ask you something, that right now I remember. When you were at Houston, you were there during Christmas. How did you spend that Christmas? Magda went home to her husband, and I did not. I did not go home.

01:08:33.000 - 01:08:51.420

I stayed there. I cannot remember it being very pleasant, but I did see some of the other girls who were left there. I can't remember it being a very pleasant Christmas.

01:08:53.430 - 01:09:10.560

You are at Long Beach, and how did you hear that the WASPs were going to be disbanded? I was out by that time. I had gotten out after that last accident because I knew I was going to be off for three or four months.

01:09:11.500 - 01:09:32.640

My flying school was going back, and Nancy Love had called me and said, "Jerry, why don't you come back here with me for a little while?" That was a little difficult. This was kind of hairy in here, but I did go back with Nancy for a little bit.

01:09:34.580 - 01:09:48.760

Our flying school was opening up again. We had a good Navy contract to train Navy pilots, and so I just went back to my--I resigned and went back to my flying school and trained Navy pilots. Okay.

01:09:49.430 - 01:09:54.500

Were you part owner of that flying school? Oh, yes. Okay. Oh, yes.

01:09:55.320 - 01:10:04.580

So when you went back to the flying school, then you were active as an instructor? Oh, yes. Again? Yes, active as an instructor with the Navy.

01:10:04.740 - 01:10:19.220

Okay. Navy pilots. And when was the next time that you saw this young man that you met on the train? Well, we, then after I went back to the flying school, he came home on leave and we got married.

01:10:21.920 - 01:10:39.240

Tell me about your wedding. Well, it was at my house because we had two days. I was staying with my folks there, they were in Portland. And so he came back and we had our wedding at home and my grandmother was living with

01:10:39.320 - 01:10:57.180

my folks then. And so she was able to be at the wedding and then he took off. And so then I stayed there until he came home. And then when he came home, we didn't know what we were going to do.

01:10:58.580 - 01:11:24.380

And I had an aunt and uncle in Alaska, and so we went to Alaska, went in partnership in a bush pilot service, bought an airplane, and flew bush. What does flying bush mean? It means flying a little Stinson station wagon we had, and you go off into wherever you are

01:11:24.380 - 01:11:47.000

And most of these small airports don't have lights on them. And the daylight's about two hours a day in the wintertime. So what you do if you get caught at night is to buzz the town, and about twelve people in every town are on alert to grab their parkas,

01:11:47.220 - 01:12:12.900

grab their cars, and go out to the airport, turn their lights on, and you can land. So, I had three kids in Alaska, they were all born in Seward. We had this other pilot who was doing our flying for us mostly, well, I did it too. But, that was a fun experience.

01:12:13.010 - 01:12:25.580

We stayed up there about four, over four years. And, these airplanes with snow and ice on the ground, did you have skis? We had skis or pontoons. We had three things.

01:12:27.660 - 01:12:43.320

How difficult is it to land on skis rather than on wheels? Well, not really too much. If you learn how, you learn to do it. Or if you're landing on pontoons, it's the same thing.

01:12:44.180 - 01:12:56.960

It's just a question of learning. When you were instructing, what was your favorite thing to instruct? Aerobatics, cross country? What did you enjoy?

01:12:56.960 - 01:13:11.200

Well, I do not know. The instructing, no, the instructing was not as much fun as taking people on trips down Hells Canyon and taking them down to get their deer and a few other things like that. That was more fun than instructing.

01:13:12.280 - 01:13:34.400

Instructing was just kind of like, I said Long Beach was like a truck driver, but instructing was just one thing after another, you know, the same thing. You were scared a lot of the time because people you were instructing were not--and I was always scared to death when they first took their first solo flight.

01:13:35.680 - 01:13:58.180

The biggest thing was we had to turn our props by hand. I was scared to be inside while they were turning it. I kept my brake on real well while they were out there trying to prop. But when I was out there propping an airplane and they were inside, I was scared to death

01:13:58.220 - 01:14:19.500

they would take their foot off the brake. It was fun, but nothing as fun as some of the other things that I did. Kelly: And you were in Alaska for four years? Beall: Well, a little over four.

01:14:19.580 - 01:14:37.140

I had three kids up there. In this other room, you saw that was my parka that I had and gloves for the— Kelly: What was your favorite aircraft to fly? I think the old C-47s, they were fun.

01:14:37.560 - 01:14:47.240

They were fun. They were stable things. Kelly: When you were flying those C-47s out on Long Beach, were you delivering them? Steele: Oh, yes, we were delivering.

01:14:47.660 - 01:15:01.120

Kelly: Did you also do like administrative flights, take people? Steele: No, I do not remember ever doing anything like that. Kelly: Okay. What made you decide to leave Alaska?

01:15:02.300 - 01:15:24.040

Well, our children, we didn't feel there was anything there for our kids. My husband hadn't finished, they had drafted him before he had a semester left in his engineering degree, and so he wanted to go back and finish. And so that's when we came out, and then he got his engineering degree, and I went

01:15:24.120 - 01:15:37.400

back up to North Idaho and took over my folks' variety store and ran it, and that's how I got into all this hobby stuff. Kelly: When you went to Idaho, were your children already in school? Beckels: No, no.

01:15:37.670 - 01:15:56.840

Kelly: They were still young? Beckels: Yeah, they were very young. One had just started, I think he was in kindergarten, because there were three in a row. One was in kindergarten and one was, let's see, just barely one, I think, when we went

01:15:56.860 - 01:16:22.580

up there, when we went back. And one and three and five, must be five and four and two when we went back. Kelly: Why was it important to you to have those children in the States in one place since you had traveled everywhere as a child?

01:16:22.580 - 01:16:37.260

Reedy: Well, I know, I'll tell you. I looked around Alaska, in Seward. Now of course it is much, much different in Alaska. But there was nothing there for children to grow up and I could see no future for children

01:16:37.480 - 01:16:54.680

up there. And anyway I had an alcoholic aunt who was causing us an awful lot of trouble. She was just a problem. And my poor uncle was putting up with her, but it was tough.

01:16:55.140 - 01:17:09.000

It was really tough. When you came back to the States, were your mom and dad and grandmother all still alive? My grandmother had died by then, but my mother and father were running this variety store in Wallace, Idaho.

01:17:10.560 - 01:17:34.460

So I came back there and took over the store because they wanted to travel some more. My husband stayed with his folks in Salt Lake to get his degree. I had the children up there in Wallace in the variety store. Kelly: Then when he finished his degree, did he move?

01:17:34.460 - 01:17:54.000

Beall: He came back up to Wallace and started engineering in the mines in Wallace. All my children graduated from the same high school I did. Tell me, as those children were going through school, what part did you play in their lives as far as their school was concerned?

01:17:54.170 - 01:18:17.640

A great deal with PTA, President, and a few other things. I had a little travel bug too, but I decided we were going to take them to Europe. For seven years we saved the money specifically for this Europe trip. And one was in the fourth grade, one was in the sixth, and one was in the seventh.

01:18:18.340 - 01:18:30.180

We took them on a three-month trip to Europe. And I've got pictures in here of us, fifteen countries. We skied the Matterhorn. How did you get around in Europe?

01:18:30.480 - 01:18:45.900

Did you rent a car? No, we rented a car and traveled around Europe in a little car. And it was very inexpensive. We had saved $6,000 is all, but we traveled over and back.

01:18:46.060 - 01:18:59.100

We bought a car. I ended up buying a full set of Royal Dalton dishes when we got up into Denmark. We bought a Leica camera. We went, actually knocked on doors in Europe.

01:18:59.980 - 01:19:19.460

We went and looked for a pension sign, and we would stop by the side and look for little pensions. In several places, the people would get out of their beds and give us their beds, and they would sleep with friends.

01:19:21.260 - 01:19:40.840

It was a marvelous experience, because the kids found out what it was like. We came home with money. What was the most interesting thing you saw? Well I think skiing the Matterhorn was probably the most interesting thing, although there

01:19:40.880 - 01:19:59.780

were many things that were fascinating, very many. And our children were so enraptured with that, that they just have memories. And this one boy that teaches in Phoenix, where I did the last talk up there that I have given lately.

01:20:01.720 - 01:20:21.940

I think he's been to Europe seven or eight times on different exchanges and various things. That's kind of interesting too in that I go up and do these talks to high school. The last one I did was at Mountain Point High School. They arranged it so that I talked.

01:20:21.940 - 01:20:44.760

There was a whole high school history class, all the history classes were involved, and I gave six forty-minute talks in that one day, and I had a hundred and twenty-five in each, and I gave seven hundred and fifty kids I talked to that day. And the students were wonderful, but the greatest thing on these talks—I'm off, I'm off

01:20:44.760 - 01:21:08.440

on this, is that the teachers will sit there and be writing, because they donít, a lot of, nearly anything, nothing is in the textbooks about World War II. We are completely forgotten, and thatís wonderful that youíre doing this. Although, as I say, I hope somebody else has much more interesting stories, so that Iím

01:21:08.520 - 01:21:14.120

eliminated. ButÖ Kelly: I donít think so. I donít think so.

01:21:17.060 - 01:21:36.260

Kelly: And then you stayed in Idaho? Rueben: We stayed in Idaho through—the children were through high school and went to college then at the University of Idaho. And then my one son, who is a lawyer in Boise, went back to Harvard Law School.

01:21:38.820 - 01:21:57.700

And then one is in Vancouver, Washington. He is the vice president of a bug company. And another one is a teacher in Phoenix. He and his wife are both teachers in Phoenix.

01:21:58.120 - 01:22:10.200

Good. Kelly: So you did not raise any stupid children? Well, I guess I didn't. They were a lot smarter than I was. I'm going to put in one more take.

01:22:14.260 - 01:22:32.000

Mission trips? You've been on any mission trips? Okay, I'm rolling. No, you mean church mission trips. Well, my one son, when he got out of--he and his wife got married, went to Campus Crusade for Christ in Alabama. At the moment, I have a grandson, don't put this down.

01:22:33.760 - 01:22:49.300

I was going to ask you, what are the qualities that made you fall in love with the man you married? Oh, he just was nice. And then, after I got back to Long Beach, we started writing, and he wrote me a letter

01:22:49.420 - 01:23:04.400

every single day. And at some time, I was gone on a week's trip, and I'd come back and the postman there was so funny. He'd always say, "Well, I've got a pile of mail for you."

01:23:04.400 - 01:23:16.860

And he always did have. So that was the fun thing. He was just such a—well, very different. Very different.

01:23:16.940 - 01:23:32.620

Kelly: Were you able to meet his parents before you married him? Well, yes, I met his mother and his aunt down in California. They were staying at a little coastal town, and they asked me if I would come over and meet them.

01:23:32.900 - 01:23:46.500

And I met them. Kelly: Were they approved? Reifeldt: No, not at all, because they were very prim and proper, and being a lady pilot was not prim and proper.

01:23:47.840 - 01:24:06.000

And so I was not somebody they wanted him to marry at all. But they accepted me. And years later, when my mother stayed with us, lived with us for twenty-five years after my dad died, he ended up in North Idaho.

01:24:07.240 - 01:24:19.640

And then when my father-in-law died, we were in—by that time, my husband was with Union Oil. He had gone with Union Oil. traveling around the United States with Union Oil.

01:24:19.840 - 01:24:28.800

We were over in Colorado when this happened, so we were able to take her in. And so we had both 90-year-old grandmas and they didn't get along.

01:24:29.640 - 01:24:36.820

(laughing) So that was an experience. That was a real experience. - Jerry, how were they different?

01:24:37.760 - 01:24:51.140

- Well, my mother had been king of the mountain for 25 years and to come bring somebody else in was, But my mother-in-law did not realize that it was not her house that she was in. She thought we were visiting her in her house.

01:24:52.820 - 01:25:14.500

So it was very difficult for her, because she did not want to go to bed at night before we went. So we had no time together, and my husband happened to be in charge of this project, oil shale project. He said, "Well, I'll just put myself on a different schedule."

01:25:14.500 - 01:25:36.260

So he put himself on night shift so that we could have time during the day. My mother could kind of watch her a little bit, and we could go out and play golf for a couple of hours, or we could go to the ski hill for a couple of hours after I got them settled down, but I had a little bridge club and I used to go.

01:25:37.140 - 01:25:55.440

And the girls would say, "Well, what's the latest on the girls?" And I'd always be laughing and have a story. So the girls would say to me, "Well, as long as you're laughing, we won't worry about you.

01:25:55.880 - 01:26:11.340

But the minute you tell us one of those stories and aren't laughing, then we'll start worrying about you." And I said, "If you didn't have a lot of patience and a sense of humor, you'd never make it with two old ninety-year-olds who didn't get along."

01:26:11.340 - 01:26:27.400

But the cutest story, I have to tell you this. One evening, I always fed them about six o'clock. And then Van, I always fed him early at four o'clock. And then I fed them at six, and then he went off to work.

01:26:28.820 - 01:26:48.360

Well, one evening, I hadn't had dinner with him, so I sat down with the girls, and Grandma Helen, Van's mother, said, "Well, Mama would never have allowed our hired girl to sit at the table with us." That's one of my stories.

01:26:51.800 - 01:27:02.260

So that's later on. That's later in life. Kelly: Did they both? Reifel: They both ended up in—well, my Grandma Helen ended up in a nursing home, and then

01:27:02.680 - 01:27:22.260

my mother was in the Eastern Star Home after we were on another job, and we had to put her in the Eastern Star Home because we were sent to Chicago on a job. But that was a fascinating world with the two of them, I'll tell you. I don't want to go live with any of my kids.

01:27:24.800 - 01:27:40.400

Tell me about your grandchildren. Oh, the grandchildren are real good. I have three in college, this one boy who is teaching. One of them, two girls and a boy, and they are all in college.

01:27:41.240 - 01:27:59.700

Two of them at ASU and another school in Phoenix. Two of them want to be teachers, the other one wants to be a lawyer. She has got her eyes on a lawyer. She spent two years in Cotty College in Nevada, Missouri, and then she is at ASU now, and

01:27:59.720 - 01:28:17.920

the other two are heading for teachers. The middle two, my son, who is a lawyer, his two, I do not know what they are going to do. They are enigmas in our life, but I think they will come out all right.

01:28:18.100 - 01:28:53.100

going to beauty school, and she has a little girl, and that is difficult. And the little boy, he wants to go to something like ITT after he is graduating. The other three are two—one of them has a family, is married and has two children. And he is working for a company that makes these videos in funeral homes, and they give

01:28:53.120 - 01:29:14.180

the persons full. And he has traveled quite a little bit, but he and his wife live in Spokane. The other one is getting his last year as a bone doctor in Spokane. The young one is going to Cordon Bleu up here in Phoenix as a chef.

01:29:17.440 - 01:29:27.540

They are all nice kids. Kelly: How do you spend your time now? Reifel: Oh, my gosh. It seems to me we are either on some church project or something.

01:29:27.890 - 01:29:40.460

As I say, I make pine needle baskets in the summertime. I am sorry I cannot show you. I've just got one out here, but I have three in a museum right now on display. But I made--

01:29:40.460 - 01:29:50.720

>> And they're made from real pine needles? >> Pine needles. And I'll show you this one after we get some idea of what they're like. But I sell them when I really don't want to sell.

01:29:50.720 - 01:30:14.440

I make old-- it takes about 40 hours to make one. But that's the best thing, because I gather the pine needles when we're up at the lake and cordelaine all summer. It's fun. I've been making them with some shells. Then I do other hobbies. I do all kinds of hobbies. I never buy anything for my kids. Since I

01:30:14.460 - 01:30:30.080

had a hobby store with my variety store, I-- Kelly: Are you involved with your church? Davidson: Very involved with the church. As I say, we're spending too much money on and flowers for everybody, and everybody getting sick.

01:30:30.220 - 01:30:43.720

So, I used to do whole weddings in these roses that I have out here. And so, I just decided two roses and a vase was, we were giving it to everybody who was ill. And it works out better than giving them fresh flowers.

01:30:44.940 - 01:30:52.660

So. >> What makes you happy? >> Just the world now. I mean, now the world is in such a mess

01:30:52.720 - 01:31:10.500

that I'm not happy for my grandkids. I've had a wonderful life. just a wonderful life. My husband feels he has had a wonderful life. And we both are just so compatible. Everything is just great as far as we're concerned. We live in a nice

01:31:10.580 - 01:31:30.540

area here, nice friends, nice everything. This life is just delightful for us at this moment. in looking back over your life, aside from your children, what is the one thing that you have done that you are the most proud of?

01:31:31.440 - 01:32:06.240

Kelly: Besides raising three wonderful boys and then taking in a foster boy and his children are wonderful to us too, and his family. Why, otherwise, the funnest thing was going to Europe, taking the kids to Europe probably, but being proud of just what we've done for people in our lives, and working with

01:32:06.340 - 01:32:32.820

grandparents and doing things for them. seems to me that that is our life, is seeing what we can help other people with. Kelly: That is awesome. McIntyre: Well, I do not know. Do not you think a lot of people feel that way? I do

01:32:32.840 - 01:32:54.140

not know. We have a different attitude since what happened in New York, I think. Everybody I would like to see more people with faith in God. And now I'm delighted that they're less—at least they say, "God bless America and the schools."

01:32:54.140 - 01:33:15.920

And they weren't able to do that before. But I did have one interesting thing happen when my middle grandson, who I said is sure it's the end of the world. He graduated, the first thing they played at the graduation was a religious song, and

01:33:15.960 - 01:33:34.180

all through the thing. Everything was a prayer, that everybody who talked had a prayer. I think the song was "Ave Maria" that they played. We just were thunderstruck, everybody in the audience.

01:33:34.380 - 01:33:57.160

I asked Scott afterwards, I said, "How did you get away with that?" "Well, Grandma," he said, "we found a little peephole in all their instructions and found that if the senior class could vote and say we could do anything we wanted if the senior class was a hundred percent."

01:33:57.160 - 01:34:12.880

It turned out that the president of the class was going into the ministry, and they were able to get away with it. And I've never known another graduation class since they made all these rules. Kelly: How great.

01:34:12.990 - 01:34:28.160

Reifeldt: And of course, he had a lot to do with it too, because he has real strong feelings. And so it can be done, I guess. But I am just so happy to see people coming together now. This is wonderful.

01:34:28.590 - 01:34:39.380

Kelly: Right. And looking back over your life, there have been happy times, but there also must have been some sad times. What got you through those sad times?

01:34:39.530 - 01:34:59.100

Reese: Oh, yes. I think my religion got me through any sad times that I might have had. And I probably had a lot of them because I did not have sad times as much as just not knowing where I was going.

01:34:59.500 - 01:35:06.560

Kelly: Uncertain. McIntyre: Uh-huh. But when I was growing up with my folks, I just took it for granted. This was the way people lived, I guess.

01:35:06.780 - 01:35:25.440

I do not know why. One summer, we lived in a gypsy camp with the gypsies, because we were living in a campground next door and the gypsies were next door. They knew my dad was a barber and asked him if he would come over.

01:35:25.460 - 01:35:33.460

"Why don't you come over and live with us? We have an empty trailer." We were in a tent. So we spent the summer in the gypsy camp.

01:35:33.920 - 01:35:55.260

Another time, we went out to the depths of Wyoming, lived with my grandmother out there, this other grandmother, and I rode to school in a toboggan sled. We had no—and my grandmother trapped beavers for a living. That is one-room schoolhouse that I went to, but there are experiences.

01:35:55.520 - 01:36:17.960

I have written a lot of this up, written a lot of stories up with this, these things. Let me ask you, what is your personal opinion of Jacqueline Cochran and then her contribution as far as the WASP program? Kelly: If you read—what is the book?

01:36:18.280 - 01:36:33.840

I cannot remember. Anyway, she was a very independent individual and a very, very definite person. And a lot of people didn't like her, but I thought the WASP wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for Jackie.

01:36:34.980 - 01:36:53.820

And I know that the WAFs were very much against us bringing in others. They wanted it themselves. And because I had asked to be in the WAFs, I had a little feeling there, and I could see from the commanding officers.

01:36:56.220 - 01:37:22.300

You hear stories about some of them, not Long Beach, but some of these other places, they hated their commanding officers. But Jackie was there, and she was determined, and she made it go. And I don't think we would have had a WASP if it hadn't been for her.

01:37:24.640 - 01:37:46.680

But she was overbearing in a lot of ways, but boy, she made it go. Kelly: If you could say something to your grandchildren, great-grandchildren, children that you don't even know in the future that are watching you, what message would you like to give them that might encourage them?

01:37:47.640 - 01:38:09.140

Trust in God, and have a lot of stamina, like we had to have, and determination in what they want to do. And not let anybody—and that's why I talked to the students. I said, "You may want to do something and somebody's trying to talk you out of it,

01:38:10.120 - 01:38:23.580

but don't let them have stamina." And then I had one teacher say, "I'll probably have everybody ask me what the word stamina is." And I said, "Tell them it's courage."

01:38:23.580 - 01:38:45.060

So now I use courage along with it. But just have the courage to do what you really want to do, but do it right. Then I end up with this little bit I have about cigarettes and pot. >> Why don't you tell us that?

01:38:45.340 - 01:38:59.180

Pretend we're students. >> Yeah, okay. At the end, I say, "Well, now, if you have enough courage to stay away from pot, cigarettes, and alcohol, you might have as much fun

01:38:59.620 - 01:39:11.900

in your 80s as my husband and I do." Now, do I hear from some snickers in the back of the room wondering how two old 80-year-olds can possibly have any fun, and they start to laugh, of course.

01:39:12.540 - 01:39:28.420

And then I say, "Well, I want you to know that we still downhill ski, and we both have wind boards, and we windsurf." And that is just a marvelous ending, because they just get up on their feet. And applaud.

01:39:28.600 - 01:39:32.560

And applaud. And they should. They applaud. They applaud.

01:39:32.720 - 01:39:46.820

And then I have them come up to me and say, "I want to know how you learned to windsurf." And I said, "We took our boards over here to the swimming pool, and we got our balance without the sales. That's how we learned.

01:39:47.500 - 01:39:53.480

>> How neat. >> What a good idea. >> Yeah. >> Jerry, have I left out anything?

01:39:53.480 - 01:40:01.880

>> Oh, you haven't left out anything. You've got so much there. Heavenly days. >> But there might be something you want to tell us

01:40:01.980 - 01:40:12.300

that I didn't know to ask you. >> I don't think so. You've got my whole life in a nutshell here. You have been absolutely marvelous.

01:40:13.480 - 01:40:19.120

>> Well, I can't say I am. >> Did you use McGuthee readers in the one-room schoolhouse? I mean, what-- >> Oh, I think so.

01:40:19.320 - 01:40:27.860

Probably we did. Probably we did. >> Can you pass up somebody to start in kindergarten and you're really smart, can you jump to the second grade

01:40:27.920 - 01:40:35.460

in a one-room schoolhouse? >> Well, I was in the third grade and this other boy was in the fourth. Now, this was in Wyoming

01:40:35.640 - 01:40:51.980

where my grandmother trapped beavers for a living. And so they didn't want to put this one boy back, so they put me up into that grade right away. Well, then when I went into City School, the next year I had a heck of a time, you know,

01:40:52.200 - 01:41:08.800

catching up. Then the worst one was when I went to another one, and I was in the sixth grade, and this boy was in—boy or girl, I can't remember—the seventh grade. They put me up to the seventh grade, and that was real tough, because the next grade, you

01:41:08.800 - 01:41:27.220

I was in the eighth grade, then the next place I went, and I'm not a brain at all. And I had to just work hard, because it was having two. And then I'd started when I was five. Kelly: Right.

01:41:27.800 - 01:41:43.400

And I wanted to know about Bush pilots in Alaska, because I was in Alaska. What kind of flights did you guys do? It was just to go to little towns and make deliveries. You never got to carry another deer in your front seat?

01:41:43.460 - 01:41:49.400

No, not in that. It wasn't in Alaska. That was down in Oregon. The deer would have been a moose in Alaska.

01:41:49.420 - 01:41:57.180

Yeah, it would have been a moose. What did your grandmother do with these beavers? Was it for the skins? Oh, yes, for the skins.

01:41:57.900 - 01:42:14.260

She had been doing this for a number of years. My father had had a hernia operation. The doctor told him to take off work for a year. My grandmother out there in the depths of Wyoming had—this was his stepmother—had

01:42:14.340 - 01:42:30.740

wanted him to come out so she would get better acquainted with him, and hadn't met my mother and/or met me. So we took off in our—I think we had a Model A, but no, we still had a Model T. We took off and went out there and stored it.

01:42:31.040 - 01:42:48.240

They had to come and get us, of course, in the wagon to go out to the ranch. They had no electricity and, of course, no running water or anything, but they survived nice and had a nice cabin. My uncle lived with her.

01:42:48.380 - 01:43:11.380

He never married, and he was my dad's stepbrother. So anyway, for years, she had made her living by going out on the trap lines and trapping beavers, and then you have to pluck all the activity we had in the evening. We sat around a big table and plucked these guard hares.

01:43:12.640 - 01:43:27.940

They grow about that high off the beaver skin, and you have to pluck all those out in order to get down to the beaver fur. So she had extra hands. She had three extra hands that year, and then when the buyer came in the spring, we were

01:43:28.080 - 01:43:39.600

ready to leave then. in the spring, we had to get on our way. He came, she made money that year, because he was thrilled to death that she had a big pie.

01:43:39.640 - 01:43:57.760

She had big tubs where she could finish them off, and she had beautiful beaver skins. I'd go out on the beaver runs with her, and they'd be in traps. Of course, it's illegal now. Of course, you could never do a thing like that.

01:43:57.780 - 01:44:10.260

Did you have a paper coat? Oh, and we got ready to come home. She never went to a store. Everything out of a Montgomery Water, Sears, and Roebuck catalog, when she got her money,

01:44:10.360 - 01:44:27.000

then she ordered the whole year's supplies of things she needed. Of course, they grew everything and canned everything. And then they had meat there that they'd shoot, and she'd put those down in big crocks. You could put pork chops.

01:44:27.060 - 01:44:39.400

I remember my mother used to do this, too. She put lard down, and then a slab of pork chops or slab, you lard over it, and it keeps all winter. And then just take out one when you need it, and that's the way she did all her meat.

01:44:40.700 - 01:45:00.080

Well anyway, he would come and pay her, and then she would order everything that she needed for the whole year, and it was just a fascinating experience out there. She was a wonderful lady. You don't think that's interesting to people?

01:45:00.560 - 01:45:16.580

Oh, yeah, I just gave a talk on that the other day, an organization that I belong to. I was supposed to be the program, and I couldn't think of anything to do. I gave one the other night on my rock collection. Where did you get your rock collection?

01:45:17.200 - 01:45:21.800

In Arizona? No, over the years. Over the years. You brought rocks home from Europe.

01:45:23.620 - 01:45:31.160

My husband is with the mining. Had gone all over. - So did you get a beaver coat? - Oh, back to that.

01:45:31.660 - 01:45:40.980

As we got ready to go home, I didn't know it, but she had ordered lining and all of that. My mother and I got ready to go. We didn't have a cent,

01:45:41.520 - 01:45:51.080

but we each had full-length beaver coats. They had made the beaver coats. How neat. - I'll bet that was something that you were really proud of.

01:45:51.120 - 01:46:06.000

- Oh, yes. It was just interesting that we had that. She was a fascinating lady, and that was a fascinating experience, just like all the rest of them.

01:46:06.500 - 01:46:12.980

Do you have a favorite word? No. Okay. That question doesn't do very well.

01:46:13.240 - 01:46:21.860

No, I don't think. Okay, let me turn this off. Okay. Okay.

01:46:22.200 - 01:46:22.380

Thank you. [End of Audio]