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Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Olive Lempi Paavola Armstrong 
April 29, 1986 
Cassette 2, Side 1 
 
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:03 
Today is April 29 and we are beginning the second session with Olive Armstrong on her oral life 
history.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:16 
OK, Olive, is there anything that you would like to mention about your biographical information 
that you feel you might have left out, that you didn't have space to fill in, or...? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  00:34 
No, not that I know of. That's all that I have. That's-- 
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:40 
OK, no, this is great. This is perfect. Now we're going to begin just sort of a discussion, if you 
will. I'm very interested in your family history, your childhood, what it was like-- what it was 
like to be you and growing up in the time period that that you did, I... You told me that you--  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  01:11 
Yeah, I was thinking about that in the night, and things come to you, how it was, you know, just 
like you were there. Like, first thing I can-- first thing that I can remember is that I can see my 
mother rocking the buggy, big wicker buggy, in the living room, and the lady next door was 
there. See, in the mining towns, there wasn't any hotel. There was only one little bitty hotel. And 
then all the miners that would come there, they had to stay somewhere. So the families would 
take in who they could, you know, or share their house. If someone comes in, they have no house 
to be in, they have to wait for a house, why, my mother would just move out all the furniture out 
of the front part of the house and make do, you know. And the men worked a night shift or a day 
shift. So this lady would come over in the night, you know, and they would sit and talk, and my 
mother would be rocking the wicker buggy. It was my brother, baby brother in there. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  02:27 
Which brother? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  02:31 
I think it was the oldest brother. I'm not positive about that. 
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Linda G. Greiner  02:37 
So you don't remember the year of it, the earliest recollection, what-- about what year that would 
be?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  02:42 
Well, I came there in about 19-- I came there 1903. So he was two years younger than I am, so 
that would be about 1905 or 1906. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  03:03 
Did you--? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  03:04 
And the ladies would be-- they'd be crocheting and talking, you know, and keeping the house 
warm, and then when the men would come home, it would be, I don't know what time, and then 
they'd have the hot water ready, and they'd have the wash tub in the kitchen and get the water in 
there. They'd help their husband get a bath, wash his back, because they would be absolutely 
black when they came in from the mines. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  03:34 
Was this-- this -- so they had a bath every night, then? This was sort of a ritual [inaudible]? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  03:37 
Oh yeah, every day. And if they were working the other shift, was the same thing, you know? 
You had to take a bath, and so mothers would help the husbands take a bath.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  03:49 
So what would--  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  03:49 
Those bathtubs are pretty-- the wash tubs are pretty small. You sit in there-- you can just sit in 
there, and you got-- somebody's gotta wash your back and wash your hair. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  03:59 
What was your responsibility, being -- you were the oldest, correct? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  04:06 
Oh, I would be asleep.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  04:10 
So you-- 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  04:10 
All we did was play, you know? [?Got?] nothing about anything in particular. I remember that 
my dad used to send me to the store, which was, oh, not too far from there, and I couldn't talk 
English, and I had a little purse that was on a long chain and so they would put the money in 
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there, and I'd go to the store, and they knew that I wanted some tobacco for my father, and then 
I'd bring it home. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  04:43 
So you learned English as a second language, then? Did you-- 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  04:47 
Oh, yes.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  04:48 
So your parents spoke...? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  04:49 
They spoke Finnish. And I imagine that my dad, having been here for about three years before 
that, that he'd-- you would have to learn if you were going to travel around the country, which he 
had. All the different parts the United States and Canada, worked at different mining camps. 
There were a lot of mines in those days, coal mines, all the way from Pennsylvania and Montana 
and different places, and then also in Canada. And then-- but he was there from probably 1898 in 
Black Diamond. Then he went over to Finland and married my mother. And then he came back 
here. And then, when I was a year and a half old, well, then I-- my mother and I came alone on a 
boat, and she said that she was very, very sick. And one thing she mentioned was this young 
Russian, red headed, red bearded Russian would carry me around, you know, kind of babysit 
from my mother. That must have been a long journey. I don't know how long it takes-- took 
those ships to come across to the States.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  06:16 
Was [crosstalk]--? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  06:17 
Probably to Ellis Island. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  06:21 
Is that where you-- well, I guess you wouldn't remember if that's where you...  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  06:24 
No. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  06:24 
[Laughs.] 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  06:26 
Well, nobody talked about things like that, you know, that you-- later on, you would think about 
it. You know, it was just a matter of course, that's how things were, and why would you talk 
about it, with little kids, especially? Besides, we didn't listen anyway. We mostly played around. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  06:46 
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How was it for you when you started going to school that-- since, since you didn't really know 
English? When did you start learning English? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  06:53 
You know, you played with the kids of the neighborhood, and what English they had picked up, 
well, you used, you know, in playing games. And just-- it just was so natural, you didn't even 
think about it. You didn't think that you had another language. And then I remember we moved 
to Old Lawson, which was another district in-- by Black Diamond, and we'd play out in front and 
there would be teenage girls that would play with us. They'd swing us around and things. And we 
picked up the language there. I think I was about eight years old before I went to school, because 
it was quite a long ways from school, and I was very small for my age. In fact, you had to walk 
through a wooded area and-- before you got to Black Diamond proper to go to school. And I 
don't remember of any difference at all in school. And a lot of the kids that came from different 
countries, like Germany, they'd be 15-16 years old, and they'd start them in the first grade, and 
they learned English without any problem at all. And just got to their proper grade.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  06:54 
So what--?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  08:06 
So I didn't have any problem in school. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  08:09 
Did-- what was the most memorable thing for you about going to school? Did you like school? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  08:19 
Yes, I liked school. I liked to play the games they played outside. I know the one thing that I 
remember about the first grade was I very often used to come in late because I lived so far away 
and maybe I wasn't conscious that that I should be there at a certain time. Maybe I fooled around, 
I don't know, but I got there late quite frequently. And, you know, what they had to do in the first 
grade there was march around the room, you know, everyone would march around, then they'd 
[inaudible] to the seat. And I came in late, as I very often did, and the teacher got a hold of me 
and paddled me on my seat, you know? Didn't hurt me, but my feelings were hurt. I had never 
been whipped, you know? And I went home, and I guess I went for my recess and I told my dad, 
and he came to school and he told the teacher, "That will-- this will never happen again." And, of 
course, it didn't. But I hadn't done anything. I didn't know that I was even late, because-- except 
that I joined the line marching around, and that-- you know, and she paddled my seat, then. 
That's the only thing I can remember from the first grade.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  09:36 
So your father never-- did he never paddle or-- 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  09:40 
No.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  09:40 
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--believe in striking you children?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  09:42 
No, neither one ever put a hand on us. No, we had a good life that way. I know there's a lot of 
them that were-- fathers that were very strict, you know, like different languages, Polish, and 
different ones. They were really cruel to the kids. But no, we were-- never had that.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  10:10 
Can you remember any type of -- getting back to the school issue -- any sort of school activities, 
or anything about you going through school, about...? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  10:33 
The only thing I remember in particular was that the schools then were so different than what 
you hear around here, the disorder and kids talking in school and and smart alecking, you know? 
And when we went to school, we had to be there seated at a certain time, and we pledged the-- 
stood up and pledged allegiance to the flag and sat down and you-- when the-- you could not 
talk, unless you were-- a teacher asked you to. You just spoke when you were asked to speak, 
and you recited when you were supposed to recite, and things like that. And we had to learn an 
awful lot of poetry, you know, and stand up and recite. Would be pages long, and things like 
that. And school was just doing your everyday work. Be quiet and orderly. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  11:40 
What about your friends? Do you remember any particular friends that you had in childhood that 
were special, or...? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  11:47 
I had a girlfriend, her name was Lillian, and we-- you always had a girlfriend that you always 
went around with, told secrets to, and so forth. And as far as the playground playing, why, there 
wasn't any, there was  nothing on the school grounds. Boys played marbles or tag or something 
like that, and played ball, maybe, but it wasn't a real game. If it was good weather, the girls 
would play jacks, mumbly-peg or else, silly little games like Ring Around the Rosie and stuff 
like that, in the low-- when you were smaller. But outside of-- other activity, we didn't have any. 
None at all. We just went to school to learn, and that was it.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  12:48 
Even in high school? I mean, I remember you telling me that you didn't-- you got all the way to 
graduation and then didn't graduate, but.... But even in high school, there wasn't anything-- 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  12:59 
No, no. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  13:00 
--any activities or anything special that was--?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  13:01 
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No. No, you just had to have a-- learn all you could and-- or else you'd be sent to the professor. 
They were very strict. And some of the kids that graduated from high school and they came from 
the business college in Seattle, they would tell that they-- that there wasn't much that they could 
teach them. They already knew everything there was that they had to know, their typing, and 
whatever. So it was very, very strict. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  13:37 
You have made reference to the sense of community that there was in Black Diamond. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  13:43 
Oh, yeah, especially the Finnish community at New Lawson. New Lawson was the-- one of the 
original parts of Black Diamond. It was uphill, a long hill, and there was four rows of houses 
with 10 houses on each row and every house was identical. They were all painted red, and they 
had wainscoting in them -- you know, the boards that go up and down -- and then the top part 
would be papered. And periodically the company would -- they were company houses -- the 
company would come out, and if you wanted painting or papering, they'd come in and and paper 
and paint and things like that. They kept them up very well. And...  
 
Linda G. Greiner  14:34 
Was there anything special that the Finnish community did? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  14:37 
Well, we-- they built a hall, they built a big hall, and they had the Finnish lodge there, and they 
always had programs and basket socials. And I remember being very small. We-- they would 
dance, they'd have a program, and then they would-- then they'd have a dance. The program, and 
they'd eat, you know, have a lunch and coffee cake and coffee, you know. And then they would, 
the older people would dance, and the ones that were small, why, they would lay them on the 
benches and up on the tables in the kitchen and sleep, you know, with coats on them. And if you 
woke up a little bit, you could hear that music going and-- till you-- they're ready to go home. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  14:49 
The music that they'd play, was it Finnish, native to Finland? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  15:43 
Well, not particularly, whatever was the vogue, then. Like, my dad played the fiddle, and they 
had-- played the -- what do they call that? 
 
Linda G. Greiner  15:56 
Accordion? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  15:56 
Accordion. And they would play till three o'clock in the morning, the accordionist would. And 
the dances were just the same as what they had in the '80s, you know that-- they have the Irish jig 
and the same ones.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  16:16 
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So did you attend these dances all the way through high school, when you were of age?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  16:21 
Oh, after we got older, when we got to be about 13, well, then the young men would teach us to 
dance. You know, they were working, then, and they would teach us to dance, and then mostly 
the girls would dance together. And then later on, of course, you had boyfriends, and in those 
days that-- everybody asked somebody to dance, you didn't have to be with any particular 
boyfriend or anything like that. Everybody-- all men asked all ladies to dance.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  16:57 
Do you remember your first boyfriend? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  16:58 
Oh, dear. Oh, I had several, but I was so shy I wouldn't ever let them know that I had one. You 
know, everybody does that, I guess. At least now, they don't. But, yeah, I do. But when we got 
older and we went to the dances, why, I can remember my mother would make-- always make 
me pretty skirts and blouses or whatever you-- was in the vogue, you know? And we had a good 
time.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  17:37 
When you got old enough-- when did your parents consider you old enough to start dating, to 
have-- to really have a boyfriend that was recognizable? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  17:46 
Oh, I think-- in those days, I don't think they, any-- anybody did until you about 16 or 17 or 18. 
They really didn't.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  17:59 
So was that how old you were when your first boyfriend came calling on you? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  18:03 
About 18, yeah. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  18:06 
Did either one of your parents ever sit down with you and give you the talk about...? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  18:12 
No, no.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  18:15 
So you were just--  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  18:16 
Never, never. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  18:17 
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How did you find-- did your friends tell you what to expect, or did you just sort of know?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  18:24 
Girls talked to each other, you know, whispered, you know? But we really weren't informed 
about anything. And then another thing the-- in the-- that sort of a village way, the ladies would 
meet. They'd-- one lady would call on another lady, and then they'd decide to call on Mrs. So-
and-so, and they'd go there, and you never-- there were no telephones, so where they wanted to 
visit, they'd go, and you'd pretty much expect that somebody might call. And so they'd gather 
together, and they would do all the gossip and the small ones would, if we were around, we'd 
listen, and, you know, not we were listening-listening, you just heard these things, you know? 
And... but you didn't-- you're not supposed to talk about things, you know?  
 
Linda G. Greiner  19:14 
Do you think that changed as you got older? Can you see from the time that you were growing 
up to perhaps through your dating, did you feel like it changed? Or did you feel like that it stayed 
pretty much the same, that you didn't really discuss those topics? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  19:34 
No, no. I don't think we did.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  19:38 
What--? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  19:39 
Not with parents, anyway. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  19:41 
So mostly girlfriends, then? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  19:44 
Mm-hmm.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  19:44 
[Inaudible] girlfriends. Certainly not the boys? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  19:46 
Mm-hmm, no.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  19:47 
What-- can you remember anything, one incident or several incidents, that were particularly 
memorable as far as dating or your first love relationship, or your first crush, or anything like 
that? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  20:09 
There, at that time?  
 
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Linda G. Greiner  20:11 
Yeah. Well, you were in Black Diamond, correct? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  20:15 
Mm-hmm.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  20:16 
Was there anything that sticks out in your mind?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  20:18 
No, I don't think so. We just went in groups, and we didn't date-date like they do now. When I 
went to to the show, they finally started having movies there in the town hall, and I think that a 
couple of times I went with a boyfriend, and-- not a boyfriend, but with a boy, and also to the 
dance at another dance hall, or we'd all group up and go to another town to dance. But dating like 
they do now, why, I don't think we did. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  21:01 
How about the responsibilities within your family? Things that you were sort of responsible for 
as the oldest daughter, and things your brothers were responsible for? Was there any real clear 
pattern of what sort of responsibility you had as a child and eventually a teenager? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  21:25 
No. My mother and I, I shared some of the housework with her, but she never asked me to do 
anything. Maybe I washed dishes or did the usual things around the house, [?made on?] the bed, 
but nothing... I didn't have-- really have to do anything, you know?  
 
Linda G. Greiner  21:47 
How about your brothers? Did they have any responsibilities?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  21:49 
They didn't have to do anything either. They just played around [inaudible]. Well, I think mostly 
because there was no yard work for the boys to do. They were company houses, and there was no 
such a thing as a lawn mower or-- and there were no farms, so there wasn't farm duties like 
people that live on the farm. They just played, went around with their own groups and did their 
own thing. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  22:18 
So as you were growing up, what did you think it meant to be a female? What did you think your 
responsibilities...? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  22:28 
Well, we we figured, we always thought that you grew up and you met someone and got married 
and started a family, and that's one thing that when I did get married, I-- my husband died within 
a year and a half with diabetes, and I thought it was the end of the world, you know, that I would 
never have any children and that was the end of it. I wanted to die, you know, because I-- that's 
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they way you were brought up, that that's what you did. And I found out later, that wasn't the 
way it is. You know, you think-- a lot of big world out there, you know? 
 
Linda G. Greiner  23:17 
So was it after... It was after your husband died that you started rethinking, perhaps, what it was?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  23:24 
Oh, yeah, because things had changed by that time. And I was in Seattle, then, and you-- was 
working and-- different jobs, so things were different. I would go home once in a while. About 
almost every week, I'd go home and take care of my mother, I mean, whatever-- she'd had a 
stroke and whatever she needed to be done, why, I would do, you know? But I felt like I wanted 
to be with her as much as possible. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  24:05 
Could you see any difference growing up between, perhaps, what you thought it was like being 
female as opposed to what you-- what expectations you had for your brothers as being men? Is-- 
what they were supposed to do with their lives? You know, were they supposed to be the 
breadwinners and take care of the family, and...? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  24:29 
Well, I never gave that a thought. They just grew and went out and went to work and got 
married, and that was all.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  24:38 
So you never-- did you consider it after your first husband had died, and you realized that now 
you had been put into a working class situation where you had to go work? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  24:52 
Well, I had worked before I married him, but I just figured that that was the end of everything, 
there was  nothing to look forward to, until about three years later, and that's when I met my 
second husband, and then everything was different, you know? You had your children and your 
daily life and you carried on and-- just like anybody else. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  25:20 
When you were growing up, how did your-- you said that your parents did not discipline you by 
striking you or by giving you a paddling. How were you disciplined? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  25:31 
Well, I must have been an awfully good little girl because I [laughing] don't remember every 
[?been?] doing anything that I shouldn't do. I guess I was a little goody-goody. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  25:42 
[Laughs] How-- were your brothers disciplined at all?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  25:45 
No. 
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Linda G. Greiner  25:47 
Huh, that's interesting. Did you ever see your parents have disagreements or arguments, or...?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  25:55 
Oh yes, they used to quarrel a lot. My dad was a very, very jealous person, and he would-- oh, he 
would talk to her and, you know, and I used to feel real bad about it, because there was nothing I 
could do. But he just-- I guess my dad couldn't help being that way. But I used to feel so sorry 
for my mother that he would treat her like that between times. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  26:30 
Would you consider your mom a beautiful woman?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  26:34 
I-- yes, she was very pretty. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  26:37 
And so your father was jealous of-- did he ever strike her?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  26:41 
Oh, no. No. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  26:42 
They just did a lot of yelling. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  26:49 
I remember one time when I was very little, and we had moved to this different part of town, and 
we had-- we were at a dance, one of their dances, and my dad always made a speech. He was 
very a learned man, and he'd give a talk, or else, the... Whatever. And play the violin, he always 
played solos on the violin, and then they would start dancing and my dad would disappear 
sometime, and this night he disappeared. He'd gone next door, and the lady that lived there was a 
bootlegger, and so he must have got [inaudible] stuff. And so time to go home, why, here was 
my mother with three children, a baby, and a toddler, and myself, and I couldn't have been more 
than six or seven years old, and the road that we had to go from this part of town where the hall 
was was through the-- down the railroad track and then down a path that went through the hill, 
downhill to the other part of town where we lived. And so I can remember walking down that 
railroad track with her carrying the baby -- that's my brother George -- and Micky hanging on to 
her and me walking along, and all of a sudden we heard this "thump, thump, thump, thump, 
thump" from behind us on the railroad track. It was horses that were running away or just having 
a good time, I don't know which, but they were pounding away, just like in the movies behind us, 
and we had to get off the track and let them go by. And we were so scared. I was so scared. I 
don't think I was ever so scared in my life. And so then, after they left, why, I don't know where 
they went, but they left, and we started down, and we got to the end of the track, and-- where 
there was a powder house, and-- near the coal-- there was a coal mine there, where the men 
worked. And so then there was this path that went down the hill to our house. And as we were 
going that-- through that path, it was trees closed, you know, closed up on around you, and there 
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was this owl up in the branch, and you could see his big, yellow eyes, and he was doing his 
hooting. And it was kind of scary. I never will forget that, going down through there.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  29:15 
What-- the next thing I am curious about -- and I want to remind you that any questions I ask 
you, you don't have to answer, I mean, you could just say, "We'll pass," or not -- but some of the 
things that in the society we're-- that we're addressing now were-- are issues of puberty and sex 
education and stuff like that, and one of the issues that women are especially interested in are the 
idea of the menstrual taboo and how you found... You know, did your mom ever tell you what 
was happening, or did you just think you were dying, or, you know, those sorts of things, and...  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  29:57 
Um... is that going there?  
 
Linda G. Greiner  30:06 
Yeah, but it's OK. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  30:08 
Oh. Well, when it-- I don't know that I-- I might have had a vague idea about it, because, you 
know, the ladies had to-- there was no Kotex, and you had to wash those things. And she must 
have said something to me, but anyway, I was 13 when it happened to me, and I was pretty 
terrified, you know, that... And I-- so I told her, and she told me what to do. And...  
 
Linda G. Greiner  30:37 
That was that?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  30:38 
That was that.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  30:40 
But that's interesting that there was nothing else discussed about that, that it was just sort of-- 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  30:47 
No.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  30:48 
OK. Some things that I'm just sort of curious in for the times were reading materials or clothing 
or hairstyles. Is there anything in particular that sticks out in your mind about the period that you 
were growing up about the way the woman wore their hair or what they wore clothing-wise, 
or...?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  31:13 
Well, at that-- [?of?] the young age, while the ladies all had long dresses, long skirts, and 
blouses, and just like you see the pictures in the '80s. And at home, my mother always wore a 
white apron that kind of way down. Usually she had crocheted lace on it. In the kitchen, there 
was crocheted lace around the little cafe curtains. And I remember one time she had a red taffeta 
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petticoat that went under a skirt, and she'd got tired of it, and I was wanting to learn how to sew 
on the sewing machine, and so she says, "Well, you can have that." So I cut out a doll dress for 
my doll, and-- 
 