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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 2 
 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  00:00 
--while he was gone, because when he left, why, I don't think he left her too much money, and he 
had to take a chance to go up there and make a fortune, which he did not, so my mother kept 
boarders. And I remember on Easter -- this is a very little thing -- but on Easter, there was a lady 
that was from Ireland next door, and she had two little boys, and so she and my mother got 
together and they found out the custom was to have Easter baskets, you know, and Easter Bunny 
was going to come and all that. And so they got together and made little... I didn't see them do it, 
but it was on the front porch. We had a long front porch, like a veranda. And when we got up in 
the morning, here were these little baskets made out of grass, you know, woven around. And 
there were the blue eggs in there, and that was the Easter Bunny brought us the eggs. Well, I 
found out that it wasn't the Easter Bunny, because when I was in the kitchen, seen a blue spoon 
and a blue bowl, [laughing] and I knew that the women got together and dyed those eggs. You 
know, it was bluing, like used for wash-- with clothes, because they used to have to wash 
clothes. I don't know how those women ever managed. They had their children -- some of them 
had as many as five kids, or whatever -- and they had to do all the washing on a washboard. And 
the wintertime, there would be long underwear. Even when we went to school, it was very, very 
cold, and you had to wear long underwear. And all that had to be washed, and then to get it dry, 
hang it out on a pulley line hang outside, bring it in, and little by little, hang it on the back porch, 
and then maybe behind the heating stove and keep up on it, but the sheets and all the rest of the 
clothes, and then there was all the ironing. One day a week was ironing day, and you ironed all 
the clothes, and there was no material that you didn't have to iron like there is now. And it was 
just-- and then the-- there was no electric irons, they had flat irons. You had to keep the 
cookstove going and keep those irons on there. And then there was a handle that you attached to 
it. And just had to keep that stove going and so that you could finish your ironing and hang them 
up. And then, when my mother had boarders, how in the world did she manage to do all that 
work and then still cook for the boarders? And I don't know what they did with about their 
clothes. I'm sure my mother didn't wash those, but it couldn't have been easy. But she was always 
cheerful. It was just the way things were, you know? And-- 
 
Linda G. Greiner  03:00 
About how old were you when you-- your mom started taking in boarders?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  03:03 
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Well, I think that was when I was in first grade or second grade-- first grade. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  03:10 
So how long was your father gone, then?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  03:12 
About a year.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  03:14 
So she had boarders for a year or longer than a year.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  03:16 
Yeah, mm-hmm. And then another instance back when the-- that-- whatever time of year -- 
maybe it was Easter, the same time as the baskets on the porch -- there was a group of men -- I 
don't know whether they were Polish or Austrian or what they were, maybe Italian. Like I say, 
there was every nationality in that town that you could think of. And they went past our house 
and up the hill, and they were carrying a great big cross, just like in the carrying the cross for 
Jesus. And the cross must have been about 10 feet long. There's a big, big cross, and they carried 
it on their shoulders up the hill. And I don't know where they went. They must have had some 
kind of a ceremony somewhere. And when I see the-- that now and the programs here, these 
people were doing that then, you know, the way they call that a celebration or memorial or what. 
But you wouldn't see it around here anymore. Not very likely. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  04:32 
What other things do you remember about your childhood that you could tell me?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  04:39 
Oh, well, we grew up at New Lawson, and we used to go berry picking in the summertime. The 
whole family would go. And if my father went and he was home, and not in the mine, he would 
maybe go along, but he'd usually sleep under a tree and-- while we picked the berries. And it was 
in the woods up on the hill, and we'd pick our buckets full, and we'd go home, and my mother 
would can those. She'd can them in gallon jars, quart jars, pint jars, and she'd can as much as 100 
quarts of blackberries alone every year. But we used to love to go berry picking. That was a real 
lot of fun. Told you about my dad playing around in the programs at the hall. And then the 
program at the hall at Christmastime was kind of exciting because there would be a program, and 
the ladies maybe would sing or children, they had little songs, and whoever had anything to 
contribute to the program, they'd do it, like my dad always made a speech or something, and then 
he would always play his violin and different thing. And then they would eat. And ladies always 
made cakes and they had coffee in the kitchen, and then aft-- and there was presents underneath 
the Christmas tree, and the hall had a high ceiling. It was no-- there was no ceiling, it was just, 
you know, pointed. And the tree would be as high as the room. I have no idea how tall-- big the 
tree was. It had candles that were real candles, and they had to keep them lit and also watch them 
that they didn't burn the tree. And then when Santa Claus would come, why, he'd come into the 
foyer, and he'd be rapping his cane on the... and we knew that was Santa Claus, and we'd be so 
excited, and we knew who he was, but it was so exciting, because to us, it was just as real as if he 
was-- as if he was real. And he'd come in with this Santa Claus suit and his cane and his beard, 
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and get up in front to the tree, and then he'd call off the names of the of the presents that we got. 
And everybody got a bag of candy with an orange and a... Orange and what was it? I guess it was 
orange and an apple and candy. That's what it was. And that was Christmas. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  07:23 
And well, then we had our basket socials, and they would raffle off the baskets. And the way we 
did the baskets, why, the ladies would take a shoe box or whatever and cover it with flowers. 
And the way we made the flowers was you bought tissue paper and cut it in circles and then cut 
little marks across, and then you'd take the scissors and  curl the ends of those and then they 
would turn out to be flowers, and decorate whatever way you want to decorate. Then the men 
would bid for the baskets, and whoever bid the highest, that person, whosever basket it was, 
you'd go to the lunch with him. Even as little girls, we'd have a man to go with us and raised 
money for the lodge. And then my mother made rugs. She would cut up clothing, oh, about a half 
an inch to an inch wide, depending on the material, and then sew the pieces together on the 
machine, the ends, and then roll them up into balls. And I used to help her to roll up the balls 
about so big, and then she'd get a basket on, then she'd set up the loom. And the loom was about 
two feet by five feet, maybe. It had slats going up and down with a hole in the middle of each 
slat. Then you had to put a hole on hooks on each end of the room. And then you would take the 
string and go back and forth through a [?slat?], and then through a hole, and over and under, and 
keep on until it was all done. Then the loom would go up, and you'd be one on each side, you'd 
hold the loom up, and that would cross the strings, and then we'd take the ball of whatever you're 
going to use and put it through, and the person on the other side would take it and drop it in the 
basket. Then you'd bang the loom, and that made it tight. And then you just kept-- next time it 
would be down, put the loom down, and do the same thing. So you would make the rug. They 
were woven rugs, and she made it up for whole rooms of those, you know, side by side. And 
then she used to sell them and lot and sometimes I would help her even do that part when I was 
bigger. And then she always did a lot of sewing. She made my clothes.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  10:37 
And another thing that happened from New Lawson, they moved all those-- the company 
decided not-- that-- well, that mine was closed. They had an explosion there in 1910, and so the 
Black Diamond Mine was in operation. So they decided to move those company houses halfway 
down into Black Diamond. So what they did was they took big rollers that-- which were really 
trees that they'd take the branches off, and lay them on the road, and-- several of them, and then 
they had Clyde-- they had ordered some Clydesdale horses, and they were huge. We had never 
seen them before. And there was a team of maybe six horses, and they were fastened to the 
house, and they'd remove the house from where it was, and then they would put it on these 
rollers and move it-- move them down. And it would take them I forget how long to move each 
house. Then they would set it on the lot where they were supposed to go. Then we moved into 
one of those, well, picked out a house that we wanted to live in the new location, but-- and then 
at noon, those men would feed the horses. They'd stop in the edge of the woods, there it was all 
woods, and feed the horses, and then carry on moving those houses. That was quite an 
undertaking. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  12:12 
I'm sure it was. Did-- so they moved the entire-- you said that-- 
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Olive Lempi Armstrong  12:16 
All of them.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  12:16 
--New Lawson was the Finnish community— 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  12:18 
Uh-huh.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  12:18 
--just about, so [inaudible] just move it down the hill a little bit so that it's closer to Black 
Diamond.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  12:23 
Yes. Now that they're not red anymore, those houses, people have bought them and paying them 
whatever they want to pay or whatever they want to do. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  12:36 
Is there anything else that you'd like to tell me about Black Diamond or your early childhood? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  12:45 
Well, in school... Oh, I was going to say that so many of the families, their husbands would be 
killed. Maybe they'd have four or five children, and the men would get killed in the mine or 
burned to death. And I have two of my girlfriends, their father was killed, and the mother just 
had to make makeshift as best [?pen?]. And one lady, Mrs. Jackson, she stayed in her house, 
even though she was supposed to move, because her husband was no longer working in the mine. 
Well, she said that wasn't her fault, and so she would not move. And she raised those five kids in 
that house. She never moved, and they didn't make her. And I think she got about $10 a month 
from the company to carry on. I wouldn't be certain about that price. It seemed like it was a very, 
very little, and she made do. And the oldest girl went to University of Washington, became a 
teacher. She's in Oregon, now.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  13:48 
Were there any other instances that-- where the women stayed after their husbands were killed 
and that they wouldn't move?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  13:54 
No, that was the only one. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  13:57 
Hmm, interesting. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  13:57 
She stood her ground right there and stayed. And then in school, why, I remember especially one 
room I was in -- it was two story school building -- and you'd hear this-- the-- and on this side, 
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you could see the road. And you'd hear the mine whistle blow, and you know that something was 
wrong, and pretty soon you'd see the men carrying a person to the hospital. You didn't know if 
they were dead or alive. And we wondered if it was our father, or whose father it was. And that 
was kind of hard on the kids. Well, and then, I remember the World-- First World War and how 
scared we were because some of the young men had to go. And every day you'd hear from the 
news-- there was no TV or radio, and you just had to wait till the paper came and see what was 
going on. And then another thing was there was one lady that moved there, and she had been on 
the Titanic and-- saved, and she moved there to Black Diamond. And--  
 
Linda G. Greiner  15:22 
Was she kind of a celebrity since she survived the sinking of the Titanic?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  15:26 
Well, sort of, yes. But I know I was really odd about it, because we'd see those pictures of the 
Titanic in the paper and how awful, and all those killed-- people that got drowned, you know, 
and then here she comes, and she--  
 
Linda G. Greiner  15:42 
Did you ever get to talk to her?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  15:43 
I don't think I did, because I was much younger. I really didn't know. Another thing about 
walking to school from New Lawson was that we passed where you see Mount Rainier. It just 
looked like you could just touch it, there. And we never thought a thing about it. I never thought 
a thing about that mountain until we moved to California, and then I [inaudible] thought, there 
was that beautiful mountain. We don't have any mountains down there. There's no such a thing. 
There's mountain ranges, but no no snow mountains. And there it was in our backyard all those 
years. And... Well, I guess that's about all I put on here that came to me this morning.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  16:41 
Well, then maybe we could-- we can move on to your early adulthood. Perhaps you can 
remember something about the-- your expectations about your future. What did you see yourself 
doing? You told me earlier that you always thought that you would get married and have 
children and raise a family, and... Is that-- was there anything else-- did you ever want to be 
something in particular, like a you're going to grow up to be a teacher or something? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  17:16 
No, I had no idea-- no, no thoughts of being a teacher or anything else. I did want to go to art 
school, and my dad wanted me to go to art school in university, but then the mines closed and 
there wasn't any more money, and we had-- the money that he had saved that -- I don't know if I 
told you or not -- that they had a bank in Black Diamond, and it was run by an individual, and 
the miners would put their money in it, if they had any left to savings. And but my dad would not 
put his money in the bank. He put it in the post office bank. In those days, you could-- the postal 
savings. They don't have that anymore, but you could put your money in there. And he said that 
the United States government is good enough for me. He says, "I'll put my money with them." 
Well, the local bank, the man that was running it, he ran off with all the money that was in the 
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bank. So a lot of miners lost their savings. I don't know how many years' savings, but my dad 
didn't lose his because he didn't have it in there. So then, when the mines closed, my dad bought 
a farm in Hobart, and we moved there, and that's one reason I didn't finish high school, because 
there was no high school there when we went there. And I only stayed there that summer, and 
then I got a job in-- or got to-- some of the girls had gone to work in the telephone company, and 
so they wanted me to go, too. And so I did, and I got a job right away and worked there and-- 
until my mother had her stroke, and then I went home and took care of her for a while. But in the 
meantime, I had gotten married. I had met Bud. And-- 
 
Linda G. Greiner  19:14 
Where'd you meet him? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  19:15 
It was a blind date. Working in the telephone company, and the girls would-- we would go to 
different things. One of the things was a place was right near us was a-- we lived-- our apartment 
was downtown, and at that time, the-- all those big buildings out there above 5th Avenue, even 
on 5th Avenue, they were apartment houses, you know? Just house-- houses that were made into 
apartments. None of the buildings were there. And we had a-- our apartment was just a 
housekeeping room in one of those houses. I think was on 6th and  University, which has big 
buildings there right now. And there was a dance hall. It was called... What was it called? Oh, I 
don't remember now, but it was a big building, and had-- the dance floor was-- had mirrors all 
the way around, and they paid 10¢-- men had to pay 10¢ a dance. Was those days. And so the 
women would go there, whether you had a date or not, and mostly they'd just-- the ladies went 
and the men went, you know, and so you danced with whoever came and asked you to dance. 
Well, I think one of the girls had met the boy that she was going with, and so she wanted me to 
go, and her boyfriend got a date for me, and that's the one I married. We went together for about 
a year, and then we were married. We were married, and then in the meantime, oh, I was still 
working. That was it. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  21:13 
[Inaudible.] 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  21:21 
I had worked in the telephone company. I was working there, and-- yeah, I was working in a 
telephone company, and I heard that-- got a notice that my mother had had a stroke, so I went 
home and stayed there. Then my boyfriend would come and visit me there on weekends, and so I 
took care of my mother for about a year, and then Bud and I were married. I came into Seattle, 
we were married, in the-- at the courthouse, and his mother and sister stood up for us. And then I 
went back and took care of my mother for a little longer until she was able to do her, you know, 
get around and do things. And then, meantime, we got married. And-- oh, I said we got married, 
yeah. And then we built a house. We bought a lot in Highland Park, that's near White Center in 
West Seattle, and his dad and Bud built a house, two room house, and we bought new furniture 
for it, and that's where we were living when he had this diabetes came. And within-- 
 
Linda G. Greiner  22:49 
So you didn't know that he had diabetes-- 
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Olive Lempi Armstrong  22:51 
No. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  22:51 
--or, he didn't know.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  22:51 
No, he didn't. He didn't know anything about it. The only reason he found that was that he was-- 
got so thirsty and he would have to go urinate so often, and when we'd go someplace, we'd have 
to stop at a gas station quite often, and so seemed like something was wrong, so he went to a 
doctor, and the doctor told him that he had diabetes, and he told him right out that he had a-- 
probably had a year to live. So we lived with that from then on, that he had a year to live. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  23:29 
So that-- and what year was that?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  23:33 
We got married in 1921. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  23:35 
1921, so this is about 1922 when you found out. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  23:40 
Yeah, about 1922, and then he died in 1923. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  23:45 
So at that time, there really wasn't any— 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  23:47 
There was no cure for diabetes. Well, there isn't a cure now, but there's-- they--  
 
Linda G. Greiner  23:53 
But they knew about the [?insulin?].  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  23:53 
They have insulin. They didn't have it then. And there was-- there's two kinds of diabetes. 
Children can get it now, and they can control it, but they don't live very long. And older people, 
you know, middle aged people can get it and it isn't a very serious kind, and with medication, 
they can go on and on. But then there's one kind that, without any medication at all, that when 
you're older -- like he was 21, I guess, then -- why, if you get diabetes-- that kind of diabetes, 
there isn't any chance. It's called mellitus, or something like that, diabetes mellitus. So he had a 
year to live, and I think it was a little bit less than that, and then he died. It's a horrible death. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  24:47 
How did you two deal with the knowing that he was going to die?  
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Olive Lempi Armstrong  24:51 
Well, I went to the librarian and got books on diet for a diabetic, and that's what I did. I could-- I 
didn't cook anything except what he had to have.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  25:04 
Did he work during this time?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  25:05 
He worked the whole time. He wouldn't give up working.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  25:08 
Who did he work for?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  25:10 
He worked for [inaudible], drove truck. No, he-- well, part of the time he drove truck, but he was 
a mechanic. That was his-- what he did?  
 
Linda G. Greiner  25:19 
Well, you said it was a horrible death. What-- was it painful? Is that--?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  25:24 
Well, the-- working and all, the only thing you feel is that you're thirsty all the time, and they 
have to urinate all the time. And he got weaker and weaker and weaker, and then finally, he get a 
sore-- got a sore on his wrist and here or someplace else. And it was mostly that he got so weak 
and he would not quit working. And he had-- he was very proud and he, you know, he was 
married and he was going to work. Well, there was nothing else to do. You couldn't just sit 
home, feel sorry for yourself.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  26:07 
Right.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  26:08 
And-- 
 
Linda G. Greiner  26:09 
So what were you thinking during this time, other than...? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  26:12 
Well, it's-- to me, it was like the end of the world. Was just living like that was the end of 
everything. And I had wanted to have a baby, and he said, no, no way, that it would inherit 
diabetes. And so that was it. And I know I'd walk by Fraser-Paterson's store, which was on 2nd 
Avenue. It was the biggest store then. The Frederick-- there was no Frederick's, and there was 
no-- they had a Bon Marché there, but it was down on 2nd Avenue. Also was a big store. That 
building is still there, but Frederick's had not moved there uptown before that, and then later on, 
Bon Marché moved. Frederick's moved first, built that building, and the Bon Marché built that 
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new building where they are now. Previous to that, why, Frederick's was way down there near 
the skid road, just a small, maybe wooden, building, I don't know. I never saw it. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  26:12 
So after your first husband died, you went back to live with your mom for a while?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  27:22 
No, I didn't. I had to work so... Oh, while Bud was still alive and Mama died. No, she-- he died 
and I went home -- my brother took me home -- to tell my mother. I didn't want my mother to 
find out from somebody else, because if she was pretty bad... And I went home and I told my 
mother that Bud had died, and she said-- she cried, and she said, "Why couldn't it have been 
me?" You know, because she just barely getting around. She didn't have any use of her right arm 
or her-- and her leg, she just barely could get around. And she said, "Why couldn't it have been 
me?" I think that was one of the hardest things I ever had to do, was to go and tell her, because in 
those days, a mother would thought her daughter gets married, then she doesn't have to worry 
about her, and so she really felt bad. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  28:33 
Well, so you came-- did you come back to Seattle and work?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  28:35 
I came back to the house and I got a job. I didn't want to go back to the telephone company. And 
had a couple of small jobs. Didn't amount to anything. They didn't pay much. And then I got-- 
my husband's aunt, she was working for-- doing draperies at MacDougall Southwick, which was 
a big store down there then. And so she got me a-- she knew the manager, and she told him about 
me, and so he took me on as an apprentice. So I learned what I-- what little I learned there, but 
they didn't really want me there. It's two old bags there that-- they didn't want a young person 
coming in there. They were mostly older ladies. So then I put my application at the Bon Marché 
and Fraser-Paterson for elevator. My mother in law had taken me to somebody on 2nd Avenue 
that ran an elevator in the Walker Building. And she says, "Teach this girl to run an elevator." So 
she-- I started there, and the lady went up and she came down, and she left me! No-- yeah, she 
took me up, and then she came down and she left me. She said, "You're on your own." And that 
was it. It was-- and to run an elevator, push that wheel around and hit the floor properly, and with 
a little jiggle, you could get it-- you could hit it. After a while, you get used to it. And then to be 
sure that you didn't go up the ceiling, or else hit the jack on the bottom. There's two jacks, one on 
top and one on the bottom. So I worked there till ten o'clock that night. That was my learning 
experience. So then I put my application in at Bon and Fraser's for elevators, because I wasn't too 
happy at that drapery place. So then the Bon Marché called me, and I thought, "Oh boy, I was 
going to get to run an elevator." Well, I got the elevator job, and when I was there, they called 
me for Fraser-Paterson. I thought, "Oh, I'll get to go to Fraser-Paterson and run an elevator." So I 
went over there to see, and it was draperies. One of the ladies that had worked at MacDougall's -- 
she was a really nice lady -- and she had got the job there as a floor lady, and she was very fond 
of me, so she had sent for me, and so it was for the draperies. So then I went to work in the 
draperies, and I really learned the business there. And they were a real nice bunch of women 
there, and that's where I really, really learned. 
 
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Linda G. Greiner  31:23 
How long did you stay at the Bon running elevators? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  31:28 
Not more than two or three months, I'm sure. I don't remember. But I really liked that. But then I 
thought when I-- Fraser's called, I'd rather work there.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  31:38 
Did they pay more? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  31:40 
Yes, they did. Well, they didn't pay more than the Bon. I don't remember what they paid, but it 
was more than they paid at draperies in MacDougall's, because I was just learning, but I got good 
wages when I went to work at Fraser's in the draperies.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  31:58 
And so how long did you work at Fraser's [crosstalk] draperies?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  32:00 
Three years. And then I-- that was when I was living alone at my little house. And then I 
decided, "Oh, I start coming out of my shell." And I decided that I want to go on a vacation 
rather than go home every week or so and so... Oh, and then my mother died, yes. 
 