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Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Olive Lempi Paavola Armstrong 
June 5, 1986 
Cassette 4, Side 1 
 
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:09 
Now, the things that I'd like to know from you, Olive, are things that you found that have been 
very important in your life, that you would think have shaped your life throughout these years? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  00:29 
[Inaudible.] [?Just can't answer that?] [inaudible]. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:34 
There's nothing more that you can think about your childhood, any experiences in your 
childhood that you find especially memorable, that really stick out in your mind? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  00:46 
Well, all things that I said about the-- when I was growing up really stick out my mind, as far as 
a child is concerned. And then coming to the city to work, and meeting people, and meeting my 
first husband, and starting your life, what you thought was your future, how that come crashing 
down. It's just living in limbo there for a while. I wanted to die. We had an elevated streetcar 
track on the waterfront. It came from 1st Avenue and that was up overhead, and it would go up 
to Spokane Street. When it came to Spokane Street, it would make this sharp turn. And if you 
were on the side of the turn, I'd be sitting there on the way home from work, from Fraser's, and I 
had a death wish. I thought it-- wished it would just go ahead and fall down, which is a stupid 
thing with all the people that were on there, but, why, you would do stupid things. And of course, 
that didn't happen. And I just sort of went from day to day there for about three years, until I 
finally woke up to the fact that this is forever, and you just can't live like that. There's no 
explaining how you feel, because somebody would say, "Oh, you've got this and you've got 
that." But it was inside of me, I couldn't, I didn't want to, I wanted to die. So it was just going 
from day to day. But I learned a wonderful trade and what I like to do, so that was a future for 
me. It was something I could pick up anytime. And I like to do things in the house. Like, every 
house we've ever had, I'd start fixing it, just like my daughter's doing now, over and over again. 
Wanted to have-- paint different things. Like when I moved in here, why, this was pretty bad. I 
had to replace the paints. And we-- she stayed one whole night and had-- a cousin babysat, and 
she came over, and we both painted this house, every room in it, and then we'd start thinking 
what furniture we could save to keep in here and get rid of the rest-- oh, the basement was full of 
furniture. Couldn't even walk through there. I had put my shoes and-- I put on an old pair of 
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sandals, you know, in the moving, and my shoes were in a drawer. And I knew where the dr-- 
where the dresser was, but I could not get to it. I had to go downtown, and I couldn't get my 
shoes out there. So it was crammed full of furniture. And then it was fixing up the house. I had 
the end of the porch, I had it closed in to start with, and later, Steve had this thing done. I painted 
the porch and scraped and painted that, scraped and painted the ceiling, and painted part of the 
house. The kids painted-- painted the rest of it. They came down when they painted the house. 
And then later on, we had the back room. You didn't see that back room? Well, we had that built 
on. It was just a small porch there. There were the stairs, and we had that all closed-- whole back 
end closed in, windows all around. It's real pretty. Just doing [inaudible] now. And working in 
the yard, every shrub that's here I put in, and one time I had a row of roses, but they didn't do 
very good here. [Inaudible] so I got rid of the roses. And then when I started doing my business 
here, well, then I didn't have so much time to work on the house. Though I still did all the 
changing paintings and the different things. Paperings... And I just like to do things like that. 
That's what you call nesting. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  05:11 
Some things you had a lot of practice at.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  05:12 
Yeah, I really liked that. All the kids, they got married and they had their children, and it was just 
a new way of life with all those new interests, with the children and family. That's about it. I 
mean--  
 
Linda G. Greiner  05:40 
You could do-- 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  05:41 
--just day to day living. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  05:42 
If you could do anything over again, [?would you change some things?]? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  05:49 
Well, I would have said, when you get married, you live happily forever after, and everything 
goes in its place, and so many things did not go in their place. So, yeah, I would not want to live 
some of it over again. No, not really, because I-- terrible things that happened, you know, 
mentally, I would never have expected that. I certainly wouldn't want to relive them now that 
everything's all over and everything's settled down, and here I am, and can do what I want, go 
when I want. And--  
 
Linda G. Greiner  06:31 
So it's been important for you to be able to do what you want and go when you want. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  06:34 
Right, yeah. You can't do everything you want to when you get married. So when you get 
married, you don't do everything you want to, unless you're awfully lucky. But you have to give 
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and take in marriages anyway. I like it the way it is. I'm gonna sleep in, I sleep in. If I don't want 
to get dressed some day, like if it's raining and I have no other plans and I don't want to get 
dressed, I don't dress. I just stay my robe. And you just don't do those things when you're 
married, keep house, and [inaudible] things going on. So... 
 
Linda G. Greiner  07:20 
Do you ever look back and wish that you could go to art school, and wonder how your life might 
have been different then? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  07:26 
Oh, yes, I should have gone. I really wanted to. That's all I ever used to do was draw. We had-- 
at Old Lawson in Black Diamond, we had a picket-- cedar picket fence, and that fence was full 
of drawings, sketches. I remember one time I was trying to draw a dog. You know, cedar is very 
soft, and you can take a pen or something sharp and draw into the pickets. And I wanted to draw 
a dog, and I couldn't draw a dog. And so I asked my dad. I imagine that I knew so very little 
about him, but he was very artistic, and he was always reading and things like that. And I was 
surprised that he could draw a dog. So he drew a dog for me on paper, so then I drew a dog on a 
picket. Then in school, I was always drawing. That was a no-no then, but we had our own books, 
and I did anyway. Then this one teacher in the sixth grade, she says, "Olive, if you keep on 
drawing in your book," she says, "I'm not going to pass you." And she didn't. So the next year, I 
was in a grade-- same grade, and the kids that were in my grade, they were on in the next grade, 
seventh grade. There I was, still in the sixth grade. However, we got a new teacher, and she was 
a charming person, and she liked my drawings, so I got to draw the American flag on so and so 
day, and-- big flag and all the colors waving, you know? And she encouraged me. She said, "You 
should go to a college and take art." And that's what I was planning on. And then, as it happened, 
when the mines closed with the strikes and the people that were living in the companies, they had 
to leave them for the new workers, the strike breakers, and they took over, and we had to move. 
And my dad had saved money in the post office bank, and it's good thing, because the local bank 
was robbed. The people lost their money. And my dad had put his money in the postal savings, 
which they don't have now. And so they bought a farm in Hobart. That wasn't too far from there. 
And that was a mistake, because my mother wasn't too well. She had a very bad heart. She was a 
hard worker. She worked all the time. She loved to work. She made homemade rugs sometimes. 
I would help her. She had a loom that she had had made off the high-- beds used to have high 
backs, you know? They were oak or something, hardwood. And she had got a man to-- that could 
do fine work, and he made a loom for her. It's about this long, probably a yard wide, I think? 
That's about the width of the rug. And then you cut off the little spokes that went in between and 
the little holes in the middle of it, so that when you put your string back and forth, pipes, 
wherever you're going to set it up, then two people could work it. You either went up, and you 
pushed that ball of rags through there that we had cut, and the next time you would pull the loom 
down. It took two people. The women's-- my daughter has that now.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  10:53 
Oh, really? She still has your mother's...? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  10:56 
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We-- I showed her how to do it one time she-- and she was over-- living over here, so she would 
know how. So we made two rugs on it. And I have that in the-- what's left of it in the kitchen. I 
made mine with selvages, because in the drapery business, you cut the selvages off the material. 
And so I had balls of special colors and weights. So these two rugs were all made out of 
selvages, fastened together and make balls, just to show her how it was done. And this poor 
thing's been through the washing machine so many times. But we were talking about-- when we 
were there, I said, "Do you still have that loom?" hoping that she had, and I would have given it 
to the Finlandia Foundation here in the-- they have a ethnic Scandinavian thing in Ballard. It's a 
old school house. And one section is for the Finnish, and they're collecting artifacts of Finland or 
whatever. And I thought, well, if she isn't going to use it, well, rather than that get lost, why, I 
would... I suggested that I take it up there and give it to them. But she says, "No," she says, "I'm 
going to use it." She's says, "One of these days when I'm not too busy," why, she says, "[?Albert 
Bradley helped me?]. I'm gonna set up in their new garage, because it's a double garage, it's lot's 
of room." And she started cutting rags. Hopefully carry on the tradition of making rugs. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  12:34 
Oh, well that'd be great. So beyond the fact that you didn't go to art school, but did you draw 
anything while you were-- 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  12:47 
No.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  12:48 
--younger, I mean...?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  12:49 
Not after that. I didn't-- because then when I started to work, and then were raising children, 
why, I never went back into it. I didn't have time.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  12:59 
Did you ever think about it. Did you ever--?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  13:01 
No, not really.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  13:03 
Not-- it wasn't until later you had the time to pick up painting. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  13:06 
Well, it just happened at the Center here, they started this art class with this way of art, this man 
from Germany, you know, and he had taught classes for pupils to teach, for teaching. And one of 
the teachers was here. In fact, there were two of them that had taken this class in Canada. So we 
had a class of about 10 and it was very interesting. It was a different way of painting. It was wet-
on-wet, they call it. Entirely different oil painting. It was very interesting. Of course, I had never 
done oil painting, so it was something to learn, and I really liked it. But the condition of my eyes, 
I could not do it again.  
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Linda G. Greiner  14:01 
When did eyes-- I was going to ask when your eyes started to go? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  14:06 
About two years ago. The tear ducts closed and the eyes tear, and a lot of time when you're 
eating, just [?forgot?], "Mm, there he goes." You know? You have no control. Otherwise, tears 
go in your nose, and you don't even know it. And the only thing they can do about that is an 
operation that they cut through the tear duct and drill through the nose, the bone in your nose, 
and they put plastic tubes in. But it may not be successful, and that-- it's probably a problem also, 
and I don't know anyone that has had it done, so I wouldn't begin to do it. If you can live with it, 
just live with it. So I can't do that, and I cannot sew anymore. I can't thread a needle. And that's 
really what hurts me more than anything else, the fact that I want a darn a stocking, and I'll sit 
there trying to thread a needle for half an hour. Here, I've done the finest work that has ever been 
done through the hems of my drapes. This is the dacron. And you can see, I don't have any ugly 
things inside. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  15:22 
No, none [inaudible].  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  15:26 
All the handwork, and all the swags, you know, the kind that goes "swish, swish," and then 
they'd have the things hang down the side. I used to do that. At the Bon Marché, I was the only 
one that could do it. And [inaudible] curtains, and you run those through with a little thing, and it 
goes a mile a minute. But I can't even thread the sewing machine needle downstairs. So that's 
been a hardship on me, because I like to do that, and I can't do it. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  16:00 
Have you filled your time with other things? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  16:03 
Oh, well, just puttering around and going here and there and shopping and [inaudible]. 
Wallingford Center, visiting the kids, and going out of state.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  16:18 
What do you-- what do you think about how about how life has changed since you were a young 
girl?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  16:29 
Oh, it's changed, all right. The way they dress. You never saw kids running around with sunsuits 
on, practically nothing, on the beaches.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  16:43 
I mean, you--  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  16:44 
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There was-- 
 
Linda G. Greiner  16:45 
--lived through the 1900, 1910-- 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  16:48 
When we went-- 
 
Linda G. Greiner  16:49 
--1920, 1930. I mean, you-- there's been such an amazing amount of change over your lifetime. 
I'm just curious about what you really-- when you look back, you go from World War I to World 
War II to the Depression-- or to the Depression to World War II and then the Korean War. And 
with each shift, the responsibility of a woman has changed a little bit and things like that. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  17:18 
It sure has.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  17:20 
What do you think about that?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  17:24 
Well, I'm amazed at some of the changes in how people act, and I'm really upset about the 
children nowadays that-- in school, the language they use and the things that they are taught. It's 
just really depressing to me. Now-- 
 
Linda G. Greiner  17:43 
Like what things that they're taught? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  17:44 
Well, they-- when we went to school, you didn't talk about how you were born and 
contraceptives and things like that. You-- that was a no-no. You just did not, you know? And you 
didn't really know what it was all about anyway. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  18:04 
So you-- do you think that that's inappropriate to be taught in school? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  18:08 
I think it is-- I think it is. I don't know how it could be different now, because of all the things. 
Schools are so filled up and... And then I think that the music has had a lot to do with it, because 
if you listen to some of this rock music, it's horrible. And they go to all that, they just live their 
whole lives sitting and listening to that. They've got it in their cars. They walk on the street with 
that thing on their hand and listen to that horrible music. And the words in them shouldn't be 
even [?mentioned?].  
 
Linda G. Greiner  18:44 
Are you talking about the hard rock, heavy metal? 
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Olive Lempi Armstrong  18:49 
Mm-hmm. Well, I think it's just terrible. And then the kids in school, with all the sex that's going 
on, and it's permissible, and they teach you contraceptives, and have all those classes, and now 
the little kids are taught how to protect themself, and that puts it in their mind. Of course, you 
have to, but why in school? And that's all they think about. And I think it's just terrible. I mean, 
really-- 
 
Linda G. Greiner  19:19 
Did you-- 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  19:20 
--there's no innocence left.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  19:21 
Did you discuss those kinds of things with your [?mom?]?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  19:23 
No. No. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  19:24 
So, you-- how do you think that--?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  19:29 
They found out just like we did, you know?  
 
Linda G. Greiner  19:31 
Which was overhearing, with the women talking, things like that?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  19:37 
Yeah. Well, that would be just for me, but girls-- but at home in-- long, long ago-- but the kids 
tell each other, you know? They're not dumb, you know? There's always somebody that's talking 
about... But it-- no, it's just the language they use is just terrible. It's just shocking. It just blows 
my mind. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  20:04 
What-- how would you like to see it changed? I mean, you're comparing it when you were a 
child to what the kids are now. Do you think-- when you were raising your kids, obviously it was 
a lot different than when you were raised. What did you think about that? The contrast of when 
you were raised to when you were raising your children to how the kids are raised now? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  20:28 
Well, while they were in school and under my roof, I think it was pretty much the way I was. We 
just had-- didn't have any-- there was no rotten language, and I kept track of who they played 
with and what time they had to be home. It was always a set time. And if they went anywhere, 
they tell me where they're going. They got my permission and where they're going and what time 
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they should be back. And that's the way it was, no problem. Now the kids, you don't know when 
they're coming home. Sometimes the parents don't even care. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  21:07 
Do you think that that's a general attitude, that parents don't care about their kids, or just in 
isolated cases? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  21:15 
It's an easy way to go. Besides, most of them are working, the mothers are working, and in times 
like this, they almost have to on account of-- just to pay the rent and everything. Rent payments 
are so high that it boggles your mind.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  21:36 
So, do you see any solutions to this problem of the kids being a little out of hand?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  21:43 
I don't know what they could do, what could be done. I really don't. I don't think there's any 
solution, unless a big calamity came and it came back to the ways that they were raised on farms, 
or the pioneers. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  21:58 
What do you think about-- in conjunction with the way that [crosstalk]--  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  22:00 
We couldn't even-- the kids couldn't even swear. Got your mouth washed out. The boys couldn't 
even swear what they did someplace else. But really, they weren't bad. And the girls didn't get 
pregnant. There was none of that in the schools. My gosh, if a girl got pregnant, she couldn't 
even go to school. Now they do. They have a room for the baby so that they can stay in school, 
and the government pays for that. Your eyes are brown. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  22:33 
No, they're hazel.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  22:36 
That's like my daughter's. Sometimes they're blue and sometimes they're brown.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  22:40 
Yeah. [Laughs] What do you think about how this country is going? What do you see for the 
future? Do you see a future? I mean, we've run into problems in the presidential administrations 
and in the environment andnuclear war and things like that. What kind of things do you think 
[crosstalk]--?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  23:09 
I don't know, but I shudder after what happened over in Russia.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  23:14 
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With the Chernobyl nuclear accident? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  23:17 
I'm just wondering, some of that went over Finland, I was wondering about... I gotta write to 
them and find out what happened to them. That trip was wonderful for me. The fact that I could 
go down to my-- where I was born and see all that; the church -- that was [inaudible] -- where I 
was baptized and where I got all my genealogy from; to meet some of the people that were 
relations, and cousins that were my age; see what it was like. I saw the house where my mother's 
family lived. And my father's family home had been sold. And that's-- my father and two other 
brothers, the younger brothers, they came to the States, they took their share of the sale of the 
property and came to the States, and the others, they took either portions of it or bought more-- 
other property. Our relations took us over-- they called these people that are on there now, on 
that property, if it was all right for me to come over and see the property. And they said it was, 
and they-- the old house was gone, and a new house there that they had, but there was the land 
that-- where the house had been. And they even showed us the cement block, whether that's 
marking a property, or whether that was the-- where the stoop was for the house, front door, or 
whatever. I think it's probably a flat mark-- marking. And so that was the place. And then they 
showed us the house where my mother and dad were-- lived, a little house. There was two on the 
property, two small houses where, after they were married, they lived in one of them. They didn't 
know which one. They were identical little, red houses. And all that was [?entertaining?]. 
[Inaudible.] Well, we covered 2000 miles, so we saw quite a bit. We-- and then we went to 
Leningrad, and then came back. And then we took another loop and went this way, and then met 
the relations, and then came down to [?Turku?] and then down [inaudible]. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  26:01 
So when you were there, did you finally feel like you were truly Finnish? Finally--  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  26:06 
Yes. It was amazing. When we first got off at Leningrad, before we met anyone, and we were 
going to the big store, walking around downtown, and people would be walking and they'd be 
talking Finn, you know? And there were little kids, six, seven years old, and we'd tag along with 
their parents, mostly with their mother, you know, they're going shopping, and they're talking 
Finn. I said, I remarked to my daughter, I says, "Those little kids, they can talk Finn!" You know, 
well, of course they could talk Finn, that was their language. But I couldn't imagine myself 
talking Finn, you know? 
 
Linda G. Greiner  26:42 
Even though you did, because you had to learn English as a second language [inaudible]. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  26:45 
Yeah. But I was just-- I just learned a Finn that you hear at home, you know, with the parents 
and what you talk about in the house, you know? No college Finn for me, or anything like that. I 
couldn't even read it. I still can't read it. And the kids talking Finn, that was really-- I just couldn't 
believe it. And then when we get-- did, get to the relations, the kids talked-- read out of their 
books, read Finn, you know, they're doing their school work, and it's just amazing that you can 
communicate with another language and read and write. 
Page 10 of 11 
 
 
Linda G. Greiner  27:26 
So back to the back to the question of what you see for the future, for this [inaudible], but even 
for this area, what do you think about the way things are today? Beyond the fact that you're-- it 
seems to me you're kind of frustrated with the kids and that situation. Is there anything else 
that...? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  27:54 
No, I think this-- I think Washington is a beautiful state, and, why, Seattle is my absolute 
favorite, and they're doing all right. I can't see any-- 
 
Linda G. Greiner  28:07 
Are there any things that you want to do before you leave this earth?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  28:12 
Before I carry on? No, not really. No, I just fade [?it?] away. Like I said, I'm perfectly satisfied 
the way it is. I have no ambition whatsoever of anything else, so leave it to somebody else.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  28:35 
Is there any kind of advice or suggestions you might make, or would want to make to anybody? 
Not necessarily relatives, just people in general. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  29:05 
Well, I'd say, appreciate what we have here. You hear so much knocking of the country, and I 
listen to talk shows a lot, especially from San Francisco -- from San Francisco, you know, they 
have talk shows -- and people call in, and most of-- a great many of them are people that come in 
from Puerto Rico or some other country, and they come here, and it's so different than where 
they came from, and the only reason they came here was to better themselves. And the minute 
they get here, they start knocking the government, and the President, and the whole bit, you 
know? And that infuriates me. I think-- I feel like, if you don't like it, leave! You don't have to 
stay here. Go back. That's what you came from, you want to go back to it, go! And leave the 
people that are here alone. And if you're going to come here, help to better it, whatever way you 
can. That's [?the only thing?] I can think of. So that really infuriates me when they come on and 
they knock, knock, knock, and I think, "Get out of here. Don't stay here." I think it's just 
wonderful to do what we want to do. Nobody can't stop you from going. If you want to go to 
Texas, you want to go wherever you want to go, got the money, go.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  30:27 
What do you think about the way this country is run? Do you have any strong political beliefs or 
religious ideologies or anything that you really carry close to your heart? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  30:42 
Well, I just go on with, uh, do the best you can with what's there. Whoever's President, do the 
best you can, put up with it till the next time, and it might get worse.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  30:56 
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[Laughs] "Might get worse." 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  30:58 
Well, it has been worse sometime [laughs]. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  31:00 
Who would you say out of out of your lifetime has been the worst President?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  31:06 
That's putting me on the spot, isn't it? Let's see. I didn't like... Who was that [inaudible] guy? It 
was during the war, during the Korean War-- 
 