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Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Janet Askren Brown 
April 30, 1987 
Cassette 3, Side 1 
 
 
Deborah Gates  00:04 
Do you still have a large young people's group at the church? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  00:09 
We haven't had for a while, but we started with a new preacher, now. We have 14 coming. They 
really seemed to like it. He's a real caring person, he knows their names, and about them, and he 
relates to them real well. He's doing pretty well, yeah. 
 
Deborah Gates  00:37 
And your grandchildren are in the group? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  00:39 
Yeah, the two older. The younger one is not old enough yet. They're just taking juniors in high 
school up through college age and-- well, some of them don't go to college, but they're that age. 
They're not the young marrieds, it's the ones that are not married, so they get together. 
 
Deborah Gates  01:09 
Is there a young married group? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  01:11 
No, we used to have when our other preacher was there. We had a nice one going then, but right 
now, I don't have any leadership, so it's kind of falling apart. 
 
Deborah Gates  01:27 
Is that hard for you to see that it's not the same as it was when you were growing up? And the 
importance of the church and many people's lives? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  01:37 
People get so busy now, and it's just too bad, because we used to really love being with young 
people. It was our main social life. You know, we had skating parties and met people from all 
over the state, and had conventions. We just had  had wonderful times, but they don't have too 
much of that nowadays.  
 
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Deborah Gates  02:09 
Now you told me that you weren't very big on housework or cooking, but it sounds like you sew 
for the church, and I see a sewing machine here, and I was wondering where you learned that 
from? You also had mentioned that your mother sewed, too. Did she teach you? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  02:27 
No, I think I learned it at school. Person who's more apt to learn from a teacher than from your 
own family, I think. But... For graduation, I made a coat and modeled it, and then when I was 
going home with my boyfriend, I got on the back of his bicycle and caught the coat in-between 
the wheel and the fender or something, and got all grease on it, had to get it clean, but I think we 
got most of it out. Sure disappointed in my brand new coat. I have always sewed for the-- my 
grandchildren, especially the girls. And every Christmas, I would make them nightgowns, and 
every Easter, I'd make them new dresses, and I would mend their clothes and that, even when 
their mother was around because she didn't like to sew, and so I've done that for them ever since 
they were little kids. But now they have a stepmother, and she likes to sew. She is real good at it, 
too. So I kind of felt left out for a while there, but the kids didn't want to wear the nightgown she 
made a couple years ago, and so now, she bought me the material and pattern, and I'm supposed 
to make four nightgowns for them. So I'm going to do that if I ever get time to do it. 
 
Deborah Gates  04:39 
Did you sew for your daughters, or were you too busy?  
 
Janet Askren Brown  04:42 
No, I would sew for them, even in spite of teaching, I would get-- people would give me their old 
clothes, and then I'd take them apart and remake them. Coats and things, I cut them down from 
big coats and stuff all my life. Mother had to do that for me too, because I remember she took a 
sweater that my aunt had sent, pulled the whole thing apart and made it into balls, and then knit it 
over again for me. Well, I guess it was crochet, maybe. She crocheted it so I could wear it to 
college. But we've always been more or less poor, so we had to do with what we had, and I've 
always had to wear hand-me-downs till I started teaching, I guess. The-- when I was in St. Louis, 
why, she would mail me clothes that she'd made for me. I always had to wear my aunt's clothes, 
but she would-- she went to-- I can't think of the name of that-- oh dear. One of the biggest stores 
in Los Angeles, and she was a travel agency repre-- well, boss. She had 12 people under her and 
was in the Bel Air district there. And so she wore beautiful clothes, and I was thin enough then to 
wear them pretty well. They were kind of dressed up for the places I went, but anyway, I had to 
wear them, and so I was real glad to get them. I didn't have anything otherwise. 
 
Deborah Gates  07:22 
You mentioned this aunt before, then when you drove down to Los Angeles, that's where you 
stayed, because she was going on a trip. 
 
Janet Askren Brown  07:29 
Well, it was the other aunt, but they both live in the same place in Los Angeles. 
 
Deborah Gates  07:36 
Were these aunts-- did you know that when they were up here? Did they live up here at all? 
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Janet Askren Brown  07:40 
No. They were my mother's sisters. She came from a big family of seven girls and one boy, and 
she was next to the oldest, so I was the first grandchild. So they've always been very special, 
especially good to me. And we went to Los Angeles, would go visit them, have holidays with 
them and that. But we were only there a couple of years. But I knew them from that. But-- and 
they came up for when my girls got married and that, and they call my mother up about every 
Wednesday and every Saturday, and talk to her on the telephone. They sent us a beautiful 
bouquet for Easter. Flower arrangement. They're just real good to us. She even sent me $100 to 
buy a new outfit at Christmas time, so I got my Easter outfit [inaudible]. They're real good to us, 
but they're the only ones that are left in Mother's family now. 
 
Deborah Gates  09:14 
The two sisters are still both alive, and they're still both in Los Angeles. 
 
Janet Askren Brown  09:17 
Yes, Pasadena. Well, [inaudible] was right near Pasadena. The one sister had been a missionary 
in Egypt for 35 years. Many of my things in the house are from-- that's a window from [?Al 
Haram?] in Egypt, that. See that thing on the wall there? And then there's an alabaster bowl, 
that's from Egypt too. And many of our things that I have are from their house. Oh, and she also 
sent me an oriental rug too. Didn't have [?their money back?]. When they-- they both have 
moved into retirement places, so they had to get rid of a lot of their things. And so, they sent 
them my way, because I was the first grandchild, so I kind of-- special in their eyes. 
 
Deborah Gates  10:29 
Do they have children? Were they married?  
 
Janet Askren Brown  10:31 
They were married, but they never had children. 
 
Deborah Gates  10:34 
Were they divorced or widowed?  
 
Janet Askren Brown  10:36 
Widowed. The one was widowed after just a couple of years, so that's why she became a 
missionary. And then the other one was a commercial teacher, and this is Los Angeles, 
Metropolitan Commercial College, business college. She was one of the main teachers there. 
Well, then my-- but my other aunt has already dead, the one that gave me the clothes, she died 
not too long ago. 
 
Deborah Gates  11:24 
She was a travel agent? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  11:25 
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She was a travel agent. Yeah, she arranged our trip to Hawaii, and got us all real neat places to 
go. And she knew the people, you know, so she had them send us a pretty flower arrangement up 
into our room, and then she saw that we got leis and all sorts of things [laughs].  
 
Deborah Gates  11:49 
When was this that you went?  
 
Janet Askren Brown  11:51 
1976. 
 
Deborah Gates  11:53 
You went with your husband?  
 
Janet Askren Brown  11:55 
Yeah, uh-huh. 
 
Deborah Gates  11:56 
None of your grandchildren? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  11:57 
No, not then. No, they think they ought to go to Hawaii too. But, well, we went the second time 
in '85, I think. Yeah, it was '85. Because my husband wanted to surprise me. I think it was for his 
birthday celebration. Yeah, when he-- well, yeah, I guess when he turned 70, he decided he 
would do that for his birthday present, sort of go to Hawaii again. So, we went and saw the 
places we had missed the first time. We had friends there, so we got to stay a whole week at their 
house in Honolulu, and that helped, that we didn't have to pay for that part. Spent all the money 
we'd ever saved for going to that first trip [laughs], but anyway, we had a real nice time. 
 
Deborah Gates  13:12 
So that's about all the traveling that you've done? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  13:15 
Well, we went to visit my daughter when she was up in Alaska. Her husband was stationed in 
Fort Richardson in Anchorage, and so, we went up there. And that was when the astronaut first 
walked on the moon, in '69, I guess. And they had not had TV before that or something. 
Anyway, it was real special in Anchorage that they had this TV coverage of it. And so we stayed 
home from church and watched that. But we really enjoyed watching it. And then they took us 
on a trip up to Mount McKinley, and we had a-- one of these Apache trailers in the back. He 
rented it from the army, and he cooked real good meals for us, and we stayed by a lake up there. 
You could open it up, you know, there's room for four people to sleep in this little trailer. We had 
a good time doing that. And then, when he came back, anyway, got out of the army. Then he 
wanted to use his scholarship that had been given to him before he went in the Army. And so 
then, he got to go back to Washington, D.C. And so he said, Well, why don't you go with us as 
far as Yellowstone, and then we'll keep on going. So we did, and we had lots of fun with them. 
And then they-- after they went back to Washington, D.C., then we-- they left us at Yellowstone, 
and we got a bus, and went up to Jasper and [?played police?], and then came back on the bus 
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through Vancouver. And then later on, while he was in the school there, my daughter was 
working in a doctor's office, and he was going to-- he's been a history buff all the time in college, 
and so he was taking up history, and this was a Scottish Rite, a scholarship that he had, and then 
he invited us to come back there. They had to sleep on the floor because they just had a small 
apartment, but it worked out all right, and they gave us the bed. But we got to go to Washington, 
D.C., and then he took us on a trip down through the Shenandoah Valley, and that's where I saw 
my first Cardinal. I'd never seen a cardinal bird before. I was real excited about that. And we 
went to Thomas Jefferson's home, and went to Mount Vernon, and then we went down to 
Williamsburg, and that is so interesting, because they're all dressed up just like way back when, 
the revolutionary days, I guess. And then we came back, went through that big, long tunnel 
across the Chesapeake Bay, and then up to Annapolis. Went through Annapolis too, came back 
to Washington, D.C., and we got to go see the Mint and watch them making the money. That 
was so interesting. And we got to go in the White House. And they had scheduled all this ahead 
of time, so we had reserved the tickets to go to all these interesting places in Washington, D.C. 
We just had a real nice time. So we've had those two special trips besides two to Hawaii. That's 
more than my grandchildren have had. They wish they could go some of these places too, and we 
tell them about it [laughs]. 
 
Deborah Gates  18:25 
They've got a little time.  
 
Janet Askren Brown  18:26 
Yeah, right.  
 
Deborah Gates  18:27 
You've done all this since you've retired? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  18:29 
Yeah.  
 
Deborah Gates  18:29 
Is your husband retired now?  
 
Janet Askren Brown  18:32 
Well, he wasn't retired that long. He's only been retired about five years, but he could take off, 
and probably it was finished vacation. Well, he was in the paint business, and their biggest time 
is in the summer, so it was little hard for him to get a couple weeks at a time. In fact, he felt kind 
of guilty taking that much sometimes. I guess maybe one time he got three weeks. But I had to 
be careful about it, because my time block was in the summer, but he was busiest then, which 
was a little hard. But they always got off between Christmas and New Year, which made it kind 
of nice. 
 
Deborah Gates  19:34 
What do you enjoy doing now with him, in your spare time, when you're not involved with all 
your activities? 
 
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Janet Askren Brown  19:41 
Well, we like to play Scrabble at night, sometimes. He's real interested in jigsaw puzzles and so I 
help him with that sometimes. Although he's so scientific about it, but-- he gets it started, he's got 
all the blues in one spot, all the greens in another spot. And he isn't always too happy about me 
putting in so, after we get him started, why, I kind of let him do the rest. He's got everything just 
placed where he wants it, and I can't [inaudible]. 
 
Deborah Gates  20:23 
Does he still do work around the house? Putter around some? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  20:27 
Yeah, he's done most everything for repairing our house that he can. Can insulate it real well, 
and we've had a heat pump put in so we only pay about half as much as we would if we had oil 
heat. And we had double windows put on, and siding, and, you know, if we put on too-- do too 
much more, we wouldn't ever get our money out of it. It's, you know about where we can't do too 
much more right now, but he's interested in gardening. Last year, he wasn't because his back was 
aching, but this year, he seems to be taking an interest in it again, and I'm so glad, because he 
really likes to work out in the yard, and I like him out there, because I have the inside to myself 
when I could read if I want to, or something. When you're both home alone-- I mean both home 
at the same time, it's nice to-- well, that's one reason why I wanted to be busy doing things 
outside the home, because you could get too much together, better to have some time apart, 
appreciate each other. 
 
Deborah Gates  21:55 
You don't like gardening? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  21:56 
Well, I do weeding, but he did the whole [inaudible]. Yeah, but he likes to cook too sometimes, 
so-- especially on days when I'm gone, he made some real nice hot cross buns the other day, and 
he made bread the other day. Surprising. He was making some whole wheat bread. Well, you-- 
almost, well once a week, or once every other week, he'll make custard in the microwave. I love 
custard. He likes to do cooking. It's a good thing too, now that Mother's here, because I'm gone 
for almost every lunchtime so that he has to get her lunch for her. So, I usually lay out what's, 
you know, what they can have, but he'll cook it up and fix it for her. So that helps a lot. I don't 
mind so much being gone. 
 
Deborah Gates  23:10 
Is it difficult for you to see your mother old like this, and feeble?  
 
Deborah Gates  23:14 
And so she feels like she's doing something. Because she's also an active woman.  
 
Janet Askren Brown  23:14 
Yeah, it's hard. 
 
Deborah Gates  23:14 
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Did she go back to work after your father left? Or was she already old? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  23:14 
She was already working a little bit, but she was working at the YMCA up here in Queen Anne 
Hill, and she didn't get hardly any money. 
 
Janet Askren Brown  23:14 
Well, yeah. She's [?wanting to real active?]. She can't see, which bothers her so much. If we 
could get this cataract operation, she could see, it would be a lot better, because she doesn't know 
what time it is, and well, even the days are hard for her to keep track of too. But I guess most 
people have trouble if they don't have a real schedule to keep track of days. And then all about all 
she can do is listen with her headset on the radio, and she likes her Christian programs on that. 
And then I got the talking books for the blind, and she gets the guideposts and the Reader's 
Digest, they send that to her every month on a record. And I have ordered some cassettes for her, 
and then I sent for-- I had to buy this, but I did buy the Bible. I think it's the New Testament, and 
it's on cassettes, and she can listen to that too. That gives her a few things to do, besides lying 
down, listen to the headsets. We just had-- we gave her our special radio and cassette player. And 
so, when she came up here to stay, we brought it up with the headsets. And so she spends most 
of her time in bed listening to that. It's so boring otherwise. I try to think of things for her to do. 
I've had her ripping up telephone books, and we use the pages in our-- for our church paper 
drive, but they won't take them all in one piece. But if you rip them up, you know, it's paper, so 
they will take that and... Oh, for a while I had her cutting plastic bags. I saw in the Family Circle 
or somewhere where you could crochet them into rugs. But she cut them all crooked and 
everything, that it never did work out very well, but gave her something to do there for a while 
when she first got out of the hospital. But it's a little-- well, I let her fold the washing, but so little 
she can do when she can't see, and then she then can't hear great. So, it's a problem to know what 
to make life interesting for. 
 
Deborah Gates  27:00 
What did she do?  
 
Janet Askren Brown  27:01 
She was the secretary to the secretary. Yeah, the executive secretary is the boss, and does all the 
programming and that. But she did the office work for him, so she was busy doing that. Dad just 
left her with $50. She's made her way ever since that, herself, and she's invested her money, and 
she's got a lot more money than I have. She gets annuity and everything she can get, you know, 
annuities, and... Well, she's taken out bonds. She's got bonds for each of the grandchildren when 
they-- when she dies, they'll get some money... and for my daughters and their husbands. She just 
figured out how to invest. She gets some every month from that.  
 
Deborah Gates  28:19 
She figured out on her own?  
 
Janet Askren Brown  28:21 
Yeah. 
 
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Deborah Gates  28:23 
She didn't teach you? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  28:24 
[Laughs.] Well, I let my husband do that kind of stuff, and he's done good too, but we don't go 
into the annuities like she did. Oh, I was going to say, every time a bank comes out and says 
they'll give a free clock or something, just take your money for one bank and put in the other 
bank so she can get a free present. 
 
Deborah Gates  28:47 
What does she do with all of them? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  28:48 
Gives them for wedding presents. She wants to give all-- she just gives her money away to 
everybody. I can't keep track of it. Every-- the missionaries children that she knows, she writes to 
them. And then, she knows when the kids birthdays are, so she sends them cards. And so she, 
when she was feeling well, she was sending about 20 or 30 cards a month to people that had 
birthdays. and she got sick. She kind of lost out on doing that, so we haven't been doing it lately, 
much except special people. Every month, she just had whole list of birthdays. Kept track of 
everybody, cards. She got more friends than anybody in this job, really outgoing person. 
 
Deborah Gates  29:59 
Yeah, you had mentioned that your father remarried, but your mother never did? 
 
Janet Askren Brown  30:04 
No. He was going through the mid-life crisis, thinking that his life was passing him by, I guess. 
So, he was sent down to San Francisco for his company, and so he looked up one of my 
girlfriends, was this couple years older than I, and she took him out to dinner or something like 
that and, I suppose, complimented him a lot. And so he somehow decided that he should marry a 
younger person instead of my mother. He, on Valentine's Day, why, she got this thing from the 
lawyers and then that was it. Broke her heart. She wouldn't go to church or anywhere for about 
six months. She was ashamed. In those days, divorce was not common at all. 