index
education
land slide
end Tape 1
sideB
Tape 2
side A
health
M. C. : Um, I don't remember not having the bathroom because they had it before I came into
being,.
L. L. : Urn
M. C. : And, but we moved down to Green River Valley to this ranch that my father had which
was 51/2 miles from Black Diamond. And we moved there when I was 5 years old, almost
6.
439 And I started first grade, I had already gone to kindergarten in Black Diamond, and
then, uh, uh, when we moved down to Green river Valley, I attended a 1 room school. I
don't think there were ever more than 10 children in the school and probably not that
many, 'bout 8 would be the, but there were all 8 grades, off and on.
L. L. : Just 1 teacher?
M. C. : Now I missed that..
L. L. : Only 1 teacher? Was there 1 teacher for the whole school.
M. C. : Only 1 teacher, you didn't need any more really. And, it was very interesting from the first
grade through the eighth, I was the only one that went all 8 grades...
L. L. : Um-huh
457 M. C. : ...in the same little school, and that, and that was a mile and a half that we walked every
day to school, sometimes it was 2 miles because we had to go 'round a different way when
there was a slide, and. uh, that is 2 miles to school and 2 miles from school.
L. L. : What kind of slide, like a land slide?
M. C. : Slide was a mud slide.
L. L. : a mud slide
M. C. : next to the river bank.
L. L. : um-huh
M. C. : In other words, it just, uh, was on clay, and the whole things just slid like frosting on a
cake. And that was a very interesting experience because there were plenty of interesting
things that you did in a one room school that you never would, have the opportunity of
doing out.
L. L. : uh-huh
M. C. : In other words, you'd, the teacher often took us out under a tree when the summer days
were hot. And, and we sat under the tree for a reading lesson. And...
475
008 M. C. : [During the time I changed the tape, Margaret shared that the entire time she attended the
1 room school, no student was ever sick, even for a day.]
L. L. : ... at your school?
10
index
M. C. : ... all the time I was there. I went to 8 grades and never was sick a day. And my son
took over a few of the, they used to give you a certificate...
L. L. : um-huh
education 013 M. C. : ... if you were in school every day of the year. But we went to school early in the
morning, and we didn't leave until about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. It was, was very, very
interesting. And the children helped the teacher with the duties around the classroom.
games 015 And you, if you played, you played games like Run Sheep, Run and Auntie-I-Over and
things of that.
L. L. : What were the games like?
M. C, : They were interesting, very interesting.
L. L. : Were they educational games?
M. C. : Uh, Uh, Uli No. They weren't, they were physical.
L. L. : um-huh
father/education018 M. C. : I recall that my father went over all my papers at night that I would bring home, and once
he found an error in the teacher's correction of a paper in arithmetic. And he asked me to
take it back to the teacher. He was a stickier for being accurate.
L. L. : um-huh
M. C. : And, I bet that was the hardest thing I ever had to do, to go back and tell the teacher that
she had erred in correcting the paper, but she was in-love so I thought that that was too
bad. She did it hurriedly in order to get through because her boyfriend was coming to pick
her up.
L. L. : um-huh
teachers 029 M. C. : And on another occasion, the teacher was, at that time, you, if you could pass the teacher's
examination, you could teach without going to college. And they had hired a teacher for
$60 a month to teach, and she had taken the examination, but she had not known that she
did not pass until school started, and she had to stop after the first month,
L. L. : Was that the same teacher...
M.C. : Yes
L. L. : ...the same teacher?
M. C. : ...the one that failed to pass the examination.
L. L. : All right, but was she, was she the same one that marked your paper wrong.
M. C. : I don't know. No. It wouldn't be.
L. L. : It wouldn't be the same?
M. C. : No, it would be another. Now the most successful teachers were the older, unmarried
teachers that had spent a time. Uh, I recall one in particular whose name was Maude
Shorey, and she was, by standards at that time, an old maid. But, a, a, very lovely person,
11
index
teaching/
restrictions
on married
teachers
and she lived with her parents in a log cabin not too far, oh maybe a mile or so, from the
school. It's interesting to note the changes.
042 Now you see when I first started to teach, you couldn't teach if you were married.
L. L. : Was it illegal, or did they just...
M. C. : And, and you had all kinds of things, you couldn't go out on a week night, you couldn't
have a date on a week night. And, and actually you might say, that the school, school
board were always looking at what the teacher was doing.
L. L. : Urn
M. C. : So you had certain standards that were not very broad.
L. L, : When you said that, urn, when a woman couldn't teach if she were married...
M. C. : No
L. L. : ...uh, was that illegal, or was it just looked down upon?
M. C. : Oh no, that was a rule, a state law.
L. L. : state law
M. C. : It was a state law.
L. L. : Wow. How did you feel about that when you were...
M. C. : Well, I didn't, it didn't bother me any
L. L. : um-huh
M. C. : But it, it, it made a great many teachers do things that were against the law because the
got married privately and kept it a secret.
L. L. : So they could teach.
M. C. : I knew that did, that did that. I didn't do it but I was always within the law. I, I tried to
uphold the law.
L. L. : um-huh
M. C. : But I didn't see any reason for it,
L. L. : yea
M. C. : ...real reason.
L. L. : When you um, the one teacher that you had to bring your paper back to, when you brought
your paper back, what did she say to you?
M. C. : Oh, I can't remember...
L. L. : Was she embarrassed, or....
M. C. : ...because I felt so bad about, uh, doing it. I felt so humiliated, doing it.
L. L. : Why did your father make you?
12
index
M. C. : I beg your pardon.
L. L. : Why did your father want you to bring it back?
M. C. : Oh, well, because he wanted, he wanted her to know that she was missing something, you
see, and he, in teaching.
L. L. : How did you know that she was in love, that's why she, why she would hurry up?
M. C. : Oh, well, the young man came with the horse and buggy to pick her up.
L. L. : um
M. C. : You know on Friday nights when she would go, go into town, etc... But there were many
things that were very outstanding.
siblings 069 L. L. : um-huh. Urn, how about your brothers and sisters, what was your relationship with them?
M. C. : Well, my, it was always a very good relationship, always. My sister, uh, went to high
school, uh, she drove a, rode her pony. She had a horse, and she road her horse 2 years,
and, uh, and when the weather was real bad she stayed with friends. And, uh, rode the
horse to high school and tethered him on the, uh, grounds that were for, on the play
grounds while she has in class. Then she would ride the horse home.
: Where was high school...
: I never cared for horses like she did.
: .. .where was your high school?
: Black Diamond.
: It was in Black Diamond?
: Yes,
: And you went there also, to the high school?
: Oh, I never went to that high school. I went to high school... see, our address, where we
lived in GreeA River Valley was Auburn. But Auburn was 9 1/2 miles; Black Diamond was
only 5. You went uphill to Black Diamond.
L. L. : um-huh
M. C. : And, in fact, the, uh, I had to, when I wanted to graduate from the eighth grade, at that
time, you had to take eighth grade examination, state examinations, long examinations.
And I went to Black Diamond to take it with the Black Diamond school because I would
be the only one 'cause I was the only one in the class most of the time.
L. L, : um-huh
M. C. : So, that was a, urn, that's a different kind of experience, but it's, uh, what everyone's doing
at that period of time.
L. L. : um-huh. What, what kind of education do you think you got? Did you think it was a
pretty good education, experience?
education
Blck Dmnd
L.
M.
079 L.
080 M.
L.
M.
L.
M.
L.
c
L.
c
L.
c
L.
c
13
index
teachers
art
students
handicap
093 M. C. : Yes, I think had a very good education. Now, this Maude Shorey, this teacher that I
admired so much, that was so good, that lived with her parents in a log cabin, she had, uh,
she was a student by herself, like Abraham Lincoln and so many people. You know, they
were self-educated. And that was good, they knew how to educate themselves, and I felt
that I was following in that path myself.
L. L. : Um. What, what else did you like about her so much?
100 M. C. : Well, in the first place, she liked art, and I did. She had a brother that was a, in the, uh,
photography business. And, uh, she used to bring the, uh, glass plates where they, uh had
gelatin on the back of them, you know, where they used to do that years ago, and then
we'd clean the gelatin off those glass plates, and then we'd draw pictures, like in ink, on
the glass, and, and then you'd remove the, or you'd put white paper underneath the glass,
and, and paint it, I don't know, where she got all the paint or art supplies, but I, I
appreciated what she did. And then, as T said, we would go outdoors often on little jaunts
to the woods together, trilliums, and gather, uh, oh, violets, and other little flowers that
grew in the woods, and then she would have us take the needles out of the moss growing
on the tree and make li, little necklaces out of them. And, uh, she was great for art, and,
and I, I admired for it because I learned more about the early painters like Van Gough and
all those you know from her than I did from anyone else.
L. L. : um-huh. What about the other students, did they like her teaching style also?
M. C. : I beg your pardon.
L. L. : Did the other students like her?
119 M. C. : Well, I suppose they would, but it was an odd group of students. One of them I remember
him distinctly. He was always tardy, and his folks lived a long ways, and he had to walk
maybe 3 miles to school, and, uh, he never wore shoes. And so once he, uh, he had a
splinter the fall length of his foot. [Margaret gestures about 7-10 inches.] Oh, I remember
seeing the teacher take a razor blade and cut along that line where that splinter was, uh, uh
and it was king of decayed wood....
L. L. : um-huh
M. C. : ... and it would, and it would, she had an awful time trying to clean it out,but I suppose he
was so well [laugh] healed, uh, uh he had worked, himself into getting a, uh, uh, his own
brand of immunization [Margaret and Libby laugh], I don't know, but I remember that
distinctly.
132 And another little boy was a, the son of a house ke, uh of, of a man that was, or of a
woman that was a housekeeper for, uh, a bachelor, and he was a, he was crippled. You
see, I was attracted to people that had difficulties; I've been attracted like that all my life
to....
L. L. : to help people?
M. C. : Yes
L. L. : um-huh
M. C. : And, and so I remember them. Then there were, uh, oh it was a, it was an odd 8 or. 10
that you had in that collection [laugh],
L. L. : What about the child that was crippled, what did you do to help him out?
M. C. : Well, I just remember, but I don't remember doing enough for anyone that was crippled. I,
I remember that he was kind ofspastic, you know, and couldn't walk well.
14
index
L. L, : uh-huh
M. C. : And, I always felt sorry for him. I was the one that would carry his lunch bucket, you
know, or help him in any way I could. Well...
L. L. : What about, um, reading, what kind of reading did you do in school?
M. C. : Did you say ea/mgf
L. L. : reading
M. C. : reading
L. L. : like books, what did you...
education 146 M. C. : Well, I remember the speller, I was always good in spelling.
poetry 148 I remember the speller always had a quote in it; by every lesson there was a quote.
And, to this day, I'm fond of quotes. I, I do a great deal of it even myself. I even make
them up, or little ditties, or poems, I can hog..., I, I don't call myself a poet.
L. L. : um-huh
M. C. : But I'm always delving into it.
L.L. : That's great.
M. C. : ...just like that Christmas poem that's published in that "Mining the Memories."
L. L. : um-huh
Blck Dmnd 155 M. C. : When you read it, you'll know about what it was like to be a little child in a mining town.
L. L. : um-huh. What, what, um how old were you when you lived in the mi, mining town?
Y'7'
M. C. : Well, I left there at 5, but you see, we weren't fall away.
L. L. : um-huh
M. C. : We still went to church parties and things like that in the town, and we still went to the, my
mother and father belonged to the lodges in the town and they always had, uh, and we had
friends, many friends there.
L. L. : What was the town like? What do you remember about it.
M. C. : Well, I remember everything about it because I never ce, failed to go there, even now, you
see we're only 3 miles from there when we're out at the lake.
L. L. : um-huh
M. C. : And we go to uh, a great many things, they have a museum there now, a very nice
museum.
L. L. : um-huh. When you were little, what did you like to do in the town? Where there certain
places you liked to go?
friends 166 M. C. : Well, I usually went with my mother, and then I visited and played with the, the, with her
friends' children.
15
index #
L. L. : um-huh
mother 167 M. C. : My mother was a great horse woman too, she could handle horses although she was very
petite, very small, but she was very capable.
sewing 170 And she had gone to a trade school, so she was a milliner and a, and a dress-maker,
and she taught sewing; she taught sewing, uh, oh, to many residents in the little town,
younger than...
L. L. : Did she teach you how to sew?
M. C. : I beg your pardon?
L, L. : Did she teach you how to sew?
M. C. : Well, no.
L. L. : How come?
M. C. : I had, I, I, I was not very de, uh, adopted to sewing.
L. L. : You just...
M. C. : Now my sister was very good at sewing. My mother had taught her a great deal. I never
asked to be taught really. Uh, but my sister, uh, uh, was quite a seamstress, but she was,
ne, always to busy to sew.
L. L. : uh-huh
M. C. : Was always my mother that did the sewing.
L. L. : Did she do it for money?
M. C. : My, uh my si, my mother?
L. L. : Your mother.
M. C. : Before she was married, she did it for money. After she was married, she didn't have a
chance.
L. L. : ummm
M. C. : She had too many children to do it for.
L. L. : Did she sew all of your clothes?
M. C. : I beg your pardon.
L. L. : Did she sew all of your clothes for you?
M. C. : She sewed everything I had practically. Now, she could make a coat out of practically
nothing. And my sister, older sister, had, a, a go, a, a good looking suit, I new I, I got
that suit as a dress for these, um, you know wool. And uh, she could sew anything. She
could make anything. But she had gone to a trade school and had learned sewing and
millinery work.
L. L. : What's millinery work?
16
index #
M. C. : Milliner, making hats.
L. L. : Making hats? So, did she make hats for you also?
M. C. : And that's when dresses were really at a prize. You didn't get a dress like you today,
straight up and down. You got a dress with mutton-leg sleeves, big you know, and taffeta,
and all, all, uh, all the uh, she made dresses for all the principle people in town's wives.
And they were, I, I can remember, uh, ta, taffeta, the taffeta always attracted me because it
was so attractive. And, and maybe it had 3 little skirts, you know and, and, and draperies
up here. They were, they were all beautiful things. She had quite a few nice things herself.
L. L. : Did she make you nice dresses for special occasions? Like church dresses, or...
M. C. : Did she make dresses for special occasions?
L. L. : For you, for you and your brothers and sisters, sisters?
M. C. : Oh, oh yes, she always, she always made, made clothes.
L. L. : um-huh
M. C. : I remember one time when I coaxed her to let me wear a, she was making a coat, and I can
see that coat as if it were yesterday, it was a pretty blue wool plaid. And I wanted to wear
that coat because the teacher was having company at school. And my mother didn't get
the lining in it, so I walked ofFin the coat without the lining. Later, we put the lining in it.
But I'll never forget because the teacher showed her friend who was visiting school my
new coat, and it didn't have a lining in it. And there again, I was...
L. L. : embarrassed?
M. C. : embarrassed.
education 220 Now, there, they, the seats in this school, in this one-room school, ah, were double
seats, so you sat with somebody else right next to you. That was interesting, but the, and
they had no running water in that school, and yet nobody was ever sick. In the morning the
first child that came to school took the bucket, the water bucket, down and put it on a little
stream that came off of a sandstone bank and dripped into the bucket. So, by recess, the
bucket was full of water. And su, one of the boys went down and got it and brought it up.
put it on the porch. And you had, this always interested me, you had a dipper, and
everybody drank out of that same dipper. But you tooKa little bit of water in the dipper,
swooshed it around, and then threw it off the porch. And then you could have a drink.
L. L. : Was that to clean it out?
health 234 M. C. : And no body was ever sick. Now isn't that amazing? I never remember any being sick.
L. L. : What about, urn childhood sicknesses. Did you ever have any? Do you remember being
sick at all when you were a child?
M. C. : The teacher's health?
L. L. : No, yours. Did you ever go through any sichiesses?
M. C. : [not hearing] I don't know why I'm just not...
L. L. : like pneumonia or...
M.. C. : Oh no! I'm, uh, I don't, I don't ever remember a teacher being sick. Maybe she did,
but if she was, I don't remember a substitute.
17
index #
L. L. : What about you, when you were a child?
M. C. : When I retired?
L. L. : No, when you were a child.
M. C. : When I was a child, about being sick?
L. L. : yeah
measles 245 M. C. : I had the measles. I don't remember having anything else. But I had the measles when we
lived in Black Diamond before I was 5. I don't remember...
L. L. : What about your brothers and sisters?
M. C. : How could I have been at, had perfect attendance if I was sick, you see? So that di,
wouldn't rate out.
L. L. : What about, were your brothers and sisters ever sick, or did they have good health also?
[no response] your brothers and sisters? or your..
M. C. ; my brother?
L. L. : or your brother or sisters, were they always healthy also?
M. C. : Well, yes. I do, don't remember them being sick. In fact, I ne, I never remember my father
being in bed. He played with us every night no matter how tired he was. We always had
that play time.
L. L.: So,you had a really good relationship with your father?
M. C. : I'm sure going backward, I'm not getting what you had to say.
L. L. : Oh, did you have a good relationship with your father?
father 264 M. C. : Oh yes. I had a very good relationship with my father,
L, L. : um-huh
M. C. : very good.
L. L. : What did he do with you, like on the weekends or when he had spare time?
M. C. : Well, he never had any spare time that I could see; he was always busy. He built his own,
water plant, and he built his own, we had electricity, and he had built his own direct
current, from, uh, the uh, cKck that ran through our place. He had a lot of water, we had a
lot of water. And he built a, a, oh, where the water would cascade over logs to go down
and, uh, he had all kinds of interests.
L. L. : Did he let you help, uh, help him?
work 276 M. C. : I was always helping. I remember one night, oh I remember dozens of things, one right a
neighbor called in and said that his prized horse was sinking in, uh, quicksand. And he
asked my father to come right away to help him. And I jum, I was in bed, and I heard
them, him talking on the phone, and I jumped out of bed and I said, "I'll carry the lantern."
My mother said, "Oh no." 'Course she was afraid I would get too close to the quicksand.
And, uh, my father said, "Oh, let her come." And I went and carried the lantern and
18
index #
watched them. The horse was already down almost to his belly in the quicksand, and
thrashing in the thing. And the first thing my father said was to one man, "Get an apple."
See, if the horse was eating the apple, he wasn't thrashing. And then he had another man
get a board. And they eased it just, there was just room enough to put it under the horse's
belly. Then they put men on each end of the board to make it, because at the ends it would
be on solid ground. Oh, they worked almost all night. And I still held the lantern. And I
think I must have been, ah, no more than 8.
L. L. : Did they save the horse?
M. C. : They saved the horse. But there were in, incidents like that along tlie way that made life,
you knew that life was not always pleasant and smooth. Uh, just like the knot in a board,
there are ups and downs to everything. And life in general is very interesting. And, if you
surmount a few of those hard knots, and bypass them, and find a way around them or over
them or through them, you are that much richer in your experience to meet the next one
that comes along. And they'll all come along because no one evades all of them.
L. L. : Do you remember a, an experience in your childhood that was hard to go through...
M. C. : yes
L. L. : .. .that you think that...
house burned 316 M. C. : very much so. And to this day, I am reminded of it. Oufhouse burned down when I
down was about 10 or 11.
L. L. : How did it catch on fire?
M. C. ; That's, was another interesting part. My mother had a roast in the oven. And that was uh,
at a time when you had uh, uh, coal and wood stoves. And we had a shingled roof, a cedar
shingled roof on the house. And a spark flew, and uh, it caught fire and just went up like
that. And we were left with nothing but what we had on us. However there was a, a small
house on the, not, not too far away that, that hired people, the hired man lived in. And, uh,
he moved to a smaller cottage and we took over where he was. But I will never forget,
and that taught me a life long lesson for two reasons.
theft 335 A father, my father had a friend who had just gone to Alaska to search for his fortune
of gold, and he has sent us each a gift at Christmas life, and we 2 girls had, uh, gold
nuggets clear around [Margaret gestures around her wrist] with a little pan, and the pan
was the size of my wristwatch with 2 little tiny nuggets in it. And on the back of the pan
were our initials. And, and he also sent my mother and father a, a watchfob. And the
watchfob was a solid, uh nuggets. Now, we couldn't find that, those after the fire. My
mother and I sifted for a week in the ashes trying to find that, but someone had to pick that
up. And there were bystanders attracted by the fire, you see. But somebody picked up
that molten gold. Now that would be worth a fortune today, but we never found it,never
did.
heirlooms 357 And my mother had all of my grandmother's, uh, English china, complete set of dinner
ware and sterling. And, and my mother, 1 can still see her standing by sobbing. And,1,1,
at the time, I didn't think so much of it, but lately I've been thinking of it a great deal.
L. L.: Just'cause she lost her, she lost her family heirlooms?
service 366 M. C. : Yes. And, and another thing about helping people. My folks had given me for Christmas a,
a bright red sweater. And I lost that sweater in the fire. And, my teacher, who made so
little, took me into Seattle and bought me a red sweater. And I always thought a great deal
of that teacher.
L. L, : Was that, what teacher was that? Was that the old spinster teacher?
19
index
mother
father/death 423
typhoid 430
M. C. : She was my teacher in grade school.
L. L. : But the one, the one that you liked so much?
M. C. : No, it wasn't she, the one that, uh. no. She, uh, uh wasn't that kind of a person. She was
a, a very lovely person but not that kind. This person that did this for me was kind of a
family friends that was, lived in Kent. And I remember her name was Lela Cook. And,uh,
she, uh, I often remembered her for being so kind. Well, anyway. And another friend that
lived in Seattle, sent my mother a great big trunk of clothing, th, that, they had 2 girls, the
same as we were, just about the same age. And, uh, so she sent this truck, truck full, trunk
iull of clothing, and that was such a blessing.
L. L. : How long did you live in the little house afterwards?
M. C. : Oh, not so very long. Well, you know, maybe a year, uh, it wasn't a year I guess before
they built something else, another home.
L. L. : Did they build on the same land. [No response] Did they build on the same land, or did
they build somewhere else?
M. C. : Well, it was close, but not exactly the same.
L. L. : um-huh
M. C. : Well, that was, I had many experiences, but that was a traumatic one for me because my
mother and I were the only 2 at home.
L. L. : umm
M. C. : So...
L. L. : How did your parents recover from that?
M. C. : Well, I don't suppose, you see, my mother would never recover because she lost all the
precious things she had and never re, never again, uh, rebuilt all she had, that was
interesting.
L. L. : Did she talk to you about that later on in her life.
417 M. C. : Well, every once in a while we'd mention it together 'cause she and I would have our
own quiet times. And, but that was to me as a child, why that was very traumatic. You
remember certain periods.
Now, later, my, see my mother was widowed when she was fairly young, uh, because
my father died in 1926, and uh, it made, uh, a great deal of difference in my mother's life
because... And then she visited me quite often.
And one time when she was visiting me, she became very ill, and very ill. She had a high
fever and then it would drop down to a very low one. And the doctor could not determine
what it was, the doctor I called in. And he was, uh, uh, telling us to, you know, feed her
chicken broth and that type of thing, and she wasn't getting any better. And, uh, and so I
talked to the dmggist that, uh, in the dmg store near us, and he said to me, "Mrs. Covey, if
I were you, I would get a, find another doctor." And you know later, I learned that the
first doctor has, uh, a dope, was, uh. taking dope. And, you see, the druggist knew it, and
that was his way of...
quarantine 453
L. L. : of telling you
M. C. : ...and so I did, I called and got a specialist. And it so happened that the man I got, the
second time, the, uh, doctor, was a doctor that had been in the Navy, and the moment he
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index
walked into the room (I had posted on the wall the chart about her temperature), he looked
at the chart and he said, "She has typhoid fever." And, then we were, uh, placed in
quarantine.
L. L. : Did she get better?
M. C. : And, she got better, but she was a carrier. Now, that first doctor that had known so much
about it, he had been down, uh, at the Panama Canal and other places, you see, where he
was very familiar with it. And he said that probably she had carried that all of her younger
life here in uh when she had come from the East, that she had contacted it, and it didn't
affect her until, uh, later in life when her immune system, you see, would be failing.
end Tape 2
side A
483
children
typhoid
014
015
health dept. 019
L. L. : [During the time I was changing the tape, Margaret remembered the name of her great-
grand-son: Bryce. Then, we continued with the discussion about her mother's sickness.]
How Long was you mother quarantined, you know since she was sick, she had typhoid
fever?
M. C. : Oh, well, then she had actually, that created the fact that she had to live with us, and you
were under scrutiny by the health department because, at that time, I was told that there
were only 4 in the state of Washington, that were carriers oftyphoid.
L. L. : Did you have any children then? At tat time, did you have any children yet?
M. C. : I had children.
L. L. : Were you worried that that they would get sick.
M. C. : Well, I never really worried about it because they were very good.
But she couldn't cook, you see, she couldn't do a lot of things. She had to be away
from away from food, the preparation of any food, and all.
But mainly, the difficulty was she worried about, uh, every 6 months the county nurse
or the city nurse came to see what the conditions were, which meant that you were always
half expectant of having somebody examine your quarters, made it a little, you know, a
little concern. I've always been an orderly person however, so that really never bothered
me too much, but I'm sure it bothered her. And, see, she couldn't participate in the way
other people did. You had to watch everything you did. She had her own towels and
everything else like that.
L. L. : How long was she living with you?
M. C. : Oh, she lived with me for over 20 years.
L. L. : She did?
M. C. : Yes
L. L. : Was she sick the whole time, or just a carrier?
M. C. : No, no, no, no, she recovered and was very well. the reason she died, and of course, she
was ei, almost 89 when she dies, so that meant that she'd lived a pretty long life. 'Cause
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