[00:00:00] Speaker A: Uncle John was there. He would sit on the front porch. He loved thunderstorms, and Granny was petrified of him. But he would sit on the front porch and she would say, john, come in here. You're going to get struck by lightning. And he said, renee, don't worry about me. I'm fine.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: Welcome to Golden Tidbits, the podcast where we explore the rich lives of everyday people, but with a unique twist. Each of our guests brings at least 70 years of life experience, with most having over 75 together. Well, journey through their childhoods, friendships, education, and family dynamics. We'll travel down memory lane, twist through nostalgia, and arrive at a bygone era. Not all of these stories will be seen through rose colored glasses, but they're always real, honest, and deeply human, something we could all use a little bit more of in our modern times. I'm your host, Molly B. Let's dive into today's episode.
This episode of Golden Tidbits is extra special thanks to our sponsor, Linda from Spearfish. Her generous donation covers the costs of hosting, transportation, and making it possible to keep bringing these incredible stories. So, from all of you here at Golden Tidbits, thank you, Linda, for your generosity and for making it possible to share these important stories with our listeners.
Well, tell me about your uncles then. You had a. Lawrence.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: Lawrence and Henry.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: And Henry. Okay.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: Yeah, they were my mom's two brothers, younger brothers.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: Okay. Okay. So they. And they didn't get married at that time anyways, they stayed and took care.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: Of my grandmother until she passed away. Okay. And they got married after that. And I can remember the day that we buried her. And hearing my uncle Lawrence just moan, church, I. I can't get that sound out of my head sometimes.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: Right. Just because he lost her. And so they were there for you when your mother wasn't. I mean, that's profound.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: Do you. Do you remember engaging with them a lot? Like having lots of conversation, or were they gone when they were working or.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: They were gone when they worked and they'd come home and, you know, everybody ate around the table.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:02:32] Speaker A: For meals. I'm sure, you know, that's the way it was. You didn't go out in the living room and watch tv. You just. And you ate what was put on the table. There was no, I don't like this. I don't like that. Well, if you don't like it, then you're just better. Gonna wait until tomorrow?
[00:02:47] Speaker B: Yeah, you're gonna not eat.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: But our meals pretty much consisted of fried potatoes and biscuits and cornbread and pinto beans and an occasional rabbit or a poor squirrel that got stuck in our yard, you know, I mean, and we weren't the only people up on that hill that lived that way. Everybody did.
[00:03:11] Speaker B: Right. Right.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: I mean, that's just the way it was. And, you know, I look back and I think, well, I was born in 1944 and these were in the fifties, but yet we were probably 50 years behind everybody else.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: You know, it could easily have been the twenties or earlier even.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Really.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: I, you know, someone is who's your age that I interviewed said doesn't remember ever not having a phone. He had electricity, running water, all of those things because grew up in a town and the town had all of that stuff. And so he said, I don't remember ever not even having.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: Well, right before we moved off the hill and took my grandmother to town because, like I said, she was so sick, they had just started putting electricity up through the road, but they wanted $1,700 to take it higher up the mountain. So people were supposed to come up with that kind of money if they wanted.
We never even had seventeen cents, one thousand seven hundred dollars. But anybody that lived further up the hill, it took so much equipment to get everything up there because we had no road.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: Right, right. See, and I had somebody.
I had somebody. It was a similar timeframe, early fifties, and it was only $5 to bring it to their house. So, I mean, those are worlds apart, you know?
[00:04:42] Speaker A: Well, you know, like I said, we lived way up on a mountain and it wasn't like they could get equipment up there, you know, so unless they drug it up the side of the hill.
[00:04:52] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: And there were other houses higher up than ours and that was the whole thing. They wanted $1700 from the area up there to bring electricity up on the hill. Well, you know, people didn't have that kind of money.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: Right, right. So even if you divided among the households, it would have been an extraordinary amount of money.
[00:05:13] Speaker A: And we did have kerosene lamps. And I can remember walking down the mountain to go over to the service station and buy kerosene to take back to the house.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: Right.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: We'd carry it in little jugs.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
Huh.
I have a question that the land that you lived on there with your grandma did, was that something that she owned?
[00:05:38] Speaker A: And so I don't know what happened to that, Molly.
My uncle John was her brother, one of her brothers, and he owned this house. And when his wife died, I don't know how my grandmother came to be there. She just came to be there. And I know Uncle John was there. He would sit on the front porch. He loved thunderstorms, and Granny was petrified of him, but he would sat on the front porch, and he was living with us then. So there was a crowd in the house.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:15] Speaker A: And she would say, john, come in here. You're going to get struck by lightning. And he said, renee, don't worry about me. I'm fine.
But one day he left, and I don't know where he went.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: Huh.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: But they never kept track of that. You know, I started doing genealogy on my grandmother's family, because I had no idea she had all the brothers and sisters that she had. I had. I kind of remember seeing her mom once.
She was this little old lady with a black dress on, and I was kind of afraid of her. I think I was like, maybe four, three or four. But I do remember her vaguely.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: Right.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: But we were at her house, so I don't know how we got there.
[00:07:03] Speaker B: Right.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: Must have walked.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Right.
And you probably were so little, you didn't understand where you were walking, too.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: No.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: You know, you just showed up and there was this little old lady.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And she was sitting by. I can still see her today, sitting by that little pot bellied stove, staying warm. She had that little black dress on, and she had some kind of a little thing on her head. I don't know what it was.
[00:07:28] Speaker B: Maybe a bonnet or something.
[00:07:29] Speaker A: It could have been.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: Yeah. So what happened to that. To that house when you left then? Do you know?
[00:07:36] Speaker A: They tore it down. Oh, really? My sister.
Now, all the houses up on the hill are prime real estate because you can oversee the river and the valley, and it's beautiful up there. So a lot of people live up there, and they're wealthy.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: Right.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: But my sister was walking up through there one day, and our old house was still there, and it was black because it had black tar paper on it, you know.
And one of her girls said, mom, did you know that a witch used to live in that house over there? And of course, Vicki just busted out laughing. She said, yeah, and I was her daughter.
They never knew Vicki lived there, you know.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
Wow.
[00:08:24] Speaker A: It was not anything anybody was really proud of, I'm sure, but.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: Right, right.
What's your relationship with your sister like?
[00:08:33] Speaker A: Very close. I'm going back in November. It'll be my birthday for, I guess, a family reunion.
[00:08:41] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: Sort of. So.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: And does she. She lives still in West Virginia. Okay.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: Still in the same house, really. Not the house we grew up in, but her own house?
[00:08:50] Speaker B: Yes. She's been there all those years, huh? What about music? What kind of role? Did. Did you ever have music to listen to or.
[00:08:59] Speaker A: Well, the music was man made.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: Okay. Okay.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: My uncle Lawrence and my uncle Henry both played guitar, and they had a friend of theirs that played harmonica. So there were many nights in the summer when everybody would be on the front porch or sitting out in the yard, and they'd be singing and playing, and that's the way it was.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: Do you remember some of the songs? Or, like, did you. Can you recall them in your memory?
[00:09:27] Speaker A: They were country western songs. I don't remember all of them, but I know they sang a lot of red Savine, and I don't know all of them. I mean, I was just a kid, so I don't really remember that.
[00:09:45] Speaker B: But they would sit out and do that. That would be. That seems to me like that would be a really fond memory to think back on, of everybody sitting together and being together. Even though you didn't have a lot, you. You had that memory and you had that.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: But they would sing. I don't remember. Like I said, it was just. I was just a kid, and Vicki and I, we'd get out in the old front yard, which was nothing but dirt, and we'd dance around and, you know, just like kids. And in the summertime, when it would be raining and wasn't thundering and lightning, we were allowed to go out and play in the rain.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: So if you find value in this show, you can support by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Even better, you can tell a friend.
Do you remember ever having. You know, I know you said you didn't have a lot, but do you remember getting a gift or anything like that?
[00:10:40] Speaker A: That really meant I got one gift. When? At Christmas time one year, and my Aunt Dee bought it for me.
Vicki and I always wanted a bride doll. Okay, so we got bride dolls that year.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: She got one with brown hair, and I got one with blonde hair. Cause she has blonde hair and I have dark hair. Got it. Or had dark hair, but I don't know, they were just priceless to us, you know, we were so proud of them. Yeah. And they had the bride dresses on and the veil and all the, you know, the bouquets and everything, so we thought we were just hot numbers. You know, we had these dolls to play with, and to this day, I don't know where they went.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: When we moved to town, my grandmother passed away, and then I went and lived with my aunt and uncle so I could go to school.
[00:11:30] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: But.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: Huh.
[00:11:34] Speaker A: And I had to quit school.
Finally got my GED. I did graduate, but there was a lot about it that I missed. You know, I wish I could have been able to finish high school, but I had to go on my own, you know, they didn't want me there anymore. Sorry.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: Was it because of financial concerns? They just couldn't afford.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: Yeah, they couldn't afford another mouth to feed. And about all she wanted me there for was to cook and clean and do the laundry. So that's pretty much I did. I was the maid.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: Right, right. And that. So that was a different aunt.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: That was my mother's sister. Yeah. Okay.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:12:14] Speaker A: And they. They lived in another town that was probably about 30 miles from us.
And my uncle Jim worked for the newspaper, and my aunt worked for a hostess at one of the restaurants there in town.
[00:12:31] Speaker B: And then did they have small children?
[00:12:32] Speaker A: They had two boys, yeah.
[00:12:34] Speaker B: What about your sister? Was she there with you, too?
[00:12:37] Speaker A: I don't know where she was. Oh, okay. I didn't know. I know now, but at that point in time, I didn't know.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: You didn't know where she went?
[00:12:44] Speaker A: She went with Frances and Henry, my mother's brother and his wife. And then after that, she wound up going to live with aunt Boots and Uncle Jim. I don't know how that happened, but like I said, I had no communication with anybody. Why? I didn't know where anybody was or I was lucky to be alive.
[00:13:05] Speaker B: So that's so destructive to your family unit, you know what I mean?
[00:13:11] Speaker A: But Vicki and I came back together probably. I was gone from West Virginia when I got married. I was gone for 45 years.
[00:13:19] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:13:19] Speaker A: And I never heard from anybody. I didn't know where anybody was.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: Or most of your adult life. You didn't?
[00:13:25] Speaker A: Mm hmm. No.
[00:13:26] Speaker B: Wow.
Huh?
[00:13:29] Speaker A: No, I didn't know where my siblings were as far. I knew where Vicki was, but I didn't know where any of the rest of them were.
[00:13:35] Speaker B: Right. And so when did you get back in touch with Vicki?
[00:13:38] Speaker A: Well, I stayed in touch with her periodically over the years, and I guess it was probably in the late nineties because I was living in Maine at the time. I was working there at the hospital, and I also worked part time at a deli and Christmas Eve. I don't know how she found out where I was, but she had to have found out through the ex husband. That's the only way I can figure it out because he always knew where me. Where I was. And she called and wanted to know how I was. And it was like, boom. How many years has this been?
[00:14:24] Speaker B: Wow.
I mean, you were pretty separated for most of your life.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: And then after Bill and I got divorced, I lived in North Dakota for quite a while. I moved to Maine, lived there for many years, and then I was just so alone. I just thought, you know, I'm going to drive home. And I had the wherewithal to do it. You know, I had a car and everything. So I drove back to West Virginia, and Vicki said, second day I was there. She said, when are you coming home?
And I said, well, if I had a job, I could come anytime.
And she said, we'll get you a job. You come home.
So I stayed with them for a couple of weeks, and then I got my own house, worked for a while. And then when her mother and father in law, who were in their late eighties, were both ill, she asked me if I would come and live with them and take care of them because I was a CNA.
[00:15:25] Speaker B: Oh, right.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: And so I lived with them for, oh, my God, 13 years, I guess, and took care of them. And then when they both passed away, I started having a lot of difficulty with my knees and my back, and I have a lot of arthritis throughout, and so had surgeries done and started falling living alone. And my daughter here, she said, no, you're coming here. You're not going to. You're not going to be living alone. So she found me a place here to live, and so here I am.
[00:16:07] Speaker B: So you didn't live in South Dakota prior to living.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: No, I lived in North Dakota. I've been through South Dakota.
[00:16:13] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: But not to live here. No.
[00:16:17] Speaker B: Wow.
So kind of around 14, it seems like there was a lot more turmoil in your life than what you had experienced before. So first you go and live with this aunt and uncle, and they kind of don't. Aren't as receptive.
[00:16:33] Speaker A: They don't. They don't want me there. Yeah, they kind of made me. I had a cousin that just, he wouldn't leave me alone. He wanted to crawl in bed with me at nighttime, and that didn't go well. I just, I said something about it, and it was like it was all my fault because I was walking around in my underwear or whatever the story was. I never walked around in my underwear from it in front of anyone.
[00:16:56] Speaker B: Right, right. But so you.
[00:17:00] Speaker A: I was pretty much asked to leave.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: Oh, no. And so was that when you were. It was about the same age or.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: I was 16.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Okay. So a couple years had gone by, and then you just ended up getting a job and getting your own place at that point. Okay.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: Yeah. I lived with a lady and took care of her kids for a while, babysit there and then I just had various jobs here and there and lived with whoever I could camp out with right then. Finally, I befriended a girl named Shirley, and we were pretty good friends. I stayed with her family for a while, and they were just like a second home.
And so when she decided to get married, her boyfriend was in the military in Tacoma, Washington. He was at Fort Lewis. And so her mom asked if I would go with her, and they paid for my trip out. And all my plans were, was just to go with Shirley, visit for a couple of days, and come back home.
I had no desire to stay in Washington state. I didn't know that much about it, so.
[00:18:10] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's a long ways from.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Many miles. So you haven't lived until you've ridden a greyhound bus across the states.
More fun than you can think of.
I think it took us, like, four days, and we finally got there, and then.
[00:18:29] Speaker B: And that would have been about the sixties.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: Yeah, the late sixties. Well, let's see. My son was born in 65, so it had to have been around 63.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: Okay. Okay.
[00:18:43] Speaker A: So.
And then Bill and I got married, and I was pregnant.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: And I met my husband through her husband in Washington. In Washington state. My husband was in the military as well.
[00:18:58] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:18:59] Speaker A: So I met him through them, and things happened, and I got pregnant, and I was going to go back home. And Shirley said, no, you need. It's not fair. He needs to know that this is his child.
And so she point blank said that if you don't tell him, I'm going to. So it kind of left me in a tough spot.
But we got married and, uh, four beautiful children.
[00:19:24] Speaker B: And what was your reluctance at that point? Was it because you didn't want to make him feel like he was obligated or what?
[00:19:31] Speaker A: I don't know what it was. I wanted to go home.
[00:19:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: Okay. That's the only place I ever knew.
[00:19:37] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: I wasn't familiar with all these new places and stuff. I just. I felt more comfortable in West Virginia, and I still do.
[00:19:46] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:19:47] Speaker A: I love going home. Right.
I have four beautiful children. They've all graduated from college.
Bill and I were divorced after 15 years, and he remarried a lady that he worked with.
And between the two of us, we raised our kids.
[00:20:07] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: It's kind of ironic because I'm here in South Dakota living in an assisted living, and he's in Belle Fouche.
Living in an assisted living. So he did live here for a couple of weeks.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: And so you both ended up in South Dakota.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: Is that funny or what?
[00:20:30] Speaker B: I think it's kind of funny. Yeah.
Yeah.
[00:20:33] Speaker A: But I've had a different life than most people, you know, I mean, for my age and my bracket of growing up, I should have lived with a family that had electricity and radios and tvs. And I never saw tv until I was 14.
And that was, you know, the house we finally took my granny to before she passed away. My uncle Lawrence bought a little old tiny tv, so we had that. We thought we were in 7th heaven.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: Right. And did you enjoy watching the tv or did you think it was fun and novel at first and then kind of not interested?
[00:21:08] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I had things to do. I wasn't allowed to sit and watch tv. I had to go to school. I walked the railroad tracks. I'd save my money.
We had to take the city bus if we had to go to school. And it was like fifteen cents and fifteen cents was a lot of money.
[00:21:26] Speaker B: Right.
[00:21:27] Speaker A: Normally I walk the railroad tracks to school.
[00:21:29] Speaker B: Right.
If you find value in the show, you can give your support by leaving a one time donation to help cover the costs of hosting and equipment. Find the link on our website at goldentidbits dot castos.com. that's goldentidbits.net dot castos, castos.com or in the show notes.
You know, I'm kind of curious. We didn't talk about entertainment. We talked a little bit about you guys, you know, in the, when you were out in the country on the singing part of it. But you said something about puzzles, and I just am kind of wondering what other things you did for entertainment.
[00:22:09] Speaker A: Oh, we worked puzzles. We played chinese checkers. Okay.
My grandmother loved monopoly. And to this day, I can't stand that game because it always takes so many hours to finish playing. Yes, it does. And we'd be sitting there wanting to go to bed and she'd still want to finish up the monopoly game because she always beat us. Right. But we had a big round table in the kitchen and we would put this kerosene lamp right in the middle of the table and we'd work puzzles and somebody be doing something on the other side.
You know, you made your own entertainment.
[00:22:49] Speaker B: Right?
[00:22:49] Speaker A: Right. There's always things to do.
[00:22:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:52] Speaker A: And like I said, the guys would be sitting on the front porch singing and whatever songs they would sing.
We had a dog.
[00:23:01] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:23:02] Speaker A: I found him wandering around in the school yard and I took him home.
And I fibbed a little bit about that because my grandmother said, well, you can't. We can't have the dog. And she said, you need to check at school and find out who it belongs to. And if it belongs to somebody, you need to take it back. And if I don't, we'll keep it.
Of course, I never checked with anybody.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: You don't ask, you can't know.
[00:23:33] Speaker A: No. So Tippy became a friend of ours. He lived with us until he passed away.
[00:23:38] Speaker B: Tippy? Is that what his name is?
[00:23:40] Speaker A: Tippy? Yeah.
[00:23:41] Speaker B: Did you guys have any other animals? Did you have, like, chickens or anything?
[00:23:43] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, we had chickens.
My sister got one for.
Got one for Easter one year. That's back when they used to collar chickens and ducks, you know, and you'd get them for Easter. Oh, and we each got a chicken and mine was just a hen. And Vicky's turned out to be a Rhode island red rooster. That was the meanest thing on 2ft.
And she loved this chicken.
[00:24:11] Speaker B: Uh huh.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: Well, they asked me to take Vicki for a walk, and it was Thanksgiving, and Petey met his fate that day. Oh.
[00:24:24] Speaker B: So I bet Vicki was pretty upset, but I. Those mean roosters. I just.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: He was. He was our meal for thanksgiving. He was pretty tough, actually. Wasn't really a good chicken.
[00:24:35] Speaker B: Yeah. I've heard roosters are not the best to eat.
[00:24:37] Speaker A: He was tough. Yeah.
[00:24:39] Speaker B: Did you have any other farm animal type things or just the chickens?
[00:24:42] Speaker A: Pretty much just had the chickens.
[00:24:43] Speaker B: And then you had a garden.
[00:24:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:45] Speaker B: What about. Do you remember growing up and having, you know, it seems like every generation has this thing where the older people say something the younger people are doing is no good. You know, oh, it's ruining you or, oh, this is no good. Do you remember anything like that? I can't.
[00:25:02] Speaker A: There may be something going on. I don't remember anybody blaming us for prior generations or future generations.
[00:25:10] Speaker B: They, you know, something that you guys thought was cool or trendy and they said, oh, this is no good.
[00:25:18] Speaker A: Well, maybe later on in life, you know, when my growing up, years from the age I was born until I was 14, were pretty much set on that mountain.
[00:25:26] Speaker B: Right.
[00:25:27] Speaker A: But as we got older. Oh, yeah. There were comments made about, you know, when I went to junior high and high school about, you know, the girls were wearing dresses that were a little bit too short and, you know, you were wearing makeup and you weren't allowed to wear makeup and those kind of things. Oh, yeah.
[00:25:46] Speaker B: Yeah. That's the kind of stuff. Right. And so then you were just gonna be corrupt or something.
[00:25:51] Speaker A: Well, you know, Molly, sometimes I've set and thought about, I need to write all this down and make a little book out of her for my kid.
[00:26:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:00] Speaker A: That was because there's so much that happened in my life that they know nothing about, right? So. Yeah.
[00:26:08] Speaker B: Huh. That is so exciting. Do you remember then, so you didn't have a car, you know?
[00:26:13] Speaker A: You.
[00:26:14] Speaker B: Do you remember the first car you ever got?
[00:26:17] Speaker A: My own.
[00:26:18] Speaker B: Well.
[00:26:19] Speaker A: Well, when bill and I got married, he had a 57 Chevy, okay? And we had that one, and that's the only car I ever drove, okay. And, or started driving. And I was, God, I was 20 years old when I got my license.
[00:26:38] Speaker B: And before that, I mean, you, family didn't have a car, and, you know.
[00:26:44] Speaker A: Maybe you're, maybe my uncle Jim had a car, okay? And once in a while, he would come and get us, okay, and we would go to Tyler Mountain where they lived.
[00:26:53] Speaker B: Okay. But, I mean, that was, it wasn't.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: An everyday thing, you know, it was maybe once on the moon. Yeah. He would come get us.
[00:27:01] Speaker B: If anything else, you maybe were riding on the bus like you had said, you know, going out of town and stuff, but you weren't.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: It was a good.
It was a good two and a half, 3 miles down off the mountain to get, you know, to the main road that was paved, where the bus ran.
But we walked everywhere.
[00:27:20] Speaker B: You know, when you were, when you were a teenager, I mean, there was, it seems like there was just a lot of disruption. Do you remember even caring or thinking about boys or dating or anything like that?
[00:27:32] Speaker A: I mean, not really. I mean, I was more interested in staying alive.
[00:27:36] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it seems like you had to figure out how to eat and how to, you know, get around, and, I mean, everything was a bit of a struggle that.
[00:27:43] Speaker A: Well, like I said, I stayed with Shirley, and then another lady Frances that lived near Shirley took me in for a while, and then Shirley found me. Her mom found me a job living with Dot and Ed Ewing, who needed a live in person to take care of their children.
So I lived with them. Oh, my God. For probably three years.
And I was 19 when Shirley and I left and went to Washington state. That's when I was. I was married right around December 12, so I just turned 20.
[00:28:19] Speaker B: Okay. And then when you, so you were in Washington, and your husband was in the military, and so presumably, maybe you. You traveled around a bit.
[00:28:29] Speaker A: No, he got out of the military, and we lived in Seattle. Both my older children were born there, and then he worked for Boeing. And when Boeing started laying people off, we'd been in Seattle for about seven and a half years, and we had just bought a new helm, and so we had to give up everything because Boeing was laying off and there were no other jobs around.
[00:28:56] Speaker B: Right.
[00:28:57] Speaker A: So we moved back to North Dakota.
[00:28:59] Speaker B: And is that where he was from?
[00:29:01] Speaker A: Mm hmm.
[00:29:02] Speaker B: Okay. And that's how you ended up in North Dakota then. Okay. And so you lived there for a while.
[00:29:06] Speaker A: What.
[00:29:06] Speaker B: What did he do for work there?
[00:29:08] Speaker A: He worked for a company in Fort Totten. Okay. Which is an indian reservation. And what he did was it was mechanical maintenance, that kind of stuff. Got it. And then after a few years of that, we lived in a couple of different little towns there. And then he went to work for the Bureau of mines, and he wound up in Beulah, North Dakota. So he lived out there, and I lived out there. I wanted to be where my kids were, so I moved out there, too, and found a job, and I wanted to be near my kids because sometimes it'd have to be with him and sandy. And then when I got hurt, I couldn't take them anymore, so they went to live with their dad.
That was hard.
[00:29:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I was just, you know, because then you ended up in South Dakota, and so it's like. It's just this kind of.
[00:30:04] Speaker A: Chris. Well, after North Dakota, I. Like I said, I I moved to.
I got to get my organization here as well. I moved to Maine, like I said. I got a job there and worked at the hospital, learned to be a CNA, was able to find different jobs near my kids, so I could be near them by doing that. And I moved around a lot from. I lived in Gillette, Wyoming. I worked there for four years at Pioneer Manor.
My daughter Jennifer worked at the hospital. She was a nurse, and she finished her master's, and now she's a nurse practitioner here in town.
[00:30:48] Speaker B: Oh, nice.
[00:30:49] Speaker A: And I lived around her, and then when her and Roger moved back to North Dakota, I had no desire to go to North Dakota.
Yeah. My daughter Lori and her husband were at an army base in New York, so I went and stayed there for a while and worked at the. The hospital there, and I just traveled around where my kids were.
[00:31:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Do you think if you told the little girl growing up on that hillside that you would live in all those different places that she. What would she thought?
[00:31:25] Speaker A: She would have been out of her mind thinking, you crazy woman, you ain't going nowhere. And there was days when I didn't think I would go anywhere.
[00:31:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:33] Speaker A: I mean, it was harder watching my grandmother suffer.
[00:31:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: You know, because she worked so hard for everybody, right. And to see her get sick and hear her cough all night long, you know, just, it was heart wrenching. And, I mean, I slept right beside of her, basically, because the room wasn't much bigger than this room that I'm in right here.
[00:31:56] Speaker B: Right?
Yeah. And I think one of the things I always hold on to that I can hear is my grandma's laughter, you know, I can always hear her laugh and. And I think that's one of the things that helps me, you know?
[00:32:09] Speaker A: Well, my grandmother was always neat and clean. I mean, her dresses were pressed, her apron, she always had an apron on. And she wore them little old clummy black shoes that women wore. And the hose rolled up to here, you know, with a, with a safety pin in them to hold them up so they didn't roll down.
[00:32:26] Speaker B: Oh, that's wonderful.
[00:32:29] Speaker A: But she loved I to have candy, and peppermint was her favorite.
And at Christmas time, my uncle Jim and my aunt Boots would always get her one of those big rolls of peppermint candy. You know, the big stick.
[00:32:43] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:32:44] Speaker A: And she would crack off a section and she'd keep it in her apron pocket and I'd say, granny, can I have candy? And she'd take that thing out and she'd look at it. She'd whack off a chunk with a knife, you know, in my hand, so I'd have a piece of peppermint.
[00:33:00] Speaker B: Huh. That's awesome.
[00:33:01] Speaker A: So I remember those crazy things, and I remember her bacon biscuits, just how hard she worked every day. And, you know, to watch her not be able to have a meal and get sick and just.
[00:33:15] Speaker B: Yeah. And I bet you don't have peppermint candy without thinking about her.
[00:33:19] Speaker A: Oh, no. Always.
[00:33:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: It always crosses my mind.
[00:33:24] Speaker B: Love the show. You can get extended episodes when you subscribe to our premium episodes, go to our website, goldentidbits dot castos.com. that's goldentidbits dot castos castos.com. to learn more or subscribe, write in Apple Podcasts.
Did you ever touch base with your mom? Did you ever reconcile that relationship?
[00:33:55] Speaker A: Yes and no. I guess she drugged me and Vicki when she came home when I was eleven.
After all of those years being gone, she just walked up on the front porch one day with, man, some man. She was pregnant.
And they took me and Vicki back to Columbus, Ohio, to Toledo, Ohio with them. And you talk about living in a ghetto.
[00:34:17] Speaker B: Hmm.
[00:34:18] Speaker A: That was even worse in West Virginia.
[00:34:20] Speaker B: And how long did that last?
[00:34:22] Speaker A: It lasted about three months with Vicki and I. And I called my uncle Jim and had him. They kind of. I told him what it was and he come and got us and took us back to West Virginia to my grandma.
[00:34:33] Speaker B: So did he drive out there?
[00:34:34] Speaker A: Mm hmm.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: That would have been quite a trip. I mean, that's quite a couple miles, you know?
[00:34:38] Speaker A: Yeah. It's about 300.
So he came and got us about. They lived in dumps. And I helped deliver my brother because it was stowing 6 January. Never forget it as long as I live. My mom went into labor on a Sunday and it was storming outside. And wood said he was going to go look for somebody and he never came back. I'm sure he went to a bar or something. We lived in one of these old tenement apartments in Toledo.
And he never came back that day.
[00:35:10] Speaker B: Huh.
[00:35:11] Speaker A: And so I went down the hallway to the lady that lived there, and I asked her if she'd come and help us. And her and I delivered my brother.
[00:35:19] Speaker B: Wow. And you were eleven.
[00:35:21] Speaker A: I was eleven. Wow.
[00:35:24] Speaker B: And so what kind of a relationship then do you have with those siblings?
[00:35:29] Speaker A: Actually, we're pretty close now. We weren't for years because wood and mom moved around all over the place because he could never keep a job. He was an alcoholic.
[00:35:40] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:35:41] Speaker A: And so those kids lived in tenements most of their life growing up until finally he got a good job at the University of Ohio working as a maintenance on the football field. And he stayed there for 30 years, which was unheard of for him.
[00:35:58] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:35:59] Speaker A: But he quit drinking and he actually, all of those children that were born to my mom, he would get her pregnant and he would leave. They weren't married.
[00:36:09] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:36:09] Speaker A: So he never had any. He felt like he never had any responsibility except to him and his booze that he.
[00:36:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:17] Speaker A: That he drank. And I think he was actually there when she had Kim, my youngest sister. And he saw how hard it was for her to go through the labor and everything. Years before, the doctor had told her not to have any more children.
[00:36:32] Speaker B: Right.
[00:36:33] Speaker A: And so she continued to have children.
[00:36:35] Speaker B: Right. And so did they have six children? Because I.
[00:36:39] Speaker A: Yes. Okay.
[00:36:39] Speaker B: Because I felt like you said you were one of eight.
[00:36:41] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:36:42] Speaker B: So, um.
So they, I mean, they. It sounds like they grew up in a different kind of hard.
[00:36:48] Speaker A: Yeah. They grew up with a father that was an alcoholic and took them through these. Columbus, Ohio. Toledo, Ohio. And he just traveled around like a gypsy.
[00:36:59] Speaker B: Right.
[00:36:59] Speaker A: And he hauled them with him. And my mom was, pardon my french, too. Dumb to get away from him.
[00:37:05] Speaker B: Right.
[00:37:07] Speaker A: But I guess she loved him and loves crazy stuff, so it can be to a detriment.
She followed him wherever he went, and those kids loved him.
[00:37:18] Speaker B: Right. You know, and that's a problem. Some. Some alcoholics are so charismatic that it's hard to separate, you know, because they. It's. Well, only when they're drinking, you know, when they're not, they're so amazing. It's like, well, it's still the same person.
[00:37:35] Speaker A: But he. He had a college education. Could have gotten a job anywhere. But he drank all day long, all night long sometimes.
[00:37:45] Speaker B: So she probably really felt like she got herself a great man, because, again, college educated and.
[00:37:50] Speaker A: Well, and then, you know, look where she grew up. You know? Grew up pretty much the way I did. Even worse, I'm sure.
[00:37:57] Speaker B: Right, right. Wow, that is just. That's heavy. That's a lot. You know, I'm glad that you have.
[00:38:04] Speaker A: It's mind blowing sometimes, you know, because like I said, my age is not that hard, you know, 80 today is a young 80. Yeah, me.
[00:38:14] Speaker B: Right.
[00:38:14] Speaker A: And I grew up in an era where there were bigger towns around me, but we never lived like that, you know? We lived back in the mountains.
[00:38:22] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:38:23] Speaker A: On an old dirt road.
[00:38:24] Speaker B: Right.
Huh. Well, I think. I haven't thought of any more questions.
[00:38:31] Speaker A: I'm sure I just rattled on. I'm sure.
[00:38:33] Speaker B: I think I can think of probably 70 questions that when I leave.
[00:38:40] Speaker A: Well, come back. I'm not going anywhere.
[00:38:43] Speaker B: When I'm editing, I'll be like, oh, man.
Is there. Do you think there's something that I should have asked that I didn't cover? Is there something you could think of.
[00:38:52] Speaker A: That I can't think of a thing. I think we covered my life from day one to today, and I'm lucky.
I love being here. I like the ladies that live here.
Doris and I are good buddies. We sit and talk about the old days when she used to milk cows.
I used to run the ridges back home in west Virginia. I mean, you know, we played out in the woods and.
[00:39:17] Speaker B: Sounds like you had. One of the really beautiful things I think about your childhood is you were really connected to nature. You know, you said you were playing in the creek, you were checking out turtles and crawdads, and, you know, you were. You were really connected. I mean, being barefoot, there's certain freedom to that, you know?
[00:39:33] Speaker A: And there were a lot of indian mounds around our area, so we found a. A lot of different relics, you know, the old indian head.
What do you call them arrowheads.
[00:39:46] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, yeah.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: My cousin Larry has a couple of those, I think.
[00:39:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:52] Speaker A: But we roamed the woods, you know, that's what kids did.
Played in the creek.
[00:39:57] Speaker B: Right. I mean, and I think there's a freedom to that that just can't be explained. You know, people can't understand. And the, you know, the. The breeze coming through the trees and the creek and the sound of the water, I mean, those are beautiful sensory memories that.
[00:40:15] Speaker A: I think that those memories overshadow the bad.
[00:40:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:20] Speaker A: That I've had to go through, you know? And it's just my life. It doesn't necessarily mean it's everybody's life that had to live there. Vicki and I did.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: Right.
[00:40:29] Speaker A: And the kids lived on the road, in the holler, lived the same way we did. Yeah.
[00:40:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:35] Speaker A: So that's just. That's way life was.
[00:40:37] Speaker B: Right.
[00:40:39] Speaker A: That's all we knew. Right.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: And that was normal.
Wow.
All right.
[00:40:45] Speaker A: But we had granny.
[00:40:47] Speaker B: Oh, that's so beautiful.
What a wonderful woman.
[00:40:51] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:40:52] Speaker B: Huh.
[00:40:54] Speaker A: Her name was Renee Rainy, and she comes from a long. Once I got involved in her genealogy. It's amazing. She was related to presidents back to her family.
[00:41:10] Speaker B: Right.
[00:41:11] Speaker A: They came over as indentured servants from England, huh? Yep. To the United States. That's how they got started.
[00:41:18] Speaker B: Right. And they saw that opportunity for freedom.
[00:41:21] Speaker A: Like her family and my grandfather's family, they all came to the United States from the old country.
[00:41:28] Speaker B: I mean, and what a choice to make, to say, well, I can go over here as an indentured servant, and then at some point I can have my life, my freedom. I mean, that's a totally different kind of hard than the hard that you grew up with. You know what I mean?
[00:41:45] Speaker A: Well, my grand great great grandfather, he came to the United States because he actually stole the loaf of bread. He was hungry, and so they made him an indentured service, send him to the United States, which was like, you know, God, heaven forbid.
[00:42:02] Speaker B: I mean, could you imagine if somebody was that hungry today? Like, I mean, it would be totally different. You know, we as a society, we see that differently, you know. I mean, we don't. We don't certainly like stealing, but I. You know, there's those paywalls. I don't know if you've seen them where at some of these places, they, like, buy a meal for the next person, and you can get this meal or whatever and that kind of stuff. You know what I mean?
[00:42:26] Speaker A: Anyway, pay it forward.
[00:42:27] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. There's a lot.
[00:42:29] Speaker A: That's a great thing.
[00:42:30] Speaker B: Yeah. There's a lot of that now, you know, as a society, that's how we, we feel about that where, well, society.
[00:42:36] Speaker A: Has changed so much from the time I grew up, you know, and, and I see those changes and I think, you know, I guess people probably thought I had a bad life, you know? Oh, my God, heaven forbid. But I don't know. I see life today, and it's not a whole lot better.
[00:42:56] Speaker B: Yeah. It's a different heart. There's different things that are a challenge.
Wow.
Thank you for joining me on this journey through time with today's guest. I hope this story tells touched you as much as it did me. I'd love to hear how this episode resonated with you. If a particular story or memory struck a chord, or if it reminded you of your own experiences, please send in your thoughts or stories. Find us on the web at goldentidbits dot castos.com. or you can send us a message on our fan
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