Media within our lives

The following is an oral history project I did for a class this semester. I interviewed one of my mom's best friend's since she lives in Utah. It was so great to sit down and talk with her and to hear stories of her past. She has had and survived 3 different kinds of cancers (it might be 2) and has lost some of her memory, but some of the things she told me were very interesting. I especially love to hear stories about her and her husband Bill.

This is Carolyn. I must say, once a southern bell, always a southern bell. 

Interviewer: Susan Williams

Interviewee: Carolyn Drees

Location: Carolyn Drees’ house in American Fork, Utah

Date: March 13, 2009

 

Carolyn: It was so new uh the thing that my grandparents had was a record player; it had to be back in the early 30s. They had one of Bing Crosby’s first records that he made and uh we had um a lot of things like that where the big stars got their early start and uh by the time I was 5 years old, music was a big thing. My two older sisters took music and I think, uh until I could I read, they would teach me the songs to all the popular songs of the day and I can still remember to the time when I was 5 years old and we used to listen to programs on the radio the music by people like Paul Whiteman, who was one of the most familiar and still is one of the most famous orchestra leader at the time. It wasn’t a hobbs earnal orchestra but a dance orchestra. And uh we didn’t have, I think I mentioned, we got our first telephone back around that same time and uh I don’t know if this will be of any interest but uh I think it’s interesting thinking back on it, when we moved into the area of south Atlanta, we moved into an area that had never been populated before. My grandfather was a builder and he built the house for him and across the street he built a house for my mother, who was his daughter. And that’s where I was born and that’s where all of these things in the family played a role, but the city of Atlanta was suppose to incorporate the area. It’s not more than about 5 miles outside the city of Atlanta so, but uh the plans were that this area would be taken in as part of Atlanta and uh so when we lived there, my parents lived there for 13 years and we never did get roads. They were just scraped roads with big road equipment and the county chain gang would go out there and wipe the debris off the road. They weren’t more than trails. But the whole time we lived there, and I was 7 years old when we moved, and they hadn’t got to paving the roads yet. So um we had gotten electricity sometime when I was very small but I can’t remember when that was. But I can remember when we got the telephone and for a while there was the party line, you probably know about the party line. It was where 2 or 3 people had the same telephone number and uh usually you would have a phone call that your neighbors would listen to and oh, you can’t be interested in this.

Susan: Oh don’t worry about it, what did you do when TV came out?

Carolyn: I went over oh, that was after I was married, I was married in the last day of 1947 and so in ’48, TV became famous, but not everybody had one. And I wasn’t particularly interested in it from that stand point because I liked to read and to study and I didn’t know anything about the people that starred on TV. Anyway, so um my first experience with TV was in an apartment house in Chicago, well it wasn’t exactly in Chicago it was a mile or 2 away from the Midway airport where my husband worked. There was one family in a four family duplex that had a TV and so uh, the folks living underneath us kept that turned up all the time because you would just hear all this noise and clapping going on. But we actually didn’t have a TV until we moved to Denver and Holly was born, Lynn was 2 was when we got our first TV and uh, oh I didn’t get hooked on it like a lot of people did because I liked to listen to historical programs, things like that, that would be boring to most other people. I liked serious music and uh, I liked good swing, that sort of thing and there wasn’t a lot of that on at the time. Uh, I remember the elections starting back with Franklin Roosevelt and uh my dad was not a democrat and he was living in Chicago at the time. His work kept him away from the general home most of the time, he was moving to different places all the time. I remember the first time I voted was when I was married. Bill and I were living in Chicago and I voted for, someone that didn’t get it. I had the tendency to be more accepting of things from the, have you been taking a nap have you (Directed towards her dog)? Oh this can’t be interesting for you.

Susan: Me? No it is. I love learning and hearing stories about people and their experiences and stuff.

Just quick random question, did they do a lot of advertizing for the war through the radio?

Carolyn: For the war?

Susan: Yeah for the war.

Carolyn: Yeah, oh yeah everything was uh was pertaining to different people, the broadcasters at the time were stationed at different places overseas and there were constant programs and everyone was glued to the radio and then the TV afterwards.

I’m not making must sense right now, am I?

Susan: No you’re fine. Was there any big event that you remember from, I don’t know, I’m trying to think, was specific media you were interested in, maybe papers did you read that a lot?

Carolyn: There were only two local papers in Atlanta when I lived there and grew up. And let’s see, I suppose that I was too busy studying when I was in high school to read the newspaper, because I wasn’t somebody that could open a book and have a photogenic memory and remember everything on the page; I was up till 2 or 3 in the morning, but I did glance through the papers because there were interesting things in the paper. I remember when I was small and the Lindenburgs baby was stolen. That was interesting to people all over the world. It was a long time before they found someone who did it, or they thought did it, but it turned out it wasn’t the one that did it but he knew the person that did. I didn’t get to many movies because they didn’t have that many movies in neighborhoods at the time where you could get to, and not everybody, not every single person had two cars. My mother, who learned to drive when she was about 16, said my grandfather never did forget that. Mother said that when he was teaching her to drive and she was at the wheel anytime for a long time after she had learned to drive, he kept the passenger side door open so he could jump out any time she made a mistake and anyway. I’m not being very helpful, Susan.

Susan: No you are fine, I am trying to think of something that will jog your memory

Carolyn: When World War 2 broke out I was in high school and I can remember when the, uh pearl harbor happened, my dad had the radio on early one Sunday when that happened and shortly after that there were a number of boys that I knew in my high school that joined and there was one of four brothers who were in, who got in the navy, they weren’t the famous ones that got killed in action but two of them from my high school and several others lost their lives and I can remember a boy named Robert Crow that I sort of, well my parents didn’t let me date, but I had a soft spot for Robert but, he didn’t know I was even alive, and he was killed in the beginning of the war because he was flying and they didn’t have a very long time to learn how to fly like we do now, sometimes it was two weeks to the month and then they were out on their own and of course the airplanes were not like they are now.

Carolyn: One thing about uh radio too, as well as I can remember, I can’t remember they had commercials.

Susan: Like they do now, every other song they have a commercial.

Carolyn: Oh no, I can remember when I was married they had regular commercials, but when you got a radio program on, you got a radio program…I can remember a lot of orchestra conductors, some of those people are around now, I’m glad they are, because I’m not as old as they are.

Susan: When did you start, uh, what am I trying to think of, I just lost it, I do the same thing as you, I can’t remember it.

Carolyn: My memory has been gone for the last probably 6 months, but I remember everything about my background. I remember the people I have met, the friends I have, which weren’t many, my mother didn’t want me to play with anyone because she didn’t want me to learn anything ugly from them.

Susan: What did you say about when radio came out, what happened?

Carolyn: Well I was wondering how come it took them so long for it too come. I thought we were we were really fortunate to have that. I used to lay on the floor in the living room and listen to everything that was on. I still remember now all the programs that were on.

Susan: What kind of programs were on?

Carolyn: Like I said, Paul Whiteman was a very famous song writer and wrote for orchestras so I remember his music and I remember Amos and Andy, they were two guys that did black face comedy; they were hilarious. And I remember major bosse, who had the amateur show he honestly had people on there trying to sing and do whatever they did and they were lucky if he didn’t give them the gong before they were finished. Later on we had the entrance of the soap operas that made big hits for a long time. You could never get too much of the soap operas you had to hear how they got out of all their problems and they lasted for 30 or 40 years. And we used to listen to some of the news reports, I didn’t care much about them but my parents did.

Susan: You said something about history stuff. You said you liked to listen to history programs

Carolyn: Yes, but I can’t think of what the title of the program was but uh they were, I can remember especially it was on Sunday they would spread the whole foundation for what the story was going to be like, what it would be. They would talk about some long dead kings or talk about people who had special powers to do certain things and uh, and I used to love to listen to musical programs because I have always loved music.