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(for more info and photos of Grandma Hren, click here to go to the Hren section of my genealogy page)
G: Well, it’s like this…now, what the heck was it now?…
J: Tell me what it was like…your parents both came from Slovenia, right?
G: Yeah, yeah.
J: Did they speak any English?
G: Oh, my mother was very good, so was my father. My mother, she could read in English, she could write, my mother was real good she could pick up English real fast. But Grandma Hren didn’t. She couldn’t talk English. Just broken English. And we used to get together, Grandpa had a car, a 1929 Durant, that was like a Cadillac, and he’d pick up all the kids in the neighborhood and pile them into the car.
J: Your dad?
G: Yeah. And then we’d go out to the country. It was all fruit trees, and down in the valley was a creek. And we used to all go down there, down to the creek and have hot dogs or sandwiches, or whatever we had, you know, just bathe our feet.
J: Where was that?
G: In Geneva. I think it was Geneva. And then we’d come back home, we used to go roller-skating, when they tarred the road, we used to roller-skate, you know.
J: In Cleveland?
G: Yeah. Then 11-o-clock, Grandpa used to put the porchlight on, and all the kids knew it was 11-o-clock, we’d have to go home.
J: Was that on Prosser?
G: Yeah. So, it was real close, real real close, real close family-like. We used to have all the kids in the neighborhood. Then Grandpa used to block, you know we had a driveway and then the garage, and there was a drain, and he used to cover it, and then put water in it, and we used to bathe in there, a whole bunch of us.
J: Were they all Slovenian kids in the neighborhood?
G: Yeah they were all Slovenians, all Slovenians around. There was one Slovak, and one German that I know. The rest were all Slovenians.
J: Did you talk Slovenian with all your friends?
G: Yeah. Not the kids. Most, we all talked English, even the older people. Some of the older people couldn’t talk, but they’d try.
J: But you had to learn English in school, right?
G: Oh yeah. And when I went to kindergarten, they couldn’t hold me in kindergarten because I couldn’t talk English.
J: Oh really?
G: Yeah, I was talking Slovenian. And they said, "Well, we can’t keep her here," and my mother had to take me out. And I still don’t talk good English. What else did we do…
J: Are you older than your sister?
G: Yeah.
J: How much older?
G: A year and six months older than my sister. And then three houses down we had a grocery store.
J: Was that on 50-…
G: On Prosser.
J: Is the building still there?
G: The building’s there, but it’s all closed up. It’s all blocked up, you know.
G: And then I used to go to the gym, and after gym, the whole gang of us, we used to walk down St. Clair all the way up to 72nd. That was Gordon Park. And then just sit there and sing away, and then, welp, time to go home.
J: Is that like a beach?
G: Yeah.
J: Could you swim there?
G: Yeah, we used to, but not much. I was afraid of water.
G: What else do you wanna know?
J: So your neighborhood had everything you needed, you had your church…
G: Yeah, we had the church, we had the grocery store…Everything was on the corner, on the corner was the grocery store and the butcher shop, and then on the other side of the road, street, was a candy store, where they used to sell ice cream, you know…How was it: three cents, and for a doubleheader was five cents. You want some ice cream?
J: Oh, no thanks.
G: And a doubleheader was five cents. And then we girls used to get together, and sit on the porch on the dryer and do our crocheting and sewing. We were like a big family, you know.
J: All your friends?
G: Yeah, all those around the neighborhood, all us kids were always together.
J: Because you all went to school together?
G: Yeah.
J: At St. Vitus?
G: Yeah. It was something…What else you wanna know? Ask me questions and I’ll answer them.
J: So, Grandpa’s neighborhood, was that part of the Slovenian neighborhood? Was that across St. Clair?
G: No, Grandpa? Grandpa came from Europe.
J: No, Grandpa Hren.
G: Oh, Grandpa Hren, he was on the other side of St. Clair. That was the poor people like, you know.
J: Were they Slovenian though over there?
G: Yeah. From 72nd and all the way down to say about 40th was mostly Slovenians and then on ahead was Croatian people.
J: Where, past 72nd, or closer to town?
G: No, closer to 39th St., towards town.
G: And then from say 72nd to 82nd, that was mostly Jewish people.
J: And then what about down towards Euclid Avenue, down south from where you were.
G: Mostly Jewish people. They were more a higher class of people.
J: See ours were…My section was the middle section; we weren’t rich and we weren’t poor. But the other side on Bonna and 55th was all poor people. They used to have outhouses outside, where we had plumbing inside, and that was just one street over.
J: So did the Slovenians get along…
G: Oh yeah, the Slovenians and Croatians lived together.
J: What about the Hungarians, did you ever get together with them?
G: No, we never had them around.
J: They were down in Buckeye or something, weren’t they?
G: I don’t know where they were. All I know is Slovenians and Croatians were in our section.
J: And the Polish were down…
G: The Croatians were mostly 39th Street, and the Polish people were more Fleet Avenue, and
J: Broadway, down by Harvard.
G: Yeah.
J: Were there ever many big Catholic ceremonies where all the different nationalities got together, or was it mostly Slovenian, like St. Vitus…
G: St. Vitus stayed with St. Vitus, St. Francis stayed with St. Francis, St. Kazmir was a Polish church, that stayed with itself. And there was a Croatian church on 39th Street, more towards town.
J: So that preserved kind of the old way of life.
G: Yeah.
J: Did the church have, like, parties where everyone would have Slovenian food and that sort of thing?
G: Yeah, yeah. Then there was a hall, a big hall on 65th and St. Clair, and that was Slovenian Home, they called it.
J: That’s still there, right?
G: Yeah. And they used to have dances there. And then they had an auditorium where they used to have plays, like live people, and danced and that, and weddings, and after the wedding they had parties there. So the Slovenian Home is kinda gone now, I think, I don’t know. I haven’t been down there. But it’s all [mouths "blacks"]. It’s all changed.
J: Didn’t Aunt Josie live near the Slovenian Home.
G: Auntie Josie lived right in back of Slovenian Home. Before she got married she lived on 64th. And 65th was Slovenian Home; she was one block away. And then she had a store at the Slovenian Home there, you know, a candy store and a restaurant like.
J: Did you meet Grandpa at the Slovenian Home, or how did you get to know him? Did he go to St. Vitus with you?
G: No, what I had, I had tickets for the roller derby. And I gave them to my girlfriend’s brother, and I said, "Marge, give this to John, and tell him to give them to Tony, his friend, so they can go to the roller derby." See, I knew Grandpa, but he was just another guy. So, what happened, John went to the roller derby, and when Grandpa came over to my house to pick me up, and I wasn’t home-- I went there on the streetcar, you know, we had streetcars at that time, so we went downtown on the streetcar, we went down to the roller derby.
J: Where was that, downtown?
G: No. Yeah, around downtown, on Euclid Avenue. So then, my sister’s friend, we walked him up to the bus stop, and who comes down in an old car, but Grandpa. Boy, that guy, his bumper’s hanging down and everything else, and he stopped and says, "Go for a ride?" So it was him and this kid John. So we went for a ride, up 55th, up 72nd Street, and Grandpa got a flat tire, so I had to get out and wait for him to fix the tire. And we used to go in gangs, we used to go dancing, you know, and he had a car. We all piled in his car. And then he came and picked me up, and Grandma gave him a rose for his lapel, you know, for his suit. And I had a big white hat, and I had it hanging, when you’re dancing you just hang your hat up, and all of a sudden I see he walks down and puts it in my hat, and walks out of the place, and I went out after him. Then he told me that he wants me to sit in the front seat, not in the back, and that he cared for me. And then we got together.
J: That’s sweet.
G: Yeah, it was real…
J: Real natural?
G: Yeah, real, I don’t know. I just used to think he was another guy. We never went steady, you know, "I got a girlfriend." We always was a gang, a family like. We always had somebody with us. We never were alone. We always picked up someone, like this girl who lived in Lakewood, just lost her husband. We used to go pick her up, and of course take one of the guys with us so we could double-date. Then we got married, and she moved in with us. Wait up, Jim. It was a little tiny house. You go upstairs, and there was a little hallway, and the bathroom, and a little room like a bedroom, and then there was our bedroom. So what happened she stayed with us, so she had the little room. So to go to the bathroom you had to go out and you had to go past her. She used to sleep downstairs for a while, then we got her to sleep upstairs. So, I says, "Did you ever see my husband walking, to go to the bathroom and that?" See, she worked nights, so it wasn’t that bad, but we laughed like hell. She says, "You know, I always faced the window, I never faced the other side where I could see you people." And we laughed like hell.
J: Where was that that you lived?
G: On 77th. That was a cute little house, Jim. Real small. The front room was a 9x12, the kitchen was real big. It was really a nice…
J: Was that near where Grandpa lived before he met you? Did he live on 72nd?
G: Yeah. No, Grandpa lived at 65th and St. Clair, and I lived on 59th and Prosser, you know. And then we got married, we moved to 77th. But my house is torn down over there now.
J: Which one?
G: It was a Polish neighborhood. The one we got married in, the one I lived in when we got married.
J: So where did you go dancing?
G: At the Slovenian National Home. And then there was a beer joint on one side, and the other side was for dancing, you know. Just a small—it was more of a neighborhood thing. It was nothing real--And the people would come down and have something to drink and we’d have a pop, some pop to drink. And then the owner, the woman was a real heavy woman, she used to sit and watch us, you know. And we used to call her Ma.
J: Were there live bands?
G: Yeah, it was three-piece bands. And then they played for my wedding. We hired them for my wedding, and they played for my wedding.
J: What kind of music, polka and stuff?
G: Yeah. It was a real close group, none of this mish-mash, you know what I mean? And there was two old maids, they were my bridesmaids, they used to be there at the dance. We’d just dance away. It was just like a family.
J: Did you ever go downtown?
G: Yeah. And to save a dime—you know streetcars were only ten cents—and to save the ten cents, we used to walk to downtown.
J: That must’ve taken you long.
G: Well, it was like 55th to town! But we didn’t think anything because we saved ourselves ten cents.
J: Was that a lot of money in those days?
G: Oh God, I worked housework for three dollars a week. I had to wash clothes, clean everything, for three dollars a week.
J: When you were a teenager?
G: Yeah, yeah. And, boy, I thought it was a big deal, you know. I used to give my mother money to put aside for me, and I bought myself a coat that cost sixteen dollars. Oh, that was big money. And Grandpa says, "Oh, let me lend you some money so you can get yourself a better coat," and I said, "No, no, no." I was very independent; I wanted to buy my own coat.
J: Did you do all your shopping downtown, like May Company…
G: Yeah, May Company, Higbees, Hallees, and Kreske’s Dime Store used to be there. We used to go down. We were never treated. We never got treats or anything. But I tell you, then we had to walk home. Just head downtown and walk around. We’d never buy anything, because we couldn’t afford it.
J: You liked to look.
G: Yeah.
J: So where did all the rich people live?
G: Mostly 93rd and St. Clair
J: Oh, towards University Circle.
G: Yeah, [mouths "all black."]
J: So, streetcars, huh? I didn’t know there were streetcars.
G: Oh, that was nice. And then you know kids used to jump on the back of the streetcar, on the outside, and pull the wire. And that would knock it off, so the whatchamacallit couldn’t go. You know, the streetcars had that pole and then the wire? And the kids used to jump back there and pull the thing. And then the conductor had to get out. And then another thing is the streetcars had coal stoves. We didn’t have no heat in there. A little pot-bellied stove, and then you’d heat it up, and then you’d ride, and then you’d go down the tracks, and if anything was in his way he would stamp his foot. It was a bell that would ring. Oh, it was fun. Clang, clang, clang, here comes the street car.
J: Was that down St. Clair all the way.
G: There was a streetcar on St. Clair, and there was a streetcar on Superior, and a streetcar on Euclid, and a streetcar on 55th, going all the way across.
J: Oh, up and down.
G: So, what else do you wanna know? You ask me and I’ll tell you what I know.
J: Well, I don’t know too much about your dad. What was he like? What did he do for a living?
G: He worked, he was like a gardener. And he made at our house he made a big round pond, and in the middle of the pond he had a thing going up for flowers. You saw the thing up front at Prosser, the flower thing.
J: Yeah.
G: And it had flowers hanging over, and in the pond he had goldfish, and underneath the flowerpot he carved a mouth, a fish, and the water would squirt out.
J: So people paid him to do gardening and stuff?
G: No, this was in Europe when they first got married. And then we he came, and they got married, he worked at where they make clarinets, I mean where they make saxophones, H.M. White, King’s. He was a buffer. For the saxophones. And that was located on 53rd Street. 53rd and Superior.
J: I thought he did something that was bad for his lungs.
G: Yeah, that’s what it was.
J: Oh, that’s what it was.
G: That’s what got him. See, they didn’t wear no masks then. And all that stuff got in there.
J: Oh, the metal, all the shavings?
G: Yeah, all the shavings. And then we used to have to take a lunch to him, you know. Walk down, take lunches to him.
J: What was his name, Valentine?
G: Yeah.
J: What did your mom call him in Slovenian? How did she say his name?
G: "Valent." Yeah.
J: And your mom was…
G: "Antonia." And I’m Agatha.
J: Is that how they said it in Slovenian?
G: Agata. Aga, no, some people used to call me Agata, but my mother used to call me "Aga."
J: What about your sister? What did they call her?
G: "Eda." Her name was Edith. And the funny part was her name was Edith, and in school they put down "Ida." See we had different names! Whatever the parish decided to make you, that’s what you were.
J: What about your last names? Did they spell your last name different?
G: Tomasty. T-O-M-A-S-T-Y. And then they changed it to T-O-M-A-S-I-C.
J: Who changed it?
G: The church, the school.
J: Oh. So what does it say on the stone?
G: Tomasty. T-O-M-A-S-T-Y. [note: actually says TOMAZIC].
J: So, were your parents young when they came from Slovenia?
G: Yeah, yeah, from Europe.
J: Did they know each other in Europe, or did they meet here in the U.S.?
G: Oh, wait now, they came from Europe, they came to Indianapolis, Indiana. I think they got married over there, then they came over here. See, Grandma never would talk. I didn’t know much. And when I found, we went to see my confirmation sponsor, we went to see her, she’s in a nursing home, Nancy was here and we went down to the nursing home.
J: Oh, was that Butra?
G: Yeah, and I told her, I told her, I says, "Look, how did you get together?" I says, "What are you, related to my mother?" And she says, "My husband married your mother’s brother." [?????] I never knew that. You know, that kind of hit me, my mother never told me that.
J: So he was kind of like your uncle, if it was your mother’s…married your…[befuddled stammering]…
G: Yeah, my uncle was married to my sponsor’s husband’s sister. [OK, got it now]. Because I wondered how that woman came here. And she told me, and I says, "I didn’t know that," and she says, "Well, you know, your mother never talked much," and I says, "Yeah, I know, she never did." My mother was a very quiet woman.
J: So do you know what kind of place they came from in Europe? Was it a city, or…
G: I don’t know nothing. I got more information from this woman in the nursing home than my mother.
J: I’m trying to remember who was from Trieste, was that your family?
G: My mother.
J: Oh that was your mother. That was a city. Do you know if your dad lived in a city?
G: I don’t know where my father lived, I really don’t. See, I says, I never got no information. They never talked about it.
J: Well, probably once they got here, they just wanted to be American.
G: All’s all know is they were together in Indianapolis, Indiana. That’s all I know. And whether they got together then, over there, I don’t know. See, my mother never said anything, and we never asked.
J: But you were born, what year were you born?
G: 19. 1919.
J: Do you know how long you were here before they were born?
G: No I don’t, I have no idea. I says, Jim, they never talked about Europe, they never told me how it was out there, nothing.
J: Did they write to anybody?
G: Yeah, my mother used to send clothes to Europe, but I don’t know whether she sent them to my father’s side, or to her side. All I know she used to send clothes to Europe, that the kids would outgrow and that, and I used to used to knit sweaters, and Jim, when I think about it now, oh, and she sent all that stuff to Europe. You’d wear it so long, and that was it. You outgrew it, she sent it to Europe.
J: Well, you know Mark went over there.
G: To Europe?
J: Yeah, Mark was in Slovenia.
G: I didn’t know that?
J: Yeah, he went to Europe last year, or the year before; it was just recently. Yeah, he spent a few days in Slovenia. But, you know, he doesn’t know, he wouldn’t know who to look for anything.
G: Yeah, see I wouldn’t know either, I would have no idea. Like I says, my mother never talked about it or nothing. I even asked Nancy, because she used to sleep with Grandma all the time. I says, "Did she ever say anything about Europe and that? What kind of life she had?" She says, "No." All I know is Grandma’s mother carried Grandma, and her father died. So her father never saw her. You know, Grandma’s father never saw her. He died. And that, I mean you had to actually pump stuff out of my mother. She never had a father. He died before she was born.
J: What was her maiden name?
G: Ukmar.
G: So, what else do you wanna know?
J: Did you say your sister had all the old papers and stuff?
G: Yeah.
J: And they all got lost or something?
G: Oh, listen, even my pictures that I had. When I was single I had a little box camera, and I used to take pictures and that. That all went. I don’t have NOTHIN. They destroyed, she destroyed everything. And you know he remarried? Uncle Ray remarried, and he died.
J: When did he die? I didn’t know?
G: Not too long. Was it this year?
J: So, if you were born in 1919, you were 10 years old when the Depression started 1929. Do you remember things changing, do you remember everyone having a lot less money?
G: Oh! Boy! We used to go to the store, and you’d just buy so much. Instead of buying a dozen eggs, you’d buy three eggs, half a dozen of eggs at the most, you know. All that stuff. And then…oh this war time I’m thinking about, how I used to go in line for meat. We didn’t have much. See it never bothered me during the Depression. All I know was my mother would say, " Go to the store and get me three eggs," you know. "Get me this and get me that." She’d never say, "Go to the grocery store and get me some apples." We never had no apples, no fruit.
J: Just the basics.
G: Yeah.
J: Didn’t Grandpa used to say he cut his finger because he was fighting over a sausage with…?
G: Yeah, him and Uncle Rudy were fighting. They got a sausage, they were like charity, you know, and they had some hot dogs, and Uncle Rudy and him were fighting, and he cut his hand or something, I don’t know. And I don’t know much about Grandma Hren either. I don’t know where she came from. I know she was from Europe, that’s all I know, but what part of Europe I don’t know.
J: And she didn’t live with Grandpa’s dad, right? She didn’t live with Great-Grandpa Hren?
G: Oh, she lived with Great-Grandpa. I think they were married 25 years, something like that. Oh, what they heck, they had Aunt Mary, Uncle Joe,
J: Rudy, Frank…
G: Well you know all them. Well, Auntie Chris wasn’t his daughter. Grandma got it wrong. See they were farmers, they worked out in the field, and what the heck, they had a little spare time, they had sex. Auntie Chris came from…
J: Oh, was she born over there?
G: Yeah, she was born there. Then they got married, and they brought her here.
J: But all the other kids were born here, Josie and…
G: Yeah. Josie, Albina, Aggie, Mary, Rudy, Frankie. They’re all gone. Frankie’s gone, Rudy’s gone, Dad’s gone. Chris is gone.
J: Mary, Joe. I remember Joe was the first one to go. I remember that shook Grandpa up.
G: Oh, did that shake him up. I’ll never forget that, because I hung out of the front bedroom window screaming, "Tony, your brother Joe died." Ah, that was a shake-up.
G: And then I got married, I had a big wedding. Had seven bridesmaids, seven ushers, a little boy, and a little girl?
J: Where was the wedding, in the church?
G: Yeah, at the church, and then there was a little hall on 62nd St., there was a little Croatian Hall. We had our reception up there.
J: You didn’t have it at the Slovenian Hall.
G: No, we couldn’t get it. It was already taken. And then this guy Grdina, he was the undertaker, and they had a furniture store and everything, well, he used to take pictures, you know, anything special, well he took us down to 93rd and St. Clair, they called it Cultural Gardens, and they took a picture of our whole wedding, the accordian player and everything. They were movies.
J: Oh!
G: I loaned the film to my godchild. You know, her mother couldn’t get out, I says, "Let your mother see the wedding pictures," you know. Never got it back.
J: Where is she? I’ll go find her.
G: Oh, she’s done gone. She died. And what gets me is the girl says, "Oh, they’re not here," And dummy, the pictures, the film, was all over the basement floor, and we never bothered to pick them up and look at what they were. You know, when someone dies and you’re trying to clean up the place, you don’t go looking through all the stuff.
J: Right. Wow. That’d be interesting to see movies from back then.
G: Oh, you can say that again! But like Janet’s got them of Nancy’s first wedding, but the pictures ain’t too good. They’re like faded.
J: They fade over time.
G: Oh, that was a big wedding I’ll tell you.
J: Did you parents both come, or was your dad still alive?
G: Oh yeah, my dad, and everyone in the group, and at that time we’d go house to house. Grandpa and I had to go house to house. All our bridesmaids and that. And we had an accordion, a guy playing the accordion, and he’d walk ahead of us, and we’d go to our neighbors. You know, we’d go to them. That was really great, walking down the street. Playing the accordion.
J: [Tells story of Festival of Saints in Cambridge.]
G: Well, see now the Slovak people, they used to have, the parish used to come over and bless your house. And they would mark it up there, you know, in chalk. And we never had that done, you know, my mother and that, the Slovenians. But I know the Croatians, the Slovaks.
J: Is Grandma Bagola Slovak?
G: Yeah.
J: Because some people get that confused. People say, "Oh yeah, Slovenian…I’m Slovak too."
G: Yeah, Slovaks and Slovenians are two different things.
G: And Polacks. And Croatians. Croatians, Slovenians, and Slovaks, the three of them, close. I mean, I could understand them. Certain words.
J: You could? Were the languages pretty similar?
G: Yeah.
J: Close enough.
J: So you always spoke Slovenia with Grandpa, right?
G: Yeah. When we didn’t want anybody to hear. And you know what bothers me, I think about you so much, is when you got spanked from Grandpa. That really gets me. Mark is banging his head on the crib, to make believe he’s sleeping. He used to rock himself like that.
J: Really?
G: Yeah. And here you are crying. I was downstairs doing the washing, and Grandpa comes down, he says, "That poor kid. I had to smack him." You wouldn’t lay still, you were jumping up and down! He says, "Quiet! Go to sleep!" He’d go out, and then "Yeea! Yeea!" And then he smacked you, and he comes down, and I had to come and cuddle you.
J: I remember you talking to Grandpa in Slovenian. Do you have anyone else you speak to in Slovenian?
G: Grandma Hren.
J: Oh. But, today, is there anyone now that you can talk to?
G: No, no, nobody that I know of, that I know, there’s nobody. I even forgot how to talk Slovenian. We tried, just for the fun of it; Tony would say, "How do you say this? How do you say that?" I can’t…
J: Yeah, if you don’t use it it gets rusty. Well, I remember one word, I remember "houdiche."
G: Yeah, that’s "You devil, you."
J: Or "Oysta panoose."
G: Yeah, that’s "oosta padoose." Like, "your lips under your nose." I don’t know what that was for, that expression. But you, you, Jimmy, we can’t get you out of our heads. You’re one of the specials. Grandpa used to say, "Do you wanna take a ride? Go see Janet and the kids?" "OK, let’s go." And we used to take you home with us.
J: Oh, when we were down at the farm?
G: No, when yous were at…
J: Oh, in Lakewood.
G: Yeah. And then I remember when you started kindergarten, you know. Boy you’re proudly walking, and I’m crying, I’m saying to Grandpa, "Oh, he’s gone." And you were so proud.
J: I always liked school.
G: Do you remember how you and Grandpa went down to get some ice cream? In Lakewood? And Grandpa comes home with a bundle of money that someone dropped?"
J: Uh-uh.
G: Yeah, I don’t know how much it was, but he gave it to your mother for you and Megan. Megan was just a little baby.
J: So were you with Grandpa long before he got drafted for the war?
G: Yeah. It took me two years to get pregnant with Nancy. My father used to say, "Well, is the motor broken." Because he wanted to be a grandfather so bad, you know. And then, he died. I was married a year, and he died, and a year after that, I got pregnant. So, it took me two years to get pregnant. Because I even went to doctors; I thought maybe it was something wrong, but he says, "Your time will come. Just relax."
J: So then Nancy was just a baby when Grandpa went into the Navy, right?
G: Yeah. She was nine months old.
J: Was he drafted, or did he sign up?
G: Drafted. Oh, that was something.
J: So it must have been a sad…
G: Ohhhhh!
J: Didn’t know when you’d see him again.
G: Wait now, was she six months old? How old was she? I really don’t remember.
J: How long was he gone? Two years?
G: Two years.
J: And you didn’t see him at all during thatt time? He didn’t come back.
G: Uh-uh. I’d always send pictures of Nancy and that. And then Grandma had a birdbath in the back, you know, and we used to put Nancy to play in the water. Well, she didn’t have no clothes on, she was a nude, and Grandpa painted all the diapers on her, he says, "No one’s going to see my daughter like that." Oh, we laughed like hell…
J: You were able to send him letters and everything?
G: Yeah, I sent him pictures of her, you know.
J: But did it take weeks and weeks to get there?
G: Yeah.
J: You never knew where he was, right? You’d always send it to the same address?
G: He was in…mygod…down into the jungles…god, I can’t say it…
J: Was he down in the Philippines? Indonesia?
G: No…New Guinea!
J: That was wild country.
G: Yeah, oh god, the way he looked like, yuck! He sent pictures of himself. He said he sent a lot of pictures, but we never got them. I don’t know.
J: Well, military mail, they probably censor a lot of it. They didn’t want it to fall into the wrong hands or something.
J: Was it free to send stuff to him or did you have to pay? I was just wondering if the V-Mail was free.
G: No, no, you had to pay for everything. I’m pretty sure we paid for it. But I used to send him letters, just a little card, every day, just something little, let him know we were thinking about him.
J: So did he get out after we bombed the Japanese, or did he finish up before the war was over? When did he get out?
G: When the war was over. Then we went downtown. I’ve got a picture of him.
J: Oh, when he came back.
G: Yeah, we went downtown, and he was holding Nancy in his arms.
J: Was that where you saw him for the first time? Did he come right downtown?
G: We waited for him downtown, you know, where the train comes down the bottom, and then there were steps, and the platform. Well, I was holding Nancy, and she’s leaning over the bannister, you know, of marble. And when he went into the service, he bought her a locket, you know, a heart locket. She put that in her mouth, and when he came up the stairs she bit into it. You know, there’s still a marking on there.
J: Where was the train station?
G: Downtown, the terminal.
J: And so you saw him when he got off the train? How did you find him?
G: No, we didn’t see him get off the train, we just saw him coming up the stairs.
J: There were probably lots of other people waiting.
G: Oh yeah.
J: Must’ve been a happy reunion.
G: Then they took pictures of him downtown, and a picture of him holding her. I think the picture’s in the spare room.
G: He was skinny. Real small-waisted, but he was big in the thing, you know. Like you are, big in the…broad. You took a lot after him, like, in the build.
G: Hey people, what the hell are you doing? Staying downtown?
J: Well, maybe I’ll shut this off.
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