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Frances McGinnis Recording 1 of 1
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EVA VERNER: This is an interview with Mrs. Frances McGinnis, who with her husband Robert came to Nampa from Nebraska in May of 1938. The interview took place on May 30, 1935 -- 1985 -- in my kitchen, as I live next door to Mrs. McGinnis. She tells about the Depression years and many other interesting miscellaneous comments about life in Nampa. (break in audio) You don’t need to be nervous about any of this. Though I was looking at the dates and things you gave me when you filled out the –
FRANCES MCGINNIS: Oh?
EVA: -- paper database. And is it right that you’d been married about 12 years when you came to [00:01:00] Nampa?
FRANCES: A little bit longer than that, because we were married in ’24, and we came to Nampa in ’38. So that would be --
EVA: So that would have been about 14 years, yeah. What caused you to come to Nampa?
FRANCES: The lack of work in that area. It was the Depression time, and we couldn’t -- Robert couldn’t find work, so he had -- I had answered an ad out of the Omaha World Herald. They wanted a mechanic in Rupert, Idaho, and then also we had a friend who was here in Nampa, a barber. And he suggested that we come here. So we came to Idaho, and we stopped in Rupert, and Robert had the job in the [00:02:00] garage. But we decided we still wanted to come to Nampa, and so we came to Nampa. And we arrived in Nampa on Memorial Day in 1938.
EVA: Well, was that in the years of the Depression, wasn’t it?
FRANCES: Yes. Yes.
EVA: What was Nampa like in those years?
FRANCES: It didn’t have all of the buildings that they have now. It was -- well, it was just like a small town.
EVA: Was the downtown area where it is now?
FRANCES: Oh, yes.
EVA: Which stores do you remember?
FRANCES: Well, Albertson’s was uptown, and then Safeway’s came in, and Pennywise used to be uptown, and Montgomery Awards had a retail store, [00:03:00] and I can’t think of anything more right offhand, but –
EVA: Where did you shop mostly?
FRANCES: Albertson’s, at that time. And it was later that Safeway came in, and I don’t remember just exactly where Safeway was, but it wasn’t uptown.
EVA: Yeah. That Albertson’s wasn’t where the Albertson’s is now, there.
FRANCES: Oh no. Oh no. It’s where -- Albertson’s was where-- I believe where Statewide is, and we enjoyed their ice cream. They made good ice cream, and we always got ice cream cones.
EVA: [00:04:00] Well wasn’t money kind of scarce?
FRANCES: Oh yeah.
EVA: Did you have very much when you arrived, and –
FRANCES: No. Very little.
EVA: And you had three children?
FRANCES: Yes, and we picked peas, we tended bees, we picked spuds -- early potatoes.
EVA: Where did you do all that?
FRANCES: Different fields. First one field was on King's Corner, it was pea picking out there, and there was one field down the south of town. I don’t remember who owned it, but anyway, we had to get up early in the morning and get out there before it got hot. We got paid so much a hamper for peas.
EVA: What time of -- or you came on Memorial Day, so –
FRANCES: Yeah.
EVA: What kind of payment did you get for those jobs?
FRANCES: I don’t know, but it was so much a pound or so much a hamper, and –
EVA: [00:05:00] Did the children all work too?
FRANCES: Yes. They went along with us. And same way with blocking and thinning beets, and we blocked and thinned beets at Rupert, and then came on. We did various things like that to give us a little bit of money.
EVA: Well that’s kind of backbreaking work, isn’t it?
FRANCES: Oh yes.
EVA: Do you remember any incidents that happened while you were doing that?
FRANCES: Not that I can recall right now.
EVA: Any interesting people you met who were also working there?
FRANCES: Who? Pea pickers. They’re migrant workers, and they travel from one, you know, from the south up to the north.
EVA: [00:06:00] Now they didn’t tend to be the Mexican Americans that we have now.
FRANCES: No, no. They were perfect -- poor people just like us, but one incident Robert tells about, he heard something that one morning, and it was thump. After a while, another thump, and he couldn’t imagine what it was. So we watched, and this lady was chewing [Snooth?] and spitting it, and that’s what made the thump noise, as she spit and hit the pea vines.
EVA: Oh. (laughter) Added a little good fertilizer to the ground, I guess.
FRANCES: Yes. Yes. But that’s -- but the migrant workers were white people same as Mexicans. Not many Mexicans as white people. But they traveled in groups.
EVA: Was it hard to find a place to live when you got to Nampa?
FRANCES: Yes and no. These friends of ours, his brother was just [00:07:00] leaving a place, and it was just a garage. I think they had a cold water tap and an outside toilet. It was a WPA toilet. And it was a real –
EVA: What’s a WPA toilet?
FRANCES: (laughs) Well, it was a basically built toilet seat, and I called it a throne. It was -- well, it was a more elaborate toilet, and WPA-ers made it. That was their project, and so that’s what we had. And I did washing on the board there, but anyway, we had a roof over our head. Finally one day, Robert got tired of getting out and going pea picking, [00:08:00] and he came in and cleaned up. And I asked him where he was going, and he says, “Well, I’m going to go to a garage and see what I can find.” So he went to the Hudson Garage, and they hired him as a mechanic.
EVA: How long had you been in Nampa when that happened?
FRANCES: Oh, we came, of course, the last of May, and it probably was maybe a couple of months or something like that.
EVA: Then how long before you moved to a better house?
FRANCES: Well, let’s see. Well, I don’t remember just exactly. It was later in the summer, and we had a nice little house. And then Robert got a job over at [00:09:00] the Eagle working in a garage over there, so we moved over to Eagle, and we were there maybe a year or so, and then we came over and rented a place out on South Powerline Road, which was not much. It was a roof over our head. But it gave us an opportunity to get started, and my oldest brother was with us at that time. And we had a cow, and some chickens, and a goat or two, and we did a little -- just got a -- had just a little bit more, and from there we bought an acre and a half, or about two acres, [00:10:00] it was called commercial acres, out on Northside Boulevard, which at that time was a wheat field. And there was just one tree there. We had our choice of either locating on Northside Boulevard or on Sixth Avenue. On Sixth Avenue, we’d have water, but no lights, so we chose to live on a -- settle on Northside Boulevard. We had electricity, but we had to haul water.
EVA: How far did you have to haul it?
FRANCES: Oh, maybe two or three blocks. It was from an artisan well which is now dry. And at that time, we could cross the railroad tracks where the overpass is now. [00:11:00] And it was kind of confusing at times that the train would block the tracks, and then we’d have to go down First Avenue and cross on Sixth. So I worked -- Robert worked in the garage, and I worked in produce, sorting produce.
EVA: For the railroad?
FRANCES: No. For Sue Packing Company, and I guess that’s the only one I worked for. I trimmed lettuce, sorted potatoes and onions.
EVA: And what did the children do while you were both working?
FRANCES: Betty May took care of little -- a couple little children just north of us, and Bob worked [00:12:00] something. I don’t remember just exactly, but Bill kind of just stayed around home, and that was about the sum and substance of it. We all just cooperated as far as work was concerned.
EVA: Then when the fall came, the children were all school age, so they all went to school.
FRANCES: Yes. Yes. They caught the bus right in front of the house.
EVA: Which school did they go to?
FRANCES: Bob went to junior high. I think that was Kenwood at the time. I’m not sure. And Betty May and Bill, they went to Lakeview. At the time, we lived out on South Powerline Road, they -- Bill and Betty May went to Eastside, so.
EVA: [00:13:00] Have those schools changed their exterior appearance much since those days?
FRANCES: Lakeview hasn’t. Neither has Eastside. But of course, Kenwood’s gone. They tore it down. And then the high school’s gone. Bob went to high school.
EVA: Where was the old high school?
FRANCES: Where the city hall is.
EVA: Oh.
FRANCES: See the gym -- there’s still the gym there, so.
EVA: Yeah. And they made that into a junior high school, though, didn’t they, after?
FRANCES: I couldn’t say.
EVA: That’s probably when you were gone.
FRANCES: Yes. Because we left -- we went to Portland. Robert went in ’41, and then I went up. Well, we left Nampa the day of -- the last day of ’41 and got into Portland as the New Year’s was being [00:14:00] welcomed.
EVA: Well who are some of the people you remember meeting in Nampa from those early years that you were here?
FRANCES: Well, most of them are dead. George Brooks, who is dead. His wife, Velma, also is dead, and –
EVA: Were they neighbors? Or --
FRANCES: No. We used to go to the beer parlor. That was one recreation. And -- or supposedly thinking it was. And that building is gone. And then Robert worked for George Mitchell, and his wife was a whistle, a green whistle, and she has passed [00:15:00] away. So has George, passed away. And this barber friend of ours, who has passed away, and nearly all of the people that we knew and associated with at that time have gone to their reward, so it’s kind of -- makes it seem kind of lonely in a way.
EVA: Yeah.
FRANCES: We had a pinochle party or group or club, or whatever you want to call it, and all of the couples that were in it are gone except Robert and me and Faye Koontz, who was the barber’s wife. And she lives over in Boise.
EVA: How often would you [00:16:00] get together to play pinochle?
FRANCES: Oh, maybe a couple times a month.
EVA: And would you go to one another’s homes?
FRANCES: Yes.
EVA: Could you always have a lot of fun?
FRANCES: Oh yes.
EVA: Did you have prizes or anything?
FRANCES: Oh yes. Prizes.
EVA: What kind of things for prizes?
FRANCES: Any -- something that was inexpensive. (laughter) I don’t remember just exactly what we had, but they weren’t too expensive. It was just the idea.
EVA: Yeah. Who was the best pinochle player?
FRANCES: Well, I couldn’t say exactly. Robert and I used to be a pretty good pair to play pinochle.
EVA: Would you all stay paired with your own husband?
FRANCES: No, not necessarily. We played pinochle quite a bit in St. Paul. We lived at St. Paul at that time, when he worked in a garage there, [00:17:00] but we played pinochle with the Danes, and they’re -- they were pretty good pinochle.
EVA: When you met for these pinochle parties, would you also have refreshments and things?
FRANCES: Oh yes.
EVA: What sort of things would you have to eat?
FRANCES: Well, we always had coffee at that time, and maybe we had a sandwich -- sandwiches, open-faced sandwiches, maybe cake, if we were fortunate enough to have cake. But it wasn’t an elaborate lunch, refreshment, or whatever you want to call it.
EVA: Would you play at card tables or --
FRANCES: Oh yes.
EVA: -- around the kitchen table?
FRANCES: Well, we nearly always managed to have card tables apiece.
EVA: Would you all take the card table [00:18:00] if you had one?
FRANCES: Yes. One of us -- sometimes we’d use the kitchen table, but it was an enjoyable time.
EVA: How many couples in a group like that?
FRANCES: Well, I think we had three tables, so that would mean 12 couples. But we always went for the fun of it, not for the –
EVA: Yeah. Would the children go with you?
FRANCES: No, not necessarily. They stayed at home. They were able to stay by themselves.
EVA: They were old enough then. Did they start dating while they were living here in Nampa?
FRANCES: At that time, I think [00:19:00] Bob had a girlfriend at school, and I don’t think he dated as, per se, but I know he came back from Portland a couple times and visited with the kids from school. Whether it’s a special girl or not I don’t know. But anyway, he had a pal, George Rhodes, that he has kept in contact with and he lives at Riddle, Oregon now, George Rhodes does. So I feel that they -- that the youngsters had a good experience. Betty May -- the two children that Betty May took care of was [00:20:00] Gawkner’s, and he had gone volunteer -- he had gone with the MK to Wake Island, and he was on Wake when it was taken by the Japanese. So she went to work, and Betty May took care of the youngsters.
EVA: Does that mean he was killed on Wake?
FRANCES: No. He came home, but we were in Portland at the time he came home. But by the time he came home, she had left him, and the two children were with his folks. I don’t know where they were, but anyway, they were in the area. But anyway, that’s –
EVA: Well were you here in Nampa when World War II started?
FRANCES: Yes.
EVA: How did that affect the community and your jobs and so forth?
FRANCES: [00:21:00] Well, I can’t say that it affected jobs per se, just the same as always. They never paid anything -- the wage was equal to what you would get in war production work, because I know I trimmed lettuce for 18 cents an hour, and long hours. But anyway, it was money. This helped to sustain us.
EVA: And then when you went to Portland and started working in the -- what was it, the shipyard or something you worked in?
FRANCES: I didn’t work in the shipyard until maybe a year and a half later. I went to welding training school, and then I went -- [00:22:00] took a test and went up into the shipyard. I went into Oregon Shipyard.
EVA: And then how much an hour did you make then?
FRANCES: A dollar and 45 cents.
EVA: And were the lettuce trimmers back in Nampa still getting 18 cents an hour?
FRANCES: Yes. If there was any left.
EVA: Yeah. Was there quite an exodus from Nampa?
FRANCES: I couldn’t say, but I presume so. I don’t know of any of our friends that left Nampa.
EVA: What about churches in Nampa when you lived here in those days? Were there as many as there are now?
FRANCES: No, because there isn’t as many people as there is now. The Presbyterian church is the Nazarene church uptown. [00:23:00] That was a Presbyterian church. That’s where we went. And while we were gone, I haven’t been able to learn why, but anyway, the congregation split up.
EVA: The Presbyterian congregation?
FRANCES: Yes. Over some -- something. I don’t know. But they divided, and part of them built the Presbyterian church where it is now, and the other part built the Congregational church out on -- I think it’s Midland. So therefore, when I came -- we came back this time, I was able to go to the Congregational church, and pick up acquaintances there that we knew.
EVA: Well, that’s interesting. How many Nazarene churches were here then?
FRANCES: [00:24:00] I know there wasn’t many because they had the college -- the campus, which was small. And I can’t recall right now of any Nazarene church other than -- than what was in the campus area.
EVA: Was there a Nazarene hospital –
FRANCES: Yes.
EVA: -- in those days?
FRANCES: Good Samaritan. Yeah. I can’t tell you his name, but Doctor –
EVA: Mangum?
FRANCES: -- Mangum had that hospital. And I often wondered why they discontinued that, but [00:25:00] I imagine it was the financial burden. But anyway, I think that they should have more than one hospital to maintain that little competition.
EVA: Did you ever have to go to the hospital? Or were you or any of your family ill?
FRANCES: No. We never had any hospital.
EVA: Did you go to a doctor?
FRANCES: Yes, Bill now. And he’s gone -- or both of them are gone. And Dr. Horton, I think he’s still -- the son is still practicing. And in the building that Magnum had his office in, I can’t recall just exactly what was [00:26:00] downstairs on the first floor, but it burned at some time, and that’s -- part of that is still vacant, that area.
EVA: Now where was that?
FRANCES: It’s on First Avenue, but I can’t tell you just exactly.
EVA: Was the hospital down on First Avenue, too?
FRANCES: No. No, no. It’s where –
EVA: It was on the campus, wasn’t it?
FRANCES: Yes. Where the campus is now.
EVA: Yeah. Was the railroad an important part of life here?
FRANCES: Yes. Because they iced the refrigerator cars here, and that was -- the ice -- we called them the ice chutes, was over the end. They began at the street where we would cross, and then into town, and in the summertime, [00:27:00] in the busy time, and we’d always -- it was noisy because they would be loading -- or icing up cars. And then the PFE also had shop here, so that was -- of course has been discontinued I think.
EVA: How about holiday celebrations like the Fourth of July?
FRANCES: Huh? Stampede is the only thing I remember having.
EVA: They had big parades and –
FRANCES: I can’t say that because I never attended them, especially. But the stampede is always a highlight of everybody’s entertainment.
EVA: Did you go to some of those performances?
FRANCES: Oh, once in a while we went [00:28:00] to the rodeo, and we became acquainted with A.I. Meyers, who was a brother to the man that my father rented from in Custer County. So we felt like we kind of halfway knew him, and he was a very kind gentleman, and at times he was a very lonesome man. He wanted someone to be with him, to go to entertainments, and so he kind of adopted Robert, and he would come from Caldwell to our place there at Northside Boulevard, and Robert would drive to the entertainment in Boise. They went to rafting matches and ball games, and that was the main [00:29:00] recreation. And A.I. Meyers was -- and he took Robert on a hunting trip one year, but of course A.I. Meyers is gone.
EVA: What was his business?
FRANCES: Insurance. A. Insurance Meyers. I know what his first name really was, but anyway, Kirkham, see, his wife is a daughter of A.I. Meyers.
EVA: Had the seed companies started here?
FRANCES: (coughs) No, I don’t think they had started.
EVA: What were the sugar beets, potatoes? What were the –
FRANCES: They didn’t have sugar beets. We had -- they had potatoes [00:30:00] and peas and onions and potatoes.
EVA: How about the fruit out on the Sunnyslope area?
FRANCES: Yes, there was fruit out there. Cherries and apples. So the -- but the orchards have grown. Sims Orchard is just the same. Of course it’s grown larger in the years, and -- but they’re still there. And other ones -- I don’t remember any of the others exactly, but I do remember Sims especially.
EVA: Did you used to do a lot of canning and preserving?
FRANCES: Oh yes. I canned and canned and canned.
EVA: What things did you?
FRANCES: Well, we’d get culled peaches, and I canned them. There was nothing wrong with them, just [00:31:00] they were overripe, too large, too small. But anyway, I canned peaches.
END OF RECORDING
FRANCES MCGINNIS: Oh?
EVA: -- paper database. And is it right that you’d been married about 12 years when you came to [00:01:00] Nampa?
FRANCES: A little bit longer than that, because we were married in ’24, and we came to Nampa in ’38. So that would be --
EVA: So that would have been about 14 years, yeah. What caused you to come to Nampa?
FRANCES: The lack of work in that area. It was the Depression time, and we couldn’t -- Robert couldn’t find work, so he had -- I had answered an ad out of the Omaha World Herald. They wanted a mechanic in Rupert, Idaho, and then also we had a friend who was here in Nampa, a barber. And he suggested that we come here. So we came to Idaho, and we stopped in Rupert, and Robert had the job in the [00:02:00] garage. But we decided we still wanted to come to Nampa, and so we came to Nampa. And we arrived in Nampa on Memorial Day in 1938.
EVA: Well, was that in the years of the Depression, wasn’t it?
FRANCES: Yes. Yes.
EVA: What was Nampa like in those years?
FRANCES: It didn’t have all of the buildings that they have now. It was -- well, it was just like a small town.
EVA: Was the downtown area where it is now?
FRANCES: Oh, yes.
EVA: Which stores do you remember?
FRANCES: Well, Albertson’s was uptown, and then Safeway’s came in, and Pennywise used to be uptown, and Montgomery Awards had a retail store, [00:03:00] and I can’t think of anything more right offhand, but –
EVA: Where did you shop mostly?
FRANCES: Albertson’s, at that time. And it was later that Safeway came in, and I don’t remember just exactly where Safeway was, but it wasn’t uptown.
EVA: Yeah. That Albertson’s wasn’t where the Albertson’s is now, there.
FRANCES: Oh no. Oh no. It’s where -- Albertson’s was where-- I believe where Statewide is, and we enjoyed their ice cream. They made good ice cream, and we always got ice cream cones.
EVA: [00:04:00] Well wasn’t money kind of scarce?
FRANCES: Oh yeah.
EVA: Did you have very much when you arrived, and –
FRANCES: No. Very little.
EVA: And you had three children?
FRANCES: Yes, and we picked peas, we tended bees, we picked spuds -- early potatoes.
EVA: Where did you do all that?
FRANCES: Different fields. First one field was on King's Corner, it was pea picking out there, and there was one field down the south of town. I don’t remember who owned it, but anyway, we had to get up early in the morning and get out there before it got hot. We got paid so much a hamper for peas.
EVA: What time of -- or you came on Memorial Day, so –
FRANCES: Yeah.
EVA: What kind of payment did you get for those jobs?
FRANCES: I don’t know, but it was so much a pound or so much a hamper, and –
EVA: [00:05:00] Did the children all work too?
FRANCES: Yes. They went along with us. And same way with blocking and thinning beets, and we blocked and thinned beets at Rupert, and then came on. We did various things like that to give us a little bit of money.
EVA: Well that’s kind of backbreaking work, isn’t it?
FRANCES: Oh yes.
EVA: Do you remember any incidents that happened while you were doing that?
FRANCES: Not that I can recall right now.
EVA: Any interesting people you met who were also working there?
FRANCES: Who? Pea pickers. They’re migrant workers, and they travel from one, you know, from the south up to the north.
EVA: [00:06:00] Now they didn’t tend to be the Mexican Americans that we have now.
FRANCES: No, no. They were perfect -- poor people just like us, but one incident Robert tells about, he heard something that one morning, and it was thump. After a while, another thump, and he couldn’t imagine what it was. So we watched, and this lady was chewing [Snooth?] and spitting it, and that’s what made the thump noise, as she spit and hit the pea vines.
EVA: Oh. (laughter) Added a little good fertilizer to the ground, I guess.
FRANCES: Yes. Yes. But that’s -- but the migrant workers were white people same as Mexicans. Not many Mexicans as white people. But they traveled in groups.
EVA: Was it hard to find a place to live when you got to Nampa?
FRANCES: Yes and no. These friends of ours, his brother was just [00:07:00] leaving a place, and it was just a garage. I think they had a cold water tap and an outside toilet. It was a WPA toilet. And it was a real –
EVA: What’s a WPA toilet?
FRANCES: (laughs) Well, it was a basically built toilet seat, and I called it a throne. It was -- well, it was a more elaborate toilet, and WPA-ers made it. That was their project, and so that’s what we had. And I did washing on the board there, but anyway, we had a roof over our head. Finally one day, Robert got tired of getting out and going pea picking, [00:08:00] and he came in and cleaned up. And I asked him where he was going, and he says, “Well, I’m going to go to a garage and see what I can find.” So he went to the Hudson Garage, and they hired him as a mechanic.
EVA: How long had you been in Nampa when that happened?
FRANCES: Oh, we came, of course, the last of May, and it probably was maybe a couple of months or something like that.
EVA: Then how long before you moved to a better house?
FRANCES: Well, let’s see. Well, I don’t remember just exactly. It was later in the summer, and we had a nice little house. And then Robert got a job over at [00:09:00] the Eagle working in a garage over there, so we moved over to Eagle, and we were there maybe a year or so, and then we came over and rented a place out on South Powerline Road, which was not much. It was a roof over our head. But it gave us an opportunity to get started, and my oldest brother was with us at that time. And we had a cow, and some chickens, and a goat or two, and we did a little -- just got a -- had just a little bit more, and from there we bought an acre and a half, or about two acres, [00:10:00] it was called commercial acres, out on Northside Boulevard, which at that time was a wheat field. And there was just one tree there. We had our choice of either locating on Northside Boulevard or on Sixth Avenue. On Sixth Avenue, we’d have water, but no lights, so we chose to live on a -- settle on Northside Boulevard. We had electricity, but we had to haul water.
EVA: How far did you have to haul it?
FRANCES: Oh, maybe two or three blocks. It was from an artisan well which is now dry. And at that time, we could cross the railroad tracks where the overpass is now. [00:11:00] And it was kind of confusing at times that the train would block the tracks, and then we’d have to go down First Avenue and cross on Sixth. So I worked -- Robert worked in the garage, and I worked in produce, sorting produce.
EVA: For the railroad?
FRANCES: No. For Sue Packing Company, and I guess that’s the only one I worked for. I trimmed lettuce, sorted potatoes and onions.
EVA: And what did the children do while you were both working?
FRANCES: Betty May took care of little -- a couple little children just north of us, and Bob worked [00:12:00] something. I don’t remember just exactly, but Bill kind of just stayed around home, and that was about the sum and substance of it. We all just cooperated as far as work was concerned.
EVA: Then when the fall came, the children were all school age, so they all went to school.
FRANCES: Yes. Yes. They caught the bus right in front of the house.
EVA: Which school did they go to?
FRANCES: Bob went to junior high. I think that was Kenwood at the time. I’m not sure. And Betty May and Bill, they went to Lakeview. At the time, we lived out on South Powerline Road, they -- Bill and Betty May went to Eastside, so.
EVA: [00:13:00] Have those schools changed their exterior appearance much since those days?
FRANCES: Lakeview hasn’t. Neither has Eastside. But of course, Kenwood’s gone. They tore it down. And then the high school’s gone. Bob went to high school.
EVA: Where was the old high school?
FRANCES: Where the city hall is.
EVA: Oh.
FRANCES: See the gym -- there’s still the gym there, so.
EVA: Yeah. And they made that into a junior high school, though, didn’t they, after?
FRANCES: I couldn’t say.
EVA: That’s probably when you were gone.
FRANCES: Yes. Because we left -- we went to Portland. Robert went in ’41, and then I went up. Well, we left Nampa the day of -- the last day of ’41 and got into Portland as the New Year’s was being [00:14:00] welcomed.
EVA: Well who are some of the people you remember meeting in Nampa from those early years that you were here?
FRANCES: Well, most of them are dead. George Brooks, who is dead. His wife, Velma, also is dead, and –
EVA: Were they neighbors? Or --
FRANCES: No. We used to go to the beer parlor. That was one recreation. And -- or supposedly thinking it was. And that building is gone. And then Robert worked for George Mitchell, and his wife was a whistle, a green whistle, and she has passed [00:15:00] away. So has George, passed away. And this barber friend of ours, who has passed away, and nearly all of the people that we knew and associated with at that time have gone to their reward, so it’s kind of -- makes it seem kind of lonely in a way.
EVA: Yeah.
FRANCES: We had a pinochle party or group or club, or whatever you want to call it, and all of the couples that were in it are gone except Robert and me and Faye Koontz, who was the barber’s wife. And she lives over in Boise.
EVA: How often would you [00:16:00] get together to play pinochle?
FRANCES: Oh, maybe a couple times a month.
EVA: And would you go to one another’s homes?
FRANCES: Yes.
EVA: Could you always have a lot of fun?
FRANCES: Oh yes.
EVA: Did you have prizes or anything?
FRANCES: Oh yes. Prizes.
EVA: What kind of things for prizes?
FRANCES: Any -- something that was inexpensive. (laughter) I don’t remember just exactly what we had, but they weren’t too expensive. It was just the idea.
EVA: Yeah. Who was the best pinochle player?
FRANCES: Well, I couldn’t say exactly. Robert and I used to be a pretty good pair to play pinochle.
EVA: Would you all stay paired with your own husband?
FRANCES: No, not necessarily. We played pinochle quite a bit in St. Paul. We lived at St. Paul at that time, when he worked in a garage there, [00:17:00] but we played pinochle with the Danes, and they’re -- they were pretty good pinochle.
EVA: When you met for these pinochle parties, would you also have refreshments and things?
FRANCES: Oh yes.
EVA: What sort of things would you have to eat?
FRANCES: Well, we always had coffee at that time, and maybe we had a sandwich -- sandwiches, open-faced sandwiches, maybe cake, if we were fortunate enough to have cake. But it wasn’t an elaborate lunch, refreshment, or whatever you want to call it.
EVA: Would you play at card tables or --
FRANCES: Oh yes.
EVA: -- around the kitchen table?
FRANCES: Well, we nearly always managed to have card tables apiece.
EVA: Would you all take the card table [00:18:00] if you had one?
FRANCES: Yes. One of us -- sometimes we’d use the kitchen table, but it was an enjoyable time.
EVA: How many couples in a group like that?
FRANCES: Well, I think we had three tables, so that would mean 12 couples. But we always went for the fun of it, not for the –
EVA: Yeah. Would the children go with you?
FRANCES: No, not necessarily. They stayed at home. They were able to stay by themselves.
EVA: They were old enough then. Did they start dating while they were living here in Nampa?
FRANCES: At that time, I think [00:19:00] Bob had a girlfriend at school, and I don’t think he dated as, per se, but I know he came back from Portland a couple times and visited with the kids from school. Whether it’s a special girl or not I don’t know. But anyway, he had a pal, George Rhodes, that he has kept in contact with and he lives at Riddle, Oregon now, George Rhodes does. So I feel that they -- that the youngsters had a good experience. Betty May -- the two children that Betty May took care of was [00:20:00] Gawkner’s, and he had gone volunteer -- he had gone with the MK to Wake Island, and he was on Wake when it was taken by the Japanese. So she went to work, and Betty May took care of the youngsters.
EVA: Does that mean he was killed on Wake?
FRANCES: No. He came home, but we were in Portland at the time he came home. But by the time he came home, she had left him, and the two children were with his folks. I don’t know where they were, but anyway, they were in the area. But anyway, that’s –
EVA: Well were you here in Nampa when World War II started?
FRANCES: Yes.
EVA: How did that affect the community and your jobs and so forth?
FRANCES: [00:21:00] Well, I can’t say that it affected jobs per se, just the same as always. They never paid anything -- the wage was equal to what you would get in war production work, because I know I trimmed lettuce for 18 cents an hour, and long hours. But anyway, it was money. This helped to sustain us.
EVA: And then when you went to Portland and started working in the -- what was it, the shipyard or something you worked in?
FRANCES: I didn’t work in the shipyard until maybe a year and a half later. I went to welding training school, and then I went -- [00:22:00] took a test and went up into the shipyard. I went into Oregon Shipyard.
EVA: And then how much an hour did you make then?
FRANCES: A dollar and 45 cents.
EVA: And were the lettuce trimmers back in Nampa still getting 18 cents an hour?
FRANCES: Yes. If there was any left.
EVA: Yeah. Was there quite an exodus from Nampa?
FRANCES: I couldn’t say, but I presume so. I don’t know of any of our friends that left Nampa.
EVA: What about churches in Nampa when you lived here in those days? Were there as many as there are now?
FRANCES: No, because there isn’t as many people as there is now. The Presbyterian church is the Nazarene church uptown. [00:23:00] That was a Presbyterian church. That’s where we went. And while we were gone, I haven’t been able to learn why, but anyway, the congregation split up.
EVA: The Presbyterian congregation?
FRANCES: Yes. Over some -- something. I don’t know. But they divided, and part of them built the Presbyterian church where it is now, and the other part built the Congregational church out on -- I think it’s Midland. So therefore, when I came -- we came back this time, I was able to go to the Congregational church, and pick up acquaintances there that we knew.
EVA: Well, that’s interesting. How many Nazarene churches were here then?
FRANCES: [00:24:00] I know there wasn’t many because they had the college -- the campus, which was small. And I can’t recall right now of any Nazarene church other than -- than what was in the campus area.
EVA: Was there a Nazarene hospital –
FRANCES: Yes.
EVA: -- in those days?
FRANCES: Good Samaritan. Yeah. I can’t tell you his name, but Doctor –
EVA: Mangum?
FRANCES: -- Mangum had that hospital. And I often wondered why they discontinued that, but [00:25:00] I imagine it was the financial burden. But anyway, I think that they should have more than one hospital to maintain that little competition.
EVA: Did you ever have to go to the hospital? Or were you or any of your family ill?
FRANCES: No. We never had any hospital.
EVA: Did you go to a doctor?
FRANCES: Yes, Bill now. And he’s gone -- or both of them are gone. And Dr. Horton, I think he’s still -- the son is still practicing. And in the building that Magnum had his office in, I can’t recall just exactly what was [00:26:00] downstairs on the first floor, but it burned at some time, and that’s -- part of that is still vacant, that area.
EVA: Now where was that?
FRANCES: It’s on First Avenue, but I can’t tell you just exactly.
EVA: Was the hospital down on First Avenue, too?
FRANCES: No. No, no. It’s where –
EVA: It was on the campus, wasn’t it?
FRANCES: Yes. Where the campus is now.
EVA: Yeah. Was the railroad an important part of life here?
FRANCES: Yes. Because they iced the refrigerator cars here, and that was -- the ice -- we called them the ice chutes, was over the end. They began at the street where we would cross, and then into town, and in the summertime, [00:27:00] in the busy time, and we’d always -- it was noisy because they would be loading -- or icing up cars. And then the PFE also had shop here, so that was -- of course has been discontinued I think.
EVA: How about holiday celebrations like the Fourth of July?
FRANCES: Huh? Stampede is the only thing I remember having.
EVA: They had big parades and –
FRANCES: I can’t say that because I never attended them, especially. But the stampede is always a highlight of everybody’s entertainment.
EVA: Did you go to some of those performances?
FRANCES: Oh, once in a while we went [00:28:00] to the rodeo, and we became acquainted with A.I. Meyers, who was a brother to the man that my father rented from in Custer County. So we felt like we kind of halfway knew him, and he was a very kind gentleman, and at times he was a very lonesome man. He wanted someone to be with him, to go to entertainments, and so he kind of adopted Robert, and he would come from Caldwell to our place there at Northside Boulevard, and Robert would drive to the entertainment in Boise. They went to rafting matches and ball games, and that was the main [00:29:00] recreation. And A.I. Meyers was -- and he took Robert on a hunting trip one year, but of course A.I. Meyers is gone.
EVA: What was his business?
FRANCES: Insurance. A. Insurance Meyers. I know what his first name really was, but anyway, Kirkham, see, his wife is a daughter of A.I. Meyers.
EVA: Had the seed companies started here?
FRANCES: (coughs) No, I don’t think they had started.
EVA: What were the sugar beets, potatoes? What were the –
FRANCES: They didn’t have sugar beets. We had -- they had potatoes [00:30:00] and peas and onions and potatoes.
EVA: How about the fruit out on the Sunnyslope area?
FRANCES: Yes, there was fruit out there. Cherries and apples. So the -- but the orchards have grown. Sims Orchard is just the same. Of course it’s grown larger in the years, and -- but they’re still there. And other ones -- I don’t remember any of the others exactly, but I do remember Sims especially.
EVA: Did you used to do a lot of canning and preserving?
FRANCES: Oh yes. I canned and canned and canned.
EVA: What things did you?
FRANCES: Well, we’d get culled peaches, and I canned them. There was nothing wrong with them, just [00:31:00] they were overripe, too large, too small. But anyway, I canned peaches.
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