Velma Barkhausen | Interview 1 | September 22, 2006

RIGELHAUPT: Okay, it's September 22nd, 2006. I'm in Modesto, California doing an oral history interview with Velma Barkhausen. And if I could just to begin ask you what year you were born and your full name.

BARKHAUSEN: I was born 1915. My full name is Velma E-V-A-N-S Evans Barkhausen. Not now but should I--it's Evans though, maiden name. And I married W. B. Jones in 19 and 33. We had no children, and see he was--we was married 26 years when he passed away. And we moved. We came to--we left the farm to come out here and see our mother and dad. And while we were here, the war started and we stayed here because we had some people on our place. My first husband died in 19 and 59, January the 1st, I believe. And then I moved to California. I sold my farm. I sold my everything and the farm. Put my stuff in my little Chevy that I had and I brought it to California to be here in Modesto with my family. Then I met Barkhausen and we got married. We were married 28 years when he passed away.

We went to work in the shipyard I think '45, sometime. I have all my papers here 00:01:00to show you. When Port Chicago had the three ships explode, blow up, my husband and I were here visiting with our parents. We spent the night with them. We went home like noon. When my dad told us about the shipyard blowing up we went home then. But we had to have our papers to get to Port Chicago because couldn't nobody go in there that didn't live there. And we got there. Our home was gone. It was just a ruin. And we stayed in--I don't know--remember what it is, Walnut Creek, or some--they put us up in a motel for three days. And then Richmond had 00:02:00little new apartments and they moved us and put us in an apartment by the shipyard. And we were working all this time.

And then while we was going in and out, it was wonderful for me to get the experience that I got while I was working there. Because I helped the ship plates, building them, and we had little roller things with scoot on them or tar it up and down putting that drill for the drill holes in the ship plates. And then the smoke got to me and I signed up and went to electrician. And I went to the school. Then I passed my test, went on the ships, and put in electricity.

One night we were ready, getting ready to come home, and the whistle blew. So we 00:03:00all went out to go home. And we couldn't go home because our ship had got out in the ocean. And we didn't know it. So we had to wait till they came back in. But we had to do that to finish up the ship so we could have it ready for the next day.

And I laughed many a time because when I was changing shifts they was people, people, people like all cows a-going, some going to work, and we were going home. My mother, she was getting up in age, and she went in as a clean up lady, her and a little black lady worked together, and they'd come home and my mother would tell what fun they had working and then, too, at noon they was always an 00:04:00entertainer there, Bob Hope, or some of the movie stars that come and entertain us while we were eating our lunch. And we had benches out on the beach. We'd sit there and eat lunch. Those birds would come along and we'd throw our--feed them and they really take things over, but we had fun with them.

But the day that Roosevelt died we were coming home from the work and as we were going out we heard President Roosevelt had passed away and everybody, "Uh!" You know because we didn't want to lose him during the war but we did. So then after 00:05:00he died, my husband and I got a call about his father. He was sick and had to put him in the hospital and so we got--Barry then got--went back to Oklahoma to be with him. And so then we didn't come out here anymore till he passed away, my husband passed away. And I moved out here. So I don't know. I need some questions now.

RIGELHAUPT: Well, I was going to say could we jump backwards a little bit. Where were you born? And could you talk a little bit about your first few years of life and your family life?

BARKHAUSEN: I was born in Walden, Arkansas in 19 and 15. In a little log cabin. My dad and mother was both born in Arkansas. My grandmother on my dad's side was 00:06:00from Tennessee. And they moved to Arkansas in, I guess, like 1910 or something like that. And then--and when I was eight months old my dad and mother decided to move to Oklahoma. And we moved--at Bragg, Oklahoma, and the stork brought my little brother. That's what I was told it did. And my daddy, he'd go out on the porch and look under the porch. I'd say, "Daddy what you looking for?" and he says, "That old stork has not got here yet." And I'd wonder what he meant about a stork. Finally he told me, he said, "Well, you know they bring little babies, don't you?" And so I thought that's what it was.

But anyway, we stayed there till my brother was about two years old. Then we moved to Sulphur, Oklahoma and Davis. I was just real small then. And I stayed 00:07:00there till I got married in 19 and 33. And then we moved on our own farm. And we farmed till my husband died. Then I moved out here.

But I was raised in Oklahoma. Went to school in Oklahoma. And helped raise seven of my siblings. My mother and dad worked in the field. I know--I remember one time my brother that is deceased now, he was a mischievous little guy, and my mother and I had fixed--well mostly I had fixed lunch that day. And we had cleaned up the table and left the milk on the table because then you didn't have 00:08:00iceboxes. And this jar of milk about this big, that little guy, he took a box of matches, and he would strike them and throw them all over the house. I was trying to catch him, he'd run over here and strike another. Directly he caught that tablecloth on fire. Well, then I had to grab my sister. She was sitting on the floor. And there's a box there and I grabbed the box and her in one hand, other box. And ran out with her and put her in that box. Then went back in and tried to run him down again. Finally, he run out the door. So about that time I went to screaming. I looked up and here come my little mama just running fast as she could come to see why I was hollering.

And so anyway after it was all over with well--oh, the milk. It got so hot it broke the jug and put the fire out. And when my mother got there, well I said, 00:09:00"Mama, I couldn't catch him." I said, "He got that box of matches and he just kept throwing it and throwing it." And so she taken the box of matches and got one out, let it burn a little bit, she blew it out, she touched it to her hand, and then she put it to him, he said, "Oh Mama, that burnt." She said, "I meant for it to. Now you leave matches alone." He said--but I guess he did. Because that was dangerous.

But anyway I was just a normal, stringling gal. Had been trying to help Mom and Dad with the kids and doing what I could. But I never did mind things like that. I did if they were hurt or something. But I guess I've been ornery all my life myself.

RIGELHAUPT: Do you know why your family moved from Tennessee to Arkansas?

BARKHAUSEN: To better their life, livelihood. Then it was hard on people. And that's why my family moved to California because they thought they'd find better living means. So that's when my dad and mother came to California when they had that dust storm in Oklahoma and I was married then and I didn't, I stayed in Oklahoma till my husband died. And lived in there. But then we came out during the war and stayed out here, but our home was still there.

RIGELHAUPT: And you also said that your family moved from Arkansas to Oklahoma just after you were born. Do you know what caused them to move then?

BARKHAUSEN: I think they were hunting a better living and a better way of making 00:11:00a living or something because the way I saw it, Arkansas didn't really thrive till I'd say they started doing good maybe in the '29 or '30s. They was real--but now they're just as up as much as we are out here. Because when I was able I went back every year. But my mother and dad, they were farmers at heart and so they was looking for farm work. And I know they moved to Tulare. And my dad worked in fruit trees and things there. And then my brothers did when they got big enough. But my younger brother, he said that wasn't for him. So when he got out of high school he got him a job and went to Cal Poly and got his 00:12:00education. And he worked while he was going to school. So he still lives in San Jose. He likes it over there. And then I have three that's passed on, siblings.

RIGELHAUPT: What were some of the crops that your family farmed?

BARKHAUSEN: Cotton, and but after we got married, the first year after we got married, I quit cotton. I didn't like to pick it, I didn't like to hoe. And you didn't make no money on it. Because you'd have to borrow money at the first two years to buy seed and then it took all you made to pay your bills. And so I said There's a better way. Then we got in the cattle business. We raised our cattle. 00:13:00And then we fed them but still we'd sell--now and then you could sell them. The cow would pay your bills. And I didn't mind that. But we made our own sorghum molasses and we just did all of it, raised our beans and potatoes and I canned stuff, froze stuff in freezers after we got electricity. I was married before I knew they had electricity on the farm. [chuckles] Because we didn't have it there.

RIGELHAUPT: So in those first few years of your life did your parents own the land they were farming?

BARKHAUSEN: No. No. They had sharecropped if you know what that is. Sharecropping is when you raise--when at the end of the year you give them half 00:14:00of what the crop brought. Then you had your bills to pay out of that. It was hard. It was a hard go for a family on the parents, say three or four kids, and they're little and they don't get to work or anything. Well, but after us kids got big we picked cotton. That's before I got married. Picked cotton, chopped cotton. We had to stay out of school to do all that because picking the cotton would be about the first month of school starting in the fall. So kids had to work--or we kids did. And I remember looking around, everybody else did. But I 00:15:00don't think--we didn't mind it. We thought that was the way that everybody was doing.

And then if you had a hailstorm or something come and wipe your crop out, well you've had it there. So when I was two years old we lived in Bragg, Oklahoma because that's where my little brother was born. Then we moved from there to--I don't know why we moved to Sulphur really. I guess--oh I do know. [pointing to picture] My grandfather, the guy up there holding that little guy, that's my dad that's there in his lap, well he had already moved, him and my grandmother. And we moved to be close to them. Used to people would do that, the family would all move to the same place.

RIGELHAUPT: I've read there was a bad crop infestation in the early teens, the boll weevil that attacked cotton. I'm wondering if your family talked about that.

BARKHAUSEN: I don't think--I remember that. That was after--I remember that well because this went through and it was some grasshoppers also went through too, and just ate everything that was green. They just wiped everything out. Then I guess the next two or three years later, it came the sandstorm and nothing but just sand, and people couldn't even plant things because it wouldn't stay. The seed, the dirt would come off the plants. It was bad.

RIGELHAUPT: Did you have extended family, aunts and uncles, living near you?

BARKHAUSEN: Yes and each one took care of the other's kids while the other worked. Of course, then I was smaller but I remember my mother, my aunt and them taking care of each other's kids. And they worked together. And everybody looked up to our grandfather and grandmother. All the family. And we were afraid to sass our grandma. And my grandpa would have bopped us. So we respected them. That's why it gets me sometime when I see kids that don't take care of their--I mean parents don't take care of their kids. Especially when they go to church. But anyway I feel sorry for the younger generation because they're allowed to do 00:18:00things that we wasn't. It's not jealousy, it's just I wonder what they're going to do when they get grown. But that's life for you, I guess.

RIGELHAUPT: You mentioned church. Was church life important to your family while you were growing up?

BARKHAUSEN: Yes. Yes my grandmother put her little hat and her little gloves on and here we all went to church. My mother and my aunts, one week, one Sunday they would--my mother would do lunch on Saturday for everybody, and then they'd take turns every Sunday. We'd all meet at my grandparents' and have lunch together. And I can remember the ice cream after lunch. We made ice cream and lemonade. And then after church on Sunday, after we had our lunch and 00:19:00everything, my grandparents had a room called a side room. And they had their organ in there and my dad and my aunts and them would play that organ. We'd sing hymns all afternoon. And we were a close family. And right today we are, aren't we? There's few of us now but we all get together two and three times a year for our family thing.

RIGELHAUPT: What denomination was the church?

BARKHAUSEN: I was raised in a Methodist church but I was baptized in the Baptist church. And now I go to Salvation Army church, Red Shield. Been going there 12 years.

RIGELHAUPT: Did you have a favorite subject in school when you were in 00:20:00elementary school?

BARKHAUSEN: Not really. I just wanted to hurry and get out and go home and see how my parents was doing. When we were going to school, my first school, our teacher didn't teach us. The elder kids, like in high school, everybody was in the same one little room, and we'd sit with the older kids and they would help us read and things. And the teacher would teach the elder ones and then it's like taking care of--like, I took care of older kids and then the olders would come along and help with the others.

But our teaching wasn't like it is today. Because there were--well, I don't think they had that many teachers anyway. And really we didn't--it seemed like 00:21:00they got along all right. Because they had ballgames--I mean basketball. I played basketball with them. Things like that. But we sat with whoever was assigned to us and they'd help us write and whatever that we needed to do.

But I enjoyed school but I'd rather have been out with the kids and things taking care of them. And then, too, my mother, every time she got sick, well I'd have to stay home and take care of her. I guess you didn't get to stay interested in it like you should. But anyway, I only got to the tenth grade. But 00:22:00I guess I didn't miss it too much. I made it pretty good. But I enjoyed my life because, living like the time was, it made me be better with myself. I learned to do these things and do independent things that I could go ahead and do even after my husbands died. I just went right on with whatever we were doing. And taking care of it. I'm not saying it was easy but it wasn't all that hard.

RIGELHAUPT: When you were elementary school age roughly what was a typical day like for your father?

BARKHAUSEN: My dad? Working in the field. He worked in the field. Our dad, I've 00:23:00seen him many a time sat and wait till we got through eating before he started. He wanted us kids and Mom to have the best. And he thought that's what he worked for. He worked for us kids and our mother. And I've seen him many a--and we used to get tickled at my mother and dad never ate until they kissed each other when we had a meal. I'll always remember that. And I respected that. My dad always told the boys don't come to the table without your shirt and your shoes on. He always--your clothes. And they did, the boys did. But our dad and mom was good 00:24:00to us and we respected them. But they got killed out here on the highway in 1965. A truck hit my mother from the back and my dad died in the accident. But my mother never did get over it. She passed on. 1965.

RIGELHAUPT: And what was a typical day like for your mother when you were about that age, elementary school age?

BARKHAUSEN: Work in the field. And taking care of the little kids if I wasn't at home. Somebody had to stay because there was always the little ones. There's eight of us and so my parents had five of us, then they waited eight years and 00:25:00then started another family, they had three. [chuckles] Three little kids. And so there's always something to do.

We used to carry water when we were little up a hill and our well was way down--seemed like miles but it wasn't. We'd have to--here we'd go to the well with two little buckets in each hand, water to carry for the evening meal. We had a big old pot outside, until that pot full up and that was our bathwater. And we did it in a number three washtub. Had no bathtub or anything. And it was a treasure when we got electric. Anyway it was a good life.

RIGELHAUPT: And so the years when you were say elementary school age again and were living in Oklahoma, your family was still growing cotton?

BARKHAUSEN: Yes. Yeah. But my husband and I wasn't. We went out of the cotton business real quick. Because I didn't like it. I had enough of that before I got married. Because you had to get up early and work late to get that cotton in and in wintertime it was cold. Your little old hands would be freezing picking that cotton. And then in spring you had to hoe it, get all the--keep the weeds out of it. And it was work. But as I said everybody worked, seemed like to me.

RIGELHAUPT: What do you remember about the start of the Great Depression?

BARKHAUSEN: Well, I tell you, it didn't hurt my husband and I as much as it did a lot of people because we had our own home. We had our own chickens, raised our calves. And I did all of our canning and gardening. We had a big garden. And we prepared for it. And then in the fall we had our potatoes or sweet potatoes. We made our syrup, sorghum syrup. And oh, too, we had pecans, had a couple pecan trees. And we sold the meats of the pecans and we had our fall garden. But the 00:28:00people that didn't have their farm and things, they couldn't have all of that. Because a lot of them moved from one farm to another to sharecropping.

But my dad and mother finally moved to Texas. But that was after I got married. And so I think he got to working in the fruit then. He'd help them prune trees and--Mr. Connelly that used to be in Hughson out here, he had a ranch and my dad 00:29:00worked for him for 20 or 30 years. Well, until both of them got retired.

And my mother, she worked in the dry shed, they call it here, on Ninth Street 00:30:00for years, in the fruit and drying the fruit and I guess in the fresh fruit too, I don't know. I know she used to do the raisins. Because one year I came out to visit her, there she was picking that stuff out of the raisins. And I got to looking at it and my head got to doing that. I was trying to catch up with the fruit. But that belt was going so fast. I said, "I don't know how you're doing that, Mom." "Well, you get used to it". But it was hard on them. I know it was.

RIGELHAUPT: I'm just going to pause for one second. [interview interruption] So I've read that the first couple years of the Depression, 1930 to 1932, were 00:31:00especially hard on American families.

BARKHAUSEN: It was. It was because a lot of them didn't have nothing and then when this dry spell came they couldn't raise nothing. It was bad. That's why so many of the Oklahoma people moved out here. My dad and mother, that's why they moved. But they stopped in Texas and stayed a year. And then they moved on out here. That movie they made, I think my dad and mother was in the middle of that. I'm not for sure but they went through it like they did.

And when they came over, when they came out here, they had to stay across the river in Yuba--was it Yuba?--for about a week. Because they had to get somebody 00:32:00that lived here in California to go over and bring them back in. They had some cotton sacks, my mother had I guess some clothes in it, and they had them cut them cotton sacks up to see if there's any weevils or anything in there. And Mama had to then take and put them in boxes. But my dad came down in Imperial and we had a half-cousin living there. And he went back with my dad and brought him back out there and then they brought him, moved my family in here. And they was here five years before I got to come out and see them.

But anyway, they kept moving up this way from Tulare and they stayed in Imperial Valley for a while and I heard my mother say, "Well, the boys will go to the sheds in the evening," after they all went, got through working, they'd pick carrots up and celery and stuff like that, bring it home, and they cleaned it up and eat it because there'd be a lot of things, carrots and things, they didn't pack. And so they were allowed to bring that home with them, that they didn't pack. And my mother a lot of times--well, our blood got plum orange eating so many carrots. I could just see them eating carrots. They got carrots, celery, and whatever vegetable that they were working in, they bring it home to them.

But my husband and I didn't seem to hit it very hard because we had all of our cattle and--not much but enough to make a small living. And we canned and--one year, when Hoover is in there, they came along and bought our cattle and then they taken the cattle and killed the beef and canned it and give it back to the farmers. Because we didn't have feed for them. And that was something that was--seeing our little old cows and things, just kill them and put them in a can and--but we got some of it. Whether it's ours or not, I hope not. But it was 00:35:00rough for a lot of little people.

RIGELHAUPT: You said you got married in 1933? So those first couple years you were still living at home with your parents.

BARKHAUSEN: That I married? Oh no, my husband, he was on a sharecrop farm then and we just moved into the little old log cabin that was in the place. And we sharecropped for two years and then we got us a farm and then eventually we bought our place. We bought 20 acres. Then the next year or two, we bought 20 more. So when we got through we had 100 and some acres of land. Each year we'd add a little bit more to them. You had to dig your own well, build your own 00:36:00house and all that. And then while we were out here working we made enough money to rock veneer our house and when we went home my husband got a piece of the ship, one of the ships that blowed up in Port Chicago. And I said, "What in the world you going to do with that?" He says, "I'm taking it home." I said, "That thing?" Yeah. So he took it down and it had the year and where it came from and everything and he put it in that rock veneer at our front door on the outside and everybody'd come and, "Oh, what's that?" He was so proud of that piece of metal and it was still there. I guess, still there now. But anyway he was proud 00:37:00of that piece of metal that came out of that ship.

So. But I lived there after he died. I stayed about six months and then I moved down here. And I loaded my little old '68 Chevy up and away I came. I kept my farm for a year because I didn't know whether I'd want to go back or not. But I didn't. I stayed. The year I went back and sold it, came back.

RIGELHAUPT: How did you meet your husband?

BARKHAUSEN: Well, my last husband, my brother was in Hughson, his wife died six months before my husband died. And then when I came out here I was staying with 00:38:00my mother and dad for--and I was sitting there one day and I said Dad, "I don't know but I can't take this, I'm not used to not doing anything." And they wouldn't let me do any dishes, they wouldn't let me do anything. And so I sat there and I said, I wonder if Bussy--that was my brother's name--would like for me to come over and stay with him and his little girls? And so I called my brother up. I said, "Hon, you think you and me could get along and take care of you and the three kids?" He said, "Sis, come on." And so I told my dad that. He said, "That's the best thing that I know you can do." So I moved over and lived with him and the girls for until I met--and one day we went to Tulare, the three 00:39:00girls and I, because on the weekend when my brother gave me money to buy gas, he said, "Now you girls go anywhere you want to, I'll just buy your gas and your eats." And so my husband-to-be was working at Blueberry Hill then and I said--I told the oldest one, I said, "I'm going to stop in here, Betty." She said, "Now, you know Dad filled the car up." She said, "What are you going to get?". I said, "I know we got plenty oil but I'll just say check my oil please." And here come that redheaded guy out, skipping like a little school kid and I looked at him and I thought 'I like you!'

And so he asked me, "Oh, you sure got a cute family." I said, "Well, really they're my brother's but I'm staying with him and helping take care of them." 00:40:00And he said, "Well, when you come back in Tulare, stop back by." And I said, "Okay." So I did, and that was the start of it. And about three or four--[phone rings] Sorry.

RIGELHAUPT: It's okay, it's no problem.

BARKHAUSEN: Just raise it up and tell him to call later please because it'll go on the answering machine.

RIGELHAUPT: I'll just pause everything. [interview interruption] I wanted to ask you about how you met your first husband in Oklahoma.

BARKHAUSEN: Okay. I told you about carrying the water up the hill from the well down--. One day we went down to the well, got the water, my two brothers and I. And here he came on horseback and he stopped and was talking to us and so we 00:41:00talked and then the next weekend, he did the same thing. And so then we went to going together. And we just--oh, and there was a black pastor that went to church and sometimes we'd go over to their church. And I guess about six or seven months after we met we got talking bout--kind of kidding around, "Oh I'm not going to get married because my dad said I wasn't." So anyway he said, "Well, we are too." "Okay." And it just fell in line that--so we went to the--he came, picked me up in the wagon and he had sideboards on there and so--I mean 00:42:00the seats. And we went down to the preachers, went to church. And so we told the pastor there that we wanted him to marry us.

And so then after we got married we went over to one of his brother's and wife's place and spent the night. And so the next day, when we went home, my dad, he was mad, he said, "How come you not come home?!" And I said, "Well Dad, we got married." And he said, "You got what?" And I said, "Yeah, we got married yesterday." He said, "Oh." Then he said okay then. And so that was that.

So we just went and moved into his place. We went and got my stuff and I moved in with him. And it was I think a good marriage, because we were happy. We were 00:43:00close, very close. But anyway we had our farm then. After we got two years we got our farm. And anyway, we worked together. We had our own job, I did the housework, the canning and the gardening. And we didn't have any children, either one of us. And it was just us two. And we enjoyed life. We had a good life.

And he had cancer but he never would tell me and so the year before--Christmas before he died, he went down to Odessa, Texas. And visited with a brother. But I didn't realize he went down there to see a doctor. One of his 00:44:00sister-in-laws--his sister-in-law down there had cancer. And she had went to Dallas, Texas to a doctor and for her treatments. Well, I didn't know it but he went down Odessa to go, his sister-in-law, to get a treatment. He went to that doctor and the doctor told him he is eaten up with cancer. But he never told me. So Christmas I got him an electric razor, that's the first one I think came out. And then I had bought him some boots and a Stetson hat. Because he always wore a Stetson hat.

And then, oh, when he got sick I had to take him to the hospital. Well, in fact, I was working in town, and one of our neighbors, he hollered--because they'd 00:45:00lived on our place--and he hollered, kept screaming, finally she heard him, she went up there and he told her, he said, "I got to go to the hospital." So she took him to hospital. Then she came by where I was working and told me that she took him to the hospital. And so then I went right down, walked down--no, I had my car, I drove down there--and they never told me what was wrong with him. So then I went home because we had stock to feed. Then went back up, I got me a--then you could stay in the hospital with them--and I take my nighties and my robe and things, spent the night. So the next day or two they moved a bed in there. And I stayed with him and I went out to the farm to take care of things and I come back and they told me he's spitting up blood. He said, "It is not, 00:46:00it's grape juice, I drank some while ago." And they motioned for me to come out and they said he's eat up with cancer. And so he died that night. But it was a shock because he told me that day before Christmas, he said, "I want you to take these back to the--and you get to turn them in and get you something for Christmas." I said, "I don't want it, I don't need it." He said, "Yeah, you take it back and if you don't want, don't need it, just get the money." [knock at the door] So--come in! Oh I'm sorry. Come in. [interview interruption] Did I mess it up?

RIGELHAUPT: No, I just turned everything back on. So we were right at your husband's passing.

BARKHAUSEN: That was 1959 that he passed away.

RIGELHAUPT: Now could you tell me about the first time you came to California?

BARKHAUSEN: It was in Hughson. My parents had been here five years. And my grandmother and I came by train out here. My parents sent me the money and I came out. Well, they sent it for my grandmother. And my husband wanted me to come with my grandmother. And we came out and we stayed a month. And they all lived in Hughson. They were working in the peaches. They were pitting. They had little pitting machines. I never saw anything like that. That was so fascinating to me, seeing them pull that thing down and put that peach in there and it pulled it down, it took the seed out. We stayed a month and they lived out on 00:48:00Whitmore, kind of in the country like. And I really enjoyed it because I'm not used to all this fruit and stuff. It was really a nice trip. My grandmother enjoyed it too. And then my youngest sister was five years old. I had never seen her. I really enjoyed my family. They lived out in the country over in Hughson, California. They came here I think like was it like '34, 1934.

RIGELHAUPT: And where is Hughson, California near?

BARKHAUSEN: Right here, right out--it's about eight or nine miles out, between here and Tulare--I mean--well, oh, isn't that something? About nine miles 00:49:00southeast of here. Yeah.

RIGELHAUPT: One of the things I've read about is that it was hard for a lot of people who moved to California from Oklahoma and Arkansas. That a lot of Californians were not very welcoming.

BARKHAUSEN: That's right.

RIGELHAUPT: Could you talk about what you experienced or what your family told you about?

BARKHAUSEN: Well, as I said, when I stayed with my brother and them my oldest niece, she was about nine years old, and we used to laugh at her because she'd say, "Daddy, you're an Okie and my mother is a prune-picker. What does that make me?" And I don't remember quite what my brother told her. But she had--Oh! She had--"Well, you're a prune-pickie." And she laughed and she--"Prune-pickie. 00:50:00Prune-pickie!" But it was bad because they slurred you. But we would say, "Well, if it hadn't been for the Okies and the Arkies, well, California would be off the map." But I just--a lot of it, I just didn't hear it. I was busy. I was trying to help win the war. But that shipyard was something else. I really enjoyed, I was enjoying it, because I was able, I felt like it was helping the boys and the ladies that's over across that were fighting for me. Because they did a wonderful job.

But, no, my nieces and I, I had the control of the house. I cooked, did their 00:51:00laundry, they're just like my own kids. And today they are. And they--well, one of them lives in Oakdale and one lives in Ceres, the other one. Then one over in, oh, Santa Rosa. She is design and decoration. She sells furniture and then she goes and puts it, decorates it for them, a good job. But they all done well. I'm very proud of them. The one that lives here in Ceres, she's in computers, and the one that lives in Oakdale, she's a retired phone operator. She 00:52:00worked--that's the only job she ever had was working for the phone company here.

RIGELHAUPT: How many visits did you have to California between the time your parents moved here and the start of World War II?

BARKHAUSEN: Oh, after the fifth year--I came every year until we came out. But we drove out here three times. When we came out this last time before he died, we had a new pickup and we just came out to visit. We stopped in Tulare; one of his brothers lived there. And one of our suitcases, we put two suitcases of our clothes up in the front seat because we was going to visit with him a while. But one of them, we couldn't put up there. So when we got back out to the pickup, 00:53:00that suitcase was gone. We never did find it. But it was just clothes. And so anyway we just went--came on to Modesto and we stayed with Stan, with my dad and them till--well we was just visiting, and then the war started. Well, that finally got us and so my dad said, "Well, stay and go to work in the shipyard, they're begging for people to work." So we did, we went to Port Chicago, was living in Port Chicago. And then after the explosion, well the Richmond shipyard moved us to Richmond, California. And we stayed there in that one apartment till the war was over.

And, well, I think we left, went back home just a little bit after Roosevelt died. Because we figured it'd be over pretty soon. And I guess we thought maybe 00:54:00it would be such a rush going back to Oklahoma and Arkansas than to just go on home. But it was funny, my husband, he had taken the money we had left from after we got here; he put the half of it back in his hip pocket. He says, "Now, this is for us to go back home on because we may not get work here." And when we went back home, he still had that money in his pocket because we made pretty--I think I made $1.08, the most I made, he made a little more than I did, per hour. But it was good money.

RIGELHAUPT: I'm just going to pause and change the tape.

Begin Audio File 2 barkhausen 02 09-22-06.mp3

RIGELHAUPT: Okay, could you tell me about what you remember about hearing about Pearl Harbor and the attack on Pearl Harbor?

BARKHAUSEN: I don't remember a whole lot about it. I know it was terrible, but no, I don't know. Right now I can't remember where I was at then. Now that was after the war, wasn't it?

RIGELHAUPT: Well that was when the Japanese attacked in Hawaii.

BARKHAUSEN: In Hawaii, yes. Because I know, this brother that I showed the medals and things, he went over later. [dog barking outside] Oh, that dog. And 00:56:00he stayed six months after the war was over, and during that time is when they had that explosion, because I know we were worried about him being there. But I don't--I think he was in Germany, seemed like. But both of my brothers was in Germany. And the younger one, he was on the fighting line, and they were after him, they was just right there, and directly they looked up and they saw these cranes--I mean these jeeps coming, great big things with the star on it. And my brother said, "Thank the Lord, the Americans are here." And he said they saved 00:57:00their whole squad because they went to backing off when the Americans got to coming in. But I guess it was close call. One of his buddies, they left here and went together to war, and his buddy got killed right there in front of him and he's never got over it. He still grieves about it.

RIGELHAUPT: So, what year did you start working in the shipyards?

BARKHAUSEN: I think it was like 1944. No, it was earlier than that. Because we went right after it started but we didn't stay--we stayed till after Roosevelt 00:58:00died and then we felt like going back, we'd better go back. We worked there probably a year, maybe a year and a half.

RIGELHAUPT: I'm looking at the article you photocopied about Port Chicago, and the explosion was in July of '44. So how long had you been living in California before the explosion?

BARKHAUSEN: Oh, we were working at the shipyard a long time before. About six months before the explosion I'd say. Maybe longer. Because they had a big truck that they'd come and pick us up there at Port Chicago and drive us to the 00:59:00shipyard every morning and then when we'd get off work, well, we'd get back in that truck, they'd bring us back to Port Chicago. We did that for a long time. But then when the explosion came, well, they moved us--Richmond shipyard moved us to one of their new apartments. And then we lived there a couple years.

And I know my sister, she, her husband left her and her two babies in their apartment, and so one day when I came home from work because I could walk to work and my husband was waiting for me, I was standing at the stairs, we lived upstairs, and I said what are you doing, he said, "We've got to go get Mae." I 01:00:00said, "How come?" Said, "Well, Herschel left her and the two babies in the apartment and they don't have no food or anything." So we went over, got my sister and two little kids. And she lived there, all of us lived there in that apartment for a year or more. And I remember the little guy said--one of us would take them to their nursery as we went to work, and then the one that got off the earliest would come by and pick them up and bring them home. And we did that for a long time.

And when my husband got over there, all she had was a part of a quart of milk in the refrigerator. So anyway, we just told her to get in the car and we brought their clothes. And that's all they had there. Because everything was furnished 01:01:00in the apartments. So she had a rough time. She and the little kids, now they're all grown kids, and they still remember being with us then, two kids. But I don't know, we just--we try and help take care of each other. So it was bad on her but it wasn't bad on us.

But the shipyard taught me a lot of things to respect people. Because you worked with every kind of people, there in that shipyard. But I never saw a fight all the time we were there. Everybody was busy working. And some of us made it more like a game than it was work. And I think that helped us get by. But it was 01:02:00worth it to me because I grew up, seemed like I grew up a lot there, I learned a lot.

But I've been in California since 1959 after my husband died, I moved on out there. And we had our own business, my last husband and I, and he was a carpenter. I know, one time, we had service stations, and Williams had two, and one day I come home from going to the bank and I saw him standing out there closing, locking the door, and I said, "Why are you locking the doors?". He said the gas went down to 17¢ a gallon. He had bought a tank full of gas. And he 01:03:00says, "I'm not selling that gas 25¢," or whatever it was, "And pay 17¢ a gallon for it." And so on the sign, he put out there he said, Gone Fishing, Why Don't You Go, and we closed all the doors and locked up, went to Reno, both of us went to work for two weeks, then we come back and opened the stations up and went on working with that. The gas went back up. So I think we got it for--we made 2¢ a gallon on it or something like that. So we kept in business till we sold.

Well, I got sick and I had to quit. Doctors told me if I didn't quit well I'd be in the grave in six months and so we quit, sold out and traveled for two years 01:04:00before he died. So anyway, it's always a good working time.

RIGELHAUPT: Could you talk a little bit more about what you remember about the people working with you at the shipyards? You mentioned some people ate a lot of garlic. Could you talk more about everyone you were working with?

BARKHAUSEN: Well, it was a lot of Mexicans not that, you know--that's fine. But they did eat garlic and they didn't take too many baths, I don't think. But we all worked hard. Each one had their own job to do, and we had a foreman, and he'd come along and see if we was doing it right. And we did our job. But then 01:05:00when that smoke got to bother me and the garlic, too, I told my husband, he said, "Well, quit and don't go back to work." And I said, "No, I want to work." So I told the boss man. I said, "I don't think I can work in this [drilling?] anymore." And he said, "Is the smoke getting you?" and I said, "And the garlic." He said, "Yeah," because he was from Arkansas.

Anyway, I signed up to be electrician. I went to school and I think it took me a week to get back to work. And I got to be a journeyman, though, and I got to where I could do it by myself. And that's what I was doing the day the ship went out in the water because we had to have that ship ready for the next day for them to christen it. We had a christening every time we'd send a ship out. 01:06:00Finished. And we were out there and the whistle blow for us to go home. We went out on the deck, [chuckling] there we was, water everywhere. But anyway we finally went back.

And then one time, something happened and our boat, we had to stand in it, for was crossing the bay in a boat. And it got stuck out in the middle of the bay. And so there we was stuck on that bridge for an hour, couldn't move. So finally it got to moving and then we all got home. But it kind of scared everybody because you're on that--nothing around you but water and you're in this thing crossing, and you're crushed in just so close, you can't hardly move, and--but 01:07:00it was quite experience getting on there and getting out of there.

But I enjoyed working with them people. I think we made a game of it more than anything. Working because everybody, we worked together good. The only thing I just didn't want to be close to smelling that garlic. And now I love garlic. But I didn't then.

But you know what? When I first went to work there this gentleman, he told me, he said, "You're too heavy, we can't work with you." And I said, "Heavy!?" I say, "There's people heavier than me!" He said, "I know but you're a woman." I 01:08:00said "Yeah, I'm a woman but I tell you what, you put me to work, give me that work slip, let me go to work, and if I can't do it in a week, I'll quit and bring you back this worksheet." He said "Okay, that's a deal." So I went to work but he never did have to say anymore. I worked. But I told my husband. I said, "He must be crazy. I'm not all that big." He said, "Well," he said, "this is California, remember, and we don't speak very plain English." But anyway, they still know I'm from Oklahoma.

RIGELHAUPT: And so you were working at the Kaiser shipyards in Richmond.

BARKHAUSEN: Yeah, all three of them were Kaisers.

RIGELHAUPT: Were you in a union?

BARKHAUSEN: Yeah I got my union, some of my union papers there. Yeah. Boilermaker union, I think was the name of it. Our union dues, you know what they was? Like, I believe our hospital cession was 50¢ a payday, 50¢. And I would get a bond--I bought bonds with mine. And I think I bought a $3.50 bond every week, every payday. And you'd be surprised, even with that, it counted up pretty fast. And my husband, he'd take his, and we lived on his, and we saved that $3.50 bond a week. But we done good.

RIGELHAUPT: Do you remember any of the union leaders or the shop stewards?

BARKHAUSEN: No, but I have some of their union--union books and silver payments, you get a sheet every time you got a payment. I don't know, was it once a month or what, but anyway we paid union dues. And I wonder, I never did go back to see anything about retirement or anything. I guess they didn't give it to them. They didn't know what it was then, maybe. Because when we quit we packed up our little old car, pickup, and we went back to Oklahoma.

What was funny to me, then, they rationed food and everything. You had these stamps to buy different stuff. Well, my husband was a meat eater, he 01:11:00liked--which, it was easy on me, if we could get the meat. And so he had talked to different ones and we'd trade for--maybe they wanted some tires or something, somebody, and he'd swap them for meat tickets. And so one time he went back to Oklahoma and I knew what day he was going to be home and I didn't have no tickets to get anything but I think we got mutton for no stamps. And so, I told my dad, I said, "Well, I don't know what to fix for dinner because I don't have any meat stamps and I know he'll be hungry." So anyway I went and got a leg of lamb and I fixed that and I made some chops out of it. And he come in, he said, 01:12:00"Hon, this is the best meat. But why aren't you eating any?" I said, "I'm not hungry for meat tonight." So the next day at work my dad and him always ate lunch together. And directly he told my dad, he says, "Boy, this is the best sandwich she had for me, left over from last night." My daddy said, "What is it. Is it pork?" And Daddy laughed. He said, "That's not pork!" He said, "Oh yes, it is. Because I don't eat horsemeat." And Dad said, "It's not horsemeat either. It's goat meat." And he come home, and he said, "What was that?" I said, "Lamb chops. A lamb roast." He said, "I thought it was pork last night." I said, "I 01:13:00know it but I didn't have no stamps." And he said, "Well, it's good." [laughing] But anyway --

RIGELHAUPT: One of the things I've read about with the boilermakers union is that they had like a separate auxiliary for African American members of the boilermakers union.

BARKHAUSEN: Oh, I don't know.

RIGELHAUPT: And it was only for a short time at the beginning of the war and then everyone could be a member of the union.

BARKHAUSEN: Oh, well, they had to be a member for the union or they couldn't work.

RIGELHAUPT: Exactly, but for a while, at the beginning of the war, the boilermakers made all the African American members join a separate auxiliary.

BARKHAUSEN: Oh, I didn't know.

RIGELHAUPT: And they didn't have full voting rights but paid dues. And then it changed and everyone worked together. But I'm just curious so --

BARKHAUSEN: No, I didn't know anything about that. Well I know when we moved--I mean when you go to work at the shipyard, automatically you've got to go to the union, which everybody did. And it wasn't all that much. I don't know, but each stub tells you how much you paid per paycheck and so I know we paid union dues because I have the union book and then I have several receipts. But you know what's funny to me, I married and was married 26 years to my last husband. And these things all showed up one time after his death. And I don't ever remember 01:15:00saving them. And I know when he died, I had his, but his family and my family, were doing the family tree, and I guess mine got in with some of my family tree stuff, and they just got lost for a little while. And then, when I moved--well, when I came back after my second husband died, I came back, because I went to Reno and helped my sister in her beauty shops for a year. Then I came back here and bought me a trailer home and lived in it for--well, until I moved here. But somewhere in last few years, here they are. And I still don't know where I kept 01:16:00them or where they's at. And I said Jiminy Christmas look here, check stubs and union dues. They's all in one envelope. And to this day I don't know where they were at. But they must have been in some of my papers that I did for family tree, because you have books and books and books of that. And so--but I know that's what happened but it was a mystery that I found them all. And how many years is that? About 70, and well, it wouldn't be that long because I've been working with that about 20 years. So it would be around 50 years I guess.

RIGELHAUPT: And so what made you stop working at the shipyards, the end of the war?

BARKHAUSEN: Yes. And then we was ready to go back home. See, we had our home back there and the boys was taking care of it and his dad. Oh, I know why we went back, is because his dad got real sick and he passed on. And so really, I think that was why we left so quick. Because the boys called us or something, and told us that their doctor said that he wasn't going to make it. So we went back. And we were back home about a month and his lungs filled up with fluid. And they never could get it all out, he drowned in his own fluid.

But I don't remember about the--well, I'm sure it had already settled before we 01:18:00came to work because we didn't come to work till a few weeks or so after the war started. Because we wasn't going to work but just a couple of months or two and then go home. But then I guess we was comfortable, we enjoyed it, we just kept staying. And we did feel like we were helping to do something. [laughs] And then another thing, the Rosie the Riveter, that got to be quite a deal. Women, leaving their home and getting out into the shipyard. There we was wearing big old shoes and big old overalls and a hardhat and all of that. No jewelry because 01:19:00we couldn't even wear rings or anything because they were afraid that you would get it hung on something, pull your finger off or--no watches. No nothing. But that was all right. It was experience.

RIGELHAUPT: What do you remember about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II?

BARKHAUSEN: You know to tell you the truth, it did bother me. Because honey, they are human as same as we are, their heart is most of them is just like the black people and other--their heart's just as--their blood is just as pure as ours is. Some of it, they use it--they live different and some of the things 01:20:00that they do we don't like it, but they're still human being. And I have no--and what I don't like is different people, countries, coming over and trying to take over our country and getting all these things that we didn't have until they got to come, different people coming over here. We never did have this writing things on people's walls and houses and things. And I don't approve of that. Because that's hurting the human being. And I can't--just like this dope they're getting in them new homes up there. That is something else. That is just the devil's work is all it is. And I don't agree with them.

Because we could just be happy people here. And everybody get along and be good to--you know what, here, I've been here 14 years, I have never seen--I've heard people arguing a little bit. But you don't hear them fighting or hearing that. And you take these older people, they're a little bit grumpy sometime, but we've all got pain and we've always had it. You see somebody in worse shape than you are, so. But these people here it's more like a big one family. And we just--I want to help everybody if I can.

RIGELHAUPT: But do you remember hearing or hearing discussions or in the 01:22:00newspaper about Japanese Americans being taken to concentration camps in California and the west?

BARKHAUSEN: Yes yes. That, I did not approve of. But I don't know why--well, you do know why. You didn't trust them. Then. But I didn't think that they should have done that because, well, I don't know. I really don't know. Because lot of that we don't know why, but you didn't know why they were here either. Or I didn't. But I did feel sorry for the Chinese people that had to work and live 01:23:00like they did because I don't think that was right. But that was something else. And they still--still that is hurt a lot of the people. It's still hurting them.

I got to scratch my neck.

RIGELHAUPT: Do you remember talking about it with friends or family members or?

BARKHAUSEN: No. In my family, it wasn't discussed. It was not discussed.

RIGELHAUPT: You mentioned smoke at your job at the shipyards. Do you know what was causing the smoke?

BARKHAUSEN: Yes. The drilling, see drilling through steel, the steel bit, and that would get hot and it kept--you had a little thing with water, it dripped 01:24:00there, and then when it dripped, well, that steam would come up and hit you right in the face. And you had to have that water going because your bit would get too hot. Because it's steel on steel that caused it. And you get that shell, you had holes, drilled holes. When you picked it up it was marked with chalk for every hole that you were supposed to put in that shell. And then you were on a little stool with little rollers on it. And you just rolled from one hole to the one and when you got a long row, they'd come along, pick it up and carry, put it on the ship. And that was a shell on the outside of the shell. And that's what made the smoke.

RIGELHAUPT: Do you remember other chemicals or other workplace hazards that maybe weren't considered hazardous then that we might consider hazardous now while you were working in the shipyards?

BARKHAUSEN: Yeah, like the wires, they had like each burner--each welder had their own equipment, like their wires to electric and then they kept them on the floor and you could have fell, caught your foot on it, fell. But I don't know how else they could have done it though. Because there's many welders and burners on each floor till--they did the best, I guess, they knew how. But I 01:26:00don't remember too many people ever falling and getting hurt or anything. Of course the thing about this, as much noise made and everything, you wouldn't hear it all anyway because working with steel, it was a lot of noise and everything there that we worked with was steel. [phone rings] Bingo. [pause while answering machine picks up]

RIGELHAUPT: Okay, so we were talking about--

BARKHAUSEN: The odor--

RIGELHAUPT: And potential hazards. So you don't remember many workplace accidents.

BARKHAUSEN: No.

RIGELHAUPT: Now what about outside? Near the Standard Oil refinery in Richmond, do you remember any strange smells or chemicals being an issue?

BARKHAUSEN: No, not really. Of course I think everybody got a lot of that odor from working there, the drilling, and well, I don't--I know we had a lot of those seagulls flying around. And they'd try to take the food away from us. But it wasn't their fault. We'd throw things at them and they got to where they expected it. But no. And they did keep the restrooms clean most of the time. But 01:28:00each shift had their people there to clean it. I have heard different ones say well so-and-so left this and didn't clean that. But it was just more like gossip, you know what I mean, something to talk about.

RIGELHAUPT: Could you talk a little bit more about Port Chicago?

BARKHAUSEN: That was something else. When we got back up to Port Chicago from here we had to show them that we lived there and we got through at--oh, one of the towns just before we got--wasn't Walnut Grove but it was another. And we went on to Port Chicago. And it was--you've seen the picture there. And we 01:29:00didn't even hardly know--well, by the road and maybe the sign we could tell where our place was. Well, they--the Salvation Army and Red Cross came in and they fed us for a week. And we'd sit there on the street and wasn't nothing we could do because we couldn't go to work because our clothes was ruined and then Richmond, they were building those little apartments. And so they take the ones that lived there and couldn't have--didn't get into their home or anything, they'd take them and moved them to Richmond, California. They put us in a brand new apartment. Then we just had our clothes is all we had because everything where we lived, we had furnished. Of course we had our groceries. Our groceries 01:30:00was down on the floor under everything. But I don't think we even picked them up. We just got a few clothes and what we had down here. And went on up to Richmond. But we was riding in a truck like a cow truck, had seats all around it, and they'd pick us up and take us to Richmond from Port Chicago. Then they'd bring us back at night. And so it was awful. It was awful. See all that explosion and all them dead people.

And then one of my brother-in-laws, he was a guard there, a security guard in the shipyard, I mean where they load the ships. And we couldn't find him. We 01:31:00found his coat and it was all cut up. And we couldn't find him. They were taking him to the hospital in Pittsburgh. He heard somebody say well Port Chicago blowed up, nobody living there. And so we assumed he was dead because we couldn't hear from him and three weeks later, well he came to, and asked them about his family, and they said, "Well, I think they're all right because they've been coming to see you every day." And so then it was really something to know that he went through that without--but he got all cut up and everything. He got over it. It crippled him for life, but he got over it.

And then we all--I don't think--no, he and his wife moved back to Modesto after 01:32:00that, because they had their home in Modesto. And then my husband and I, we stayed in Richmond. He had four brothers that were working in the shipyard at one time.

RIGELHAUPT: Do you remember hearing about the soldiers that wouldn't go back to work at Port Chicago? Could you talk a little bit about that?

BARKHAUSEN: Well they were scared, they didn't want to go back because--but what did it, they was most of them black people. And they were filling them boxes with ammunition. Loading the ships. And one of them dropped the box of ammunition, it blowed it up, then when it went up, well, the other two ships 01:33:00went, they were three big ones and I guess they were nearly full of ammunition. And that could have been anytime because they loaded that ammunition there all the time and no one thought nothing about it. We were just fortunate. It was a weekend, we came down here to see our parents and spent the weekend here. It was Sunday morning when we heard about it. It was terrible. But that was just like being overseas, getting blowed up. We lived through it. And that's nothing, what they're having to live through now over there, I don't think.

RIGELHAUPT: Do you remember more about the trial, the soldiers were brought up 01:34:00on charges of mutiny?

BARKHAUSEN: Not too much about it because we moved to Richmond. But it was bad because one of my sister-in-law, ex-sister-in-laws, her mother and her husband lived there, and I guess they were like my husband and I, they happened to be out of town and they just blew their place all to pieces. They had a service station and I guess when it hit that it just blowed the service station up and everything. But they happened to be gone too and so they were still--they died several years after that. In fact they moved to Tuscadero from there. Lot of people didn't even go back to Richmond to work. I think they was even afraid to 01:35:00go back over there and work. But we went on over there.

RIGELHAUPT: Were you a member of a church while you were living in Port Chicago and Richmond?

BARKHAUSEN: No. No. Really we didn't--well, we should have been but we didn't because you worked every day and sometimes even on the weekend you worked. And then, too, if you didn't work, you had your laundry to do and your shopping to do. But it was a lot easier when we moved to Richmond because it's a bigger town. Port Chicago was just a little bitty thing. I doubt there's over 2,000 people there. But I didn't remember quite about Concord being so involved in the shipyard till I read that piece of paper. They had some kind of a thing there at 01:36:00Concord pertaining to the war. So I didn't know that, but a lot of things went on that I didn't know.

RIGELHAUPT: How do you remember hearing about the Holocaust and so many millions of people dying in Europe?

BARKHAUSEN: Not too much on that. I remember some but not all.

RIGELHAUPT: But do you remember if you heard about it through newsreels before movies or did you read about it in the paper?

BARKHAUSEN: It was more on the TV, because I'm not too much on TV, but when you're working you don't come in and turn your TV on much or I don't. In fact that's not been on all day. Because I'm not much of a TV person. Because I stay 01:37:00busy other things.

RIGELHAUPT: Do you remember favorite forms of entertainment during the war? Did you go to films or--?

BARKHAUSEN: We went to movies once in a while but not much. After my sister moved in we entertained each other because she had those two little kids and then--did I move it? [referring to microphone]

RIGELHAUPT: It sounds okay.

BARKHAUSEN: Okay. But you were tired, you came home tired. I know one evening, we came home after work, we must have--I think he was working the same shipyard I was then. Because sometimes, they'd change you over to the other one. And anyway, we came home and take a bath and we just lay down on the bed and went to 01:38:00sleep. And so directly the whistle blew. We jumped up and my husband said, "Get up quick because the whistle's done blowed, we need to be working!" and some way or other, in a little bit we decided, "Well, it's still night, it's not--oh it's getting dark." And we got tickled and said, "Well, we just slept till it was dark, but I guess your body gets so tired you just slept, but we thought it was morning. It was a laugh.

RIGELHAUPT: How do you remember hearing about the atomic bombs and Hiroshima and Nagasaki? The atomic bombs that were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, what do you remember hearing about?

BARKHAUSEN: About that, I don't remember a whole lot about it. I remember it was 01:39:00done but just how and when, I don't. Seemed like I don't know, like I say, I don't use--I don't listen to TV too much and don't play my--I use my CD with religious music and that's about all I listen to. And maybe a game or two on the TV. But and now I don't see it very well so.

RIGELHAUPT: How do you remember hearing about the war ending? About the end of World War II?

BARKHAUSEN: I really don't really remember but I know everybody was ready to quit when President Roosevelt died. I know and then when Kennedy got shot my 01:40:00husband and I, this is my second husband, we had a service station and we was going over to Marysville to check on the station, and we heard it and he said, "Well, we're going out of business." I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "Well, we won't be making any money." And said, "I'm not working free for 'em." He says, "We're selling out." And then about a week or so later, that's when the doctors told me I had to quit work. And that's--we were going to check a station out, and it was on our TV--I mean our little car radio, telling about the shooting and everything.

RIGELHAUPT: Was it different in thinking back about how you heard about what was going on in World War II since there wasn't television? Versus now if you turn on the TV you can see --

BARKHAUSEN: It's right there.

RIGELHAUPT: You can see pictures of the war. Was it different back then?

BARKHAUSEN: Yeah, because you didn't see nothing at all then. Because we didn't--I don't think we had a TV or radio because we were out there for the war, we didn't--I don't even think we had a radio then. I don't remember it. And I know we didn't have a TV. Because our TV, if we had one was still in Oklahoma. See we didn't move nothing, no furniture or anything out here. We just came out for vacation ,and just our clothes. Or part of them because part of them got stolen.

RIGELHAUPT: Well, that's about all the questions I have. And generally the way I like to end is to ask, one, is there anything you'd like to add or, two, is there anything that I didn't ask that I should have.

BARKHAUSEN: Honey I don't think--I think we've covered a lot of it.

RIGELHAUPT: Okay, well I'll stop there.

BARKHAUSEN: Okay, and thank you for everything.

RIGELHAUPT: Thank you very much as well.

BARKHAUSEN: And I've enjoyed you and God bless you.

RIGELHAUPT: Thank you.

[End of interview]