Joan Whitener
My name is Joan Whitener.
Okay.
And when were you born?
I was born in Flag River, Missouri, September the 6th, 1935.
I'm 83, soon be 84.
Tell us about your early years, as far back as you can remember.
Mother and dad, when they were married, my mother's mother had lost her husband at an early age.
And so when dad and mom were married, they lived with her for a spell.
So her home was in Flat River, and that's where she raised her children.
And mother went to junior college up there also, and they didn't live there very long because her brothers were old enough to go into the service.
And since they had no dad at that time.
And then they mother and dad moved to Fredericktown with his mother and dad.
And while we were while we were living there, I don't remember this because I was too young at the time, because we we moved to Fredericktown, mother said, when I was 18 months old, and they continued to live with dad's mom and dad who were Eli Minor and Mary Burdella Minor.
She was a La Plante.
My earliest memories were when I was six.
I remember grandpa Eli and my dad and his brothers that were home at the time, built our house on some land that grandpa Eli gave us.
And it was right next door across the little field.
So that's where my memory started.
Claude and Glendora Minor.
And mother was a Dudley from Flat River.
And she was a schoolteacher.
And my dad was a farmer and a chicken rancher for a while.
And then he was employed at he was foreman at Devers and Steets shoe company, the first shoe company over here.
He was foreman in the shoe fitting department.
In Fredericktown.
Yes.
Now is that what was known later in Brown Shoe?
Yes.
Later changed into Brown Shoe Company.
Yeah.
Okay.
So you were six when they built that house.
Yes.
Remember them building it?
Yes, I do.
I remember them building it.
And I remember a year later after it was already built, they decided they needed a basement room so they dug by hand just one a room out to put a furnace in.
So they had wished they had done that earlier.
I have heard of people doing that after the house was completed, I suppose a lot of structural.
Yeah, there was a lot of concrete down there, you know, so there was just had enough room to dig out a pretty good size area for the washer and dryer.
Well no dryer.
We hung our clothes on the line.
I still do that, by the way.
Your mother went to the community college in Flat River.
Yes, she did.
So she was a teacher while you were a teacher?
Yes.
And even after I was married, she taught 32 years.
And Mary Jo, of course, this is her 32nd year she's retiring.
She's not teaching this year.
She's really looking forward to it too.
Did your mom, did she teach down here in Fredericktown?
Yes, she did.
She taught me, as a matter of fact, in the Boswell community, because that's what the name of our community was, the Boswell community.
What streets were those in that area?
There were no streets.
That was rural.
Oh, okay.
In Fredericktown?
Yes.
In Madison County.
Somebody that we've already interviewed said one of the biggest changes in Fredericktown is that these little areas that were named are no longer, they don't have their own school districts anymore.
No.
Like Catherine Mines, Catherine Place, and Cobalt Village, and they were very distinct, I guess before the consolidation of the district school districts.
And as a matter of fact, my father, Claude, he was on the old-fashioned, the Boswell School Board long, long time ago.
And then my husband, I married Bill Whitener then, and he was from the Cedar Grove community, which the earlier community down there was Creek Nation.
That's what it was first called.
And it consisted of Boswell community, Little Vine community, Cedar Bottom, Cedar Creek, and where Cedar Grove, where I live.
And actually Highway E divides that, but it was a gravel road then, of course, a rural road.
And actually it goes down to the big San Francis River.
And then those communities across the river had other names, of course.
You know, Black Mountain for one, and that area down in there, Minimum, and Annapolis, and all of those areas down in there.
And all those little districts had churches, school districts, and, I mean, you know, and churches.
Yeah.
And in fact, I was reading not long ago that the Creek Nation started, that area of Madison County, started getting farmers in there at 1803.
And by 1830, it was completely populated, you know.
And they were farmers.
They were cow and calf operations, hogs, layers, chickens, and dairies.
You know, they had some dairies.
Was it something like Oklahoma, where they were allotted so much property if they agreed to stay and...
A lot of them got their land through land grants.
Okay.
Yeah.
The earlier ones now.
But when Bill and I were married in 1955, the name, they had already consolidated all the schools, and we were the Cedar Grove community.
So it changed from Creek Nation.
Didn't call it that anymore.
Was that a legal change or just...
Well, you know, I don't know how that came about.
I guess maybe it all changed when they consolidated school districts, maybe.
And they did away with all the Boswell School, et cetera.
So they just were no more.
They just all came to Mill Creek.
That's where the school was built.
I went to Boswell School for six years, and my mother taught two of those years.
So she taught me at one time.
And we walked a mile and a half to school and back.
How big was the school?
Do you remember it?
Yes, it was about 30 children.
And it was all eighth grades, you know.
And did you walk along a road?
A road.
Okay.
It wasn't a path.
It was a regular county road.
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
That is far, though.
A mile and a half.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There and back.
And you know, it seems strange to me.
I've talked to my sister about this.
She's passed away now.
So I lost my pal last year.
Oh, I see.
Yeah.
And anyway, and I have a brother who has already passed away.
So I was the oldest, and I'm the only one left now.
But anyway, we can remember walking when there was ice on the ground.
And you know, people would not let their children do that now for no, or even, or even walk a mile and a half to school by themselves.
But we picked up neighbor children along the way.
So we weren't always alone, you know.
And then after the sixth grade, Mill Creek community had their own school.
It was two rooms.
It was the first grade to the fifth grade was in one room.
And then the sixth grade to the eighth grade was in the other room.
So I went there two years, seventh and eighth grade.
And it was called the old Mill Creek school.
And then it's still the air, but it's people live in it now, you know.
And then when I was in eighth grade, I just went there, I'm sorry, to one year, seventh.
And that's when they were building the new Mill Creek schools out there.
There's two of them, you know, our lower building and an upper building.
And I graduated there then from the eighth grade.
Yeah.
I, of course, rode the bus into Fredericktown for, until I graduated from high school.
But that's as far as I went.
Yes.
Do you have any favorite subjects in school?
Yeah, I liked, I love to read.
So I liked reading and I liked science.
I did not at the time like geography and history, but I love it now.
Yeah.
And I had a lot of work to do at home too, because my brother and sister were, I'm three, was three years older than they were.
So they played together.
There was only a year difference in them.
So I had to help with the dishes and help clean the house.
And my job was to do the ironing.
I got to be pretty professional doing the ironing.
Did you guys have a farm at the time or you said you went to work for the shoe factory?
Yes.
He went to work for the shoe factory.
So did you garden or what did you?
We just garden at the time.
Now my grandmother, Birdie, they called her.
She had a huge garden and I would walk over there and help her in her garden and that she taught me how to make pies.
So that's my job today when we have Thanksgiving and Christmas, six pies I have to make every year.
What's the secret?
Well, the secret.
Well, no, I don't want you to give away your secrets, but not butter, lard?
Lard back then and by the way, I have rendered my own lard too after I got married.
But anyway, yes, lard makes the best pie crust in the world.
But my secret now is if I want to make a really good crust, I use lard, but otherwise I use criss-cross and part butter and it makes just as good.
And when you say lard, it's from a pig, right?
That's exactly right.
I mean, nobody ever uses beef.
Oh, no, no, that's called soot.
Oh, is it?
Yes.
Well, they use that then in mincemeat.
Oh, yes.
That's true.
They did.
Yes.
And by the way, I love mincemeat pie, but the rest of my family doesn't.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We're there together.
Yeah.
I made one and I was the only one that ate a piece of it.
I did get David to try a piece, but he didn't like it.
When I went to high school, it was up on High Street.
Okay, by the elementary.
Yes.
And that's where I went four years.
And was it Marvin College?
Did you go to high school there, or was it a different building?
It's a different building.
Marvin College was all ready to go down by then.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
In the early 50s.
Well, let's see.
I graduated from school in 53, got married in 55.
So I don't know if one of those buildings was an old Marvin College building or not.
By the gym, that auditorium, they used to call that.
It was there and we had assemblies there and music lessons there.
And we also had a home-made classes in that building.
So have they torn down the other building that was the high school?
Yes.
And then built the elementary.
Yes.
Okay.
Yeah.
Do you remember, before we go on from there, do you remember any particular things as a child, celebrations in the community or church events or anything like that that stand out to you?
We can go back a little ways.
We used to have pie box suppers, pie suppers, you know, or box suppers used to call them where the ladies and the older students would bring boxes and they, box lunches, decorate them all, put them up for auction.
And that's how they would get money for schools.
And we had King and Queen Contest and we had, back in early school, we had Christmas programs and Halloween programs and all those things.
But schools were still back then trying to raise money for it.
Yeah.
And they would run The Prettiest Girl and take bids on that, you know, and everybody would, whoever got the most money won.
Yeah.
I remember that.
You would have been in your early teens, I guess, during the World War?
No, I would be, let's see, that would be back in, uh, 45 was Second World War, wasn't it?
So that's when it ended.
So I would have been 10 then because I was born in 35.
Right.
So do you remember anything of it or now?
Yes, I do.
I know that Grandma Minor, Bertie, she had five boys in the Second World War at one time and I don't know how she stood that.
That was terrible.
And one of them, uh, one of Dad's, now Dad was the only boy that wasn't in the war because he had a family at that time.
He was the oldest child and, uh, one of his brothers, Uncle Floyd, uh, he had two purple hearts and, oh my Lord, uh, medal after medal and he was a full major when he retired.
Two purple hearts?
Yes.
Could you have a purple heart and then be sent back?
Yeah.
Two purple hearts and, uh, I don't know, he never told me how he got those, but of course you had to be wounded in order to get them, you know, yeah.
And Mother also had, uh, three brothers in the war at that time also because her dad were just four years apart.
So her brothers and sisters were about, of course, the same age as Dad's brothers and sisters were.
So, and each family had 11 children.
Each family had 11 children.
Were you close to your cousins?
Oh yeah, sure.
And it would have reunions and, uh, sometimes we don't see each other too much, but we all call one another and back then and had, uh, family reunions.
Were those usually in the summer?
Because I can't imagine that many people being outside.
No.
Yeah.
It was in the summertime when we would all get together at Grandma's.
I was confused when I was a teenager, so I asked my uncle, what was the deal with food in the 30s and the 40s?
And he said in the 30s there was plenty of food, but nobody had money.
And in the 40s people had money, but their food was rationed.
So did that affect people in Madison County, uh, that, you know, because you grew your own things, but in the cities you could only get sugar or sweetener or eggs or something without rations?
Well, I imagine that was due to the war.
Well, yes, in the 40s.
In the 40s that would have been due to the war.
Did food rationing affect people in Madison County?
Uh, yes, there used to be food stamps where you would have to give food stamps in order to get your food.
And I realize you were young.
Yeah, I remember Mother having a food stamp book.
And so sugar was scarce.
And sugar was scarce.
And meat was scarce.
Unless you went out and shot your own or killed your own if you lived in a rural area.
So there are certain things you could probably manage yourself.
Yes, right.
If you had your own cattle.
Yeah, sure.
And people butchered their own cattle.
And we butchered hogs when we got married.
And I rendered my own lard at the time.
And when Bill and I got married, um, we went in business with Bill's mother and dad, which was Clark and Louise Whitener.
And they lived in the Cedar Grove community.
And we bought a farm right next to them.
Well, we went together and bought it.
And it was the old Ed Lewis farm.
And they had a, uh, all of the house had sat empty for a while.
But we lived there for five years and the termites, we would have tried to restore it.
It was a beautiful old home.
But you could not repair it because of the termite damage in it.
So we lived there for five years and then, uh, we tore it down and built a basement.
And we lived in that basement until the house was built on the top.
So then we proceeded to have five children in seven years.
I had five children in seven years.
But I was going to tell you about the garden, the Ed Lewis farm.
There was 13 of those children, nine girls and four boys.
And they must have had a, they had a huge garden area.
And I read stories about their family in the blue book.
And also, uh, they had a milk house down the lane, a half, almost a half a mile away.
And the children would have to walk down there morning, noon and night and get butter and milk and walk back up to the house and the old spring house is still there.
Why did they, why was it so far away?
Well, that's where a really good spring was.
The only spring that was close enough.
And it was right down along the river too.
And the spring house was on a little hill, set like here and they had their spring house over neath, built over the spring.
And Grandma Minor and Grandpa, uh, they had a tremendous spring.
As a matter of fact, it's been said it was the coldest and best in Madison County and it still runs a stream into the creek where I was raised there.
That sounds wonderful.
It sounds as if people in the country were better off food wise than people in the city.
I think so, except my father told me, uh, when they were, he was 10, he remembered back to where he, he told me about when he was seven.
They lived in their Bruno area, which is way beyond, is right down where Juette is.
Have you heard of Juette?
I have.
Well, it's on past Juette a little ways and they were raised there.
They rented a, they lived in a house there and I think they must have rented it because Dad said one winter the snow covered the fence post.
And him, since he was the oldest boy, him and Grandpa would have to go out and find rabbit holes and knock rabbits in the head and hang them on their porch because it was so cold back then.
They would freeze and they would go and that was the only meat they had other than potatoes and turnips.
And so I think at that time when Dad was 10, uh, they had some really tough times then because they had 11 children too.
They had to feed.
Yeah.
So you know, too, it's when we, I think when we, a lot of times when we think about that time period and people growing their own food and doing all of that, I don't know if they have bigger families, but you know, sometimes things go wrong.
Sure.
There's years where things don't grow as well and you know, we forget those details unless you've had a garden, you know, rain or.
Yeah.
Well, and you know, my grandma taught me how to can too and so her and I would do green beans together.
I'm taught, you know, green beans together and stuff.
So when I got married, Grandma Louise knew how to can too.
That was Bill's mom and one summer we can 500 quarts of green beans, but they were about the only thing that did good in the garden at that time other than tomatoes and squashes and ear corn.
You could not grow sometimes like asparagus or cauliflower or broccoli because of the bugs and cabbages get good and lettuce to get good, you know, but my grandma now back later on, she grew those things.
And I guess the bugs weren't so bad then.
I don't.
They seem to cycle.
Some years they're.
Yeah.
It's interesting because we're used to the grocery store where we can get anything.
Well, right.
And grandma used to grow wonderful eggplant and that's how, you know.
But then when I was married and tried to grow it, I could not grow it.
I mean, it's very hard to grow.
And broccoli, you don't grow much broccoli, do you?
Brussels sprouts, they're hard to grow too.
I think they're as well as humans liking them, insects like them and pests like them too.
Now, I've always been afraid to can because the directions are so scary.
You know, like, oh, do this or you'll get botulism or something.
But people did it all the time.
So what did you do to make sure that, you know, there wouldn't be any bad bacteria in it?
Well, you have to be very clean with it.
First, when you gather it from the garden, bring it in the house and wash it really good.
Wash it and make sure you sterilize your jars.
Always wash mine in hot soapy water.
Then I would put a big roaster on the stove, set them open down in hot boiling water for 10 minutes and let the steam go up inside them.
And then put your produce, like your green beans or whatever you're going to can in them and process them and they just turn out wonderful unless your lids don't seal.
You have to make sure that you hear your lids snap down.
You buy the lids that snap, you hear them snap down and they're sealed.
And you can keep them for five years or better.
Now would there ever be a visual aid to let you know if it would not be safe to eat it?
Yeah, even if the lid sealed and say you had a piece of bean or something was under the seal of it, it might take it maybe 10 days or so to see.
If you were going to pick it up and open it for dinner, you could tell the beans would be swiveled on the top or they would smell bad or they didn't have a good color or something.
And I was always one that threw out those if they happened.
The lids would bulge too sometimes, and they would kind of pop off.
And they would be easy to pop off.
And now if you're going to make kraut, you need to use the zinc lids and the rubber rings.
And they hold good too, even if they're cold, because you know, you can kraut hot, you know, it's cold.
Did you do a lot of kraut?
Yes, I did.
I did.
The kids loved kraut.
My mouth is watering.
Oh, I love kraut, yes.
What you buy today is just not like what you used to make a long time ago.
You graduated, you said you got married how many years after graduation?
Two.
Two years.
In 1955.
Okay, and who was your husband again?
Bill Whitener.
Yeah, he was on the Frederictown School Board for 17 years.
And what did he do?
He never had an outside job.
He was a regular farmer.
We were purely farmers.
And our operation was cow and calf.
And we rented land to have enough land to run our cows on.
And here in town, we knew people that had land to rent and built would haul some cattle in here.
And we would come in and see about them.
And then we had a hog operation.
And of course, we fattened them because we built a feeding floor and fed those out.
And we had a layer operation.
When I was in charge, we would buy 600 laying hens.
And they were always the laggards.
Because they lay most, the most eggs, rather than a heavy hen.
And they eat less.
You got to think about that too.
A heavy hen eats like a Rhode Island red, these big plump red heavy hens.
They can eat a ton of food.
And anyway, we had 600 at a time.
And I graded the eggs.
And that meant you had to gather them at least three times a day.
And we got an egg washer and baskets that would sit in there.
And they would just swish real easy, you know.
And we had it set up in my basement.
And then you had a candler that you would candle them to see if there was blood spots in them.
Or if they were bad.
And we had a market for eggs.
We delivered twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Did you deliver out to people?
No, we just delivered to stores.
Describe a candler.
Well, actually it is just like a gallon can sitting on its side with a lid on it, a hole in it.
And it's fixed to where you can screw a light bulb in it.
And you put your egg up to that hole and turn it around so you can see the yolk float.
And then we had a weighing machine.
Well, actually it was a flat rubber pad.
And it had a scale right here.
And it had three grooves, large groove, middle groove, and a small groove.
So you put your egg on that scale.
And if it weighed medium, it would roll down and go in the medium groove.
Yeah, it worked really good.
And then most people wanted large eggs.
So we kept them separate and sold the medium eggs for a little bit less money than the large eggs were.
At one time we fattened out cattle and we would sell fat cattle.
But then we quit that and would just sell like in the fall, get your calves that were up because we had 300 cows at one time.
So that meant quite a bit of money when you sold a bunch of your calves at one time when they were ready to sell.
And then of course the hogs went to St.
Louis to the market when they were ready.
And we had haulers that came and hauled them for us.
Pretty big operations.
Do you have employees?
No, we had one for years.
And if he would quit, then we'd try to get others, but you just can't hardly get anybody anymore.
Well, of course, Bill's passed away now anyway.
So I imagine the kids helped a good bit too.
Oh yeah, the boys did.
And my oldest girl helped quite a bit.
And then they helped in the household too.
And then Bill was really, before we got married in high school, he was, Francis, I forget Mr. Gillette's name, the old future farmer teacher, you know.
His last name was Gillette?
Yes.
Yeah.
And he was big in future farmers.
And he went on to get the American farmer degree, Bill did.
And we got a balanced farming degree when we were married and had five little kids.
And then by the way, David was a, he got the future farmers of America degree.
So did Eli, his son.
Now where did they go for that?
Well in school, in school they worked towards that.
And their grades and everything.
And there is an organization, as right now, Tom Mooney, you know, was ag teacher here and now his daughter took over for him.
So they prepare for that if they want, because they have that organization in schools right now.
So I just wanted to tell you that, that all three of them had that degree.
And Rachel, David's daughter has that also because she was always interested in that.
How far back does that program go, do you know?
Oh well, Ernest Ward, Grandma Louise's brother, he got it back then.
So it goes back a long way.
Okay.
It's been around for a good long while.
It's been around.
I don't know the history of it at all.
Well, actually a lot of our interviewees have talked about the 4-H.
I think you're the first one that brought up the FFA.
Yeah.
And when I was a teenager and even before then, in our Cedar Grove community, we had a 4-H club and it was called the ABC club and it was always busy clubbers.
And we would meet at the mother's house as our, you know, my house and Louise's house and all the kids in the community always belonged.
Is there a difference between, or I guess, well I know there is, is there a relationship between the 4-H and the FFA?
Is the 4-H what you do when you're younger and then fewer people may be going?
Well, actually, it's all the same principle, but I mean, there's no high organizations in the 4-H clubs.
You know, they're just, when you're in high school and you have community leaders, like the Juette 4-H club is very big now and like Sandra Sample and all those ladies down in there and there's one here in town or maybe they are all combined now.
I really don't know.
And is the FFA more academic maybe than the 4-H?
I'm trying to figure out what the difference might be.
Well, FFA has to do with cropping.
Okay.
So, learning how and you can have projects like you can have welding, you can have chickens, you can have cow and calf and you've got to keep a notebook of all your duties and all your expenses and all your receipts and be judged on that also.
So, it's getting also into business aspects of what it means to be a farmer.
Yeah, yes.
If you want to be a farmer, then you have better knowledge of what you're doing and how to do it, you know, yeah.
And is the FFA, is that a high school program or is it something people do outside of high school or does it even go to college?
Well, you don't get your American farmer degree until you're a year or two out of high school because you've got to keep working and through your FFA, your local FFA.
It almost sounds like a college of sorts.
Well, no, it isn't a college, but they do have conventions and they have officers, state officers and federal and national officers because it is a huge organization and it is all toward the farming aspect and ladies and gentlemen both do it, you know.
So, okay, so it's basically it's vocational business and farming, vocational training out of high school, kind of taking it to the next level without, okay.
Do you think farmers in Madison County have been approached by big agricultural corporations offering to buy people out?
Well, probably at one time it was, I think there was an article in our Democrat News about, you know, China has bought out like some of these large meat operations like chickens, tisans and maybe in the livestock end of it too, I'm not really for sure, but I imagine they are approached at, you know, one time or another.
I assume, I guess there are, it seems like we have a pretty active cattle community as far as farmers still raising pigs and cattle.
Yeah, right.
Well- David was and Eli are still involved, right?
Well, David was and we, he did, after Bill died, we did fatten out the rest of our cattle and had to get rid of them, of course.
And then we quit the hog business too because Bill was, he died from lymphoma.
Eli is farming now too?
Eli is just a grain farmer.
I mean, not just, he has, I think he rents like 800 acres of land and he had, he sows soybeans and corn and you should see the corn, his corn, plus he plants this out here and all around and across from the high school and just a lot of land that in his crops always look just fantastic.
And this year with so much rain, you can just see the corn grow.
You know, my grandpa always said, you can see that corn grow.
Well, I know, in the spring there was a lot of concern that so much rain up north they weren t getting it in the ground.
Well, and a lot of them didn t get it planted.
But Eli was very fortunate in that he got all his planted, but I think he was a little late on some getting some soybeans out, but he s done a really good job of getting all his out.
But I was going to tell you when Bill and I first got married and moved to that community down there.
Now, I was raised on E Highway, which was in the Boswell community and at that time it was called Creek Nation.
But when I moved down after we got married, it was Cedar Grove.
And there was the Clark, his mother and dad, well, there was five dairies at one time down there and that just in that community.
And there was Rayford Bullinger, Raymond and Paul, and they had cattle and hog operations.
Well, all of them did not have outside jobs at that time.
They all were full-fledged farmers, and even Bill was always a full-fledged farmer because we always had a bigger one.
But now, well, I would say right now, everybody has to work to, you know.
Farming is more of a side thing?
Yeah.
Or they have to do both.
Now, my daughter married Joe and her husband.
Their son is in with them, now he works, but he does help on the farm too.
And they make hay and they have a cow and calf operation.
But of course, Mary Jo's been a teacher.
And then Frank, he was in the well drilling and the gas operation.
So even with the same amount of acreage and planting the same amount of crops or having the same amount of cattle, they have to work.
Why is that?
Well, the cost of living has went up so much, I think, and everything costs so much.
Your feed that you're going to feed your cattle is expensive, but if you have several children, you have a big expense right there also, you know.
And then later years, then Bill was a full-fledged farmer and Clark retired and he drove a school bus for the school district.
And then John Bullinger, who was Rayford's Bullinger's son, he had a huge hog operation and all their wives worked, you know, away from home.
With the many wives.
Now, you stayed home and worked on the farm, right?
Yes.
Until all my children were gone.
Right.
And then I worked for the animal hospital for 10 years as their bookkeeper.
That was when Dr. Bryson had it.
I worked 10 years there.
And at the time I was working there, guess what I did?
I worked at the sale barn, riding tickets by hand.
Wow.
And you don't think that's not a hard job?
When a rainfall of cattle comes in and you're sitting up there and here is auctioneer and you've got to count those cattle and here 70 head of cattle sold at $56.
Or if they sell them by head, you've got to put $100 head and it's just very detailed.
And if they're numbered, you're supposed to get their numbers like on the back.
So when your kids were grown and you went to work at the animal hospital, what happened to the stuff that you were doing on the farm, like as far as the eggs and all that?
Well, we had quit the egg business and Bill, he had cut back on our hogs and our cattle.
And then I ran for election, you know, and I ran for county clerk and I was elected and I served four terms, which is 16 years.
And then I retired.
And then it wasn't too long after that that Bill, well, actually Bill passed away before I retired.
So this is sort of the ebb and flow of, and I guess that happens a lot where people farm for a while and then...
Well, they get older, their children leave home.
And right now I have eight grandkids.
I have 11 great, great grandkids and I've made them all quilt.
And at first I didn't like being retired, but you got to get used to it.
But I retired when I was 72 and I thought, well, okay, if I run again, 72, 73, 74, you don't know what health you're going to be in and it would be bad to run and win and have to retire in midstream.
So I decided to retire then.
Do you have a lot of your kids and grandkids, a lot of the family still in this area then?
Oh yes.
All of them are real close to me, except for my oldest daughter, Janae, who works for LabCorp of America.
And she is in charge of the...she lives in Dallas, Texas, and she is in charge of their contract and renting business and their headquarters is in Dallas.
So she works there.
So one question I have, you've been around thinking about...you've been around for a while, you served at...you worked at the county.
You have a long-term perspective with Frederictown, Madison County.
Do you have any thoughts on Frederictown and Madison County today, what you see?
Well I just think it's a beautiful county and we just have diversified businesses and great businesses here.
I know Main Street is...but that happens to a lot of little towns, you know, and we have a huge Walmart and I just think Madison County is a wonderful place and Frederictown, I love it.
Of course I'm partial to rural areas, but anyway it's a quaint little town and it's great, really great, yeah.
Also the older people in the community, we've got nursing homes that take care of them and I think we should really appreciate what we've got here and wonderful people.
Oh, another thing I was going to tell you of course, you know, we have two really good rivers in this territory.
We have the big St.
Francis and the little St.
Francis runs through our farm because on the other side of the river we have two fields over there.
And a long time ago they had these crossings, river crossings, fords you used to call them, and there is a ford below Grandma Bill's mom and dad's house where Eli and Whitley live now and it was called St.
Clair Ford, but they call it the Whitener Ford now because there's so many Whiteners live in there because my son Dick lives right down the road, Mary Jo lives this way down the road, David lives this way down the road, and Sherry, she lives at Deer Run, so that's not far, but then of course my daughter Janay, who's the oldest, she lives in Dallas.
Will Ford also be like a low water bridge?
Well, at that time, yes.
Then they concreted them and made a low water bridge, you know, but at that time you had to cross it on the gravel, in the water.
Oh, okay.
So later on they just started it in concrete to make it smoother for cars and stuff?
Yeah, right, yeah.
Now the White, the St.
Clair Ford or the Whitener Ford now, part of it is on the concrete, I mean on the gravel, the upper end does have a little culvert going through it, but it's pretty long.
And then of course there is Matthews Creek and Slaters Creek that runs through properties down there also, and you know, that's interesting because there's good wells and good water, you know, for your gravel and stuff.
I wanted to ask about when you said you were thinking, you know, as you were retiring from the farming, did renting out your land or leasing your land, do some farmers do that when they want to ease up on the load?
I think they do, just like Eli rents land for his crops, you know.
Yeah, I think people get attached, if they are in the country, they don't want to sell their land, and if they can get by, I think they would rather rent it, you know.
But of course when my husband passed away, we had a little over 300 acres, and I divided that up and gave it to my kids, is what I did with mine.
Do you use a computer?
Are you on Facebook?
How connected do you feel?
I'm not one of these computer fanatics, you might say.
Yes, I know how to get on the internet and look up what I want.
Do you do that with a phone or do you have a tablet?
No, I have a new computer, my kids, Janay, my kids got it for me, Janay did, and hooked it all up.
And I play games, I do get on there and look up what I want, and I like to look at, well lilies are my favorite flower, so I get on there and look at flowers and antiques things, and I love antiques, but I'm not one of the well-known computer operators.
Do you email and use it to stay in touch with family at all?
No, I don't, because I just telephone them.
You just call them?
Yeah.
Do you text?
No.
My daughter, Sherry, they get me a cell phone, but I use it as little as possible.
So a landline, like an old fashioned landline, is one of the holdouts, yeah?
Yeah.
I was just listening to someone talk about that the other day, and landlines are one of the things that seems to be getting left behind.
Yeah.
Well, everybody now don't want to pay for their landline when they have a cell phone.
Landlines are much cheaper.
Oh my gosh.
Well, exactly, when you go to purchasing a cell phone, a new one, if you have to have one.
And now it seems like apparently every kid has to have one, and so, yeah, you don't just have one, you got five or three, or however many kids you got.
Yeah.
So, okay.
Thank you so much.
Well, you're welcome.
Thank you.