2/16 interview

2/16
On this day Joy started off our discussing with talking about her mom. She started off with telling me that her mom did many things to be able to have food on the table for her children, and one of those things was making wedding and bridesmaid dresses. Joy also mentioned that her mom made her prom dress when she was in high school. Joy’s mom was a nurse and a seamstress. Joy also mentioned that child support back then was ten dollars per child.
Joy went on to talk about her parent’s marriage after that. The day of the divorce, the hearing for the divorce was held in the morning and the sanity hearing for her father was held in the afternoon. And this was arranged because Joy’s mom wouldn’t have been able to get a divorce if Joy’s dad had already been sent to a mental institution. Joy went on to say that it was a doctor friend who convinced Joy’s mom to get a divorce. Joy’s mom knew that Joy’s dad didn’t mean to be abusive, and that it was the schizophrenia that turned him into someone he wasn’t. One of the reasons Joy gave for knowing that her parents always loved each other was that up to the day she died, her mother never talked bad about the children’s father to anyone. Joy’s father was buried with his family, and Joy’s mom was buried with her children. A sweet thing Joy mentioned was that her father is on her mother’s tombstone. Joy’s father was the first to die and Joy attended his funeral. Back then the legal age was twenty-one, so Joy was not allowed to visit her father until she was twenty-one. Her father was released from the mental institution seven years after he went in. After her dad died, Joy united with her father’s side of the family and is now the family historian.
Next Joy told me about the pets she had. She said she always had a dog but they were always considered farm animals. She next talked about Pete and Pauli, the two pet raccoons they had. Their raccoons lived in the house until they were adults, and that’s when they were let into the wild. Joy also had Pierre, a pet squirrel. The story with Pierre was that some men were cutting down trees and there was a nest in one of the trees, and the mom squirrel was accidently killed. The babies were then given to the biggest families in town, and Joy’s family was one of them. Joy fondly remembered that she carried the baby squirrel home in a glove that was later named Pierre. Pierre unlike the raccoons stayed living in Joy’s family home until he died. Joy recalled that Pierre loved strawberries and soda crackers. As for now, Joy said that she own nine cats right now.
Next Joy started talking about how time was spent in her family. She said that when it was light outside, they would hang out outside and play the games they loved. They would also help their mom with the garden. But basically what they would always do was either chores or play. What Joy loved about her family was that there was always someone to play with. On a typical day Joy would go to school and then when she would get back, she would change clothes and then she would go help around the farm. After the chores she would help prepare supper. Another thing about Joy’s family is that they are a card playing family, and they always play cards at big family gatherings. Another thing Joy talked about was that their family never had a tv until Joy was a teenager. And when she was married it took five years for her to get a tv.
After that Joy talked about her first job. She got her first job when she was thirteen. She was a secretary for the First Presbyterian Church in Mediapolis.
Joy then proceeded to talk about the types of meals she used to have at home. Joy said that she always had gravy with every meal, no matter what it was. Her favorite meal, even to this day is bread with gravy. A thing Joy said she admired about her mom was that her mom was able to feed herself and her kids with just two slices of baloney. Joy also mentioned that she was part of the youngest group that was still educated in a one room school house.