Oral History Interview with Net Morton

MEYERS: Did you grow up in this county?

MORTON: Yeah, I[‘ve] never lived no were [anywhere] else till 1954, went to Michigan, stayed out there for about eighteen years, come [came] back to Whitley County. My oldest

daughter was born in 1929 in Whitley County.

MEYERS: What did you feed her when she was born?

MORTON: Fed her on the breast.

MEYERS: How many Kids did you have?

MORTON: Ten.

MEYERS: When did you wean the baby?

MORTON: My first one was about nine months old.

MEYERS: What was a typical day like for you back then?

MORTON: Washed dishes, make up the beds, sweep the floor, scrub the floor with a broom.

MEYERS: Did you soap powders, or did you make your own soap?

MORTON: Made my own soap.

MEYERS: What age did you start them on solid foods?

MORTON: As soon as I weaned them.

MEYERS: What did they like to eat?

MORTON: Whatever I put on the table; they would eat.

MEYERS: Did yous [you] all eat together?

MORTON: Yeah, we all ate together.

MEYERS: Were there times when yous [you] didn't have enough food?

MORTON: Not really, we had enough of what we did have, we didn't have a big

Variety.

MEYERS: Did you depend on a garden?

MORTON: My garden, my cows, my chickens, my pigs.

MEYERS: Did you[r] kids have any childhood illnesses?

MORTON: One had asthma, Betty had asthma and Archie had tuberculosis of the bones when he was four years old.

MEYERS: Did you have a doctor to treat them?

MORTON: Sometimes when they would get [a] sore throat, I would get mullen [mullein] leaves to put on their throat, wet them on--lay them on their throat.

MEYERS: Did any of them ever have to go to the hospital?

MORTON: No, except Archie.

MEYERS: Did any of them ever have colic, diaper rash or anything else?

MORTON: They had diaper rash and what they call the thrash [thrush].

MEYERS: Do you have any favorite home remedies that you can remember?

MORTON: Sage tea for a sore mouth.

MEYERS: Do you think kids are different today than they were back, then do you think people were stricter back then?

MORTON: Well, we must of have [have had] then, on the other hand, they weren't [there wasn’t] so much to do.

MEYERS: How would you dress your kids?

MORTON: I would buy feed in print sacks and make them--shirts and dresses out of them for the kids.

MEYERS: Toys?

MORTON: They made their own toys.

MEYERS: Out of wood?

MORTON: Yeah, out of wood, they would saw wheels off of a log and make wagons and they would take the wagon and go over the hill with it and drag it back up the hill.

MEYERS: Did you ever have nursery rhymes or sing to the kids?

MORTON: We sang but, we didn't have nursery rhymes.

MEYERS: Did you read to your kids?

MORTON: Not very much, except for the books that you brought home from school. I didn't have much to read myself except the bible.

MEYERS: Did you have time in the day to play with your kids?

MORTON: Not much, I had a girl staying with me all the time and between me and her we took care of the kids and the house working with canning and the garden and picking blackberries.

MEYERS: How close were your kids together?

MORTON: From ten to fifteen months.

MEYERS: Did you have cribs, playpens, walkers, strollers, or anything like that?

MORTON: No.

MEYERS: Did your kids take naps during the day?

MORTON: Yeah, until they were about a year old.

MEYERS: Did you husband have time to help you?

MORTON: No, he worked a lot, what he done really [he really did] was make moonshine.

MEYERS: Anything else you can remember about your babies?

MORTON: I weaned Ardie at night, she would cry, and she loved baked sweet potatoes and milk every night before she would get ready to go to sleep. She would have a baked potato and a glass of milk and a piece of cornbread and she would sit there and eat that till she wasn’t hungry no [any]more and then she would go to sleep.