SC: Have you lived here all your life?
FC: Yes.
SC: How old was [were] you when you had your first?
FC: Nineteen.
SC: How many children do you have?
FC: Five.
SC: What was it like for you to have a baby back then?
FC: It wasn’t as easy as it is now, but it was a pleasure.
SC: Did you have your baby at the hospital, or did you have it at home?
FC: Had it at home with the doctor?
SC: Did they give you any anesthesia or did you just have him natural?
FC: Just had him natural.
SC: Could you tell me what a typical day was for you back then?
FC: I usually got up real[ly] early in the morning because the baby woke up early, which I got up all through the night to feed it and then I cooked their breakfast and did my housework and then there were diapers to wash, the baby to take care of all through the day.
SC: What did you fix for breakfast?
FC: When the baby got old enough to eat from the table, I fed him egg yolks, gravy, soft foods.
SC: When the baby was an infant, did you breastfeed or bottle?
FC: Breastfed him for about a month then I put him on the bottle.
SC: When you used the bottle, what kind of formula did you use in it?
FC: Pet or Carnation cream, you had to add water to it.
SC: Did you use a plastic bottle or glass?
FC: Glass.
SC: Did you give a sugar tit or pacifier?
FC: Pacifier.
SC: How did you know what to feed it when you started feeding it solid foods?
FC: We'll then we didn’t have baby food like they do now, we just fed them what we had and what we thought would be good for them, like egg yolks, gravy, mashed potatoes.
SC: What did kids like to eat back then?
FC: Just about anything, they eat better than they do now.
SC: Do you think is--was better to feed them baby food or feed them off the table?
FC: They get more vitamins [vitamin] stuff today than they had then.
SC: What age was [were] they when you weaned them from the bottle?
FC: Eighteen or twenty-four months.
SC: Where there times when you didn’t/t have enough food to feed them all?
FC: No not very many times, we usually managed to have something for the baby.
SC: Did you depend on a garden to feed them?
FC: Yes.
SC: Where [Were] your babies ever sick?
FC: Yes, there were.
SC: Any particular illnesses you remember?
FC: When my second baby was about three weeks old, he took colitis and he had to be put in the hospital.
SC: How did they treat it?
FC: I couldn’t get his milk to agree with him until then they had to put him on powder Isomol (??) that was the only milk they could find for him.
SC: Where were the doctors at?
FC: Jellico Hospital.
SC: Did they ever have colic?
FC: Yes.
SC: How did you treat it?
FC: I usually tried to keep them warm, sometimes I would give them a little bit of warm water to try to calm them down give them medicine too.
SC: Did they ever have diaper rash?
FC: Yes.
SC: How did you treat it?
FC: Well, I use[d] to put powders on them or cornstarch.
SC: How about diarrhea.
FC: Yes.
SC: What about colds, did they have them real[ly] bad?
FC: Yes.
SC: Did you treat them at home for colds or take them to the doctor?
FC: I give them a piece of aspirin, or I rubbed vic save or vapor save.
SC: Did they ever have any bad infections?
FC: No.
SC: What about accidents, did they ever fall and break any bones?
FC: No.
SC: Did they ever have whooping cough?
FC: Yes.
SC: How did you treat it?
FC: I just tried to keep them warm.
SC: Did you ever use any home remedies?
FC: Yes.
SC: Did you have any favorite ones that you liked to use?
FC: I liked the vapor save to rub on their chest and on their back, then I would get me a flannel cloth and warm it and put it on their chest and on their back till it broke the cold.
SC: Did you ever have any babies to die as infants?
FC: Yes, I had one.
SC: Is there any way you could tell me about it?
FC: It was in 1968, he was born dead.
SC: Today all the kids have the Fischer Price toys and just about anything you could think of to play with, the little kids have it, did your babies ever have any of them?
FC: No, I just got a bright colored lid or for a rattler, I would get a baking powder can and put a button in it.
SC: What about cutting teeth, how did you ease their pain?
FC: I would rub their gums.
SC: You didn't have any numbing gel?
FC: No.
SC: Did you ever sing them any songs or tell them any nursery rhymes?
FC: Yes.
SC: Could you sing a song for me?
FC: No, I can't recall what I sang to them.
SC: What age were they when you read to them?
FC: About one and two.
SC: Did you have a story book or did you just read to them out of a
book?
FC: I just read out of a book; I would find one that they could understand.
SC: When you had to go outside for anything, you said that you didn't have a play pen how did you take the baby outside?
FC: The first, I didn't have one, but with the second one I did.
SC: With your first baby, when you had to go outside, did you take him
with you?
FC: Usually there was somebody in there with me we wouldn't all the time living by ourselves.
SC: When you had to rush out, what did you put him in?
FC: I would put him in a paper box, and I would put a quilt in it and put him in it, or either I would spread a quilt out in the floor and put him on it then, I would hurry and do what I had to do.
SC: Did you ever make them any dolls?
FC: Yes, I have out of a piece of cloth.
SC: How did you dress him when he was a baby?
FC: Well, I when he was first born, I would put gowns on him, then when he got older, I usually put little, short legged pants and shorts sleeves shirts or a romper.
SC: Did you use cloth diapers?
FC: Yes.
SC: When they got old enough, how did you potty train them?
FC: My boys were harder than the girls, I just took their diaper off, took them to the bathroom and I kept doing that over and over till I got them trained.
SC: Did they take any naps during the day?
FC: Yes.
SC: At bedtime, did they sleep with you?
FC: Yes, I didn't have very much room and the babies usually slept with me.
SC: Did you read them a story or anything before they went to bed?
FC: Sometimes I did, sometimes I would just hum or talk to them and pat them on the back.
SC: Who helped you with your baby?
FC: My husband.
SC: What role did your husband play?
FC: He had to work through the day, but he helped.
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