<Begin Segment 23>

AI: Well, also, I wanted to ask you about those early, the 1930s. I think you had mentioned that for a while, that you also did some work off of the farm. That for a while that you had done some work in some homes with families in the Browns Point area?

PB: Yes. Well, that's the first time I went out and did any work. I went to work as a housegirl, I worked for Edris family. They were the managers of the chain of theaters that were in Tacoma. That's the same chain they had in Seattle, the Hamerick chain, and Bill, Ned Edris is the one that managed the Hamerick Theaters in Tacoma. So I had passes to all the theaters, but at that time, it seemed like when I went to see a movie, I'd get a headache and I'd get sick, so I didn't go very often. But once in a while, I would go with Mrs. Edris. They were such a wonderful family; she treated me just like her daughter. She just went out of the way to do things for me. She'd shampoo my hair, she'd fit clothes on me, and she'd insist that we'd go down and take a swim every afternoon, and then she'd say, "Well, now you take a nap for a while." And she just treated me so well that my mother says, "You're living like a millionaire." [Laughs]

AI: Well, their, the family must have been very well-to-do.

PB: Well, they didn't have any children, for one thing. And they also had concessions at Longacres, so they were wealthy people.

AI: And what would be some of your typical duties around the house?

PB: Oh, I did cooking and I did the cleaning, but she was always teaching me shortcuts. She taught me wonderful way of keeping house; how to clean the house thoroughly, like nowadays, people don't, I don't think that anybody teaches a person to do different things like she taught me. She said, "Save steps." Like if you're carrying things to the basement, you leave it at the foot of, the top of the stairs, and take it down with you when you go down. And like vacuuming, if there was scatter rugs, you vacuum one side of the rug, and you turn it over and vacuum the other side. How many people do that nowadays? They just don't know, because they've never had anyone teach them. But that was the way with Mrs. Edris, she would teach me. "You do things this way," and when you serve, you heat the plates. And she'd put 'em on the stove up where the warmer was, so you could heat the plates. And she taught me ways to save steps, and how to save yourself. She was just a wonderful person.

AI: Now, did you live-in with the family, the Edris family?

PB: Yes, uh-huh.

AI: And was that, that you worked with them for perhaps a year or so?

PB: Yes.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.