<Begin Segment 5>

MA: So then you, you were telling me earlier that your father was actually involved in an accident when you were --

GF: Oh yes.

MA: -- a teenager?

GF: I was... I think, I'm gonna say, I got as far as to the ninth grade. It probably took me forever to get there. But that's when my father got kicked from the horse. He was training a horse and he got injured pretty bad and he couldn't do too much work. He had back problems so he says, "Well George," he said, "You're the oldest in the family. You need to quit school and help run the farm." I says, "Fine, I'll do that." Which made me happy because, you know, whenever you don't go to school very much you don't learn too much and you can't keep up. So I was glad to quit. So I quit and helped father farm.

MA: So you, before your father's accident, you had been... not going to school very regularly because...

GF: I still weren't, even though my dad was still in physical condition, he needed help. So me being the oldest one, I had to do most of the help at home.

MA: So then after his accident you really took on full responsibility?

GF: Right, yes.

MA: So when your father had his accident, did you take him to the doctor? Was there a hospital in Ault?

GF: You know, that is what, I still can't recall just how it happened. Whether he... I'm sure it wasn't, you know, like a broken bone where he couldn't move. But he was sore muscles and, and moved very little. So he had a hard time gettin' up, going to work. So that's why I had to help him.

MA: Did the doctors usually come to, like if you were sick or something, did the doctors come to your house?

GF: I don't remember doctors coming to my house. So most of the thing, if we were sick, I don't know what they got. [Laughs] I guess we never got sick. Yeah. The only time, well, we weren't sick, but they had an epidemic of scarlet fever. And they come out and quarantined our house. They put a tag on there, but I pulled it off and went to school and took it back home. [Laughs] But I don't remember any doctors coming for us.

MA: Interesting. So they quarantined your house so...

GF: They quarantined because of that scarlet fever.

MA: Interesting. So, then your father had the accident, so, when you were sixteen you said? Or, a teenager?

GF: It might have been either fifteen or sixteen years old. It might have been... probably sixteen.

MA: So I'm just curious about the Great Depression. Did you feel an impact at all on your farming or in Ault, in the '30s?

GF: I believe maybe because we were too young for the depression time. All I know is that we could say that we didn't have any money which I'm sure there was a lot of families did not have enough money, but we didn't starve because when you're on a farm you got vegetables, you got meat and all, all the things that you might say was a luxury for city people. So, we can't say that we really suffered that bad.

MA: Did your, so after you took over on the farm, after your father got injured, did your siblings also help out? Did any of them also have to quit school?

GF: Oh yeah, they helped. Like, things like hoeing beets or onion or things like that. They all had to help no matter how small they were.

MA: But did they continue school?

GF: Oh yeah. They did.

MA: So you were the only one that your father asked to, to quit school and...

GF: Well, actually, I think there was, out of the seven of us, there's three of us that didn't get a full education. One of 'em is my sister. She was the third in the family. Yes, third member in the family. And the fourth member, he was a boy. And whenever he got able to, old enough that he could go in the service, well, he was called for the draft and he went in the service before my other brother went, to kind of, thought that maybe it'd help so he could stay and finish out school. So, my brother Roy -- which would be the third member, boy, in the family -- and myself, two boys, we didn't get to complete the education. I don't think my brother Roy went to finish out. I'm not sure.

MA: What about your sister. Why didn't she finish?

GF: Well, I don't know. I think Mom probably thought she needed help there. I'm not sure, but I know she didn't, or I think she didn't finish school.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.