<Begin Segment 19>

TI: So let's go back to Wyoming. So where we left you off at Wyoming was in the, I think, in the later '30s. At that point you had two boys, you had Paul, your oldest, and then two years later John came along. So what was it like raising two boys in Wyoming in the late '90s?

BH: It was nice because it was free. But only thing I had to watch them is that they don't get into the cactus too much, because they had that bug. So every night, after they play, we'd have to undress them and check everything to see if they had the... what was it called now?

TI: Was it like little ticks or something?

BH: Yeah, ticks. And so to see if they had ticks in their hair or someplace, we had to check them every night to see that they didn't have any ticks. So fortunately, they didn't catch any.

TI: And so during this time, did your, was your husband painting during this time?

BH: Oh, yes. He was painting every time when he was at home, he was painting.

TI: And describe that. Did he have like a separate room, like a studio?

BH: No, it was right in the front room. It only had one big room.

TI: And where would he get his art supplies?

BH: We had a little store in... oh then of course occasionally he'd come to, he used to go to Seattle and get some at the art store. But they had a little store in Rock Springs where we ended up living, which is a big, another big city there. And they had a place, I think it was... I can't even tell what kind of a store it was. Stationery and things like that. So we used to go there and pick out his canvas. And he of course got the cotton one, which was the cheapest one to get, so he could buy one yard of that and then paint on that. And then one time when his birthday was coming or something, I decided I'm going to buy him some linen canvas, 'cause he used to talk about the linen canvas, how good it was. So I went and bought him a yard of the thing and gave it to him, and he was so surprised and shocked because I bought him a linen canvas. And he says, "This is so good, I can't paint on it." So he carried it for a long time without painting anything on it.

TI: Oh, that's interesting. And so when your husband, Paul, spent all this time painting, what did you think when you watched him?

BH: Well, I just watched him and I did my own thing. Of course, no electricity, so there's not much we can do, just listen to the radio and do whatever, like patching clothes and washing, everything was done by hand, had to wash clothes by hand, hand wash it like this. And being a railroad man, his clothes would get real greasy and dirty. Had to wash that, overalls. [Laughs] And, of course, we had severe winters, though. They wouldn't dry, so we'd have to hang it up next to the stove to get it all dry.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.