Densho Digital Archive - Susan Brown Phelps Interview (denshovh-psusan-01-0002)

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RM: Did your father... did he get a job in journalism before becoming a teacher?

SP: Not that I know of, but I don't know a lot about what all they did.

RM: So the job in Big Pine, do you know how he found out about it or how he got hired into that position?

SP: Yeah, I wish I did know. I wouldn't be surprised if it was through the USC employment office or something like that, looking for teachers in an area where it was relatively hard to find people. But during that economic crunch time was an opportunity for a young person.

RM: Had he been to the Owens Valley before, having grown up in California?

SP: I honestly don't know. I doubt if either one of them had been up here. I wish... you always look back at all the questions you didn't ask, but I wish I knew more about how it was they wound up (in Bishop). But I do know that they wound up getting friends of theirs to move up to this area, too, some college friends. And so people like Russ Reagan who ran the major pharmacy in Bishop for many years was one of their college friends. And there was a woman named Gladys Wasson who was, I think, she taught business classes, she taught typing or something at the high school in Big Pine. And she was spoken of a lot, and I'm not sure who she was in the picture, whether maybe she was a connection from Los Angeles, I honestly don't know.

RM: Did your parents ever talk about their first impressions when they arrived in Big Pine?

SP: I remember stories my mother would talk about, how I think they loved the community feeling. I think it was hard, you know, they were living in a very simple, small house, and the wood stove for heat, and chopped wood for that. I think... it's funny that I can't remember whether my brother had been born already, I guess he must have been. So maybe he was a baby. He was born in (1935). I kind of think they didn't come up here until he had been born, so that would give us some clue about when they came.

RM: Did your dad talk about his feelings about his teaching position? Did he like teaching?

SP: I think he enjoyed it, yeah. I think I asked him once why didn't continue with teaching, and I think a lot of it probably had to do as it would today, with the fact that you couldn't make much money, and he wanted to do more, do other things. He became very enamored of the hunting and fishing life up here, and got very involved in that. He loved the beauty, the natural beauty of the area, hiking in the mountains and so forth. I think that's how it eventually led to my father becoming head of the Inyo- Mono Association and helping to form that. Because as they got to know people in the area, there was I think just a group of them that became interested in promoting, the possibility of promoting the area as a recreation center for Los Angeles people and helping to develop the area. I often envy them for the opportunities they had then, when California was just in its nascent stages, really. They knew all the leaders, they were part of the leadership group that started things on their way for the Bishop area before the war.