1. Childhood and early responsibilities. As the oldest, were there different responsibilities for you?
Answer:
My childhood was a very happy one. Life was simple, almost primitive. As the oldest of eight children, yes, there were responsibilities but they were never laid upon me as a duty. I saw the need to help and assumed the responsibility. At a very early age, I went to the public library and read all the stories: Fairy Tales, etc, and either acted them out or told them to the younger members. As the oldest, I was always the little mother figure, Counselor and playmate but it was not a burden. It was a pleasure. I thoroughly enjoyed this identity.
2. Employment experience. Did you find it hard to find a job being a woman? Your pay, working conditions and responsibilities?
Answer:
No, it was not hard and I was not quite 16 years of age. But it was in the time when employers took young people into their offices and taught them the business from the ground up. The pay was very small at the beginning, but merit raises were given as you developed. Prices were very low at this time, and a little money went a long way. My money was brought home to my Mother who used it to help with the others, but I was not robbed. I got my fair share.
The working conditions were not as they are today, with wall-to-wall carpeting and air conditioning plus all the computerized machinery. We even had ink-wells in our desk and dipped our pen in each time. In the absence of machines, we were to think which has been an asset through my whole life.
The responsibilities of the job grew as you got experience and landed a bookkeeping job in the Smythe Paper Company. I learned payroll work, banking and figuring salesman’s commissions. I was with the company 18 years and it was an extremely happy time in my life. The pay became very good considering the time. I started at $3.00 per week and climbed to a massive $35.00 which was considered quite a good salary because prices were still very low. Out of my $35.00, one dollar could purchase a $10.00 roast of beef at today’s prices.
3. Education?
Answer:
No formal education of any kind. I have always felt that education is a process. You didn’t get it all in books. But as you go through life, you seize all opportunities to learn through your eyes, your ears and associating with the right kind of people. Reading is a big factor in the educations process. Experience is the follow-up. We did not have radio or television, so therefore, reading was a great pleasure.
4. Experiences conserving marriage, family relations birth and rearing of children (perhaps birth control)? Lack of money: how did it effect raising your children?
Answer:
I married a very fine Christian man and the marriage was good. It wasn’t all sunshine, many dark days and many anxious ones because of sickness. My second child was born two months premature, and I was in the hospital five weeks and she was in three months. At the time I brought her home, she did not weigh 5pounds. She had to be fed every 1-1/5 hours day and night and at 10 months old she weighed 8 pounds – ounces. At 2 years, she was in Children’s Hospital for four weeks and her father gave blood for a transfusion which was taken directly from him and given to her immediately. It was a long uphill battle—but we won.
The doctors felt that she should be treated this way due to the fact that too much food would cause vomiting and she might loose ground. We won the battle and she went on to live a normal happy life.
Birth control was a tabu subject in those days. No one ever used the word pregnant. Not because we were ashamed of it but it was very private. Today it is blasted to the school children, on the radio, on television, in the churches, in the schools and even your advertisements as you drive along the road. I think the word pregnant is used too loosely and having a child is a very sacred experience.
Yes, the lack of money was a retarding factor in raising my children. We came through a great depression in 1926 through election of Frank Roosevelt in 1932. My husband was never out of work. He was in the Insurance Business and his salary was based on commissions and as people got out of work, they could not keep up the premiums and people could not take out new polices. Therefore, we were reduced drastically in wages and we felt this very much because all parents like to give their children the best. We felt blessed because so many people had nothing and at least my husband had some income every week.
5. Memories of suffrage movement?
Answer:
Women’s suffering became a law in1920 and I was 27 years of age. I had never been active nor interested in it but took my part in the election to put the through. I always took my part in the election booth and voted each year and hope to continue to do so as long as I am able.
6. Memories of World War 1, the Depression, and World War 11?
Answer:
The American people were very patriotic at this time. Flags were flying and the boys marched away with high hopes and smiling parents. It was the war that was supposed to be free the world of such tyrants as Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. Looking back on it, this was not true. We know this because of World War 11 and the Korean Conflict and Vietnam. I was engaged to a young man who went to England on his way to France, but was never taken with the flu and died. It took me eight years to get over it. But I married his cousin and had a very happy marriage. We had added sadness when our two sons entered the war, one in World War 11, and the other in the Korean Conflict, but there was a happy ending. Both returned safely. I might add, they were better for their experience.
7. Happiest memories?
Answer:
There were many happy memories, no outstanding ones, just normal everyday experiences which blended well into my life’s pattern.
8. Most distressing memories (if appropriate)?
Answer:
The most distressing memories of my life is when I lost the first man I was engaged to in the war and when my boys went away in World War 11 and the Korean Conflict. Also, when I was trying to raise a premature baby and the uphill climb to better health.
9. Attitude toward present day women’s movement?
Answer:
I am not interested in this as I never felt the need for liberation. This is a new word and a status of today. Liberation today really means liberation from the home front. I feel still that women’s highest place in life is in the home and being a good homemaker.
10. Comparison of contemporary America with the America of her youth and young adulthood?
Answer:
America of my day was a slow-moving simple life. Horse and carriage was the mode of transportation and the working vehicle. The trolley followed with Ford leading the way with his tin lizzy.
In my childhood we lived in a three-story house in Philadelphia on a main street. There was not a heater in the basement, no running water in the house and our light was oil lamps. There was a large stove in the kitchen, one in the parlor which was only lit when we had company. Everything was done in the kitchen. It was warm and the water was brought in from the outside for everything. Even our baths. The next house we moved to had a bathtub on the second floor and as times got better, we moved again and our next house had a heater in the basement fired the coal. Each time we moved, we stepped up a little higher. My mother washed the clothes on a board. By the time I got married in 1926, America was coming into its own. We came into electric sweepers, irons, toaster, washers and dryers, etc. The first washer I had was electric but it had a ringer and every piece of clothes had to be handled and put through the ringer twice. Each piece was then hung up in the yard or on bad days in the basement. Today I am living in my daughters home with two and a half baths and all the modern conveniences of today’s world. It’s great! I would never want to go back to the manual labor of yesterday, but want to continue to move ahead as every generation does.
11. Name of parents, information about sisters and brothers, how long they lived?
Answer:
James Gamble and Isabell Patton. There were nine children. One died in infancy. One at 59, Samuel, the other three died in their 70’s and there are two brothers, a sister and myself still living, and I am the oldest.
12. Dislike for milk and cheese? Why?
Answer:
In my early life, the farmers brought in the milk from the farms and it was neither pasteurized nor homogenized. My mother bought it in large quantities, put it in a big pot and boiled it to kill any bacteria. The smell of the boiling milk really sickened me and as it cooled, the thick scum of yellow cream settled on the top. I have never been able to drink milk. Today, they would use a Psychiatrist to settle the problem.
13. Religion?
Answer:
Religion played a very large par in my life from my earliest childhood up to the present day. As I was growing up, my social activities were centered in my home and in the church. America at this time was a churchgoing nation. The temptations of life were always there, but we had an anchor in the church and in our spiritual faith.
14. Reading?
Answer:
In the absence of radio and television, reading was a must and a great pleasure. We read the best books, all of Charles Dickens and Shakespearian plays and many others.
15. What effect did your environment have on you as a child?
Answer:
We were satisfied with what we had because we did not know of anything better. There were always the very rich, but even they did not have the advanced living conditions like today. We have an affluent society which involves many more people. Two wage earners in the home and an outreach much more extensive.
16. Were your parents immigrants? From what country and why did they leave?
Answer:
They both came from Northern Ireland. They came out here because America to them was the promised land of the earth. They were of a farming background and there was mo work. Industry had not come into existence. They came here for a better life and became American citizens.
17. Medical. Did any sisters or brothers die young? In what way did the lack of knowledge in medicine affect you?
Answer:
I covered this in question in #11 on parents and brothers and sisters.
At the time of my serious medical problems, I am sure; today the results would have been gotten sooner. But we had a marvelous hospital, the Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia and a fine family doctor who became a great friend. He would make a house visits and explain in detail the situation. I feel that medical science has advanced greatly and older people are living longer today because of the drugs and modern methods. When contagious diseases were in effect years ago, there were no inoculations available to prevent the spread of disease. Whole families were wiped out, but we were very fortunate. Our family remained in tact.
18. Did the lack of transportation have any affect on you? What?
Answer:
We did not feel the lack of it because life was slow and simple and we just fitted into the pattern. This was a way of life.
19. If you had to pick a time period to grow up in, would it have been the one you lived in? Why?
Answer:
This is a tough one to answer. I love the America of today with all the wonderful advancements, the television, the radio, the automobile, the airplane and all the modern appliances and easy methods. I think I would choose living today in today’s world. But the one thing I would like to bring with me from the other period of my life was a high-moral standard. We seemed to have lost this along the modern way of progress. The older generation developed character because of hardship. Today’s generation is soft and does not have the spiritual values for high ideals of our day.
An Interview with Tillie G. Paul
1. Childhood and early responsibilities. As the oldest, were there different responsibilities for you?
Answer:
My childhood was a very happy one. Life was simple, almost primitive. As the oldest of eight children, yes, there were responsibilities but they were never laid upon me as a duty. I saw the need to help and assumed the responsibility. At a very early age, I went to the public library and read all the stories: Fairy Tales, etc, and either acted them out or told them to the younger members. As the oldest, I was always the little mother figure, Counselor and playmate but it was not a burden. It was a pleasure. I thoroughly enjoyed this identity.
2. Employment experience. Did you find it hard to find a job being a woman? Your pay, working conditions and responsibilities?
Answer:
No, it was not hard and I was not quite 16 years of age. But it was in the time when employers took young people into their offices and taught them the business from the ground up. The pay was very small at the beginning, but merit raises were given as you developed. Prices were very low at this time, and a little money went a long way. My money was brought home to my Mother who used it to help with the others, but I was not robbed. I got my fair share.
The working conditions were not as they are today, with wall-to-wall carpeting and air conditioning plus all the computerized machinery. We even had ink-wells in our desk and dipped our pen in each time. In the absence of machines, we were to think which has been an asset through my whole life.
The responsibilities of the job grew as you got experience and landed a bookkeeping job in the Smythe Paper Company. I learned payroll work, banking and figuring salesman’s commissions. I was with the company 18 years and it was an extremely happy time in my life. The pay became very good considering the time. I started at $3.00 per week and climbed to a massive $35.00 which was considered quite a good salary because prices were still very low. Out of my $35.00, one dollar could purchase a $10.00 roast of beef at today’s prices.
3. Education?
Answer:
No formal education of any kind. I have always felt that education is a process. You didn’t get it all in books. But as you go through life, you seize all opportunities to learn through your eyes, your ears and associating with the right kind of people. Reading is a big factor in the educations process. Experience is the follow-up. We did not have radio or television, so therefore, reading was a great pleasure.
4. Experiences conserving marriage, family relations birth and rearing of children (perhaps birth control)? Lack of money: how did it effect raising your children?
Answer:
I married a very fine Christian man and the marriage was good. It wasn’t all sunshine, many dark days and many anxious ones because of sickness. My second child was born two months premature, and I was in the hospital five weeks and she was in three months. At the time I brought her home, she did not weigh 5pounds. She had to be fed every 1-1/5 hours day and night and at 10 months old she weighed 8 pounds – ounces. At 2 years, she was in Children’s Hospital for four weeks and her father gave blood for a transfusion which was taken directly from him and given to her immediately. It was a long uphill battle—but we won.
The doctors felt that she should be treated this way due to the fact that too much food would cause vomiting and she might loose ground. We won the battle and she went on to live a normal happy life.
Birth control was a tabu subject in those days. No one ever used the word pregnant. Not because we were ashamed of it but it was very private. Today it is blasted to the school children, on the radio, on television, in the churches, in the schools and even your advertisements as you drive along the road. I think the word pregnant is used too loosely and having a child is a very sacred experience.
Yes, the lack of money was a retarding factor in raising my children. We came through a great depression in 1926 through election of Frank Roosevelt in 1932. My husband was never out of work. He was in the Insurance Business and his salary was based on commissions and as people got out of work, they could not keep up the premiums and people could not take out new polices. Therefore, we were reduced drastically in wages and we felt this very much because all parents like to give their children the best. We felt blessed because so many people had nothing and at least my husband had some income every week.
5. Memories of suffrage movement?
Answer:
Women’s suffering became a law in1920 and I was 27 years of age. I had never been active nor interested in it but took my part in the election to put the through. I always took my part in the election booth and voted each year and hope to continue to do so as long as I am able.
6. Memories of World War 1, the Depression, and World War 11?
Answer:
The American people were very patriotic at this time. Flags were flying and the boys marched away with high hopes and smiling parents. It was the war that was supposed to be free the world of such tyrants as Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. Looking back on it, this was not true. We know this because of World War 11 and the Korean Conflict and Vietnam. I was engaged to a young man who went to England on his way to France, but was never taken with the flu and died. It took me eight years to get over it. But I married his cousin and had a very happy marriage. We had added sadness when our two sons entered the war, one in World War 11, and the other in the Korean Conflict, but there was a happy ending. Both returned safely. I might add, they were better for their experience.
7. Happiest memories?
Answer:
There were many happy memories, no outstanding ones, just normal everyday experiences which blended well into my life’s pattern.
8. Most distressing memories (if appropriate)?
Answer:
The most distressing memories of my life is when I lost the first man I was engaged to in the war and when my boys went away in World War 11 and the Korean Conflict. Also, when I was trying to raise a premature baby and the uphill climb to better health.
9. Attitude toward present day women’s movement?
Answer:
I am not interested in this as I never felt the need for liberation. This is a new word and a status of today. Liberation today really means liberation from the home front. I feel still that women’s highest place in life is in the home and being a good homemaker.
10. Comparison of contemporary America with the America of her youth and young adulthood?
Answer:
America of my day was a slow-moving simple life. Horse and carriage was the mode of transportation and the working vehicle. The trolley followed with Ford leading the way with his tin lizzy.
In my childhood we lived in a three-story house in Philadelphia on a main street. There was not a heater in the basement, no running water in the house and our light was oil lamps. There was a large stove in the kitchen, one in the parlor which was only lit when we had company. Everything was done in the kitchen. It was warm and the water was brought in from the outside for everything. Even our baths. The next house we moved to had a bathtub on the second floor and as times got better, we moved again and our next house had a heater in the basement fired the coal. Each time we moved, we stepped up a little higher. My mother washed the clothes on a board. By the time I got married in 1926, America was coming into its own. We came into electric sweepers, irons, toaster, washers and dryers, etc. The first washer I had was electric but it had a ringer and every piece of clothes had to be handled and put through the ringer twice. Each piece was then hung up in the yard or on bad days in the basement. Today I am living in my daughters home with two and a half baths and all the modern conveniences of today’s world. It’s great! I would never want to go back to the manual labor of yesterday, but want to continue to move ahead as every generation does.
11. Name of parents, information about sisters and brothers, how long they lived?
Answer:
James Gamble and Isabell Patton. There were nine children. One died in infancy. One at 59, Samuel, the other three died in their 70’s and there are two brothers, a sister and myself still living, and I am the oldest.
12. Dislike for milk and cheese? Why?
Answer:
In my early life, the farmers brought in the milk from the farms and it was neither pasteurized nor homogenized. My mother bought it in large quantities, put it in a big pot and boiled it to kill any bacteria. The smell of the boiling milk really sickened me and as it cooled, the thick scum of yellow cream settled on the top. I have never been able to drink milk. Today, they would use a Psychiatrist to settle the problem.
13. Religion?
Answer:
Religion played a very large par in my life from my earliest childhood up to the present day. As I was growing up, my social activities were centered in my home and in the church. America at this time was a churchgoing nation. The temptations of life were always there, but we had an anchor in the church and in our spiritual faith.
14. Reading?
Answer:
In the absence of radio and television, reading was a must and a great pleasure. We read the best books, all of Charles Dickens and Shakespearian plays and many others.
15. What effect did your environment have on you as a child?
Answer:
We were satisfied with what we had because we did not know of anything better. There were always the very rich, but even they did not have the advanced living conditions like today. We have an affluent society which involves many more people. Two wage earners in the home and an outreach much more extensive.
16. Were your parents immigrants? From what country and why did they leave?
Answer:
They both came from Northern Ireland. They came out here because America to them was the promised land of the earth. They were of a farming background and there was mo work. Industry had not come into existence. They came here for a better life and became American citizens.
17. Medical. Did any sisters or brothers die young? In what way did the lack of knowledge in medicine affect you?
Answer:
I covered this in question in #11 on parents and brothers and sisters.
At the time of my serious medical problems, I am sure; today the results would have been gotten sooner. But we had a marvelous hospital, the Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia and a fine family doctor who became a great friend. He would make a house visits and explain in detail the situation. I feel that medical science has advanced greatly and older people are living longer today because of the drugs and modern methods. When contagious diseases were in effect years ago, there were no inoculations available to prevent the spread of disease. Whole families were wiped out, but we were very fortunate. Our family remained in tact.
18. Did the lack of transportation have any affect on you? What?
Answer:
We did not feel the lack of it because life was slow and simple and we just fitted into the pattern. This was a way of life.
19. If you had to pick a time period to grow up in, would it have been the one you lived in? Why?
Answer:
This is a tough one to answer. I love the America of today with all the wonderful advancements, the television, the radio, the automobile, the airplane and all the modern appliances and easy methods. I think I would choose living today in today’s world. But the one thing I would like to bring with me from the other period of my life was a high-moral standard. We seemed to have lost this along the modern way of progress. The older generation developed character because of hardship. Today’s generation is soft and does not have the spiritual values for high ideals of our day.
Tillie G. Paul
June 26, 1894-January30, 1990