Hispanic Oral History Project Interviews

00:05 Mr. Roscoe. I’d like to begin by just asking you how it is that you and your family came to the state of Idaho?

00:19 Well, when we came to Idaho, it wasn’t, I didn’t have a choice. It was a. It was a that I had to I was raised with my grandparents. And at the time that we came to Idaho, I was only eight years old. So needless to say that I had to come to the state with my folks to work in a field. So that is how I come to be and

00:43 You were raised by your grandparents?

00:45 I was raised by my grandparents. Due to the fact that my mother died. When I was very young. I was I was raised by my grandmother. Grandparents is a strange story. I guess it’s because when my mother and father separated when I was six months old, why my mother took my older brother and she raised him till she passed away in 1940. But my grandmother took my older sister, Helen, and myself when we were babies, and as a little kids and raised us. And so I was raised by my grandmother, to say, you know, from early childhood from a baby, so.

01:45 So you were, when you came to, when you were living with your grandparents, where were you living and you know if you can explain to me a little bit about how it was that you came to be in Idaho?

01:59 How I came to be in Idaho was we were living in Grand Junction, Colorado and been fieldworkers. That’s all we knew at the time. So we used to follow the fieldwork. How we come to be in Idaho My grandmother had a sister who lived in Salt Lake City. And we came from went from Grand Junction, Colorado to Salt Lake City to visit with my sister, with my grandmother’s sister. And we stayed there maybe six months or a year, I can’t really recall him on how long. And that was in 1937 and 19, about 1938 I think the fall of 1938. In the fall of 1938. My grandfather and some other people decided to come to Idaho because there was field work to do. Topping beats opportunity at… A job opportunity? A job opportunity arose. And so we came to Preston Idaho. Me and my grandmother and my sister and my grandfather went to Preston Idaho in 1938 in the fall to top beets.

03:21 Did you do any other kind of farm work and it was there other other than beets? Did you work another type of agricultural work?

03:32 Well, yes, I remember at one time we were when we were little stay there in Utah we used to top onions. I remember topping onions in Utah somewhere close to Salt Lake. But at when we came to Idaho the season was the season to top beets. It was the fall of the year and so we used to top beets at that time. We will use the knife with a little hook on the end of you know, like the machete and we that’s what we did 1938. In the spring of 19. We stayed there till 19… we stayed there all the winter of 1938 the spring of 39, (migrants? unintelligible) while we follow the work there was. So we came to Idaho. Why we came to I mean to Marsing. Why we came to Marsing and I’m not really clear whether we knew somebody there. Or we just happen to say well, let’s go to the other part of Idaho and go to Marsing, but all I know is that we landed in Marsing in 1939. No, we were here before they were here.

04:47 When you traveled to Idaho, did you find out what form of transportation that you use? And did you come with other families or was it just (unintelligible)?

04:55 Or just my grandparents and those we didn’t know anybody we were just by ourselves and when we came Marsing, I think that we, we were by ourselves also.

05:06 So you drove?

05:09 We drove, yeah. We had, I think it was an old pickup if I’m not mistaken. But we landed in Marsing. And the ideal situation and when in those days was to find a farmer who had year-round work where you can start in the spring picking the beets and you clean them, you know, and then you find some work in between and then in the fall while you topped the beets. And so that’s what we did.

05:40 What are your very first memories of Idaho? First brought here What did you think of it?

05:44 Cold. Especially, Yes, in eastern Idaho. In Preston and it was very, very cold. And needless to say that then working in the field. Why? I could remember, as a kid, we’d go out in the fields to top the beets, and it was so cold that the leaves the tops from the beets would break off. They would be they were frozen. It was cold.

06:10 Do you have any idea what the degree temperature was?

06:13 No, no, but But it was cool. Very cold.

06:19 I know you said the very first place you came work to Preston, can you describe where you lived?

06:28 Well, not long time ago, but I’m sure it was just, very a shack probably just a small one room house that I can remember. And probably. No, it was it was a small house. And with I think we had to go to the farmers house to get the water. We didn’t have any bathroom facilities. You know, you had the outside bathrooms. And so that’s, that’s what I what I recall mostly when I first came out here that it was cold.

07:06 Now once you’ve gotten here, did you travel to other cities in Idaho or to other states once you were here?

07:12 No. Once we came to Idaho, why we went and we went to a Marsing, we stayed in Marsing and work in Marsing. Well, no, while we were in Marsing, we used to go to other areas like we used to go to McCall Donnelly area to pick peas. We used to go to Emmett to work in the peas and also we used to grow carrots here too. So we used to tie carrots in the in the in the Emmett area. And we also I also lived temporary maybe two or three months. I remember living in the labor camp in Nyssa, Oregon. And what was that like? And that’s as a kid, I you know, if you had with your parents or your grandparents, well you you don’t put too much emphasis on like we do now you know the house or you don’t worry about economic (unintelligible), you just, you work. You go to school, and you got a place to eat and sleep and you’re happy.
So it’s positive for you.
Oh, yes, very positive. I remember at that particular time, in when we were living in that labor camp there my older brother Rudy got really sick with a tonsillitis. And he just about died there. But needless to say that he didn’t say

08:46 So he was hospitalized?

08:48 No, I don’t think he was I think he were just taken care of right there in the labor camp. He made it through okay?
He made it through. Yes.

08:57 Were there any other Mexican Americans already living in Idaho when you first arrived? Do you remember anything about like the Bracero program or are undocumented workers?

09:09 I remember when they first started to come in, you know, as far as other Hispanics (unintelligible) when we first came here, I I can’t recall ever seeing any. I do know that. Shortly thereafter, we came here. There were other Hispanics that still live here. My good came to live where we lived in Marsing. And I do remember that what I said was when I used to come here and work in the field, and one of the things that really used to amaze me about those poor people as they come in, they’d work out in the fields like we used to in the wintertime and the beets, top beets like I was telling you about earlier. And they’d wear their (huaraches) in their (huaraches) mind you. Yeah, was hard life for them at the time.

10:00 What else do you remember in that era? You know about these people that were coming in like you’re talking specifically about the braceras?

10:06 Yes. The braceras when they were first come from the first came, here they were hard working lot, you know the they would put up with most anything to make, make money to send back to their country and to their family back in Mexico. And they would, they would live in little houses bunched up and all cook together, you know. And I do remember when we were living in Marsing in 1940 41, that my grandmother used to take in boarders, cook for him, you know, and we used to have a little shack in the back of where we used to live and a tent. And these people that come to work in the field. And so my grandmother, that’s how she made extra money was she gave them a room and board and she’d had to cook for them. And, and there was sometimes maybe twelve-fifteen people that she would board and charge them I think was about $1 $1 and a half a day for room and board. And she was doing all of the cooking for those people on an old wooden stove. I’m sure you’ve seen him, you know. And that’s howshe she used to cook for all the people.

11:32 Now you mentioned something about how you remember that these people put up with whatever it had to be in order to keep working.

11:39 Do you remember any kind of differential treatment that you know that they had to put up with? What what is it that you remember about that?

11:49 Well, I can’t really I don’t really know what they were treated any different if they were treated… The way they were treated. Me as young as I was, I thought that that was the way it was supposed to be. I thought it was normalcy. So truly difficult for me to say No, they weren’t treating them fair, because

12:08 I don’t know.
Do you recall any situation?

12:11 I don’t recall ever a farmer saying mistreating them or you know, discriminating against them. I cannot recall it. (unintelligible), they worked hard.

12:32 That sounds like when you talked about the (huaraches). You know they are provided with the right type?

12:36 Oh, no, no, no. They they just didn’t know? Well, neither were we really, you know, if we didn’t have the proper equipment to wear at the time for the conditions. That was our fault. I mean, that’s our problem. You know, nobody supplied us with anything

12:54 Was that difficult. Do you remember that? Having to go out and work without the proper clothing?

13:01 So there again, sometimes we we we seem to think that ignorance is bliss. When you don’t know that there’s something better. You do the best you can with what you have. See, I’m sure that my grandmother and my grandfather, father, they worried whether we were adequately, you know, dressed to do the job. But we didn’t know any better.

13:30 You weren’t around any any other way of living. Because so that’s the best as long as we had a place to stay warm and something to eat. That was normal for us. From that environment…

13:46 So anyway, that’s, that’s what I remember. As far as me growing up as a little Mexican boy in Marsing.

14:00 When do you remember anything about wages? What you were paid when you were working in the field?

14:08 Well, at the time when we were working, we always worked. piecework, we never got paid by the hour. My grandfather always taught us that. You you’re gonna get paid for what you do. And so the more you do, the more you’re gonna make. And we never worked by the hour, always piecework and I remember sending beets for six $7 an hour, I mean an acre. I remember topping beets, and by the ton, and I can’t really call how much at least pairs were the turn that we used to have to pop on the modem by hand on a truck. And sometimes the fields were so bad We used to have to hit a team of horses to the truck to
pull a truck out of the field. Because the weather was so bad and those little things stick out in my mind, you know, because they’re unique. That doesn’t happen anymore.

15:15 But work was basically just a lot harder than …?

15:24 I have a I have a grandson who’s who’s having a birthday today. He’s nine years old. And I would sit down thinking, I didn’t tell him but I would just sit him down thinking that eight years old, I was outside in cold weather working alongside my grandfather, topping beest. And today, we don’t even think about it. (unintelligible)

15:54 And so can so that was my childhood, that I remember going to school in Marsing, you know. So those are the little things that I remember.

16:07 So, back on the subject of education, so you did attend school in Marsing. Describe your earliest memories of school.

16:19 I started school actually, in Grand Junction, Colorado, in the first and second grade. And I remember, we used to live in a place in Grand Junction called La Colonia. And it was next to a sugar beet factory and the railroad tracks and next to the river. A typical for the Anglos to put all the Hispanics. I think that’s because you can tell that even today sometimes we still have that habit of segregating ourselves. Not that the Anglos will separate us, is that we do it ourselves. Okay. Anyway, I remember walking to school, barefooted, we didn’t have money sometimes. And but I started school in in Grand Junction up to my second grade. I started my third grade in Marsing.

17:24 Was there a difference? Did you recall that school system be different from Colorado to Idaho?

17:30 No. No, I I don’t. I don’t really think it was that different. You know, at that particular time, when you went to you learn, they want to get to learn how to read and write, arithmetic, the three R’s, you know, and that was, that was the most important. You know, you learn how to read write and arithmetic. And we didn’t have all these other things that we have today, you know, but I didn’t notice it any differently. In Colorado, when I was a kid growing up, you had learned how to read and write arithmetic came to Idaho. And the system was the same you learn how to read write and arithmetic.

18:09 - (Wife?) Okay, now that school must have been nice for us. So, you know, I felt the same time as he was, I’m (unintelligible) . But our homes were so poorly insulated, and we’re just talking this morning, how sometimes where I was raised, it was so cold, I just didn’t quite have enough points to keep me warm. You know, we were a lot of children. So going to school, it was nice to have a warm room. And it smells good. Because last time we didn’t have a normal you know, turn and and so it was a new, a new way of life that was new to us. And it was good. It was good, you know, to sign
Sometimes schoolwork nicer to

18:53 be Oh, yes.

18:55 (Wife?) Because we are committing can clean paper and brand new pencils and brand new Crayola you know and, and something nice, like a good well room teacher, you know, Polish and lipstick that you never saw, you know, those were the introduction to life that we as children didn’t have, because our mothers were not the most gorgeous. They were having children all the time and father was out in the fields and you know, just not. Not at all. It’s a completely different world.

19:28 Do you recall any other Hispanic children in your classes when you came to Marsing in third grade?

19:33 I was the only lo me and my sister. Were the only ones and Marcy till 1940 that I can remember. We were the only Hispanic

19:45 So you were probably one of the very first first in the state of Idaho?

19:49 Right The First Hispanics that I can remember then in 1940 some other people came from Colorado and I remember them coming to live there. In Marsing, and so it was just me and my sister who were the first Hispanics here and yeah, they were

20:17 How do you recovering in school as far as brain?

20:21 Oh, just an average student. My parents really didn’t put that much emphasis in education at the time, they figured that they’d rather have somebody who was a good worker than a good, you know, good scholar. But we we’ve done fairly well, I never flunked a grade going to school. And you know, the ironic thing is, is that, at those times, we used to start school late, like in November, and we’d get out early, We’d only go to school about maybe six months out of the year, because we had to quit early to start working in the fields. And we had to quit and start late, because the harvest is still going on. So I can remember some of my school teachers taking a little extra with me, me personally, you know, helping me to catch up. And the other kids in school, the Anglo kids, also helping me to catch up. So this is getting away from this. That’s why it’s, this is why it’s so difficult for me to… accept sometimes somebody, Okay, can I say, you know, all of the, the teachers were really extra nice to me to help me to catch up. And to my sister also. And the other students were, were also very helpful. And then you asked the question, if the other students came to school, started later, or, you know, left school early,

22:13 When you started to talk about, you know, how your you started in November, it sounded like it was just you was it the way the system?

22:23 It was always from September to school. But like I say, we had to quit and start late, because in September, years, it’s some of the best working weather and conditions are in September and October. So we had when it got cold, then we went to school. And then we went school all winter. And then in the spring of the year, when it started to get nice, why our parents pulled us out of school to go work. But that’s why I say, you know, we never flunked a grade, and never found some must. I must have had a good teacher.
So you worked really hard.

23:08 (Wife?) He was really bright. He was a bright boy from what I can see. Because even when I met him, and we were going to get married, you know, I saw so much potential in him. He’s a born mathematician. And I could see it, he used to tell me, you know, about after we got married, how, when he was a little boy, theseolder men that could not read or write, to single him out to figure out their acreage and their pay. And so, you know, he had to think he had to be kind of intelligent little kid to do that, you know? Because not to make isn’t I think, a lot of times, that’s probably what he did most of the time.

23:49 So your experience is basically because of the harvest, you had to go a little late. Did you have any experiences that doesn’t sound like you had to leave the state or other city so you didn’t really have experiences entering new schools or no, you remained in the same?

24:05 No, The only time that I had to change school was before they came to Nampa. And then it came to the school system. I started school in 1943 in the seventh grade and here at Nampa,

24:19 What do you remember about being a Mexican American and as a student in school?

24:27 There again, you know, being the only one I didn’t think it was any different.
So it’s pretty normal.
Oh, yeah. But you know, I played and the only friends that I had was the Anglos and you know, we fitted right in I did and he was my friends. I never felt

24:50 What about language? Did you speak Spanish at home in English in school? Did was that a problem for you at all?

24:55 As a matter of fact, we spoke more English at home because as my grandmother, she was fluent in English. And my step grandfather, it was it was then that we used the Spanish because he couldn’t understand. And so we had to use it for his benefit. But not I don’t recall that being a problem.

25:23 (Wife?) It was more English. speaking in Spanish, that wasn’t when we got married and you know, we spoke more Spanish and I could see that, you know, who was more, you know, able to speak more English.

25:40 When we came to Nampa 1943. At that time, then more Hispanics were here. I, because I remember then, in 1943, when we came to Napa, there were more Hispanics here. As a matter of fact, in 1940, to 1940, or 41. There was a family from Grand Junction, Colorado came to live in Marsing, and my grandmother knew who they were. And as a matter of fact, they’re very dear friends of ours, that live here. Now, still, they still live here. The family does, and but they didn’t come till about 1940, I think. And then they moved to Nampa.

26:25 And at that time, you started to see more Hispanics?

26:27 Yes, at that time, I started to see more Hispanics in the area. Yeah.

26:31 Do you remember any situations in school or a teacher or teachers that stand out in your mind?

26:39 There’s only one that in courses is in the third grade. I think I had a crush on, Mrs. Mrs. Gilmore. Was her name in Marsing. And she was my third grade teacher. She used to go the extra mile to help me you know, and she knew that the other kids that didn’t need, you know, that much help, or I needed more than they did. So she would always help me, you know, she would take a purse pick me by my hand, you know, and bleak and, and teach me she was my teacher. And that’s what teaching was about. To me.

27:21 That is the part that was because she offered me that. No, you missed out on?

27:26 Oh, yes. Yes, I’m sure that I’m sure that she did. So that’s one of the teachers that really stand out. As a kid growing up, of course, I remember some of the school teachers that we used to have here, you know, but nobody that stood out like she did because they were she really made an impression on me because of that extra care that she.. Why don’t you to tell her that she wanted to play bowling?

28:00 That was when I was in junior high. I don’t know I I wanted to go out for basketball. And I was in seventh grade. And

28:17 so they said All right, everybody wants to play basketball. I come on down. And needless to say, I was one of the first ones there. And there I was with (unintelligible) e, you know, it looked like I’m working. And so in order to play you had to furnish your own sneakers. Well, I didn’t have any but I was real good barefoot. The first day, the second eight barefoot in that just one day. The second day I got blisters, you know, playing on the hardwood. And so I couldn’t go play basketball. My grant my folks couldn’t afford to buy me sneakers. So I left I didn’t participate in I didn’t participate in basketball because I didn’t have shoes to play and
See, how did you feel about that?

29:26 I feel too I don’t know it’s…
our children. Our two boys are very athletic inclined. And I’m sure you know he knew us but he just couldn’t demonstrate it. So when we had our boys in the state champion basketball, football football, he went out of his way to make sure that they had what they needed that how much and I’m sure he was reliving what they saw. I mean in high school, our son lost one pair after another of sneakers turn right around and the moment of a pair,

30:04 I think that really I think what my wife is saying is when my kids were growing up in sports, in school, going to school into the got involved sports. I hate to admit it, but I think I was trying to relive my own childhood, see through my children. And I guess that I really wanted to play basketball, but I couldn’t.
But I didn’t want to put a burden on my folks. So that they would have to buy me sneakers, because we will barely make it. And so I just finally said that I didn’t want to do it, didn’t want to clean them more. And I never participated in in any sports. Because you always had to stay after school to practice. And it was a long time of the year, we always were working out in the field at that time of the year. So it was, it wasn’t conducive for me to participate on all the school activities that were available to me, because of the way I was raised a field worker. And being a field worker, you had to work when the crops were ready to crop didn’t wait for nobody, you had to go and do it. And me being one of the older ones in the family. And the male I was next upper hands to help support the family.

31:38 And so when I went to school as I like to to I think I like school. But then as I was getting older, like when I was 14 years old.

32:01 It got to be more, more of a hassle going. Because yeah, the demands were more like going to belong to a club, you know, and just been more social. And I didn’t want to be part of that. Like, I felt inadequate, because I wasn’t dressed properly You didn’t feel that you… you felt out of place?

32:35 I felt out of place not because I didn’t think that I didn’t think that I was adequate. I felt out of place because material things were entering into my life. Like I didn’t have nice jeans, I didn’t have nice shoes, nice shirt, to be able to go with the other kids. So I knew that there was something wrong somewhere. Not that the kids made me feel that way. I was my worst critic in that respect. And like I said, rather than go through all that hassle of having my folks buy me nice clothes to go to school, at the age of 14 was 14 years old when I quit school, 14 years old, and I was in a ninth grade, I had finished ninth grade.

33:28 Did you feel any kind of resentment? Or did you feel like you wanted to put the blame on someone why you weren’t able to, you know, for the reason that you weren’t able to fit in and have the things that were more like peer pressure at school because everybody else had it and you couldn’t have it? How did you feel? As far as that goes?

33:46 I don’t really had any resentment. I don’t really think that the kids at school, cared how I looked. I think I like I said I was my own worst critic. You know, I think I was the one that was saying you don’t look as good. Even though I don’t think they they really, if they did, I didn’t sense that they that they cared whether or what I look like or what I did with some of the kids that I went to school with and are still living here now, but now they’re friends of mine. See? And so

34:27 they want to be humiliated.

34:32 And so I had an out simply because I asked my grandmother and I said well, Grandma says, I don’t want to go to school anymore. She says well why? And I just didn’t want to I was 14 years old. I was getting a macho type, you know? Thinking and so on. And then of course, my grandmother didn’t really push it too hard. She wanted me to go to school, but then push it to the point where he said you are going to go to school. And the reason she didn’t push it is because there again, the economics, you know, there’s another two hands to go to work.

35:22 Yeah, I you know that the point that you’re making about, I know that that’s still somewhat exists about children and bringing them in, because that’s more hands to work. Do you feel that that has changed any within the years?

35:39 To some point, I think it’s changed a little bit. And I think it’s not because the kids have changed. I think because we as parents want something better for our kids. And we know that education is the only way to do it, you know, unless you win the lottery or something like that. But when we know that the basic thing for a parent, the key thing for a parent to give his kid right now is an education.

36:18 I think that my grandmother, if it was, if it would have been possible, economically, she would have insisted that I go to school, and my brothers and sisters, for that matter. But I’m talking about me personally now.

36:35 So how did your grandmother react? Did she try to talk you into staying in school or any kind of talk out of you know, quitting?

36:42 Yes, to a certain degree in art, she, like I said she was she had she was caught between a rock and a hard spot. You know, if I went to school, there was less money coming in. If I went, if I quit school, there was more coming in. And so I think she took the easy way out. And, and I was glad that she did, because like I said, I was getting older, and I wanted to not so much quit school, but I didn’t want to I didn’t feel like I fit it in socially. And so like I said, if it would have been economically feasible, my grandmother would have insisted that I’d gone to school. But did.

37:31 Did you have more education than your parents?

37:35 Oh,I’m sure, I did. As a matter of fact, my father never went to school. When he came to United States from Mexico, why, you know, he didn’t know any English at all, he learned how to read. As well as like, I don’t even think he knew how to read I think he learned how to read when he came to United States by reading the newspaper. And he still speaks a little bit English not much, but enough to get by. And, but my mother and my grandmother, all spoke English fluently from the time I can remember. And they must have gone to school somewhere. But I don’t recall how far they went school or where they went to school. Because I do know that they spoke it fluently read it and write it.

38:28 I know that, you know, it’s it appears that you do value education a great deal. There was just one point I wanted to go back to before we move on to the next topic. And that’s when you said something about when you refer to go into your grandmother to tell her that you wanted to quit school. And you mentioned something about you know, the macho type of thinking that you had already decided to quit school. What do you base that on? Or what do you mean by you know, the macho type, of thinking?

39:01 I was another man. I was a man of the house. I could speak Spanish or English. Okay, that was going for me. I used to be the one who would do all the figurines. When we worked in the field. At that time, we had to do our own thing, you know, the farmer did, how many roles you made, how much per acre and how much an hour how much a sack. I used to be more or less the family bookkeeper. And I guess maybe that also, You are more responsible.
Well, my grandmother saw I thought that I was more responsible. And so

39:45 So you pretty much felt like the head of the household.

39:47 Yeah. Right. Because needless to say, and it’s a sad thing to say, but my grandfather, the one that raised me was also an alcoholic. And so needless to say that you know, and I knew that, my grandmother knew that so she had somebody to reach he had to have somebody to rely on. And I guess I was the one that was chosen to do so. And so it wasn’t difficult for, for me to quit. I wouldn’t say, you know, school wasn’t really that difficult, because I knew what was needed at home.

40:30 (Wife?) By the time this happened, he was 10 years old when his real mother died. By this time, his mother had remarried and had five more children. And she died of childbirth. And the grandmother went over and got all those five children and they brought him to Marsing. So when she died, Alice was a little baby and they raised her and he was more responsible for his younger brothers and sisters. He, in 1945, his own grandmother died. So they were left to take care each other and he combed his little sister’s hair to go to school when she was six years old.

41:10 How old were you when you do when your grandmother died?

41:15 Let’s go back a little bit. When my mother died in 1940. Me and my sister were living in Marsing with my grandmother, and my step grandfather, (unintelligible). In April of 1940, my mother died. That’s from childbirth from my younger sister. At that time, my grandmother took me and my sister, we went back to Colorado, to take care of the, you know, take care of the funeral, I guess go down there and bury my mother. And needless to say, when we went there, why there were there was Rebecca. It was Alice, who was the baby that was born in 1940. And that was Gus, and there was Rudy, there were four more kids. And no, they were Bible and Gus, my brother Gus. So there were five of them. My grandmother brought the five grandkids to Morrissey, and raised as own. My grandmother did. And

42:30 Your father remarried then once your mother died, and that’s when the other children came about?

42:37 Let me let me clarify that. Okay. There’s three of us from my real father. His name is Jose Cano. There’s my sister Helen, Who’s the oldest and then there’s Rudy. And then there’s myself. We’re three full blooded brothers and sisters. Okay. My mother and my father separated, when I was about six months old, and my mother came to Colorado, then she remarried. Okay. She remarried a gentleman by the name of Francisco Salalah. And from that marriage, there were five other children. Edwards, Augustine, Rebecca, Alice. Chris, and one that passed away. Angelina, but she died. Don’t know what year was when she was a child. But you know, there were nine.

43:50 If you were 10 years old,

43:51 yeah, I was 10 years old at the time. And then at the age of 10 years old. In 1940. We were here in Marsing and my grandmother took care of my Helen, Rudy, myself, and my other half brothers, and raised it all until 1945. When she died, my grandmother

44:20 by then you were

44:21 I was 15 years old. Then you became the head of it. Well, I don’t really say I was the head of the house when my grandfather, step grandfather was still alive. But it was tough. Those after my grandmother died because she was the glue that held us together. Well, she died, why things just fell apart.

44:56 (Wife) Yeah, his older sister got married at 19 and In 1947, he doesn’t have a child. Yeah. So that really let them all to raise each other really. And that’s a lot of why he felt responsible. You know, to this day, he is the most responsible of them all because they all look to him for guidance and advice. And like one of the youngest one that married you know, in our custom, you have to go ask for the bride, you know, he had to do those things that our father would have been, but this time I know, because we were married, and I saw that, you know. So I could see all along that they looked up to him, the older brother, you know, and he felt responsible and he was responsible for

45:39 Sounds like your grandmother was the one that was the most influence in your life.

45:42 Well, yes. She She was a very, shall I say? Tough woman she had to be, you know, how do you raise eight grandkids? And it’s not like today’s world where you push a button and the automatic washer goes on. And you know, you push a button and a dryer goes on. I remember heating water outside, you know, carrying water, from a ditch, to heat water to wash our clothes. To take a bath. We’d have to hook up a water tank to a pickup go uptown, fill it up for drinking water.

46:28 (Wife) She must have been a tough for grandma. I mean, imagine me raising my kids. It’ll be hard, especially in those days. But I never didn’t know her but from what he says that she was a very tough woman. And she was protective of them. You know, she just protected them like the little like a little mother, you know? Who tells her about the time you guys came to Nampa to get groceries. They had to drive over here to get groceries on Saturday.

46:56 That’s when we were we came to Nampa to buy groceries you know, the big grocery buying day where you buy Mr. Buy lard buy the 50 pound tins, you know, we came over to Nampa. And I must have been about 11 years old, I guess 12. We went into a store in Nampa. I won’t mention the name but we went to the store. And I don’t know what happened. But pretty soon. The police is coming down and saying, accusing my grandmother. No, no, no, no, they didn’t come to Marsing. right there to store the police came there and and accused her of taking groceries that weren’t paid for. But needless to say that my grandmother was not one to be accused of anything,
especially wrongfully. Yes. And she read the riot act to the people here and

48:07 somebody to

48:08 know that’s that’s another reason that’s another incident.

48:11 What happened then when your grandmother was accused by this police?

48:16 They took us to the police station, and we had to prove that we had paid for our groceries and that they were ours. And needless to say that we got our groceries and we paid for them. And I don’t know what they were there’s an apology made or anything because like I said I was only maybe about 11 years old and on. We didn’t mingle into our parents is businesses (unintelligible) took care of grandma always took care of the problem. You know, and so I but that was one incident. And I don’t really know whether that was racially or not. Because that was a (unintelligible) of this thing. And we didn’t know what it was. We didn’t know what being a racist was at that time. You know,

49:12 but can you imagine if he hadn’t been able to speak? Oh, yeah.

49:15 I’m sure that if she hadn’t been. My wife said if she hadn’t been able to communicate with rich people. That’s true. Maybe they would have told her in jail. Maybe she wouldn’t. You know, you can explain yourself lack of communication. Why? But needless to say that my grandmother could and did and so she was very outspoken. My grandmother and I guess we maybe inherited a little bit that from her. She was she was very domineering. My grandmother was. Very protective of her family. She always tried to teach us that that family was very important. Take care of each other, take care of your brothers take care of your sisters take care of each other. And although when you got out of line, you know, you feared… we as my brothers can probably tell you the same thing. We feared our grandmother more than anybody else, our grandfather or whatever she was the she was the authority person. And

50:31 So you mentioned that once your grandmother died, everything kind of fell apart?

50:37 Yeah, it once my grandmother, when my grandmother passed away, why, I think just started to the family started doing a go in disarray. Although my four step, five per step brothers and sisters, they went with their father. He, he loved and he raised his kids, he raised his own kids. But us who are not his kids were already 14, 15, 16 years old. We had to fend for ourselves.

51:19 You lived on your own the three of you?

51:23 Yeah, we stayed together, mind you, what was my grandfather, my you know, he was still alive and, and my half brothers and sisters, we all lived in this one house. But all of the day were not our responsibility anymore. My brothers and sisters, my younger brothers and sisters that were not my responsibility. And then, of course, my brother, about a year after my grandmother died, he joined the Navy. So, you know, he wasn’t there anymore. And my sister died, so

51:57 and he took off looking for work?

52:00 And of course, you know, the custom at that time was that you worked here in the summertime, you know, and you left this area and go south to Arizona, California. Look for work. And if you were lucky, you found work. You stayed over there and worked. And then you came back then I came back to Idaho.

52:20 You were still in the migrant stream going?

52:23 Oh, yes, sir. Until I did that till the age of Well, I was 20 years old when they drafted me. 20 years old when they drafted me I was working in a bakery at the time. And they drafted me in Calexico, California.

52:42 Now, you went into the service? in 1951.

52:46 What do you recall about that? The service memory service and Mexican American?

52:53 Well, needless to say it at that time, there were other Hispanics in the service. But to me, it was a new experience. I guess I wasn’t smart enough to realize if there was any differences and I never looked for nothing negative.
You never saw that.
If there was a negative, I didn’t see it. Maybe I was ignorant. But maybe that’s a blessing because you have enough problems to to contend with other than looking for other kinds of problems. My my experiences in services and a very learning very good learning experience. I enjoyed my stay in the service. As a matter of fact. And I say this with some remorse or some sadness, the first time that I had white sheets to sleep between us when I was in the service. Eight three square meals a day for the first time in the service breakfast, dinner, and supper.

53:57 That was a positive experience?

53:58 very way. I had two pairs of shoes, my uder my bunk, clean uniforms. A shower. You know, when I got a pay day. Yeah. So it was oh, I was it was a very, very good experience for me.

54:21 (Wife) You know, it’s ironic that this would would happen today because of the Saudi Arabia situation. We’re talking about, oh, gosh, we can” have war return. And he says, Yes, he believes in, in in whatever the military does. He believes in whatever our country has to do. Whatever they have very, very American, you know, very, very patriotic. And it’s not that I’m not it’s just that I’m a woman and I’m a mother and I would hate to be the mother and one of those boys killed over there. And he doesn’t see that side. He does, but he’s just not a priority him. His priority. If we have to go in there and, and defend our country, what’s ours, you know, get that ugly guy out of there, you know?

55:12 I don’t know, I’m
patriotic… The service to me, helped me grow up. Martial and it was I was streetwise at age 15, 16 years old 17, 18. And many things happen in my life at those stages in my life. You know, and

55:43 What you mean by streetwise, you had had experience and you knew how to take care of Yourself?

55:48 Drinking and smoking and fighting. Those things that a young kid goes through and not having somebody to curb you, not somebody to say you don’t do that. I didn’t have any parents. Having nobody to tell you that. That’s not what you do. I did what I felt like, nobody like that just stuff I did, because I didn’t have nobody telling me not to

56:22 Is there worst experience that you you know, you had as a result of not having the guidance that you can think of that maybe you’d like to share it? If you would like to… I mean, in that period of time that you feel you have no guidance, therefore, you are as free as anybody could be. Is there something that you really that you experienced, that caused you such negative feelings that have you know, maybe affected you and that you remember?

56:53 One of the things I remember. I don’t know what what happened. I had gone I had a car and I went to a town called Wilder. And while I was in Wilder, I must have gotten drunk. And on the way back from Wilder to Nampa, I don’t mean that we’re coming back all I remember is hitting a curb or a divider.

57:30 And put me in killing myself. I didn’t wreck the car. But I hit that divider with was such a force that it woke me up. And I don’t know. This maybe the scariness of it took my intoxication away from me. And I thought therefore, you know, I thought I killed myself and that was a scary experience in my life at that time. But as a kid growing up. Another one was hanging out with some of my friends that were doing something wrong like… I never did steal my joy I never did steal or I never did smoke marijuana or I never did. Although I seen it being sold in an alley to other people you know.

58:27 I never did do none of those things. I grew up with kids who some of them spent time in jail, some of them are still in jail.

58:42 What kept me from going that same route I guess, through the grace of God that I didn’t. Like so I didn’t have nobody to tell me not to. I figured maybe something inside me said that’s wrong so you don’t do it. And

59:04 about the time you run up and had to do grapefruits in Arizona.

59:07 Oh, that’s when we were me and my brother and a couple of friends of mine. We went over to to Arizona, Yuma arizona to work that one winter you know their job. They’re all done here. And so we went over to Yuma, Arizona to work and when we got there there was nothing to work. I mean, you know the crops weren’t ready enough and so all we had to eat was grape fruits when and the only way to get great food so we go out and (unintelligible), you know, we’d go borrow some. Until this day, I cannot stand grapefruits.
How long did that go on? For about two weeks. And we live we were living in a labor camp that we did the two were supposed to pay to stay in the labor camp, mind you, but we didn’t have any money. So we used to sneak in the labor camp at night mind you get into an empty labor camp room. And we didn’t have any blankets. So we used one cochon for another to cover us up. And of course, we were always getting into trouble. You know, it seemed like we were always doing something that we weren’t supposed to. This one time why? We went over to a dance in Somerton, Arizona. And I don’t know what happened. All I know is that all I can remember is us getting into our car and the people there at the bash run us out of town.

1:00:58 They were taking my girlfriend.

1:01:01 That was that was girls in

1:01:04 those hometown guys, they didn’t like this, you know, foreigners over there. Although they were all Mexican. They ran them off.

1:01:14 It was their territory. And needless to say that in the middle of the night, where we loaded up a little close, we had and left. Went back to Idaho? No matter of fact, and we went to San Diego, I had a brother, my brother was in the Navy at the time. And so we drove to San Diego to see my brother. And then from there, we came to Idaho.

1:01:44 how long were you in the service?

1:01:46 Two years. I was only two years I was there from in the winter of 50 I see. No 51 I wanted 51 And then gret where I was discharged in 53. I spent most of my career in service in Korea and 5351 52 and 53 parts or 51 all 52 And part 53 in Korean

1:02:13 What do you recall about that time? The war?

1:02:21 that was never really involved in in combat per se. We were stationed in an airfield at that camp (unintelligible) airstrip? They call it and our our objective was to protect the perimeter of the airbase and on occasion would see an (unintelligible) once in a while and Chinese biplane would come across the mountain into the radar, through the radar and drop a couple of bombs and in our area in scare us after death. You know and at night sometimes you can see the gunfire but nothing really you know I never did see any hand to hand combat like you knew on TV you know. I did not, one time ,e and a couple of friends were left to compound to go for a walk. We were going to go swimming in a river and we were gonna go into swim why we could see maybe three or four bodies, you know the Chinese people floating along the edge of the river so, we needless to say we didn’t go swimming. And then and then another time we were walking down then this beach on the river and there was a bridge just big iron bridge that crossed this river. There must have been about a half a dozen Chinese I think there were Chinese hung from there on the on the bridge. Who, how many did you say?
About half a dozen but five or six people and I don’t know if they were North Koreans or Chinese I know there were five bodies hanging from their nuts kind of scary. And another experience while in Korea in a compound why at night Why… We heard some gunshots and what had happened apparently there was a young Korean boy apparently tried to go into our compound because they were always trying to take
something you know, and you couldn’t blame they were hungry and they needed something or they they take something they could sell it and make money.
At it we heard gunshots and of course it was dark at night and so As I was saying The next morning where we got up and went out to the field to see if anything had happened. And sure enough, there was a young boy laying face down with a bullet hole in his head dead. And that night, you know, I’m not, I’m sure that if it was done, it was done accidentally, you know, we didn’t know whether there he was an older person or somebody trying to go into the compound and do something wrong or whatever. But those are the things that I remember that stand out. And so that’s as close as I ever got to combat. Other than the fact that one time when those little aeroplanes came into our compound, scare us, and we were all assigned a certain position and one of my cooks that was that, that was in my group, why here his job was to man a 50 caliber machine gun. And so needless to say, that we were all in disarray at that time, you know, he got on the machine gun and started shooting, and he shot about all of our telephone wires.
And that was a fun night. But to me the service in general, I enjoyed the service, and course this is my own personal feeling. And I think that for kids, who have not made up their mind what they want to do with their life. And today, even today, I think that they ought to spend at least two years in a service, away from mom and daddy, and amongst your peers. You do a lot of growing up, you have to do things for yourself, you have to put your socks away, you have to learn how to do your own laundry, you have to learn how to make your bed, how to shine your own shoes. And that’s, to me that’s important. It really is.

1:07:07 Do you remember if when you were in service, as how, as how many other Hispanics were in a percentage, you know, do you recall?

1:07:17 In my group, there must have been over, just a small amount, I guess. Just from here in Idaho, I was the only one at the time then when I was drafted. Because I had to leave I had to report from I had to come from California to Idaho to report to my draft board here. I was the only Hispanic. And so they weren’t too many Hispanics. In this area, of course, there weren’t hardly any Hispanics in this area. I was the only Hispanic in this area that went to the service. And but when I got to the army camps, you know, they were from all over. There were more, quite a bit more, but not not that many. Not that many.

1:08:02 Well, that was a very interesting experience. It sounds like you had with the service. Yes.
Um, moving on into the another topic of discussion would be the economics. Do you recall? What is it that do you feel that maybe now your economic position is better? Or the same or worse than your parents? What is your opinion of that?

1:08:26 Oh, well, we are better off. Yes. Better of than my parents

1:08:36 And it’s not because I’m harder work than they were, just that the times have made it that way. I think that each generation, whether you’re Hispanic or whether you’re, whatever nationality are, you always want to make it better for the next generation. I want to make it better for my kids. And hopefully I did.
And now my kids want to make it better for their kids, and hopefully they will. And the chain goes on, you know, the just the wheel goes around. And maybe through this process, you know, the Hispanics will catch up. We have to we have to do that. We can’t let U S of A do it for us. We have to do it. All our country’s going to do for us is provide us the tools to do it. But we have to manage those tools. We have to use those tools. And and I think that the reason I’m better off is because my grandmother and my grandfather wanted to,even though maybe they couldn’t economically. They wanted me to have a better life than they had. But that’s only natural for a parent to want that.

1:09:59 What did you do after the service? What kind of work did you when?

1:10:03 When I came back from the service wide? I went back to working out in the fields for I think it was just one, one year. And I had an uncle who lived here Nampa. And he was working for a company called Idaho concrete pipe company. This is a 1953. And so he says, I think I can get you a job and boy, okay. You do that. And he did. He got me a job there. And in the spring or in the fall of 53, I think it was. Working for this pipe company where they made concrete pipe. And my first day working there was handed me a shovel and a pick to go dig ditch so we can lay some concrete tile on a ditch. So I started with a pick and shovel, literally. Working laying concrete. And I used to work. I worked there, of course, it was one of those things where if there was work, he worked, and if there wasn’t you were laid off. And of course, the weather also entered into it and seemed like every winter, I always got laid off and had the level of unemployment. And shortly thereafter, in 1950s Well, it was at 53 that I met my wife. And

1:11:42 How did you meet?

1:11:45 In church.

1:11:46 (Wife) Yeah, he came home. He came home in 53 in in March. And I he he was still in uniform or two, when you you decided that if you had promised God that if he loved to live through Korea and I was in I was in church that night, and I sang a solo by myself. And he liked what he saw. But it was then I was working. I was trying to go to business college and working at Simplot. Well, the big net this was the same year he came home. He’s trying to work it out.(unintelligible) . And just because I was working out there nights, he went out there and he had a double job because he wanted but that only worked for two two weeks. But it wasn’t. It was the next wasn’t very long after that, that we met in the next spring. We got engaged. And and we got married in 1954.

1:12:55 Describe your wedding.

1:12:59 Both of yours. You want me to describe it?

1:13:01 Yeah. What kind of? Was it a big wedding?

1:13:03 Yeah, it

1:13:06 was a big wedding and church that white gowns and lace and a train and the bridesmaids and the ushers and the ring bearers. It was a church wedding. Nice, beautiful wedding, traditional Mexican, traditional Mexican. And (unintelligible)

1:13:30 we didn’t have just the big reception. And I had five. So see, I went to school in Oregon, and a lot of my girlfriends were from out of state and I (unintelligible) us and in the groom’s attendance to a lot of family, you know. So let’s just all very hot summer day wedding.

1:13:54 So how old were each of when you were married?

1:13:58 I was 24, you know, is 2120 and a half? Exactly 20

1:14:04 was 24. That was 24.

1:14:09 (wife) Then a year later, we had a little girl, baby. But I dreamed about him when he was I didn’t even know him. But I dreamed.

1:14:18 He told me I don’t think it’s true.

1:14:20 (wife) I read that there was a young man coming from Korea in a boat, and that he called me long distance. He says I’m coming home and I’m going to be I’m going to meet you and we’re gonna get married. And in just a week later, so I made I met him in church, and I didn’t like him. He’s had some girlfriends introduced us and I didn’t like his voice. And my dad didn’t like him. He didn’t like him for me. So he, we snuck around till we finally made it but I’m doing about him. That is

1:14:58 That is interesting. So and you don’t believe her? I don’t believe

1:15:01 There were too many other girls and man, there was you, your girlfriend.

1:15:10 So your father wasn’t accepting him very well?

1:15:12 Well, she her father was a minister. And he wasn’t really good old Christian boy, you know, sodas. I did meet up to his standards for his daughter, you know, he wanted his daughter to have marry a preacher, man.

1:15:31 (Wife) I was already had somebody wanted me to marry you know. And so

1:15:35 it was so needless to say that that was a reason I was

1:15:41 He was drinking the day he finally got that nerve to come in and asked me to go out and my dad Ooh, that was bad news. No way. So but ended up after we got married. He’s a favorite. favorite son in law. You know? My dad’s my mom’s still alive. But he’s number one.

1:16:04 That would make you feel real specially. Oh, yeah.

1:16:08 He’s responsible. He’s always been that good husband.

1:16:13 And Father. And the wedding. Like I said, The wedding was a big wedding. And

1:16:21 then after that, why my wife went to work. No, she was working at Simplots. And my grandfather was still alive at the time, you know, in but he was drinking quite a bit.

1:16:38 While I was in the service, I used to send him all of my I used to send him an allotment check. I stayed with just a little bit of money, and he got all of his and he got an allotment. And curse every time he got his check. But he’d wind up and when the beer joint, you know, drunk, drinking, spending his money, and it finally got to him his health. His body couldn’t take him. And me and my wife for just married. I don’t know about a year or So we have Rachel
We had been married about a year and a half. And my grandfather, Francisco ascus was stainless. And he died there at home, took care of him and tried to doctor him to health. He did. Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, he had his faults as far as drinking, but he taught us how to work me and my brothers says

1:17:42 he was nothing. He was just a step

1:17:45 grandfather actually raised us. I can remember he getting up in the morning, and when I was a kid, at four o’clock in the morning or earlier, make fire in the stove, you know, and start making tortillas.
Your grandfather? Oh, yeah. Excellent tortilla maker. And he would make tortillas for us so that we can have breakfast. And we would make our lunch we would put in all the tacquitos, burritos. You know, we’ll repurpose, we will take them and put them in a pan. And then when we got to the fields at noontime, just before we got this before it was time to eat, why one of us kids would have to go build a little fire, you know, and, and once a fire was built, we let the ashes get hot, you know, and then we put our burritos on the fire. And we’d eat but he’d get up early in the morning and make tortillas from scratch, you know,
a remarkable man.
I mean, he drank but he knew he always took care of his kids.

1:18:55 How old was your grandfather? Your step grandfather? 50.

1:19:01 He was only seven six when he died.

1:19:03

1. I can’t remember? But 76

1:19:08 (Wife) That’s what he said, you know, we don’t know his background. We don’t know where it came from where he was (unintelligible) and we never knew he was just somebody that grandma married. You know, and then they together raised two kids. I didn’t know her but I knew him. After we were married.

1:19:30 A good man. I mean, he had his faults because he liked to drink but he never missed a day’s work. He went to work. And he made sure that we went to work. Proud man to what I mean is that he was proud that his kids were good workers. To him it was and he would be proud. My kids are good workers who

1:19:56 really really know me and you could just, you see a little picture of little Indian from Mexico, you know, in one of those TV programs?

1:20:09 That he taught us how to work. And I appreciate that very much from him. You know, if I learned anything from him, it was learn how to work.

1:20:18 But he had his real father all along. And it wasn’t until I was pregnant with my last child that one day I decided that we were going to go find his father, and we found his father. And that’s another story

1:20:30 that was 30 years old, and I found my real father.
Well, how did that come and go? You want you want to hear that, too?

1:20:36 (Wife) That’s a long story long. After we were married, I was nosy. And there was a lot of things that his grandmother and my grandmother had left in this attic of a witness house where they were all raised after the grandmother died just right here on 16th Avenue North. And one day, I was nosey, I went up there and I found this Bible. And in this Bible was a letter in Spanish and type in a typewritten form, from a man named Jose Cano this letter was supposedly was in Spanish written to his grandmother. And I’d liked how that letter sounded. Please, this, you know, I knew that his name was Cano but when I saw Jose Cano, in that letter, I said, I gotta look into this. And it was this man saying, and it sounded like he was a good Christian, God believing man asking her his grandmother, to please, he knew of his wife’s death, and to please let his children come and stay with him, that he was willing to forgive just like our Lord Jesus Christ has forgiven us, you know, he would forgive. But he wanted to see his children. Like, gosh, this sounds like a good man. That must be my husband’s father. But see, they have been told, since they were little that their father had abandoned them. And that, you know, he was non existent. In fact, he was 15, when he was going around the country working, you know, he was only a few miles from his own dad, but never looked him up.
So your mother never told you about him?

1:22:21 Well I don’t really think no, my grandmother never told us that we had a father. But she never decided and what she wrote for her own information.

1:22:36 How we find my father is that, like, my wife says, she, she’s found the letter and one thing led to another, she started asking some questions. Well, I guess that my wife says, Well, we’re gonna have to see if we can find your father, your dad. And we’re going to start saving money as of now, for a vacation a year from now. And we’re gonna go and see if we can find your dad,
He didn’’t want to. And I was, I was reluctant that was hesitant, because my grandmother, she had told us that, like, my wife says that my dad had abandoned us and, and so needless to say, all we heard was negative things about my father. So I didn’t want to meet somebody that had been all these bad things, you know. And I didn’t, I had no desire to. But she was, my wife was very insistent. So needless to say that we did. But, but we did on. We tried to kill two birds with one stone, I had a friend who lived in Los Angeles, in San Diego area. So we thought, well, we’ll go visit him and on the way back why, we’ll stop by and then maybe we’ll run into my dad, I had doubts, you know, that we would ever find him. But we went to San Diego and visited my friend. And then we came back. And me and my wife and I had my daughter, who was five, five years old, and my oldest son, who was a three. And then we can have a name was a San Diego para Monterey, California. Why Monterey is because that’s where I was born, we had to have a starting point. And so we’d went over there. And my wife been involved in her dad and being involved in the church, why they had friends that were ministers, and in that denomination that they belong to. And she says, Well, I think we know some people in this area, or words to that effect. So we drove all the way from San Diego into Monterey and it was getting kind of dark about this time, and then we got to Monterey, California and they have an old Monterey and a New Monterey. We looked in the phonebook. And sure enough, there was Jose o Cano.

1:25:15 Is that right?

1:25:17 Cisco Cano And some other Cano. But we know that my dad’s name is Jose O Cano. 659 Oak Street. Well, needless to say that, that didn’t make any sense to me, because I didn’t know where it was or whatever. So we went to a police station, and I went to the police station, and I stopped and asked, I said, I’d like know where this address is at 659 Oak Street. And he says, well that’s in Old Monterey, he says, You go down here, and you turn this way, and you go this way. And so I said, Okay, I didn’t know where I was going. I just said, okay to get out. And so sure enough, we drove a little ways. And we got to this little part of town called old Monterey. And so we were just when we got there, we were just guessing where to turn and where not to turn. And so we drove down this street called Lighthouse Street. And they got to a street called Prescott, which has. It’s got a red light, you know? And so we said, well, what are we doing now? Well, we can’t turn right, because we’ll fall into the ocean. So we’ll turn left. And then we’ll drive up the little hill over here and see what we can find. So we drove up the little hill, and we see a church, Assembly of God church. And so we thought, Well, we thought, Well, my wife belongs to the assembly of God church and sort of why we go to church chair and we’ll stop by here, and ask a minister, where, where this addresses that. You know, so I get down and go to the church, and nobody’s there, everybody’s gone. And, and some ready to get back into the car. And the lady from across the street says, who you’re looking for?. And so I told her that from the minister of the house for the church. And she says, Well, they’re not here, they’ve gone over to Salinas, a little town away about maybe 25=26 miles from there. They’re having a kind of like a reunion, a revival type thing. And they won’t be back until late, late tonight. And so I says, okay,

1:27:32 (Wife) I happened to know this minister when we were kids.

1:27:35 yeah. She just happened to know this minister when they were kids. But needless to say, we did meet him that night. So I get back into the car. And I told John, I says, Well, they’re not here. I says, What are we doing now? And she says, Well, let’s grow up little ways. We’ll see if we can find a motel and stay overnight and start in the morning. So I said, Okay, so I get in the car, and I drive up, maybe, you know, three or four blocks, and I can use Oak Street.

1:28:03 (Wife) There were names of trees, the street pine, you know, and I, we lived on Chestnut Street at that time here in Nampa. And as you’re watching this, maybe the streets are like in Nampa names of trees, you know, and sure enough, it was pine, and the very next one was pine… was Oak Street. Somebody was guiding us there, you know.

1:28:25 So we get to Oak Street. And I said, Well, why don’t we do another return? We we had the house number from the phonebook. 659. So I said what are we doing on the turn right or left? So I said, Well, it was turned left and we’ll go towards town, you know, so we get a motel. So I turned get to Oak Street turn left. And go half a block in there. 659

1:28:46 It sure sounded like it was meant to be, huh?

1:28:48 So I it was already getting dark. Yeah. And so I said, Well, what the heck am I gonna do now? (unintelligible) says what park you know, and go knock on the door. So I parked and in the, in the street, and I got out and my wife noticed that there was curtains in the in the window, you know? And so she says she knew that there was had to be a woman in there, you know? Because prior to getting to see my dad, we had discussed what happens if we find my dad and he’s an alcoholic or drunk or a bum. Not knowing I suppose. What are we doing? He’s your father. Well, I guess I’ll have to take them home with me. I was thinking the worst.

1:29:46 Well, needless to say it didn’t happen that way. But we got to the house, stopped the car. And so I get out. Walk up the steps In a knock on the door and