SEGMENT: CHILDHOOD ACTIVITIES, FOOD & MEALS, & CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Dr. Debra Reid>ISM Interviews M-Z>ISM Interviews M-Z, Segment 4

SEGMENT: CHILDHOOD ACTIVITIES, FOOD & MEALS, & CHILDHOOD EDUCATION,

duration 11:46
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CHILDHOOD ACTIVITIES
One girl in the area, she was too far away to play with regularly but when they did get together, they would jump on the trampoline. Would mostly play with her brother and his friends, playing whiffle ball (she still plays baseball today), playing with toy barns, houses, and tractors, and playing in the dirt. The house they lived in was a mail-order house with no basement when they got it. They dug out a basement and the kids would play in the dirt pile. Only about three boys lived close enough to visit. They would play at her house because they had a big yard and their mother would feed them afterwards.
FARM ORGANIZATIONS
4-H club organized when she was 11 or 12. Didn't do much besides bake brownies for county fairs.
RELIGION
FOOD & MEALS
After church, they would meet at her father's parents' house with their aunts and uncles and have a big meal. Fried chicken, pot roast, fried mushrooms, potatoes, peas, sometimes fried fish. Always many desserts. Father, Mother, brother, herself, grandparents, two unmarried aunts, an uncle and aunt, and occasionally an aunt from Alton would visit with friends. Played croquet and pinochle before and after dinner.
FAMILY
FOOD & MEALS
CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Went to school at St. Mary's Christian school (first through eight grade). Head Start program in 1965. Head Start teacher said she'd never amount to anything. High school at Chester High School. Student body consisted of farm kids and town kids. 36 in grade school class, 124 in high school class. Chester's population around 8000, including those in the Menard Prison and Mental Hospital.