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Baker, Marie (audio interview #1 of 3)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - Baker was nervous during this first interviews, worried about remembering things accurately and uncomfortable speaking on tape. The discomfort during this interview was exacerbated by the pounding hammers of carpet layers, which can be heard in the background. 6/21/1980
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- 2021-07-09
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- Notes
- *** File: rrrmbaker1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-2:19)... Baker was born in San Francisco in 1912. Her father's family survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and, for a short time, lived in a tent on the sand dunes at Golden Gate Park. Her grandmother Duncan was a talented artist and pianist whose studio was destroyed in the earthquake. Baker remembers her summertime visits to her grandmother's home in Vallejo, California. Baker and her seven brothers and sisters competed for their grandmother's attention whenever she came to visit them in the city. (2:19-4:16)... Baker's maternal grandfather (Shaw) died when her mother was sixteen years old. Baker's grandmother remarried (Hood) and the family migrated to San Francisco from the East Coast. In contrast to Grandma Duncan, Grandma Hood was not the "grandmother type." She was emotionally distant from her grandchildren and mistrusted them. She was physically and verbally abusive towards Baker's mother when she was a child and the two were not close. (4:16-9:07)... Baker's mother was born Lillian Pearl Shaw in 1892 and her father as Curtis William Rich in 1883. Baker continues to talk about her family background, focusing on her mother's childhood and family life. Her mother was sixteen years old when she left Lowell, Massachusetts and moved to San Francisco. Shortly after she arrived in the city, she met and married Baker's father. The mother of eight children, she had several miscarriages during her childbearing years and suffered from other physical ailments throughout out her life. At the time of this interview, Baker was still very close to her mother who was approaching her eighty-ninth birthday. (9:07-10:01)... Baker's mother received an eighth-grade education, attending schools in both Lowell and in Canada, where she lived with her grandmother for a short time. She traveled to San Francisco alone by way of train. She met Baker's father at the train station when she stopped to ask him where she could rent a room. The two married a short time later. (10:01-12:36)... Baker's father was spoiled by his mother and did not have very much direction in life. He worked various odd jobs throughout his life because he did not possess any job skills or practice a trade. He received an elementary education; however, Baker could not recall what grade level he completed in school. He attended Catholic school for a short time, but his mother pulled him out of that school after he ran away in an attempt to avoid disciplinary action. He was twenty-five years old when he met and married Baker's sixteen-year-old mother. He retired from a security guard position at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard shortly after the end of WWII. (12:36-14:27)... Although her parents did not attend church, Baker and her siblings were required to go to Sunday School at the Protestant Church in their neighborhood. Her parents were married in 1908 and Baker was born the third daughter of eight children. She describes herself as the "dependable" child, indicating that she was typically the one who took care of her younger siblings. She lists the sex and order of birth of her siblings. Her mother had five children in the first six years of marriage, which was followed by a short waiting period before she gave birth to her final three children. (14:27-17:17)... Baker describes her family as "poor and proud." Her family was clean and refused to accept welfare. Baker's household responsibilities included cleaning. Every child in the home worked as soon as they were old enough. Baker earned .10 cents running errands for a woman in the neighborhood and her brothers had paper routes in order to contribute money to the family. When she was a young girl, her father worked at the Scottish Rite Auditorium as a custodian. The family frequently watched performances and lectures at the theater. Her mother compiled three books containing the autographs of famous entertainers. When dances were held at the auditorium, her mother worked in the coat check and her brothers moved chairs. Baker also worked at the auditorium selling tickets. Her father earned $100 a month at this job. At that time, their rent was $25 per month. (17:17-20:22)... She names the various areas where her family lived in San Francisco. She attended three different grammar schools when she was a child. By the end of WWI, she was seven years old and remembers waving an American flag outside a window of their home on Pier Street. The home she remembered most was located in the Mission District. Her family lived in a "happy house and they did not realize they were that poor because they were happy." (20:22-21:41)... She describes the types of games she played when she was a child. Baker and her siblings "were practically raised in a church" because they were frequent members of the Trinity Center, a church located at the end of the block. Baker participated in the Bluebirds and the Camp Fire Girls and her brothers played basketball at the center's courts. They also participated in vacation bible school and attended weekly movies illustrating the minister's sermons. (21:41-23:49)... Even though she graduated from high school, she described herself as a timid and self-conscious student because she was held back in the second grade. After graduating on the honor roll from junior high school, she elected to enroll in Commerce High School and take commercial courses in clerical studies because she wanted to avoid the difficult curriculum at Mission High School. Other than briefly considering a career in nursing, Baker did not have any ideas about the future. She was "probably thinking about marriage," but was far too busy "being her mother's little helper" to develop any career ambitions. (23:49-26:28)... At the age of thirteen, Baker began running errands for a seamstress who lived across the street. She enjoyed earning money , but worried that people would think she was a bootlegger carrying that big suitcase around. Occasionally, the woman took Baker to the movies, which she fondly referred to as the "flea house." The woman also invited Baker over for meals. However, Baker was hesitant to eat the food because the woman prepared it in a makeshift kitchen she set up in her bathroom. End of tape. *** File: rrrmbaker2.mp3 (0:00-1:29)... Baker discusses her job with a neighborhood woman. Baker gave her earnings to her mother who used them to buy bread or tomatoes. If her mother had extra money, she gave each of her children ten cents, which they used to buy a candy bar and go to the movies. (1:29-2:22)... Other than taking vacations to visit her grandmother in Vallejo, Baker does not recall going on other types of family outings. When she was a young girl, a family friend paid for her to take dancing lessons. Baker performed at recitals held at Golden Gate Park and she has many photographs to illustrate her participating in these activities. (2:22-5:35)... When she was young girl, Baker was not particularly close to her father because he worked both days and nights at the Scottish Rite Auditorium. When Baker began working at the auditorium between the ages of fifteen and seventeen she saw more of her father. During that time she worked in the hat check and in the box office. She was very fond of her father and his death was tragic for the family. He drowned while he was on a fishing trip the day after he turned seventy-two. (5:35-6:56)... Shortly after Baker graduated from high school, she contracted bronchitis and became very ill. She did not work or do anything until she married in 1931 at the age of nineteen. Her family experienced very little hardship during the Depression. Her father kept his job at the Scottish Rite Auditorium. Her oldest sister had some problems because her husband was a plumber and lost business during the Depression. Baker's oldest brother kept his job and another brother worked his way through college at San Francisco State, one of only two siblings who attended and graduated from college. (6:56-8:40)... Her mother did not talk to her about menstruation until she found Baker's bloodstained clothing in the laundry bag. Baker thought it was terrible that her mother did not prepare her for menstruation, indicating that she did not make the same mistake with her own daughters. Baker's mother did not talk to her about sex or birth control before she married. Baker was "pretty green" when she married. She gave birth to a daughter during her first year of marriage. Her husband did not want to have anymore children and asked Baker to consult her doctor about how to prevent future pregnancies. Baker and her first husband eventually divorced and she remarried when her daughter was thirteen. Baker gave birth to another daughter a year into her second marriage. (8:40-15:45)... She describes how she met her first husband. When they married, he was employed as a tank driver for Shell Oil Company in Lancaster. Baker moved to Lancaster and they lived there for three years, at which time he was transferred to the Mojave Desert. During their eleven-year marriage, Baker's life revolved around her home and family. She quips that she was a "Lady of leisure... involved in bridge clubs and PTA." She worked as a waitress for a short time because her husband's extramarital activities caused them to go into debt. They divorced when she learned that he was having an affair with her best friend. At that time, he moved to Vallejo and she moved to Los Angeles and began working for North American in April 1942. (15:45-19:11)... Baker had very few items of clothing while she was growing up. Her grandmother made most of her clothing. The family did not own a washing machine or a washing board. Their laundry was sent out to the "rough dry," a service that washed and rinsed their clothes. When the clothes came home they were line dried. Baker assumed a motherly role towards her younger siblings because her mother "was always either busy having a baby, having a miscarriage, or working." When her parents worked in the evenings, Baker was in charge of baby sitting her siblings. She worried about this responsibility and stayed awake until her parents came home in the evenings. (19:11-20:31)... She does not recall how her parents made decisions about money or maintaining their household. For many years, her father earned only $100 a month, $25 of which went towards rent and the rest was used to purchase food, clothing, and gas. They did not have electricity in the house and illuminated their household through gas mantle lamps. (20:31-23:16)... Baker did not socialize with her classmates and she was not involved in any extracurricular activities during her high-school years. She took business courses, including shorthand, typing, and bookkeeping, but continued to suffer from an "inferiority complex." It was not until she began working at North American that she realized her potential. When she left North American, she decided to pursue a career as a beautician. Initially, she was self-conscious about her age and her ability to finish school. However, she soon realized that she was "miles ahead of those young girls." (23:16-26:49)... During her first marriage, Baker's husband managed their finances and he gave her money for groceries and nothing else. However, she could approach him about other purchases that she wanted to make at which time he would provide her with the money. She had to go to work after they got into debt because of a personal loan her husband incurred, without her knowledge, when he began having an affair. After she went to work, she "grew up a little bit and realized [she] could do things." She and her husband separated in April 1942, the same month she began working for North American. She digresses regarding the method of contraception she used while she was married. End of tape. *** File: rrrmbaker3.mp3 (0:00-3:35)... Baker knew about her husband's affair for five years before leaving him in April 1942. She stayed with him because she loved him, and because he asked her to stay and accept his affair. She was hopeful that he would eventually lose interest in his girlfriend. However, he continued his love affair and she occasionally witnessed his affection for his lover while at social gatherings. She displays a photograph to demonstrate her dramatic weight loss as a result of the problems in her marriage. The photograph also depicts her wearing pants and festive garb for the Fall Festival, a yearly event held in Mojave. Except for this event, she did not wear pants on a regular basis. It was not until she started working for North American that pants became a permanent fixture in her wardrobe. End of tape.
- SUBJECT BIO - Marie Baker went to work at North American Aviation shortly after the war began. Realizing that her marriage was unworkable, she left her husband and the isolation of the desert community where they had been living, moved to Los Angeles and applied for a job at North American. Born in San Francisco in 1912, the third of eight children, Baker faced economic hardship growing up. An incurable romantic, she fell in love with her first husband when she was in her early teens and married him when she was nineteen. They settled in the desert area of the Antelope Valley, about sixty miles outside of Los Angeles, where she lived until she left him. Baker married her second husband shortly before war's end, and quit her job at North American. She joined him in San Bernardino, where he was teaching. She started a second family after they returned to Los Angeles, and she remained at home until the early 1950s, when she returned to North American. Feeling that her job was interfering with family life, she quit, and eventually pursued a longtime ambition to become a beautician, a trade she was still practicing at the time of the interview. Baker was interviewed in her home in Redondo Beach on three separate occasions by Jan Fischer. She was worried about remembering things accurately and initially was nervous speaking on tape. This uneasiness passed, however, and she enjoyed spending time after each interview chatting and looking through old photographs and news clippings. Although she became quite ill between the second and third interviews, she remained in good spirits and was eager to continue with the interviews. TOPICS - family background and family history; family life; socioeconomic status; childhood; housing and living arrangements; games and social activities; and early work experiences;early work experiences; childhood; family history; the Depression; siblings; socioeconomic status; menstruation; first husband and marital relationship; domesticity; social activities; education; beauty school; conTopics on this side of the tape (which is only three minutes long) include: marital relationship; and clothing;
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