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March, Lillian (audio interview #1 of 3)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the first interview with Lillian March conducted in the living room of her modest Lakewood (California) home, which she and her husband bought in 1960. She was very nervous during this first interview, clearly unaccustomed to talking about her life, particularly her personal experiences. She took a long time to respond to a question, resulting in very long pauses. 2/18/1980
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- 2021-06-25
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- *** File: rrrlmarch1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-2:43)... March's grandparents on both sides were originally from Ireland. Her father's parents immigrated to Ottawa, Canada when they were very young. Her grandfather supported his family by working as a carpenter. March's father was born in Canada. Her mother's parents immigrated to Illinois where March's mother was born. They supported themselves through farming. (2:43-4:38)... She does not know how her parents met. After they married, they moved to Le Mars, Iowa and had their first child. They then moved to South Dakota where March was born. A short time later, they returned to Iowa and had two more children. March and her siblings went to school in Iowa and spent most of their young lives there. (4:38-6:40)... Her father supported the family mainly by working as a policeman. He also held other jobs, including working at a mill in Le Mars. March describes her father as a jovial and sincere man who liked to dance. March's mother's personality was vastly different than her father's. She describes her mother as a reserved, sweet and calm woman who liked to tell March that she was just like her father whenever she misbehaved. Her mother lived until she was ninety-two years old. (6:40-7:29)... Her parents had four children. Their first son was born in 1890. March was born in 1894 followed by a sister in 1896. Their youngest brother was born in 1898. All of her siblings are dead. (7:29-9:54)... March describes the two-bedroom home her parents owned. She recalls that her parents obtained "nicer things" as the children grew up. She shared a bedroom with her sister and her brothers slept on some sort of pullout bed in another part of the house. Her parents slept in the other bedroom. (9:54-11:44)... March was born at home during the short period her parents lived in South Dakota. Her birth was attended by a neighborhood woman; however, it was unclear whether or not she was a midwife and actually delivered March. March remembers when she got a new brother. She did not witness his birth, stating, "It was an affair I knew nothing about. It just happened." (11:44-13:26)... March does not recall the reason why her parents moved to South Dakota. Her father's brother owned a farm and perhaps her parents moved there to help him. They did not like South Dakota and returned to Iowa shortly after March was born. In addition to living in Le Mars, her parents also lived in Sioux City, Iowa. Her father worked as a policeman in both cities. March describes the small town of Le Mars where she was schooled and remembers learning how to play basketball. (13:26-17:28)... Her mother was active with the Catholic Church and also a member of a religious aid society. March's father was a Democrat and enjoyed following politics. Both of her parents were educated; however, she believes that her mother was more educated than her father. Her parent's social life revolved around square dancing. They belonged to a square dancing club in which her father called out square dancing cues. March recalls going to square dances with her parents and hearing her father call the dances. (17:28-19:40)... March remembers going to the fair with her family. One of her favorite activities was roller skating. She recalls the time she cut class to practice her skating skills in preparation for a skating tournament. (19:40-20:35)... She enjoyed doing various kinds of activities with her mother. Another favorite activity was going to ice cream socials. (20:35-21:45)... March believes that her parents talked about things before any decisions were made in the family. They usually had opposing opinions which stayed the same even after discussions. (21:45-25:19)... Her father was the main disciplinarian in their household. The children were a little more careless in obeying their mother compared to their father. March describes a couple of incidents that resulted in her receiving disciplinary action. She remembers having a good childhood and growing up in a nice neighborhood. She was never spanked or disciplined like some of her friends were. (25:19-27:39)... March describes the kinds of games she played with her friends when she was a young girl, many of which were outdoors. There were restrictions on her because she was a girl, however, and she and her sister were admonished to be ladylike. However, this did not always preclude her from participating in outdoor and athletic activities like basketball. (27:39-29:16)... Holidays were a festive time in her home. Her father was one of the first in the neighborhood to raise his American flag on Independence Day. Their Thanksgiving meal usually consisted of goose, mince pie, and dressing. The children did not receive a lot of presents for Christmas. They hung their stockings up on Christmas Eve and waited until the morning to get their gifts. March and her sister received a doll every Christmas. End of tape. *** File: rrrlmarch2.mp3 (0:11-1:55)... March describes community gatherings and the ceremonial activities that took place when someone died. (1:55-4:29)... March's household chores included washing dishes and making her bed. Her older brother's chores involved running errands for their parents. The boys in her family were responsible for very few, if any, household chores. However, they all had to work outside in the garden at their parent's request. She was not fond of doing household chores except those that involved her bedroom. She liked to decorate her room with ribbons and pictures. Her mother made most of their clothing and usually dressed the girls' outfits up with lace. (4:29-8:03)... She reflects back on the first day she started school. Both the grammar school and the high school were located a short distance from her home. There were separate classrooms for each grade in grammar school. In high school, she was a member of the debate team. On Friday afternoons, the girls took sewing and etiquette classes. Her parents encouraged her to do well in school. (8:03-9:27)... March's parents owned a few books and liked to read to their children. One of the books she remembers reading when she was a young girl was Uncle Tom's Cabin. She enjoyed reading and checked books out from the library on a regular basis. (9:27-10:00)... After school, March went straight home and had a snack. She remembers her mother's homemade bread. Besides reading, she spent the rest of her time playing with friends or doing her household chores. (10:00-13:27)... While March was in high school, she gave some thought to a career in teaching, but as she got older she decided against it. After school and during the summer, she worked for a dentist in town. She earned $10 a week cleaning dental utensils as well as the office. She liked this type of work and thought about a career as a dental hygienist. She always knew that she wanted to work in a business or professional career. She attended college for about a month before she decided to quit. (13:27-16:58)... March graduated from high school when she was eighteen years old, at which time her family moved to Sioux City, Iowa because they thought a larger town would provide better opportunities for all of them. After they moved to Sioux City, she thought that they prospered more. (16:58-17:48)... The women in her family were not involved in the suffrage movement. March explains that her mother would not have been interested in being a suffragist. (17:48-21:04)... When March moved to Sioux City, she got a job at a "Five and Ten" (dime) store, earning $12 a week. She also worked weekends doing clerical work for the Sioux City General, a local newspaper in town. She then decided to become a beauty operator and enrolled in beauty school. She attended school for about three months, during which time she learned how to marcel and do permanent wave. After she graduated from beauty school, she went to work as a beauty operator. (21:04-24:10)... Although she heard about menstruation and expected that it would happen to her one day, she was quite shocked once she started her period. She remembers thinking "it was all over" and wondered what to do next. There was little or no information provided to kids about menstruation and sex when she was growing up. (24:10-25:35)... She began dating boys when she was in high school. Most of their activities involved going to football games and then having a snack at a local ice cream parlor. She also went to dances with her dates on the weekends. She always went out on double dates with another couple. (25:35-30:24)... March met her first husband (Oscar Pace) at a park on a Sunday afternoon. He was studying to be a pharmacist at the time. After they married, they moved to a suburb community of Sioux City. Her husband died two years after they married. She did not work during her first marriage. After he died, she returned to the work force and also went back home to live with her parents. She met her second husband (Ray March) at a local swimming hole. They married in 1922. (Although March states that she was nineteen or twenty when she married her second husband, she was actually twenty-eight years old based on her birth year of 1894). Her husband was working as a barber when they married. She was married a Justice of the Peace on both occasions. End of tape. *** File: rrrlmarch3.mp3 (0:00-1:37)... March and her first husband were married by a Justice of the Peace because they were of different religions and could not get married in the church. Her parents were not opposed to her marrying someone who was not Catholic because they respected his religious views. Growing up, her family went to church every Sunday and observed the Catholic holidays with regularity. (1:37-3:29)... When March married the second time, she stayed in Sioux City with her husband. She continued to work as a beauty operator during her second marriage. Her husband worked as a barber his entire life. During her marriage, she and her husband hosted parties and went to dances. They spent their summers at a cabin near the lake. (3:29-5:19)... She never planned not to have children. Her sister was the only one among her siblings who had children. March was always close with her nephews and her niece. She was never pressured when she was younger by her family and friends to have children. (5:19-8:08)... Many of her friends enlisted in the army and fought overseas during WWI. Her second husband went into the service and they married a few years later. During the war, March participated in knitting drives, during which she made scarves and sweaters for the soldiers going off to war. She does not recall any wild parties during the war; her girlfriends were loyal to their husbands and everyone was very patriotic. (8:08-9:16)... Her husband did not object when she decided to continue to work after they married. He appreciated her line of work as a beauty operator considering he was a barber. They wore white uniforms and kept their work stations very clean. Her husband employed two barbers at his shop. (9:16-13:38)... March describes the circumstances that led her and her husband to move to California. Her husband moved to San Francisco by himself and started working at a friend's barber shop. March followed a month later. She rode a bus to California and dressed in a sun dress because she thought the climate would be warm once she arrived in San Francisco. When she met her friends at the bus station, however, they were wearing fur coats because it was so cold. March was sad to leave her family, but in a short time they came out to visit and decided to stay. Her younger brother, a banker, was the only one who stayed in Iowa. She discusses her older brother's career as a salesman. (13:38-16:00)... Note: there is an interruption in this segment when March pauses to answer the door. There were two Catholic churches in Le Mars, one for the Germans and the other for the Irish, located at the opposite ends of the town. She was brought up to be tolerant of other people's religious beliefs and she was not restricted from associating with non-Catholics. In fact, both of her husbands were Methodists. She was never harassed because of her religious beliefs. After she married, she scaled back on her church activities, indicating that she kept her faith but stopped going to church on a regular basis. (16:00-17:01)... Although she things that there was an Indian reservation near Sioux City, she rarely saw American Indians in town. (17:01-19:46)... March talks about her friends and the social activities she enjoyed when she was living in Sioux City. Although she was close with a few girlfriends, she didn't discuss her problems with them. If she needed to confide in someone, it was usually her mother. (19:46-24:10)... During the summers in Iowa, March and her husband rented a cabin near the lake where they fished and did all sorts of outdoor activities. She recalls the time she caught a nine-pound pike using bacon as bait. Her catch was featured in the local newspaper. She enjoyed getting away on the weekends after working all week around people. She continued to go on camping trips and vacations with her husband after they moved to California. Another favorite activity of theirs was going to Santa Anita and Los Alamitos to watch the horse races. (24:10-25:20)... After March married and moved out of her parent's home, she did not cultivate a vegetable garden like her parents did. When she moved to California, however, she planted several flower gardens at home, most of which have since been removed. She indicates that she has been living in the same home for more than twenty years. (25:20-27:48)... March could not recall the year she moved to San Francisco. She never worked as a beauty operator in California because she was not licensed in that state. She did not go back to work until she began working in defense during the war. She talks about her daily activities at home during the years she was unemployed. End of tape.
- SUBJECT BIO - Lillian March was a full-time homemaker before going to work at Douglas Aircraft, Long Beach. Born in South Dakota, March was the second of eight children. The family moved to Le Mars, Iowa when she was one years old. After she graduated from high school there, she attended college for one year in Sioux City, until she married in 1913. After her husband died in 1915, March attended beauty school and started to work as a beautician, continuing, even after her marriage in 1922 to a barber. When March and her husband moved to California in 1933, she became a full-time homemaker, until she went to work at Douglas. At forty eight, she was among the older women who became defense workers, and worked for only one year, resuming full-time homemaking. Even though March's assembly work was short-lived, she felt that the experience built her self-confidence and she did more after she returned home. Three interviews were conducted with March in the living room of her modest Lakewood (California) home, which she and her husband bought in 1960. She was very soft spoken, even somewhat shy. The interview seemed to make her nervous and she was always more relaxed and animated when the tape recorder was turned off. She was not accustomed to talking about her life and often commented that she felt filly relating certain anecdotes. March took a long time to gather her thoughts before responding to a question; and she sometimes became so absorbed in her thoughts that she forgot the interviewer was there. TOPICS - family background; family history; parents; siblings; childhood home; living arrangements; Le Mars, Iowa; childhood; parent's social activities; family life; discipline; gender expectations; play activities; and hohousehold chores; gender roles; schooling; reading interests; career expectations; move to Sioux City; early work history; beauty school; menstruation; dating; and marriage to first and second husbands;first husband; marriage to second husband; marital relationship; social activities; WWI; career as a beauty operator; move to California; religion; friends and social life; summer vacations; family history; and
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