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Carey, Laura (audio interview #1 of 1)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - Laura Carey was interviewed in her home in west Long Beach. Although she was retired, she still kept a neat and apparently well organized house and took care of her family's needs. The interview was cut short when her husband, Red, returned home. The interviewer was the daughter of friends of the Carey's. 2/19/1979
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- 2020-10-02
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- SUBJECT BIO - Laura Pate Carey was an oil worker's wife who also lived the life of a "boomer." After she married Red Carey, she shared the uncertainties of his life as one relatively well paying job ended and he had to search for another. Sometimes he had to live away from home to find work. Often Laura worked too, but she held short term jobs as well. In this interview, she describes growing up in rural southern California. She graduated from Corona High School where she played on the girls basketball team. She was briefly married and held various jobs including maid and waitress until she met and married Red Carey. During World War II, when Red was drafted, she followed him to army camps in other parts of the United States. After the war, they returned to California where she worked as a maid in several Long Beach hotels. The interview was part of a project to study the impact of oil on the development of Long Beach. TOPICS - growing up in southern California; marrying and following husband during WWII; and working in Long Beach hotels after WWII;
- *** File: lhowlcarey1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-3:22)... Introduction Carey was 70 years old at the time of the interview. Adelina Yorba was her maternal grandmother and Ramon Carrillo, her maternal grandfather. They lived in Santa Ana Canyon where they farmed using horses; they raised barley. James and Laura Pate, her paternal grandparents, lived on a ranch near Chino where they did dry farming and kept cows that they milked. They lived about about 5 miles from her family and she remembers going there for Sunday dinners in a buggy pulled by a horse. (3:22-7:09)... Carey was one of six children. When she was young, her family lived near where Prado Dam was at the time of the interview. Then her father sold that place and moved the family to Ramona where he farmed about 360 acres. It took them about a week to get there in a covered wagon. Her father raised barley and milked cows. Later, they returned to Prado. Her uncle was killed by robbers there. She lived there until she married at age 19. She went to school in Prado for several years, then in Ramona and later attended Corona High School. At first she drove to school in a horse and buggy, and later she had a car. In high school, she played basketball and was on the track team. Sometimes she went to dances on Saturdays. The school was "fairly good sized;" there were 30 students in her graduating class in 1927. (7:09-8:50)... At home, she worked in the garden. Her father raised and butchered pigs; then they rendered the lard in a kettle in the yard and put up salt pork . They also dried fruit. She helped with the canning, rendering the lard and baking. She helped her mother sew and wash clothes. (8:50-12:07)... She married during the Depression when she was 19. She moved to Santa Paula with her husband where he worked fumigating orange trees. There were some oil wells in that area. She kept house but didn't work outside her home. When she divorced, Carey worked at the Rialto Inn, serving dinners. Toward the end of the Depression, she worked for about 2 years in Beverly Hills for Mrs. Masters; she lived in Masters' house and cleaned and did other housework. She didn't mind the work because it was a way to make a living and she hadn't learned anything else in school. She left this job when she married Red Carey. (12:07-15:00)... She married Red Carey in 1941. At that time there were lots of parties and dances to go to in Long Beach. The town was really busy. When Red was drafted, she worked with the auxiliary military police for about a year. She helped to guard the docks and warehouses in the harbor; she wore a 45 pistol and had to practice shooting twice a week. Then she quit that job and followed Red back east where he was stationed. There she found a job in a motel. (15:00-18:53)... Red was stationed in Alexandria, Virginia. for a year. She didn't like the snow there and had to buy gloves. She worked in a motel, making up the rooms and doing the laundry. Then Red was transferred to Wisconsin and she followed him again. But it was hard to find work there. Dime stores paid $12 a week, which "didn't suit her" although some women only made $10 a week working for officers' wives. She found a job in a laundry at Camp McCoy, where she made $27 a week for working 6 days a week, 9 hours a day. In this job she believed she made more, did less, and had more free time. A room at the time cost only $1.75 a week. It wasn't expensive to eat at the camp commissary. On their days off, they used to catch the train to La Crosse. It was a beautiful area to walk and relax in. (18:53-25:10)... Laura and Red came back to Long Beach during his furlough. Red had to go back east but she decided to stay in Long Beach. She found a job in a fish cannery; mackerel came to her cut up and she put it in cans. The work was not steady, she didn't like the odor, and she wasn't a fast worker. Her next job was in a National Biscuit Company warehouse. The company wanted to hire men but couldn't attract any. She unloaded and stacked crackers. She left the warehouse after 10 months when Red came home. She stayed home and kept house for a while. Then in 1946 she went to work as a maid at the Hilton Hotel in Long Beach. The hotel furnished uniforms to the employees; the head housekeeper was very particular and inspected her work every morning. There were many "girls" working as maids there; each one had to clean 15 rooms each day. The hotel was always full; there were many conventions and vacationers from back east during the winter and from Texas in the summer. The hotel advertised 300 rooms. The hotel changed ownership several times and was closed down for several years. (25:10-29:29)... While the Hilton was closed Laura worked at other hotels. One was the Lafayette and it was not a nice place to work. They brought in "colored" workers from Los Angeles and the head of housekeeping often favored them. So she quit and went to work at the International Towers, a residential hotel; it was really nice. She also worked at the Capri, which was a smaller hotel with a beautiful view of the ocean. The Western Band Review, which was held every year, passed by the hotel on Ocean Boulevard. When the hotel's owners wanted to go non-union it was closed and all of the employees fired. (29:29-31:54)... Laura belonged to the Culinary Workers Union. When the Breakers reopened, she went back to work there. The hotel was a real mess but she worked to help clean it up for the reopening. When she didn't get paid, she left and went to work at the Pacific Coast Club, which soon went bankrupt. All of the hotels she worked at were unionized except for the International Towers and the Pacific Coast Club. She was left without any union benefits when she retired because she didn't work in a unionized job for her last ten years. (31:54-35:14)... At one time the Pacific Coast Club was a really nice place, but it had begun to deteriorate when she worked there. One time the elevator broke down and she had to carry linens up and down the stairs. The Club's owners didn't invest in maintenance or improvements. She remembers her union providing good medical and dental benefits but she doesn't know if the unions helped working conditions too much. She and Red built their house on the westside of Long Bach in 1954. (35:14-37:09)... She knew lots of oil workers and believed they were hard working people. She got used to the irregularity of Red's work. She knew that as long as one of them was working they would be able to manage. They used to go to dances, to visit friends, and out to dinner for entertainment. (37:09-40:16)... Her grandmother gave the 160 acres she owned in Corona to Laura's dad and divided the land in Santa Ana Canyon near Yorba Linda between Laura's aunt and uncle. They raised barley, and later, when there was water for irrigation, they grew oranges. Her family ended up with dry farm land with clay soil The land was near where Prado Dam was built on the Santa Ana River. When the government got ready to build the dam, they bought the property that her family owned. A nearby town was also destroyed. It was really small, with only two stores, a post office, railroad station and a pool hall. When the dam was built the government moved the railroad. The lake behind the dam was never full and they never had an flooding in the area. (40:16-41:54)... There were oil wells on their property in Santa Ana Canyon near Yorba Linda. The wells didn't produce much oil. Her grandmother wanted everyone to share in the oil profits, because her grandmother's sister had inherited a well that produced much more oil than hers. Her grandmother wanted all of her children to share the wealth equally. (41:54-44:51)... When Laura was in high school she played on the basketball team. She played jumping center and her sister played running center. Together they really made up the team. One year when they were in high school, Corona beat Riverside for the first time. She was also on the track team; she ran the 100 yard dash and won many ribbons. And she competed in the shot put, ran high hurdles, and in relay races. She really enjoyed athletic events and art as well. End of tape
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