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Widdicombe, Evelyn (audio interview #1 of 3)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - Widdicombe was interviewed in her home, sitting at her kitchen table, which was used at other times as a desk and study area. At the time of the interview, she was enrolled in several courses at CSULB. Although she was quite comfortable with the interview process, her participation in a women's oral history seminar at the time of the interview made her an observer of the interview process, as well as a participant. There is some problem with the audio quality on sides C and D. It sounds almost as if other sound was transposed onto the tape . Widdicombe's voice can be clearly heard during the interview. 2/13/1980
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- SUBJECT BIO - Evelyn (Casola) Widdicombe went to work at Lockheed, following her Navy husband's death at Pearl Harbor. Born in Canada in 1913 to US citizens, Widdicombe was raised in Tacoma, Washington. After high school, she worked as a live-in domestic briefly, and then went to live with her aunt in a rural community, earning money working on the farm. She married in 1938 while her husband was still in the Navy. Times were still bad when his hitch was over, and after three months, he re-enlisted. Initially they lived in a small apartment in Long Beach, but when Navy Housing opened a project in Long Beach, she immediately rented an apartment. That is where she was living when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Shortly afterwards, the Navy chaplain assisted in recruiting some of the "Pearl Harbor widows" to work in the Lockheed Aircraft plant in Maywood. She worked there eighteen months, first as an assembler and then as a clerical worker, before taking a job at the Navy Shipyard in Long Beach. She remarried after the war, and continued to live in Navy Housing with her new husband, and began to work in the office there. After Widdicombe and her second husband bought a home in one of the new housing tracts in Long Beach, she became a full-time homemaker. One year later, in 1950, she began working in the Fleet Support Office at the Navy Shipyard, where she remained until her retirement in 1973. Widdicombe was interviewed in the tract home in which she lived since the 1950s. Since her divorce in 1956, she lived their alone. She was among the first women interviewed for the RRR project, shortly after she enrolled in the project director's women's oral history seminar. Her involvement in the class made her an observer of the interview process, at the same time she was the narrator. As a result, it made the interviewer somewhat self conscious about her role. TOPICS - family history; family life; childhood; parents; and father's alcoholism;schooling; religion; living conditions; neighborhood; childhood activities; family life; educational expectations; role models; parents; the Depression; and socioeconomic status;schooling; educational aspirations; career expectations; marriage expectations; role models; the Depression; early work experiences; parents; farm life; domestic responsibilities; menstruation; husband; dating; andfamily history; husband; marital relationship; domesticity; gender roles and expectations; housing; social life relationships; socioeconomic status; and birth control; There is some background noise on this side
- *** File: rrrewiddicombe1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-6:47)... Widdicombe was born an American citizen in Alberta, Canada in 1913. While in Canada, her father worked as an engineering specialist for a steam company. The family moved to Tacoma, Washington in 1917. She details her family history, focusing on her maternal grandparents. Her mother was born in the late 1880s in a small farming community of South Dakota. She married Widdicombe's father in 1910. (6:47-10:25)... Her father was born in the late 1880s in Iowa. She describes her father as an inventive and intelligent man with an entrepreneurial spirit. At an early age, he started a bee hive business, which later became a prosperous business for his family. However, he was determined to leave his small town and, at the age of sixteen, he moved to Spokane, Washington to start a new life. Although Widdicombe was close with her father's family, she knew very little about their family history. Her parents met when they were both twenty-one years old and married in 1910. They moved to Canada where Widdicombe and her younger sister were born. Her brother was born in 1921 after her parents returned to the US and settled in Tacoma, Washington. (10:25-14:02)... Widdicombe's mother graduated from high school; her father only finished the tenth or eleventh grade, but was very intelligent and inventive. Her father was an alcoholic, and even though he never physically abused his family, they suffered from his absenteeism and his squandering of his income on his habit. When her mother died at the age of forty-six, Widdicombe became very bitter towards her father, and the family broke up because Widdicombe and her younger sister refused to live with their father. (14:02-20:45)... She was a hopeless romantic during her teens and enjoyed listening to women in her family tell stories about how they met and fell in love with their husbands. Her Aunt Attie also detailed her husband's family history and their life together on a farm in Washington. Widdicombe had fond memories of visiting her aunt and helping out at the farm. She finished high school while visiting the farm. (20:45-25:25)... Her parents met in South Dakota while her father was passing through. When her mother's family moved to Spokane, Washington her father followed. Shortly after marrying, they moved to Alberta, Canada. Her mother had a miscarriage, and Widdicombe was born eighteen months later, in 1913, followed by a sister born eighteen months after her. Widdicombe remembers being cared for by a government appointed nurse named Evelyn, and although Widdicombe was christened Winifred Joy, her mother liked the name Evelyn so much that they began calling her Evelyn Joy. This discrepancy presented problems for Widdicombe when she attempted to establish her American citizenship. (Widdicombe digresses regarding stories her parents told her about their experiences living near an Indian reservation.) (25:25-28:22)... Widdicombe talks about her father's alcoholism. She was unaware of the reasons why her father left his job in Canada. When the family moved back to Washington, he found work as a automobile mechanic and successfully worked in that trade for many years. She was never close to her father because he was away from home so often. She did not find out that he was an alcoholic until her mother told her when she was sixteen. It was not until her mother's death that she learned the severity of her father's drinking habits and how it impacted her mother. End of tape. *** File: rrrewiddicombe2.mp3 (0:00-3:25)... When Widdicombe's family moved to Tacoma, Washington, they rented a small apartment and lived in what she describes as terrible conditions. She was fortunate because of the assistance she received from her grandmother and aunt. Widdicombe went to a private Catholic school until the eighth grade, with tuition paid by her aunt and uncle. After one year in a Catholic high school, she enrolled in a public school. She finished her last year of high school while living her aunt . (3:25-12:17)... Her family lived in an apartment until she was thirteen years old. Their apartment was located in a commercial district in downtown Tacoma; it had two bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen, with a community bathroom in the hall. The other residents in the building included Italians, Germans, Poles, and Swedes. The building was co-owned by two women. The son of one of them was addicted to drugs and Widdicombe remembers seeing drug paraphernalia in his bedroom. The residents in the apartment building included a construction worker and a prostitute. The first time Widdicombe saw a suburban home was when she visited her Aunt Frankie in Portland, Oregon. Her aunt's comfortable and pleasant living conditions made quite an impression on Widdicombe. (12:17-16:07)... Widdicombe was a tomboy when she was a young girl. She describes the childhood activities and games that kept her busy. She digresses regarding her family's Christmas celebrations, and even though her father was never home on Christmas eve, she has fond memories of their holiday festivities. Her mother's care and her Catholic schooling made her oblivious to the poor conditions in which she lived., though she noticed the stark contrast every time she visited her aunt's home in Portland. (16:07-20:03)... She wanted to go to college and took college entry courses while in high school, even though she knew her family could not afford to pay the tuition. Her interest in attending college began when she was about sixteen years old, when she met two lifeguards who were students at Oregon State University. In addition to teaching Widdicombe how to swim, one of them occasionally invited her to visit her family's summer home in Puget Sound. This glimpse into Julia's life expanded her horizons. (20:03-20:59)... She believes that her family moved from their downtown Tacoma apartment to a suburban area because her mother wanted to raise her children in a better environment. When they moved, Widdicombe stopped attending Catholic school and enrolled in a public junior high school. (20:59-22:20)... Widdicombe believes that a typical day for her mother involved housekeeping and preparing meals for the family. She did all the grocery shopping for the family and sewed most of their clothing. She frequently took Widdicombe and her siblings to the park, and during the summers they visited their Aunt Attie on the farm. Widdicombe's father never took summer vacations with the family because he had to work. (22:20-24:58)... She was sixteen years old when the Depression hit. Her family went on relief, and Widdicombe remembers accompanying her mother to a relief station to obtain rations of food and miscellaneous items. Even though their lives were difficult, they were never hungry or sick during the Depression. However, high blood pressure and the stress of supporting her family took its toll on Widdicombe's mother. When she was forty-six years old she suffered a stroke and died. Widdicombe describes herself as a "Pollyanna." She remembers her childhood fondly in spite of her living and economic conditions. (24:58-26:33)... After they moved from their downtown apartment, the family rented a two-story home in the suburbs of Tacoma. Widdicombe felt their life was normal because they had a home with a yard and a garden. However, they lacked clothes and only wore what their mother was able to make. Widdicombe often envied girls in school because they had better clothing. End of tape. *** File: rrrewiddicombe3.mp3 (0:00-2:01)... She earned good grades in school and at the Catholic school was active in athletics and drama. Even though the school and the classrooms were co-educational, Widdicombe did not socialize with boys. She attended a public junior high school for two years, spent one year at a Catholic high school, and finished high school in Hartline, a small rural town. The students in her graduating class never fully accepted her because she was a "city girl." (2:01-4:29)... Widdicombe was largely influenced by her Aunt Frankie and her friend Julia. Both women introduced her to a refined and pleasant home life. Julia fostered her educational aspirations through their discussions about college. She respected Julia and the two had great affection for one another. Widdicombe took college preparatory courses in anticipation of attending college, even though she knew that her family's poor economic status would preclude her from pursuing a college education. (4:29-6:46)... Widdicombe began thinking about a career in Civil Service after learning that a neighbor who was a retired postal worker, received a pension of $100 a month. Civil Service appealed to her because it promised financial security for the elderly. She often thought about getting on a "soapbox to tell women to protect themselves for the future." Other than a career in Civil Service, she thought that working in an office or a bank was an ideal occupation. (6:46-10:58)... She expected that she would get married because she "didn't want to be an old maid....[Back] then it was a no no not to be married." She was disheartened by the married women around her because they were on relief as a result of the depressed economy in Tacoma. She aspired to live a refined life like her Aunt Frankie. When she was seventeen, she moved to Hartline to help her ailing aunt around the farm. She finished her last year of high school there and remained there until she was twenty, when she returned to Tacoma to visit her family. At that time, she met her husband who was a sailor. Her mother did not consider sailors respectable men, and Widdicombe had a difficult time explaining that she was courting one. (10:58-12:30)... Widdicombe describes her responsibilities while living with her aunt in the country. She enjoyed living on the farm and socializing with the young adults in the community. (12:30-15:34)... Although Widdicombe loved her mother, she was not extremely close to her; her sister was, however. She talks about her sibling's personalities, especially her brother. After their mother died, Widdicombe's brother stayed with their father. (15:34-17:23)... During the Depression, her father was steadily employed. However, he often spent his wages on alcohol, which made it difficult for Widdicombe's mother to support the family. Her mother considered his alcoholism an illness, not a moral defect. Her father basically was an absentee father and so she was never very close to him. (17:23-20:56)... Note: there is a man's voice heard in the background in this segment. When Widdicombe moved to Hartline to help her aunt on the farm, she was paid for her work. She enjoyed the country and considered farm life a welcomed change from the city. Before moving there, she worked as a live-in nanny in Tacoma, earning $16 a month. She used her wages to buy clothes and shoes. She was not expected to surrender her wages to help support the family. She decided to leave her aunt's farm and move to Long Beach, California with her brother. Her sister was already living there. Shortly after moving to the city, she married her husband Maxie. (20:56-23:56)... Widdicombe's mother was not happy that both her daughters were dating sailors. Sailors were required to wear their uniforms at all times and her mother was uncomfortable with them coming to her home because of the stigma surrounding sailors. When Maxie was shipped to Long Beach, Widdicombe returned to Hartline. The two were engaged and planned to get married in California. Widdicombe viewed marriage as her "way to get out of Tacoma," and she was very excited about moving to California. (23:56-25:06)... Note: a man's voice is heard in the background in this segment. The first time Widdicombe visited California, she traveled with her friend Julia by way of a Greyhound bus. They visited Long Beach shortly after the 1933 earthquake and she remembers seeing rubble and debris in the streets. (25:06-26:48)... Note: a man's voice can be heard in the background in this segment. Widdicombe's mother did not prepare her for menstruation. She started her period when she was eleven years old. Her mother supplied her with the necessary "equipment" and explained that it would happen periodically. She did not explain why menstruation occurred, and Widdicombe just accepted it as a normal part of a girl's life. (26:48-30:08)... Note: a man's voice can be heard in the background in this segment. She often talked about sex and marriage with her friend Julia. Widdicombe talks about her memories socializing with Julia and her college friends on the beach. At a very early age, Widdicombe decided that she did not want to marry and live in Tacoma because the city was a "dead-end street." She digresses regarding her first trip to California with Julia and her family. End of tape. *** File: rrrewiddicombe4.mp3 (0:00-0:38)... Widdicombe continues her discussion regarding her vacation to California with her friend Julia. (0:38-3:49)... Her sister married shortly after their mother died. Widdicombe describes her sister as a dependent and clingy woman. After she married, she moved to Long Beach. A short time later, Widdicombe and her aunt had a falling out when her aunt made a derogatory comment about Widdicombe's parents being on relief. Despite the fact that her aunt was willing to put her through college, she left her aunt's home and made arrangements to move to Long Beach. (3:49-11:32)... Note: a man's voice can be heard in the background in this segment. Widdicombe moved to Long Beach when she was twenty-two. She married her husband, Biacio Casola, who she calls Maxie, in September 1938. He was very interested in swimming and when he joined the navy, he became a champion fleet swimmer. She was very much in love with her husband and did her best to satisfy his expectations for an "Italian wife." They rented a small apartment near Golden Park in downtown Long Beach for $18 a month. When his four-year term with the Navy ended, he could not find a civilian job and re-enlisted. He earned $75 a month, 1/3 of which was made while working in a Navy laundry facility. Without her husband's knowledge, Widdicombe rented a house in the first Navy housing project built in Long Beach and purchased furniture on credit at Montgomery Wards. When her husband returned from duty, he was not pleased with this display of independence. (11:32-14:14)... Widdicombe clarified the chronology of her move to Long Beach. She was already engaged to when she got into an argument with her aunt in Hartline. She moved to Long Beach with her younger brother, who had been living with an aunt and uncle in Portland. They stayed with their sister in Long Beach, although her brother eventually returned to Washington to live with their father. (14:14-16:57)... Note: a man's voice can be heard in the background in this segment. Both she and her husband assumed that she would not work once they married. After she moved to Long Beach, she had an active and fun social life. Her network of girlfriends included other Navy wives. Occasionally, while their husbands were overseas, Widdicombe shared an apartment with her friend, Carmelita. (16:57-18:14)... Note: a man's voice can be heard in the background in this segment. Widdicombe and her husband talked about starting a family. It was expected that she would bear a son. She did not use or know anything about birth control. It was not until her second marriage that she learned she could not conceive. End of tape.
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