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Stangeland, Addie (audio interview #1 of 5)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the first of five interviews with Addie Stangeland conducted in the bedroom of her daughter's home, where she living. The interview was frequently disturbed by movements of the family in the background. Stangeland was comfortable with the interview process, although she had a hearing problem and questions often had to be repeated. She spoke freely, even when the subject was noticeably difficult and laden with emotion, for instance in having to place her children in an orphanage for a period of time. 7/7/1980
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- 2021-03-30
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- *** File: rrrastangeland1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:03-4:17)... Stangeland's maternal grandparents immigrated to Illinois from England. Her mother, who was raised on a farm in the Chicago environs, was educated in a convent because their were no schools in their local community. She graduated from a girl's seminary near Dwight, Illinois. Shortly afterwards, when she was in her early twenties, the family moved to San Diego where her father homesteaded several acres and started a saw mill. Stangeland describes her family's homestead and their living quarters. Her grandfather liked to entertain guests and frequently organized fox hunts when friends and family visited their home. When he died, her uncles assumed ownership of the homestead. By this time, Stangeland and her parents had moved to San Bernardino. (4:17-6:51)... Stangeland's grandparents were well-to-do farmers in Chicago. They owned several acres of land and hired farmhands to manage the farm. The women in the family, however, were responsible for all of the cooking and household tasks. After she married, Stangeland took her mother back to Chicago to visit the farm and her sister in Rock Island, Illinois. They also had relatives in Kansas, including Ron Noble, an internationally known painter. Stangeland lived near this relative when she and her husband lived in Blackwell, Oklahoma. Life was rough during these years; it was the dust bowl period and the early years of the Depression. (6:51-9:52)... When she was a child, Stangeland visited her grandparents in San Diego approximately once a month; more frequently after her grandmother moved close to her parents. Stangeland's parents owned horses and livestock when she was a child. Some of their livestock grazed in the mountains in what is now Big Bear, which is where she spent her summers as a child. She recalls the winters growing up in San Bernardino. (9:52-12:17)... Stangeland's grandfather died when she was approximately eight years old and her mother passed on a year later. She remembers her grandfather as a tall, soft-spoken man. She heard stories from her mother about her grandparents' life in San Diego. (12:17-16:28)... Stangeland's father was born in Ohio, where his parents farmed until his teens, when they moved to a farm in Illinois. His parents raised eight children and four foster children. Even though he was from a large family, only two of his siblings married and had families of their own. As a result, Stangeland does not have a large extended family on her father's side. Her father did not like farming and pursued an academic career instead. After he graduated from the University of Illinois, he began working as a school teacher. (16:28-19:17)... Stangeland describes how her parents met. They were married at a hotel in San Diego in the 1880s and then they moved to San Bernardino, where her siblings were all born and raised. Her father began working for the Sante Fe Railroad; and later, two of her brothers joined their father in pursuing a lifelong career with the Sante Fe. (19:17-26:56)... Stangeland talks about growing up in San Bernardino. There were orchards located on her parents' property and they also raised livestock for their own subsistence. Her regular chores included helping her mother with the vegetable garden and the laundry while her brothers were in charge of the yard. She describes the family's activities and forms of entertainment, including summer camping in the San Bernardino mountains at Big Bear Lake. During the winter, Stangeland spent most of the time indoors; her favorite activity then was learning how to play the piano. When her brother finished his apprenticeship with the Sante Fe Railroad, he and his wife and daughter moved to Arizona. Stangeland went with them to help her sister-in-law with child care, staying with them for a year before returning to San Bernardino. End of tape. *** File: rrrastangeland2.mp3 (0:00-2:38)... Stangeland was married while she was in high school and did not graduate. However, later she attended night school and obtained a high-school diploma and also took some college courses. She talks about her youngest brother, who joined the service during WWI but was never in active combat. After he got out of the service, he went to work for the Sante Fe Railroad and joined their baseball league. He worked there and played baseball until he retired in his early sixties. (2:38-7:04)... Her parents were in their early thirties when Stangeland was born. She was the youngest of four children, with only was a five year age span between her and her oldest brother. All four children were born at home with the assistance of a medical doctor and a woman caregiver. She notes the deaths in her family, of her siblings and her parents. (7:04-11:50)... Stangeland has fond memories of her childhood because her mother was a fun-loving woman. She enjoyed entertaining guests and throwing parties, even though her physical activities were limited because she suffered from a hernia. Except for her participation in religious activities, her mother was not involved in activities outside the home. [Note: the audio quality if poor in this last part of the segment where Stangeland discusses her mother's health problems.] (11:50-14:55)... Note: the audio quality is poor in this segment. When Stangeland's marriage ended, she went back home to live with her mother. She managed to support her children on her own for many years without any financial assistance from her ex-husband. She talks about her ex-husband and the arrangements they made to settle their assets after they divorced. (14:55-17:09)... Stangeland's parents shared child-rearing responsibilities and made decisions together in regards to their household. (17:09-22:21)... Note: the audio quality of this segment is poor. Stangeland met her fiance at her sister's home in Seal Beach when he was in the navy. They dated for a short time before he asked her to marry him. Her mother did not agree with her decision to marry at such a young age. When her husband got out of the service, they moved to Los Angeles and she went to work at a women's clothier. (22:21-27:58)... Note: the audio quality of this segment is poor. After Stangeland divorced her husband, she returned to southern California. She met her second husband at a dance. They divorced around 1970. She discusses her marital relationship; however, it is unclear whether she is referring to her first or second marriage. End of tape. *** File: rrrastangeland3.mp3 (0:00-4:30)... When she married her first husband, he withdrew all of her money from the bank. In 1929, they moved to his parents' farm in Blackwell, Oklahoma. She gave birth to a daughter in 1930 and a son in 1931. Her husband did not help support their children, so she made money by selling chickens and handmade clothing at the county fair. She also relied on money from relatives, most of which she deposited in the bank. When the banks reopened during the Depression, her husband once again withdrew all of her money. She noted: "I could see that things were not going to work out, but there was nowhere to turn. I was too proud to go home with nothing." (4:30-9:21)... After her in-laws asked them to leave, her husband got a job as a ranch manager. He was fired after he sold some of the ranch owner's livestock. At that time, she left him and filed for a divorce. She received approximately fifty dollars from the sale of her furniture, which she used to purchase train fare to southern California. When they arrived in California, she and her children moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Seal Beach. They lived there until WWII began. (9:21-12:20)... When Stangeland returned to California, she got a job in the upholstery department at the May Company in downtown Los Angeles. Managing housing, transportation costs and living expenses became even more difficult once the war started, so she decided to place her children in an orphanage. [Note: the narrator became extremely emotional while talking about this period in her life.] After she went to work at Douglas in 1942, she put a down payment on a one-bedroom home in Seal Beach. In December 1943, she took her children out of the orphanage. She discusses the neighborhood in Seal Beach and also talks about her daughter's progress in school. (12:20-17:01)... Stangeland discusses the house that she purchased in Seal Beach and the remodeling projects she and her brother-in-law completed. There was an apartment located above the garage which she rented out for $25 a month, although she had difficulties with tenants during the war period. Her children stayed home alone in the evenings while she worked the graveyard shift at Douglas. (17:01-19:51)... Stangeland lived in Seal Beach until her daughter married. She first met her daughter's fiance when she was doing upholstery work on boats docked in Newport Beach. At the time, her daughter was enrolled at Orange Coast College and, coincidentally, met this same young man at school. The two began dating and Stangeland came home one evening to discover they had married. (19:51-24:29)... She enjoyed working in Newport Beach and interacting with the skippers who "kidded" her. Her son frequently accompanied her to work at the harbor and became interested in boating and a possible career in selling yachts. They took several trips to Catalina and docked in Cherry Cove with the rest of the yacht owners. (24:29-27:24)... It cost her $15 a month to house each of her children in an orphanage. Her daughter left the orphanage when she was twelve years old. Stangeland talks about her daughter's school activities and mentions an incident when her daughter and a group of her girlfriends were picked up by the police while walking home one morning after spending the evening at a slumber party organized by a high-school teacher. (27:24-28:51)... While working in Newport Beach, Stangeland and her son frequently took boat trips with her employer. In return, her son also helped her boss with his business. Stangeland felt that she was well paid and her job offered special perks like transportation and boat trips. When her employer retired in 1950, his apprentices took over the business and she was laid off. She re-applied for work at Douglas the same day she was laid off and was rehired the following Monday. (28:51-30:17)... Both Stangeland's mother and sister prepared her for menstruation. She similarly talked to her own daughter about menstruation, but she was not as receptive to this conversation as Stangeland was when she was a young girl. She also was prepared for menopause. When she started going through the change of life, she comments that her doctor gave her "a couple of radiation treatments and that ended the whole thing." End of tape. *** File: rrrastangeland4.mp3 (0:55-1:17)... The tape is turned off and on at 0:19 and there is no conversation until 0:55. Due to her mother's health problems, Stangeland and her siblings were responsible for the household chores. (1:17-5:02)... Stangeland describes childhood games and activities. She was physically active in sports such as baseball and basketball. Initially, her brothers did not want her to play baseball because they thought she would get hurt. They created rules that required her to play in the outfield and catch fly balls before she was allowed to bat. In high school, she played forward on the girls' basketball team. Her mother would not permit her to go out of town with the team for tournaments because it was "boy like." The first time she came home wearing slacks, her mother remarked, "Only corn pickers do that" and insisted that she put on a dress. Because of her mother's traditional gender expectations, Stangeland frequently avoided telling her about the physical activities she participated in with boys. (5:02-5:34)... She enjoyed school when she was a young girl. She walked a mile to school, rain or shine. (5:34-7:51)... Stangeland was raised in a religious environment and was expected to go to church. She belonged to a mission group and in addition to going to church on Sunday mornings, she attended religious functions at the mission in the afternoons. Her church activities decreased once she became an adult. However, she now occasionally attends church services and special functions with her niece or a man from her senior citizen group. She has very tolerant religious views, stating, "we are all trying to go to the same place" so there is no reason to criticize other people's religious beliefs. (7:51-11:33)... Stangeland married after finishing her second year of high school. Looking back, she realizes that she married too young. Even though she believes in marriage, her personal experiences have led her to have doubts about it. However, she would never move in with a man before marrying him because that would be in contrast to her religious and moral values. In any event, she comments that she wouldn't believe in it anyhow, "because a woman loses too much when she starts living with a man." She notes from personal experience that the first thing to go is a woman's financial security. (11:33-15:32)... Stangeland was twenty eight when her first child, Catherine, was born. Although she waited several years before getting pregnant, she did not use any form of birth control. After spending time with his nephew, her husband decided that he wanted to start a family. She could never understand why he wanted children because he never supported them and his parenting ideas conflicted with their best interests. Against her husband's wishes, Stangeland put Catherine in school at an early age. Her daughter's teachers suggested that she advance a grade, but Stangeland did not think she was socially mature enough for that transition. (15:32-19:46)... Stangeland daughter started working when she was twelve years old. Later, during a visit to the dentist,after she graduated from high school, she was offered a job as a dental assistant. At that time, she decided to pursue a career in dental hygiene. However, after she married and her husband was transferred to Bermuda for more than two years, she had a difficult time finding a dental hygienist position. She eventually went into Civil Service and was hired as the Protestant chaplain's secretary. (19:46-22:45)... Stangeland and her husband had a fairly active social life during the years they lived in Los Angeles. When they moved to Oklahoma, however, their social activities decreased. She accompanied her mother-in-law to social events organized by a farm woman's club. Her husband joined the American Legion and whenever he went into town for meetings, Stangeland went to her friends' homes to play cards. After her husband joined the Masonic Lodge, however, he never wanted to do anything social. (22:45-30:26)... In Oklahoma, when she joined a farm woman's club, the county agent took an interest in her sewing projects and hired her to travel around the county and lecture to women's clubs about her sewing techniques. She mentions the time she was chastised by the school board for instigating a dance at a PTA meeting. Their reaction was surprising because she was accustomed to community social activities revolving around the schoolhouse in California. She describes similar incidents she encountered throughout her life involving cultural and social differences among people. End of tape.
- SUBJECT BIO - Addie Stangeland went to work at Douglas as a spot welder in 1942. Born and raised in southern California, Stangeland completed the eleventh grad in San Bernardino. She began working for clothiers doing alterations until she moved to Oklahoma with her husband in 1928. After ten years there, as a farm wife, she divorced her "ne'er to well" husband and moved to California with her two children. Stangeland was forced to put her two children in an orphanage until she was able to get back on her feet and get more stable, lucrative work. Douglas employment offered her this opportunity. After the war, she worked as a sail maker for four years until she was laid off and sought re-employment at Douglas. She continued to work at Douglas after her second marriage in 1958 until her retirement in 1967, after which she worked for two years as a companion. By then, her husband who was a beach concessionaire, had died. TOPICS - family background and history; family life; childhood; grandparents' homestead in San Diego; parents' move to San Bernardino; father's work history; home in San Bernardino; vacations at Big Bear Lake; childhood actschooling; siblings; mother; family life; parents' marital relationship; martial relationship, first husband; divorce; and early work experiences; The audio quality of this interview is poor;husband and marital relationship; life in Oklahoma during the Depression; living conditions; return to California after divorce; placing children in orphanage during WWII; work at May Company; purchasing home in Semother's health problems; household chores; childhood games and activities; interest in sports; gender expectations; schooling; religion; attitude towards marriage; pregnancy and birth control; children; parenting;
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