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Pierce, Ethyl (audio interview #1 of 1)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is a single, three hour with Ethyl Pierce. It was conducted at her vacation home in Seven Oaks, California in the San Bernardino Mountains. The interviewer grew up in the same Long Beach neighborhood where Pierce lived. The audio quality of the interview is good. 7/18/1984
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- 2020-10-20
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- *** File: cbepierce1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-3:13)... Brief introduction Pierce was born in Iowa and migrated with her family to Hitchcock, South Dakota when she was 8 months old. Her parents rented a farm in Iowa and decided to move to South Dakota because they believed that farming would be better there. Her parents rented a farm in South Dakota and raised various kinds of grain along with some cattle and hogs. They also raised a large vegetable garden. (3:13-5:53)... She was responsible for various household chores on the farm. Her mother did all of the cooking and baking, and canned meats, fruits and vegetables. They raised berries and currants and used them to make jam. During the summer and at harvest time, her father hired farmhands to help with the crops and to do farm chores. She started school in Hitchcock and when her family moved to a farm in Banilla, South Dakota she transferred to a country school. (5:53-8:19)... The population of Hitchcock was approximately 300 or 400 and it had several stores. In Hitchcock, they lived in a building that used to be a hotel. It was near the railroad track that passed through town. Her parents decided to move to Banilla because they had a chance to work a better farm. (8:19-11:29)... When her family moved to the new farm in Banilla, life on the farm remained about the same although her school was much smaller and all 8 grades were taught in one room by one teacher. In Hitchcock, only the first 4 grades were taught together. Her mother took her to school every morning and picked her up in the afternoons. Her family moved again and her father farmed a larger place in partnership with his brother. When her uncle decided to quit farming, her family bought his farm near Hitchcock. (11:29-14:38)... When they lived in Hitchcock, her family attended the Methodist Church. Most of their social activities centered around the church. The town had an opera house and there were shows and events there. She also watched the traveling shows and when the circus came to town it was a big event. Banilla was much smaller than Hitchcock, but had similar kinds of stores and an Elks Lodge. In Banilla, her family attended the Presbyterian Church. (14:38-17:01)... She attended a country school in Banilla for 3 years before her family moved to a farm near Wolsey, South Dakota. Wolsey was a little larger than Hitchcock. It was located near 2 railroad lines and had a high school. Life on the new farm did not change much although as she grew older she took on more household responsibilities. (17:01-18:52)... When her parents moved to the farm near Wolsey, she again attended a country school and that's where she met her future husband, Neil Pierce. When her parents bought a farm near Hitchcock, her family moved again. While they lived there, she attended another country school and graduated from the 8th grade. Her parents farmed 160 acres and added to their cattle herd. Her parents had to borrow money to make a down payment on their farm. (18:52-22:40)... Her parents belonged to the Modern Woodmen lodge and her father was a member of the Odd Fellows. These group organized social activities such as picnics and special suppers. Some people also invited friends to parties and dances in their homes. Her father held offices in the Modern Woodmen lodge and he voted during elections, but he was not active in politics. (22:40-31:23)... After the eighth grade, she moved to Hitchcock and attended high school. She earned her room and board by baby sitting. She went home on weekends and in the summer. While she was in high school, she decided she wanted to become a nurse. She planned to attend a Methodist Church sponsored nursing school in Mitchell, South Dakota but did not pass the physical that the program required. A doctor examined her with a stethoscope and claimed that her heart was "small" and unsuitable for a career in nursing. End of tape *** File: cbepierce2.mp3 (0:00-6:46)... Pierce played basketball for the first 3 years of high school. Her team played others from the surrounding towns. During her senior year, the high school began giving physical examinations and a doctor told her was not fit to play basketball any longer. She attended school from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and there was not much time to participate in extracurricular activities, but she found time to act in school plays. During her senior year, she was in a car accident and broke her right arm. She was also diagnosed with scarlet fever and was quarantined at her parents' farm for 3 weeks. As a result, she was unable to attend her high school graduation ceremony. (6:46-16:48)... After she recovered from scarlet fever and her broken arm, she moved to a nearby town and worked as a waitress for a short time. She returned to Hitchcock and enrolled in a cosmetology course with a beauty operator there. She learned different hairstyling techniques and to use the equipment in the beauty parlor. Most of the women who came to the beauty shop to have their hair done were middle-aged or elderly. Many of them were farm women and he cost of the beauty parlor's services was reasonable. Pierce served as an apprentice for 6 weeks, and then she began to work on her own. Wolsey didn't have a beauty shop, so she moved there and opened one. (16:48-20:07)... When she moved to Wolsey she lived with an aunt and uncle and set up her beauty shop in a bedroom of their home. Later rented an office in the town that previously held the law office of W. W. Hughes who later became the US Postmaster General. She bought the equipment she needed to open her salon and quickly built her business. Eventually she charged $.50 for hair styling. Enough customers were willing to pay for this service that she could pay the rent and support herself. On special occasion or before community events, she was flooded with customers. As a result, she often was too tired to attend the events herself. (20:07-23:44)... While living in Wolsey, she became reacquainted with Neil Pierce with whom she attended grade school. They began dating and married a short time later in Huron, South Dakota. They did not marry in Wolsey because the minister in town was a woman and not permitted to marry or baptize anyone. Then they returned to Wolsey and lived in a room of her beauty shop. (23:44-27:25)... For fun, Pierce went to dances and church gatherings. She also was a member of the women's auxiliary of the Modern Woodmen's lodge and she attended both the local and district meetings. The lodge sponsored social activities and meeting featured rituals that members participated in. (27:25-31:33)... When her husband was offered a job managing a farm in the Black Hills, they decided to move because they both liked the area. She closed her beauty shop in Wolsey, but kept her beauty license active. When she and her husband moved to the Black Hills, she found a job in a beauty shop in Sturgis. The farm that her husband managed included a small, two-story, log cabin where they lived. End of tape *** File: cbepierce3.mp3 (0:00-3:43)... Brief introduction Their home in the Black Hills was surrounded by trees. There were flat areas where one could farm and the banker that employed her husband owned land in the hills where they grazed cattle. The farm was about a mile from the town of Sturgis. She stayed home for a while before she found a job in a beauty shop in Sturgis. She drove to work in the beauty shop. She had learned how to drive when she was 11 but never had a drivers license until she moved to California. (3:43-7:24)... The town of Sturgis had 2 beauty shops. By this time she was charging $.75 for hair styling. The woman she worked for supplied all of the equipment in return for 40 percent of Pierce's earnings. She and her husband lived in the Black Hills from 1930 until 1932. When her husband's employer went broke, they moved to a town 50 miles from Sturgis where he found a job on a large farm. She kept house and raised a garden. (7:24-13:33)... When she and her husband lived in the Black Hills they attended church and participated in church sponsored social activities. They also entertained friends in their home and visited friend's homes. When the farmer that employed her husband couldn't afford to pay him, they returned to Hitchcock in the spring of 1932. There they farmed on family owned land until 1936 when they moved to California. Between 1932 and 1936, farming was particularly difficult because of bad weather and swarms of grasshoppers. (13:33-16:43)... Her maternal grandparents were farmers in Iowa. They married in Ohio in 1865 and migrated to Iowa in 1869. They were both immigrants from Germany. Pierce's mother could speak German, but did not teach it to her children and very rarely spoke the language. There were no recent immigrants from Germany who settled in the Hitchcock area. (16:43-20:33)... Before she married, Pierce held other jobs. During one summer break from high school, she worked for an aunt who had an injured leg. She describes herself as her father's oldest "boy" because her parents did not have any sons to help on the farm. She helped him plant and harvest crops and he farmed using horses. (20:33-26:52)... When she was a little girl, her mother and father, who liked to fish, often took picnic lunches to the nearby stream or lake and spent the day fishing. The biggest holiday of the year was Christmas. The family attended church on Christmas Eve and ate a big dinner on Christmas day. Every town organized a Fourth of July celebration. On Easter they attended church and she she wore a new dress and a new hat every year. Her mother was an excellent seamstress and made all of the clothing for the family, but never taught Pierce and her sisters to sew. (26:52-31:32)... She and her husband left South Dakota in November 1936. On their way to California they visited relatives in Oregon, who tried to convince them to stay there and farm. They decided to continue, however, and drove on to southern California. They arrived in Long Beach in December and stayed with relatives for a short time before they rented an apartment. Her husband found a job in Los Angeles and then went to work at the Spencer Kellogg plant in Long Beach harbor. End of tape *** File: cbepierce4.mp3 (0:00-3:06)... A short time after arriving in Long Beach, she and her husband rented a 1 bedroom house on Market Street. The rent was $20 a month and they had to pay for the electricity and gas. Her husband worked different shifts and the bedroom gave him the quiet he needed to sleep during the day when he worked the night shift. Her husband's cousin moved to California with his wife and children and they stayed with them for a few weeks. Keeping house took up all of her time and she did not have a job outside her home. (3:06-6:14)... The only other big city Pierce had ever seen when she arrived in southern California was s Salt Lake City, Utah. In Long Beach, she gradually learned how to get around the streets and was amazed by the number of things she could buy at the grocery store. When she and her husband left South Dakota, they brought very few household items. They left some of their furniture in South Dakota and sold or gave away the rest. They eventually got their remaining household goods to Long Beach when friends and relatives brought them along on trips to California. (6:14-13:30)... She did a lot of her grocery shopping an open air market on Long Beach Boulevard. Their apartment on Market Street was furnished and it had an ice box for storing cold food. There were other homes near where they lived, but there were still farms between north Long Beach and downtown. They lived in the apartment on Market Street for a year and then moved to another apartment on Olive Avenue. (13:30-21:27)... For entertainment, she and her husband went to the movies. They also danced at ballrooms on the Pike, including the Majestic. They joined the Community Presbyterian Church on Orange Avenue in north Long Beach when it only had one building and the area north of the church was no developed. There were quite a few people in Long Beach who came from South Dakota and once a year there was a South Dakota picnic in Bixby Park. (24:44-29:26)... While living on Plymouth, she had a large garden and several fruit trees, and she canned and preserved foods. She became more involved with the church since she lived closer to the church. She participated in women's activities at the church such a bake sales to raise money. She and her husband also joined a group of Houghton Park and started a square dancing program. (21:27-24:44)... She and her husband lived on Olive Avenue until 1938 when they moved to a home on Plymouth in north Long Beach. Her brother moved to California from South Dakota in 1937 and lived with them. He started out doing odd jobs and eventually found a job delivering bakery goods. In 1940, they moved to their new home on 57th Street. (29:26-31:33)... She and her husband raised rabbits. Some time they sold them alive and other times they sold their meat and skins. Nearby feed stores bought the skins. The feed store where they most often traded was on South Street; it was large and successful since many people in the area raised chickens, rabbits and other animals and bought their supplies there. End of tape *** File: cbepierce5.mp3 (0:00-5:09)... Interview begins abruptly with a discussion regarding her record-keeping activities She kept records of all the trips that she and her husband made during their lifetime. On camping trips she recorded the food they brought along and where they camped. She's been involved in compiling a family history for both her family and her husband's family. (5:09-8:42)... When she and her husband moved to their new house on 57th Street, they met their new neighbors, the Mitchells. They became close friends and often went camping together. Pierce and her husband enjoyed going out to eat and like to go to places nearby such as Mexico City in north Long Beach and Clifton's in Los Angeles. (8:42-10:34)... Her husband's grandfather had visited California and told them stories about Signal Hill. When they arrived in southern California they already had an idea of what it would be like. The first time she saw the ocean was when she and her husband drove down the coast from Oregon to California. (10:34-22:27)... In 1947, she and her husband took their first camping trip to the Colorado River. They enjoyed camping along the river and in the desert. When her husband retired, they bought a house and moved to Palo Verde, a town near the Colorado River. (22:27-29:00)... When her husband retired from his job with the Long Beach Gas Department, they sold their home in Long Beach and moved to Palo Verde. The house was located on an irrigation canal, so her husband built a dock so they could fish just outside their door and tie up their boat. Palo Verde was a "sleepy retirement community." They often fished off the dock or took their boats to the Colorado River to fish there. They joined a nearby church and social club. The area where they lived was surrounded by agricultural fields that produced many crops including cotton, alfalfa and some grain and corn. Especially in the summer when it got hot in Palo Verde, they took their trailer and camped in places where the weather was cooler. (29:00-31:08)... In the spring, many kinds of wild flowers bloomed in Palo Verde. End of tape *** File: cbepierce6.mp3 (0:00-1:40)... Brief introduction When she and her husband lived in north Long Beach, they raised rabbits. Other residents in Long Beach also raised rabbits and chickens. The local feed store sold special feed for rabbits, chickens and other farm animals as well as birds, fish, and other kinds of pets. (1:40-5:45)... She and her husband tired of paying rent on their house on Plymouth and decided to buy a home. They applied for an FHA loan and bought a lot on 57th Street. Then they worked with a local contractor to develop the plans and build the house. When it was finished, they moved in and that was in July 1940. They brought some rabbits with them, but there were no trees near their new house to provide shade for the rabbits. They also raised chickens and sold the eggs. They also ate some of the chickens, especially those that didn't lay many eggs. (5:45-14:04)... When they moved into their new house on 57th Street, there were no trees. There were curbs and that's where the mailboxes were located. There were a few other homes and neighbors living nearby. She and her husband planted all of the flowers and trees on their lot themselves. She spent alot of time working on their yard. She and her husband also entertained friends and relatives that came to visit or to stay with them. (14:04-19:48)... Her brother was drafted in December 1941. Her husband was too old to be drafted, although he registered with for it. During the WWII, she worked as an aircraft observer. She was required to take a class to learn her job. She worked in a small room on the second floor of the north Long Beach YMCA and watched the sky with binoculars; if she saw anything suspicious, she had a phone nearby to call for help. She worked primarily in the morning and she always worked with another observer. (19:48-22:50)... During WWII, she and her husband managed food rationing fairly well; they often traded food stamps with friends and neighbors. Although building materials were hard to get, a few houses were built in her neighborhood during the war. (22:50-27:22)... As she grew older, she did very little fishing in South Dakota. When they first came to California, she and her husband never fished in the ocean. They were active in church and her husband served as an assistant leader for Boy Scout troop. When he camped with the Boy Scouts, she stayed home. Then they started camping together and with friends. At first, they used a tarp or borrowed a tent. Eventually they purchased a "tear drop" trailer and over the years they graduated to larger and more comfortable trailers and continued camping. (27:22-30:04)... The neighborhood where she lived didn't change much following WWII except more houses were built. The neighbors got along with each other and it was a close community. When her husband decided to purchase a lot and grow dichondra, she knew that it would be a lot of work but it was profitable. She did not work for wages in California, but raised farm animals and raised and preserved fruit and vegetables along with serving as a volunteer. For a while, she earned extra money by doing laundry for a friend. (30:04-31:29)... Although she occasionally has difficulty remembering the exact year of certain events, she has a good memory for the dates of important occasions and events. End of tape
- SUBJECT BIO - Ethyl Pierce was a Long Beach housewife who applied her rural living skills to life in suburban Long Beach. She and her husband migrated from South Dakota to escape the Depression and the drought that led to the dust bowl,and settled in Long Beach. Pierce continued to raise fruit and vegetables in Long Beach as well as rabbits and chickens. And she canned and preserved food just as she had on the farm. She participated in local church and social activities, and during World War II served as a volunteer aircraft spotter. In this single, three hour interview, she talks about how much she and her husband enjoyed camping and fishing. They retired in a home in an agricultural area near the Colorado River where they could fish from their front yard. TOPICS - family background; childhood; farm life; school; education; Hitchcock, Banilla and Wolsey, South Dakota; social activities; living arrangements; and work;high school; sports; health; work; hairstyling; beauty shop; marriage; living arrangements; social activities; and moving to the Black Hills;farming in the Black Hills; hairstyling; work; driving; Sturgis, South Dakota; social and recreational activities; rural living; farm life; farming; family background; and move to Long Beach, California;living arrangements; housing; shopping; food; neighborhoods; social activities; church activities; family background; and raising rabbits;friends, social activities; Colorado River; camping; desert living; Palo Verde; living arrangements; and fishing;housing; neighborhoods; Long Beach development; WWII; aircraft spotting; war work; food rationing; camping; and social activities;
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