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Baker, Marie (audio interview #3 of 3)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This third interview with Baker, like the others, were conducted in her home in Redondo Beach. Despite her illness, she was more relaxed during the interview and it proceeded very smoothly. 7/25/1980
- Date
- 2021-07-13
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- Notes
- *** File: rrrmbaker7.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-4:38)... When Baker remarried in August 1945 she quit working at North American. The company had not begun laying employees off at that time. In September, she and her husband moved to San Bernardino after he obtained a teaching position. They moved into a ten-unit apartment court and she passed the time by working in the wrapping and mailing department at Brock's Department Store. On the weekends, they visited her mother and her daughter in Redondo Beach. Baker and her husband decided to leave San Bernardino in February 1946 because they did not like the warm climate. (4:38-8:46)... Baker and her husband were not happy living in San Bernardino. He took an examination with the Los Angeles School District and was hired to teach at Banning High School in Wilmington. They returned to Redondo Beach in February 1946 and moved back into their apartment with her daughter (Barbara) and mother. Baker did not go back to work because she was pregnant. She gave birth to a daughter (Kathy) in July 1946. Barbara was fourteen at that time and enjoyed having a baby sister. When Kathy was born, Baker's mother decided that it was time that Baker live alone with her family and she moved to Sacramento to care for an invalid woman. Baker became pregnant, and her son was born in 1949. (8:46-11:42)... Baker remarried when she was thirty-three years old. She gave birth to two children when she was thirty-four and thirty-seven years old. After those births, her life revolved around "washing diapers, cleaning the house and cooking and just taking care of the children. That was a full-time day." However, she and her husband continued to enjoy an active social life and often visited with friends in the evenings and the weekends. (11:42-17:08)... Baker returned to work in 1951 when her son was three years old. She decided to go back to work to help pay for living expenses and household amenities, such as furniture and appliances, after she and her husband purchased a home. She applied for work at North American and was rehired as an inspector. She worked the nightshift and her oldest daughter took care of the other two children until their father got home from work. When Baker returned to North American, she was required to attend an in-house training program once a week for six weeks to learn how to read blueprints. She decided to leave North American two years later because she and her husband never saw each other and he found it difficult to take care of the children by himself. (17:08-20:56)... Approximately six months after Baker left North American in 1953, she decided to attend beauty school. With her husband's encouragement, she enrolled at Harbor Beauty College in San Pedro. Her oldest daughter continued to care of her children while she attended beauty college. Baker went to beauty school for six months and then took a six-month break to travel to Ireland with her husband. When she returned in 1954, she finished beauty school and began working as a beautician in September 1955. (20:56-22:57)... Baker's oldest daughter, Barbara, married when she was seventeen years old. For the first two years of her marriage, she lived in Lomita. She eventually moved into a home that was within walking distance to Baker's home, which made it even more convenient for her to watch her siblings. Baker attended beauty college eight hours a day, five days a week, commuting part of the way with her husband who was working at a high school in Lomita. She managed to do all of her housecleaning and other household chores on the weekends. (22:57-26:29)... Baker was not disappointed that she had to leave North American a second time because her hours interfered with her ability to spend time with her husband. She enjoyed the work and felt that her circumstances would have been different had she worked the day shift. Leaving North American opened up an opportunity for her to become a beautician, which was something she always wanted to do. The beauty college tuition was $75 and she was required to purchase a uniform and a theory book. She got over her insecurities about attending beauty school because the young women in the program were not as motivated or knowledgeable as she was. Once she completed the course, she was required to take an examination on which she scored eighty-nine percent. End of tape. *** File: rrrmbaker8.mp3 (0:00-0:48)... Baker's family was happy about her decision to attend beauty school. Her daughter often talked about how she raised two families because she took care of Baker's children during the day while she was at school. (0:48-3:32)... Although Baker's youngest daughter, Kathy, was in school by the time Baker attended beauty school, her son was only four. Baker talks about the six months they spent in Belfast, Ireland and Kathy's experiences attending school there. When they returned to California around January 1954, her husband spent the rest of his sabbatical taking courses at USC. (3:32-5:46)... She digresses regarding the time she returned to Mojave when Kathy was a toddler. Baker went to work as a waitress at the same restaurant she worked in while married to her first husband. She disliked being a waitress, but felt it was necessary to work to help support the family while her husband was at USC obtaining his masters degree. When her husband finished writing his thesis, Baker re-copied it in longhand and sent it to a typist. A copy of his thesis was catalogued in the USC library. (5:46-7:13)... During her husband's sabbatical, they were living on half his salary and went to Ireland on a "shoestring." They stayed in Ireland for six months and lived with friends that her husband made during WWII. They contributed by purchasing groceries and helping the couple pay their utilities. She discusses their experiences in Ireland. (7:13-9:55)... She clarifies when her husband obtained his masters degree. Her husband took his sabbatical when their son was four years old. At that time, they went to Ireland and when they returned to California he continued to take classes at USC. He returned to teaching in September 1955 and she went to work as a beautician. She continues to talk about their travels in Ireland and Scotland. (9:55-16:47)... Baker talks about being a beautician and the various shops in which she worked in Redondo Beach. When she first started working as a beautician in 1955, she netted approximately $30 a week. Eventually, she started working on commission and earns sixty percent of the business she brings in. She typically does business between the hours of eight and five. She enjoys working as a beautician because it allows her to socialize with people. However, getting to know people over a prolonged period of time makes it difficult for her when they die. During her career, she took advanced hairstyling courses at LBCC, El Camino College, and at a beauty salon in Torrance. Even though she thought about doing hair out of her home, she never wanted to own a beauty salon, stating, "I'm perfectly happy working for someone else." (16:47-18:59)... She talks about her children's lives and careers, focusing on her son, Terry. (18:59-23:38)... She talks about the changes in her life since her children grew up and left the home. Her social life changed dramatically as a result of her husband's medical problems. His voice box and vocal cords were removed when he was diagnosed with throat cancer. He learned how to speak through his esophagus and eventually returned to the classroom. After undergoing open heart bypass surgery, he retired from teaching. He told Baker that the last seven years of his career was extremely difficult. However, he kept working because he had a family to support. Even though it was difficult for Baker to accept the fact that she lost friends because of her husband's health problems, she believes that her sacrifices were minor in comparison to his. (23:38-25:34)... Baker spends some of her time participating in the Women's Club of Redondo Beach. The Women's Club provides three, $500 scholarships to high-school students in the community. Baker's daughter was the recipient one year and she received $200, which paid for her tuition and textbooks for one semester. Baker is also a member of the White Shrine, a women's club similar to the Eastern Star. However, she is not as active in that club as she would like to be. End of tape. *** File: rrrmbaker9.mp3 (0:00-0:35)... Baker continues to discuss her membership in the White Shrine, which is affiliated with the Shriners. She was accepted to the White Shrine because three of her brothers are Shriners. (0:35-1:39)... She cut back her hairdressing business from four days a week to two days a week when she began having problems with her pancreas. She enjoys working only two days a week because it gets her out of the house. (1:39-3:15)... She spends her time doing the "usual wifely duties" like cooking and cleaning. Her home is quite large and she admits that maintaining it is a big job. She also enjoys needlepoint and sewing. She and her husband rarely go out anymore and spend most of their evenings watching television. As for the future, Baker is focused on improving her health. She would like to visit her daughter in northern California, but is awaiting news as to whether or not an operation will be required to repair her pancreas. (3:15-5:32)... Baker recollects the time when Jimmy Doolittle visited North American and she shook his hand. Periodically, important people visited the plant. Production workers usually had no idea who these people were except that they had something to do with the war and aircraft. However, everyone knew who Billy Mitchell was "so that was kind of exciting." (5:32-9:29)... Even though North American "had a pretty good record for safety," there were both minor and major injuries incurred by production workers. Baker describes three incidents involving employees, two of whom were severely injured and one who was killed. Baker believes that the machinery at the plant was labeled if it was dangerous; however, she very rarely worked with machinery and was unsure what types of cautionary guidelines were in place at the plant. (9:29-12:09)... Upon reflecting on her life and work at North American during the war, Baker remembers that "It was a happy time, really, even though it was wartime. The relationship among the fellow workers was great. We felt like we were doing our best trying to help end the war." Baker does not feel as if working at North American marked a profound transformation in her life, viewing it just as "another phase of living." However, she does admit that there was a sharp contrast between her life before she started working at North American and her life during the war. (12:09-13:52)... She never worked with mechanical tools prior to working at North American. If presented with the opportunity to use mechanical tools again, Bakers states, "I could go back to it. It would be no problem. It came easy." She describes a photograph that was taken while she was working in production. These photographs were taken in the plant and then placed in the training center located in downtown Los Angeles so that new employees could see what they would be doing. Occasionally, a new employee would come up to her and say, "I know you. I saw you down at the training center" because they remembered seeing her picture when they were in training. Baker and the other women hired at the plant in early 1942 were trained "on the spot," not at the Los Angeles training center. (13:52-15:29)... She initially claims that she has few ambitions for the future. However, she goes on to talk about how she would like to improve her health and travel to places like Hawaii, the Caribbean, and Alaska. (15:29-16:27)... Baker and her husband combined their incomes into one account. Even though he managed the family finances, they communicated about how and where they would spend their money. (16:27-18:17)... She is happy that she gave birth to three healthy children. She thought about having another child, but feared that at her age she was at risk for delivering a baby with down syndrome. She was pleased that she put her two youngest children through college, even if it took her daughter twelve years to finish. She enjoys her grandchildren who have now grown up into nice, young men. She does not foresee anymore grandchildren in her life because her youngest daughter does not want children and her son is not married. (18:17-21:15)... Upon reflection, Baker states, "I never thought all these things would happen to me when I was just a little housewife up in Mojave." She was miserable when her first marriage failed, but says that "it all worked out for the best because look what I've got now. It's paid off." She does not see retirement in her future anytime soon. She wants to keep working so that she can keep busy and interact with people. She will keep working until "they tell me I'm too old to work." End of tape.
- SUBJECT BIO - Marie Baker went to work at North American Aviation shortly after the war began. Realizing that her marriage was unworkable, she left her husband and the isolation of the desert community where they had been living, moved to Los Angeles and applied for a job at North American. Born in San Francisco in 1912, the third of eight children, Baker faced economic hardship growing up. An incurable romantic, she fell in love with her first husband when she was in her early teens and married him when she was nineteen. They settled in the desert area of the Antelope Valley, about sixty miles outside of Los Angeles, where she lived until she left him. Baker married her second husband shortly before war's end, and quit her job at North American. She joined him in San Bernardino, where he was teaching. She started a second family after they returned to Los Angeles, and she remained at home until the early 1950s, when she returned to North American. Feeling that her job was interfering with family life, she quit, and eventually pursued a longtime ambition to become a beautician, a trade she was still practicing at the time of the interview. Baker was interviewed in her home in Redondo Beach on three separate occasions by Jan Fischer. She was worried about remembering things accurately and initially was nervous speaking on tape. This uneasiness passed, however, and she enjoyed spending time after each interview chatting and looking through old photographs and news clippings. Although she became quite ill between the second and third interviews, she remained in good spirits and was eager to continue with the interviews. TOPICS - husband; social life; family life; children; domesticity; division of labor in household; re-employment at North American; training; marital relationship; and beauty college; travel; children; waitress work; husband's career; beauty school and work as beautician; husband's health problems; and social life and club activities;social life; health problems; occupational injuries; division of labor in household; children; reflections on life and work during WWII; and future expectations;
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