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Hoffman, Margarite (audio interview #1 of 3)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the first of three interviews with Margarite Hoffman, conducted in the living room of her mobile phone in Pomona. Although she was skeptical about the value of her participation in the project, Hoffman was a very willing participant. She was very direct and open in the interview. Note: there is some problem with the audio quality on sides c and d. 4/9/1980
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- 2021-07-23
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- *** File: rrrmhoffman1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-4:42)... Hoffman's grandparents immigrated to Ohio from Europe. Her paternal grandparents parents died before she was born. Her maternal grandmother was German, grandmother, English. They migrated to Farmer City, Illinois and established a corn farm. She recalls visits to their farm. Hoffman's father owned a grain mill and her mother worked as a dressmaker. Her mother was considered an "old maid" when she married at the age of twenty-seven. She helped raise her husband's sons from a previous marriage. By the time Hoffman was born, her stepbrothers were married and living on their own. She remembers her father as an old man; he was in his early fifties when she was adopted by her parents. (4:42-5:39)... Hoffman's mother received a grade-school education. She began sewing at a young age and traveled to different cities working as a seamstress. When Hoffman was a child, her mother made clothing for people living in Franklin. She also made Hoffman's clothes. (5:39-6:25)... She did not spend a lot of time with her grandparents while she was growing up. During the summer, she visited her aunt and uncle who purchased her grandparent's farm in the country. Hoffman remembers riding horses and swimming in the creek with her cousin. (6:25-8:09)... Her father (George Washington O'Neill) was born in Ohio in 1861. He moved to Farmer City, Illinois in the 1880s. Hoffman believes that her parents met and married in the late 1880s when her mother was twenty-seven and her father was thirty-seven. When her mother was thirty-nine years old, she adopted Hoffman. She was named Marguerite, but was called Peggy by her friends and family. (8:09-10:36)... When Hoffman was a baby, her parents moved to Downs, Illinois. They purchased a home and a grain mill in Farmer City when she was three years old. Her father built a new home for his family when she was eight years old and she describes this home. She lived there until she graduated from high school. (10:36-12:07)... Hoffman says that she had a typical childhood. Her parents gave her a weekly allowance of .25cents, which she used to purchase a used bicycle. She also had a pony and a cart that she used as another mode of transportation. While in high school, she participated in the glee club and went to parties with her friends. She was not an exceptional student and worked hard to pass her classes. Her favorite subject in school was English. (12:07-15:41)... She talks about being adopted when she was a baby. Her parents did not tell her that she was adopted. Hoffman realized years later that this was the reason why her mother was so protective. She learned about the adoption in grade school when children teased her about being adopted, which made her feel self-conscious for most of her life. She decided not to tell her own daughters about the adoption until they were adults because she did not want them to grow up with the same feelings of self-consciousness. (15:41-17:25)... Hoffman and her mother did not spend a lot of time doing special activities together because her mother was usually busy sewing and taking care of their home. The time they did spend together involved her mother reading to her. Hoffman also enjoyed combing and fixing her mother's hair. Hoffman's father was also very busy and they spent even less time together. (17:25-18:56)... Although her parents shared the responsibility of disciplining Hoffman, her father's punishments had much more of an impact on her than her mother's. Hoffman was not allowed to disobey or talk back to her parents or she would be spanked. When she was a toddler, she started running away from home just to "get out and go," for which she was punished. She had a curfew when she started dating boys and she was not allowed to date anyone her father did not approve. (18:56-19:48)... Hoffman's parents deferred to each other whenever she asked permission to do anything. However, her mother always followed her father's decisions. Hoffman was not allowed to call her father "dad" or "daddy" because he thought it was disrespectful. (19:48-22:28)... Her mother did not get involved in club activities outside the home until Hoffman's father died. At that time, she joined the Eastern Star. While Hoffman was growing up, her mother was active in the Methodist Church. Hoffman was expected to go to church every Sunday and many of her social activities revolved around church events. (22:28-23:45)... Hoffman's father was a Republican; he talked about the conflicts in Europe prior to WWI. Her parents did not talk about woman's suffrage, stating, "they were not interested in things like that." (23:45-25:47)... She describes her household responsibilities. As she grew older, she took on the burden of housecleaning so that her mother could concentrate on her seamstress work. Her father did not have very many household chores except for occasionally washing the dishes, cleaning out the furnace, and doing lawn work. (25:47-27:39)... Her childhood activities included playing with paper dolls and re-enacting Wild West shows she saw when touring performers stopped in their town. Her best friend also liked to read to Hoffman. They remained friends over the years and she often visited Hoffman in California. End of tape. *** File: rrrmhoffman2.mp3 (0:00-1:46)... There is an interruption in this segment when Hoffman goes to answer the door. Hoffman describes herself as a tomboy and preferred playing with boys. She does not recall her parents ever restricting her from certain activities because she was a girl. She was a night person and liked to stay up late; however, her father expected his family to go to bed early to conserve electricity. She was not allowed to stay out late when she started dating boys. (1:46-2:40)... Hoffman was not close to her step-brothers or her grandparents. She and her parents spent the holidays alone and Hoffman remembers fantasizing about big holiday celebrations with family. She visited relatives in the country on only four or five occasions while she was growing up. (2:40-4:45)... Being an only child was lonesome and she was always inventing ways to entertain herself. She spent a lot of time visiting with her best friend. Hoffman's favorite pastime was reading. She stopped reading as much in her adult years because her life was busy with other activities. (4:45-10:00)... Hoffman was educated in a one-room schoolhouse with children in grades one through seven. When she was in the seventh grade, the school was torn down and students went to classes at various locations until a high school was built. Hoffman and her graduating class of seventeen students were the first to graduate from the new high school. When Hoffman was in high school, her mother rented two of their upstairs bedrooms to teachers at her school. She tried not to be too friendly with these teachers for fear that the other students would call her a teacher's pet. She was a member of the glee club and the basketball team while in high school. Although the girls basketball team did not play in public, the boys football and basketball games were a big event in her community. (10:00-13:57)... She began dating boys her junior year in high school. She always went out on group dates with four or five other couples. She talks about these couples and how they remained friends for many years after they graduated from high school. Their dating activities usually involved meeting at someone's home for refreshments and then going to church activities together. She lived close to all of her friends and describes the first time she met her husband who lived next door to her grandparents. (13:57-16:36)... Hoffman's parents were strict when it came to her studies. She was never absent from school unless she was sick. Her father expected her to pursue a teaching career because he thought it was the only respectable career for women in those days. She wanted to go to nursing school, but her father refused to pay the tuition. He also forbade her from working as a store clerk. Her future plans included a teaching career and she figured that she would eventually marry and have children. When she graduated from high school, she went to Illinois State Normal University in Normal, Illinois for one year and then got married. She never worked as a teacher. However, she went to work for the first time after she got married because she "finally had to." (16:36-20:04)... Her mother talked to her about menstruation in a "round about way" when she gave Hoffman some material and told her to hem it because she would need it one day. She started her period when she was fifteen years old and by that time most of her girlfriends had already started and told her what to expect. She was sent home the first day she started her period and when her mother asked why came home Hoffman said, "I want one of those things you made me hem" and that was the extent of their conversation. She experienced serious cramps during menstruation and when her mother took her to the doctor he simply told her that she would be fine after she had a few children. Hoffman made it a point to prepare her own daughters for menstruation. (20:04-24:37)... Illinois State Normal University was located thirty miles from her hometown. During the week, she rented a room a block from campus and went home to her family on the weekends. Her father paid her room and board while she was in school. She describes the teaching curriculum at the college. She digresses regarding her daughter riding the street car with other kindergarten students to take classes at the university. (24:37-27:36)... Hoffman did not date while she was in college because she was already dating her future husband. They began dating when she was a junior in high school and spent every weekend together while she was in college. They dated for three years before marrying in 1917. She decided to leave Normal School after her first year so that she could get married. End of tape. *** File: rrrmhoffman3.mp3 (0:00-1:51)... After she left college, she spent the rest of the year preparing for her upcoming marriage. She sewed linens for her new household and helped her mother around the house. She and her fiance took a train to Bloomington, Illinois where they were married by a minister. They did not have a honeymoon. Ten days after they married, they accompanied her husband's family to their farm in North Dakota. (1:51-7:36)... Hoffman's husband was twenty-one when they married. His parents owned a farm in North Dakota where they spent the summers. During the winters, they returned to Illinois and hired someone to care for their livestock. After Hoffman and her husband married, they were asked to live on the farm during the winter months. For the first time in eight months of marriage, they were finally left alone when his family returned to Illinois in November. Hoffman describes the trip to North Dakota, indicating that farm life was a lot different than city living. There was no running water, electricity, or telephone on the farm. (7:36-9:21)... Hoffman provides a photograph of the farm on which she lived in North Dakota. She describes the home and identifies where everyone slept when her husband's family was at the farm. Her two daughters were born in this home. (9:21-12:43)... Hoffman lived on the farm for five years. During that time, she cooked and cleaned the house and also raised chickens and wild turkeys. Occasionally, she helped shovel hay and milk cows. She was never expected to do farm work outside the home, but did it just to show her husband she could. She did not have very much cooking experience when she married and her sisters-in-law taught her how to bake bread and prepare other meals while they lived together on the farm. During WWI, they were required to mill a certain amount of their wheat for the government. (12:43-15:40)... Her husband and brother-in-law were initially excluded from the draft during WWI because they were wheat farmers. Eventually, however, her brother-in-law was drafted into the service, but did not get any further than Fargo, North Dakota when he became a victim of the influenza pandemic of 1918-19. Hoffman's husband was also excluded from the draft because she was expecting their first child. When the baby was still born, however, he was scheduled to be drafted in November 1918. When peace was declared, Hoffman was on her way back to Illinois. When she arrived in Farmer City, people were celebrating the armistice and parading a stuffed (German) dummy up and down the street. (15:40-20:35)... Hoffman was not involved or interested in the suffrage movement because she was too busy maintaining her household and trying to start a family. She describes her pregnancies. She gave birth to her daughters at home with the assistance of a medical doctor. Her first daughter (Ilene) was born on her twentieth birthday, March 30, 1918 and her second daughter (Jean) followed sixteen months later. (20:35-24:43)... They did not have a radio on the farm, so they entertained themselves playing rook and flinch. Her father's parents would not allow them to play cards. Hoffman and her husband were also active in a community club in which people sang, recited poetry, and danced. They attended a Presbyterian Church while living in North Dakota and frequently attended church events. (24:43-26:30)... Hoffman once again talks about her pregnancies. A woman in the community assisted the doctor with deliveries. (26:30-29:08)... She was involved in Ladies Aid, a women's church group in North Dakota that gathered for quilting bees and community outreach. She digresses regarding her church outreach activities after she moved to California. (29:08-29:47)... She begins to discuss the reasons why she and her husband left North Dakota when the interview ends. End of tape. *** File: rrrmhoffman4.mp3 (0:00-2:22)... Note: the audio quality of this segment is poor. Hoffman continues to discuss the reasons why she and her husband decided to leave his family's farm in North Dakota. When they returned to Illinois, her husband worked for an oil company for a short time and then spent the next thirty years working as a vacuum cleaner salesman. In the mean time, Hoffman gave birth to her third daughter in 1921. (2:22-3:45)... Note: the audio quality of this segment is poor. When Hoffman and her family returned to Illinois, her activities revolved around her home and children. She went to church on Sundays, but she was not involved in any social clubs outside the home. (3:45-6:41)... Note: the audio quality of this segment is poor. Hoffman and her family lived in Bloomington, Illinois for about two years. Each time her husband was promoted, they were transferred to a different city. Some time after 1926, they moved to California and lived in Pomona, Ontario, and Upland before settling down in Santa Ana. (6:41-11:02)... Note: the audio quality of this segment is poor. Hoffman describes their trip out to California and the places they stayed along the way. It took them six days to drive from Illinois to California. She digresses regarding learning how to drive a car after she moved to California. (11:02-12:22)... Note: the audio quality of this interview is poor. When they arrived in California, they went straight to her brother-in-law's house. They rented a small house across the street from her brother-in-law. She describes this house. (12:22-13:38)... Note: the audio quality of this segment is poor. Hoffman recalls her first impression of California. (13:38-17:06)... Note: the audio quality of this interview is poor. They did not have a lot of money when they moved to California. Most of their activities revolved around church events. Her children entertained themselves playing outside with their friends and cousins. Hoffman encouraged her children to bring friends home because she did not want her children playing in other people's homes. She always had projects for her children to keep them busy. She talks about decorating the Christmas tree every year, indicating that she never had a Christmas tree when she was little and vowed that her children would have a tree every year. (17:06-18:39)... Note: the audio quality of segment is poor. She was not very strict with her children. However, her children were never allowed to talk back or "sass" their parents. She thinks that her children got away with things that were not acceptable when she was growing up. (18:39-21:33)... Note: the audio quality of this interview is poor. Hoffman allowed her husband to make most the decisions in their marriage. However, they always discussed things before decisions were made. They both agreed to support each other when it came to disciplining their children even though she thought he was too strict at times. She liked the idea that a man was the head of the household, but changed her mind a bit after she started working. (21:33-22:54)... Note: the audio quality of this segment is poor. Hoffman and her family lived in the home they bought for about two years and decided to sell their home because they could no longer afford the payments. After they sold that home, they moved into an apartment. (22:54-27:17)... Note: the audio quality of this segment is poor. Around 1930, Hoffman decided to go to work to help support her family. Her husband did not want her to go to work. However, when she saw that there was not enough food to feed her children she decided it was necessary for her to go to work. She worked in a laundry facility, noting that is was the only thing that a woman could do. She worked there for approximately four months. When they moved to Ontario, she went to work at a furniture store sewing rings onto drapes. She eventually learned how to measure and make drapes. She worked eight hours a day for .50 cents an hour. (27:17-29:09)... Note: the audio quality of this segment is poor. Hoffman talks about where her family lived during the 1930s. Before they moved to Santa Ana in 1933, her husband got very sick and could not work. The family survived on food stamps and she received $20 a month from family members. End of tape.
- SUBJECT BIO - Marguerite Hoffman had been working as a drape maker for J.C. Penney's before going to work at Douglas Aircraft, Long Beach. Hoffman, the last of three children, was born and raised in Illinois. She attended Normal University for one year, until marrying in 1917. She remained a homemaker until she moved to Los Angeles with her husband and three daughters then years later. Until she began her job at Douglas, she worked outside of the home intermittently or part time, as a drapery maker. She worked as a blouse maker for one year after the war, then was a full-time homemaker until returning to Douglas in 1951. She continued working there until her retirement in 1976. Although Hoffman was skeptical about the importance of her experience, she remained a willing participant throughout the interview process. Because of her busy schedule, the three interviews were strung out over a six week period. The interviews were conducted in the living room of her mobile home in Pomona, where she moved after her husband's death in 1961. Although a private person, Hoffman shared her experiences freely. TOPICS - family history; family life; childhood activities; housing; adoption; schooling; discipline; religion and church activities; gender roles in family; household chores; and friends;childhood; family life; gender roles; schooling; school activities; sports; dating; friends; career expectations; menstruation; and husband;marriage; husband; move to North Dakota; farm life; housing; living arrangements; household chores; WWI; pregnancy and childbirth; social activities; and volunteer work; Note: the audio quality of this tape side ihusband; children; return to Illinois; move to California; housing; living arrangements; social activities; marital relationship; household management; work in laundry facility and as a drapery maker; and husband's
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