11/19/03

What was your life like before you went to Mt. Zion?

Before I went there, okay. Well, I was born in San Pedro, California and when I was about nine we moved, my father had been in the Navy and had retired and we moved to Dinuba, California, a rural community and that is where my mother’s parents had settled after they moved from Siberia. They were German immigrants and they had been living in Russia and then Siberia. That was in 1901 that they came over here. We lived in a rural community and I went to high school there, the same high school that my mother went to and during the time when it looked like we might get involved in the second World War my father was called back in the Navy and so we moved to San Francisco. I however went back to Dinuba and finished my junior year in high school and then took two anatomy courses during the summer at George Washington high school in San Francisco so that I could enter nurses training at Mt. Zion in September, I got my credits and then my diploma from high school.

How did you come to go to Mt. Zion?

My cousin who was a couple years older than I and also lived in Dinuba she came up to visit and was interested in going into nursing too, she came up and we visited several of the hospitals there and we got the impression that Mt. Zion had a better accreditation record and the nurses home was nice and we just decided to go there.

What motivated you to become a nurse or nurse cadet?

Mainly I guess because at that time it seemed like going into teaching or into nursing, especially with a war on, were about the only things that seemed practical to do and I just did. Especially with the government paying for your way.

How was it living during the war in a port city with a lot of soldiers and sailors around?

It was exciting.

Exciting in what way?

There was a lot to do in San Francisco and although we didn’t have a lot of time to do it because we were so busy coming from a rural area to a big city it was fun.

Do you think your social life was affected by the war?

In high school it was.

In what way?

We had a small class of about 104 in our class and apparently there was a lot of patriotism at the time because I think about a third of the boys went into the service and a good number of them were killed during that time.

How about your social life at Mt. Zion, do you think it was different because it was a war

time?

I guess in a way it was because they had quite a few dances where they invited service men from the various areas around there.

What was your social life like there with friends and dating?

It was quite active. Some of the girls I met I still stay in contact with (Gloria Lee Kosak, Lois Matthews and Florence Martzen – cousin). We went out to movies; I am trying to think of what all we did do in San Francisco, a lot of good places to eat. Actually we saw a lot of the city with the service men who were from all over.

Did you date a lot while you were there?

Quite a bit.

Did you experience peer pressure as a cadet?

We didn’t find peer pressure.

IO: Very abrupt answer.

Others have shared that many cadets went out drinking, what was your experience with

that?

I didn’t drink and when I went out none of the boys did either.

IO: Very abrupt answer

What do you think the influence of other cadets was on your identity?

I don’t know, I don’t think there was much.

IO: Very abrupt answer

What was your experience with patient care responsibilities and having no or only one RN on while you were working?

We worked long hours and student nurses were doing things they wouldn’t normally do because of the war. You were very tired and it was hard, that’s all I can say. The RNs were very nice and they did take on a lot of responsibility themselves and trying to assign different things to us that they wouldn’t normally do and so that was their responsibility too if we made mistakes.

How were your relationships with the doctors in a time before feminism?

We didn’t really have relationships with the doctors although some of the interns and residents were quite friendly.

How were your interactions with the attending physicians?

That was fine.

How far did you get in your training (she did not complete training)?

I had two years and then on New Year’s Eve, when we weren’t supposed to go anywhere, they had a dance and buffet and I met this sailor from Nebraska and we were married six months later.

What did you do after that?

Mainly I was a homemaker. We had three children, two boys and a girl and I stayed home with them.

Did your husband stay in the Navy?

No, it was right after he was discharged that we got married.

Did you stay in California after you married?

No we moved to Walawala, Washington where he went to college at Whitman College. We moved back to California where we lived for nine years while he worked for the Carnation company then we asked for a transfer back to the northwest and we were in the Portland area and then transferred to the Salem area and we have lived here since 1960.

What parts of history do you think were most influential in your life?

That is kind of hard to answer but I guess the second World War was the most influential thing. The fact that my parents moved to San Francisco and I have never gone back to a rural area to live since then. We have had a busy married life since my husband has had several jobs since we have been married and we owned our own business and he was also the vice president of Calumet (?) University here in Salem so I don’t know.

How do you think nurses training affected your leadership skills, do you think it affected your later life?

It did as far as taking care of a family, you were more adequately trained to take care of minor mishaps.

Do you think it caused a change in your social class?

No, I don’t think it did.

Did being at Mt. Zion have any affect on your sexual life because it was a time of war and a lot of men were going overseas? (Some of the other cadets have stated that they were more sexually active because of this)

No, I didn’t run into anything like that. I guess I was very lucky and met the right men.

Did the correspondence from Dr. Stern bring back any memories?

I guess a little. I can’t think of anything in particular. I wish I had stayed in contact with the people I knew more and I have only been to one reunion. We had good times and we had a lot of stressful times.

Can you think of anything else that you would like to share?

No, I would just say that I don’t have any real regrets about not finishing because I don’t think that nursing was actually what I was meant to go into but if you knew at 17 what you know at 30 you would know what you were really interested in. I would be a lot more interested in becoming a landscape architect or an interior decorator but with a war going on if you even knew about something like that it would seem terribly frivolous.