Interview with Elder Person

As a child, Dawn was brought up on a farm in New York. She lived the typical farm girl life. She remembers how she used to sleep with her seven siblings in one room. During the winters especially, her mother would make sure the family was warm by using home-made quilts. Also, there was one pipe with multiple registers in the floor that distributed heat in the house. Her days began at 4:30 in the morning. She would wash up, dress, and head straight to the barn with her father. She was her father's son. The both of them would milk the cows and sell that to the distributor. It was their main source of income. Meanwhile, her mother would be cooking breakfast for the family. She was a stay-at-home mom. Breakfast consisted of bacon, eggs seasonal fruit, and toast. Beverages for the adults was primarily coffee and for children, it was fresh milk. Breakfast was the biggest meal of their day. After breakfast, Dawn and her siblings would head to school. Her school was a forty-five minute drive from her house. It took at least half an hour walk to reach the bus stop. She told me how her parents valued education over anything else because they wanted their children to escape the life of a rural person and be successful living in the urban lifestyle. She enjoyed Reading and English the most in school. Math and Science were not her favorite subjects back then, but now she has grown to appreciate them more.

In her late teenage years, they had moved to Franklinville, New York after selling the farm. As her siblings grew, her parents decided that they needed a bigger house and the money from the farm was not enough to run the family. She continued going to school with her siblings and enjoyed the new school. She mostly had males as her friends because she knew about cars, horses, and how to fix things. She remembers how she was the one who showed her friends how to raise a car from the ground using a jack. This amazed her friends as they had never known how to jack a car up. This friendship with guys did not, however mean that Dawn was allowed to date them. Her parents clearly stated that she can only date when she was sixteen years old. Dating or "going out" was only possible in public places. During her teenage years, she was taught the importance of church in her life. Although she went when she was younger, she valued it more as she grew up. She remembers how in her church there would be social gatherings for the young adult. On autumn nights, the community's youth would get together around a camp fire. They would all bring a can a of vegetable and make "mulligan stew." Everyone would pour each vegetable in the big pot and while it was cooking, they would share stories, mostly scary ones. This was their main form of entertainment and allowed for lasting relationships.

After turning eighteen, Dawn moved to Brooklyn, New York. There, she worked as a doctor assistant and lived with her best friend, Rose. She told me that getting adjusted to the city life was a stepping stone in her life. It was a new experience, but her friend was there by her side. She remembers what a difficult time she had trying to find a job in the city because she didn't hold a college degree. It was at the doctor's office that she met her future husband. His name was Robert and he was the love of her life. She told me how Robert would come regularly at the office just to talk to her. Their first date was at a coffee lounge, because Dawn had mentioned how much she has a liking for coffee. After their initial