Interview of Rose Culver Conducted by Sydney Culver
I conducted this interview with my nana, Rose Culver, over the phone. I recorded the audio on my computer and I typed out the majority of the conversation. She mentions…
I conducted this interview with my nana, Rose Culver, over the phone. I recorded the audio on my computer and I typed out the majority of the conversation. She mentions the name Rolon in the interview, that’s my dad. (her son) I had sent her the questions in an email and she answered them over the phone, she doesn’t like phone calls very much since they withhold her from domino games with her family. Enjoy.
Sydney (me): Alrighty Nana, for question 1 I wrote down where were you born & how many siblings did/do you have?
Rose (nana): I’m from Dallas Texas and I have 9 siblings.
Sydney (me): Oh wow, how did I never know that??
*laughter*
Me: Do you have any favorite siblings?
Rose: That wasn’t on here but yes, I would say my two favorites, the girl, is Luise and the boy would be Johnny. You’ve met both of them *laughs*
Me: What was the environment like in school or at home?
Rose: Okay when I think about school I think that it was much smaller than it is today because your classrooms today have up to 30 people in a classroom, and that’s a lot for one teacher.
Me: Yeah that is.
Rose: But my classrooms were much smaller, so the teachers could spend more personal time with you.
Rose: And at home, we had a lot of fighting going on, it was always pretty noisy. Everybody had their place, seating at the table. If not there’d always be a fight about “I wanna sit next to mama”.
Rose: So my mama had it arranged so the baby sat next to her, the father would sit next to the baby. After that, it went right in line, first second third, like that. Whoever was oldest ended up next to the daddy.
Me: What are the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Rose: What was what now?
*laughter*
*repeats question*
Rose: Oh yeah. The most important thing I think I’ve learned is to treat others as you want to be treated. Yeah, treat others as you want them to treat you.
Me: Ooo I like that too. Who was your biggest role model?
Rose: I would say Dr. Martin Luther King jr.
Me: Oh yeah I remember when we played that game together at the family reunion and he was one of the answers.
Me: What is one thing you want people to remember the most about you?
Rose: That I was a very popular girl and pretty.
*laughter*
Rose: That's conceited huh.
Me : *laughs* I have conceited moments.
Me: What was your first experience of success?
Rose: I was 18 and I got hired at the post office, the US post office and I really liked it. It was at Christmas time so when Christmas time was over I got laid off, so I went back to Arizona. I was in California for work because I was still trying to go to school.
Me: That's cool! I didn’t even know you were in California at some point.
Rose: I stayed in California for approximately 6 months maybe.
Me: Oh okay, that must’ve been fun.
Me: Question 7 says are you satisfied with what you’ve accomplished during your lifetime?
Rose: Very much so yes. I have a beautiful daughter and a very handsome son, both of them college graduates. And I have four beautiful grandchildren.
Me : *blushes* thank you.
Me: What is one memory of love that to this day makes you feel happy?
Rose: Okay, uh, I would say fighting with my siblings and my mom having to make us make-up to say I’m sorry to each other. She’d make us hug and kiss and she would kiss each of us and say “now let’s be fair to each other and let's go about and do to others as you want them to do unto you”. That’s where I got my lesson from. “Uh-huh, you don’t hit or kick or bite somebody and I want you to say “I’m sorry”.” So whoever it was they’d say Rose say you’re sorry to Louise for biting her and Louise say you’re sorry to Rose for kicking her.
*laughter*
Rose: Because you know when we were kids we fought all the time so the thing about it that was so bad when you had to hug and kiss the other one, they had a snotty nose. *laughter* And then my mother would make us all feel so much better because she would hug and kiss both of us and say “I love you”. So if you notice, we got that thing about every last one of us in the family will say I love you, so this is where that came from. If you notice because I always said and my siblings always said, I think your daddy does too cuz I kinda put that on him.
Me: That's funny, I remember dad doing that to us when we were little too.
Rose: Uh-huh, yeah. Cuz you know when you look like that you know you’re gonna get into it. And you know we’re two years apart and at this time of my life, there is 3 girls livin and 3 boys. We have 4 dead. We have 2 girls dead and 2 boys dead. And the oldest one that’s living in our family is 91 years old, that's the sister in Texas. I know you met her too because you’ve seen her at the picnics while she was there. She’s just like me. She do as much as I do and everything. She's not senile, she's good at that 91 and I'm gonna be 84 next month. And the youngest one is 74, she'll be 74 in October. And the boy, he's gonna be 70 in October. His name is Richard and you’ve never seen him. The doctors told my parents, told my mother, this child will never be able to live to 12 years old so just be nice and good to him while you can. And that boy gonna be 70 years old so don’t believe everything the doctors say.
*laughter*
Me: That’s crazy?!
Rose: Isn’t that somethin?
Me: Wow I didn’t even know that.
Rose: I know, cuz I never talk about him, but Rolon knows about him.
Me: Yeah I’ve heard his name before but that's really it, it's all I’ve heard.
Me: What were your dreams and how did you make them come true?
Rose: Wanting to get married, you know you get a certain age and wanna have children, which I did. I think that was my biggest dream.
Rose: Number 9 was what was your dream right?
Me: Uh-huh.
Rose: I think that was it, getting married and having children. That's a dream.
Me: What does health mean to you?
Rose: Being able to be mobilized, to be able to take care of myself without any help. Be able to complete my own personal needs and perhaps help others, that's the way I feel about that. A lot of my peers have the dementia. One of my, I looked at her, we used to bowl and everything together, she was a school teacher. And I said, “don’t you remember me?” and you know what she said? “Why, you look kinda familiar.” But, you know, life must go on. And thank God, because I'm forgetful now. I am forgetful but I don’t have the dementia. I still take care of all my bills and everything, same with my sister who's 91, she can still do all of that. She still drives, I still drive. A lot of people when they get to 90 they can't even drive. But you know what, when you’re like your age I don’t think I never thought I was gonna die or get old. Even when I moved into my house I didn’t think about getting old walking upstairs, you know? *laughs*
Me: Yeah no, it just doesn’t cross your mind.
Rose: No it doesn't, it doesn’t. And sometimes I get kinda tired walkin upstairs and your daddy wants me to have that lift in my house but right now I can still manage so I didn’t have it put in yet.
Rose: It’s been fun but we’re down to the last one.
Me: Oh yeah! It has been.
Me: What is one piece of advice you would give yourself if you could go back and talk to your 18-year-old self?
Rose: Don’t be too self-confident. You know, I used to wake up and think the sun shined for me! So yeah, don’t be too self-confident.
Rose: Well who else have you done? (interviewed)
Me: Just you, I was gonna ask dad some questions but I haven’t yet.
Rose: Well when you do him I'd like to, I’d like you to share it with me. But you have a nice day. I enjoyed you.
Me: Thank you nana you too, bye-bye.
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