Madeline's Story Walker, Madeline (2010-02-15) PART 1 >>INTERVIEWER: Today's date is February 15th, 2010, and your name is? >>MADELINE WALKER: Madeline Walker. >>INTERVIEWER: When were you born? >>MADELINE WALKER: I was born January 7th, 1930, in Hotsprings, Virginia. We moved when I was at the age of two and I've been in Columbus, Ohio ever since then. I'm now 80 years old and I come from a family of four. I had two other sisters and one brother. I have just one brother and one sister, my baby sister it is passed away. Both my parents are dead, in fact I just have a sister and brother. I have no aunts and uncles are cousins or anybody. We never had any cousins. My mother was one of 14 children, and the only one to have children. So I don't have any cousins, and my father's people we didn't know. My dad said he left home when he was 16 years old and never went back. So my mother went to Virginia with a lady from here, from Delaware, because my mother's from Delaware, Ohio, and she went to Virginia with a lady to work there in a health resort, which the name escapes me now. And then that's where she met my father. They met and married and I was born there, my sister and me was born there. My other brother and sister were born in Columbus. >>INTERVIEWER: So how many children do you have? >>MADELINE WALKER: I had four, and I just lost my son last week, so now I have my three girls. I had my children just like my mother had hers. >>INTERVIEWER: How many sons and daughters do you have? >>MADELINE WALKER: I had one son and three daughters. >>INTERVIEWER: Do you remember how you taught your kids how to read and write? >>MADELINE WALKER: Well, when I taught my children we bought flashcards with both the ABCs as well as the numbers, and we made games out of it. And that was how my mother taught us to read. Mom was a great person with that was the thing that we needed to learn, that was very important. So before I went to school, being the oldest one, before I went to school we didn't have money back in the days, I was born in the thirties, in the depression, so she would take pieces of paper and put letters on them and numbers and things and we made a game out of it. Every night, or every afternoon when we were through with dinner and everything, we had to learn these ABC's. I learned my ABC's by her writing them on these pieces of paper, it might have been cardboard, I can't remember that now. That was great. And should also tell me what A stood for, and sometimes she would put in apple down or we always had some kind of toy or a ball, and that was how we learned. So by the time, we didn't have kindergarten at that time, I went to the first grade, I went to Garfield Elementary School right into the first grade. I was the first one out of my family, being the oldest, to go to school so I cried the first whole year. Every day I cried. I did not like to go to school. But then when June came around, I was fine to go back to school in September because my sister came along with me then. But that was how mom taught us to read. When I got to school, I could read a little bit, I knew my ABC's, and I remember I could count up to 10. >>INTERVIEWER: Did your family have a lot of books, was there library. >>MADELINE WALKER: We had books, but we didn't have a lot, no. Mamma used to take us to the library. We used to walk to library and we liked to sit there, especially my sister and I. The other two kids didn't seem much interested in reading, as I remember. <>MADELINE WALKER: Well, I've always liked to read, as you know I still like to read everything I can get my hands on. I read all the time. But I don't know, we just, Rob and I bought the girls, I say the girls because Robert was never too interested in anything except playing, but we bought a set of encyclopedias and that was how they did their homework and things, and we always had different kinds of dictionaries for them. So, I don't know, teaching them to read was important to us. >>INTERVIEWER: What's your favorite books, like mystery or? >>MADELINE WALKER: I like everything. I read anything, I read all kinds of things. I like mysteries, I like novels, I like documentaries. I'm going to start reading Nelson Mandela's life story, that's the next book I'm going to read. >>INTERVIEWER: Yeah, that story's dear to me. Apartheid, yeah I know the history of Nelson Mandela and apartheid and the fight, so that's a really interesting story. So what was your occupation? >>MADELINE WALKER: I was a phlebotomist, in other words I drew people's blood. For 30 years I did that, so I like working in the medical field. >>INTERVIEWER: So what was the name of the college or high school? >>MADELINE WALKER: I went to East High School and graduated East High School, then took a business course at night at Champion Junior High School, and then I went into, I decided I don't know why, I like being around sick people, so I went to the hospital to work. I first worked in the psychiatric hospital as a psychiatric aid because I liked, I had a sister who was sick, had a nervous breakdown, so I liked working with them for a little while. But then that got depressing, so I went over into the big hospital and became a phlebotomist. >>INTERVIEWER: Where did you live in Columbus, which area? >>MADELINE WALKER: On the East end. >>INTERVIEWER: Was it close to downtown? >>MADELINE WALKER: No, when I was growing up we lived on Spring Street, just a block off from Broad Street, between Miami and 18th on Spring, just a couple of blocks from Broad Street. >>INTERVIEWER: Near the Eastside. >>MADELINE WALKER: Near the Eastside, not far from East High School. I walked to East High School every day from my house. >>INTERVIEWER: So when you got married, you still lived? >>MADELINE WALKER: We still lived on the East, we lived on Garfield. We lived on Garfield for the first 11 years we were married and then we moved to Lynwood. I think we stayed there, we stayed there, I can't remember, 15 years I think, and then we moved to Arkwood and stayed there 10 years, and then we moved back here, we've been here six years, going on seven years. >>INTERVIEWER: So what elementary school did your children go to? >>MADELINE WALKER: My children started out at Garfield Elementary School and then when we moved to Lynwood, they went to Main Street. I think only, let me think about that now, Sheila, Sheila would have been the last one in the elementary school when we moved because then they went to junior high, because there wasn't middle school in those days, they called a junior high. They went to Franklin, and then from Franklin they went to East, except for Brenda. Brenda was educated in the catholic school all the way. She went to a Catholic school. Brenda came along so late in life, I was 32 years old when I had her, that was old. So the public schools in Columbus had changed a lot. And Ann walker told me that if I wanted Brenda to be educated, I should put her in Catholic school. I never shall forget, I took her up to Saint Dominic's and the sister said to me, "Well, you're not Catholic", and I said, "No, I'm Baptist." And she said, "Well, we'll take her only if she's not a behavior problem." And I said, "No..." PART 2 >>INTERVIEWER: Was there a difference between being Catholic and Baptist going to a Catholic school? >>MADELINE WALKER: Yes, you know Catholics are very religious, and so even though Brenda went to church at a Baptist church, she still had to learn the Catechism in the Catholic schools, she had to go to mass every morning, but she enjoyed it. But even though they had the religious services and the classes, she still got an education, she still learned to do everything, to read and write. Well, she could read and write before she went to school because she had Sheila, and Sheila and Shanida thought that they were her mother. Shanida took her over just like she was hers. When I brought her home from the hospital, Shanida said this is my baby and so I didn't have hardly anything to do. She'd come home from school and take care of the baby, so they taught Brenda a lot of things. So yeah, she went to Saint Dominic's and then she went to Holy Rosary then she graduated from Father Worley, and then she went on to Columbus State. I found it really, in fact I liked the Catholic school really well. The classes are small, I liked the fact that they wore uniforms and I didn't have to compete like I did with the first three children, I've got to keep up with the styles and they wanted to wear things like the other kids, especially that boy of mine. Robert had to have whatever the shoes, he loved shoes, he had to have the shoes like the other guys. But with the catholic schools they wore the uniforms, I liked that. >>INTERVIEWER: Did you ever write something, like a poem or anything that was published? >>MADELINE WALKER: No, no. [Laughs] >>INTERVIEWER: You didn't write Mr. Walker no love letters? >>MADELINE WALKER: The only time I wrote Mr. Walker a letter was when he had done something to upset me. [Laughs] >>MADELINE WALKER: They weren't love letters. >>INTERVIEWER: Those are important too. >>MADELINE WALKER: We never argued, when I get upset with him I'd write him a letter. Every time he'd do something to upset me, he'd say, oh dear, would did I do, here's another one of those letters. I'd write him a letter in a minute. >>INTERVIEWER: So how did he receive writing a letter instead of using your words, how would he interpret the letter? >>MADELINE WALKER: Most of the time he would deny whatever it was that I was accusing him of and sometimes he'd just pretend like you he didn't even get it. And other times he would just say, well I don't think I did this, now just tell me what I did. And I said just read my letter, you'll know what you did. Oh, I'd write it, and I get the kids like that. If they did something to upset me, especially Robert, I'd write him one of my letters and tell him I was displeased with you now and I'd tell him what he did. I'm writing a letter. >>INTERVIEWER: So you wrote to your children as well? >>MADELINE WALKER: Yes if I felt like there was something I needed to tell them, instead of meddling in their, like if Nida and Lawrence, if I thought they were not getting along or having a misunderstanding, I'd write and tell her how she was supposed to get along. >>INTERVIEWER: So did they write letters back to you, responding to you? >>MADELINE WALKER: Sometimes they would and sometimes they'd just call me up, and of course Nida and Brenda, well all three girls would say, you always take their side instead of mine. I'm your child, why do you take their side? >>INTERVIEWER: So, Mr. Walker was in the military, is that how, how did you meet him? >>MADELINE WALKER: Oh no, we met in school. I met him when I was going to Champion Junior High School. >>INTERVIEWER: So you dated for how long before you got married? >>MADELINE WALKER: All the way through junior high school and senior high school and then I married when I was 18. >>INTERVIEWER: You were 18 years old. And how long have you all been married? >>MADELINE WALKER: It'll be 62 years in June, June the 12th. Yeah, we met in school. >>INTERVIEWER: So, Mr. Walker, did he go straight to military? >>MADELINE WALKER: He was drafted and he hated every day of it too. >>INTERVIEWER: So how long was he in the military? >>MADELINE WALKER: Robert, were you in the service two years? >>MR. WALKER: Yeah. >>MADELINE WALKER: He went to Japan but he didn't see any fighting. >>INTERVIEWER: No fighting. >>MR. WALKER: All two, including overseas service. >>MADELINE WALKER: Yeah, that's what I told them you were overseas in Japan. >>INTERVIEWER: So in church did you offer maybe write some of the stuff in the bulletin board? Was there anything in church like when you spoke up or did something? >>MADELINE WALKER: I taught Sunday school and I was a deaconess of the church as well. Not the one down here, but... >>INTERVIEWER: What was the name of the church? >>MADELINE WALKER: Good Shepherd. [To Mr. Walker] They need the light leave the light on. >>INTERVIEWER: So what was the name of the church did you say? >>MADELINE WALKER: Good Shepherd Baptist. >>INTERVIEWER: So how long, how many years to teach? >>MADELINE WALKER: I've taught Sunday school at Shepherd Baptist, that was my first church. That was where we went to church as a kid, and then when we moved, the church split, and we want with the minister, with Reverend Pinkston. That was hard at the Good Shepherd. Then he retired from the ministry and moved back to Virginia. And then I joined my new church. >>INTERVIEWER: Can you connect with any books, was there any at that time, Dick and Jane or the Hardy Boys, or did you ever learn like sign language or anything. >>MADELINE WALKER: No, I didn't learn sign language, but we did have books, and I can't remember that book that we used to read, but I remember about Jerry and somebody, because all the kids had those books back in school, even my kids when they went to school, they had that same book we had. But I can't remember that name. >>INTERVIEWER: Did your family or you ever contribute maybe towards newspapers, any articles? >>MADELINE WALKER: No. >>INTERVIEWER: Was your mom or dad or one of your grandparents a writer, a reader, or can you tell a story about how you learned to read and write? Was there any person that was a writer, maybe? >>MADELINE WALKER: No. >>INTERVIEWER: I think we covered a lot. We got a lot of material for somebody who didn't have a story to tell. [Laughter] >>INTERVIEWER: Is there anything else that you might want to tell us? >>MADELINE WALKER: Nothing I can think of. >>INTERVIEWER: How many grandkids do you have? >>MADELINE WALKER: Oh dear, I should know that shouldn't I? Well let's see, what do I have? I have, Robert, eight, Nida, nine, Sheila, ten, Brenda has none, so I guess that's 10 grandchildren. >>INTERVIEWER: How many great-grandchildren? >>MADELINE WALKER: Okay, let's see, I think six. My three boys here and then Robert's three. >>INTERVIEWER: Six, so grandma comes from a big generation. Did any of your children go on to careers that resulted from being particularly literate or educated? >>MADELINE WALKER: Well they went to school, Sheila went to State and graduated, and she's Director of Human Resources at University East. And of course Nida works for special needs, and Brenda is a Customer Service Representative for the University. >>INTERVIEWER: So two of your children work for the University. >>MADELINE WALKER: Public school. >>INTERVIEWER: So any of your grandchildren, have they gone on, what does Tanya do? >>MADELINE WALKER: Tanya is a District Manager for Discover Card. She was based out of Chicago, but now she's back here in Columbus. Mia works for Discover Card, Millicent works for Job and Family, Millicent's also in school studying to become a lawyer. That's a grandchild, my son's daughter. And Kim is a teacher at Clearbrook. >>INTERVIEWER: And Erica? >>MADELINE WALKER: And Erica, right now, is working on her second masters, but she is working as a Director of Human Resources for a lawyer, but she's going back into the medical field where she was before she got this job with this lawyer, well it's a corporation of lawyers. She's their Director of Human Resources, but they have a lot of, North Carolina, they have a lot of offices. >>INTERVIEWER: Erica graduated from Ohio State? >>MADELINE WALKER: From Ohio State, now she'll graduate in May with her second at North Carolina, I forgot what the university is, anyway, with her second masters in communications and business.