Charles remembers WWI soldiers returning in 1918 and a 1913-model car.

Transcription

1 CHARLES OWEN MOORE. Born VIRGINIA HENDERSON MOORE. Born SUMMARY of OH 1668 This interview was recorded in 1981 and 1985 and later (in 2010) donated to the Maria Rogers Oral History Program for archiving in its oral history collection. Parts A-C consist of interviews conducted by the children of Charles Owen Moore and Virginia Henderson Moore with their parents. From the middle of part C through the beginning of part H, Charles Moore reads an account of his and his family s life. The rest of part H consists of Virginia Moore speaking about her life. The interview is only available in audio format. NOTE: Audio level varies, as does background noise, particularly in the first three parts of the interview, making some sections difficult to hear. There are intermittent noise spikes that sound like interference with a microphone or the recorder being turned off and on. There also are sections of silence, sometimes for about half a minute at a time, before speaking resumes. ABSTRACT: Charles Owen Moore was born in 1913; his wife, Virginia Henderson Moore, was born in In the 1980s, their children sat down with them and recorded conversations about their parents lives, including Charles memories of growing up on a ranch in Boulder County; attending a one-room school until 8th grade; his subsequent education, work in the mining industry and the tire industry; and his service for many years on a school board. Virginia relates details of her childhood in Colorado Springs. They both talk about their years of raising a family and the many trips that they took. Charles Moore later added to the recording, going into more detail about many the above topics and bringing the listener up-to-date on family matters. The recordings end with Virginia elaborating on various aspects of her childhood years and her years of raising a family. [A]. 00:00 Charles and Virginia talk about their early memories of childhood in the 1910s to 1920s. Charles remembers WWI soldiers returning in 1918 and a 1913-model car. Virginia remembers seeing Warren Harding when he came through Colorado Springs on a train campaign trip. First memory from about age three. Father s death when she was three. What life was like on a ranch for Charles in Colorado in the early twentieth century. Had indoor plumbing, but no electricity until about 1927, most things powered by kerosene and gasoline. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

2 Virginia grew up in Colorado Springs, and remembers always having a telephone and electricity. They rented their house out in the summertime for $100 per month and lived other places for the summer. 05:45 Charles talks about his experience with telephones. Lightning came down the telephone line and brought a ball of fire into the house. How phone connections were made. [audio gets very soft for a short period] Ice boxes: iceman s rounds, children s icebox chores, and their first refrigerator after they were married. 10:13 Charles describes the one-room schoolhouse that he attended for grades 1-8. Advantage to one-room schoolhouses: students would hear the upper years lessons and be able to learn from the older children s mistakes. Charles went to University Hill Junior High in Boulder for 9 th grade, which was a shock for him, culturally. He went to Boulder Prep High School after 9 th grade. It was a preparatory school associated with the University. Humorous story about Charles and Virginia meeting through the University of Colorado hiking club while hiking on Mt. Sanitas. Virginia: early schooling in Colorado Springs. 15:43 Charles: summer vacations. Just played around the ranch until he was ten years old. After that did a man s work. Charles: chores that were done on the ranch, including herding cattle, butchering hogs, milking cows, and harvesting hay. Virginia describers her summers: traveling when her house was rented out for the summer; later took care of people s lawns. Water restrictions in Colorado Springs. Haying with horses on the ranch. Food on the ranch. Charles: You lived well, but you didn t have much actual cash. Charles: camping in the mountains as a child. Going up South Boulder Canyon with a friend and running out of food. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

3 20:50 Charles s first trip out of Colorado (in 1936) was to Pittsburgh, where he held his first post-college job. Difficulty of getting a job after college during the Depression. He worked for $3 a day, 7 days a week after college before being hired for the job in Pittsburgh. Virginia graduated two years after Charles. She joined Charles in Pennsylvania a week after graduation, and they were married. The two explain their wedding and the comedic legalities of getting married in Pennsylvania. 26:05 [Crosstalk and scraping noises for about 30 seconds.] Virginia talks about Colorado Springs and the cultural opportunities it offered when she was growing up there. A number of people had cabins halfway up the cog railroad to Pikes Peak. Her parents had one, but had to give it up when Colorado Springs needed a new watershed. Charles: early Dodge and the Model-A cars. [audio cuts in and out in this section] Virginia: camping and outdoor activities for her family when she was young. 32: 45 Charles: changes in camping equipment. Equipment was much simpler (just a blanket with groceries wrapped in it). Trick played on a friend. The first camping trip on which the couple took their children was to Wild Basin in 1944 or Solitude at Wild Basin at that time. Stories of camping with their children. The couple moved to Ohio and continued to do outdoor activities while living there. 39:12 Marriage in June of Moving from Pennsylvania back to Colorado in They talk about automobile trips in the early 20 th Century. The couple talks about tourist homes. Virginia then explains that her 14-year-old brother drove across the country because he was a much better driver than their mother. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

4 What automobile tires were like in the first half of the twentieth century. Generally, travelers expected to have a few flat tires. Charles remembers that at one point gas cost $1 for 7 gallons. 45:28 Virginia explains that their children never really experienced any type of vacation except camping. Discusses camping. Length of work week for Charles during WWII and after. Ranching while the couple lived in Arvada. The couple talks about subsequent development of the land where the ranch used to be. Charles explains that during WWII he was old enough not to be drafted, plus he was classified Essential. He helped produce civilian gas masks and was an air-raid monitor. 50:48 Charles: Japanese immigrants and people of Japanese descent in Colorado. Charles talks about his grandfather, who ran a candy store and travelled back and forth between Colorado and California. Charles grandfather brought back ancient pots from Walnut Canyon. One is at the University of Colorado. At the time of the interview, Charles and Virginia were in talks to donate another pot to a museum in northern Arizona. Charles recounts some stories about his grandfather s adventures and his plans for Forest City, a proposed suburban community for Denver. 58:00 Charles grandmother, Jenny, kept meticulous diaries from 1893 onward that documented life on the ranch. Charles explains that the ranch was sometimes a rest house for travelers, so his grandparents had a lot of company. 59:28 [End of Part A] [B]. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

5 00:00 Charles recounts the time his car went into South Boulder Creek and his father had to haul the car out with a team of horses. He explains that his father never punished him severely for anything. Charles talks about his 1927 Harley-74 motorbike. Motorcycle accident. 04:10 Interviewer asks what a typical evening was like for Charles and Virginia when they were teenagers. Charles explains that he used to listen to the radio every night by himself on earphones. Describes the radio, a Crosley Pup. Also describes the family s large cabinet radio. Virginia remembers her radio as well, a crystal set. They were allowed to listen to this radio on rare occasions when they had been good. Her stepfather had a radio that he used to listen to the news. Instead of listening to the radio in the evenings, Virginia did her school work and read. Charles talks about when his father decided to sell off all the milk cows when Charles was half-way through college, because his father said he was through with milking cows. Discussion of milking cows. The interviewers about when Charles and Virginia met (hiking on Sanitas when Charles tripped her). Charles talks about asking Virginia to a tea-dance. Virginia explains what a Cu tea-dance was. Discussion of fraternities/sororities vs. independent students at CU. 10:33 Many marriages and few divorces resulted from the CU Hiking Club. The couple mentions Chuck and Doris. The couple recounts memories of going to CU in the late 1920s/early 1930s. They describe living arrangements, rent and tuition costs. Tuition was $24 per quarter at University of Colorado. Charles worked during the summers as a lifeguard at Eldorado Springs and at a placer mine in Breckenridge. Virginia worked in a museum for 30 cents per hour and remembers how she and Doris and their grandmother lived in an apartment in Boulder during college. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

6 Virginia worked as a banana-seeder for a family with children who had special dietary needs. 16:31 Charles graduated from CU in 1934; Virginia graduated in Charles describes working at the Morningstar Mine above Tolland. Charles explains the mining term single jacking, which means drilling blast holes by hand with a drill and a hammer. He says it generally took him minutes to drill a hole. Charles goes into detail about his mining days, and recounts a harrowing story about getting out of a mining hole after he and a fellow miner lit the mining fuses and then by accident blew out their headlights. 22:34 Mining for gold. Accessing the mine. [baby cries and the couple talks to it] Charles mined from April through August. Quit when he and the other miners ran out of money. Talks about a block of rock in Cripple Creek that was used for rock drilling contests. Describes single-jack and double-jack drilling contests. [noise of jet flying overhead.] 27:30 Talks about drilling a hole through a manhole with a single jack. Discussion of the blacksmith s art of creating drills and chisels. 30:48 Discussion of the quality of drill steel and keeping steel sharp. The difference between black powder and dynamite. [Break in recording] Hard work of single-jack mining. Using ore-cars to muck out the mines. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

7 34:16 Progression from individual mine operators to corporate ownership. Camp Bird Mine outside of Ouray. Growth of need for molybdenum for military purposes. Rise in stock prices of companies that mined molybdenum. Leadville Mine: lead and zinc. Ore sold to a sampler in Boulder, which then bought the ore at a price based on a sample of the ore. Price for ore. 40:50 Ore mining today. [section that is difficult to hear] Coal carbonization process and history. 45:07 Coal carbonization heats the coal in the absence of air and creates gas and fuel such as coke as a byproduct. Talk about Virginia s stepfather s invention of coal carbonization. Also his experiments in dry farming. Anti-Semitic ideas. Died in :30 Description of living in a cabin at the Morningstar Mine. Difficulty of living in the cabin during cold weather. Learning about hard rock mining. 55:10 Operating a placer mine. Miners were wet all the time if they were placer mining. No one placer mined in the winter because the water they needed was frozen. 58:26 [End of part B.] Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

8 [C]. 00:00 The dredge and the mining and development that took place in Breckenridge. Stories about Breckenridge: early culture, mining, living in Breckenridge. George Robinson s stories about the early days of Breckenridge. 06:04 Explains the individualist tendencies of early miners and the mining community. The west was populated by the misfits they couldn t get along anywhere else. Baby Doe Tabor. Prohibition not enforced in Leadville. Slavic people in the mining communities. Religious discrimination experienced as a miner. 11: 05 Transportation between Leadville and Breckenridge. Discussion about friendship from early adult years and differences in friendships between then and now. [soft audio] 15:33 Martin Colle [?]: a friend who became a colonel in the army. [Crosstalk; soft audio; difficult to hear] Road trip in 1933 to Chicago to see the World s Fair. [Crosstalk among family members] 22:01 A recent visit to Breckenridge Prospect of mines in Breckenridge reopening. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

9 Process of separating different ores. [audio quality poor; difficult to understand] Gold and silver mining in various areas of the Colorado mountains. Cripple Creek. [audio quality clears up] Virginia: discipline in her family when she was growing up. Memory of being spanked by her grandmother when she was about 8 or 9 years old. [audio poor again] Charles: no memories of specific incidents of discipline. [Begins account of an incident in which he got in trouble, but tape goes dead. There is a period of silence, then recording picks up with Charles Moore speaking about reorganization of Colorado school districts in which he was involved. Audio is much louder and clearer. From here on there are no interviewers; Charles Moore is recording his memories and personal history solo.] 31:01 Reorganization of Colorado school districts in 1949, as mandated by the Colorado legislature. Each county established a committee to participate. Charles was on district board for the Freemont School District and became part of the county committee. Consolidation of about sixty Jefferson County school districts into Jefferson County R-1 School District in Charles Moore was elected to the Jefferson County R-1 school board in Controversial issues: boundary changes, busing. 35:01 Another controversial issue: year-round school. Changing bus routes also was controversial. Anecdote about an embarrassing experience on the school board. Satisfaction of handing out high school diplomas. Awards for work on school board. School named after him. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

10 41:25 Battle over the Family Living program in the schools. Controversy due to the sex education component of the program. Trip to Rome in 1969 for work in the field of engineering. Discussion of international politics and how that affected the decisions made. 45:46 Visiting a friend in Brussels [break in recording] Return trip to the U.S. Trip to Mexico in Impressions of Mexico: Mexico City, Guadalajara. 50:04 More stories about trip to Mexico: Mazatlan, Rosario. Trip to Hawaii in Eating Korean food in Hawaii. Anecdotes about sightseeing in Hawaii. 55:38 Account of trip to Hawaii continues. 60:52 [End of Part C] [D]. 00:00 Charles reads reflections about his and Virginia s lives: changes in society, his beloved family, travel, history of the family s ranch, and other family history. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

11 04:36 Charles Moore s father: things learned from his father, his father s work as a patrolman for the Colorado Central Power Company (later Xcel). Livestock on the ranch. Chores on the ranch done as a boy. Run-ins with a gander on the ranch. Learning to kill a chicken. Hog butchering. 10:10 Preserving meat. The demands of keeping milk cows. Guns and hunting on the ranch. Recreational activities with a friend. 14:06 Camping during childhood. Early driving experiences, including an accident in which an unattended car went into a ditch. Early cars owned by the family. Maintenance of tires. Bicycle adventures during childhood. 20:16 One-room schoolhouse that Charles attended. Advantages of attending a one-room school. Entering ninth-grade in Boulder in 1926: difficult adjustment. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

12 High school at Boulder Prep [audio distorted by drag on original tape] [Recording interrupted and returns at normal speed] Incident of principal being hit with a snowball. Taking Latin in high school. 24:21 Entering the University of Colorado as a freshman in 1930 at the age of 16. Life at CU during the 1930s. University of Colorado Hiking Club (UCHC). Adventures with the hiking club. Meeting Virginia in1932. Other friendships forged in the hiking club. Limerick recited about a friend. Cross-country skiing. 30:41 [blank area of tape for about 30 seconds] Continued discussion of skiing and how it has changed. Anecdote about a time when Charles acquired a terrible sunburn. Reflections about the satisfactions of outdoor, backcountry experiences. 34:49 Summer job at Eldorado Springs swimming pool: first as pool boy, then as lifeguard. Description of Eldorado pool: dressing rooms, water quality, used by many people. Swimming on the CU swim team. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

13 39:07 From 1932 to 1935, Charles summer were spent in the Breckenridge area. Story about an adventurous trip up to Breckenridge and Leadville with a friend, Martin Colle [?]. Working as a miner in the Breckenridge area. Placer mining. 44:42 [section about 10 seconds that is inaudible] Description of placer mining operations. Potential dangers of placer mining. Stories about placer mining. 50:23 Story about seeing a light in the middle of the night at the mine. Lack of prohibition enforcement in the mining towns. Baby Doe Tabor: describes the way the townspeople took care of her. Stories about some of the other characters of that mountain area. 55:00 Story of a Leadville badger fight. Trial of those involved in badger fight 61:27 [Approximately 20-second break in recording] in which it is revealed that the fight was a practical joke. Motorcycle bought in 1932; a 1927 Harley-74. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

14 65:13 Account of a motorcycle accident and other motorcycle adventures. Graduation from college in 1934 and subsequent search for a job. Work at a smelter in Leadville for about a month. Not feeling accepted culturally. Working at another mine. Home brewing. Work as a mucker in the mine. 68:58 Work in a poorly engineered ore chute at the mine. Extreme darkness in a mine when the lights go out. 71:04 [Recording for part D ends abruptly as tape runs out.] [E]. 00:00 Continues talking about darkness in the mine and tells stories of accidentally extinguishing the light in the mines. Lease on the Morningstar Mine above Tolland acquired in 1935 with two friends. Tells about methods of working the mine. Transportation to the mine. Providing camp help for the Colorado Mountain Club s three-week summer outing. 05:10 Climb of Mount Powell (third ascent). Record of first ascent from 1868 found in a can at summit. Memories of the camp cook and a black bear that invaded the cook tent. Memories of a woman who was one of the campers who had a balance problem. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

15 Aspen in :32 Started work for Bechtel Corporation as a laborer in August of Shortly afterwards, moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to work for Carbide Chemicals Corporation. Becoming accustomed to life in Pittsburgh. First trip to New York City. 14:32 Flooding in Pittsburgh in Wedding: June 21, Story of dual weddings 2,000 miles apart. Complication of needing to apply for the marriage license without Virginia being present. 18:58 [blank section of recording to 19:12] Train trip to Philadelphia with his best man for the wedding. Honeymoon trip. Description of apartment in Pittsburgh. [break in recording] First car bought after getting married. Decision to return to the West. Trip back to visit Colorado. Accident on the way back to Pittsburgh. 25:28 Move to Fort Collins. Working at Great Western Sugar Company. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

16 Move to Denver without a job. May, 1938: move to Breckenridge to work as an electrician s assistant. Life in Breckenridge. 29:17 Move back to Denver for a job with Root and Simpson, an assayer. Hired by Gates Rubber Company as a development engineer in Trip to San Francisco. Worked for Gates Rubber until retirement in Discussion of working for Gates Rubber. House built for the family in 1940 at 2533 S. Logan in Denver. 34:50 Bought a small farm out near Arvada in Rationing during WWII years, including of gasoline. Not called up for draft because he had a job characterized as essential and because he was a little beyond draft age. Returns to talking about financing the purchase of the house on Logan. Birth of daughter Betsy in Cherry born in Traveling for Gates for the mechanical rubber division. Wartime train travel. 39:03 Returns to talking about the purchase of the farm in 1946, northwest of Arvada, close to what is now 64th and Simms. Description of the land and its buildings. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

17 Drilling the well. Adding a bathroom and running water to the house. Freemont School adjoined their property, a three-room school. School as social center of the neighborhood. Anecdote involving a parody, a gun, and a dead duck. 44:32 Elected to the school board in 1948; the beginning of about twenty years of school board service. Anecdote about a child s complaint that a teacher hit him with a book. Controversy about financing an addition to Freemont School. Square dances and parties at the Moore barn. Cider parties. Horses ridden by the Moore children, including one named Chief. Anecdote about a horse accident. 51:01 Three more children born to make a family of five children. [break in recording] Greg born in 1948, Stan in 1949, and Mary in Enjoyment of living on the farm for the children. 4-H projects. 54:42 Tree houses built by children. Anecdotes about children pounding nails in to the ground and about Greg using a saw on a cinderblock. Growing sweet corn. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

18 Growing and harvesting alfalfa hay. Livestock kept. 60:00 Encroachment of the City of Arvada over the years. Property now surrounded by development houses. Accepting an offer to become director of tire engineering at Dayton Rubber Company in Dayton, Ohio, in Family joined him in March :07 [Audio of part E ends abruptly as tape runs out.] [F]. 00:00 Recording picks up mid-sentence. Charles describing family getting settled in Dayton, Ohio. Living in Dayton; exploring the countryside. Camping trips in a variety of locations. 06:10 Boy Scout trips. Children s paper routes. Difference in delivering newspapers in Colorado vs. Ohio. 10:11 Dayton Tire and Rubber Company sold the tire portion of the company in Charles accepted an offer to return to Denver to work for Gates Rubber Company. Trip to Europe in the summer of :09 Description of trip to Europe continues. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

19 19:43 Sons Greg and Stan became avid language students as a result of the European trip. Trying to live on $5 a day while in Europe. Traveling in the European style. Challenges experienced while traveling in Europe. 24:22 Visit to England. Trip home by ship: controversy over the fare for their son who had just turned :00 Returning to the United States: Statue of Liberty, going through customs. Returning to Dayton and packing up to move back to Colorado. After return to Colorado, lived in a house at 11 Skyline Drive from then through the time of this recording. Children s post-high-school activities. Traveling for his job with Gates starting in Anecdotes about challenges of plane travel during that era. 35:34 Anecdotes about challenges of plane travel continue to end of recording. 45:01 [Recording ends abruptly as tape runs out. End of Part F.] [G]. 00:00 Recording starts in mid-sentence with Charles finishing his accounts of difficult airline trips. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

20 A confused section: begins to talk about reorganization of Colorado school districts, then there is a break and recording resumes briefly on a topic having to do with fish, then there is another break and the recording resumes with Charles speaking about testing he did on tires. Description of tire testing process. Anecdotes about funny things that happened during testing. 06:07 Story about tire use and abuse. Humorous anecdote about a work trip. 08:55 Camping trips taken by the family. Trip in 1955 through the southwest. 15:02 Returning to Utah for further four-wheel drive trips during the past 10-plus years. 19:36 Summers at Black Lake with Charles and Virginia as managers of the Black Lake Lodge. 26:34 Grandchildren visiting Black Lake Horses and guest horseback riding at Black Lake. 29:21 More about Black Lake resort. Anecdotes about funny things that happened there due to people s mistakes: fish-frozen-in-the-freezer story. [Between 30 and 31 minutes, recording goes blank; there is a sentence about the school board; then blank tape; then fish-in-the-freezer story resumes. Story about a judge going fishing and having trouble running a motor boat. Black Lake: description, location, enjoyment of rustic conditions. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

21 34:47 Running the Black Lake Lodge: schedules, food, guests. Fly fishing. 39:46 Grandchildren and horses. Horse stories. [brief break in recording at 43:21] Plans to continue to work at Black Lake Lodge. 45:39 Being an expert witness for Gates Rubber Company in product liability lawsuits. Story about a difficult case. Being on call for testifying. Satisfactions of doing expert witness work. 50:10 Recording picks up four years later, in July Bringing account up-to-date: Worked at Black Lake in 1981 and In 1983, Charles began to experience back pain, causing them to return early from Black Lake. Further diagnosis and treatment of back problem. Return to health. 54:51 Virginia diagnosed with Parkinson s disease, but as of the recording, the disease had not progressed. Trips taken in the last few years, including trips to Utah and California. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

22 60:42 [Recording ends abruptly as tape runs out. End of part G] [H]. 00:00 Continues relating stories about recent trips taken and people who have visited them. Upcoming travel plans. Concluding remarks and encouragement for younger family members to record their memories. 05:35 Virginia relates her life history. Born in Colorado Springs in Siblings. [long pause] Father s work at Chamber of Congress; death in 1919 during flu epidemic Mother s education after her husband s death to get teaching certificate; teaching career. Rental of house during the summer; summer travels. Stories of summer life in California. 10:12 Road trip to California. Summer in Buffalo with great-aunt. Summer on a farm, including stories of adventures on the farm 14:45 Summer north of Colorado Springs in a cabin. Hauling water. Stories of childhood: having tonsils out; a surprise birthday party [pause] Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

23 February 1927; her mother remarried. Stepfather was an inventor with good ideas, but poor marketing skills. 20:08 Virginia s brother Fred: college, post-college years during the Depression. Financing college for all the siblings. Family s academic prowess. [pause] Virginia and sister Doris went to University of Colorado, Boulder, with full scholarships due to their high academic standing. Doris and Virginia s weddings, which were on the same day in Colorado and Pennsylvania. 26:45 Living in Pittsburgh after Virginia and Charles marriage. Return to Colorado in Jobs held by Charles. [break in recording; silent section for a couple of minutes] [Repeat of previous section about college educations through early jobs held by Charles.] 40:07 Charles starting to work for Gates Rubber Company. Building their house for $4,000. Premature birth of daughter Betsy in Cherry s birth in Move to the country (northwest of Arvada) in 1946 on eighteen acres, where they lived for 13 years. Move to Dayton, Ohio, in 1959 for Charles to work for the Dayton Rubber Company. Move back to Colorado two years later. Trip to Europe before move to Colorado. Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

24 44:29 Girl Scout trip to Canada. Other Girl Scout trips. Volunteer community work. Grandchildren visiting at Black Lake 49:03 Family camps at Black Lake. Other family camping trips over the years. Substitute teaching. Anecdotes about teaching. 54:18 The potluck group. Virginia s mother, Eileen: warm personality, teaching, belief in civil rights. Virginia s grandmother: came to Colorado in Born in Germany. 59:36 School years activities. University of Colorado clubs and other activities. Concluding remarks about having had a good life. 63:05 [End of Part H. End of recording.] Charles and Virginia Moore; OH

25 Charles and Virginia Moore; OH