 TRANSCRIPT OF Interviewer: Rita Pearce, a graduate student of the Elliott School of Communication at Wichita State University. Interviewer: Today is Wednesday, October 22, 1997. The time is 2:25 p.m. I am Rita Pearce, a graduate student of the Elliott School of Communication at Wichita State University. This afternoon I am interviewing Mrs. Nelda Kell, a resident of Larksfield Place. Larksfield Place is a retirement community in Wichita, Kansas. This interview is taking place in Mrs. Kell’s apartment, which is apartment E-220. This interview is being conducted as a part of the I, Witness to History program. Mrs. Kell, would you tell us a little about your childhood, please? Kell: Well, I was born in Junction City, Kansas, June 1st, 1913. And, uh, this was in a rooming house of my grandfather’s sister. And, Mother went there because her mother was very good at this sort of thing--a midwife I might say. Maybe she was And, uh, my father, we were living in Junction, uh, Tonganoxie, at the time and when my mother took me back home, my father said, "You got her so sun-burned!" And, then, uh, not many last long—I think we were there because my father had broken his leg in this work. This was dairy that they were in in Tonganoxie with his sister and family. And, uh, they said that I had bronchial pneumonia while I was there. And, almost died. And the doctor who took care of me said they wouldn’t raise me to adulthood, but you see, I fooled ‘em. But we lived in Junction City, Kansas then for a number of years. And I started school there, and, uh, the only thing I remember from that. . . well, I remember several things from that period, but the earliest thing that I remember was going off, running off at Halloween because the kids coaxed me to go with them. And I was only three. And, of course, my mother was terribly worried. I think my dad was out of town. But she must have been terribly worried because my uncle was there when I got home--when they brought me home. And, she wouldn’t have called her brother had I, had she not been pretty worried. And, my brother said, "I wanted to go on that spree, but they wouldn’t let me." (Laughs) That’s how I went anyway. And then we moved when I was about seven back to Florence, Kansas where I really grew up. And, uh, then the only other things I remember was, uh, sleeping outside and hearing the lonely sound of the bird, which was probably an owl or dove or something. And being scared but my father comforted me. It must have been so hot that we slept outside. That could happen. And, then the other thing was that when we moved, I contracted something and was quarantined. I didn’t get it, but I was playing with kids that had it. I think it was chicken pox. I was quarantined and I think my mother really appreciated that period, because we stayed there in that house where I had lived. Although we had moved to Florence, well, she didn’t really want to leave Junction City, so . . . what I did all day when I was bored was take baths, one after another (laughs) and (clears throat) let my dolly watch me. Interviewer: (laughs) What was it like, having the chicken pox? There were a lot of diseases around at that particular time that people don’t see a lot of right now. Were there some other ones? Kell: Scarlet fever and, uh, any childhood . . .measles, any childhood disease, we had it. Yes, right. Uh, whooping cough, I didn’t ever have it whooping cough, but all those childhood diseases, they had back there even worse, probably than now. And I know I had chicken pox because I’ve got a mark on my nose (laughs) where I must have dug the pox off. Interviewer: Um-hm. Well, what did, what kind of treatment did they give you if you had . . . . Kell: I don’t remember. Interviewer: OK. Kell: But my husband’s brother was a year or two older than he or some older than that. He died of appendicitis when he was three. And, uh, his parents always blamed the doctor for that. But, uh, he said, well, he complained of a stomachache. So, he didn’t do anything for him, I guess. And, uh, I guess maybe now they can tell the difference or they know what to do, but then they evidently didn’t. Interviewer: Well, then you moved to Florence, right? Kell: Um-hm. Interviewer: What was it like living in Florence? Kell: Well, I felt it was a privilege for me, although my mother didn’t want to go because she away from her family. I don’t think she ever did like it, but, uh, but I feel like it was really a privilege to have lived in a small town where everybody knows you and you know everybody--where things are easy to get to, and school worked out beautifully so I’m really thankful for that experience. Interviewer: Why exactly did you move to Florence? Kell: Well, my grandfather died. He was in the construction business. He was a stone mason. And, uh, he was, uh, from Sweden, and he’d taken up the business after he came here. And, my dad, that was my dad’s business, too, so, when my grandfather died in 1920, why, my father came to Florence then to pickup and take over the business, which, I think maybe was considerable because he was gone a lot. He was gone an awful lot. Interviewer: Were there any landmarks around Florence? What else is Florence known for? Kell: Well, I think everybody who’s been through there remembers the water tower. Because the water is ninety-nine and ninety-six hundreds percent pure—I think that’s what it is. But my father built that water tower, and I would guess that it was in the nineteen thirties because, nineteen twenties because I was still home, I know. So, it stands on the highway—the two highways where they joined. That’s where it is. And that pure water comes from a gushing spring that ran out of the side of the hill that just never runs out of water--beautiful, pure water. Interviewer: Was there a Harvey house in Florence? Kell: Yes. Florence had the first Harvey House, and, you know, years later at the Harvey House in Sedgwick—not in Sedgwick, in, uh, Syracuse, Kansas, Jim’s mother and sister were Harvey girls, and even Jim, my husband worked. He was just a bus boy or something. He was just a boy. But they told us many wonderful experiences they had, and so forth. Interviewer: Can you relate one or two of those for us? Kell: Well, uh, one of Jim’s Jobs was to take the paddles out of the ice cream maker, and, of course, that was a wonderful job to have because he could lick the ice cream off the paddles (laughs). And, then, he, uh, brought the cream, the heavy cream. We don’t have any heavy cream like that anymore—almost like butter--heavy cream. He would bring that in for their use and he could sample it on the way, so he liked that kind of a job. And, one of the managers was named "Bounty," and, uh, the first day he came, why the, uh, fellas were out there working with him and they said, "Did anybody tell you that you won’t get paid for the first month?" And Jim didn’t know what to say about that and all of a sudden they looked up and here was Mr. Bounty at the door. So he said, you know, he told them off (laughs). Interviewer: (Laughs). You mentioned some early technology like radio and the movies, can you tell us a little bit about what it was like to experience those when nobody else really knew what they were about? Kell: Well, I know about phonographs because we had one, and, uh, had classical music. My dad loved classical music and one Christmas Eve he took my brother and they were gone so long, I thought maybe they’d left us—Christmas Eve and it was probably nine-thirty when they got back, but that was awful late, you know, I was worried all that time, "Where were they? Where were they?" Well, they were out choosing our Christmas present. In those days, Christmas wasn't anything like it is now. If you got one gift, maybe made by your mother or something, you got—that was your Christmas. Mother’s birthday was Christmas day, but I don’t think she ever got a birthday present unless she called her Christmas present, a birthday present. But, anyway, what they were doing—well, they were down at the store selecting records for our phonograph, and there were pieces like Marion Toli singing opera or William Tell Overture. I remember that and a violinist. I can’t remember what violinist playing Humoresque or something. And, uh, that eased my fears, of course. They hadn’t left us, they were just picking out something for Christmas. But, anyway, when a friend told me that they were getting a radio, why I asked her, I said, "Well, can you play that loud and soft and can you make it go slow and fast like you can a phonograph? Do you have to wind it up like a phonograph. Well, she didn’t seem to think it was odd—those questions, so maybe she didn’t know what a radio was either when they got it, but they had sent for it from Montgomery Ward’s, so it had come and she was tellin’ about it. Interviewer: What about when the movies came along? Kell: Well, I think they wanted to get us started going to the movies so they had free movies on Saturday afternoon—I was probably twelve or thirteen or something like that, and, uh, that was quite an experience. Because, you know, they would have the newsreels, then they’d have the comic part and then they’d have the movie, and then maybe a serial like The Perils of Pauline or something. Well, that would keep you coming back because you had to find out what was happening to Pauline (laughs) or whoever it was, the wild-west character. So it was fun, and, of course, a boy would invite you to sit with him and that was exciting, too (laughs). Because that was a pretty easy date, you know—no expense whatever (laughs). Interviewer: Did you do any outdoor recreational type things? Kell: As a child? Interviewer: As a child. Kell: My father made a deal from the tree to the garage where you’d get on the deal and scoot, you had to hang on by your hands to scoot from the top of the tree, er, a place on the tree. You climbed up a ladder and got on the place on the tree and held on to that and you got down to the garage roof, or part of the garage, and, uh, then we had outdoor croquet, which I kind of miss. I think that was fun and Dad was a real expert at croquet because he had the neighborhood come over and they’d have little contests and so forth. And, Dad usually won. But you know the evening recreation for my parents I think always was dominos. They played dominos almost every evening. Interviewer: Just the two of them? Kell: Um-hm, um-hm. Well, we might’ve then, too, when we were young. I don’t remember that, but, uh, you don’t hear much about dominos any more either. Interviewer: Mrs. Kell, would you tell us about your school days in Florence and what you remember about those? Kell: Well, you know, I can’t remember anything about first and second grade, but in the third grade I had a teacher that, uh, played favorites, uh, in a way as she, my little friend, well, we were Mutt and Jeff because she was so short and I was so tall and she would bawl Beth out and then she’d take her on her lap. Now this was the third grade. She’d take her on her lap and pet her. Well, the thing I remember most about that teacher was that she’d slapped me. I had one of those circular combs that I was combin’ my hair back, you know, and probably studying, but combin’ my hair back. She came back and slapped me. Well, another thing about third grade (laughs), we were playing violin with our ruler and pencil, and so she made us march around the room playing our violins, so I didn’t really think much of that teacher, but most of the teachers I loved dearly, and, uh, we put on an operetta called "The Quest of the Pink Parasol," and this Beth, my friend, was the main character, and she did beautifully. I don’t remember what I was, but I was a musical thing. You know, like later on I played for the quartets and the choruses and, uh, and then a wonderful part of school was, uh, Girl’s Reserve, which was a part of YWCA work. That was both in junior high-dom, junior high girl’s reserve and senior high girl’s reserve and I was president of each one. Well, another thing, the coach asked me, oh, I think I was a junior, if I’d start a pep club, and, wonder of wonders, I was a cheerleader (laughs), of all things. There was a boy that was cheerleader along with me. He’d broken his neck so he couldn’t play sports, but he was a wonderful fella, and we worked at that together, but I had to ask him about the plays because I didn’t understand ‘em, and when it was time to cheer, why he’d tell me. But anyway I had some wonderful, wonderful times in high school. We didn’t have senior proms then, we did have senior banquets. And, uh, the juniors, we’d bring the food, and, when I was a junior, I wrote to the man I was gonna marry, and, I, uh, we were writing back and forth into this other town. And, I wrote about the menu we were gonna serve for this meal, and we were gonna charge for it, and, oh, there was a, not a lavish meal but there was salad and meat and potatoes and desert and drink and all and I said we were gonna charge fifty cents—do you think that’s too much? So that was, uh, that was life back then. Interviewer: Well, tell me about your husband, the guy that you were writing to then about this banquet. Kell: Well, he had come to Florence when I was, uh, sixteen in the summer I was sixteen, and it was my girlfriend that fell for him. She just thought if she could get a date with him, she would be set. So, and she was the kind to want to go with every boy in town. So, the four of us were out one evening and we was kinda walkin’ around the block and so forth, and Jim and another fella stopped to ask us if we wanted to ride. Well, she was the first one out there. But before she left, we said, well, we’ll meet back at my house after you’ve been with him, and, uh, see what it’s all, what it’s all about. But, nobody would go with that other fella, because he was just a jerk (laughs). So, she came back, and, oh, she was just bubbling over, she went "wonderful, it was wonderful." Well, I never dreamed he would take an interest in me, ever, but, uh, he said when he saw me as a leader in Epithedra, Epithedra was a group of young people at the church, and I was president of that, too, and, uh, he said that he had decided that I was the girl that he wanted to marry. And he told me that on our first date. He wanted to marry me. So, I’m still surprised about that (laughs). And he was a wonderful husband, father, friend, so I’m very, very fortunate to have, for him having taken an interest in me, and the way we really got together was a friend of mine and I were sitting in her car Saturday night watchin’ the crowds go by. They came out of the theater and went across and got their groceries or went to the drugstore or something and watchin’ people go by. We were eating peanuts. Well, because my girlfriend had been out with him, why, I honked at him, and he came over and we were doing the peanuts and he asked me to go out the next day if he got his car fixed. And I said, "Well, I’ll ask my parents." Well, he didn’t get his car fixed I guess because I said I’d give him my answer in church. Well, he didn’t get his car fixed and he wasn’t in church, but that afternoon my girlfriend and I, and another girl were riding around. She got the car, well, on Sunday but she had to stay in town, she couldn’t go out of town. She had to stay in town, so we rode up and down Main Street, up and down, up and down, and we saw him in his car. He’d got it fixed, but we just waved at him nonchalantly (laughs) and I don’t know how long after that but I told him that I could go and that was a surprise to because, uh, he was five-and-a-half years older than I and yet my parents didn’t object to my going with Jim, but they’d had known his grandfather and his father and his parents, but they’d moved back to town and so it was, I was sixteen, so he was in his twenties. Interviewer: Did you have children and were you in Florence when you were having those children? Kell: The first child was born probably when we came to Florence and we came to Dr. Hertzler in Newton to have our children. Dr. Hertzler was a famous name and it was connected more with Halstead than Newton, so this man I think was a nephew or a, anyway, a relative of Hertzler. And uh, I think anybody can believe now what little it cost them to have a baby. Because we could go anytime to see the doctor, and he told us the first time we went, he said it’ll be twenty-five dollars. The whole thing, come anytime, the delivery, I don’t know what about afterwards, I don’t know remember that. And he said, I would like for you to pay it as long as you go. So, Jim, he had paid ten dollars on the twenty-five dollars, so when the baby came in September, uh, the thirty-three, why uh, he said that’ll be twenty-five dollars. And Jim let him stew a little while and uh, then he said uh, he had told us that most people pay ahead and so Jim said, I’ve already paid you ten dollars. Oh, that’s right, he said. Most people don’t pay ahead (laughs). Can you imagine, can anybody imagine going through all that on twenty-five dollars? (laughs) Twenty-five dollars then was a lot different then than twenty-five dollars today. A lot different. Interviewer: What could you buy with twenty-five dollars? Kell: Back then? Interviewer: Yes. Kell: Well, my first car. We bought, which would have been in oh, about thirty-four. It was five hundred dollars. If you stuck that up against new car cost today, and realize the difference. Well, it goes into the thousands now. But that wasn’t a bad car, probably a Ford, I don’t remember.
Interviewer: Were cars simpler then, were they difficult to fix? Kell: No. They were so much easier than today. You could fix them yourself, almost. Uh, Jim bought a car about every year because he was on the road all the time. Driving all the time. So, he had to have a good car. Our first car, that he had when we were married, was a Maxwell. And he had got that from a friend he was rooming with. He was going to Dade Business College, working at Livingston’ s Café, which is still going now, I think. They’re going to have to move because of the highway, but I think they said they were going to move someplace, I’m not sure. It’s a different, it’s a son or grandson of the former Livingston but uh, he was working there for his meals and he was working in a parking garage for a place to sleep and uh, so, uh, he, there was another fellow working up there, in the parking garage and he, Jim had a musical instrument and something else, I don’t remember what it was, so he traded to this kid for his car, this Maxwell car. So, we had a Maxwell when we first got married. And it was, the radiator overheated and all you did was put more water in (laughs). But, that did us quite a little while, in traveling on the road. Interviewer: Why was Jim traveling so much? Kell: Well, he was traveling as a representative of the Wichita Eagle. And uh, he got that job at the college he attended and uh, probably, would have worked up to a circulation manager, but uh, the fellow that was the manager was the son of a man that had been there. Allahn was his name and Frank was the son, Frank was the one who got the job as the manager. Well, Frank and Jim were very good friends and I don’t think Jim really wanted an inside job, he really preferred, because he was a salesman, he was a good salesman, and when, during the war when he thought we weren’t going to, we weren’t going to be able to get gas and tires, why, he sold Botanica Juniors to people, make night visits around and he was the top salesman of Kansas for a month because he was a salesman. But uh, and also, he still thought he was going to be out of work because of the gas and tire situation during the war. So, he bought, uh, shoe repair shop, called Ralph’s down on Hillside, not Hillside, Hillside and Douglas, around the corner on Douglas from Hillside. And that was lucrative enough that he invested in some others. He had one down on Harry, and one up on 21st street, I think two on twenty-first street, just West of Broadway. And uh, he learned the business and he uh, had trouble with the name because he bought the name, he bought the name, Ralph’s. Ralph Stromeyer I heard, started it. And so he, in doing it that, he bought the name from Ralph Stromeyer. Started another shoe shop on out East in the neighborhood, Eastborough, I don’t know where, but anyway, Jim reminded him that he had bought the name so he’d have to name it something else. So, he didn’t have to take him to court, he was afraid he was going to have to, but anyway, that uh, that did a lot of good for us—for him to that feeling. Interviewer: So he had Ralph’s Repair Store for shoes. Kell: Uh-huh. Interviewer: And, he was also doing some other things? Kell: Well, he was still at the Eagle. He didn’t lose his job, but, uh, somehow he had real good help in his stores. But in his spare time, he learned a trade, too. So he was in there some. Interviewer: You mentioned a book that your husband really believed in and that was important to you. Can you tell me about that little book? Kell: Well, I wish I could remember the man’s name. He was an older man and he took an interest in Jim and he suggested this book to him called "Gold Ahead." I don’t even know who wrote it, but, uh, Jim read it and believed the philosophy in it because, uh, the main gist of it is that a tenth of everything you earn belongs to you, and people say, "Well, everything you earn belongs to you." Well, it doesn’t belong to you anymore when you’ve given it to somebody else for the things you think you need or want. But if you save ten percent of everything which you earn, then these start working for you—the money starts working for you and that was his philosophy, so I used to call it his Bible, but I’m thankful now that he had that vision, because it’s seen us through some very difficult times because he had the money to deal with it. He had Alzheimer’s for probably ten years, and I had to have him in a nursing home for 6 months and that was not working, so my granddaughter’s family in Arizona wanted to take care of him, so that’s the way he spent the last three years of his life and it was a beautiful time for him. He was content. He was loved and that’s what people need—all of us. All of us need love. Interviewer: Do you remember prohibition and what it was like then? Kell: Well, I’m thankful for it, because I was never confronted with anybody who wanted to give me a drink or insist that I drink, and, uh, and my church was or had the dry philosophy. You know, the Methodist church was, uh, a forerunner in wanting people to be temperant and avoid those things and one time we had a party. I don’t remember how old I was or period I was in, but, uh, it was quite a party for everybody that knew each other and were gonna come and dance and things like that and a fella spiked the punch somehow or another. And, when I realized that, I went home. He made me mad (laughs) because we didn’t have any say-so, you know, when they were forcing something on us and I didn’t like that so I . . . my mother belonged to WCTU, Women’s Christian Temperance Union. She belonged to that and I know Dad told, told me when he was, after Mother was gone, he told me that his doctor said that he could, should drive a little wine, but he said, "I didn’t, I don’t because I don’t think Mummie would approve (laughs)." I thought that was sweet of him. Interviewer: What about the depression—what you remember of it? Kell: Well, my father, of course, was one of the first to move his job because he was in construction business and they were building some cottages down on Lawrence property, and around Ponca City—stone cottages and then there was to be a swimming pool. It was gonna be a campground for, oh, like boy scouts and then probably other groups could rent it and come out for church groups and so forth. And, uh, when the depression came, why he was let out right now—just right now. Well, that was a difficult time for them because they did have the apartment house. My grandfather bought the Presbyterian Church in Florence and made it into an apartment, an apartment house and at the time the depression struck, why there were probably two apartments rented, so my father said we were gonna have to move to the apartment house and try to rent this house, because the house would be easier to rent. So we moved, I think we, I think I was a junior when we moved to the apartment house, but personally I don’t think I felt it because my parents shielded me always from the difficult and the unpleasant because I guess I was spoiled. Anyway, I still went on with my music lessons and, uh, I know I stopped for a chocolate bar every time I went to a lesson. They used to be only 5 cents then, but 5 cents was 5 cents and, uh, then when I was out of high school, why, my Greek teacher wanted me to go to a music session in St. Louis, Missouri. It was held on the campus of Washington University, but it was actually Progressive Series Music Teachers Association that my folks had paid money for, paid money each month to keep me in and this was a good thing because when I did teach music later, why, I could send for the music on consignment, you know, and when I sold it, send them the money. So it was a good thing. But anyway, I was given a fellowship of $50—now that doesn’t sound anything to people nowadays—a $50 scholarship—that doesn’t sound like anything, but then that was a good, uh, deal because when it came time to go to college, my folks couldn’t afford to send me to college, why, I asked the people who game me the scholarship, would it be alright to pay back the loan—my music teacher had loaned me $50 to go to Washington University, so they said yes, that’s alright, so I paid her back, but I started giving music lessons. Personally, I don’t think I suffered much, because my folks saw to it that I didn’t. And I must have written, oh, every time I wrote home, I must have asked for money, you know, like, I, although I remember seeing a dress in the window and, oh, I fell in love with that dress, but I knew that I couldn’t have it because I knew my folks couldn’t afford it, so I didn’t do any, I didn’t give ‘em any hard time on that. So I know I was aware of it, but as far as suffering, I don’t think I did. Now, my brother had started work when he was probably twelve and he had an idea he was gonna put himself through college and so he saved his money, always, and had a job all that time and he went to KU and he got jobs there too, all the time he was up there, five years, and uh, he did something I don’t know of anybody else ever doing, that was sending money home, for dad to pay his taxes on the property, or anything, and that house that we moved out of to move into the apartment, he finally sold that so, uh, we didn’t own that anymore. Interviewer: You talk about your music lessons, what instrument? Kell: Well, I took piano, and uh, my music teacher thought I was doing real well. She was a precious person and the music lessons were one dollar a week and with that you got a private lesson, a half hour and you got a whole hour of class lessons and when I taught then, I did the same thing, but I charged fifty cents because I didn’t think I should charge as much as my teacher and I must have had ten or twelve pupils, but anyway, uh, during one summer, because I didn’t have much else to do, why, mother had me take two lessons a week and I really progressed then. I really did. And I got good enough that I played for church, I was sixteen, I was a church, they didn’t have an organ, so I played for church, Sunday School, played for things at school, and I think I, I think I was pretty good, but you know you lose, you lose those things as your hands get stiff and your eyes don’t see as good as they used to, your brain doesn’t cooperate always, your hearing is getting a little on the strange side (laughs). But, I still play, cause I think I should, and it’s a comfort to me, I’m very thankful that my folks kept me at the piano. I also play the cello and I wish I’d kept up on that. But uh, I played maybe one piece in a program and I guess I didn’t like carrying around the cello (laughs), I wish now I had but, I didn’t then. It was her cello, the teacher’s cello, I didn’t buy it. Interviewer: Were any of your children musical, too? Kell: Well, I gave, I had uh, oh, I have to tell you something funny. I thought that uh, uh, I shouldn’t be teaching my daughter, I should send her to some other teacher, she’d be better, so I took her to a women whose son had been a winner at a state contest so, I knew she had taught him and I felt, well, that’s probably the ideal place to go. And my son was maybe two and a half and we’d take her down there and let her out and then go back down there and get her. And uh, uh, maybe we would come in while she was having her lesson, and this teacher would say, quarter, quarter, half note, quarter, quarter, half note, you know, as she was teaching, so that Jeannie would remember that that’s the kind of notes you were to play. So, one time we stopped there and uh, Larry said, uh, uh, something about Mrs. Carter, half note dot (laughs). I thought that was so funny. But then later I taught her myself and uh, Larry was so good. I could put him at his little table with his blocks and he was so quiet and uh, Larry did so well, but now, and I gave Jean voice lessons later on when she was in high school, she had voice lessons and uh, but now, Larry is more musical, my boy, is more musical than she is, because he can hear it and plays a little bit by ear and picks things up pretty quick, so. Interviewer: Does he play piano, too? Kell: Well, he doesn’t have a piano, uh, I’ve got to give them mine when I don’t need it anymore, but, he has a keyboard and uh, he enjoys that. And I think he has a guitar and uh, so, he plays some. Interviewer: What about when your children were little, how far apart were they in years, what was it like? Kell: Three years. Well, we were in Florence when our daughter was born, and uh, course we were there with two sets of grandparents and they really vied for taking care of her when I’d be going with Jim on Saturday afternoons. We’d come over to Wichita, I don’t remember why, but probably to pick up his check, I don’t know what else (laughs), but uh, uh, sometimes I’d come with him and leave them with the parents—grandparents. And, uh, oh, they just doted on her. She was, was precious. In fact somebody had told me one time, "You should take her to Hollywood, and cash in on her." Because she was kind of a Shirley Temple type—she could express herself so well and she was so cute. But, uh, I remember when Larry was born, we were living in Wichita, but we still went over to Dr. Hertzler when he was born and they were both born at Bethel Hospital in Newton. And, uh, I thought, Oh, I’ve got him to myself—I don’t have to share him. So I really enjoyed him. And, he was a precious, he was really precious and they were cute together, too. So, we were very thankful. We had a girl and a boy. Now, his birthday’s the day before Christmas, so I was feeling so sorry for him that he’d never have a birthday really, but, you know, he didn’t mind it. He didn’t mind it at all because people were there—my parents, Jim’s parents. He had uncles, aunts—everybody that came for Christmas, why, he’d have people around. So I was feeling sorry for him and all and I had a birthday-and-a-half for him one time in June and, uh, invited his friends from the school. Interviewer: I hear you’ve composed a little book. Could you tell me about that? Kell: Well, there were so many cute things that the kids said—the grandchildren. It’s not about the, my children. It’s about my grandchildren. So many cute things that they said and my daughter was writing me the things that her boys would way, and, uh, I thought, well, they ought to have a book about those things, and, so they can remember them. And, uh, so I got this ready for them—I guess it was in 1980 I gave it to them for each one for Christmas and I called it, "Rodatedodast." Now the name comes from our boat and its from the first two letters of each of our grand, great, grandchildren in order: Roger, David, Terry, Don, Dan, and Steve. Then, in the book, why I wrote a couple of things I call, "Grandma Speaketh" because of things I thought they should speak about, and, uh, put in, put in as part of their lives. For instance, um, uh, appreciating what other people do for them, and, uh, a friend of mine said I should have my autobiography in that, too, so I wrote a little autobiography in it, and, uh, I, uh, always thought that I’d get that printed up really in a nice book form, but I never have. It was given to them in, on something I did, so, you know, but I’m sure they appreciated it, and it’s still with them. It will always be with them, so. Interviewer: Can you give us an example about what’s in the book? Kell: Well, uh, this one, if I can find it, my sister-in-law said I should send it into, uh, Reader’s Digest, and I did later, but I didn’t—they didn’t publish it. Maybe I can just tell you about it, cause I don’t see it right now. Anyway, uh, we had some, after Jim left the Eagle, why, uh, we went into owning business buildings, and, uh, houses that had been made into apartments after the war, or during the war, and, uh, I don’t know how many we owned, but 20 or 25 anyway, so we were over trying to get the rent to this one place. It was a downstairs apartment, and, my grandson, he was probably five. He was with them. And, Jim hadn’t got the money, so when he, when he came back, he was muttering. Well, its either, it’s for sure it’s either hanky-panky or boos and so Don looked around at me and he said, "Grandma, what’s boos? I know what hanky-panky is." (Laughs) I think he thought it was hocus-pocus. Uh, the Kell children loved to have their daddy tell ghost stories, and the enthusiasm for telling them was passed to each child, even visiting Mary, a college student. The most memorable comes Donnie, who was about six. We were over there one day and Donnie wanted to tell us a ghost story. He said there were these two children, a boy and a girl, and they walked down the street, and they passed this house that everybody said was haunted, and they went to the door, and they knocked, and the door opened, and there was a gh-o-o-ost. Then with a sideways wave of his hand, Don said that the ghost said, "Hi." (Laughs). Roger, when he was four, was staying with us one night and when I put him to bed, he said, "Grandma, I love you, you’re so soft, feel you" (laughs). And, then, another one I want to tell you. I probably can’t find it, but my daughter wrote that her youngest boy—she heard her youngest boy and the middle boy talking, and the youngest boy, Steve, said to Dan, "Am I stupid?" And Dan said, "Yes." Stevie said, "Am I dog doo?" And his brother said, "Yes." And then a few other names like that and then pretty soon, he said, "Are you calling me names?" (Laughs.) Oh, and another one—my daughter family lived, always lived across from the Catholic School—church and school. And, Jean got word through the neighborhood that her boys, her three boys were over there shouting and running through the church, so she went over there and the only one over there and the only one she caught was her oldest one, and she said, "I heard that you boys were running and shouting in the church, and David said, (I don’t know how old he was, but he said,) "Well, Dan and Steve were running and shouting." And she said, "And what were you doing?" He said, "I was praying." (Laughs) That’s pretty quick thinking! Because what could you do when a boy that was that quick, um-hm. Interviewer: Well, it sounds like you grandsons are kind of characters. Did you have any other people in your family that were characters?" Kell: Well, my mother’s brothers were all musicians, and they played for all the movies. That was in the days when they had the orchestras in the larger cities like Topeka, and so forth that played for the movies, like organists, only they were orchestras. In fact, that’s the way my one uncle met his wife. She was a violinist and he played the trumpet. But, anyway, the older boy, brother was more inclined to the stage rather than the orchestra. But they all could play instruments, and, uh, this uncle that married stayed in Topeka, but the other three went to Hollywood, and I’m not sure that they all went together, but Uncle Ray, the oldest one who wanted to be an actor was in some movies. He, uh, his name was Raymond Brown, and I know that he was in one movie. I wish I knew how many more, but this was a movie called The Life of Louie Pasteur and the main character was Paul Muny, and my uncle had a speaking part in that, because we saw it, but, as far as any other things that he did on the stage or around, I don’t know. I would like to know, but I don’t. Interviewer: Well, thank you for our time together today. This has been Mrs. James Kell or Nelda Elizabeth Johnson Kell and I am Rita Pearce. Copyright
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