McKay Allen
Comms 301 – Dr. Dale Cressman
Interviewer: McKay Allen
Transcriber: McKay Allen
Oral History Paper – Phil and Billie Allen
Due Date: 7 April 2008
Interview Date: 29 March 2008
INTRODUCTION
McKay: Today I am with my grandparents, Phil and Billie Allen. The date is March 29th. These are my dad’s parents—they have been married for 60 years this year. They have lived in this house since the 60s. Grandpa Allen was born in May of 1924 and Grandma in March of 1931.
INTERVIEW
McKay: So what is the first thing…thing you remember about the media? What is the first thing you remember listening to on the radio for example?
Grandma Billie Allen: Momma used to listen to Helen Trent and Our Gal Sunday. They were soaps. Momma would make sure that she would go and listen to the radio while she was pealing potatoes or sewing or something. She would go in a sit and listen to her soap operas while she was preparing dinner. There was another show called Ma Perkins, mom didn’t listen to that. She thought it was bad.
McKay: What about you?
Grandma: When I was little, I heard Little Orphan Annie. We would hurry to get our chores done and eat and lay on the big rug in front of the radio to listen to them. Dad had a radio all our lives. As long as I can remember. I think most people had a radio. Because when WWII came in 41 there was no TV and everybody would keep them on to hear the war news. So they could hear all the news about the war. We didn’t have TV…TV didn’t come to Antimony till 60.
When we got the TV. Other guys used to come to watch the fights at our house. The Fullmer…Gene Fullmer won the fight. He won the whole thing. They used to make a big racket and I used to yell at them about getting too loud and excited.
Grandpa Phil Allen: Little Orphan Annie. Another little kid show or two. Jack Armstrong the All-American Boy show. We would come home from school and listen to them
McKay: Did you have radios in your houses?
Grandpa: Yes, we had a radio in our house, but it was still pretty rare in Southern Utah at the time. Not many people did have radios or anything like that in their houses. It was during the Great Depression and it was kind of an extra thing in their houses. Some of the local diners and stores and other things had radios and we would go there for the shows we liked. We would always listen to Roosevelt on the radio.
McKay: Do you remember your first radio?
Grandpa: I might’ve been 10 or 12 and we got it from Montgomery Ward. It was a big cabinet radio. It was big like a desk right here. It was a foot and half taller than the desk. You had to be real quiet to get reception through it. We used to listen to Joe Lewis and get the fights. My dad would have his buddies over to listen to the fight. Just a few people would have them when I was real little.
McKay: How did you hear about Pearl Harbor…in your house?
Grandma: It was a Sunday morning and we were on the way to Church. We walked to Church. The Church was over where it is now. It was the new chapel at the time. I can remember as plain as plain us getting the word. Scary day. It was on the radio. Somebody heard it in the town and came to the church and told everybody. People had heard it on the radio before Church…I remember the men crying.
Then it was on all the time. We would keep the radio on all the time. It was on all time just to get news of the war.
Grandpa: We heard about Pearl Harbor in the car radio. We were all juniors in high school. It was a warm day. It was beautiful day in December. Herb Allen had a car and we were just sitting on the curb listening to the radio. We all went to Church and were waiting to come back for Sacrament Meeting. Roosevelt came on and announced that we were going to declare war against the Japs because of what happened against Pearl Harbor. The pictures of it were in movie reels. I was just 17.
When I was in high school. A lot of the guys I graduated with, the Spring of 42 went off to war. It changed everything. A lot of them died over there. I ended up in Washington working on the Hanford Project…we helped the guys back east with the Atomic Bomb. They never told us what we were working on or anything.
McKay: You found out later right?
Grandpa: Right.
McKay: So did you listen to Roosevelt a lot..his fireside chats?
Grandpa: He would talk on special occasions like that. I remember when he announced they were calling the draft and he was on the radio. My brother Eldon went to the draft in 40 because they were preparing for it before the war. It looked like it was going to be another war like they had back in 18 and 19…I guess earlier than that…
McKay: What about VJ Day in 45, do you remembering listening to that?
Grandma: I don’t remember hearing Truman. I remember they raised the flag in Iwo Jima and we would see that at the movies. We would go to the old movie house in Circleville. They always had a news reel before the movies. That’s why people went to the movies back then. Some would leave before the movie even started.
Grandpa: It was a great day. It was a big day. I just remember that everybody cried. Truman came out and announced the war was over. I don’t remember where I was when that happened. Maybe by 45..where was I ? I was in Washington then…or…Louisville. Anyway, that was a big day. We all got that news. We knew that that’s what it was. We got a copy of that newspaper. We knew that the Atomic bomb had done it and that we had helped them with it.
McKay: What do remember about watching or…I guess, listening to the news when big news events happened? Kennedy’s assassination…
Grandpa: We all heard about Kennedy from Walter Cronkite. Everybody knew who he was. He was the only one people knew about back then. I just remember how sad it made everybody. The Governor of Texas was with them in the car. Shot them out of the window of a building. Must have been a pretty good shot.
Even out here where no one really liked him. I didn’t really like him…he was in the mafia, at least his dad was. He was a pretty good President though. But it was still pretty sad. I never really like him myself at all….Its funny cause if you go back to Roosevelt my dad was a Roosevelt man, he was a big Roosevelt man, a big Democrat. Mom always hated Roosevelt, that’s how he was…They would get in big arguments…my mom and dad. People either hated him or loved him. I never like the Democrats after Roosevelt. He did bring us out of the Depression though.
We were in the Depression from 29 to the early 30s. When he came to office in 32 he got this Fed Reserve System going. It protected people to rescue them from everything they owned and lost in the crash. The same thing couldn’t happen today. Everybody’s so worried now…its nothing like it was back then.
McKay: So did everybody like Cronkite?
Grandpa: We all watched Cronkite…there was two of them on there. And they were good. Then one guy died and Cronkite went on his own.
McKay: Most people had TVs?
Grandpa: By the late 50s most people had TVs. We wasn’t Kennedy people here, but it was…that was kind of shock on the nation. I remember when that happened. I had 100 head of big steers ready to go to market. The bottom fell out. The cattle market went to pot. I sold those steers for 16 cents a pound. I remember those things.
McKay: So you had a TV then…when Kennedy was shot in 63?
Grandma: Uncle Archie had the first TV in town. We were about the first one’s that got TV. We got one in 1960.
Grandpa: We had a right up town TV…not that great now, but real nice back then.
McKay: When did you get it…60?
Grandpa: It was several years after we were married. We were married in 48 you know?
Grandma: Yes, we had just gotten one. Not a ton of people had them, around here anyway. How long had we had it, Phil?
Grandpa: It was before 60 I think…but…
McKay: Were you here at home when you heard about Kennedy?
Grandma: We were at home and we had the TV on. Our TV was on in the living room. Tracie was just two months old. The TV was blasting and we were in the kitchen eating. We heard it and ran in and watched it. I think it was Walter Cronkite and he told the whole news and that was on the whole rest of day.
Then a few days later we watched Kennedy’s funeral. It showed when he was shot you know. Those were the same one’s people see today when they talk about it. It was shocking. Everybody was pretty shook up. Pretty much everybody in town had a TV. They were black and white. They weren’t color.
McKay: So did you watch Cronkite after that?
Grandma: We watched news but I can’t remember the news we watched
McKay: What about other things in the news…maybe Nixon and Watergate?
Grandpa: They blasted that one. The Democrats got a hold of that one and really blasted him.
Grandma: I always liked Nixon, he was always friendly to the Church. I guess he turned out not that good. Sometimes I got annoyed with how much it was on the radio. We didn’t pay too much attention to that—politics and all. We didn’t pay too much attention to that. It was always on the news..the Watergate and Deep Throat and the whole thing.
