HomeMy WebLinkAboutOral History Transcript_Betsy Lehnert_October 2022
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ACCESSION # 2022.004
Oral History Transcript
Interviewee: Elizabeth “Betsy” Lehnert (Clark)
Interviewer: Meaghan O’Rourke
Date: October 21, 2022
Location: College Station City Hall, 1101 Texas Ave.
Keywords: Bryan-College Station; A&M Consolidated
Transcriber: Meaghan O’Rourke
*Please Note: This transcription is verbatim with the exception of a few edits for false-starts,
repetitions, pauses in speech, filler words and additional clarification.
*Disclaimer: The thoughts and views present in this transcription are not representative of the
City of College Station but solely of each recorded individual.
00:00 Meaghan O’Rourke (MO): My name is Meaghan O’Rourke, and I’m the Historical
Records Archivist for the City of College Station. It is Friday, October 21st, [2022] 12:36 [p.m.]
and I have Betsy –
00:16 Meaghan O’Rourke (MO) & Betsy Lehnert (BL): Lehnert. Lehnert.
00:19 (MO): – here with me to do an oral history. So, she has brought in a document, “College
Station Preserves Its History”, to donate and, also, tell us a little about her experience living in
College Station and growing up.
00:39 (BL): Well, your first question is when and where you were born. I was born in 1949, in
Bryan, Texas and at the time, it was Saint Joseph’s Hospital on 29th Street, I believe. Some time
after I was born, it became a mental hospital and then Saint Joseph moved to where they are
now, eventually.
01:05 (MO): Yes ma’am.
01:06 (BL): I always thought that was kind of funny that [laughs] after Mama [Dorothy Bateman
Clark] left with me [laughs], they turned it into a mental hospital.
01:12 (MO): So, how long after did it become – [a mental hospital]?
01:15 (BL): I don’t know, maybe, four or five years. So, if I was born in ’49, maybe 1954/55. It
might have been sooner – I was a child and y’know. I [laughs] rode my bike all over Bryan. We
lived on East 28th Street, which is, if you’re familiar, it’s about a block from where the Methodist
church is – First Methodist Church. Back then we had a lot of freedom, [dental click] and I rode
my bike all over north Bryan, where the original Bryan gates are out there and where the
Producer’s Co-op is now. I had an odometer on my bike, and it’d be 50/60 miles just cruisin’
around all day long by myself.
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02:11 (MO): [Laughs]
02:11 (BL): We would go out – I was the youngest of four children – and Mom & Dad [Stanley
P. Clark] were members of Briarcrest Country Club. At the time, 29th Street was paved as far as
Villa Maria and then dirt roads. So, we would ride out on our bikes and go on out to Briarcrest
and go swim for the day.
02:26 (MO): Where did you swim?
02:37 (BL): At Briarcrest. They had a wonderful, probably 25-yard, four lane pool. We’d spend
the day out there and ride home. We lived close to Sue Haswell Park. [Laughs]. We would get
potatoes and build a little fire in the ground in somebody’ yard and put the potatoes in there to
cook while we go off to, y’know, the movie at the park, or ride bikes, or whatever.
03:04 (MO): How old were you?
03:05 (BL): I was pretty young. I had a brother one year older than I and a brother three years
older. My sister was five years older. So, at this time, I was six/seven/eight years old ‘cause I had
my older siblings. Of course, I got to go with them. Just a lot of freedom and fun.
03:34 (MO): Was there a community garden there? Where did you find the potatoes?
03:40 (BL): Oh, well, we would just [laughs] steal a potato out of Mama’s pantry, y’know, and
go to a neighbor’s – anybody’s backyard. Nobody had grass in their yard – we all had dirt. So,
we would dig a hole, make a little fire, put our potatoes [laughs] in there. cover it up and come
back later.
03:58 (MO): [Laughs]. I’ve never heard of something like that. That’s so interesting.
04:01 (BL): [Laughs]. Oh goodness.
04:04 (MO): So, when did your parents move to this area? Were they born and raised here too?
04:08 (BL): No, my dad was a chemical engineer, and my mom was a medical technologist.
During the 1940s, my dad was not able to go into the Army for flat-feet, sway-back, y’know, just
health reasons. So, he worked in some industries that helped with the war, but that was way
before I was born. The year before I was born, 1948, Daddy got a job here at A&M as a chemical
engineer and they moved here. I was born in ’49. The fun thing about growing up, Mama – when
they bought the house on 28th Street, that I grew-up in, it came with a kindergarten. The lady
before her [Betsy’s mother] had a kindergarten, Mama said yes, y’know, I’ll keep the
kindergarten going – “Jack & Jill Kindergarten”. So, I grew up in the kindergarten, which was
delightful for a little kid.
05:13 (MO): Does that place still exist?
05:14 (BL): No.
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05:16 (MO): I feel like there’s one out on University [actually Harvey Rd.] maybe, that’s
named –
05:21 (BL): Could be, it’s a common name for kindergartens.
05:23 (MO): Okay [laughs].
05:27 (BL): No. When I went to school, Mama – so anyway, Mama and Daddy came here and
Daddy was at A&M. At the time, the two cities were not merged. There was two or three miles
down College Avenue that were just fields and farms. It was fun.When I was, I guess, ready for –
So, I had grown up in the kindergarten; when I was five turning six, ‘cause my birthday’s in late
September, Mama felt I was ready for first grade. [Dental click] The school wouldn’t accept me
because my birthday fell after September 1st. At the time, my parents were paying tuition for all
of their children to go to Consolidated schools because Consolidated schools, in College Station,
taught phonetic reading. At the time, Bryan schools were teaching sight reading. So, for the first
three grades, they brought us out to Consolidated schools. So, she came out to Consolidated
[Betsy’s mother] and said “look, Elizabeth’s ready for first grade”. They said “Okay. If you’ll
homeschool her and bring her out every six weeks to be tested, sure, you can teach her on the
front porch.” – which is what I did for first grade. I do remember coming out and being tested at
Consolidated. So, then, my second-grade year, my brother, Tommy, was a year ahead of me in
school, so, he was in third grade. We only had one car. So, for Tommy and me to get home
afterschool, we walked from Consolidated to – y’know where the southside dorms are at A&M –
well, there used to be a bus-stop right there at the Quad area. We would jump on the bus and
Percy was the bus driver. This was an intercity bus; he drove between Bryan and College Station.
People rode it all the time. Anyway, he would let us off at 28th Street, make sure that we got off
safely. Everybody loved Percy. If Mama needed the car, she would take Daddy and us to school
and keep the car. If not, then Daddy kept the car, and we rode the bus home. We would walk
across the A&M golf course and [laughs] my brother would pick-up some golf ball he’d finds,
and we’d hear some golfer way-off yellin’ “Hey kid, that’s my ball! Put it back!” [laughs]. We’d
walk through the dorms – the Corps dorms – always hoping the Coke man was refilling the Coke
machines because he’d give us a free Coke. So, y’know, just fun memories of bein’ a kid, no
havin’ responsibility.
08:30 (MO): Was the golf course where the golf course is now? Same one still?
08:33 (BL): Mmhmm, yes, exactly the same.
08:38 (MO): Texas Avenue was –
08:40 (BL): Well but see it’s on the eastside of the golf course and it was there, course it was
just a two-lane road. The bus went down to [what is now] Texas Avenue; it didn’t go down
College Avenue because we got off at Texas & 28th.
08:59 (MO): I saw someone golfing, just the other day, and their ball had gone right on, like, the
curb between Texas Avenue and the sidewalk – right there [laughs].
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09:10 (BL): Just tryin’ to hit it [laughs].
09:11 (MO): Yes, just tryin’ to hit it while avoiding cars [laughs].
[Laughter]
09:16 (BL): That’s funny. Yeah, no.
09:19 (MO): What was the schoolhouse like that you went to with your brother?
09:24 (BL): Well so, second and third grade it was here at Consolidated, and it was the original
school buildings that were just white frame. They had an outside porch, and the cafeteria was
there. I remember that’s where we got our polio vaccine was in that cafeteria. We went through
this line, y’know, and you got your sugar cube. It had polio vaccine on it.
09:56 (MO): I remember reading about that. I think Anne [Boykin] wrote an article on the polio
vaccine and, like, how one year it was administered with a large shot and then the next year you
got some pink goopy stuff on a sugar cube.
10:13 (BL): I might have gotten the shot too; I don’t remember, y’know, that as well as gettin’
the little sugar cube. The buildings are still there – they might’ve torn down that elementary
eventually. It was the elementary, and then I think where the Community Center, or something,
is now, that was junior high, and the high school was down the hill with the round [auditorium] –
is the round auditorium still there?
10:45 (MO): I haven’t been down there, but I know what you’re talking about, and I’ve seen
pictures.
10:51 (BL): It was a real cool set-up.
10:52 (MO): Did you have one teacher? Were there [teachers] for each grade? How was it?
11:01 (BL): Yeah, we had – in fact, for second grade, we weren’t in that long building. We were
in, I think, two school room buildings. The cafeteria and then these two room buildings going
south – because my second grade was in one of those buildings. Yes, we had the same teacher all
day. I remember, there was no grass in the yard [laughs], and we all played ball or played dolls
under the tree. Yeah, it was fine, Then, for third grade, I had to go to Bryan schools because
Mama and Daddy didn’t feel I was safe riding the bus by myself. Although, y’know, [laughs] I
don’t know how my brother was going to protect me. Anyway, I had to go to Bryan school after
that. Then, our house burned in 1960 – December of 1960 – the house on 28th Street. That’s
when we moved outside of Wellborn. So, I changed schools.
12:15 (MO): What part of Wellborn were you –
12:17 (BL): Well, you go to Wellborn, and you take a right and go down Koppe Bridge Road.
Are you familiar with that at all? When you go across the railroad tracks, it takes an immediate
left and then goes back about two and a half miles. You go off a road and then off another road
to this house they [Betsy’s parents] built on the property they bought
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12:38 (MO): Is that still a home-subdivision? Or is it turned into something else?
12:40 (BL): Well, we had 100 acres, so it was all ranch. Y’know, everybody around us were
ranchers. Daddy was still at A&M. Mama had always wanted to live out in the country, so they
bought that property. [Laughs] Daddy taught Mama to milk a cow. A&M was culling their herds
in 1962 it musta been, and she bought this cow on Valentine’s Day and told my daddy, “I bought
you a Valentine’s present”. She had it all tied up in the front yard and he said, “No honey, you
bought yourself a Valentine’s present. I’ve milked all the cows I’m gonna milk” – ‘cause he’d
grown up in Kansas. So, my mom, my brother, and I milked the cow until I went to college and
then she sold it.
13:37 (MO): Did you have other farm animals at your house?
13:40 (BL): Yeah, yeah, yeah. She, the cow, had a calf every year ‘cause that keeps your cow’s
milk supply fresh. Yeah, we had a few – whatever the land could support – 10-15 cows.
13:56 (MO): You said your house burned down in Bryan and then you moved to Wellborn. Is
your house still there?
14:06 (BL): Well, the house out at Wellborn is still there. We, actually, sold the property two
years ago. I’m still grieving – I didn’t want to sell it, but my siblings did. It had been 20 years
since Mama died. Thirty years since Daddy died. So, I said okay. The house they built was there
when we sold it. In the meantime, Mama had built a log cabin when Papi [Daddy] was still alive
– they did a lot of the work themselves, so, there’s a two-story house out there. When I had the
property, we rented the original home on a permanent basis and then the cabin, I did a VRBO.
14:59 (MO): That’s so cool.
14:59 (BL): Yeah, it was real cool. When our kids came into town – we have four kids and,
y’know, all these grandchildren – it was perfect. We’d have workday and the little grandkids
could go cut brush until their hands were numb. That’s why I didn’t want to sell it because it was
a great family place. My siblings weren’t so attached to it. So, I have heard the people who
bought it want to tear down the original house, y’know, it was built in 1961, has a lot of assets if
they were smart, they’d keep the wood-flooring and the brick in the house was from our original
house in Bryan and it’s handmade brick. It’s not ours anymore.
15:45 (MO): It was hand-made brick? Oh wow.
15:46 (BL): Yeah, from the house in Bryan, and it had been made, probably, by slaves, I don’t
know. Certainly, it had handprints in it, y’know.
15:56 (MO): So, they [Betsy’s parents] took parts of your first home that you ever lived in and
then made their second home with it?
16:04 (BL): Yeah. My brothers spent the summer of 1961 knocking the mortar off the old brick
from the old house to use in the new house.
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16:13 (MO): Wow. That’s definitely historic preservation. [Laughs]
16:19 (BL): Yeah [laughs]. Truly. My brother has contacted the buyers and said “hey, that’s
valuable brick” and I don’t know if he ever heard from them.
16:29 (MO): Well, I hope someone salvages it. ‘Cause I know a lot of cities do that sort of thing,
and they salvage parts of old, historic homes and refurbish other ones. Yeah, so.
16:44 (BL): I don’t know. So, we rode the school bus. Our biology teacher, Mr. Anderson [Mr.
Ken Morgan, biology teacher at A&M Consolidated], was the bus driver. That was an
experience, in itself, because those country roads out there were, y’know, about one-bus wide.
You come around a curb and there’s car comin’. I think people just kinda learned what time the
bus was comin’ through – [laughs]
17:07 (MO): [Laughs] And avoid the streets.
17:08 (BL): [Laughs] And they didn’t go out.
17:10 (BL): The other funny thing about that was the bridge over Hope’s Creek doesn’t have
any sides on it. It’s one-vehicle wide and there’s a curve before it and a curve after it. The sides
are just two-by-fours. And that bus he’d just go RRRRRMMMM. Never missed it.
17:32 (MO): Same driver? Percy…?
17:35 (BL): Yeah, it watn’t Mr. Anderson [Mr. Ken Morgan]. I’ll have to think of the driver’s
name, but anyway. Just, y’know, funny memories that you wouldn’t get by with these days.
17:46 (MO): Did your father work at A&M until he retired?
17:48 (BL): Yes, he did. He worked – for a long time it was called the Cottonseed Products
Research Laboratory and his research mostly centered around making cottonseed and cotton
products that were edible. They made liquid oil; a lot of it is cottonseed oil. It was developed in
their lab. They had a nut called TAMU-Nuts [tamanu nuts] – have you ever had ‘em?
18:23 (MO): I’ve heard of them. I don’t know if I’ve ever had one.
18:26 (BL): See, cottonseed is not edible, and they did research – it’s a very high protein nut.
Their research was to take out whatever it was – [gossypol], I don’t know something– [laughs]
anybody listening to this is gonna laugh at me –
18:47 (MO): No, not at all.
18:48 (BL): I should’ve thought of the name of that – but anyway – to remove the toxic
chemical from it to make a high protein nut for poor countries – Turkey and the Middle East.
19:00 (MO): Wow. That is so interesting.
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19:01 (BL): Yeah, it was always interesting. My dad was very unassuming, very modest,
y’know, and I’m just like “Don’t you realize you’re doing –!” So anyway, and then it became Oil
Products Research – or something like that – and they did sunflower and all that. He retired in
1982, I believe, before one of our last children was born, ’79 or ’82. It was cool.
19:36 (MO): What about your mother? You said she was a technician, a medical technician?
19:40 (BL): She was a medical technologist. Yes, an’ she would tell you, “I’m not a technician.
I’m a technologist”. [Dental click] So, she worked in labs just doing whatever lab work. She
really enjoyed A&M because it was a lot of research. Mostly I think she was in the biochemistry
lab. Dr. Kunkel was her boss. A fun thing, when I was a child – but in school, so, an’ we were
still living in Bryan; I date my life kinda before the house burned and after the house burned, so
it was before I was ten years old – if we got sick – she was working at the hospital on campus at
A&M, and it was all men at the time, no ladies at A&M, and the hospital was right there, outside
of Sbisa – if we were sick, she would take us to work with her and we’d lay in the hospital bed
upstairs with a cold, or the flu, or whatever we had.
20:43 (MO): That’s convenient. [Laughs]
20:47 (BL): One of my fun memories is hearing the Corps march to lunch at Sbisa. I could look
out the window and watch the Corps march. [Laughs] Y’know, who got to do that but somebody
whose parent worked at the hospital?! So, a lot of memories from A&M because my dad was
there an’ my mom was there, an’ they loved A&M. I went to bonfire, y’know, from the time I
was three months old. Every year, every year, every year. You said, have you ever been to the
bonfire? Yeah! [Laughs]
[Laughter]
21:19 (BL): So. Yeah.
21:23 (MO): Very interesting. So, did you end up working at A&M too? What did you do in the
area?
21:33 (BL): At the time, growing up – so I was probably eight or nine years old – it was time for
us to have swim lessons and Art Adamson, in College Station, was the only one teaching swim
lessons. Bryan did not have a pool that they could teach in, and they didn’t have any program for
teaching swimming – they did have a pool they could teach in. They [Bryan] had the pool out at
– I just mentioned it a while ago – the park [Sue Haswell Park pool].
22:07 (MO): Briarcrest?
22:08 (BL): Which one?
22:09 (MO): We were talking about Briarcrest.
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22:10 (BL): Well, no, that was a private pool. Gosh, anyway, it’s still there. They [Bryan] didn’t
have a program. So, Mama brought us out to College Station and all swim lessons were in the
old indoor pool, the natatorium at A&M. Art Adamson was the A&M swim coach and he ran the
swim teaching program in the summer. He was such a marvelous person and he thought
everybody should learn how to swim. He talked the City of College Station into sponsoring these
lessons for people. So, yeah, the parents paid a little bit for swim lessons, but I think College
Station underwrote it for a lot. So, we went onto the swim team. He said, “Hey, ya’ll wanna be
on my swim team?” and so we were on the College Station swim team. When a person turned
13, if you had grown-up in Art Adamson’s program, you could teach swimming under him for
free that summer. So, that was my first job. Well, actually, it watn’t my first job. My first job
was selling TV Guide magazines to the neighbors in downtown Bryan. I’d get on my bike and
deliver my TV Guides every week.
23:32 (MO): Cool.
23:33 (BL): Yeah [laughs]. I taught when I was 13, and then, when you were 14, you could
teach for 50 cents a 45-minute class. That’s how long the classes were. So, we taught swimming,
my brother and I with Art Adamson. Then when you were 15, I think – I mean he could control
the pool and what when on – you could start teaching private lessons. By that time, I think they
had the outdoor pool. I don’t recall teaching private lessons in the indoor pool, but I might have.
We just lived there. All day long we were at the pool. But anyway, then, I taught private lessons
– also taught for him inside and then taught private lessons in the outside pool out in the
afternoon. In-between I’d go over to the student center, and y’know, eat lunch or go over t’ my
dad’s office and eat lunch and chill a while. Then, walk to my dad’s office in the evening and,
y’know, ride home with him.
24:38 (MO): What ages did you teach to swim?
24:45 (BL): I think the youngest were probably five – that’s kinda the youngest that Art
Adamson accepted into his program. I never really like teaching a child who didn’t want to put
their face in the water. [Laughs] Y’know, if you’ll put your face in and kick to me, honey, then I
can teach you. But, fun memories, precious children. Y’know, the funny things they would say to
you.
25:12 (MO): Did you do it all the way to age 15 or did you continue on?
25:15 (BL): Yeah, I did it – even when I went to college, I came home and taught swimming. It
was pretty lucrative by then. You could, y’know, teach just all day long. When I learned to drive,
say 16 or 17, I went to all these apartments that have swimming pools. I told the manager, “Hey,
if you let me come in, I’ll teach the parents’ [children] – “
25:41 (MO): That’s really smart. [Laughs]
25:43 (BL): Yeah, it didn’t cost the apartments anything. Y’know, the parents would pay me.
So, I taught swimming in all these apartments.
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25:51 (MO): Did you come up with, like, that business initiative?
25:55 (BL): Yeah! Y’know, ‘cause I was able to drive. There were a lot of teachers in the
outdoor pool at A&M. Anybody who grew-up in Art Adamson’s swimming program – and there
were a lot of us – were out there teaching lessons. So, the competition for teachers, y’know, it
was a buyer’s market. So, yeah, I would leave and go teach in town.
26:22 (MO): Was it just children or did you do adult lessons too?
26:24 (BL): Well, I didn’t teach any adults until we moved to Navasota. I love teaching adults –
they are so eager to learn. Y’know, they listen well. So, I’ve loved that. I taught every summer
until my sophomore year, let me think now, no, my junior year, no – one year I sold books for
Southwestern Publishers, and one year I went to Europe in the summer – so say through my
freshman year at least. ‘Cause I got married after my senior year [of college].
27:13 (MO): So, freshman year of…?
27:14 (BL): College. So, from 13 until 20 years old or so – whatever – I taught out at that pool.
27:25 (MO): Wow, and then you and your husband moved to Navasota?
27:28 (BL): Well, so then, I went off to Kansas City to college – met him. I transferred –
[laughs] very few people know this – but I transferred to the University of Texas, for a lot of
reasons, and graduated from there in ’71 and that’s when we got married. I’d met him in Kansas
City.
27:51 (MO): Did you both transfer?
27:52 (BL): No, he had graduated two years ahead of me. He graduated in ’69. So, that was the
summer I went to Germany, was ‘69. In ’70, I sold books and ’71, I got married. So, sophomore,
junior, senior – anyway. He went into the Army, ‘cause everybody was gettin’ drafted at that
time. Got out the year after we were married, and we moved to Dallas and then we moved to
North Carolina and had two sweet, little grandchildren that my mother would send beautiful,
sweet-smelling packages to. I said, “I wanna move back home!”. So, we moved – that’s when we
moved to Navasota and that was 1977. From ’67 to ’77, I just really wasn’t here. I was in college
or moved away.
28:48 (MO): So, you said from ’67 to ’77 –?
28:50 (BL): When I graduated from high school, went to college, got married. I just really have
no memories of being here [after 1967] except brief visits.
29:04 (MO): During the seventies, but –? Okay.
29:07 (BL): Well, yeah, pretty much the seventies, early seventies. Uh-huh [in confirmation].
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29:11 (MO): So, describe College Station during the 1960s then, too. You talked about you just
had a reunion from A&M Consolidated – of the sixties’ reunion. So, what was the fashion? What
was the environment like here? How did people talk?
29:36 (BL): It was still real small –
29:37 (MO): Slang? [Laughs]
29:39 (BL): I don’t remember slang, except 1960’s slang. Y’know, things like the word ‘cool’
and ‘man’.
29:47 (MO): I still say it [laughs].
29:48 (BL): Exactly!
29:48 (MO): I’m gonna be transcribing ‘cool’, ‘cool’ [laughs].
29:51 (BL): ‘Right-on’ and yeah, that all came out of the sixties. It came out of the hippies for
some reason or another. I don’t know how they came up with the words. College Station was still
very small-town atmosphere. [Laughs] What I remember most was that there were no restaurants
to speak of. No, even, hole-in-the-wall places. No barbeque to speak of.
30:23 (MO): Oh. [Laughs]
30:23 (BL): Yeah. There was a cafeteria down Texas Avenue and over on College Avenue
Martin’s Barbeque was there and there was a place across from there. The Chicken Ol’ [Oil]
Company watn’t even there yet. Northgate had the first pizza I’ve ever seen – I remember eating
my first pizza there. Then we, eventually, got a Pizza Hut down Texas Avenue, I believe.
31:01 (MO): There’s a couple pizza places there, and that have been there too. Do you
remember what it was called?
31:07 (BL): No, I can’t even remember, y’know, it was just a little hole-in-the-wall just a little
bit east of the corner with Old College Road. Because the Kodak place was there. Loupot’s –
Judson Loupot [Jr.] was his son – Loupot’s Aggie Gear [“Loupot’s Trading Post”/Loupot’s
Bookstore] was there. There was a theatre down the street – I don’t think I ever went to that
theatre. It’s become a bar or something, y’know.
31:39 (MO): Was it a drive-in movie theatre?
31:40 (BL): No, now the drive-in – [Laughs]
31:43 (MO): I head there were some drive-ins and there aren’t any drive-ins anymore around
here so.
31:48 (BL): Yeah, where College Avenue came into University [Drive] that was called “The
Circle” because there was a big traffic circle – University [Drive] and then you went on to the
campus from there. And just to the right was The Circle Drive-In. I do remember going
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with my parents and it was just a lot of fun. You just kinda had free reign to run around an’ go
get popcorn, go sit-up on the playground area or sit in the car with your parents. The lil’ speaker
you’d put on the –
32:24 (MO): What did you go see?
32:27 (BL): Y’know, I don’t remember very many movies that we saw, but it must’ve been
cheap because, y’know, we did go. Cheap entertainment. We saw How Green Was My Valley –
not quite sure that was the name of the movie, that was the name of the book it was off of – and
South Pacific. Another fun memory – and then there was a Skyway Drive-In. I’ll have to think of
where the Skyway was – somebody else will have to tell you where that was. On campus, were
you there when they had “The Grove”?
33:05 (MO): I don’t think so.
33:05 (BL): Okay, you know where the belltower is? The Albritton Bell Tower? Just south of
that, before you get to the MSC [Memorial Student Center], was what was called “The Grove”,
and it was a stage and seating area – concrete seating area – in front of it. In the summer, they
would put on plays and musicals, and it was fun to work, y’know, behind the scenes. My sister
played the harp, so she was often playing in the musicals, and we’d just all go help out, y’know.
Yeah, I was real sad when they tore that down because it was a real good community-draw, but
probably too small for as many students as there are now – an outdoor community theatre.
33:54 (MO): An amphitheatre-like something. Well, maybe in the future they’ll make something
else like that.
34:00 (BL): Yeah, yeah. They need an outdoor [theatre] – we have so much good weather.
Guion Hall – I was trying to remember where we graduated – we graduated in Guion Hall. Do
you remember where that was? Have you ever –?
34:13 (MO): I graduated in – I’m gonna show my age but – in 2021.
34:20 (BL): Okay, so, you’re really recent. It was over there where Rudder Tower is now. It was
a really neat place. I saw Joan, was it, Joan Baez there – I saw Joan Baez in Austin – a lot of big
names. I tell you who could tell you that is Scott DeLucia. Have you interviewed him?
34:39 (MO): Not yet.
34:40 (BL): He’s on the radio. You need to interview [laughs] Scott. Scott! You need to come
talk!
34:44 (MO): [Laughs]
34:45 (BL): He was a coupl’a grades behind me – but he’s been here all these years and
remembers that kind of thing better than I do.
34:53 (MO): So, did you have your high school graduation at the A&M campus?
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34:56 (BL): Yeah. For some reason, we graduated in Guion Hall. I don’t know if, y’know, it was
hot or –. My sister graduated from Consolidated and, I believe, it was her class the lights went
out at the stadium. So, everybody drove their cars around and they graduated by car light.
35:18 (MO): Oh, whoa [laughs].
35:19 (BL): Yeah, and that might be why [laughs] a few years later they said, “Were goin’ to
Guion Hall”.
35:26 (MO): What’s odd, I had my high school graduation at Reed Arena, and I was not even
from College Station. I went to Tomball Memorial.
35:36 (BL): And they had it up here?
35:36 (MO): And they had it up here. And then Tomball High School had their graduation up
here too. So, there’s – someone knows someone or it’s a common thing now for – outside of
College Station – for high schools to have their graduation here.
35:51 (BL): In a large – Yeah, y’know, Tomball may not even have an auditorium, besides the
football field in Conroe or something, that’s big enough for your class
36:01 (MO): Yeah, they might not be big enough. But it was funny, just like, having both of my
graduations at the same place [laughs]. It’s like –
36:10 (BL): [laughs] “I’ve been here” [laughs].
36:10 (MO): – “I’ve been here doing the same thing not too long ago” [laughs].
36:13 (BL): Did ya’ll sit on the floor as high school graduates?
36:17 (MO): We did, and the same thing as college graduates.
36:22 (BL): That’s interesting. I didn’t know that they did that. Oh goodness.
36:33 (MO): Here, we haven’t talked about – well, you can pick one, yeah.
36:34 (BL): Well, another funny thing that, it kinda dates at Consolidated, in high school – Oh,
that school was so cool. It had been built in the fifties and was considered very modern.
36:50 (MO): With the dome?
36:51 (BL): Well, the dome and then the school, original school, was built up on stilts –
36:59 (MO): Kinda sunk-in?
37:00 (BL): – And it was sunk-in and down below was kinda where the buses pulled up. Funny
memory of that is the “Bengal Belles” would practice after school on that concrete slab in the
below area. And so, every afternoon when I was waiting for the school bus, they’d be warming
up to “Peggy Sue”. [Laughs] I just remember that music blaring and the girls gettin’ all limbered
up to practice “Bengal Belles”! Down away from the school, ‘cross the parking lot, was a creek –
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and the creek’s probably still there – but the boys – the “bad boys” – would go over there and
smoke at [laughs] lunch time in the creek, along the creek.
37:37 (MO): [Laughs]
37:41 (BL): [Laughs] Y’know, there’s just a funny memory that I doubt you could do today.
37:45 MO): Yeah. Did you remember who designed that building [A&M Consolidated]?
37:50 (BL): No. Consolidated could tell you. Upstairs, there was an open concept and the only
thing dividing – well, there were walls from the front of the room to back of the next room. One
side, the north side, was big, beautiful picture-windows that looked out over the A&M golf
course. The southside wall of the room was lockers. So, if you’re taking a test in American
History and she’s teaching the same material next door… [laughs] The teachers had to get their
act together that “Please don’t, y’know, teach what I’m testing”. [Laughs]
38:28 (MO): You’re like, “Please be teaching [laughs] this [laughs] subject through my test
tomorrow [laughs]”.
38:31 (BL): Yes, right. “I need that answer”! [Laughs] And a kid go to their locker, y’know, just
outside your door – [laughs] WHAMO! So, you had to learn to concentrate.
38:41 (MO): Yeah. So, everything was taught and tested, and people were changing classes all
in the same area?
38:50 (BL): Well, we all changed at the same time. There wasn’t that amount of –
38:56 (MO): Students?
38:57 (BL): Well, ruckus going on but if a child had to leave early to go to a doctor’s
appointment, they’d go to their locker and, y’know, you hear it right outside your classroom.
Another fun memory of that, there was a boy, and I believe he was in the class ahead of us,
named Stan Somebody-or-another. He was an excellent athlete; he ran track. Well, his parents
lived across the golf course in the college housing along University [Drive] – they’ve torn it
down now. We had a lot of friends who lived in that college housing because their dads would
come for a year or two getting his Master’s or PhD and they’d put ‘em in this housing. Well,
Stan’s family lived over there. At lunch time I had a class and could look out the window and we
could see him jogging – well, there was a fence around the golf course – and he – it was
probably a four-and-a-half-foot fence – he would just put his hand on the fencepost and “vault” it
[laughs] –
39:56 (MO): Oh. Practice doing [laughs] hurdles over it [laughs]. Wow.
39:39 (BL): And run across the golf course – which it’s a mile wide at that point – go home to
lunch, [laughs] jog back, y’know, by the end of our class. He was “Stan the Man” we called him.
40:08 (MO): Did students prefer to practice over at the A&M campus – like was that something
that they did? Like practice their sports? Or did A&M Consolidated have their own facilities?
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40:25 (BL): We had the stadium, it’s probably still there. They did build a new gym probably
my sophomore year in high school. It had a snack bar in it – Oh, that was very modern. We could
go in there and eat lunch. The old gym was used, and it was over at the junior high, which is the
middle building. Y’know, we had the elementary, then down the hill was the junior high, and
then down the hill was the high school. Yeah, it was a cool way to keep it all together. The
volleyball practiced in the new gym and basketball. Football practiced on the football field. We
could use the A&M campus, like, Cushing Library. Oh, y’know, just beautiful, beautiful. And
we could go back in ‘the Stacks’ all we wanted.
41:24 (MO): Oh, really? Wow.
41:24 (BL): Yeah, it was very open. We were expected to behave, and nobody abused [it]. I did
a lot of research in that library for high school papers. They had the computer science lab; it was
very new, but I do remember goin’ over there and havin’ a class – a high school class – to learn
about computers. It’s probably about where Rudder dormitory is now.
41:52 (MO): Did you take it with Anne [Boykin] possibly?
41:55 (BL): Possibly.
41:56 (MO): Okay, ‘cause I have some of her papers that says ‘Computer Science Class’, but it
has A&M on it and I think it was a year, like, while she was in high school. So, I was like [dental
click] – now that clears it up.
42:17 (BL): Yeah, why does it say A&M?
42:20 (MO): Yeah, yeah – why the high school papers say A&M.
42:23 (BL): Yeah, we took that computer class, y’know, and for specific buildings ‘cause
they’ve changed things around. I think it was probably about where Rudder is now or maybe a
little north of there.
42:39 (MO): Okay. Did the high school have a swim team?
42:44 (BL): Well, actually, we did and [laughs] I didn’t remember it. I didn’t swim for
Consolidated High School, but a friend brought some pictures – actually he emailed the pictures
to me – of the Consolidated Swim Team, ‘cause he and I were on the summer swim team
together. I didn’t remember that there was a high school swim team.
43:07 (MO): Yeah. Did they use – was there a natatorium for A&M Consol –?
43:10 (BL): No, they would’ve had to use the indoor pool at A&M. Mmhmm. [as in
confirmation]
43:13 (MO): Okay. That was very –
43:15 (BL): “Pinky” Downs’ Natatorium. Have you ever heard of “Pinky” Downs?
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43:19 (MO): I have not heard [of him].
43:20 (BL): He’s an A&M legend.
43:22 (MO): I’ve – It sounds familiar, but I didn’t know what the name came from.
43:30 (BL): He was just an ol’ school Ag. I’d have to go back and see what his notoriety was.
43:35 (MO): Okay.
43:36 (BL): Yeah, “Pinky” Downs. I haven’t thought about that – see you’re makin’ me
remember these things [laughs].
43:40 (MO): [Laughs]
43:45 (BL): Mmm... Oh! Integrating. And I still can’t think of that boy’s name. Do you know
when the black school [Lincoln High School] burned in College Station?
43:58 (MO): Yes ma’am.
43:59 (BL): What year was it ‘63?
44:01 (MO): I don’t know the year, but I’ve read about the burning.
44:03 (BL): Yeah. It burned, like, at Christmas – over the Christmas holidays – and
Consolidated was doin’ a really good job of integrating. They were taking one grade a year, so
they’d integrate first grade, next year they’d integrate first and second; first, second and third, so
that the kids start out being accustomed to being integrated and they go through all 12 grades.
Well, they’d gotten to about, y’know, grade five or something when the black school burned
down and all of a sudden, all those high school black kids were mixed in with us. They had no
place to go to school and so they put them in with us.
44:41 (MO): Yeah.
44:44 (BL): And it was all very amicable. There was no fights that I remember.
44:50 (MO): That’s good.
44:51 (BL): Yeah, it was real good. I had th- only good thoughts about black/white relations.
I’m sure there were problems but as a child I didn’t know about ‘em.
45:01 (MO): How old were you, like, do you remember what grade you were in?
45:05 (BL): Well, I think I was – my brother was still in school, so he could’ve been a senior, I
would’ve been a junior, or maybe we were juniors and sophomores. So, this was like ’63 or ’64.
45:18 (MO): Okay.
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45:20 (BL): So, there was one of my fun memories of that is that there was Elizabeth Clark
[“Betsy” Lehnert] and – we were all in speech class together, and she [the teacher] would call
roll. She had us seated by last name. My brother’s name was Tommy. So, it was “Elizabeth
Clark”, “Here”, and then – [sighs] I can’t remember his name – say “Robert Clark” [Leroy
Clark], “Here” – [a] black boy – and then “Tommy Clark”, “Here”. [Laughs] And then all the
kids would start snickerin’ – “All the Clark kids are here!” – y’know, ‘cause they all thought it
was very funny that we all shared a name – black, white, or indifferent. He was really a fun
person, this little Clark boy. He was a year behind us. At [football] games in the Fall that year, I
remember him getting up and leading cheers. And [get-in] the stadium, y’know, we had very
proper cheerleaders, who do the cheer maneuvers. No, no! He got up and he’s got the whole
crowd dancin’ and rockin and –
46:25 (MO): Yeah.
46:25 (BL): – he got us alive.
46:29 (MO): Did they have male cheerleaders at your school? ‘Cause I thought, well, there were
yell leaders at A&M so, I didn’t know if that carried over to high school.
46:42 (BL): We did call them yell leaders. They were girls and we might’ve had a boy here and
there. Our mascot was a tiger, and he was always – well, he watn’t always a boy – but generally,
he was a boy in the tiger costume.
46:54 (MO): Did this young man, did he – was he a yell leader – or did he just –?
46:58 (BL): Nope! [Laughs] He was just a student, y’know.
47:02 (MO): Just lively, got everyone cheering?
47:02 (BL): But he’s said – Yeah! Yeah, he was fun. Ernest? I can’t remember his name. I wish
I could find it.
47:10 (MO): Did you ever get to play at the Texas A&M stadium [for] any games?
47:17 (BL): No, we weren’t really good in football back in the sixties. [Dental click] Don’t tell
the football players I said that. [Laughs]
47:23 (MO): [Laughs]
47:26 (BL): But I don’t recall ever playing at Kyle Field. I went to Aggie games – one of your
questions was ‘Did I go to Aggie games?’. Yeah, my older brother, who’s three years older than
I, was in the Corps at A&M and he would bring his friends home, which was ideal for me,
y’know. Ah!
47:48 (MO): [Laughs]
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47:51 (BL): They would – we lived out there on the ranch – they would come, say Friday
afternoon or Saturday morning, with a buddy or two – my brother would come. So, I got to know
these A&M students.
48:04 (MO): Oh…[Laughs]
48:06 (BL): We would go for hikes on the ranch into our neighbor’s property, and it was just
fun. Very, very tame. So, I got to go to a lot of football games my sophomore year. And then I
knew those – my brother transferred to another school – but I knew the boys their senior year so,
y’know, that was always fun.
48:27 (MO): Yeah, I wonder if A&M Consolidated does have games out there because, again,
someone from Tomball must know someone from A&M, because my high school had their
‘Patriotic Show’ game at Kyle Field one year. I was just like – I just thought that that would be a
common thing for high schools.
48:52 (BL): I know they’ve had play-off games there.
4:54 (MO): Okay.
48:57 (BL): I don’t know how much Kyle Field is used especially during football season in their
habit of, y’know, Alabama come to A&M and nobody else is touchin’ that football field – I’m
sorry.
49:05 (MO): Right? [Laughs] Right? [Laughs] Yeah, yeah [laughs].
49:11 (BL): [Laughs] So, I don’t know.
49:13 (MO): Do you still go to games?
49:15 (BL): No – well, [lateral click] y’know, they have priced us out of the market.
49:21 (MO): Yes.
49:23 (BL): We went to football games; our kids went to A&M and our youngest child is a boy,
and he was in the Corps. So, we did go to football games, especially when he was at school.
When they renovated the stadium, ticket prices went out of our reach. We could afford the ones
way up there and the best thing about sitting way up there is [laughs] when they do the fly-over
with the jet [laughs] –it’s like two inches [laughs] away from your nose. Now, that’s the only
reason [laughs] to go to a game. [Laughs] Otherwise, you can, y’know, stay at home and watch
it.
49:49 (MO): Yeah, yeah.
50:00 (BL): It was really cost that got us.
50:02 (MO): I think people hold on to their tickets for awhile, y’know, like, their seats. So.
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50:09 (BL): We had excellent, y’know, just good seats – in the end zone – but they were good
seats. [Dental click] We gave ‘em up.
50:15 (MO): So, I asked a couple questions on the relationship between College Station and its
surrounding areas – like Texas A&M and Bryan and Brazos County. What is your take on that?
50:35 (BL): My memory, until College Station really started growing probably in the seventies
while I was gone, it was competitive with Bryan. Bryan thought very highly of themselves
because they, y’know, they were bigger and had the industry. But College Station had the brains.
They’ve kind of – it’s mixed a lot more now. I really applaud the mayors for working together at
every opportunity because you just don’t survive, y’know, being at odds with your neighbor like
that. It was never combative with Bryan, but I do have – it’s kinda like Fort Worth and Dallas or
Dallas and Houston, y’know. You have to have this aura about you.
51:35 (MO): [Laughs]
51:36 (BL): A lot of the kids that I went to high school with, we were kind of expected to go to
college. Most of our parents worked on-campus, and so, that was kinda the self-image that I
think College Station had was, “We’re educated”.
51:51 (MO): Did employees of Texas A&M get –
51:57 (BL): Any break? No. But –
51:57 (MO): – any – for their children?
51:59 (BL): No, not that I know of. But I know when I went to University of Texas, I was only
paying 50 dollars a semester in tuition. So, it was not – that’s one of the reasons I went to Texas.
Y’know, I figured my parents had put out enough money on my education. And, y’know, A&M
didn’t let ladies in on a large scale until maybe ’65/’64 [1963]. And so, by the time I graduated in
’67, there weren’t a lot of girls there – some of my classmates stayed here and went to school.
But, I was ready to move-on. I was the youngest in the family. I did not want to live at home.
52:50 (MO): You’d grown up in the area.
52:52 (BL): I had grown up in this area, and y’know, I was just ready for big, wide-open spaces.
52:58 (MO): As most people that age are in growing up in a town – yeah.
53:01 (BL): Yeah, yeah. Most of us left to go somewhere to school. But, like I said, a few of the
girls stayed here and went to school. I might have if they’ve had dormitories, y’know, but it was
too new.
53:16 (MO): At that time, they didn’t have –?
53:18 (BL): Mm’mm. [as in no]
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53:18 (MO): Oh, okay.
53:19 (BL): Yeah. There weren’t any girls’ dorms.
53:21 (MO): So, they didn’t – they had – only for the Corps – they had housing on-campus?
53:27 (BL): Well, they had the Corps and then, y’know, somewhere along in there General
Rudder made it mandatory only the first two years of your A&M experience, if you were a boy.
So, your second two years – or three years [laughs] if it takes you four or five years – they did
have the dormitories on the northside for Corps people. An’ as matter of fact, my brother, who
was in the Corps his first two years, his second year he was in a Corps dorm on the northside.
54:00 (MO): Okay.
54:01 (BL): I remember him being in that dorm. So, the Corps must’ve had too many for the
southside Quad and they put ‘em in – they were new dorms at the time.
54:11 (MO): Were women allowed to be a part of the Corps at that time?
54:13 (BL): Mm’mm. Mm’mm. No, I don’t know when they started lettin’ women in. Maybe
‘74/’75 [1974] – it probably took maybe 10 years. I really don’t know. I do remember there was
a lot of – women got ragged. That was another reason I didn’t want to be on campus. The cadets
did not appreciate women being students there.
54:42 (MO): Ah.
54:42 (BL): You were okay to date, but they would call you ‘Maggies’ and that was a
derogatory term.
54:46 (MO): Oh. What does that mean?
54:50 (BL): A Maggie, like an Aggie. “You’re a Maggie”. [Laughs]
54:52 (MO): Oh, oh. Oh, a Maggie. Okay, like you’re not an Aggie –
54:56 (BL): Well, you’re a woman-Aggie.
54:57 (MO): – you’re your own thing. [Laughs]
54:58 (BL): Yeah, you’re a woman-Aggie. They thought that was a term that would – it would
fit.
55:03 (MO): How would you define that term?
55:06 (BL): To me, it watn’t derogatory ‘cause I, y’know, had a good self-image. If I wanted to
go here, you could call me whatever you wanted. But, some women took objection to it and they
dropped the term. You don’t hear it anymore.
55:21 (MO): Huh.
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55:22 (BL): [Laughs] See, you didn’t even know it.
55:22 (MO): Yeah, no, I didn’t know. Yeah. Huh. Hmm. Well, I know you have a list of things
that you, y’know, planned out and wrote up. What else would you like to share?
55:40 (BL): You said, ‘the relationship between College Station and the University’ and I wrote
down tolerant. Y’know, College Station was just a small town, and it was here to support the
university. Everything happened on campus. The Bonfire was on campus. A lot of the houses
were still on campus; they moved ‘em, eventually off. I remember – so if our house burned in
1960, the college president’s house was over there across the Drill Field from the MSC – and
that president’s house burned in probably ’62 – ’61/’62. So, they built the president’s house that
you probably remember over on the southside – that they just recently tore down.
56:34 (MO): I heard about that. Anne [Boykin] – told me.
56:35 (BL): [Laughs] Yeah. But I remember when that was built, because Rudder’s daughters
were in school with us – Anne and Jane Rudder were in school with us. And so, when we had
prom, they would have a pre-prom party at their house, which was the president’s house at
A&M.
56:50 (MO): Oh, cool.
56:50 (BL): An’ I think that was the only time I was ever in that house, but it was built when the
other house burned.
56:57 (MO): So, did you have prom on the campus?
57:01 (BL): Yeah, that’s a good question. Our proms were probably at Briarcrest – I think they
were at Briarcrest, all of ‘em.
57:12 (MO): Okay.
57:12 (BL): Mmhmm. [as in confirmation] ‘Cause the center down there – Brazos Center –
wasn’t built yet.
57:21 (MO): Did it have a theme?
57:22 (BL): A theme…probably. But, y’know, I was kind of oblivious – I’m sure it want’t a big-
deal theme like they are now. When our kids went through high school, we had after-prom
parties and everything had a theme.
57:40 (MO): What was the pre-prom party like?
57:43 (BL): Well, it was just safe h’ordeuvres. Y’know, there would be no alcohol, but it’d be
very grown-up.
57:48 (MO): Yeah, sparkling grape-juice or something. [Laughs]
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57:50 (BL): Yes, yes.
57:52 (MO): [Laughs]
57:53 (BL): Y’know, we had our – my dresses were never big and poofy. My sister’s dressed
were, but by the time I came along they were slim. Mama made my dresses. A lot of sewing
done by moms back then.
58:07 (MO): Yeah. Was that the transition of fashions or just a personal taste?
58:13 (BL): It was transition of fashions – you ask[ed] about fashion earlier – and Madras.
Y’know what Madras fabric is? It comes out of India an’ it’s cotton and it bleeds easily – you
gotta be real careful if you can get real Madras fabric ‘cause the colors bleed. It became very
popular in maybe ’65. And skirt lengths went way-way-way-way up.
58:43 (MO): [Laughs] Like the mini dress.
58:45 (BL): Yes! Yes, mini dresses. Uh-huh [in agreeance]. And so, being the bad little girl that
I wanted to be, I didn’t wear dresses – I wore skirts. As soon as I got to school, I would roll my
skirt up a little bit.
58:58 (MO): Oh.
58:59 (BL): Uh-huh. An’ then before I got off the school bus, you unroll your skirt length.
59:03 (MO): ‘Cause your mom made them a little longer?
59:04 (BL): Oh yeah.
59:05 (MO): Yeah? [Laughs]
59:05 (BL): Oh yes. I had a very proper mom. Just what you see – the big bouffant hair and –
59:15 (MO): Yes ma’am.
59:16 (BL): Mhmm [as in confirmation]. But school dress lengths did go up during the sixties.
59:22 (MO): Did your mom – did she make most of your outfits for school too?
59:26 (BL): Yes.
59:26 (MO): Was there a store that she frequented to get patterns?
59:30 (BL): Yes. Yes, she would only shop at – it was in downtown Bryan; it was a beautiful,
beautiful fabric store. The lady did carry really nice stuff. I wanna say Pruitt’s but it watn’t the
Pruitt’s out here. Might’a had a different name. It’s not in business anymore, but, y’know, we’d
go into downtown Bryan and get the fabric. She made my wedding dress. She made my – let’s
see, she made, I think she made – No, I think our neighbor made my sister’s wedding dress – but
she made my bridesmaid’s dress. Y’know, women were very good at
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needlecraft. A lot of the moms sewed. But you made me think of some’m else – Oh! We weren’t
allowed to wear pants to school.
1:00:20 (MO): Oh.
1:00:21 (BL): They were always dresses, except on Fridays, we could wear loose pants, which
might’ve been loose jeans or loose slacks.
1:00:30 (MO): Okay, an’ when you say ‘loose’ you mean like not fitted?
1:00:32 (BL): Yeah, nothin’ fitted.
1:00:34 (MO): Okay, okay.
1:00:34 (BL): Mhmm [in agreeance]. Yeah, just like you think of as Wrangler®’s.
1:00:38 (MO): Okay. What about like bell-bottoms and things like that?
1:00:40 (BL): Yes, we did wear bell-bottoms, yes. Yeah, that was cool.
1:00:45 (MO): Yeah. [Laughs]
1:00:47 (BL): Yeah, I had forgotten about those.
1:00:49 (MO): [Laughs]
1:00:53 (BL): You ask about when I got married. We had our [laughs] – we had our wedding –
the night before the wedding in the MSC.
1:01:11 (MO): Oh really?
1:01:12 (BL): And we did have dances in the MSC, and I think they were high school dances.
1:01:17 (MO): Oh cool.
1:01:19 (BL): Yeah, there’s a ballroom there. But down the hallway from the ballroom was just
a nice, big room and they would cater – the MSC would cater – your meal. So, we had our dinner
the night before we got married –
1:01:33 (MO): Your reception?
1:01:35 (BL): Well, it was the –
1:01:36 (MO): Not the, the, the –.
1:01:37 (BL): What do’ya call it?
1:01:37 (MO): Rehearsal dinner.
1:01:39 (BL): Rehearsal dinner. Thank you.
1:01:39 (MO): There. Yeah, I said the wrong thing.
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1:01:41 (BL): Upstairs – and you couldn’t have any alcohol on campus, which is one reason
why we chose it, so that there was no debate about why we did or did not have alcohol at our
wedding rehearsal.
1:01:54 (MO): That’s a good idea. [Laughs]
1:01:55 (BL): We didn’t want it, so [laughs] we had it in a place you couldn’t. Brazos County
was dry at the time, come to think of it. Yeah, I’m not even sure there were any bars. There had
to have been. But I remember, growin’ up – before the house burned, before I was 10 – my
parents would say “I’m goin’ to the river”. And that meant they were going out Highway 6 to the
Brazos River Bridge ‘cause when you went over the bridge into whatever county – Burleson
County – you could buy liquor.
1:02:28 (MO): Oh.
1:02:28 (BL): So, I guess you could have beer in Brazos County but not liquor. And I don’t
know about wine. I do remember my parents would have beer in the house and they would say
“If you’re gonna drink, drink at home”. So, when they had friends in, I remember my dad would
offer them a beer and maybe I would sneak one out of the kitchen [laughs].
1:02:50 (MO): [Laughs]
1:02:51 (BL): I was very awkward about drinking around my parents, y’know, I never did. So,
yeah, you could get beer somehow, probably it was legal by then.
1:03:02 (MO): So, you had your rehearsal dinner at MSC. Where did you have your wedding?
1:03:07 (BL): That’s a good question. [Laughs] My sister had the very big, very special wedding
in All Faiths Chapel.
1:03:18 (MO): Okay.
1:03:20 (BL): And it was – that was beautiful and fun and lasted about five years. I said, I watn’t
goin’ to do that. I wanted to have a small wedding. And so, we got married at a tree out there at
the ranch – outside the house under a tree.
1:03:35 (MO): That’s really sweet.
1:03:36 (BL): A friend came and played her harp – my sister wouldn’t – for personal reasons
wouldn’t come play the harp. So, we got this friend to come play the harp and our minister from
Austin came and married us. We invited maybe 50 people. And it was at 9 o’clock in the
morning [laughs] and Mama said “Nobody’s gonna come that early” and I said “If they love me,
they will come; and if they don’t, I don’t want them anyway”.
[Laughter]
1:04:03 (BL): That was what I was like! [Laughs] And so, y’know, we had the wedding out
there and –
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1:04:09 (MO): Where was it located again? At the tree?
1:04:12 (BL): It was under a tree outside our house – the one that’s being torn down now
probably.
1:04:18 (MO): Out at Wellborn.
1:04:19 (BL): Uh-huh [in confirmation]. The tree died about, y’know, 10 years later.And then
we had a brunch afterwards in the house. And then we left, y’know, maybe at lunchtime. We
went to Corpus Christi and stayed, and then went and drove down through Mexico.
1:04:37 (MO): Oh, you did?
1:04:38 (BL): That was fun. We were both very blonde at the time and had a little red sportscar
– goin’ through Mexico. It was early June by then. Yeah, it was a fun trip.
1:04:52 (MO): Did he propose here or was it somewhere else?
1:04:57 (BL): It was just kind of an understanding. Y’know, I don’t recall ever being proposed
to.
1:05:01 (MO): Okay. I know some people do it under the Century Tree, so I didn’t know if it
was something like that.
1:05:08 (BL): No. We had dated for four years, and it was just kinda like “When I graduate,
we’ll get married”.
1:05:15 (MO): Yeah? That’s what my parents did too [laughs]. Very casual, but y’know, they
just –
1:05:20 (BL): Weddings weren’t all that big a’ deal. Proposals weren’t all that big a’ deal. Yeah.
1:05:28 (MO): And you had your children once you moved?
1:05:32 (BL): So, yeah, He finished his time in the Army and we moved to Dallas for a coupl’a
years. Married in ’71; we moved to North Carolina in seventy. Let’s see, our first one was born
in ’74 – so it was the Fall of ’73. So, we were about two and a half years in Dallas, and then
moved to North Carolina and had our first two children. Moved back. At the time when we
moved back, Mama, of course, wanted us to live out there at the ranch with them. David had
gotten a job at a new industry in Navasota, so we decided that that was probably better for
raising a family. We thought about school systems, and y’know, their education and decided that
any deficiencies that Navasota schools had, we could fill-in. And we did. It was – like our
graduating class in ’67 might’ve had a 100 [students] in it – I don’t remember – not very many.
And that was kinda what Navasota schools were around 100 all the time that our kids were in
school. It’s a great way to raise kids. All the parents know each other and there’s this “mama-
network” that works behind the scenes, y’know. The kids don’t know how you know things.
1:07:04 (MO): Yeah [laughs].
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1:07:05 (BL): So, we moved back to Navasota in ’77 and have been there ever since. And none
of our kids have wanted to live there [laughs]. They got [laughs] outta Dodge [idiom] and went
to the big city. [Laughs]
1:07:18 (MO): [Laughs] Yeah.
1:07:24 (BL): ‘What are some of the of the developments carried out by the city?’ Well, the Bee
Creek Pool, see, swimming pools have always been big to me. They built that one – well, let’s
see – in the seventies sometime. It was a 50-meter pool by 25-yard at the deep end. So, our
children swam in it when they got on the swim team. They swam the 50-meter distance – that’s
the way the College Station – originally – the College Station swim team did it. And then they
turned it into the Lagoon an’ they still swim the diving well. That’s been a real nice addition is
the Bee Creek Park.
1:08:03 (MO): Did they have the slip ‘n – the like, slides – the pool slides, stuff like, that when
you were younger?
1:08:09 (BL): No. No. No. They didn’t have those – like I said, our kids, like our daughter – I
remember our daughter, Amy, swimming there. She would’ve been – that woulda been like 1980
– ‘80/’81. It was still a 50-meter pool.
1:08:26 (MO): Okay.
1:08:26 (BL): Sometime after that, they made Adamson Lagoon with the slides and my
grandchildren [laughs] just love it! [Laughs] I’ve spent a lotta hours still every summer. You ask
about ‘gender dynamics’. Y’know, boys were boys, girls were girls. Boys were very respectful of
girls. It was – y’know, it was all good. Some had boyfriends or girlfriends – most didn’t. There
were, y’know, [a] few couples that dated in high school, but most didn’t. It was nice. And I’m
not sure, you ask about this ‘race dynamics’ – like I told you, when we integrated, it was okay.
Y’know, we got twice as many kids wandering the halls. I remember just being kinda crowded
and noisy out in the halls but no problem. ‘What businesses’ – now, the A&W Rootbeer Stand
was – oh, goodness – it was down Texas, just north of University [Drive] – a block or two. It was
a big deal for kids with cars. [Laughs] We had a lot of fun. We’d meet at the A&W and then
kinda chase each other – in cars – through the A&M housing. I told you the housing
development was over here, and it had these streets – what’s the park over there that’s still there
– that’s not – [Hensel Park]
1:10:09 (MO): I know where you’re talking about.
1:10:11 (BL): Well, y’know, all of that. We’d have these races through the park.
1:10:16 (MO): With your cars?
1:10:17 (BL): Yes. [Laughs]
1:10:18 (MO): Oh [laughs]. How did the people that lived there [laughs] feel about it [laughs]?
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1:10:25 (BL): I don’t know. [Laughs] I don’t remember anybody being stopped by the police or
anything.
1:10:29 (MO): Well, that’s good.
1:10:29 (BL): Yeah, y’know, it watn’t bad. It was just one of the fun things we did. ‘Clothing
fashions?’. ‘How has the city growth affected me?’ Just like everybody – the traffic. It’s just
amazing. Y’know, we all live for when the summer comes and half of ‘em go home.
1:10:51 (MO): [Laughs]
1:10:51 (BL): But, y’know, there was the traffic circle. And I don’t really recall any other stop
lights for a long time. I do remember the train station that was over there across from Albritton
Tower. The train – you could get on in College Station and ride to Bryan. The reason I remember
it – when my mom had the kindergarten, she would bring the kindergarteners out every year and
we would get on the train and ride the train back to Bryan – just so the kids could ride a train.
1:11:28 (MO): Yeah.
1:11:29 (BL): Mmhmm [in agreeance]. So that’s why I remember the station an’ ridin’ on the
train.
1:11:32 (MO): So, you do remember the station being –
1:11:34 (BL): Yeah. Just a vague memory of, y’know, of what it – just a plain train station.
1:11:39 (MO): Yeah, yeah.
1:11:43 (BL): ‘What national events?’ Well, of course, The Kennedy Assassination. I was in
Biology when they came in over the PA system and told us he had been shot. Just all the – right
before that the Cuban Missile Crisis. My sister was in school over at Sam Houston – I remember
her calling home and saying, “Are we gonna get bombed by Russia with this Cuban Crisis” and
Mama tellin’ her “Just hang tight. It’ll all work out”. And then he gets assassinated. Vietnam
wasn’t a deal until probably when I went to college. It was just startin’ to be an issue. I tried to
think of something about each decade. I’ll tell you another story from the fifties. John David
Crow [halfback for the Texas A&M Aggies] won the Heisman in 1957 and probably 1958, they
opened a new service station at the corner of 28th and Texas Avenue. It was on the northwest
corner – I remember it really well. So ’58 or ’59, and he was the big attraction for people to
come to the grand opening of the new gas station and he signed autographs.
1:13:08 (MO): Oh, cool.
1:13:08 (BL): Mine burned up in the fire. I would, dearly, love to have whatever it was he
signed for me.
1:13:14 (MO): Yeah, I’m sure there’s some –
1:13:18 (BL): Something out there.
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1:13:19 (MO): – floating around out there somewhere, yeah.
1:13:21 (BL): Gas stations gave away glasses – we have some Texas Cowboys – Dallas
Cowboys – glasses that we got when we lived there in the early seventies.
1:31:31 (MO): So’s A&M glasses? Or you said Texas Cowboys?
1:13:35 (BL): They gave away glasses – I don’t recall they were A&M glasses.
1:13:39 (MO): Okay.
1:13:40 (BL): I don’t remember what was on ‘em.
1:13:44 (MO): Did they give them away, like, as commemorative?
1:13:47 (BL): As part of their grand opening. Mhmm, Mhmm, Mhmm [in confirmation].
1:13:49 (MO): Okay, okay.
1:13:51 (BL): And there was a Whataburger, and it might still be there. I remember when the
Whataburger opened, and there was an airplane that flew all over Bryan, y’know, throwing out
coupons for free Whataburger.
1:14:02 (MO): Oh, that’s cool.
1:14:03 (BL): Yeah, so, y’know, just fun memories that –
1:14:04 (MO): Was it a Whataburger plane? Or was it just a bi- , like, a biplane?
1:14:08 (BL): It was a biplane that Whataburger had hired.
1:14:11 (MO): I didn’t know if they put, like, their logo on it or anything.
1:14:12 (BL): Well, no, it had a trail – a fl – a banner
1:14:16 (MO): Oh, okay. A flag?
1:14:17 (BL): That – uh-huh [in confirmation]– flew behind it. [Laughs]
1:14:21 (MO): Well [laughs] that’s cool! Did you catch a coupon?
1:14:22 (BL): [Sighs] I remember ridin’ bikes all over town lookin’ for ‘em. [Laughs] I don’t
recall that we did. [Gasps]
1:14:25 (MO): Yeah. [Laughs] And that was the first one that was here?
1:14:30 (BL): Yeah. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, that was a big deal ‘cause we didn’t have any
burger places anywhere. Yeah, y’know, I told you there were no restaurants. There were some
good Mexican places in downtown Bryan, but this is College Station history [dental click].
1:14:45 (MO): Well, Whataburger – I forget where it originated from, but I know it’s like a
Texas thing.
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1:14:52 (BL): Yes. It originated, I read that – I was in Whataburger not too long ago – it
originated in was it Corpus [Corpus Christi] or – yeah somewhere in Texas.
1:15:00 (MO): Okay. Well, I lived in California at one point, and they didn’t have a
Whataburger. But when I was living there the first Whataburger was opening [It was another
franchise, not Whataburger] and it was a big deal too.
1:15:12 (BL): Whoo-hoo!
1:15:13 (MO): [Laughs]
1:15:14 (BL): What town was that?
1:15:15 (MO): I lived in Rancho Cucamonga.
1:15:17 (BL): Okay, yeah.
1:15:18 (MO): Do you know where that – around that –
1:15:20 (BL): It’s in the south, down by LA.
1:15:21 (MO): Yeah, near LA, yeah. When people hear the name they’re always like –
1:15:26 (BL): “What?” [Laughs]
1:15:26 (MO): – “What? Where? Are sure that’s in California?”.
1:15:30 (BL): Was Reagan connected with Rancho Cucamonga [Rancho del Cielo]? Where do I
know that? Some notoriety?
1:15:36 (MO): I’m not sure.
1:15:38 (BL): Maybe just the name has [laughs] always stuck with me. [Laughs]
1:15:40 (MO): Yeah! Yeah. It’s an interesting name and it’s a nice town. I liked it.
1:15:47 (BL): I remember when Glade Street was extended south because a friend and his dad –
Carl and his dad – were building those houses south of Consolidated – the original Consolidated,
down Glade Street. That was kinda a new deal because there hadn’t really been any new
developments. All the houses were as old as the town. I remember the new A&M outdoor pool –
which I think they’ve done-in again. Yeah, that’s just about it. Just a lot of – you really brought
up a lot of things I hadn’t thought about in years with these questions.
1:16:37 (MO): One question I had – I know I said ‘slang terms’ and we talked about slang terms
from, like, the sixties – were there any unique to College Station that you remember?
1:16:50 (BL): No –
1:16:51 (MO): Besides, you said that “Oh, we’re goin’ over the bridge” and that. Yeah, things
like that.
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1:16:54 (BL): Oh, well, yeah, “I’m going to the river”.
1:16:57 (MO): Er, “going to the river”.
1:16:59 (BL): No – I can’t even think. Consolidated was good academically and so we did a lot
of UIL and did well, and the sports teams were just kinda mediocre. So, we probably got ragged
on a lot.
1:17:21 (MO): [Chuckles]
1:17:22 (BL): Everything was, y’know, for fun. People weren’t mean.
1:17:27 (MO): Who did you compete with?
1:17:30 (BL): Well, I remember competing against Snook in volleyball and they had – they went
– was it basketball – one of their teams went for several years without being beaten. I was in
college before I heard that somebody finally beat Snook.
1:17:46 (MO): Oh wow.
1:17:47 (BL): And I can’t remember what is – it might’ve been all of their sports. I know they
creamed us in volleyball – I remember doin’ that. We didn’t travel as far as they do now. We
didn’t play Bryan – they were too big. So, the boys would have to tell you what towns we
travelled to. Yeah.
1:18:12 (MO): You said – Were you in UIL?
1:18:13 (BL): Yeah, somewhat. I did a lot of music. We had a wonderful choir director. His
name was Frank Coulter. He took us to the State Fair every year. Our choir was invited and we
went and sang in the Cotton Bowl with other choirs every year.
1:18:37 (MO): Oh, wow.
1:18:37 (BL): It was wonderful. Then we were free, all day, to roam the Cotton Bowl – the State
Fair.
1:18:42 (MO): That’s fun. I have yet to go to the State Fair.
1:18:44 (BL): Oh, you’ve got to go. So, we saw the musical every year – y’know, whatever the
musical was up there. The State Fair is really, just fun. Y’know, you just want to go and try
everything from the corndogs to whatever the wildest food is this year. See all the exhibits
1:19:07 (MO): What did you sing? Do you remember? What types of songs you sang?
1:19:12 (BL): Oh, Mr. Coulter just taught us everything. We sang Israeli national songs, Negro
spirituals, and Christian, y’know, music, and we didn’t really go into operas, but we did musicals
every year at the school. Always, every year, we seemed like we had somebody with a really
good voice who would take the lead in the musical. Somebody who was really good at piano that
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would – a student always accompanied us in choir. So, our – we had a Madrigal group which I
was a part of and that was a lot of fun. It was –
1:19:54 (MO): Magic?
1:19:55 (BL): Madrigal.
1:19:56 (MO): Madrigal.
1:19:56 (BL): Madrigal singing that was like two of each voice – so that’d be eight, I guess eight
or twelve of us. Y’know, my life really kind of revolved around what was goin’ on at the music
end.
1:20:14 (MO): Cool.
1:20:14 (BL): Mmhmm [in agreeance]. Yeah, spelling and not math, not for me. Anne [Boykin]
and I worked on the yearbook and the newspaper all the time. She was the editor.
1:20:27 (MO): I did read that, and she had like a special edition of [yearbook] that said her name
on it – “Editor”. What did you do for the yearbook?
1:20:41 (BL): I think I was Sports Editor, but, y’know, you were jus’ whatever – you pick up
tidbits of information on whatever the football team did, or the Latin club, or the Spanish club, or
y’know. You were always – had your ear to the ground, writin’ an article.
1:21:01 (MO): Did you take the photos for it too?
1:21:02 (BL): No. No, we had – that was probably – Allan Riggs probably took the pictures or
another [Fred Maddox] – I see him from time to time. Anyway, we had – I remember two boys
who did the photography.
1:21:17 (MO): Were you expected to go to most sports games, or did you just want to?
1:21:22 (BL): Locally [as in yes, locally].
1:21:23 (MO): Okay.
1:21:24 (BL): I don’t remember travelling out of town. I think my mother probably kinda
frowned on it ‘cause we would’ve had to go in each others cars. So, I didn’t go out of town. But
it was a lot of fun. We were all just good to each other. Our reunions are fun because – well, for
one thing, when you get past about your tenth or fifteenth class reunion year, people settle down.
They’re not tryin’ to impress you with their college they went to or the job they’ve just landed or
how smart their children are. We just relax and enjoy each other.
1:22:10 (MO): And you’re a good group of friends at that point.
1:22:12 (BL): And you find out that people you didn’t know very well in high school are really
cool [laughs] – they’re really fun and they’re easy to talk to. Yeah, for my reunion, we would
like – we did this for awhile and I just was real busy at the time – but we’d have lunch once a
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month at Jason’s Deli. The other day we were sayin’ “Y’know, we need to start doin’ that
again”. We do enjoy each other.
1:22:35 (MO): Do you reminiscence and talk about high school a lot or do you just catch up
now at this point?
1:22:43 (BL): Kinda catch up and start laughin’ about somethin’ that happened in high school.
1:22:48 (MO): Yeah. When did you say the reunion was?
1:22:51 (BL): It was two weekends ago.
1:22:55 (MO): Okay.
1:22:56 (BL): Uh-huh [in confirmation]. So, yeah, we went to Anne’s [Boykin’s home] for a
little while. Jus’ saw a coupla friends – people I wanted to see.
1:23:07 (MO): Yeah? Did they pull out old memorabilia for it?
1:23:13 (BL): No, we really didn’t. A friend did bring some yearbooks and we never got around
to ‘em. We jus’ sat their kinda catchin’ up.
1:23:23 (MO): Yeah. I think we have – we have some letterman jackets from the high school,
and we have a – you said they were called ‘yell leaders’ at the time – yell leader cone
[megaphone] and things like that – I think [a list] of their cheers that they did.
1:23:28 (BL): [Laughs]
1:23:29 (MO): Yeah [laughs].
1:23:40 (BL): Yeah. It probably hasn’t changed a whole lot in the cheerleading department.
Y’know, they might’ve changed the cheers but.
1:23:49 (MO): Tell me what the – I may be saying the wrong name – “Bingle Belles” –
1:23:54 (BL): Oh, “Bengal Belles”?
1:23:56 (MO): What is that?
1:23:58 (BL): I think they’re still at A&M Consolidated High School. Y’know, there’s a College
Station High School, now, and A&M Consolidated High School. And “Bengal – ‘Bengal Tigers’
– Belles” and it was the drill team – the dance team.
1:24:15 (MO): Okay.
1:24:16 (BL): Uh-huh [in agreeance].
1:24:17 (MO): I thought that might’ve been [inaudible/indiscernible] it.
1:24:18 (BL): Yeah. Yeah, I’m sorry.
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1:24:20 (MO): No, no, I just – but they were different from the yell leaders [at A&M
Consolidated]?
1:24:25 (BL): Oh yes, oh yes. Like they probably do now, they performed at half-time. I don’t
know that they always performed to music that the band played – they probably had their own
sound system and danced to whatever music they had prepared. They might’ve done music done
by the band – ours in Navasota does. Sometimes it’s one, sometimes it’s the other.
1:24:50 (MO): Did you get to sing for A&M too – like the choir group that you were with?
1:24:56 (BL): I sang with the high school choir.
1:24:59 (MO): Like, did you sing ever on the A&M [College] campus?
1:25:05 (BL): I don’t think so. I don’t recall. And we weren’t even really encouraged, like, to go
listen to the Singing Cadets. I did go, because my parents were interested. As a high school
thing, I don’t recall that –
1:25:28 (MO): It was more separate entities, y’know, they had their own thing going?
1:25:30 (BL): Yeah, it really was. Uh-huh [in confirmation].
1:25:32 (MO): Okay. I thought maybe, like your – like songs that you sang might’ve been, like,
Aggie songs or the “War Hymn” or things like that.
1:25:40 (BL): No. I did mean to bring some sheet music. Do you happen to know Celia Goode-
Haddock?
1:25:50 (MO): I don’t.
1:25:51 (BL): She was a grade behind me and Celia Goode – she had older sisters, Marcy and
another one – and their dad wrote the song – the music and lyrics, I believe – to “Soldier,
Statesmen, Knightly Gentlemen”. Do you know that Aggie song?
1:26:11 (MO): I don’t.
1:26:11 (BL): Okay. Well, we have some sheet music that Mr. Haddock – Mr. Goode, excuse
me – autographed for Daddy. He was friends with Mama and Daddy – they were. Everybody
was friends with everybody. Y’know, you knew each other from your department on campus or
from the Bridge Club or from the dinner dance – they had faculty dinner dances. So, y’know, this
was just a community. But anyway, I meant to bring it and I’m gonna take it by Celia’s [Goode-
Haddock] office and show her that I have it and see if she wants it. I think that my brother might
like to keep it, since he went to A&M, but I was gonna show it to her. We didn’t mix a lot and I
think because we were high school and that was college, and propriety kinda said “keep it
separate” – even though I was on campus a lot. I was obviously not a student because I was a
female, so they would know I was [laughs] a daughter of somebody that worked there, yeah. Oh,
the student center [Memorial Student Center / MSC]! There used to be a bowling alley, and that
was probably gone by the time you came.
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1:27:28 (MO): Okay. Yeah, I don’t think it was there.
1:27:30 (BL): Yeah, we would go down and bowl when I was between swim lessons – in the
bowling alley.
1:27:38 (MO): I remember my parents talking about that, yeah.
1:27:41 (BL): Did they go to A&M?
1:27:42 (MO): They did. Yes.
1:27:44 (BL): Yeah. They would have – yeah, it was probably four or five lanes. Mmhmm [in
confirmation]
1:27:49 (MO): That’s cool. That’s really cool. What was your favorite spot on campus?
1:27:56 (BL): Mmmmm [thinking]. Gosh, so many fun ones. I loved my dad’s office – jus’
‘cause my daddy was there. I loved the Cushing Library because it was warm, y’know, it had the
warm wood and the beautiful walls. It was just a beautiful – still is – beautiful building. I loved
the Grove ‘cause I had such happy memories of doing plays or being there. We would take field
trips from Bryan out to the Grove ‘cause I remember that when we would have ‘hot ice’. Y’know
what ‘hot ice’ is? The ice that smokes – it’s frozen carbon –
1:28:41 (MO): Oh, like, carbon-dioxide? Yeah, yeah.
1:28:44 (BL): Yeah. And they would put our ice cream sandwiches on ‘hot ice’. We would have
a picnic out there – I guess that’s just all we did – was kind of a field trip.
1:28:55 (MO): Did you explore the campus a lot? Like all the nooks and crannies?
1:29:00 (BL): Oh yes. But I knew everywhere; it was smaller than – Sbisa, everybody ate in
Sbisa. At the time, it was the only place in the world that could seat that many people at one
time. All 9,000 Aggies could be seated – or something like that, I don’t know, my mother had
stories. But being in the MSC, just a lot of really pretty places. Don’t know if I had a favorite –
the swimming pool, of course. [Laughs] But, I guess if I went back – and I still do love to go in
the MSC. Upstairs – and I don’t know if it’s still there or not – was a gun collection. And I
would go up there and just look over the guns, y’know, museum, it was a gun museum.
1:29:57 (MO): I don’t think they have that anymore.
1:29:58 (BL): Then, when our kids were here grown – or growing – they had extended the MSC
and built a wonderful cafeteria that is there now. Remember it has the glass – it’s kinda raised
below the walkway. Well, on Mother’s Day and other times of the year, they would put on really
nice buffets.
1:30:26 (MO): Ah.
1:30:26 (BL): With the ice sculpture.
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1:30:28 (MO): Oh, wow.
1:30:29 (BL): And it was like, y’know, five or ten dollars a person. We would go there with my
parents and our children. Our kids well-remember, y’know, getting all the food of whatever they
wanted that day. I don’t think they do that anymore.
1:30:46 (MO): Was the food good? Yeah?
1:30:47 (BL): Oh yes.
1:30:48 (MO): Was Sbisa food good too?
1:30:51 (BL): Yeah. The only time I ever ate in Sbisa was with the Corps, like, Ring Dance was
there and if I went with somebody. So, I never really ate a meal as a student or anything.
1:31:07 (MO): Could you go as a minor and a high school student?
1:31:11 (BL): I don’t think so. I think it was strictly for students and all students were Corps or
juniors or seniors.
1:31:19 (MO): Okay, okay.
1:31:20 (BL): Yeah, I went to a coupla Ring Dances. So, yeah.
1:31:25 (MO): Very cool.
1:31:26 (BL): Yeah.
1:31:31 (MO): Let’s see [whispers]. Okay, ‘What was the most memorable event you attended
or saw in the city’?
1:31:41 (BL): Well, besides the annual bonfires – which were amazing – the Christmas parades
that they still do.
1:31:53 (MO): Yeah?
1:31:53 (BL): We loved to go to those. I remember standing on the side of the street, y’know,
watchin’ the parades. We went to some concerts in Guion Hall, and I just am not remembering
who the artists were, but those were always fun. Those were – y’know, we went as high school
students. I don’t know. On Friday nights, Saturday nights, we were pretty much just at a friend’s
house doing something. We didn’t – well we did toilet-paper a few houses.
1:32:42 (MO): Oh [laughs].
1:32:42 (BL): Hmmm, I had forgotten about it. ‘Cause our house in Navasota’s gotten toilet-
papered, but I think we were doin’ that in high school too. Uh-huh [in confirmation].
1:32:48 (MO): Yeah. Like here in – where abouts in College Station did you guys go [laughs]?
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1:32:54 (BL): Yeah, that would be a good question – whose house? Well, it was probably Mrs.
Leland’s house because she was a favorite teacher. [Laughs]
1:33:00 (MO): Oh [laughs]. In a good way?
1:33:03 (BL): Yes! [Laughs] Everybody loved her. She taught plane geometry.
1:33:06 (MO): So, she found it funny? It wasn’t, like, a mean joke?
1:33:10 (BL): No, no. No, it was always a favorite person, yeah.
1:33:14 (MO): That’s good. Who was Mrs. – you said Leland?
1:33:19 (BL): Leland. She had three children – Tom, Bill, and Bob. Three boys and they did
really well. She taught plane geometry and was a very good teacher. I’ll tell ya, Mr. Holland – B.
B. Holland – taught seventh and eighth grade history. He was hard. He really made us learn. If
we were noisy – he had stepped out of the room to, say, go down to the office – and he could
hear us, comin’ down the hall, he would walk in the door and go, “Number 1” and that meant get
out your paper and pencil – you were havin’ a pop quiz. And everybody’d look, y’know, glare at
the kid who’d been noisy. We had great teachers. I don’t recall ever a teacher that I didn’t learn
from.
1:34:18 (MO): Where did the – were the teachers previously students at A&M [College] or
professors and then they came to teach for the school district?
1:34:30 (BL): Y’know, they all seem to have a lot of longevity, like Mrs. Leland had always
taught there [A&M Consolidated] and Mr. Holland. Mrs. Alston, she was our speech teacher.
You would think that maybe the teachers were here as long as their husbands were in grad school
or something, and that was probably the case. But then we had our Spanish teacher, y’know, had
been there for decades – raised her family here. And German and English – they all just seemed
to have a lot of longevity.
1:35:07 (MO): Do you remember their names?
1:35:08 (BL): Oh goodness. Well, Mrs. Worley [Kitty Worley] was the Spanish teacher, and
everybody loved her. The German teacher that I had – I took German instead of – and I’ll tell
you a kinda funny about that. I wanted to take German, for one thing Spanish didn’t fit my
schedule but everybody took Spanish, and my mother always told to do what nobody else is
doing. So, I signed up for German and my daddy – who had not been able to fight in World War
II – was really appalled that I was taking German. This is what – 20 years after World War II and
that was still that stigma to being German. But he accepted it and I became a German major
[laughs] in college. [Laughs]
1:35:57 (MO): Oh, really?
1:35:58 (BL): Yeah [laughs].
1:35:58 (MO): I was curious at what you studied.
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1:36:00 (BL): I did. I fell in love with languages. So, German was my primary language and
Spanish, French, and Dutch.
1:36:09 (MO): Oh wow. Do you speak fluently still?
1:36:12 (BL): No [laughs]. No. I can hardly even read it anymore. Got married and raised a
family and it went by the wayside.
1:36:19 (MO): Yeah. But you got to travel a little bit an’ use the languages you taught – you
learned [laughs]?
1:36:28 (BL): Well, yes. I did spend a summer in Germany and my mother was packing up a
trunk to send to me ‘cause she wanted me to stay and go to school – my senior year or no, it
woulda been my junior year. I was homesick, so I came home and went to University of Texas,
which was good – it had an excellent German department and all the other languages. And then I
taught – David was still in the Army – so I taught private lessons to German kids whose parents
were in the military. Say ‘Mama’ was German, and the kids hadn’t learned English. But that’s
really all I ever used of it. Y’know, back then we [women] weren’t real career-oriented. Girls
went to college to get educated but it watn’t to get a career necessarily.
1:37:25 (MO): Well, I wish it was kinda like that – where it’s just the beauty of, like, learning.
Y’know –
1:37:32 (BL): We were free to just learn.
1:37:33 (MO): Yeah, just learn and not, y’know, so much focused on, “Okay, now get a good
job and go with it”. So, yeah. Yeah.
1:37:43 (BL): Mmhmm [in confirmation]. So, I’ve had some very interesting jobs, y’know, jus’
through the years. That kinda freed me up to not be tied down, although I should’ve got a
teaching certificate. [Laughs]
1:37:54 (MO): Yeah? To teach a language, or yeah. You could’ve been a teacher at A&M
Consolidated or somethin’.
1:38:00 (BL): Or in Navasota, yeah. But it’s all been good, and I’ve had a good life. Yeah, any
other questions that we didn’t go over? Where I went most often on campus – I wrote down the
library, the pool, the MSC and daddy’s office.
1:38:18 (MO): I put one – did you tailgate ever for high school or for –?
1:38:22 (BL): No. There wasn’t tailgating.
1:38:28 (MO): Okay, so for either one?
1:38:29 (BL): I don’t remember anybody ‘tailgating’. Y’know, when we moved back here in
’77, I knew what tailgating was, so it must’ve become a thing to do at any university.
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1:38:46 (MO): Were game day weekends – how do the game day weekends, now, differ from
[years ago], besides the amount of people?
1:38:57 (BL): Well, that’s a real big reason for the difference. With so many fewer students,
there were, maybe, 10 thousand by, y’know, 1967 – I don’t know. Friday night, we might have
gone on a date, or they were out at my parents’ house – my brother brings home his buddies and
we played card games or just talked. Then Saturday, depending on the time of the game, we went
to the game, and I remember goin’ to parties after that. [Laughs] Just really only one in my
memory – it was down at a restaurant about halfway into Bryan, maybe, where Townshire – you
may not know where Townshire is – but it – down there. It was a restaurant, and we were in a – a
bunch of Aggies and their dates – in a room set aside for us. I remember the police coming in
and the boys must’ve had liquor bottles on the table.
1:40:11 (MO): Oh.
1:40:12 (BL): I’m not quite sure – it wouldn’t’ve been wine and beer was probably legal, so
maybe it was liquor. – Put’em under the table. And the police just said, “Oh, nothin’ [laughs] to
see here”, and they turned around and walked out.
1:40:23 (MO): Did someone call or something?
1:40:25 (BL): I don’t know. I don’t know why they came. They didn’t do anything. [Laughs]
And y’know, I jus’ remember bein’ a little scared.
1:40:35 (MO): Yeah.
1:40:35 (BL): ‘Cause I saw the boys all put their bottles under the table. And then the police
turned around an’ walked out.
1:40:41 (MO): Huh [as in puzzling].
1:40:42 (BL): So, and that had to have been after a ball game in the evening.
1:40:46 (MO): Yeah. Did you say what restaurant it was again?
1:40:50 (BL): [Gasps] Well, I don’t remember ‘cause it might’ve been – it was a restaurant at
the south end of Townshire that went through a bunch of different ownerships. So, for awhile it
was a cafeteria. For some time, it was a restaurant. I’m not even sure the building’s there
anymore. I just don’t go down there.
1:41:13 (MO): Was it like a diner? Or a –
1:41:16 (BL): Well, it would’ve been a bigger than a diner. It probably was a sit-down, y’know,
20-tables type place. It was big and it had this separate room. That’s a very vague memory. I
probably only did that once in that place. I don’t remember – I never went to the drive-in. I went
with one boy in high school ‘cause Mama trusted him and was some tame movie – I don’t
remember. But we were kinda protected, y’know, and supervised.
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1:41:54 (MO): Were there animated films at like that time or was just like –?
1:41:58 (BL): Mm’mm [as in no]. No, except The Pink Pa – well, even The Pink Panther, the
credits and the beginning of it were animated but the movie, itself, is real people.
1:42:12 (MO): Real people.
1:42:13 (BL): And [laughs] I went to – I double-dated to that. It was showing at the Palace
Theatre in downtown Bryan next to the Carnegie Library. The other couple and my date came to
pick me up and Mama said, “What are ya’ll gonna go see?” and we said, “The Pink Panther”.
She went “What?!”. She didn’t know what it was about, and it sounded risqué.
[Laughter]
1:42:42 (BL): And they assured her that it was a tame movie, which it is. I don’t know if you’ve
ever seen it. It’s hilarious.
1:42:48 (MO): Yeah. I have. I haven’t seen –
1:42:50 (BL): The original? [Laughs]
1:42:50 (MO): – the original, but I’ve seen the one with – was it Martin – is it Martin Short
[Steve Martin] – not Martin Short, it’s with – but you know which one I’m talking about – the
newer one.
1:43:00 (BL): Yeah, the sequels. Animated was only in the credits. I do remember double-dating
to that. It was fun. That’s all I remember.
1:43:17 (MO): So, the movies at the time, were they, like, pretty much any movie that you could
go to showing at the theatre was family-oriented and anyone could go? Or no?
1:43:29 (BL): No, because I remember my mother being shocked that we would go see The Pink
Panther.
1:43:33 (MO): Oh.
1:43:33 (BL): So, there must’ve been movies that were not acceptable in a sexual way. I mean,
not violence. There were horror movies.
1:43:44 (MO): There were?
1:43:44 (BL): Yeah, ‘cause I remember them showing at the Circle Drive-In, driving by and
thinkin’ – Oh, and there was “What’s-er-name’s Baby” – “Rosemary’s Baby”. That came out
and I remember driving by and seeing that playing at the Circle Drive-In, thinkin’, “How can
they do that? People could just drive-by and watch that movie.” Uh-huh [in confirmation].
1:44:02 (MO): Yeah! Yeah. Oh. Very Interesting.
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1:44:11 (BL): Yeah. What we need is a group of – if you really wanna know, y’know – is get
people to trigger each other’s brain.
1:44:17 (MO): Yeah. Since Halloween is coming up, what was Halloween like in the area?
1:44:24 (BL): That’s probably when we ‘wrapped’ houses.
1:44:25 (MO): Yeah?
1:44:26 (BL): Yeah. We didn’t trick-or-treat in costume after, y’know, maybe sixth grade. I do
[laughs] remember, living in downtown Bryan, trick-or-treating with my siblings and there was a
house around the corner from [laughs] us – they would never answer their door. And my brother
got mad at ‘em one year – they had banana plants growin’ right outside the door – and I
remember him [laughs] rippin’ out those banana plants [laughs] and that’s the only reason I
remember going around trick-or-treating is of that incident.
1:44:59 (MO): ‘Cause they didn’t give him candy [laughs].
1:44:49 (BL): ‘Cause they didn’t give us any candy [laughs]. So, I think they – my sister, by
then, woulda been like 14-15, and they [parents] let us go with her.
1:45:09 (MO): Okay.
1:45:11 (BL): Y’know, when you get old enough, we didn’t trick-or-treat, but we might’ve gone
to friends’ houses trick-or-treating.
1:45:18 (MO): Yeah. Was it like a city-wide thing or just in your own neighborhood?
1:45:24 (BL): Mm’mm [as in no]. Neighborhood. Mmhmm [as in yes]. Yeah, yeah. And living
out in the country, see I didn’t do a lot of things that ‘town-kids’ did.
1:45:33 (MO): ‘Cause you were a little further away from the hubbub.
1:45:36 (BL): Yeah. If I went trick-or-treating, I would have to spend the night with somebody.
Well, to spend the night with somebody, you gotta be invited by them to spend the night.
Y’know, my friend didn’t always think about “Oh, Elizabeth’s out in the country”. So, I missed
out on a lot that maybe I missed at the time.
1:45:55 (MO): Yeah.
1:45:56 (BL): But I kinda got my self-esteem. I would do a lot of walking in the woods and
sitting on this beautiful rock looking over the creek reading a book. So, there were a lot of things
that I just had to do on my own.
1:46:10 (MO): Yeah, yeah. Do you feel like it was different living out there and like the kids out
there and what you played and did [was different] than the kids that were closer to campus?
1:46:19 (BL): Yeah. Kids who lived in town have a lot more memories
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1:46:23 (MO): Closer to the city and stuff.
1:46:24 (BL): Mmhmm [as in agreeance]. Yeah, it’d be good to – Anne [Boykin] would be a
good one to ask who would open up and tell you stories ‘cause –
1:46:41 (MO): Well, I very much enjoyed talking with you and your stories. I’ve heard things
that I haven’t heard about before [laughs]. Y’know? Like the ‘Maggies’ and, y’know, “Over the
River” terms and different terms that – I guess I like, I like the slang ‘cause there’s a whole
history behind that word, so.
1:47:03 (BL): Well, and, y’know, the Brazos Bottom is still there and you can imagine it now,
but someday it’ll all be covered up with houses and the university. I’ll tell you another thing,
where the RELLIS campus is – well, that was Bryan Air Force Base. And –
1:47:20 (MO): Yes ma’am. I actually worked out there.
1:47:23 (BL): You did?
1:47:24 (MO): I did. Yes.
1:47:24 (BL): Okay.When we lived in Bryan, my parents had a garage apartment and they
rented it to Air Force guys who would be here with their wives.
1:47:39 (MO): Oh cool.
1:47:39 (BL): It was cool. Because they were here for maybe a year, maybe six months. They
were in and out, so we met a lot of fun people. Then at the end of the war, maybe 1951-or-2,
y’know, it was no longer needed. So, they allowed sports cars to have rallies out there [at
RELLIS]. Did you know about that? Have you ever seen pictures of the sports –?
1:48:04 (MO): No.
1:48:05 (BL): I’ll have to think who has pictures.
1:48:09 (MO): I would love to see them.
1:48:09 (BL): And they would race sports cars out there – little, little MGs and things.
1:48:13 (MO): I will see if we have anything on that in Project HOLD, but no, I haven’t seen
anything yet.
1:48:19 (BL): It might’ve been more a Bryan thing, but anybody could come.
1:48:22 (MO): Yeah.
1:48:23 (BL): So, I remember going out there ‘cause we had friends with little cars that would
go out there an’ race them.
1:48:28 (MO): Yeah. Was RELLIS a part of – was RELLIS a thing back then or no ‘cause it
was the Air Force Base?
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1:48:29 (BL): Well, no, it was called the Air Base – the Bryan Air Base. Then, eventually I think
A&M acquired it and when my husband worked at A&M, it was used for storage and some
research. It was – and then A&M said “Y’know, were expanding that way, we need to turn it into
– “. So, RELLIS is really pretty new, maybe 10 years.
1:48:59 (MO): Yeah. I worked at the – so the old fire house building, is a conservation lab –
1:49:06 (BL): Oh wow.
1:49:07 (MO): – for like nautical archaeology –
1:49:10 (BL): Really?
1:49:11 (MO): – the ships – shipwrecks and stuff – I worked there [laughs].
1:49:13 (BL): Did you work on the shipwreck that they found in the bay?
1:49:17 (MO): The La Belle. So, I was a little bit after that, but I did find things there that were
from the La Belle that still needed – that were like – so, I helped reorganize their storage there
and there was a tray underneath trays way at the top – and I was like ‘the La Belle’ – this is kind
of old [laughs]. Yeah, but I worked on the CSS Georgia, which was a Civil War ironclad out
there.
1:49:55 (BL): Oh. What was the CSS – what?
1:49:56 (MO): Georgia.
1:49:57 (BL): Georgia.
1:49:59 (MO): I worked on a lot of small finds from THC, which is the Texas Historic
Commission. I figured you would know. So, I got to work on things from missions, like Mission
Dolores is a place and other little sites up in Austin [Texas].
1:50:29 (BL): Yeah. Have you been to the Bob Bullock Museum – the state museum – to see the
La Belle?
1:50:33 (MO): I have, yes. So, I went to it before I worked there.
1:50:38 (BL): Yeah, okay, so you knew what it was.
1:50:40 (MO): So, I knew what it was. When I saw –
1:50:46 (BL): ‘La Belle’ [laughs], you went –
1:50:46 (MO): When I saw like ‘Texas A&M’, like, I didn’t know they had conserved that ship.
Like, it didn’t say it in big letters so y’know. If you looked at the small finds in the glass cases,
there were placards that said ‘Texas A&M’ y’know did a replica of a skull or things like that.
1:51:14 (BL): Oh my goodness, I’ve got an appointment in five minutes.
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1:51:15 (MO): Okay, I should’ve been watching the time, but I didn’t want to – [be rude]
1:51:20 (BL): We need to get together some other time
1:51:23 (MO): Yes, ma’am.
1:51:24 (BL): I’ll look for more history for you,
1:51:26 (MO): Well, I will close this. Thank you for your time and contribution to Project
HOLD and it was very nice talking to you and meeting you today.
1:51:32 (BL): Yeah, I enjoyed it thoroughly.
1:51:34 (MO): Thank you so much.
1:51:34 (BL): Yeah, and gettin’ to know you. Thank you.