Doris Brown - Doris’ Work
“I worked at a bank for a while and then I went and worked for Eastern Airlines as a flight attendant. After that, I worked for Ralston Purina in the office. And then I got married and that was it!”
Doris Brown - Doris’ Experience as a Flight Attendant
Doris: I lived in New York and then I just sort of wanted to come home again.
Interviewer: Yeah
Doris: So that’s why I came back to St. Louis.
Interviewer: What places did you get to travel to?
Doris: Well it was Eastern Airlines, we didn’t go overseas except to Puerto Rico. I went to Puerto Rico quite a bit. And uh, it was all in Eastern United States. Miami I went a lot, New Orleans, Houston. Places like that, yeah.
Doris Brown - Memories
“I think a lot about growing up. I’m thinking of a lot of things when I was younger that I haven’t thought about in many many years. But those memories seem to be stronger than a lot of more recent memories. So I enjoy thinking about those things.”
Doris Brown - WWII
“World War II, I was eleven when it started and I just remember all the windows. People having the little uh cardboard stars in their window if they had somebody in service or somebody had died in service, you know. And it was a little different. People talked about the war all the time and that’s all that was in the papers and we had to bring cut outs. In the papers they would have where the, our troops were in Germany and we had to cut out maps and bring them to school and we talked a lot about it in school. I do remember that.”
Doris Brown - Doris’ Parents
“Well, my mom and dad were both born in St. Louis. And my dad was a, a uhm, upholsterer and during the depression he lost his job and that’s when I was born in ‘30, 1930. And he lost his job so mom still worked. She was a secretary and she still had her job. So she had to be able to go to work and dad had to be able to go out and look for work. So grandma came to live with us, temporarily but she was still there 50 years later! And I really liked my grandma, I got along real well with her because she’s the only one I saw when I was little, you know. You know, my mom and dad didn’t travel a lot and uh they just were more took care of the house and took care of us, my sister and myself, and that was it.”
Doris Brown - Doris’ Story
“Well, I was born in St. Louis at Saint Mary’s Hospital, 1930; July 29th, 1930. Which my mother said was the hottest day of the year. And uh what brought me to this area? I got married, we lived in St. Louis in several different houses and my husband wanted to come over to Illinois for some reason. He wanted more of a county atmosphere I guess. And that’s where we found ground up by Columbia and we built the house. He built the house actually with another man. And so we were there until, then when he died that left me alone up there and I didn’t, I thought maybe I was getting older and it was kinda lonely. You’re at the top of a hill and there’s nobody around and I thought I don’t know about this, so.”
Transcription and Audio Edit by Ileana Chavez.