Jennie Eva

Oral History Transcript of Jennie Eva

Interviewer: Aubrey Jaap & Clark Grant
Interview Date: September 4th, 2020
Location: Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives
Transcribed: May 2021 by Adrian Kien

Jaap: It is September 4th, 2020. We're here with Jennie Eva. Jennie, I would first off, I'd just like you to give me a little bit of background on your parents or grandparents, kind of the first family, you know, to kind of come in this area. Share that with me.

Jennie Eva: There's so much history. [inaudible] Walkerville and they, my grandparents had 10 children, six boys and four girls, and lived in a four-room house and they had one bedroom that had two double beds, and there was room for my grandmother to get through, to make the bed, the beds, and three boys in each bed. And then there were four girls. Of course, there was a baby in the crib, I guess. And then I think they took the cushions off the couch, put them on the floor and he slept on the cushionless couch. And everyone was fine. And, of course, they had cows and chickens and ducks and stuff. You almost had to have them in those days. And he used to get so mad at my mother because she had us dressed in our fancy little white socks. White shoes and stuff. My dad went out in front of their house. And the cow must have got in there and I stepped in it. I was crying. "I step in cow pies! I step in cow pies!" [inaudible] He was glad that I got my little white shoes and socks dirty. And even if I wouldn't say it and then, so there were 10 of them.

And then the Sammy family lived, not maybe from this building to that building over there, away from them. And they had a huge family too. So the girls didn't get in much trouble. But the boys when they got in trouble, they would go . . . the Sammy's would come and hide in my grandfather's garage or where they kept their cows and stuff and vice versa. The Osier’s would go to the Sammy's and hide when they got in trouble.

Jaap: What did they get in trouble for?

Eva: Probably just talking back or not doing their chores or something like that. And then I remember there was this, when you sat down to the table, it was a long table like this, and there was a bench on each side and grandma at one end and grandpa at the other end. And you didn't say you didn't want anything, you ate what was put on your plate.

Jaap: What did your grandfather do for work? What mine did he work in?

Eva: [unintelligible] Contract miner. It didn't make any difference about what mine you worked in. [jump in recording] The day the company burnt this down, it's just so wrong. Of course, they didn't burn it down, you know?

Jaap: No, of course not.

Eva: It just automatically caught on fire.

Jaap: Okay. It is September 4th, 2020. We're here with Jenny Eva. Jenny, I would first off, I'd just like you to give me a little bit of background on your parents or grandparents, kind of the first family, you know, to kind of come in this area and share that with me.

Eva: I do have a book from my grandkids and great-grandkids. And actually my grandfather was with the Lewis and Clark expedition. And so there is so much history. Their last name was Osher, and they lived up North Walkerville and they, my grandparents had 10 children, six boys and four girls, and lived in a four room house. And they had one bedroom that had two double beds. And there was room for my grandmother to get through, to make the bed, the beds, and three boys in each bed. And then there were four girls. Of course, there was one baby that was always in the crib, I guess. And then I think they took the cushions off the couch, laid them on the floor and somebody slept on the cushionless couch and somebody slept on the floor. And they got along just fine.

And then of course, they had cows and chickens and ducks and stuff. You almost had to have them in those days. And, my grandfather, he used to get so mad at my mother because she had us dressed in our fancy little white socks and white shoes and stuff. And one day I went out in front of their house and there was grass and the cow must've got in there and I stepped in it. I was crying, "I stepped in cow bad word! I stepped in cow bad word!" My grandfather wants to beat my mother. It's cow shit. Say it. He never did get me to say it. But he was glad that I got my little white shoes and white socks dirty. And even if I wouldn't say it. And then, so there was 10 of them and the Sammy family lived, oh, not maybe from this to that building over there, away from them. And they had a huge family too. So the girls didn't get much trouble, but the boys, when they got in trouble, they would go. The Pesantis would come and hide in my grandfather's garage. Or it wasn't a garage because they didn't have cars. Where they kept their cows and stuff and vice versa. The Osier’s would go to the Pesantis and hide out until it cooled down.

Jaap: What did they get in trouble for?

Eva: Probably just talking back or not doing a chore or something like that. And then I remember when you sat down to the table. It was a long table like this, and there was a bench on each side and grandma at one end and grandpa at the other end. And you didn't say you didn't want anything, you ate what was put on your plate.

Jaap: What did your grandfather do?

Eva: Worked in the mines.

Jaap: What mine did he work in?

Eva: My husband worked in the mines too. And my husband was a contract miner. And it didn't make any difference about what mine you worked in, because if you went down in the mine and your boss said something to you . . . my husband was a contract miner. So if they blasted or something and something didn't go right, well, they just quit. They called a cage and came down, picked him up, took him up. They went to the office and hired out, went to a different mine, went to work that afternoon or that night shift or afternoon shift. So they were always working.

Jaap: Can you tell me a little bit about your parents?

Eva: My parents? Um, well you probably know Bob Chamberlain, Hank. His mother and my dad are brother and sister.

Jaap: And you guys didn't know you were cousins till later, is that correct?

Eva: I always knew, but I don't believe that he knew because they lived in Livingston. And so I can remember as a kid and it was a long ride from, at least as a kid, from Butte to Livingston. And my dad would go down there every so often and, um, we'd visit, but it wasn't very often that you went, but then our grandmother, she lived right across the alley from us directly across the alley. And craziest thing was it, she never liked me because I had dark hair and dark eyes like my mother. And you can probably look someplace in the newspaper. When she turned 80 or 85, there was a picture of her, guess what? She has dark hair and dark eyes. My sister came along with blonde hair and blue eyes like my dad. So she was the perfect little Swede, but they didn't come from Sweden.

Jaap: That's what I hear.

Eva: They changed their last name and passed themselves off as Swedes because the Swedes were like better than the Finlanders.

Jaap: But your Fin?

Eva: Yeah.

Jaap: So you don't like the dark hair, dark eyed kids.

Eva: So my sister being blonde and blue eyes and she was the fair haired girl. She wrote the book on Walkerville and stuff, Bev Brothers. That's my sister, but we're as different as night and day. We're not much alike.

Jaap: She's the good little Swede.

Eva: Yeah, the perfect little angel. And just ask her and she'll pat herself on the back.

Jaap: So what are your parents' names?

Eva: My dad's name was Elmer Everett Gustafson, and my mother's was Maria Louise Osier.

Jaap: And what did your dad do for work? Did he work in the mines as well?

Eva: He was a butcher and he couldn't wait until they started taking men to war that had two children, because that's what he looked forward to. And he went away whistling to go take his, whatever you call them. And my uncle was drafted on the same day. And he had like adenoids or something. So they knew my uncle wouldn't make it, but my dad would go because he was this big strapping. My dad didn't pass the physical. He was just absolutely crushed. And then he worked at the Columbia Meat Market. I don't know if you know where that is at. Right below the Pekin. There was a grocery store and butcher shop. And wives and mothers were coming in and asking, 'what's a big strapping guy like you doing here?' And my husband or son or whatever is . . . It broke his heart. And so then you had blackouts at nighttime, you couldn't have any lights on because they were afraid the Japs are going to come over and bomb because of the mines here and making the bullets and stuff. So my dad would go out with a flashlight at nighttime and check on all the women, kids or whatever and make sure that the neighborhood was safe.

Jaap: Really? What'd your mother do?

Eva: She was just a housewife until after he passed away. And then, I don't know, she just kinda got carried away. She remarried twice. They had children by each of the other husbands, which were knot-heads. I mean, my one half-brother, we still keep in contact. He doesn't live here, but we kind of keep in contact with him. And then the younger one, he passed away. But it was amazing.

Jaap: Tell me a little bit about the neighborhood you grew up in.

Eva: It was a really nice neighborhood. We lived right next to the prairie, our house. And so during the summertime, that was all prairie from where we lived on 2020 Monroe to Ottawa Street and back as far. And actually there was like a little, almost like a little creek that went through there. So you could go and you could play in this fine sand, but there never was water in it, but there was this fine, fine sand. Probably just washed down from somewhere. When we were bad, I bet my dad and mother just were in hysterics, 'Go find a stick and make sure you find a good one to get a spanking with.' There wasn't a tree branch or a stick anywhere. And then he'd say bend over my knee and then he'd go like this. And you think he killed us. He did like this [claps]. He hit his own hand. We had a good life.

And I can remember when they killed calf. The women made blood bread. Oh, that was gross. They made it over at my grandmother's house. And they would make it like in the big wash tub and they'd all have their hands in it. I never tried the blood bread, but I guess it was good enough that if you were raised on it, you wouldn't think twice.

Jaap: I think I'm with you on that one. I don't know about that.

Eva: No, thanks.

Jaap: How many people live down there? If it was that open, did you have a lot of neighbors or anything?

Eva: No, from where we lived, I should finish telling that story, to Ottawa street. There was nothing there. So in the summertime, um, the circuses came, uh, carnivals came in. That's where they set up the circuses and the carnivals was in that area. Now it's all those homes that were built that look alike. But at one time that was just all prairie.

Jaap: Would you go to the circus?

Eva: No, we could sit out in the yard, but we'd better not get close to the fence because they told us that they would kidnap us and we'd never see them again. They knew how to scare you. And then in the summertime, the big deal is we went to Pipestone. That was our vacation for a week, to go to Pipestone and swim and stuff. And my dad would drive up there every night. And I can remember, we were scared to death because they told us there were snakes underneath the wooden sidewalk that went from the cabins to the swimming pool. So you'd go like heck because you were scared to death a snake was going to jump out. I don't know if there were snakes there or not.

Jaap: Sounds like your parents were very good at wrangling you children by fear.

Eva: They knew to keep us in line. We had a great life until my dad just died very young. And my mother remarried and had a son by each of the other two husbands and she lost everything she had. I mean, she had a house, she had a car, she had furniture. And the one guy, she comes home and they've taken all the furniture and brought all brand new furniture in. Imagine 30 days later, it's gone. It ended up that I lived with one aunt and my sister lived with another aunt and my mother and the baby lived with a brother. So there, but you survive.

Jaap: How old were you when all that happened?

Eva: I was 10 when my dad passed away. And I was 16 when I got married, so yeah. And my husband, he was 21. He just asked my mother if he could marry me. My mother said yes, takes me to the courthouse, signed the papers. It was okay. Go to the minister and the minister didn't believe in long engagements and get married in the church.

Jaap: What were you thinking when that happened?

Eva: You didn't talk back to your parents. You did what you were told. I had no clue of what was going to happen or nothing. And then in those days, because Butte was a boomtown, the apartment that we found to live in. I can't remember the street now, but anyway, we had an apartment and then there was apartments upstairs too. But I have no idea who lived upstairs, but there's another apartment, but these two apartments shared the bathroom, which was, you had to make sure you knocked on the door and you had to make sure you locked it on the other side when you were in there. But it was during the war and stuff, and you were lucky to have it.

Jaap: How long did you know your husband before you were married to him?

Eva: Hardly at all. He always was at my uncle's house because my uncle had horses and he loved horses. And then, uh, Oh God, I can't think of the people that had the ranch out and they had horses. And I babysat for my uncle and aunt. So my husband was always around there because my aunt loved to have all the guys in the morning and she cooked these big breakfast for them. And I think she just liked having guys around and waiting on them and taking care of them. And, uh, I don't know. It was a 4th of July and the first time we were together, it was because we came back from the ranch and we were sitting up on top of Dewey's point with my uncle and aunt. And I can remember my mother-in-law walking up the hill and opening the door and telling me what a fool I was.

So that's how I first met her. And then she bangs the door and leaves. But she hated horses. So the horses were the rumination of her son, supposedly, you know? Right. And there was like four bars, maybe in Walkerville, there was like three grocery stores. The aunt where I'd babysat and stuff. You probably have seen a picture where there was a gas station right across from Anza's. So she lived at 22 Daly Street. So there was a gas station in their house, which is still there. And then my grandmother's two sisters. Um, they just lived a few houses down and I can remember if you had to use the bathroom at their house, there was a big trap door that you lifted up and then you had to go downstairs because that's where the toilet was. You better not wait too long. When you go by those houses to this day, that's what you think of. And then if you've been in Walkerville and you see that two-story house, that's there. Uh, so right next to that two story house was the Palace Hotel, which my great grandmother ran. And, they both looked exactly like him. I can remember when you'd go down this wooden sidewalk and you better be sure which door you wanted to go in.

And then I ran around with Joan Manza, which her family kind of owned the Manza Market. And she had an aunt that was deaf and dumb. So you had to, you learned a little bit of sign language. She could tell when you knocked on the door and vibration probably, but so I remember J-O-A-N. That's all the sign language I remember.

You'd go up in front of Manza's Market and pretty soon you'd have practically a rope as long as the block, everybody just out jump roping and just doing innocent things, except at wintertime when guys decided they'd hook on the bumpers and see how far they could go on the back of somebody's car. But then they had to walk back up the hill. Yeah. So it was quite the town. There was a path. My aunt lived at 128 West Daly. I lived with her after my mother went through all this stuff and my dad had just passed away and there was a path from that house to North Walkerville. And when you walked up there, you could take a coffee can lid with you and you could pick up the mercury and put it in the lid and then play with it. Because it would connect and disconnect and stuff. And that was a toy. Except my mother was allergic to mercury and everything. Any hospital work you'd have done there was mercury. So she would break out. She was allergic to it for as long as I know. But we had fun playing with it. If you could find those little, kind of remind you of raisins, going up the hill. Oh yes, I want that. Yeah.

Jaap: Little different from now, isn't it?

Eva: Oh my goodness. Yes. Yeah. There's no comparison.

Jaap: What else would you do as a kid then in Walkerville?

Eva: Well, I didn't live in Walkerville all the time. But I went to Emerson grade school. So I took the bus every day from Walkerville to Florence Avenue and I got off the bus. When we went to first grade and went home and told them they had a list of who's in our class, Carlene Sparks. Her mother and my mother were in the same hospital room in the hospital when we were born.

Jaap: Oh, really?

Eva: Yeah. So I spent a lot of time at her house because she had a piano. We must have thought we were the greatest singers in the world. And her mom didn't care. She just, we could just sit there and sing and play the piano. She played piano and stuff. So she was, but she's passed away now, too. So, but when you go by that area, you always look for some reason. You just look there and now the house is ugly, bright blue. We had a lot of fun there.

Jaap: So after you get married, you're 16, then what are you doing? What'd you do after you got married?

Eva: Housewife. There was a little house on Daly Street that we ended up buying eventually. They used to call the guy that owned the Sean Sprig[?] bar, they called him the bull. And basically, I imagine almost every house in Walkerville at one time or another, he bought the house and then you made payments to him until you paid off your house. So that's how we got this little house on 609 West Daly.

Jaap: Schonsberg would buy the houses and then . . .

Eva: And you'd pay him. Probably 20 bucks. It wasn't much that you paid him. His wife kept track of it. Her first name was Elizabeth or Liz, something like that. She kept tabs on what you owed.

Jaap: What'd your husband do for work?

Eva: Miner. Contract miner. The first time I went to the World Museum of Mining, because they talked about drilling and blasting and all this stuff, and it's like, you know, it's just, I think you worked eight hours and now you talk about it for six hours. The first time we went to the World Museum of Mining, there's this big, long drill. Yeah. That's what he was using. No wonder he wanted to go up and have a beer after dinner. He usually took our two kids with him. I'm thinking, "Oh, you were kind of mean." That was, that would have been a lot of work drilling those holes in that rock with that big, long thing.

Jaap: I can't imagine the level of work. Would he share stories about it? Well, clearly he was talking about it, but would he share stories about it with you or anything like that?

Eva: Um, not especially with me, but if you were out, the miners got together. Yeah. And they did mean things to each, especially if you were new, just going down in the mine, they did some mean things to those poor newbies.

Jaap: What kind of things would they do?

Eva: Oh my God. Oh, like paint their, you know what, corner them in the cage. And they would do things like, I'm sure they didn't want to go home. Well, they took showers at the mine, so they probably could wash it off. But yeah, they did. They did mean little dirty little tricks. And then he was also noted because he was a fighter. So we couldn't go any place that somebody . . . 'cause he wasn't a big guy. So they wanted to find out if he was as tough as his reputation. So 'no trouble tonight, Ray, no trouble tonight.' And we get the ringside seat. Right? Because every place had a dance floor and you either went downstairs or you went upstairs. The Arrow Club or the Victory club. You could be right by the band and 'do you need anything?' And they were, because they just knew. And I was with him sometimes, and it wasn't that he was asking for it. They just wanted to find out.

Jaap: So was he tough then?

Eva: Yup.

Jaap: That sounds stressful.

Eva: He was never mean or tough to me or our kids. But if somebody . . . And he just loved being with my uncle because of the horses. He'd get on one of my uncle's horses. He would deliberately ride across the front of the house where I still live today, on that horse because he knew his mother would see him. And she'd be mad. And they would ride horses for miles. They'd just would follow the power line into Butte when they wanted to bring horses in. But it was Mitch Tamietti that had all the horses. Yeah, it was quite the, quite the town. When you bought your groceries on Saturday and they delivered them and they brought you a half gallon of ice cream just for buying your groceries from them.

Jaap: Really?

Eva: Put your sign up in the window. If you wanted 25 pounds of ice or 50 pounds of ice, or 75 pounds of ice.

Jaap: What else about uptown Butte, or Butte in general? Can you kind of tell me just what it was like?

Eva: It was a very busy, busy, busy town. Especially, well, on paydays. The Classic Bar was on North Main Street and that's where everybody went to cash the checks, regardless if it was the husband picking up his check, or if it was the wife picking up the husband's check. You went to the Classic Bar and cashed them, which they probably made a fortune because everybody probably had a beer. You played punch boards or whatever in those days. So the Classic was the busiest bar on North Main. Uh, but there was grocery stores all over. Pekin was always where it's at.

Jaap: Can you tell me a little more about the Pekin?

Eva: As long as I can remember, it was those orange curtains and that orange paint. On an adult history thing, they did take us through there. The other building that's next to that. And those Chinese people, they just look, I don't even think they had anything other than a blanket up high on between the ceiling and the false ceiling. I guess they showed us where they slept. You can probably still do that tour.

Jaap: I don't know if I've been in there. I've been in the basement of the Pekin before, but yeah.

Eva: My one granddaughter, she went to school with the young guy that runs it now. There was an article the other day in the paper and I kept it to send to her about the Pekin. But that orange paint, it's been there as long as I know.

Jaap: It's hideous.

Eva: Yes, it is. It is. It is.

Jaap: So do you wanna talk to me about the Columbia Gardens? You showed us a picture before we started recording about the Gardens. And can you just share some of your memories of that?

Eva: Every Tuesday was Children's Day and we didn't, my mother didn't like us out very far away from her. Um, so a couple of times my aunt, who was older, was able to take us on the bus and go to the Columbia Gardens. Not very often, but every Tuesday night, my mother would have dinner ready. And as a family, you went and you sat up where the benches and tables were and had your dinner. And then the kids would get to go play on the swings and the slides and stuff. So, and ride the roller coaster and that. But that was a kind of a ritual on whatever night that was. And then the zoo that was behind there. All I remember is that it was stinky, but I had a friend in high school that she lived back that way. So yeah.

Jaap: How about when we lost the Gardens? Can you tell me about that? What did you think then?

Eva: I cried. It was like, how could you do that? It just, and my mother-in-law, her two best friends, Nellie and Kelly. I don't think they were related, but anyway, that was her two friends. Nellie is, Oh God, she lived in, if you're coming down Main Street there's, she lived down in like a big hole. There was a house down there, kind of towards . . . that's where Nellie lived. It was kind of a chore getting down there, but, of course, they rode buses and they walked. And then Kelly, she lived on Center Street, so it was easy to get to Kelly's house. But Nellie and Kelly, and Winnie, Winifred, they were always on the phone with each other and stuff, after you had phones and stuff. We didn't even have phones. I mean, a few people had phones and then there was the party lines and you better be careful when you picked up that phone because you didn't know who was on the other end and you better hang up for it very carefully. That's what we were ordered.

Jaap: What year were you born?

Eva: 35.

Jaap: How about when the Berkeley Pit started? Tell me about that. What did you think when the pit was started? And you see it now? Can you tell me what you thought then?

Eva: It makes you sick. And I know I asked at one of the adult history classes. They had somebody there and I asked them, "Are you going to go across the highway in?" They said, "No." Because that's what scares me. They destroyed the one side, are they gonna go over? And they said, no, and that wasn't that long ago. There was a speaker at the adult history class. So we'll see. If they get ore over there and they can make money. Who knows? I hope not.

Jaap: Yeah. You've seen it happen before.

Eva: When they destroyed the Gardens. Oh my God. Those flowers and stuff. And the two ladies in those long black coats, no matter how hot it was, I was scared to death of them. I was so scared of them. You better not go too high on those swings or not get too close to each other, if you're going up to go down the slide. They must have roasted in those black coats. But they say, what keeps heat out, also keeps cold out. So I don't know.

Jaap: Maybe that's why she was so cranky all the time.

Eva: She was cranky.

Jaap: I know everyone has memories of Ms. Meanie.

Eva: You know, and she might not have been. It might have been that just somebody pinned the name on her. I know when we used to go to Pipestone for our weekly vacation, my grandfather would come down and stay at my mother's and dad's house. And my dad would come up every night and then come back into town to work. My grandfather and my dad's mother, they decided that they'd like to go to the Mere [?] bar and have a few drinks. So them two walked to the Mere Bar to have a few beers. And my grandmother on the Osier side of the family, she did not like that. No, but I'm sure it was just innocent. They both liked to have a beer. And they walked out and had a few beers. And then he never slept in the house. We had those big, like, they're almost like not willow trees, but they had big branches that went out over and you could sit in them and stuff. And there was one on each side of our yard and that's where he would sleep, in the tree. He never slept in the house, slept in the tree.

Jaap: Why?

Eva: I don't know. He slept in a bed at home. But when he stayed at our house, he slept in the tree.

Jaap: Because he went down the street and had a few beers and when he came back, slept in a tree.

Eva: Those trees are finally torn down there. They're not there anymore.

Jaap: Is that kind of heart sad to you?

Eva: It is. Yeah, but my grandmother's house has not changed a bit. It's even still the same color that it was. But then they put all those homes in there that are all alike from that. That's from where we lived over to Ottawa street, where they put all those houses. That was all prairie. And that's where the circuses and stuff were, carnivals.

Jaap: Did you go into Meaderville?

Eva: Mainly, we'd go there and have dinner sometimes. Go down and see their displays.

Jaap: The fire department displays?

Eva: Yeah. Always, always went and saw those. And we only have a little coupe car and there's my dad and my mother, myself and my sister. Well, then one of her sisters, she had two children and the husband had been called to service, which he didn't stay in the service very long, but my dad goes up and picks him up. And this is just a little coupe car, with no defrosters or stuff. So my mother had a handkerchief full of salt, which she sat in the middle and [gestures]. Going up Excelsior Street and up onto Daly Street, she'd keep this little spot open for him with the salt in the handkerchief. Just regular table salt. But he picked up my aunt because she was by herself. He ties this crib on the front of the car, my sister is underneath, no I'm under the dashboard and my mother and aunt and the two babies are sitting with my dad in the front seat of this coupe. And my sister's laying in the window. But we had a one room. You can't really call it a house. But it had a stove and beds and stuff. So a lot of my mother's family, if they were mad or whatever, stayed in that.

Jaap: Is that the cabin that you mentioned?

Eva: Um, yeah, probably. But it was like a one room house. It was our playhouse when nobody else was around to use it.

[00:40:48]

I don't know if I told you that my sister, she was very good at acrobatics. So when my mother sent her for a loaf of bread, she never got a loaf of bread because my sister did one-handed cartwheels all the way down the alley and drop, drop, dropped. She probably got a half a loaf of bread, by the time she came home. We lived on Monroe Street, but the grocery store was only a block and a half away from us because there were little grocery stores all over. It was crazy. Kids nowadays, they would not probably be able to handle it. Because there's a couple of places now. And I think, Oh my God, how many times did you drive by that? And it's a place that almost every weekend you go by it. I mean, how many times did you and your friend ride your bikes by that house? Because his name was Danny O'Connell and we just thought he was the greatest thing that walked on two legs. And I bet that he was in the house thinking like at those two stupid fools.

Jaap: You guys would do drive-bys on your bikes.

Eva: Never stopped or slowed down, but we had to, we had to drive by there. Now when you get from Montana Street to Harrison Avenue, I can see that house. It was quite the time. Things have changed.

Jaap: So when you'd go into Meaderville, where would you guys eat dinner?

Eva: Um, I think we just more or less took probably the first restaurant we came to, my husband didn't like to drive around and pick, and it didn't make any difference. They pretty much all served the same type of food. But we went to Whitehall more than, and they called it Hap's Place. And the kids could play the slot machines. Can you imagine now letting kids play slot machines? Play the punch cards? Dance around the floor, do whatever they wanted. That was our Sunday drive. We went to Whitehall almost every single Sunday. That was our big outing. Go over to Happy's.

Jaap: Hang out for the day. Good.

Eva: It's surprising. Absolutely unbelievable.

Jaap: So I know you're part of the Butte history, adult education classes. What about, tell me about the classes. What have you learned about Butte history? Were there things you learned that you didn't know before and that surprised you? Why do you have this love for Butte history?

Eva: I think Chris does such a good job of presenting the classes, getting everybody to participate. Everybody that goes to the class. It's like you're friends. You're just, it's a closeness, I think. And I think it's all because of the teacher that he is.

Jaap: Jim McCarthy in here.

Eva: Jim does so much for Chris.

Jaap: He told me you dress up as a madam for the high school kids. And he said, some of them thought you were Ruby Garrett.

Eva: Oh yeah. Put on my red wig and my red dress. And these girls were dressed like they were prostitutes and they were kind of like on grass and inside of a fence. Oh yeah. They thought I was the true Ruby. I've done some . . . they weren't all stupid. They were fun actually, but I never thought I'd do it. My daughter says . . . I don't know . . . Judy did something or that. And she said, "Now, aren't you glad you asked Judy to go to the history class with you." [Looking at pictures.] There I am in my red wig. I don't have it in my red dress, but there's my red wig.

Grant: I never knew Ruby.

Eva: I can remember. We used to cut down to those lots. And uh, my mother said, when you got off the bus on Park Street and my mother would say, "Don't look right, or don't look left, you just keep going and you just go to school." I didn't really know until I got into the adult history class. Well, I guess it was a little before I got into adult history class. Because I was at the Civic Center with my sister-in-law. And we were, for some reason, we were sitting in chairs on the floor. It must've been a performance or something. And this one lady comes over and she's talking to my sister-in-law. Oh God, can I think of her name now?

Anyway, when she leaves . . . the sister-in-law was the madam. And how my sister-in-law's husband got here was that she had this house. And then there used to be a bar where you park now for the Pekin. There was a bar right there. And the door was kind of sideways. Not on Galena and not on Main. It was kind of a sideways door. I can't think what it was called now. 101, maybe. Anyway. The brother ran that bar. But I guess he was really mean and stuff and she divorced him. Then she married my husband's brother.

Jaap: Interesting. The things you learn.

Eva: And she was kind of this important, you know, so when she told me that, it was hard to believe it. But that was how her husband came to Butte. The sister brought him.

Jaap: Clark do you have some questions? I'm sure I'll have more.

Grant: Sure. You have so many memories. And you know everybody. Well driving around town now, you know, when you see like that lot by the Pekin or this lot, that lot, so many places are gone. What feelings do you have about that?

Eva: Sad. See, I worked on Park Street for several years. I sold shoes on Park Street and, uh, actually I can't think of what the name of the store was, but she had nice dress shoes and stuff. And so when they delivered, so from Park Street, going up to Broadway, you had an elevator to take the boxes up on because that's how much difference it was. So you'd unpack the big boxes of shoes and put them in. And it was a lot of work in those days because the shoes had to fit in the size and stuff. And sometimes, you know, it could be a wall longer than this one and you might move every shoe on that wall to get the few pairs that came in to go in the right spot. And so when I went up on the elevator with these big empty boxes, but you couldn't just throw them into the alley, you had to step out into the alley and line the boxes up along your building. And this one day, and National Furs was next door to the shoe store that I worked in. And I saw these people walking down the alley.

And I just thought when they got closer, I'd say hi, like you did. But all of a sudden, all I heard was footsteps. And they grabbed me from the back and pulled me down and anyway, he beat the crap out of me. And, he had reached up underneath my dress. I'm sure I probably would've got raped, but there was a penny store on the corner at that time. And there was this young boy and girl coming out the side door of the penny store, which would've been right straight over from the alley. And they heard me scream. And then they ran over and said, "Leave her go. You, S of a B." And he jumped up and ran. And they said that they knew he was putting something in his pants. If it would have been a knife or whatever. But by the Water Company, there was a metal gate and he climbed over that and then disappeared. So, they got my husband because my husband worked with the Montana Standard in those days. And they took me to the hospital, and God, you got these black eyes and stitches over here on my head stuff. And everybody's asking, "Do you know who it was?" And I kept saying, "No, no, no." And I'm laying in bed. And I think, I know I can identify him.

So I climbed out of bed in the morning because working the shifts that he worked in the newspaper, you know, he slept late in the day. So put on the dark glasses and go down to the police station. And I told the guy there, Sullivan, the cop, And I said, "I think I can identify him." So he pulled out a mug book and it was Jesse McKnight that had beat me up. And he was like, he didn't get nothing out of it. Um, I had to go sit up at the courthouse.

Oh no. Before we went up to the courthouse, this one day we went into . . . there was Norma's Doghouse on the south side of Park Street. And there was a bar next to it. And we went into that bar and my husband said, "That's him, isn't it?" Because he's sitting behind us. And I say, "No, no, no." I said, "Let's go." And then we're walking over. I said, "Let's go up to the jail." Because we were far enough away. So we walked up to the jail, they went down and arrested him and brought him up there. And I had to sit there like you’re sitting while they walked him by and identify him that that's who it was. And the jury said, "I asked for it."

Grant: What?

Eva: I asked for it. He didn't get nothing. So then when he didn't get anything. Um, I don't know if you remember when Gamer Shoes was on the corner. You know where the Hallmark Place is, well, Gamer's shoes was right across from that. And Keenan's jewelry is still there. Uh, him and his buddies would stand in front of Keenan's jewelry and just stare at me. Not, not say anything, not do anything, just stand there. And it's like, it was horrible.

Jaap: Yeah. That must've been really terrifying.

Eva: To this day which is probably 40, 45 years now. I cannot have anybody walk behind me. I've got to turn around and see who's behind me. Especially if you're uptown and you're waiting for a light to change or something, I just go, no. But I think he probably thought I was one of those . . . because I can remember him trying to get my ring off. And those women wore the biggest diamonds and stuff. They might've thought that that's who it was out putting the boxes out. The ladies from the fur shop. Not me, but I got two nice black eyes that's for sure.

Grant: Was he a West Virginian?

Eva: I have no idea where they came from. They lived over on Washington Street. I think the whole McKnight family was a bad bunch of people, from the mom on down. When we went to the trial, his family could go in and listen to what I said, but my family couldn't go in and listen to what he said, which didn't make sense either.

Jaap: No, that's wrong. Yeah.

Eva: But my husband and son said he was just like a snake. He could disappear so fast. And like, I was like Sullivan said, "Just make sure nobody sees what you do. If you catch him, make sure nobody's around." So my husband just started beating on him. He probably could have killed him. The guy that was running Buttrey's Food Store in those days, in the mall, their last name was Lowe. So, thank God, that his son and his girlfriend came out of the side door of Penney's at that time.

Grant: Can we hear more about your husband? You said he was a miner, but then he was working for the paper later.

Eva: Yes, he worked for the Montana Standard. How did he get to the job? My husband and son both worked for the Montana Standard. And my son's nephew was the head of the Montana Standard at one time. And then he moved to Helena and then became the head of the Independent Record. And his name was Don Berryman. So that's basically how my husband got the job at the Montana Standard. And of course the mines had closed down and you know, you were lucky to get a job that was secure.

Grant: You said he was a fighter. Did you ever witness that?

Eva: No. No. I just heard about it. He didn't come home with many bruises, but his reputation, I guess, followed him.

Jaap: So what came first? The fighting or the reputation?

Eva: It probably didn't take many fights to get the reputation. Well, because it was a different class of people in those days. And somebody heard that he was tough and they thought they were tough. So they're going to try him and see if he's as tough as his reputation. And then it just escalated. And like, but we did have the best seats when we went anywhere because "No trouble tonight, Ray, no trouble tonight." And then every Monday, the cleaners just came to his mother's house because, and they'd say, "Ma'am, he has such nice clothes and he's destroying them because they're full of blood." Oh my gosh. And then the men's store, it was on Main Street there. And I think it was called Spears at the time. And that's where he used to, I think every week before we got married, he probably went and bought himself clothes because he liked it. So they just, they wore those ugly things down the mine.

And like I said, I didn't appreciate what he did in the mine until I saw the damn drill that he was using. Oh God, you were pretty mean. Yeah. Yeah.

Grant: And when did he pass away then?

Eva: It's 36, 37 years now.

Grant: Long time.

Eva: Yup. Yup. I was young. And I had plenty of people call me, but I never went out with anybody. I'm thinking, why are you guys calling me? I mean, they were single and actually they were drop-dead when I went to high school, but it's like, once is enough. And I had two kids and stuff and I had had stepdads and it just wasn't my cup. You know, what your mother went through and ended up like living in Silver Bow Homes. I can remember when my dad was alive and you drove by Silver Bow Homes, they would always talk about it. And it was like only bad people lived in Silver Bow Homes. And then you're in high school and you're living in Silver Bow Homes.

Jaap: Yeah. It was probably hard.

Eva: It was hard. And it was not like it's a secret because you walked straight across to the school and in the door. So yeah. But you can become whatever you want to be, whatever you want to do. My poor uncle. And I drive by now because their house has been torn down and I cannot envision a three room house in that area. It doesn't look like it's any bigger than this table. And it has to be, but with grass and stuff growing and dirt moving, it's like really? And they took me in. And my sister and the aunt's family took her in, they had a big house, so she was better off than I was because she had her own room and stuff.

Jaap: Was that hard being separated from your sister?

Eva: Um, yes and no. We would meet and go to Sunday school or church, and then I'd catch the bus and go home. Or when I was at Silver Bow Homes. Used to go to the Beehive and then get some pancakes sometimes. Sometimes when you walked up from the church, because we went to Emmanuel Lutheran Church in those days. Because there were three churches on one corner. There were three different churches.

Grant: What about all the little grocery stores, I'm curious about those and what they were like and why you think they closed?

[01:01:03]

Eva: Well I know Manza's Grocery and then there was a, I can't think of the guy's name that ran the meat market part of it. Well, Frankie Manza ran it when he was around, but then there was a different guy that ran the meat part of it. But, I ran around with John Manza and we went up to the office to type a thing, it was just something that stuck out from the wall. And it was like an office. If she would have ever collected the money that people owed her, she'd probably been a millionaire. Because if they had the groceries and they didn't have the money, she just . . . And she had a potbelly stove, she stood by it, she always wore long black clothes and, and they just helped people out, because I can remember me and John going up there and looking at, "Oh wow", because you knew these people may never, never pay their bill. So now it's a house.

But then there was the Friendly Tavern. I mean, there were bars too, and there was The Friendly Tavern, and uh, Nelly, I can't, I don't know her last name. I look at her house all the time. And so Nellie ran the Friendly Tavern. Well, Grandpa used to stop 'cause he worked graveyard most of the time. Because he's more like a watchman. He would stop in the Friendly, they played cards. They got, I mean, it was like us getting off at five o'clock to them now, the way their lives were. And so they'd stop in there and play a few games of cards. Oh my God, she was just sure that he had something, him and Nellie had something going on. She was ornery, Winifred.

Grant: Did you have favorite bars?

Eva: Me? No, no, I never to this day, uh, I might have something that looks like a milkshake or a daiquiri, but as far as beer or that I've never, or a high ball, I've never tasted it. Hm, no. I like the ones that have all the calories, but it didn't bother me. And I think it was, you played the punch board while they were drinking, doing their talking and stuff. The kids could play the punch boards. Anybody could play the punch boards and it was usually candy that you were winning, boxes of candy. Husbands didn't have to worry about taking their wife's home something for Valentine's day because all they had to do was play the punch and take home a box of candy.

Grant: I was hoping you could tell us about the time you made the paper when you got married.

Eva: Okay, we got married and because of my husband always hanging out in the bar on Daly Street. I can't think what this one was called. It was on the South side of Daly Street. Anyway, when the Great Falls Brewery, I think it was or whatever, when they delivered and they knew he was getting married, they left all these cases of beer, which then the reception was at my mother's house. And so this beer came up to my mother's house and it was put out in the back of the house.

And, uh, anyway, of course, my husband's friends are around and stuff. And then they knew that there was beer back there and then eventually the beer got stolen. And then they moseyed on down to the bar on North Excelsior Street. And then there were a couple of people in there and then they got into fisticuffs and they ended up in jail and then their punishment was that they got drafted. But because my husband ran around with them, they figured that he had to have been with them also. So he also got drafted, but he didn't pass the physical, he had a bad heart. So he didn't pass the physical.

Grant: Quite the punishment.

Eva: Yeah. They just sent them to service. Yeah. So there would've been LJ Connell, I think. And Oh God, somewhere I've probably got it written down who the other ones were. But yeah, my husband remained a fighter up until almost the time he died. Because somebody cut him off coming up Main Street when we were turning over to get pork chops or we weren't going to turn over to get pork chops, but the car that cut him off, turned over to get full of Pork Chop John's. He pulls in and parked on the other side of the street, runs across the street, knocks the guy on the ground, comes back, gets in the car and drives home. So he never got over his fighting days. But he wasn't a big guy. He just was strong and tough and had the reputation.

Jaap: I kind of admire that. There's times . . .

Eva: But everybody trusts me that I'm not going to do anything to them, because I have a grandson that was at the place down in Rocker, the whatever it was, you know, one of those places that have the women and stuff, and he calls me to come pick him up. I said, "Ed, I'm leaving. You better be out there when I get there." I mean, Oh God, this is just where I want to be.

Jaap: I am not going inside to get you.

Eva: At the whore house. Yeah. So, but they knew if they were out drinking or that, to call me. Because I bailed one grandson. He never even made it to the first prom he went to because they got in a fight. And God, I had to wash the white tuxedo and steam it before I could take it back to the place. Him and the girl are in jail and the girl thinks it's pretty funny, but I didn't think it was very funny because I had to bail them out.

Jaap: So they went to jail before prom? Oh my God. There's a prom story.

Eva: And so then he got in trouble at the Civic Center one night, which I was there. So I really didn't see that he did anything. It was Oak Ridge Boys were there and all these young kids went up to the stage to be up in front of the stage. Well, his mistake was that he had on a hot pink Cowboys' shirt. So he stood out. And when they made them go back, and I'm sitting there with my granddaughters, somebody pushed them as they're going back. And he kind of bumped into a lady and they got his hand up behind his back and they're taking him to jail. I hopped down and I went out and Mickey Sullivan was the one that was taking him. And I hollered at him. He says, "Jennie, shut up or I'm going to have to take you in too." And so I just had to go to the jail and bail him out and take him home.

But we also went back to the Civic Center. I just had him change his clothes and get rid of the hot pink shirt. We went in the other side door and I just would look to make sure he was still sitting up there. Because he was sitting up there with his friend. I mean, it was an act. It wasn't anything deliberate or mean, or that it was just, he got pushed and he bumped this lady. Hmm. Yeah. So I took him back to the Civic Center. But Mickey Sullivan saying, "Shut up or I'll take you in too."

I had four grandkids and they're out. They're at the Met Bar. And so my youngest granddaughter, she says, "I'm going to call Granny to come and get us." And somebody said, "You can't call your grandmother to come and get you." She said, "Yes, I can. Watch me." And I said, "Just make sure you're outside." And the four of them are sitting on the side before I drive up to take them home.

Jaap: That's a compliment to you.

Eva: Well, I'd rather do that than have something bad happen to them. And my youngest grandson one day, he's with a girl and they were walking down Main Street. He calls me because she lives a long ways out on the flat. And he called me and I picked him and the girl up and took them home. And then another night they were in the hotel and they were getting carried away a little bit. And he called me. And when I got to the hotel, I called and I said, "Ed, I can see that window. I know you're up there. I work for this company. Get your ass out here." That's all . . . worked for Town Pump and your grandkid gets on in jail because he's tearing up a room or something.

Jaap: Oh, Jenny, that's pretty funny.

Eva: Do you know Ed Graham? He works for Northwest Energy. He's really good looking.

Grant: You'll have to introduce him.

Jaap: I go do some drive-by's on my bike.

Eva: He works at Northwest energy and he's going to be a good catch for somebody someday. He has a really nice house in Buxton and has two dogs and two horses. And has a housekeeper that comes and cleans his house once a week. Because that was something they were going to do for me. And I said, "No, you're not because I'd have to clean it before they came. I don't want somebody cleaning my stuff."

Jaap: I'd be the same way.

Eva: I think he kinda has a girlfriend now. So we'll see.

Grant: I'm curious about Walkerville and the decline of that town. What have you seen over the years there? What happened?

Eva: Oh, well there was the liquor store. Um, there was a house that had a little grocery store in the house, down there on West Daly Street. Um, so you didn't have to go all the way up to Manza's or something. Mail was delivered twice a day at the post office. So you walked up there 'cause you might have a piece of mail. And eventually we got boxes at the post office where you could, but before you stood in line and I'm sure everybody knew what mail everybody got. Yeah. So they delivered the mail twice a day. And on that corner there was a shoemaker and he repaired shoes and there was not a kid that had a floppy sole or stuff on their shoes because if he saw a kid that needed something done, he fixed their shoes. And Manza's Market was down from that. Used to jump rope for hours, boys and girls. Just the longer the rope, the more kids that was jumping, the better it was. And you'd always do that in front of Manza's.

[01:13:27]

And in the wintertime, the boys hooked on the back of the cars to take a ride. I don't know how they got back up the hill, but they managed to go down it. The Palace Hotel was there, which my great-grandmother ran. The men worked three shifts, so as one group left and another group came in and she made their buckets and stuff. So, there was the two buildings, but the Palace Hotel now is an empty lot. But then one, two story building is still there. It's red color. Um, I can't think of the name. On the corner of B street. And that is a two story house. I wish I had brought my book that I'm doing with all this stuff that I'm doing for my great grandkids, my grandkids and my kids for Christmas. So these books are just growing and growing and growing.

Jaap: That's amazing.

Eva: So I have to get 15 copies made every time I get something made. But hopefully they'll appreciate them and pass them on to their families. And it's been fun doing it. And as I do it, I put the dividers in. And so, yeah, I should've thought of it. I'd have brought one with me today.

Jaap: You will have to bring one up.

Eva: It was quite the place in its day. You can make what you want to out of . . .The other day, I ran into a cousin in Walmart and I'm thinking, 'God, I haven't seen you in years.' And if he didn't stop me, I think I'd have walked right by him. And I used to run into him in Helena all the time. He lived in Helena, but he must be living in Butte now. So, but I forgot to ask.

Grant: I just have one more question. I was curious about, you know, being a miner's wife, were you worried he wouldn't come home or were you worried about strikes? What was it like?

Eva: Strikes were bad, but you got like food stamps today probably. You got things where you could go, like Pay and Save on Harrison Avenue and stuff, and you had to buy good stuff to eat. You just couldn't buy crap. Yeah. And, uh, so they took care of you so that you didn't go hungry. They didn't shut off your power and stuff like that. So it was bad, and it wasn't bad. Nowadays, it'd probably be a lot worse because you wouldn't get those benefits. But like I said, they didn't like their job, didn't like their boss, things didn't go right, they just went up, called the cage, cage came down and picked him up. They went to the hiring place and went to a different mine that afternoon or that graveyard.

Grant: Would he do that?

Eva: Oh yeah, absolutely.

Grant: Do you think he ever had any close calls down there?

Eva: Um, I don't know. He ran that thing through his, you know what, one time . . . They never, they didn't really talk about that. I mean, amongst themselves they would talk, but you really didn't know what they were talking about. Like I said, a drill, I thought it was . . . not this drill. A little drill out of the toolbox. The first time I realized that, I'm thinking, 'Oh, my God and I hollered because you wanted to go have a beer after dinner.'

Grant: Was that only after he was gone, that you saw the Jack leg?

Eva: Yes. He went to work for the Montana Standard and stuff, but if he could have went back in the mines, he would have gone back in a minute. That was his life was the mines.

Grant: Well, how did you all deal with the closures? When the mines really started closing down for good?

Eva: His nephew was a big shot for the Montana Standard and got him a job at the Montana Standard. And he worked in the mailroom. And actually he had started working in the mail room even when he was still doing a little bit of mining also. Yeah.

Jaap: For someone who loved mining, was it hard for him to see mining being shut down?

Eva: Yeah. He would have went back, if the mines would have opened up, he would have been probably first in line to go back in. I think that was most any miner that was a contract miner. But it sure was an awakening for me when I went to the World Museum of Mining and saw. And those cages that they . . . and they used to do terrible things to each other, especially if somebody was getting married or something. I think here's all these big old guys and these little kids, Jesus, I can't even imagine.

Jaap: Men are terrible.

Eva: They are, yes, they are. But I think they enjoyed every minute that they worked. And if you get a blast everyday, you were good. I just can't even imagine putting those blasting caps in those holes and shoving them in with that big rod. Oh no, but that was, that was just . . . because my uncle was the same way. And he was a boss in the end at Lexington Mine before they closed down. But life goes on.

Grant: Do you have any hopes for Butte? What would you like to see happen here?

Eva: Right now I don't think we're drastically bad. Probably be nice if a couple of businesses could come in that could put 20, 30 people to work. Yeah, it'd be nice. But like the buildings on Park Street and stuff that you used to see, they're gone and paying a million dollars for that parking garage. Wasn't that what they paid for it?

Grant: Seven million.

Eva: That is the stupidest, asinine thing for homeless people to sleep in and sit on the benches in front of it. I wouldn't walk by it, outside on the street.

Jaap: I won't park in there. It's too scary.

Eva: The old parking lot. My one granddaughter worked there because it was a little cage. And you got a ticket when you went in and you paid when you went out. Which was okay with me because I worked in the shoe store across the street from it so I could . . . But there was, we had so many places to shop and stuff. Diana Hughes was . . . when that side of Park Street went . . .Used to get the best hotdogs for lunch. You'd go sit at the counter and get a hotdog.

Grant: I forgot to ask you about the fires. Did you see the buildings burning?

Eva: Uh, no, not actually burning. No, I'm a too big of a coward. I wouldn't want to, to witness it. If something happened to come on the TV or something, but no. Nope.

Grant: Well, how did it make you feel when the uptown did start to burn?

Eva: Terrible, like when the Penney's store went and Gluven's Florist and the ladies that had the fur shop. And, of course, now that's a bar, isn't it downstairs? I haven't been down in it, but, boy, those two had some diamond rings. They were nice ladies though. Very nice ladies. And Gamers, they used to have the best cupcakes with a maple frosting on them and a cherry on top. You always had to get a dozen of their cupcakes. So those were really good.

[01:23:32]

Jaap: If you could taste one bite of food again, that you loved, what would it be?

Eva: I liked the American Candy Shop. I really liked going in there and I just liked the ladies that ran it. I couldn't even tell you what I ate when I went in there, but I just liked going into the American Candy Shop.

Grant: And where was that?

Eva: It was on the northside of Park Street. Um, what would be there now? Is there kind of a clothing store there, maybe in that area? It was kind of in that main, or kind of across from [unintelligible] and stuff. They had a lot of, when you went into it, um, they had the little square glass walls and stuff, you know, that kind of fancy stuff. Gamers, food place. I still have it at my house. Every week my husband bought my oldest granddaughter a storybook doll and I have this huge case of them. Now, she's got a daughter that's a senior in high school, and I still have this case of storybook dolls. If he would have only been smart and kept the boxes. But every payday he bought her a doll. So I don't know what she's going to do with them when I'm gone, but you probably still could get some money for them though, even if you don't have it. But if you have the box, you would really have something, but they've always been in a glass thing. So they're not dirty or dusty or anything.

Yep. In my house at Christmas time, it's Christmas from door to door. I have lots and lots of Christmas decorations. So everybody comes to my house on Christmas Eve. We eat and play games. It's about Mr. And Mrs. And if you say it . . . you put the kids on the floor and they have a gift, they bring a gift, and it has to be something that a boy or girl can use and as big as they are now, because the oldest grade grandson plays for the Bobcat's. He was a red shirt freshman this year, but he should play next year. They sit on the floor in a big circle and this story is a Christmas story.

And if you say Mrs. Right, or Mr. Left, and so the packages go right, and then they go left and then they might go right for two or three times, and as big as they are. And then my one granddaughter gets up on a chair, makes them all lay down on the floor with their heads together. So then she takes a picture of their heads in this big circle. Oh my God. And they still do it. That's pretty great. Holden will come. And if we do it this year, he will get down on the floor with those kids. And I put up a table where the women sit with chairs. The men get the dining room table with chairs because they like to do their bit of stuff. And the kids, I have a kitchen nook with the benches and stuff, and that's where the kids get to go and they can do their stuff out in the kitchen nook. And the food's just put out and help yourselves. But they love playing that game and I have a niece and she brings her grandkids up too. So that's Mr. and Mrs. Right. That's quite the story.

Grant: It makes me want to come over for Christmas.

Eva: Yeah, well, come. Anybody's welcome. I have some new neighbors now that I'm not really crazy about, but I think they came from New York. So does that explain something maybe? I hope you're not from New York.

Jaap: Did they just move in recently? Like with COVID buying up stuff?

Eva: Yeah, last couple of weeks. Yeah. Oh yeah.

Jaap: I'm a little nervous about the impacts of what's going to happen here.

Eva: They're not friendly at all. I mean, the family that lived there was very friendly and we, you know, sometimes we got upset with each other because one day he thought he could shovel his snow onto my yard. And my grandson went up and told him, "You cannot shovel your snow into my grandmother's yard. That's against the law." But you know, you could sit. There were no hard feelings. Another time, the ditch is so the water would run out of his yard into my yard, because my yard is lower than that yard. So my grandkids put up a cement wall.

Jaap: You've good grandkids.

Eva: You know, they're hard workers and they know how to do stuff like that. My daughter-in-law, her brother works for the sand and gravel place over in Helena. So it wasn't hard to get the cement over here. I have a nice cement wall. Well, these new people from New York probably better not try shoveling the snow over the wall, if they even stay that long. I don't know. Yeah. Interesting.

Grant: One winter, maybe.

Eva: That'll take care of it. But yeah, it's been interesting. Well, I'll try to get you guys a copy of Mr. and Mrs. Right. "Mrs. Right left the house." Something like that. It's just a cute story. If you can think of something, anything else you need to know that I might know? There's no guarantees, but I just might know.

Jaap: Well, Jennie, thanks for sitting with us today.

Eva: Oh, you're so welcome. Yeah. That's my grandson. That's playing for the Bobcat.

Jaap: Oh, he's a freshman?

Eva: Yeah.

Jaap: Is he bummed that this year is not turning out probably what he was hoping it would be?

Eva: Um, this was his graduation picture. I haven't heard any complaints because I think he's working out. They've got him up to like almost 300 pounds. Somebody says, "Well, what position does he play?" Um, he played on the line when they're trying to stop the other team from making a touchdown. So I have no idea what he plays.

Grant: I'm not much of a sports guy.

Eva: I have no idea.

Grant: He is on the defensive line.

Eva: Offensive, defensive, I don't know.

Grant: He's a great grandson?

Eva: Yes. I have six great grandkids.

Grant: Well, I hope they'll appreciate the history you're putting together.

Eva: They will. I think it's something that I've started. I don't know how I got started into it. I think going to Chris Smith's class probably, and you start thinking about history and 'Yeah. Oh yeah, I've got that. Or I got this or why don't I do that?' And these books that I'm putting together for them are really nice. So whenever I find something, I hurry up and go get down to that yellow building on Front Street and get copies made and go home and put them in there because I got notebooks for each of them.

Jaap: They'll love that. Yeah.

Eva: The one I got now. My grandfather was with the Lewis and Clark expedition. So gotta take that one down now.

Jaap: What was his role in that?

Eva: You know, it's been so long since I've read it, I've got to read it again.

Jaap: That's really interesting.

Grant: I was curious what made Beverly want to make that book?

Eva: On Walkerville? It was a college project.

Grant: Okay, because I've read that. Yeah. I love the picture of her with the beehive hair that's in there. It's really cool.

Eva: It was a college shoot. She decided later in life to go to college because she wanted to be a teacher. And, uh, actually, she probably would even admit it. She said, if it wasn't for me, she wouldn't have gotten to talk to all of the people that she got to talk to in Walkerville and stuff because they didn't know anything about her at that, you know, until she wrote the book on Walkerville. Yeah. And so it was a college thing and then she moved away and she was gone for a long time. And now she's back in Butte. But it's like, she was gone for so long and we never were exactly the same. We weren't like Bobbsey twins or that, we were different.

And so other than maybe once or twice a year, I don't even, never a phone call or anything like that. If it's her birthday, I might stop there. She still has a husband who is hard of hearing. So if you go, it's like, "What did you say?!" If you see her, don't you dare tell her that I said that. And so she's got one daughter that lives here and a couple of grandkids that live here and then the other daughter lives over in Bozeman. So the one daughter who lives here comes to my house for Christmas. And Bev and her husband go to the other daughter's house in Bozeman. She used to live in Livingston. Now I think she lives in Bozeman or right out of Bozeman someplace there. Yeah, so, Bev decided to go to college and it was a project.

Grant: I'm glad she did it.

Eva: And she knew that I knew most everybody in Walkerville. So it was easy and people were glad to think that there was going to be a book on Walkerville and stuff.

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