An Interview with Grandma Muriel Blair (Hatting) Voorhees

Steve (S): First thing that I wanted to talk about; I found this in my mom's book collection and I thought maybe you...

Grandma (G): What?

S: I had never seen that one before. What was the story on that?

G: I don't remember it.

S: Oh. *laughter* Do you remember the church at all?

G: Yeah. We went there. They had a... I think they meant Bill. I think they meant him instead of Billy.

S: It's just a Bible, but I though that maybe... Do you have any special memories about that church?

G: It was just a big church. It had a senior choir, a junior choir, and then they had a... every grade had a choir. And they used to come and.. one of the other of the.. would go on. There's one Sunday or another.

S: Okay. Um.. could you talk about your mom and dad for a little while, or what it was like growing up.

 Pictured: Benjamin V. Blair (1884-?) and Myrtle Lovilla Brown (1884-1980) on their wedding day

G: Well we all lived on this farm. And we all had our certain chores to do. I had a variety of everything; I can't remember. *pause* We had 2 miles and a half to school. We had to go everyday. Sometimes dad would take us and then other times we had to walk. We would have to get up early and cut out through the fields and take short cuts. We had some neighbor kids that we used to go walk with us. That's just life. That's life then.

S: What did you and your brothers and sisters used to talk about when you walked to school? Did you guys used to talk about anything on your walk to school?

G: Nothing special. Our studies mainly.

S: Did you guys talk about boyfriends or girlfriends or anything like that?

G: We were too young. I didn't have that until high school.

S: So you and Wayne went to the same high school and everything?

G: Yeah.

S: Oh! Yeah! What high school was it?

G: Lexington.

S: Then um... I know I asked a while back, but could you describe your father a little bit? Because I thought it was a really good description.

G: He had red hair. He was the real boss of the family. Took us to school. *indistinguishable* We had our certain chores that we'd do that he'd tell us to.

S: What was his personality like?

G: Nice personality. Family. Happy. But he was strict, though. He made us do our chores. I don't know what else.

S: What would he do when you guys misbehaved?

G: Oh. We got punished. He'd ground us. Scold us.

S: Did he ever use a belt or anything like that?

G: No.

S: Good. That's a good thing. *laughter* Um.. hmm... What about Grandpa Wayne's family? What was his family like? What was his father like?

   Pictured: Wayne Willis Hatting (1914-1973)
 Pictured: Henry & Alice, Robert W. Hatting (1941- ), and Muriel B. Hatting (1910- ) holding William S. Hatting (1946- )
 Pictured: George Hatting (1889-1966) and daughter Alice and son Wayne Hatting
 Pictured: Robert W. Hatting, Joseph A. Hatting (great-grandfather) (1860-?), and William Hatting

G: Well, he saw to it that we got our chores done. Of course he was my husband then. We got along real well.

S: Did he live on the farm with you and...? No?

G: No. He ran a service station in Lexington.

S: Like a gas station? Huh... Interesting, I didn't know that before.

G: Oh, didn't you? That was when we were first married. He ran it and later on he went to school and got more education in electrical work as an electrical engineer. He wouldn't take *indistinguishable* lose the possibility of his health. He couldn't stand it.

S: Um... what about his parents?

G: *indistinguishable* We didn't know them too well

S: Do you know what his name is?

G: George. His name was George.

S: Yeah... and then...?

G: Her name was Katherine (or Catherine).

S: What about Grandpa Wayne's sister?

G: She went into nurses training at *indistinguishable* in *indistinguishable*, Nebraska and she got involved in drugs, sorry to say. She had a bad life. Then after that she didn't take her state board to get her license. Then she went to... she got into more trouble and that's when she died. *pause* She was a nurse.

Dad (D): What state was she certified in?

S: Oh! What state was she certified in?

G: What?

S: Dad wants to know what state she was certified in.

G: Nebraska.

D: Who was she married to?

S: Oh. Um... Who was Alice married to?

G: Henry something. I can't remember his last name. Henry...

S: So you did meet George, right? When you met him, what did he look like and...?

G: Well... he was just an ordinary man.

S: Did he have dark hair or...?

G: Yeah.

S: What about his eyes?

G: I don't recall.

S: That's fine. Um... When you... Okay... You and your family would sit around the dinner table, what... um... did you guys talk about stuff or anything like that?

G: Well, it was a little bit of everything. Just things that were going on.

S: What about the Great Depression? What was that like?

G: Well, that took jobs away from a lot of people and made it hard for people to get work and have food on the table and stuff like that. We were on a farm so we didn't have to worry too much about food. We had eggs and chickens, and meat from the stock. If you tried to sell anything there was no price for them. Everything was *indistinguishable*. You couldn't make any money.

S: Um... did you ever run across anyone who wondered into the farms?

G: I don't know about that.

S: How did you come to live in California?

G: When Wayne and I got married we decided we would go live in Seattle, Washington, so after we got married we took off. And then...uh... I don't know how we got into California.

D: Shasta.

G: Oh. Your dad (talking to my dad) worked at Shasta at a warehouse.

S: Um... Tell me about your grandparents, Robert Brown and...?

G: I never did know him too well. He was ailing then and when I was growing up and then he passed away before I got to know him.

S: What about your Grandmother?

G: My Grandma was on a farm and I. Then she asked me if I come live with her. So I moved in with her.

 Pictured: Robert Brown (1841-1922) and his wife, Leni Leona Tucker (1856-1932).
S: Any stories that stand out about her? Did she used to talk about her parents?

G: No.

S: Um... Did you... let's see... I have the dates written down here but "Joseph Hatting?" Did you ever meet him?

G: Yeah. That was Wayne's grandfather.

S: Um... what was he like.

G: Very nice man. Retired farmer. He was always looking our for everybody. Always interested in what Wayne did. Then when we moved to the coast, they were still in Nebraska so it was quite a long distance between us so we didn't see them for quite a long time. I used to write him a letter every week and tell him what we were doing and everything and share things; Wayne was in school. They wanted to know about that. Then after his grandmother died he made a trip out to see us.

S: Were you talking about Matilda?

G: Grandma Matilda Hatting.

S: What did he look like? What was his appearance?

G: Didn't you see in the pictures?

S: No.

G: I've got some in my albums.

S: Well, we looked through three or four and I didn't see any in there. It's mostly you and Jim.

G: Well I've got some small ones... small albums. Those are the big ones. It's in the small ones.

(After looking through a couple more of the 10-12 albums I didn't see earlier, we found some of Joseph Hatting, George, and family. Keep in mind, up to this point I had never seen George and the only photo I had seen of Joseph, I thought it was George.)

 Pictured: Joseph A. Hatting and his wife, Matilda Swanson Hatting