Frances Choate Oral History

This is an oral history interview of 97-year old Frances Choate, recorded by Margie Gibb on January 17, 2008, at Mrs. Choate's home in Seahurst, Washington.

Mrs. Choate: When we bought this place the owner of the place next door had been there I guess for years, I don't know. Ray J Huff. And he is owner of the, I guess it was a steel mill. Anyway the plant was located at the bottom of the hill where the road goes up to West Seattle. And he was there I guess for several years and then he bought a larger place over just above where the hospital is now.

Q. How old were you when you came here?

A. Oh, 37.

Q. You weren't here as a child?

A. No. Frank and I moved to this area when he left active service after the World War and Korea. We had wondered what will we do when we had a chance to choose our own home? We had talked about coming to the northwest so we came to Seattle to look for a home. Frank went to work for the - what was it called? Anyway it was the War Department here in Seattle.

Q. Now what year was this?

A. I think it was 1947. I would have been 37 years old then. I was always 10 years younger than the year. We were here 4 and a half years before Frank was ordered back onto active duty for the Korean War and his first assignment was Commanding Officer at Ft. Lewis. And then he went from there to Japan. And at that time I think it was they had to have a year's residence in Japan before he could take his family overseas. So when he went to Korea, we had moved back here and I had stayed with the children for a year before I joined him in Japan and we were in Japan, I've forgotten how long, and went from Japan to Guam for a year. And then from Guam he came back here. You know, I've lost track of those dates? I don't know what they were. I haven't thought about this in a long time. But by the time we came back here the children were grown and either out on their own or in school - I mean in higher education or college.

Q. Did you get involved in the community when you came back?

A. No. I didn't. Because, well to begin with I was here alone with the children and I just didn't have time. And the children weren't in school so I had to keep up with them and that was all I could do.

Q. That's pretty neat. You did a lot of traveling and saw a lot of things.

A. Yes we did a lot of travel. It wasn't always easy on the children because so often they would no more than get settled and make friends in school and we'd have to move again.

Q. What were the changes that you saw in your lifetime? Did they have telephones then?

A. Yes, we had telephones when I was in my teens at home. And I think I was maybe 14 when we got the first telephone at home. We didn't get it as soon as the rest of our neighbors did because the telephone line had to come across the railroad tracks and there was some complication about agreements between the telephone company and the railroad. And so those on the side of the track where we lived didn't get telephones until a year or two after the people on the other side of the tracks had it.

Q. When you were in grade school were you in a one-room school house?

A. Oh no. We had surprisingly good schools.

Q. And where was that?

A. In Las Cruces, New Mexico. I can't think of the name now but we had a four-room brick building for our grade school and then the high school was a modern building, and well equipped. And three miles from Las Cruces we had the land grant college - agricultural college, and it later was converted into a University. Of course its still there and is quite a school.

Q. Did your Mom do all the sewing and make your clothes when you were little?

A. My father died in 1919 and Mother raised us. The oldest boy was 12, I think, and the youngest was 4. I had three brothers and myself… 4 children. And Mother started a small dairy while we were still in school and - while we children were all four at home we could take care of it. When the older boys went off to school we had a student from the college stay with us to help with the milking and the barn work and so forth. Mother ran the dairy for quite a few years …I don't know whether it was 20, or not. It was long enough. Anyway it helped pay for our schooling. My two older brothers went to MacMurray in Abilene, Texas. MacMurray started out as a Methodist school but converted to an independent school the second or third year it was in operation. It's still there. It's still quite a school.

Q. When you get tired you tell me because I can come back another time.

A. Don't worry about that. You aren't wearing me out. I can wander on. You had better guide me into what you want.

Q. One thing I wanted to ask you was about groceries at that time: What kind of grocery stores did you have when you were 37 - or 38? (Note: Mrs. Choate is rather deaf)

A. Cruces was quite a modern town. There were four grocery stores on Main Street. There was a large Spanish Mexican population in the region and the grocery stores on one side of the street were conducted by a caucasian group. One store that the Mexicans used almost exclusively was on the other side of the street. Cruces was a town of 15,000 and back in the 1900's to begin with that was a good sized town.

Q. Its grown quite a bit. I have a cousin that lives in Las Cruces. It's a lot bigger than that now.

A. It grew a lot. That was the population before we moved into town. And it grew of course while we were there. The college grew too.

Q. Another thing I wanted to ask you if you remember when you were a little girl when you got electric lights?

A. I don't remember what year it was. But it was 2 years or so after the people on the other side of the tracks had electricity because they didn't bring the lines across the tracks and down to where we lived.

Q. Did you use oil lamps?

A. Yes, we used oil lamps in the house and lanterns out of doors. We never wanted for light. But of course we didn't have the conveniences that electricity brought. The year after we had electricity Mother put in an electric pump for our well so that we had running water. Of course before that we couldn't have running water. We didn't have the means of storing and producing the pressure that it takes to have the running water.

Q. I remember when my Grandma and Grandpa got running water and an indoor bathroom. How did things change after WWII? Was there a drastic change in your living?

A. No, very little. In fact I hardly noticed it. We came from Texas out here and we lived in Renton for three months while we were looking for a place, and when we found this we bought it and have owned it ever since. People asked me once how much we paid for the place. It was something over $8,000 and less than $9,000. And they say "Oh my land!"

I said, "Its true. But it doesn't account for what it costs to keep it."

Q. That's right. Yes, because the taxes have gone up.

A. And it wasn't entirely paid for when Frank was ordered back onto active duty. There were times we rented it. To begin with we had a very good renter. But when they moved out then we had trouble renting and trouble with the renters and one in particular was rather destructive and it cost us to refurnish and put it back in condition to be rented again.

Q. We have been through that too because we have an 8 unit apartment building.

A. It means something when you happen to get undesirable tenants.

Q. There are some that as long as its not theirs they're not going to take care of it.

A. To begin with we were very fortunate. We had a very good tenant for several years.

Q. When you did all of your traveling, what kind of entertainment did you and your children have while your husband was busy with the military?

A. I can't remember that we had any. We didn't go to the theater. We did go to church and Sunday school. We joined the First Methodist Church down on Fifth and Marion in Seattle. So we went to the larger church than was out here. They had the small congregation that was over on First Avenue that is still active.

Q. Highline Methodist?

A. Yes, we went into town to the larger church.

Q. My husband and I were married at Highline Methodist.

A. We decided we wanted the larger group. Frank would take part in the choir. He wanted to go into that.

Q. When you moved back into Burien did we have the trolley at that time? Was the trolley in operation?

A. We always had bus operation here. It comes out on the street that runs east and west through Burien (152nd). We were a little less than three blocks from the junction up here where there was a bus stop. So we had bus communications from the time we bought the place.

Q. I see, so the trolley wasn't running then, was it?

A. I've never seen a trolley or known about a trolley being out here.

Q. Back before we had bus service there was a trolley that ran up and down 152nd.

A. No. No, we had bus service. You know where the Seahurst Post Office is at? Well, that's across the street and on the other corner is the bus stop. It's still there.

Q. Well, they have been talking about reviving the trolley. Cause we still have the trolley, because it's in storage. They are talking about reviving it and using the trolley in Old Burien so that would be a lot of fun.

A. That would be interesting, wouldn't it?

(Unrelated discussion about Old Burien.)

Q. Now you have how many children?

A. Six - five boys and one girl. Let's see. There's Marion, and of course Frank's here at home and Lorian is over in Covington. Anyway, its 50 miles from here or less. Raymond, the oldest boy, lives in Tacoma. So I have the four children here in this area. Vernon is in Bethesda and Charles is in Ocean City, Maryland.

Q. If there's anything you can think of to add to what we have been talking about maybe we could talk again?

A. The neighbor next door, Ray J Huff. He owned the steel mill that was here in Seattle. I couldn't verify it but I always heard that he was the richest man in the state. I couldn't verify it. I don't know for sure. They bought a large acreage. It lies on the top of the hill above where the high school is. What's that? Sylvester Road? It runs over there, Sylvester Road is down the hill on 9th then the hill comes up and over. Sylvester runs from 3 Tree Point around to First Avenue and anyway he moved over there.

Frank, do you remember the people who lived next door to Huffs? I used to know the name but I cannot remember anymore. Delridge is what runs down to where the steel mill is. If you could get an appointment and talk to the people that live down here you would have a better source. (Kathy Parker) Her maiden name was Silvanoff.

Q. Thank you for letting me come. If you can think of anything else be sure to let Carmen know and she can get hold of us or you can get hold of us - either one