He wanted some of my blood – Minute 22

You get a lot of things. There was a lady from Helena and her wife was, her husband was here last week. They live at Helena – have a cabin out there, close to Helena. They go out there – she says she knit a thing, a lap robe or something and give me that thing. Then I got a dog from Ohio. You get all kinds of stuff. Fruit, candy and different things. DIR HUNTER WEEKS: That’s nice, that’s special. WALTER: Yeah. I even had a visit from a doctor in Boston. He wanted some of my blood and uh…

Governor Schweitzer Peaches and Pears – Minute 21

DIR. HUNTER WEEKS: Can you tell us again about working and your 99 years? WALTER: No I stopped working in ’95 when I moved into – I moved into here in ’94. That’s when the Rest Home bought the Hotel. I moved in here 1980 Elbon Club – And run this Shriner Club for quite awhile – years. I loved the job. DIR. HUNTER WEEKS: You were talking about Governor Schweitzer – you’ve met him a few times? Tell us more about him. WALTER: The Governor? Yeah – he’s been here three years. One year he bought me a basket of peaches and pears. Boy I’ll tell you sure had fun there. That was good.

$5 a day was a big wage – Minute 20

They built Fort Peck Dam in the 30’s. Put men back to work. Built the Civic Center here in Great Falls in ’33 and the rate of pay at that time – 65 cents an hour. So you can see that during the early years, that $5 a day was a big wage. Now look what you get. Governor was telling us he paid $21 for the highway – people that are working on the highway. $21 an hour you know. And that’s nothing – some of them are getting $50 an hour now. And that’s where all that money’s coming from. You can tell by Christmas time – god, people are buying everything that they wanted.

Washington Bailouts 1930s vs. Today – Minute 19

Washington don’t want us to know. They know where it goes. They give…they give Wall Street all those millions of dollars bailing them out; give the banks all that money bailing ’em out, which they shouldn’t. Because banks are closing all over everywhere. Now it’s different. Now it’s – everybody’s got more than they ever had. You can just figure out that. That’s the comparison between the 30’s and I get a lot of letters. I’ve had over 300 letters from all over the country – and they’re very interested in 1930. If some of them sent me a stamped envelope, I’d write them back what happened you know.

Nothing made in this country anymore – Minute 18

Same with television. Started in the 40’s – that was the same thing. And these places here, god there must be a million of these homes now in the United States. They have to hire – this place hires 25 people to work. So look at the millions of people that’s working all over. That’s the money that’s coming into the country today. And you know, recently I heard somebody asked one of the Senators about the money from the foreign countries cause you know you can’t buy nothing made in this country anymore. All the clothes, shoes, everything moved to other countries. And they charge 35% interest for all the goods that come into the country and he asked the Senator what happens to the money. He didn’t know.

Ladies come out of the Kitchen – Minute 17

There were no factories open – no place in the country. All laid off – all the people laid off. Railroad people 10 years seniority laid off for ten years, you know. Couldn’t work. Wasn’t any work. Whole families coming through – box cars – looking for work. No work. It never happened till ’42 – the War started before the men got back to work. That’s when the ladies come out of the kitchen. Went to work. DIR HUNTER WEEKS: Again, that’s causing that change – you know it’s the constant change. WALTER: That’s the changes you know and every change – every change is good. I remember when radio first started. Actors out in Hollywood all thought they were all going to lose their jobs. Radio just created so many more jobs.

1930’s, that was a Depression – Minute 16

DIR HUNTER WEEKS: I’ve heard you say this is nothing like the Great Depression. WALTER: Listen in 1930’s, that was a depression, I’ll tell you that. And don’t let anybody try to compare with what we’re doing today. There’s so much money in the country right today. You know before radio or television and these retirement homes, social security — all that stuff. And then the 1930’s, the stock market went busted in ’29 if you will remember. You’ve probably heard that? That’s when Roosevelt was elected in 1930. Franklin Roosevelt. He immediately closed all the banks in the United States because the banks were closing one after another.

Change is Good – Minute 15

Change? Been so many changes all the way through and I’ll tell you every change has been good for the people. All of ’em. All good changes. Good for Montana too. Right now everybody’s working that can work. There’s a lot of people here that won’t work – don’t want to work right now. And they are trying – some advertise on our radio upstairs here – advertise for people, you know, for jobs. They don’t want them. If the governor was here the other – he’s been here three times. And he said that the banks are full of money, borrowing money, loaning money out, you know, to people. They’re doing a good business – the banks of Montana. And lots of people working. Helps to beat the devil. Good for ’em.

Barn dances and fishing – Minute 14

DIR HUNTER WEEKS: Did you go to a lot of barn dances? WALTER: Yeah, I went to some but not many. I didn’t have time to – I was so damn busy working, I didn’t have time to dance. INTERVIEWER: You’re a hard worker, huh? Keep working. WALTER: I had two jobs all the time. Besides working at the railroad, I was secretary of the Masonic Lodge for years. That kept me busy doing everything. INTERVIEWER: Did you fish? WALTER: Oh darn we’d fish every week – went some place especially up around Essex. More fishing streams around there – the Middle Fork of the Flathead right through there. The big river out of Sun River that flows through there. Many little creeks all full of fish there. That was a busy place to fish up around Glacier Park.

Before radio or television – Minute 13

To live here? Well before radio or television, you know there wasn’t much to do; only read, play cards, or dance. That’s all there was to do. Nothing happened before that because people didn’t do nothing else. That was the whole thing. I can remember when I used to go to the library on Friday we’d get hundreds of other people before radio and television. And a whole pile of books to read over the weekend you know. And that’s what people did at that time – read, play cards, or dance – there wasn’t much else to do. And barn dances you know – specially right out here – just 10 miles, all of them. Darn barn dances all the time.