Barbara Johnson, Part 1, Transcript Section 13

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Barbara Johnson, Part 1
Transcript Section 14

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KAREN: Do you remember when the first telephone came in?

BARBARA: Yeah.

There was only like a few -- I think the post mistress was one of them that had a phone, so we'd be able to go to her place sometimes and call. You know. There was only a few people that had a phone. And I think that must have been 19 -- around about there -- '65 maybe. I'm not quite sure, you know. My kids were small then. So I had -- I have eight children and 26 grandchildren.

KAREN: Wow.

BARBARA: And 13 great-grandkids.

KAREN: Wow.

BARBARA: But I had 10, 10 kids, and I -- and two of my children passed away. So I have 8 now.

KAREN: How did -- how did you balance raising 10 children and working as a health aide?

BARBARA: Well, my husband helped me a lot, too. You know. And he stayed home and took care of the kids when I'd go to work.

You know, when I had to -- when I really had to start working in the clinic, you know. So that's how we worked it.

I don't know how we managed, but we did. You know, I think about it now and I wonder, you know, how I ever managed it. But we did.

KAREN: And you managed it -- to raise them with just your salary?

PAULA: Uh-hum (affirmative).

KAREN: Your husband was staying home.

BARBARA: Uh-hum (affirmative). Uh-hum. Yeah. But sometimes he'd go to work and we'd just get a baby-sitter, you know. And we'd pay the baby-sitter like 50 cents an hour.

KAREN: When I first started baby-sitting, I think that's what I got.

BARBARA: Uh-hum.

KAREN: And what was your husband's name?

BARBARA: Joe Johnson, Sr. Joseph Wilson Johnson, Sr.

KAREN: Okay.

BARBARA: Yeah. We're not together anymore.

KAREN: But just so we have his name on record.

BARBARA: Yeah.

KAREN: And then when you had to go to Anchorage for training --