KAREN:  Before we get into your health aide work, tell us a little bit about yourself and when and where you were born. 

ROSE:  Yeah. 

KAREN:  Your background a little bit. 

ROSE:  Okay.  I was born in McGrath, Alaska, in 19 -- 19 -- 1920.  April of 1920.  My dad -- my dad had a homestead about a mile up the -- mile and a half by river up from McGrath up the Kuskokwim River.  So he raised all us kids up there.  They did, mom and daddy. 

Daddy had two horses and he plowed the gardens and hauled wood in the winter.  One of the things that made for making money, hauling wood to the game wardens and the school and different things. 

KAREN:  Uh-hum.  And what were your parents' names?
 
ROSE:  Oh.  My mamma's name was Sophie Vanderpool, and my dad's name was William.  William T. Vanderpool. 

KAREN:  Okay. 

ROSE:  He was from -- he was from Montana.  He was quite a bit older than mamma.  Came up during the Gold Rush days, and met mom and -- over in the Yukon. 

They lived -- they lived in Flat for a while.  That was during the Iditarod Gold Rush, then, too.  Came up by boat from Seattle to Nome and then worked his way over through. 

But he had been all over.  He had been over in Dawson and all those different places.  But you don't want to know about that. 

KAREN:  Now, where was your mother from originally? 

ROSE:  My mom was from that company over there in the Yukon.  She was from Anvik.

KAREN:  Okay. 

ROSE:  Over in the Yukon.
 
KAREN:  Okay. 

ROSE:  And they moved -- they moved to the McGrath area.  And the year before I was born, they used to -- you know, we didn't have any transportation, just the dog teams in the winter, to Fairbanks, maybe Anchorage. 

The mail came by -- the mail came by dog team.  So they had every few miles, I don't know, 20 miles, maybe more, they would have the roadhouses for the people that get -- get their mails, maybe sometimes spend the night, and put up their dogs. 

Dogs -- some of those teams are like 20 dogs in a team.  They'd travel certain areas and then somebody else would take over and come on over through, over into the -- over into -- towards the Yukon and stuff. 

And mom -- mom and daddy run one roadhouse this side of the range up in -- this side of the Alaska Range.  And Salmon River they called it.  She cooked there and he did whatever.  I suppose he helped to cook and, you know, take care of things. 

But then the year before I was born, they moved to McGrath.  I was the first -- first kid born in McGrath.  I was the fourth one.  Fourth child.  And all together, they had 10 children. 

KAREN:  Wow. 

ROSE:  They all -- we all survived, except a little brother who, in 1940 -- '32, got the whooping cough in McGrath, and he was just a month old, so he died. 

Which we were a healthy bunch of kids because tuberculosis was running wild then, you know, in that country, which we didn't, none of us ever got that.  On the skin tests, some of us, some of them tested positive like we had been exposed to it, but we were pretty healthy.  Didn't -- some of our school mates and things died.  So we were fortunate that way. 

KAREN:  So you lived out on this homestead and then did you start going to school at some point? 

ROSE:  Oh, yeah.  The school was in McGrath.  We had to walk a mile through the woods to school -- 

KAREN:  Oh, okay. 

ROSE:  -- every day.  It's 40 below.  Us girls didn't have to go, but the boys went.  So.  And there was lots of 40 below weather. 

KAREN:  Yeah.  Back in those days, it was -- was it more common to have it 40 below? 

ROSE:  Well, I think years ago it was colder than today.  It's warm.  The world is warming up anyway now. 

KAREN:  Yeah. 

ROSE:  Which is funny, cold, warm.