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I think the only people who benefit from that are the lawyers. Oh, that's right. I work for a law firm I, I'm serious. And I think that the lawyers have caused a lot of the problems that exist in the in the criminal system today. With plea bargaining. Right. You know, if someone is Well plea plea bargaining is a different story. Well. Plea bargaining is something completely different. That, that actually prevents trials. Or at least speeds them up. Well, I know. That's what I'm saying. But I think a lot of, all of the whole criminal system is messed up in, in that regard. I mean, you know, people who commit, uh, crimes that they, I don't know how it works exactly but you know, they get lesser sentences Right. and I understand that the jails are full of people, you know, uh and that they have to do something. Right.
But, I think that the reason they are full is because they know that they can get away with it. Huh. you know what I'm saying? That we don't have, uh, well a lot of states don't have capital punishment. Right. And, uh I, I think they should. We do I, and I think if a person is guilty of taking someone's life and like you say, it's, it's, there's no doubt whatsoever. Like drunk drivers that kill people and, uh, you know, all Right. they, they're caught dead to rights. I, I just think that that's, they've, they've taken a life and if, they should pay for it with their life. Right. When you're saying as far as the appeal, uh, procedure was concerned. Yeah. We just have the case, I'm, I'm sure you've probably heard of Marion Berry. Uh-huh. Uh, his last appeal was, was denied two days before his sentence was up
Oh, really. So, I mean, his appeal was denied and two days later he got out of jail For cocaine possession. It, uh, Yeah. But, uh, that was absurd There is never, there was no reason the appeal process should have dragged on that long for a six month sentence. I know that, that Uh-huh. And, I don't know. Uh, what would you do to change it? To make it better? Well, uh, the, the only I can, I you know, the, appeal procedure is the only thing I can possibly think of. Uh, like I said, as far as removing of the jury and having the judge sentence, that's absurd. There's no way that could work. Oh, yeah. I, I, I don't agree with that at all. Uh, but, Imagine the guilt that person would have. I mean burned out.
Oh, exactly. There's there's no possible way that you could, uh, you know, feel good about yourself. Exactly. Right. If you had to do something like that, day after day. No one would want the job No. Not really. Uh, and, you know, like I said, the, you know, everyone has their opinions about every case. Well, do you think people should have a trial is they're caught dead to rights like, Oh yeah. I, I feel that everyone is, everyone is, uh, entitled to a trial by jury. That, that, that right I mean, supposing I come up to you and I just point blank kill you. Well, I mean, were there witnesses? In other words you're saying that, you have to find out whether it's premeditated or what the circumstances were. Right. Right. That you can't, you can't remove the jury regardless of the case. Yeah.
I mean you could have fifty people in audience watching a murder take place Yeah. and you, you'd still, there's still mitigating circumstances Well, I, I, Okay, Mary. Yes. Um, the, uh, the latest one I've seen, uh, had to do with a, uh, uh, the, uh, basically a manhunt, um, and it was, uh, it was called MANHUNTER, actually. Uh, the, uh, the guy, uh, apparently had a, a, mental disfunction in which he needed to go out and just slay people. Uh, just, uh, kill them with, with as much blood and, and guts as possible. Oh, how awful It was true, it was truly awful. It was not one that I picked, but, uh, uh, it, it did show some, some, uh, some interesting things about the F B I because they were the, the, uh, the characters trying, trying to get him were F B I people and, uh, uh, of the, of the few good things that were in it, it did show, uh, a lot about the F B I. About the training, and, and how they go through training and how they try to, to develop, uh, uh, a mental picture of who they're looking for before they go out and do it and all the different ways they go about doing that. And it was, uh, uh, it was pretty telling about the, the, the F B I and their procedures. I wonder how truthful all of that was or whether there was fiction. Yeah, I, I imagine a lot of it had to be fictional just to keep the F B I, uh, going, I guess. Yeah,
well, they keep it rather secretive, yes Yeah, yeah. Well the most recent movie I saw, uh, I'm afraid was, uh, well two, two of them actually. Uh, the RAIN MAN was one. Oh that was great one. Wasn't that fabulous, and, and DRIVING MISS DAISY. Oh, I loved it. You know, I haven't seen that one yet, and I need to go see it. Oh, you need to see that. Yeah. That is the most heart rendering story of relationships between two people. Two diametrically opposed people from the stand point that one was Jewish and one was black Uh-huh. and this all took place in the South. Oh my. And, uh, normally never the twain shall meet.
You bet, especially in the South. Yes, right, and, um, uh, it, it really was a fantastic movie. The acting was phenomenal. Well as, it, as I recall it got some Academy Awards, didn't it. Oh yes, Jessica Tandy won best actress and, uh, Oh yeah, that's right. It, it might have one best picture, too. Yes it did, yes it did. Yeah. Just as RAIN MAN, uh, with Dustin Hoffman, uh, that, that was tremendous and Tom Cruise. That was, yeah,
I, I think it was more a lesson for Tom Cruise than anything else in terms of, uh, of how to act from Dustin Hoffman, but, uh. Yes, uh, oh, that was, that was, uh, what the, much of the hype was that Tom Cruise learned so much from Dustin Hoffman. Yeah, it must have been great just being with him on, on a daily basis and seeing how he prepares for his, for his lines and all that stuff. Yeah and a good bit of that was filmed right in Cincinnati. Which is just forty-five miles from, from where I am, where I actually live in a suburb of Dayton. Oh. Is, is the Kmart there? Oh, we do have Kmart here, you better believe it. Isn't there a Kmart everywhere? That was, that was so funny, he had to, or was it Kmart. Yes. He had to buy his underwear at Kmart. Right, right
yeah. That was hilarious. The, the, I guess the, the first, the first, uh, scene in that movie that really got my attention, uh, concerning the, the disease and all that was when he, uh, dropped the, the, uh, the toothpicks, Oh yes. and he was able to count the number of toothpicks just by a mental image. Yes, yes. Unbelievable. Well, you know there are people, uh, referred to as savants also, uh, who can do most phenomenal things Yeah. and everyone feels they are totally retarded. Yeah, because that's the way they, they might seem outwardly, That's right. but, boy there's a lots going on in there It's amazing Yeah, yeah and I, the, the, I think the, the best thing about RAINMAN was the, uh, the way that they put together the, the real awfulness of the, of the, of the disease, only, Yes.
an, and then they balanced it with the wonderfulness of it, you know, and, and, and you need to, to work with it, uh, you know, certainly on, on a daily basis but then then again work with it toward a good end. Not, not toward winning in Las Vegas, for example. Yes and the, Right, well the warmth that developed between them and again it, I think was a picture of relationships. Yeah. Again the relationship, uh, between the two, uh, that, uh, never would have occurred, uh, by accident. Right, right. I was, uh, I was so impressed with that movie I saw it three times. Did you. I can, I can tell you, oh, so much about that movie, just because it, it really rang, uh, rang a lot of my, uh, my personal background. I, I have a, a brother myself that's, that's older and, uh, he's not, you know, nothing, nothing, of course, serious is wrong with him but, uh, but we have gone through these, these lapses of, of a relationship, somewhat, sometimes, Yes.
and then, you know, uh, for, for, for no real, you know, direct reason, I guess, uh, we, we get into, uh, uh, a really good relationship for a while and then, you know, back and forth so I, I was really able to, to relate to the, the relationship aspect of the movie between the brothers. That was neat. Uh-huh. Well that's tremendous, that, it's good because it does make you think, about your own family. Yeah, a lot. And see it did bring out a lot of thoughts between you and your brother. Uh-huh. No question, he, the, he was, he's one of these guys though that doesn't really like to go see movies like that. He likes the bang them up and shoot them up things. Uh-huh And, and, uh, it, it was like pulling teeth to go get him to, to see it but, uh, oh boy. He was, uh, uh, he, he gave the, the best response that I've heard him give of this type of movie for RAIN MAN. I mean he certainly didn't, he only saw it one time, and he didn't go back for more, but, uh, he, he said he enjoyed it
and, and, Well he at least saw it one time Yeah, yeah, and, and he really, I don't know, he, he's kind of a Dustin Hoffman fan anyway. But he but before he saw the movie he was like disappointed that Dustin Hoffman would do this I'm like, oh, come on. Just think of what a phenomenal actor Dustin Hoffman is. Yeah. He will do that, to research it and to be able to mimic a person, uh, uh, with the kinds of problems that he had. And to make it believable. Yes. I mean I was, I was believing it, I don't know about any body else but I was, it was great. Well, I'm sure everybody that saw it was believing it right along with them. He did great. Well it's just, uh, been delightful talking with you.
Yeah, yeah, you take care up there and, uh, let's hear it for the summertime. Absolutely, I'm ready for it, but they're predicting some more snow for our direction. No, oh no. Oh well, take care. Take care now. Bye, bye. Bye, bye. Where do you get most of your news? I watch the MACNEIL LEHRER news hour, and I subscribe to the paper on the weekends. Where, where are you? I'm in Dallas. Oh, yeah. Are you in Dallas also?
No, I'm in San Antonio. Oh, really, okay. I get my news from a combination of sources. I take the paper every day Uh-huh. and I read it on the way in to work on the, in a carpool. Oh, really. Uh-huh. And, uh, and I watch the, uh, actually I watch the morning news before I leave for work. And then, you know, usually over lunch, there'll be a big topic of conversation on something from the news. Uh-huh. I normally find that uh, I'm probably the most, um, news hungry of my friends, so I don't, we don't normally talk about the news at lunch. I, I find that I have to only subscribe to the paper on the weekend, simply because I used to get it during the week Uh-huh. but, um, I would always end up arriving at work late, because I would always end up skimming the headlines, spending too much time, reading it in the morning. Yeah. So I have to cut myself down to the weekend, plus after work.
Um, the MACNEIL LEHRER news hour is on public television Uh-huh. and I enjoy that quite a bit. Yeah. Um, one of the women that I work with, her husband is Iranian. Uh-huh. So here lately with all the Middle Eastern news we've had some very interesting conversations over lunch. I will admit I work with, uh, someone who's Iranian, and he definitely has a very different slant on the news. Uh-huh. He's very, very skeptical of the news media, and I will admit I'm reasonably skeptical also. But he's, I don't know, uh, he's much, much more so. It's sort of interesting though, because he does bring a, a much, um, different perspective with all the Gulf goings on, um. He was always speaking in terms of, you know, American imperialism reasserting itself. Um, I suppose it's a different attitude that we normally don't hear in the country. Uh-huh Well I, I, uh, I like the print news much better than the television news because television news tends to sensationalize. Uh-huh. True, um,
the, I understand that the MacNeil Lehrer probably doesn't. They, um, tend to spend quite a bit of time on one story. Uh-huh. They will have maybe two or three main stories and just spend a very large amount of time. Sort of like the, uh, what is that, A B C's NIGHTLINE. Uh-huh. Well, I guess they only normally stick with just the one, um, story. But they, they can do a much better job since they don't have to chop it into little two minute stories. They don't report on every murder and shooting that happened in, in every little town. No, no. It's very much national interest news. Yeah. A lot of times they end up, um, with these panels of experts and they go back and forth, where everyone's giving some opinions and sometimes that, I don't know the value of that, because I saw plenty of jokes and, and, um, oh, editorial cartoons about all the retired generals, making a living during the, the Gulf War. I've been getting a kick out of those lately. Uh-huh.
Although, um I'm only twenty-five, so I've never actually been through a period of war Uh-huh. and I don't know anyone in the military and I don't have a lot of background knowledge in, uh, military strategy and, and weaponry, and, and all that kind of stuff. And I thought the generals were very interesting. Now when they started to speculate, I, I saw that for what is was, and thought all of these guys don't know what's going on. Uh-huh. But I thought they were interesting, and, and they shed some light on what was going on for me. I will admit it's interesting. I'm twenty-six. So I don't have any more experience in that than you. Um, it, it, it was very interesting that it seemed like some of the commentators had their axe to grind, you know, there were some that were screaming for air power, there were some that were saying the air power wasn't going to do it. Uh-huh. And they seemed to mold the events to their view of the world, which I suppose just about everyone does, but these guys had a, a, uh, national soap box to stand on and, and express this view.
You know, one of the best television news shows that I saw during the war was a show on a Saturday morning on A B C, and it was for children Uh-huh. and it was hosted by Peter Jennings, and it was so interesting because they were relating the war to these children in their studio, and they also had children calling in live from all over the country and asking questions. And they, they had all their correspondents in the different areas, in Saudi Arabia, and Israel, and, and all. They had them all, uh, on, I don't know what you'd call it other than on line. They had them all on hold Uh-huh. and if a child asked a question that the person in Jerusalem could best answer, they would cut to that person, and that person would answer the question. It was just very informative and interesting, and, uh, I was real impressed at how A B C handled, uh, translating, the war for children. Uh-huh. Yeah, I didn't see anything like that, although I did, uh, I guess one thing that I found sort of interesting, this is getting a little off the topic,
but there was a, a, a big push with the local T V stations to have little hot lines with counselors to, to help parents learn how to talk about their war with their children. Uh-huh. I thought that was a really unusual thing. And our local H E B stores here, I don't know if it's H E B statewide or whatever, but they have videos that, uh, I don't know if they still have them, but they were free rental, videos, that had something to do with the war. Uh-huh. Uh, it was, with the children's aspect? Right. It was something for children, that they, they had several advertisements on television pushing parents going and, uh, getting the video and watching it with their children and discussing it and that kind of thing. Uh-huh. I suppose that is a valuable service. Again not having, uh, lived through another war, I don't know if that's a common thing that people thought of, or if that was a new concern with people. Well back during the Viet Nam conflict that no one will, will have the guts enough to call a real war Uh-huh. uh, the, that type of technology just wasn't at people's disposal.
That's true. That's true. So I don't think there's ever been a war that's been so thoroughly covered by the news. And spot in the probably more importantly, one that lasted short enough that, that people's interest didn't flag too badly. Yeah. I tell you what, the first three days, I was glued to the television. I will admit the same thing. And I, would come home and flip on MacNeil Lehrer And I, and they would run these extended two, three hour versions of the program Yeah. and I, I was just, I was horrified and fascinated by what I was seeing. I tell you what. The uh, the war spot in let's see, was it a Wednesday or Thursday? Must have been Thursday, uh, and Friday night I was, I stayed up until two o'clock in the morning, sitting, right dead center in front of my television just watching practically with my mouth hanging open. Uh-huh. Because I was watching C N N,
and they would, they would switch back to one of their Israel bureaus, and the people would be standing there in gas masks, and you'd be hearing the sirens, and it was just, I was amazed. Uh-huh. I, I didn't have that experience. I, I don't have cable Oh. so I, I'm pretty much limited to P B S, which I thought, I thought they did a very good job. Uh-huh. Um, I've got one question for you. I you say you take the newspaper. Uh-huh. Um, I, I found the newspaper situation in Dallas very interesting. We've got the one fairly, well, relatively weaker paper, the TIMES HERALD, and then the MORNING NEWS, which has a very strong subscription. Uh-huh. Does San Antonio you said San Antonio, right? Uh-huh.
Do you have just one paper, or do you have several? No. There are two, and they're pretty close. Uh, the one that I picked is more similar in format to the newspaper, I grew up near Houston Uh-huh. and there are two major newspapers there that run pretty much neck and neck, and the one I picked here had the same format as the one that my parents took as I was growing up. I mean, the same type of typeface on the headline and that kind of stuff. Uh-huh. It's piddly stuff to pick a newspaper over, and I enjoy, the comics are better in this newspaper. This newspaper has the far side and the comics that I enjoy and the other one has some weird ones that I've never heard of. So, I, I actually take both newspapers on the weekends. Do you? I figure I'm only taking on the weekend,
and I can afford that. Yeah. I, I find the news reporting in the MORNING NEWS to be better, but I sort of have a liberal political slant, and the MORNING NEWS just has an incredibly conservative editorial, um, outlook. And my, My fiancee takes probably six Sunday papers. I get the TIMES HERALD just to balance that out a little bit. He takes both San Antonio papers, an Austin paper, both Houston papers, I guess he takes seven, the San Marcos paper and the New Braunsfel paper, but he's a football coach at Southwest Texas State University, so he's getting all the sports sections. Uh-huh. And, so, you know, he has these stacks of Sunday newspapers that go unread ... I guess I don't really have a problem with capital punishment. I'm not really sure what the exact, uh, specifications are for Texas. I know that they, uh, have capital punishment for certain crimes, and that's probably the way I feel about it is, is, uh, it kind of depends on the crime that's committed. My belief all my life, I guess, has been that, that if you take someone else's life, then you automatically giving up, uh, yours in place of it But I don't, seems to be a lot of controversy about that
Yeah. Uh, uh, I tend to agree with you, uh, you know, probably pretty similar views on it, but that's, that's one of the things I don't, don't understand is, is so much of the controversy because, uh, you know, I, I do also, myself, believe in capital punishment, uh, uh, you know, it, it really irks me to see so much effort put into preventing someone being put to death by the State when they so callously and usually so, you know, without even thinking or without any concern, uh, you know, end somebody else's life, and in a lot of cases several people's lives. That's true I guess, well, there's, there's probably two or three different types of, of views as far as the controversy goes. I can see where if a life was taken by accident or, uh, I don't know what you'd call it, not premeditated or, I guess primarily by accident, uh, there may be cases where the death penalty is not called for, but I lean towards, if it's premeditated or if it's, uh, kind of a habitual or, or a habit that, uh, a tendency that people, uh, may get into, then I guess I don't really have a problem with it Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's, that's kind of the way I feel. If, if you've got a guy who's, who's been to trial and has been in and out of jail, you know, basically a, a three time loser for the twelfth time, you know, and he goes out and kills somebody, he's not going to be reformed, he's not going to get any better, you know, it's, it's not going to, it's just not going to get any better. And, and the only thing, you know, a lot of people have the opinion that, you know, don't, don't have capital punishment, but give them life in jail and, you know, I could go along with that, if, if I could be assured that it would be their natural life in jail and not parole after ten, or twelve years.
Yeah. Yeah, I think that's what aggravates a lot of people, is somebody does get a life sentence in place of the death penalty, and they wind up back on the streets after five years or six years or like the kid on the news tonight out in Mesquite who was out in six months. Uh-huh. Yeah, it's, it's just our criminal system is just so, I guess, overloaded, but the, you know, the, the problem is not so much with the prison system, you know, I mean, because the, the cops are out there doing their job enforcing the laws, and the prison system are just, you know, they're trying to cope with them, but you know, the thing about capital punishment I, you know, a lot of people don't think it would be a deterrent, uh, to, to future crime, and the way it is now, it's not. No. Because, you know, you, if like the State of Texas, for example, may, uh, you know, may execute somebody twice a year. You know, that's, that's no kind of deterrent because we, we've got literally hundreds of people on death row, and, and many of them who have been there for literally for ten or fifteen years on death row, Right.
and that's, that's certainly no kind of deterrent, and I would tend to agree with anybody who says right now that it, it's not a terrent, a deterrent, because it's not. No, it's not. You think of your chances of getting the death penalty after uh, committing a crime are really pretty slim right now. And you can, probably spend, uh, a lot of time, uh, or maybe eventually, uh, just waiting it out, Oh, yeah. Uh-huh. and that's where a lot of aggravation comes, I think, is, is, uh, these guys spend so much time in the appeal process or just in the waiting process, Uh-huh. they may spend years, and, you know, the last I heard it was costing ten, twenty, thirty thousand dollars a year, uh, to keep these guys waiting. Yeah, it, it's amazing. There's, uh, there's a girl I work with, our secretary, as a matter of fact, her, her father was murdered, her father and three other guys up here in Sherman. And the, uh, the guy, that they tried and convicted and sentenced him to death, you know, he's been on death row for like eight years. Yeah. And, you know, this, this was her father, uh, you know, that, that got killed, you know, just cold-blooded murder, him and three other people, and, but still, for some reason, you know, this, this guy's sentence has not been carried out, you know,
he's sitting on death row for eight years after having killed four people, and the State still can't bring itself to, to execute, this guy. To, yeah, to carry it out. It sort of takes the justice out of the justice system. It does, it really does, you know. She, and they have to go back, uh, occasionally, you know, she has to write letters to the parole board and, you know, lawyers, and just, just ever so often she mentions, well, she's got to do something else, you know, write another letter, or do something. Yeah. It's just, It should be over and done with. Yeah, yeah, you know, she should be getting on with her life, you know, getting, getting that part behind her, but yet, it's, it's kind of tied to her the way it is now. Yeah, it is. And she winds up being a, a victim, day after day after day. Yeah.
Yeah, right. A victim, not only of, indirectly of the crime, but also indirectly by that, indirect involvement. Right. It's just, it's, it's ridiculous. She, She's an emotional victim Yeah. Yeah, it, it's terrible, you know and, And, you know, the, like you say, the cops are out doing the work day by day have got to have a lot of frustration when they see all their work, basically go out the window. Yeah. Oh, that, oh, man, I, I couldn't be a cop for that, for that very reason, you know, because they do. The, the criminal gets right back out and, you know, the cop's just got to go back and, and do his thing all over again, because so many of the crimes are, are done by repeat offenders. Yes, they are. It's,
Well, that's about five minutes, so unless you've got something else, well, Yeah. No It's a pleasure talking with you. All right, Ron, we'll see you later. Okeydoke, good-bye. Bye-bye. Okay. Tell me about your home. Well, it's an older home. It was made back in the early sixties. It's a pier beam house. Huh-uh. Got three bedrooms, one bath and that just makes me scream. That's pretty tough What area do you live in? I live in Houston.
Oh, okay. I see. Is that pretty typical for your area? Well, for the neighborhood I'm in, yeah, Yeah. This is one of the more established neighborhoods, Huh-uh. That sounds real interesting. I live in a suburb of Dallas and, uh, I live in the basic three bedroom, two bath home. So, at least, I have two bathrooms. That's not so bad, but, uh, it's pretty typical for the area, as well. Uh, I've always been interested in older homes, personally. So, I think you can end up doing more with them, it seems like. What about yard space? Do you have lot of, a big lot, or anything like that? The whole lot I'm sitting on is roughly half an acre. Oh, I see.
About half of that, about a quarter acre of that, I've got a garden. Huh-uh. Oh, that's nice. Because I have just like a very small, you know, those basic tract houses, like that. We have a very small yard and, um, I do have garden, but it's extremely small, but, uh, it seems like, though, for your area that, that is sort of different. In a big city like that most houses, I would think, would be sort of like what we live in. Just a you know, basic tract house. Well, in the, uh, newer neighborhoods and development communities, the houses are so close together, Yeah. if your neighbor is having an argument you can here it blow for blow. That's exactly right. That's the way we are. We have, uh, one thing we have that we really enjoy here, is we have a hot tub in the back. So we have, we have quite a few parties, and uh, seems like everyone that lives around us, ends up, you know, hearing every conversation that goes on outside with everyone. So, uh, that's true that is one thing that I don't enjoy about it, is the houses are too close together. But, uh, you know, it's fine for now,
hopefully, eventually, we'll move in a larger home. The only thing that I don't like also is the rooms are so small. You know, it's very difficult to arrange furniture and things like that, so. Are your rooms in your house bigger since it's a sixties home? Because it seems like then, that they built the homes much larger is that true? Yeah. And they've got better closet space. Yeah. new houses that I've seen. Yeah. Yeah. That's really it. That's a plus. At least we do have like three walk-in closets here. So that's, that's maybe not so typical, but, uh, It helps a bunch. Yeah.
It really does, except when you have to fill them up and then you get those Visa bills in. And Yeah. So anyway, um, anything else about the area, about, um, you know, can you compare yourself to any thing around there. Most of the neighborhood I'm in is pretty typical. This whole neighborhood was built between sixty and sixty-five. Yeah. So it's, it's, Everybody has got a pretty good size yard, Yeah. I mean, I got probably the biggest, if not the biggest yard, I've got pretty close to it, in the entire neighborhood. Yeah. That's nice. That is nice. But, you know, too, the only bad thing, too, is that then you have to keep up, you know, you have to, the yard to deal with Well, I, I enjoy that though.
and, Do you. You must have more time than, than I have. I'm sitting out here right now. We had this terrible rain and I'm looking at the yard and seeing how tall the grass has gotten and it seems like now that's, that's, I almost wish I was in an apartment or something. You know, It's rained Yeah. Well, um, I don't know, do we just terminate this or do you have to talk for a certain amount of time? Do you know? No, we can, after you go to somewhere between five and ten minutes, they'll get a little master recording this. Okay. Okay. Well, can you tell me anything else about the house Are you working on it?
I mean, do people around that area seem to do a lot of renovation? Yeah. This entire neighborhood, everybody keeps the places up real nice. Yeah. That's, that's nice. Yeah, the town that I came from is, uh, is a, uh, older town, it like, the typical, the typical homes there are like, you know, early nineteen hundreds late eighteen hundreds, Wow. and I renovated a house there and that was so much fun. I mean, there, if you don't live in a house that's at least seventy-five to hundred years old, you know, you're just nobody, practically And that was really, that was a good experience for me to learn a lot of discipline and, uh, was considered typical for that area. So, uh, it was quite a change for me to come to a house like that now that's just, you know, a very square little box and, you know, there's not a whole lot you can do with it. But, uh, anyway, Living in the city has some advantages. Yeah.
That's true. If given the choice, I'm getting out. Oh, really. Well, I have lived in a small town for, you know, this, this town was like less than ten thousand people and it was about sixty miles south of Dallas. And, you know, I didn't move out of there until I was, you know, twenty-seven and that was just, you know, so I love the big city You know, I had lived in a rural area for, for so long so I've enjoyed it, but, uh, it can, it can get kind of tough. Its like a rat race sometimes. That's just something I'll never adapt to. I don't, I don't want to be a part of the rat race. I want to be basically just kind of left alone. Yeah If I want to sit around and mess with my garden, I'll mess with my garden, Yeah. if I want to work in the flower beds,
Yeah. It sounds like you enjoy working outside as well. I, I, Very much. yeah. I really do enjoy that. But I haven't planted anything yet or, you know, I usually have gotten flowers coming out the but I, I haven't done that, yet. I've had finals this week. So, uh, you know, I'm just kind of trying to, trying to stick in with that, Huh-uh. but, uh, since that's over with now, maybe I can, I can get this yard in shape. Do you do a lot of gardening? Uh, landscaping is more, than the gardening, Yeah. the I've got my beans, peas, Yeah. I've got some onions out, tomatoes, Yeah.
I'm not real sure what they're going to do this year. I never have much luck with tomatoes. I do plant a lot of beans, because it seems like, the, uh, bugs get on them so easily and I have a real problem with anything like pesticides or anything like that, so, the only thing that I use is soap. I water, you know, spray the plants, because they say, supposedly, that will keep the bugs off them. But, uh, I don't have luck with that tomato plant, so I hate to spray them with anything. Um, what do you do? Do you have any tips you could give me? Um, my favorite one is putting on the, um, tomato plant is to put, uh, dust, Yeah. Yeah. and that stuff has been around since the beginning of time, That's true. That's true. My dad is a farmer so, I've heard him talk about that forever. I guess it works, but, um, you have to really wash your vegetables after that
so it won't make you sick. Let's see what else do you do to your house? Well, I've done some rewiring on it. Yeah. Eventually, if we stay here, I'm going to have to rewire the entire house. Oh, really. Do you plan on like adding any rooms or, you have enough space you could probably do that. Or is it, I've talked about adding at least one more room and definitely adding another bath on. Yeah I would think so if you only have one bathroom for three bedrooms, that's tough. Do you not, like, have a half bath. Not even a half bath. Yeah. Yeah. That's rough. The house that I used to live in had one bath and a half.
And that was even just with two people. That was a pain. The only thing that saves it, with the schedule I work and the schedule my wife works, we're getting ready to go to work at totally different times. So that. It's not like we're tripping over each other in the morning. That's good. Really. That could account for a lot of marital problems I think You get to know each other very well if you have to share a bathroom It doesn't work if you're trying to shave and she's trying to put her eyeliner on and, you're both fighting over the mirror. No. That's right. It does not make for a happy situation. That's true. Well, do you have any children? I've got one. One child. And they enjoy where they're living? We'll, he's nine months old. Oh, so he doesn't know, right.
I guess, he's a big help out in your garden. Right. He likes to dig around a little bit. His mother comes in and says, why did you let him play in the dirt, I guess he's enjoying himself. That's right. It's healthy, why not. Yeah. He was eating the dirt, I wouldn't worry about it. No. It won't hurt them. I was a big dirt eater, supposedly, when I was a child and I turned out okay so, don't worry about it. Just let him enjoy himself So you think that you want to move away from the big city, uh? Well, that's what I've always, I was raised up in a town that was about ten thousand people.
Yeah. So you're just the opposite from me. You want to go back to that, uh, After we got married we moved, ended up moving to the Houston area. Yeah. Yeah. So are you from Texas? Yeah. You are. So it's not, you know, that's true Houston, in itself, is a pretty tough place. Okay, I'm back on. Okay. Um, you say you watch evenings mostly? I watch evenings because I work all day. I used to watch daytimes. Uh-huh. Um, mainly like ALL MY CHILDREN, that kind of thing.
Oh, so ... And then sometimes OPRAH and sometimes DONAHUE, but now it's mainly evenings. Do you have any that you like well enough that you tape them when you're not going to be there? Yes. Which ones? I tape THIRTY SOMETHING, and L A LAW. Oh. Those are the two I like the best. Oh, two they're going to change. Well, one they're taking, off. I know. It's going to be history, I know. I don't know what's going to yeah, we like L A LAW. Uh-huh. We don't watch THIRTY SOMETHING, but that's kind of young for us. My husband and I are grandparents.
Oh, well. Well ... So we don't watch, uh, that type of show, but we like L A LAW. We like, that. Uh-huh. We're just, I'm sorry they're breaking the team up, because we liked all the ones that were on there. I know. I'm amazed. I'm not sure I like the new ones too much. Huh-uh. I'm surprised that, I was surprised at the ending of, you know, with all the funny things happening and different things. I just wonder if, if, uh, they just want to go on to other projects and not be stuck in this show, since it's gone on for so long, it looks like, it looks like it might be one of these seven or eight year run things. Where you kind of can spend your whole career on one show. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. I know. Of course, I guess that's not bad. Alan Alda did it on MASH. I know.
Isn't that funny? It hasn't hurt him at all. So do you, do you mostly like this type of like a story type of thing that lasts an hour? Oh, I don't usually like stuff that continues. That's why I'm surprised I like those two shows, because usually I like, you know, stuff that just ends sort of, that you just, you don't have to, have watched, you know. In one hour, like QUANTUM LEAP. Yeah. I mean, you don't have to ... That's one of our favorites Yeah. You don't have to have watched it last week in order to follow, so, you know, I usually don't like that. Right, which they do at the beginning of the season, to grab your attention. You know, Uh-huh. that's always a bummer too. I know. Sometimes it's better just to tape record both of them and then watch it all in one. Uh-huh. We, we do that sometimes.
I, I guess I'm, I'm not into real heavy stuff. L A LAW is about the heaviest thing I watch. I, I'll, mostly I'm into it for relaxation, Yeah. so I like things like GOLDEN GIRLS or CHEERS or, uh, Monday night is real good with me, you know, MAJOR DAD and, and, uh, NORTHERN EXPOSURE and, and, uh, oh, what's that one with Burt Reynolds? That type of show is what we what, uh, we watch. Uh-huh. We generally just stay on one channel all, for all of Monday night, just to watch those. Just some of the times they're continued, but mostly they're just little vignettes. A new one we found we really like is that DINOSAURS. Have you seen that? Huh-uh. That is, it's, it's really funny. They use like animated, it's not like a cartoon, but it's like dummies and things, that are used, Uh-huh.
and, uh, it's really, um, and robots probably. But there's always a, a moral to each story. And what night is it on? Well, we watched it, the times we've seen it, it's been like on or, excuse me, Friday night. Uh, but it's, we've only seen it a couple of times. But it, it's real, the first one we saw, um, they were, it, it involved a tradition of when a person reaches seventy-five, and I can't remember what day they call it, but, but, uh, the son-in-laws get to throw the mother-in-laws when they're seventy five over a cliff Oh, great. Anyway Anyway, it, it goes on, you know, and the son-in-law and mother-in-law are sniping at each other and all, and then when it comes time for him to throw her over, well, the, the teenaged son the night before tried to save her by hiding her. Oh. And she said no, you can't do, you know, he ran her out, was running to in a wheelchair to hide her,
and she said, "You can't do that." Huh. "This is tradition. This is what old people are supposed to be, thrown over the, the cliff." And, uh, he said, "I don't understand." It's, it's real funny that they give the teenagers the, as the one that questions, uh, the, what's going on. Uh-huh. And, uh, in the end of, uh, the son-in-law, when he did get the mother-in-law up to the cliff, uh, the the teenaged son throws himself in the way and says, "No, you can't do it," and then, and then, uh, "Oh, well, we've got to do it. It's tradition," and the son was, you know, "Why?" And so, in, in the end he doesn't throw her over, Uh-huh. Oh, he doesn't. and, of course, the town thinks he's just terrible, because that has been tradition for hundreds of years and he's broken it. And then we saw one where this, there was a teenage, when a teenage boy comes into his manhood, they call it the night of the howling, or something like that, Uh-huh. and they all go out and howl, you know And, and the son refused to do it. He, he did, he thought it was not ...
So he didn't go howl? No, he wouldn't go howl, so all the, all the people that worked with the father ostracized him Oh, how funny. It is. It, it, it's, it's real interesting to watch the show, and, and the relationship between the family is, is really now, now the mother-in-law lives in the house with them. Huh. So it's, our, our grandson, our oldest grandson is the one that, that got us to watching it. But it really is, it moves real fast. It's a real short, and there's always, like I say, a moral to it and, It's just a half hour, or is it hour? Well, half hour. Oh. That, that's all there is to it.
And, and, uh, they ... There's not many half hour shows, it seems like that, Yeah, it, it, they, they're trying to liken the, the father in there of the teenage son to like JACKIE GLEASON SHOW. Uh, the way he talks to his mother-in-law and so forth, Uh-huh. and I guess maybe there are some parts of that, but I didn't really see that in there. But what I've read about it, they talk about that. But anyway, we've, we've enjoyed that, and, and, uh, I guess mostly I, I like the news shows too, the news magazines, like SIXTY MINUTES or TWENTY, TWENTY or PRIME TIME LIVE or something like that, you know, all, all of those shows, if I can do it, Yeah, no, I watch those if I, but my husband likes to watch, um, old movies, especially war movies, or, or, uh, sports, which I'm not, Oh, see, I like sports. No, I don't. Well, I, I do, I like ice skating and I like, uh, gymnastics, and some track and field,
Uh-huh. but I, I, and I'll watch snippets of baseball games and I, I just don't have that much time to sit and watch the whole thing. Uh-huh. And I don't ever, no matter what's on, I don't ever just sit and watch T V. I'm usually either doing dishes, or I may be sewing, or, you know, I always have, or letter writing, I know. or I may be working around in the room somehow, but I don't, I don't ever just sit and, I, that's something that comes from your old age, you know. No, I don't sit. Idle hands are the devil's workshop I know. Who has time? I don't have time to sit, I know. No.
It's, it's, uh, That's why I don't get to watch that much. I mean, I, watch nine o'clock Right. I do okay, because the kids are all in bed, but before that, I really, there's not much time. Right. Or like at six thirty I'll watch WHEEL OF FORTUNE or something like that. Right, well, our, yeah, if our if our grandchildren are with us, that's, they have to watch that. We don't watch it unless they're here Uh-huh. No, I like that. No, I'll watch, game show kind of stuff But they, uh, but, Yeah.
It's, it's, um, oh, and, you know, the, the kids will get you started on stuff like AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS. We've wound up sending in one. That's something I didn't think that we'd ever do Did you send one? Yeah. My oldest grandson pulling his tooth. He's, he's, he wouldn't let us pull it, How funny. and I mean, it, it got to the point he was eating a pear here, and he bit into it, and it was just hanging by a thread. And I, and I'd tell him, you know, it's getting ready to fall out, and he walked around the house with his face down toward the floor and his mouth open, hoping it would because he wouldn't let anybody pull it. And he he wound up pull, So do you have P C I have a personal computer at home. It's an A T compatible. I don't use it very much any more. I used to use it quite a bit.
Uh-huh. I also have a P C at work that I use as a terminal. I do some P C stand alone work on it, and I can transfer data back and forth between the P C and the main frame. Uh-huh. What about you? Do you own a computer? Um, well I sort of own a computer. We have two P C at home, but neither one do we really own. Um. Are you leasing them? No, both of them are sort of work related, and, Loaners from work? Yeah, that's the nicer way, right. Do you work for T I? No, no.
Um, I, actually I'm doing consulting right now because I just had a baby, and my husband's working at Bell Labs, but he's really from France, and these computers actually are from France. What brand are they? One of them's a Compaq Uh-huh. it's a three eighty-six I'm jealous. and the other is actually a I B M P C compatible, it's a three eighty-six, I guess it's twenty-five, yeah, three eight six twenty-five C maybe I don't know, no we don't have the we decided not to get the which is actually another loaner one too that we picked up for a consulting job that my husband was doing and, What kind of consulting do you do? Um, well, I actually do some work, working at M I T and at NIST, National Institute of Standards and Technology in Washington,
Uh-huh. and then I worked for Dragon Systems for a while. What kind of work do you do when you're consulting? Um, well, it depends, it's very different in the different places, but, Is it programming related? Yeah, yeah. Program related, research related, and I work in the speech field, and I do a lot metacoustic phonetics and looking at the acoustic characteristics of speech, Uh-huh. and I do that type of stuff typically for other people, and we, like here we use the P C to do that. Mostly I use it for writing papers and things like that. Word processing. Well, more, uh, do you know Latek? Word text processing, No I'm not familiar with that.
so I don't, I don't use, I mean, you can call it word processing, but I don't usually use a word processor to do it Uh-huh and we don't have too much standard software. Like I haven't bought, we haven't really bought any commercially available software at all. So we don't use it for things like our accounts and addresses and things like that. We use it more for just writing programs when we need to or, um, doing research, looking at the speech signal and then doing writing, and also as a just as a terminal, and we connect to other computers to read our net mail and things like that. So, you've got, you've got a modem in it then. Uh, neither one has a modem, but we have a modem. At home you have a modem that you can connect to each of them? Neither one, Right. Uh, and so it's an external modem. Yeah, we have I got, when I got mine I had an internal modem in it Uh-huh.
I used it, uh, quite a bit when I was, uh, uh, looking at, uh, information on a large bulletin board sponsored by a newspaper in a, in Fort Worth Uh-huh. but, uh, went out of town for a while, and, and sort of got off the, uh, bulletin board and off of my micro completely Uh-huh. and after a while the modem started making noises on its own without, uh, even without using it on the computer, I could turn a computer on, it'd start squawking. So I finally opened up the box and took it out. So that was it. I think that's the thirty second warning. Oh, I didn't hear it. Do you hear, the, the beep in the background. Yes. Oh, that's a, an ambulance or something going on here, I think. Okay. Where, Where are you, I haven't ever noticed the thirty second warning actually. and, uh, In Manhattan.
Are you at home now? Yeah, I'm at home. So you've got a lot of traffic noise real close. Uh-huh. So it'd be interesting for the people that look at this signal I mean, because there's a lot of background noise that, you know, people can hear. So it'll be interesting how much of it actually gets picked up. Um, yeah, and often times that, I can't talk on can't do this much later than now, between sort of like six, five thirty and six thirty or something like that, because the traffic outside, they honk the horn so loud I can't even hear the phone call. What time is it now where you are? Uh, about twenty after four. So you're an hour ahead of where I am. I'm in Central Central time zone. Okay, yeah we're Eastern. And, um, what did, did you ever try using like Prodigy or any of those systems? No, I haven't done that.
Uh, I know someone who has, and, and she's, uh, very, uh, pleased with it. She told me some of the things you can do, and it's just a, a very handy tool to have. Uh-huh. Yeah, and you can do a it makes things very convenient. You can save a lot of money, too. Certainly cut down on long distance charges if you, if that's what you have in mind. Uh-huh, yeah, I've never tried using that, I don't know too much about it. What about, have you, did you use commercially available software or, I have, I have used Lotus. I have used, uh, Word Perfect Uh-huh. uh, I,
not heavy use. I've used, uh, D Base and, uh, I've used a substantial amount of shareware. Um, I haven't done much Lotus work connected with my job. I've been through three classes Uh-huh. and I have a great deal of respect for it. Uh-huh. Um, I haven't done much word processing work with my job. I do some Uh-huh. and I, and the D Base work I've done was strictly class related. I've never used D Base, um, but I've heard both good things and bad things about it. Well, it's probably the granddaddy of most, uh, data base management systems. Uh-huh. It's got some pretty strong competitors. Some of them have reviews that are better than D Base, so, I, I think by now, it's a matter of, uh, personal taste.
Yeah, people told me that it was sort of cumbersome to use. I can understand that very easily. I've used, I've had a class on, um, R Base and also in Paradox Uh-huh. and both of those seem very easy to use compared to D Base. Uh-huh. Do you think you D Base is more flexible or allows you to do more. Or do you think the others are pretty much compatible these days? Um, I wouldn't say compatible, but certainly comparable. But, uh yeah, I didn't mean compatible, I meant comparable. My brain is going to mush. Uh-huh. And what do you work on at T I? I'm a computer programmer on the I B M main frames. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
I do, uh, mainly business data processing. Uh-huh. I also handle production support for the systems in my area of responsibility. Uh-huh. Um, sometimes I get called late at night at home because there's a production problem, and that gives me the opportunity to, uh, come in to work and fix it, if I can't think of some thing to tell the trouble shooter while we're on the phone. Right. Um, I also, uh, handle most of the calls from our users and other programmers who need to find out something connected, Okay. Um, well I guess first of all I, I could have asked that before. Do you have children? No. No. Okay. Because I, I didn't know if that would make a difference in how you felt. Yeah. Um, what do you think about the proposal that all young Americans should spend a year or two, I think it's a good idea. I think everybody should, should, uh, put in their time so to speak for the, for the good of the, the nation and for the good of themselves. Yeah.
I think it's, uh, would everyone grow up and mature and, and realize what this country's all about. I just, um, I guess that's my, that's something that my family has always believed strongly in, and, uh, I had opportunities in high school, to work in some programs, um Did you? something Oh! and, and I agree with what you said that it's, uh, it benefits the person doing it so much I don't think they realize Uh-huh. and I, uh, I, I think it gives you a better perspective, on life and, uh, it gives you a little bit, uh, more a glimpse of the, the real world and and it would certainly help the country, too, uh. Yeah. Really Yeah, I think that's probably like, uh, quite a few things that, that the kids, uh, maybe not so much nowadays but used to go through, you know, Yeah. they, just, they were, they did things for people, you know, for their communities, for their, their, uh, families, for their friends, where now, I'm not sure they really do. Yes. Yeah.
Well, I think sometimes through groups and organizations, um, my first, when I first thought of it, I thought it, uh, when they asked the question I thought, well that sounds wonderful. And then, I wondered if people were unwilling but, but I think even if you went in with a negative attitude I don't think it would stay negative very long. Um, but I do know through some organized groups like Scouts and church um, they, do still have opportunities. Uh-huh. Yeah, that's probably true You know But, I, I think that's a small, uh, number could, but even, even through those groups, do you think that they participate as much as maybe they used to? No, um, not since, um, not as much as I remember growing up. And that was something, uh, I think in the fifties and sixties, um, seemed more common in the last two decades. Uh-huh. Yeah. I think that's probably true. But, I think it's probably more true, still in the, in the smaller communities then in the larger cities. Yeah. Yeah.
Where, uh, where abouts do you live? What part of the country? Well, I live in Richardson right now. Which is just, Oh, okay. We're in Plano so we're not far apart. Right. Yeah, okay. One of the calls I'd gotten before was, uh, down to Austin and, and I know, a friend of mine talked to someone in the midwest so I know there is the possibility that it could be out of the area. Yeah. Gosh, I hadn't even thought about it being out of the area but you're right. Yeah. I grew up in a real small town in Florida. Oh. I mean a real small town
And, uh, I think it was just of course it was back in the, in the fifties and I think it was real prevalent back then. I I think people thought more of others than they do now. You know, as far as doing things for them and, and then gaining benefits from it. Yeah. Well, and maybe, uh, maybe this would be a way to get that feeling back. Um, if we've lost some of that and it, it seems in the last decade or two, um, that's true, maybe that's a way, if, if young people had to do it um, maybe that would start the trend back because that's one of the things I always thought was a wonderful part of our country. Um, is helping others Uh-huh. Yeah, I do to. I do to. I'm not sure that, that today's kids would go for it though. I think you would have to start younger. Yeah. I, I don't know how young you'd have to go but I think by the time they're, oh, early teenagers anyway, I think it's too late now. At least around here. Yeah,
I think, uh, I think it does help, um, even preschoolers, you know they're, um, things even just starting around the home. You know Right. little ones can do a little bit to help the family. Uh-huh. And, and just watching the parents do things too, um, it can start a pattern. There's always something, no matter how young, and then that helps develop that attitude. Um, I guess I would really like to see this happen with families more. You know, I think this is certainly a possible way, um, to handle it but I wish, that's something that I think that has been lost in families and I think that's a good place to start again. Yeah. I think it has to start in the families first because if you don't do it for, for your own immediate family, you're sure not going to do it for anybody else. Yeah. And I do think, um, the schools, if you're trying to do something, even with food drives and, uh, sometimes what Richardson and Plano both, I mean when you live in areas like that where there's so much they don't realize what a small percentage of the world that is.
Uh-huh. I mean, that's, uh, gosh I'm sure, not even one percent of the world is as fortunate as these areas and, uh it's, That's probably true. That's probably true. I know our church youth group, uh, starts with projects young but they have a high school group that works in the Appalachia area every year. Uh-huh. They've done this for fourteen years now. Oh, that's great. Um, and it is, it's, uh, and they've also see that there's, there's a different way of life and those families are really close. Some of the things, that we talked about that were common in the fifties are still there Uh-huh. and, uh, it really, every youth that's ever gone really has felt that their life has been changed and it's changed their perspective. And, and that's just the two weeks during, during the summer. Uh-huh.
So, if two weeks, uh, could have that kind of effect I would think, uh, Well, that's, that's great. I'm glad that there are still some areas that, that get the youth involved in that sort of thing. Well that's, Like I said, I think it does, even a small amount of exposure can make a vast difference in their attitudes Yes. Well Well, I guess, um, did you have anything else? No, no I guess that's about all. Okay. Okay. Well, I enjoyed talking with you. Well, good talking with you. And I hope you have a good evening. You too. Thanks.
Okay. Bye, bye. Bye Okay. Do you, have you ever had to put your children in, child care, Mary Dell? Oh yes. I'm an old experienced hand. I started back when it wasn't, stylish to do that at all. My daughter that's seventeen now I worked even when she was a baby. Uh-huh. Oh. And I had private care for both my daughters until they were two and then I was really lucky to have put them in a, Methodist day school at Preston Hollow Methodist, right off of Walnut Hill and Preston. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And it was a wonderful environment. I, I just wish all kids, if they have to be put in day school, could have that kind of place Uh-huh. I see.
So, it worked well. Oh. How about you? Well, I have, uh, a nine year old and a six year old and neither one of them has ever been in in, uh, day care for the reason of, of me working Uh-huh. Uh-huh. but, uh, they both went through preschool. Yeah. And, uh, we've just been real lucky I think, anyway. To not, Uh-huh. It's not hard to find anything that's part-time. So many of the churches have really strong preschool and children's day out Right, like half day programs. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. but, it was a nightmare back when Cheryl was little and this is one of the few churches that did it. There were a couple downtown Dallas
but they were so, seemed, cold and impersonal, I just couldn't hack it. Uh-huh. And what I liked about Preston Hollow is that the people that were there when Cheryl was two, which was fifteen years ago, many of them are still there today. So there was real continuity. Oh. She went back as a teenager and these people that had changed her diapers when she was three were still there. Oh, my gosh. So, it, it was really neat. But it was because they had a director that had always done it as a labor of love and she just kept good people and real cheerful place, lots of arts and crafts, Uh-huh. Oh my goodness and I'm really glad my kids had it because Plano schools do so little of that. That if they hadn't had it before they hit first grade they were never going to have any art or music or any of the interpretive stuff. Right. Right. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah,
that is, uh, a big drawback I think in that, in the, uh, public schools out here. You know, to, Uh-huh. you're lucky to have an art teacher and if you do you get them once a week or something, you know. Or pay for it after school. Our Emily's in the third grade over at Huffman and they started a pilot program where we can pay private tuition so that they can take French and music and art and you know, I willingly did it Oh is that right? I had no idea. but I thought, this makes me angry. This is something that ought to be in the schools rather than some of the other stuff they do. Oh my goodness. And with our budget cuts, I'm sure that's not going to not going to change anytime soon. Yeah. Well that's the only way they're. Yeah, well, that's the only way they're going to be able to do it. And parents who really want their kids to have any humanities are going to have to do that. Oh my goodness. So, in some ways I think the, the day schools do serve those purposes. Yeah.
That's true. Well even the preschools, you know they get so much of that in preschool and then when they hit kindergarten, you know, it's like wham Culture shock. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, Put the colors away Yeah, yeah. Get the computers out Which is too bad. and, you know. Uh-huh. hard. Uh-huh. It's so difficult for them. Um, did you have your children, did you say in home, in, in, private care, was that in your home or in someone else's home? Until they were two. Yeah.
Yeah, both times they were at our house. Uh-huh. So you were able to have somebody come there. And that was hard too. I, I lucked out with really good people both times but I know so many people that are never able to find that and I'd practically give my paycheck away to do it, so Yeah. Yeah. Did you have a nanny or did you have someone that lived in with you? Yeah. Well no, she didn't live with us. Uh, the first one was an, elderly lady who was putting a, a daughter through nursing school just purely on baby-sitting money. Oh. Oh my goodness. And she kept Cheryl during the day and then did more baby-sitting at night.
Uh-huh. And she was neat because she was like the grandmother that my kids never had because both our parents are dead. Yeah. Oh. So that, that was a plus from that respect as well. Oh gosh. And then with Emily it was a neighborhood friend that kept her. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. So, I have, uh, I just cannot fathom putting a little bitty baby in a commercial care center. Uh-huh. I was just listening to a program this morning, oh well, I guess it was on the HOME SHOW, but they were talking about, uh, a new, uh, oh I can't even think of the name of it. I was halfway listening while I was painting Uh-huh. Um, it's some kind of advisory board they've put together for parents and children
Uh-huh. and they've now moved it to Washington, D C and the, the doctor that was on there, the pediatrician said, you know, I can't imagine leaving a three week old and taking them to a nursery day-care and leaving them there. Yeah. Oh that would be hard. You know, so, um, Well, they give a lot more leave. I work at N C N B now, and our benefits for maternal and, and parental care and even for elderly people are, are really expanding. Uh-huh. We have more options now then we did when I, my kids were born, with being able to take off full-time longer of, you can phase your schedule in so that it's not full-time for up to six months. Uh-huh. Oh boy, that's great. It's really neat. I've, I've had a couple of assistants that came back just three days a week or they've, you know, whatever schedule they want from a pay standpoint. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. We try to work it with their hours.
And that helps because you don't have to just wean yourself cold turkey and say okay, I never get to see my baby for eight hours a day again. Yeah. Right. Right. And the bank has a lot of programs now for child care referrals. I've, of course it's too late for me so I've, I've not tried them to see how effective they are Yeah but I think we're finally beginning to make progress but just not very fast Uh-huh. Uh-huh. God, it's amazing And for our age group it's too late, too little, too late. Right. Right. But I, I do think it's an area that needs to be looked at and improved because more of us are going to have to work. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Two income families I think are here to stay. Well and I would think, you know, since big business is supposedly why the government makes the decisions they do you know, the, the people that work in big business have families
Uh-huh. Right. they have children. Yeah. So, it's only to their advantage that they get these programs going and working Oh sure. and, uh, You retain employees and keep them longer. That's, that was the rationale they gave when they were giving us information about our Employee Assistance Programs that they want us to be happy and want us to be able to cope with trying to split ourselves in fifteen million pieces Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Right. Right. Right. So, I, I hope it helps. It seems to help the new mothers not have to come back full-time. Oh that's good. because that's hard. That's good to know. I have a couple of friends that, have, have found the, uh, you know, a a private home to take their children to when they're young until they hit the preschool age.
Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And they usually, you know, you'll find a, a woman that's keeping like six children or four to six children in the home Uh-huh. and my future, future sister-in-law's mother does that too, full-time. Well in Plano though the problem is, you find, and this is what I found with Emily. I, from the time she started first grade, I wanted her out in Plano area. Uh-huh. And I kept finding neighbors and friends and they'd move. Oh. She ended up being in a different home every year. Too transit. Uh-huh. And I finally decided I didn't like that because it was traumatic to her to get so attached to a family and then have them move. And her surroundings. So this year I, I tried Kinder-Care and, then she's old enough to
Okay. Well, let's see, well, we keep our paper, paper bags lined up in the garage for glass and, glass and, uh, plastics and, uh, we make the dump over to the Wal-Mart bins there as soon as they're full. I guess we collect milk cartons and whatever other plastics are acceptable. Are you in the part of town where, uh, they have gotten into the other containers yet for recycling? No, no, I didn't think that anybody had those at all yet. Well, maybe they don't. I, I know that was supposed to be in May and I couldn't tell whether some parts of town had started it or if it was just everybody was, was waiting for the delivery of whatever those containers were. Right. Well, no, I haven't seen any, so I, I thought that it all, had all been delayed several times. So I have no idea what they look like and, I'm kind of anxious to see them. Yeah, That's going to be interesting because it's, uh, we've gotten so convenient and conventional in trash disposal which is uh, I look at our big green containers,
and I say, well, they work fine and I keep mine outside the garage so that I don't have any odors but it's clearly a place where, uh, uh, Oh, right. it will be interesting to see how well that works and I am, I'm glad the community is doing it. Uh, it's one of those things that kind of has to be forced on people. Uh, I don't know if, where you grew up in your, what you saw back, uh, years ago, but for me the thing that strikes me is I, uh, growing up in rural South Dakota where, hey the farmers brought their eggs to town and the local hatchery would candle them and package them is that, uh, in the fifties, uh, you could say we had the recycling going on then that we should have now. Which was all the milk bottles were glass Right. Right. and you got a nickel or dime, which in that time was a lot of money, when you returned them. Pop bottles all had a deposit on them. Oh. Oh, of course. That, they did. You know actually, we had milk delivered to our house in glass bottles Oh. and we had a milk shoot at the side of the house. Uh-huh.
You could just leave the milkman a note on what you needed Yeah. and so you just put the empty ones back out there and he took them away and put, you know, put another gallon of glass, glass bottle in there. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, So, uh, you know, I look back at, at, uh, my childhood and I'd say, you know, they were doing things then that we should be doing now and so it doesn't bother me at all that we're, we're, uh, kind of starting to put the pressure on people to get away from all this, uh, throwaway society that got developed in the sixties and seventies. Right, right, it would be nice, it would be nice to see it take a good turn here. It seems like it started to take a turn and then it went away so I hope that this time it, it stays. Just, To see stacks and stacks of newspapers just to the trash is just amazing. Yeah. So, uh, you know, we, when we go dump, actually when we go dump our things, oh, we collect newspapers, too, and then take them, seems like there's a pretty well, there's a pretty continual flow of people coming and dumping glass and dumping plastics Uh-huh. so that's kind of encouraging.
I didn't know, you know, I didn't know if we started to do that. I didn't know what to expect. Yeah, well I'll have to say I'm, I'm, the only one I'm good at at this point is the newspaper. Uh, taking that to the Boy Scouts and my aluminum cans uh, getting rid of those, Right. but on the plastic, I have, uh, I don't have any habits there yet and I'm, guess I'm waiting for the city to, to push me in that direction but, But, it just seems like on the larger scale that, you know, the, we always talk about in our society is that economic strife things Well, I guess they will shortly. I, uh, and I think if, uh, if we just start to put, you know, the nickel deposit on things, like, uh, was the case years ago that, uh, it would have more immediate effect, uh, than, because I remember searching ditches for beer bottles because they were worth money Oh, right. and it seems like beer drinkers are among the worst for throwing things out the window and so outside my little town, we would, uh, go out and look for long neck beer bottle because they were worth something. Yeah. Right. Do you know, I saw in Tom Thumb yesterday, I saw the return to the, uh, the small Coke bottles. Yeah. And I don't know if there's a deposit on those or not.
I, well that's interesting because, they're back to glass, you're saying? They were glass, they were the glass, uh, well, let's see, they'd be, I don't know, maybe ten ounce or six ounce or ten ounce. Sort of a small size, sort of a small size and, and we, anyway we just, we didn't stop and look them, look at them a long time Uh-huh. Yeah. but, and they were packed in the old sort of six pack stick them down, you know, uh sort of, sort of a basket type thing. Uh-huh. The carton. The paper carton. Right, right, so, I hadn't seen that in a long time. Yeah. Well, I mean the, you really look and say a lot of the things we need to do, we were doing and we had all the mechanisms in place with the fold up paper cartons, the wood uh, racks which now, basically, you could turn them into the plastic ones that would hold, uh, twenty-four bottles. And, and, uh, uh, I'm not really say going back to good old days, but certainly we were doing things the way we think we should do them now.
Yeah, yeah, well, Well, it will be interesting to see how, over the next year, this all works out because, like on the, uh, grass, I'm, I know your husband, uh, doesn't really like the paper sacks. No, he doesn't like the paper sacks and, uh, but he, but, you know, he likes to pick the grass up, too. He doesn't, Doesn't, Yeah. I'm the, I'm the same way because otherwise, uh, oh, I'm, I generally listen to Neal Sperry on Saturdays and Neal, uh, Neal's a person who says, I like to pick it up but I don't believe in throwing it into the, uh, the landfill, so I have my compost pile, but most of us don't have the, uh, sufficient, lot size to, uh, to do that. Right, right. Uh, so I'm glad the city's willing to take that on. That's nice. I guess they dump it the same place, I wonder where they dump that.
Well, there's someplace, you know, if it's, because really, when I look at what my grass does in, in actually about twenty-four hours, uh, knowing what the farmers do in rural areas, they just take their hay and just build a big mound of it and it naturally, uh, composts or stores and, uh, so all you have to do is just place it somewhere and churn it and it will naturally decompose uh, so you just have to kind of keep in separated and then, uh, who knows how they process it from there and what they turn it into, but it's certainly usable material. Yeah, yeah, well they must, they must keep it separate if they have this date in. Uh-huh. They have this day now, that it's, you know, separate from the other trash pick up. Right But, I, the thing I don't understand about that is, like when, it's one thing to send grass there, but I've trimmed trees and other things which, uh, end up being something that, clearly won't decompose nearly as rapidly, No. Okay, well, um, What kind of music do you like?
I, um, I was thinking about it for a long time, and I like basically almost every form of music and type of music. Um, I don't have a whole lot of dislikes. I, um, like jazz, um, especially the blues, and, uh, I like, uh, a lot of the, uh, of course the classics, um, everything back from Bach and, and Beethoven and Chopin and, um, just in general everything. Uh-huh. Um, I enjoy, uh, a lot of the, the modern forms, um, uh, Do you like, like rock and those kind of things punk even. Right, right. Uh, well, that gets, some of the punk, um, when I was in high school, that was, uh, one of the big things, was punk music, and, uh, a lot of it is, has a lot to say, or some of it has a lot to say, the music does, the lyrics do, but the, the actual, I don't think they have a whole lot to say, even Uh, well, it, it's, it's, it really expresses some of the opinions of, of the people who enjoy the music Yeah, I guess. um, but as far as a musical art form, I just don't see a whole lot of art to it Uh-huh.
Um. Do you like rap? Um, some of it, um, it depends. I like, uh, the rap, the two types of rap I like, or I enjoy to listen to, and one is the, the rap that is just funny, um, and they usually do a lot of satire Yeah um. that kind I kind of like. Right. Some of it is kind of pointless, Right, the monotonous the monotonous, yeah. no that's not, I don't enjoy that at all when they're just talking about, well, I'm better than you, and blah, blah, blah. Uh-huh. I don't like that. Yeah,
yeah. I like the funny, satire, and then some of it is, some of it actually gets into some serious discussions of problems in our, in urban society. Yeah. It really does. It talks about, um, race relations and police relations and, um, that, that I guess I don't really care to listen to rap that much except for once in a while some of the funny more satire kind some times. Uh-huh. Um, I'm, with you though, I like classical Uh-huh. um, I don't like to listen to it all the time, but, um, some of the time, anyway. I like easy listening, just kind of, you know, I guess I don't care much for rock and roll any more. I used to like it all right, but I don't really care to listen to it any more for some reason. Um, let's see. Country western, uh, I'm not quite as big on that. Some of it's okay, uh
Yeah, that's, that's about my opinion of that yeah It's, it's okay, um, Some of it kind of falls in the rap category I guess, so Um. The thing about country western that I don't enjoy is is, doesn't seem to be any imagination behind it Yeah. the, one country and western song sounds like every other, country and western a lot of them, sound, uh, really similar, yeah. and so the, the musicians don't get to really get into their music. They just play a certain number of chords Yeah. the drummer plays a certain beat, and you have a country and western song Um. and, Well, that's kind of the way I feel about rock and roll sometimes, too, I guess. They don't really,
has kind of the same sound over and over, and the other thing I don't like about it is they have a tendency to play the instrumental so loud that you can't understand what the lyrics are Um. Right. you can't understand what they're saying on some of those songs which probably is just as well on some of them, too. Yeah. And I can't say that I like a lot of the modern, the very, very modern, uh, rock and roll, Yeah. but I, I definitely, I really enjoy the fifties, the sixties and a lot, some of the seventies rock and roll Yeah earlier things. and, uh, I really enjoy, especially the sixties ... Hello? Hi. Hi, my name is Leslie. Hi, I'm Jennifer. And where are you from? Pennsylvania. Oh, nice,
I'm from Dallas, Texas. Oh, really? Yeah, so, Oh, that's neat. Well, did you understand what this was for, you know, what it was for, what we, Uh, television shows? Yeah Sure, that sounds good. Okay I, I don't watch too many, but we can try it. Okay. Are you ready to start? Sure am. Okay, just a minute Okay, I guess we're recording now.
Yeah, okay. What are your favorite television shows? Well, I don't really watch too many T V shows other than, uh, occasionally I'll, I'll turn on DONAHUE because it comes on in the morning when I seem to be getting ready around here. Oh, really? And, uh, so if, if there's no one else around, you know, it's just me and I have a chance to listen to something, I'll turn that on, but, uh, just for the, for the conversation factor, I think, but, and then I think I enjoy when I catch it, I don't even know what night it's on, but DESIGNING WOMEN sometimes, Oh, I love that show. Yeah, do you? Yes, that is great. Yeah, it's fun. And then there's a new one that started out that I've caught a couple of times called GOOD AND EVIL, I think. Oh, I heard they just canceled that. Oh, really? I read in today's paper they just canceled that show. It is a real different one. It's, uh, it's, it's different.
I guess I watch it more out of the uniqueness of it and the time that it comes on more than the fact that I have to see it. But, Have you seen the show, it's, it's new this year, called HOME FRONT? No, I haven't watched that. Oh, it's, it's really good. It's, uh, I think it's on like Tuesday nights from ten to eleven Uh-huh. and it's set in post World War Two times and it's about how the servicemen come home and readjust to civilian life here and the changes everyone's going through. It's really interesting. Oh, yeah. It's kind of like a a nighttime soap opera type thing. Sounds neat. It is, it's a good, it's really well written. Yeah. Is that on, what what station? Uh, I don't even know, to tell you the truth Oh, okay. What other shows do you like?
Uh, I prefer OPRAH WINFREY to DONAHUE Oh, yeah. Well, she comes on later and I usually have kids around so I don't end, end up watching that one is the only problem I have with it, I guess. Oh. I did watch soap operas, but I work full-time now and can't catch those anymore. Except when I'm home sick, Yeah and now when I watch them, I think, why did I ever watch those? That's right They're stupid Yeah. So when I did watch them I was addicted to them every day. Uh-huh. But not anymore. That can happen. So do you know of any other shows in the even, or something that you enjoy? Oh, uh, tonight I'm looking forward to seeing GOLDEN GIRLS. Oh, that's always fun. Yes,
I like that show. Yeah. And if I can stay up late enough, I like to catch SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE every now and then. Oh, uh-huh. And right now we're watching a Penn State football game because that's where we live. Oh, yeah. So Uh-huh. It's exciting, we're winning, so that's really exciting. Yeah, well, I think, I also, course, like to catch the news during the evening hours Uh-huh. but, uh, it's a little tough because that's when I'm usually making dinner and the kids are wanting to talk all at the same time. So, usually I don't get a whole lot of news watching in. Yes, we watch C N N in morning while we're getting ready for the day and eating breakfast. Uh-huh.
We'll catch our news that way. Watch the weather channel so that we know what the weather's going to be like. Yeah, yeah. So what have you seen interesting on OPRAH WINFREY lately? Lately, I haven't been catching it because of my work schedule. Uh-huh. Uh, I can't remember the last time I saw it. It's been a while. Yeah, well, I don't know if we've talked our full three minutes or not I don't know, sometimes they come on and, and say. Oh, that's right. Well, today on C N N they were talking about something like this about, uh, learning to recognize voices and words and stuff and the research that's going on which is kind of what we're doing, helping them get a data base for words. Um, yeah. It was really interesting. It is interesting. So, Do you work for Texas Instruments?
No, no, just, uh, doing this as a fund-raiser for our church. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, so it kind of makes it easy, you know, to do a little something for it. Sure, because we, uh, we've talked to a lot of people from Texas, it seems, and we thought, well, maybe they work from, for Dallas, All right. I think that gets us off to discussing the topic for tonight. Which is movies, correct? That is correct. Okay. Are you a movie buff? Um, yeah. I don't like going to see them in the theaters but outside of that, rent a lot, watch them on T V mostly.

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