Tulsa World: Video: Write this down

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Video: Write this down

Mary E. Wilson speaks to seventh-graders during an interview as part of an essay project at Chelsea Junior High School. Wilson told the students, "Whenever I'm trying to go to sleep and I can't, I think about my childhood. I always think of those days when the Depression was upon us. Those were some of my best days." MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World

By RHETT MORGAN World Staff Writer
Published: 10/3/2009 2:20 AM
Last Modified: 10/3/2009 8:27 AM

CHELSEA — The richest stories at the junior high school library Thursday didn't come from the pages of a book.

They originated from the lips of people such as Mary E. Wilson, Peach Dye and Charles Robinson.

"I only dated two guys in my entire life and I married both of them — not at the same time," Wilson, 82, said to pencil-pushing seventh-graders Bethany Minix and Andrea Shatto.

Telena Hefner and Austin Raleigh, also seventh-graders, took down the tales of Robinson, 88, whose fun-loving childhood included pyrotechnics.

"We'd get a pipe and we'd flatten one end and fill it full of water," he said. "Then we'd drive a corn cob in one end and put it into a fire. It would get hot and it would blow that corn cob plumb outside."

The generation-spanning banter was part of the Chelsea Junior High Essay Contest, in which students interview older residents before composing a roughly 500-word essay.

The program began in 2007, when Chelsea native Clem McSpadden, a former longtime rodeo announcer and state and national legislator, was asked to speak to students as part of the state's centennial celebration.

His yarns proved so popular that the next year, he and his wife, Donna McSpadden, decided to expand the experience into an essay contest.

Students would interview an older resident, preferably someone at least 65, then put pencil to paper with a chance to win cash prizes.

Dalton Nelson, whose subject was his grandfather Richard Nelson, won the first year and put $100 down on a new saddle.

Donna McSpadden said Dalton told her that "the best thing that I got out of this was the time I spent with Grandpa."

She added: "That was the whole purpose of this. We're not all idiots because we're over 50. Kids aren't getting to listen to that."

Megan Rohrbough, who won the second contest, interviewed her grandparents.

"They didn't have iPods and everything," she said. "So they just like entertained themselves and played outside. Families were more together. There was a lot more stuff in Chelsea back then. They had a movie theater."

Meg Moss is the junior high school's principal.

"The first year they tried to interview me, and I'm 51," she said. "They wanted to know where I got my water. I said, 'Out of the faucet, just like you.' "

A former town councilor, Robinson spoke Thursday of going to weekend wienie roasts as a kid and of serving in Ipswich, England, during World War II.

Dye remembered skipping rope and climbing trees, and Wilson spoke of growing up on a small farm. Everyone helped with the milking, and her parents sold cream and eggs. The Grand River was a popular place for swimming and picnic lunches, she said.

"We could make our own games and play," Wilson told the students. "Back in those days, we all ate our meals together. We didn't eat one at a time or in the living room."

Clem McSpadden died July 7, 2008, but the contest has endured.

In an age of text-messaging and Facebook, Donna McSpadden said she hopes that the competition continues to stress the importance of oral history.

She said, "One of the students the year before last said, 'I hope I live a life that someone in 50 years wants to interview me.' "

After her interview, Wilson, whose first husband was killed in an oil-field accident in 1957, admitted to having been nervous.

"You don't know how fast my heart's going," she said. "If I could calm down inside, I would have enjoyed it more. When I get excited, I can't remember the things that happened way, way back."

Wilson looks back fondly at her life. "It was a hard time, but it was a wonderful time," she said.

"Whenever I'm trying to go to sleep and I can't, I think about my childhood. I always think of those days when the Depression was upon us. Those were some of my best days."

Rhett Morgan 581-8395
rhett.morgan@tulsaworld.com By RHETT MORGAN World Staff Writer

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2ndjoyce, BA (10/4/2009 12:51:38 AM)

What a great idea for all of us to find an old person, ask a few questions and just sit back and listen. (Sigh) I am an old person.

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