Q: Maybe they wouldn’t hire Brenda because they knew she was pregnant.
A: I wasn’t pregnant, and they wouldn’t hire me.
Q: Why not?
A: I was overqualified.
Q: What does that mean?
A: I would not get along with my co-workers and I would intimidate the bossman.
Q: Did you get along with your co-workers at the feldspar mine?
A: Yes.
Q: Did you intimidate your bossman?
A: No.
Q: When Brenda couldn’t find a job at Penland you started looking.
You have been looking for, or working at, a job ever since.
A: Yes.
I was the breadwinner. She was the helpmeet.
Q: When did that change?
A: When the kids were old enough to put in school she became the breadwinner and I became the helpmeet.
But we couldn’t make it on one income, with two kids, so both of us worked.
Q: When Brenda was at home, nursing Owen, she did all the housework and you worked and wrote.
A: I was involved in taking care of Owen, but peripherally. She was mainly responsible for it.
Balder too.
Q: But you did things together as a family.
You went on picnics.
You took the boys for walks.
You played with them.
A: Read books to them. Told them stories.
I talked to them like they were adults.
I didn’t talk baby talk. I treated them like they were grown-ups.
Q: Two kids are more work than one. More than twice as much work. Two are a handful.
A: Yes, but they entertain each other.
It’s fun to watch them interact.
I’m glad we had two.
There’s nothing like a brother or a sister.
I’m glad they had that.
Q: They helped each other.
A: Yes. Also, they pushed each other.
They competed with each other.
Q: Were they similar?
A: Different.
Different personalities. Different temperaments.
It was edifying watching them both grow up.
Q: Are boys easier to raise than girls?
A: Don’t know. Didn’t raise any girls.
I know you learn with each one.
We were probably better parents with the second one than with the first one.
But children are very forgiving.
You can do a lot wrong and still correct yourself.
They don’t hold mistakes against you.
Q: You were poor.
A: Our friends were poor. Their playmates were poor. Their playmates’ parents.
We laughed at people who were better off. Look what they had to do to get it.
Being poor was an adventure. You had to improvise.
Scuffle and make do. Or do without. A lot of what we did without wasn’t necessary, or wasn’t worth what it cost to get it. To have it.
Q: What does it cost to go to the library or listen to the radio.
A: Or shop in secondhand stores.
Q: Plus, after you moved back to
A: Yes. I worked for IBM and Brenda worked for Mitel and we inherited a house from my grandparents.
Even after we
moved to
I didn’t educate either boy, but they educated themselves.
How many kids are making a living playing music?
They did that.
But we were an example.
They saw me self-publishing my own pamphlets, selling my books at book fairs. Giving workshops.
Artists visited us. Painters, musicians, writers.
They met people who made a living at art. A sculptor. A folk artist who had been a housepainter. A picker who worked as a deckhand. Plenty of bartenders, chefs, waitresses.
These people all had kids.
My kids have kids.
Their kids are artistic.
Q: In spite of public education, in spite of television, in spite of junk food.
A: The whole culture is screwed up. They know that.
The hippies were right. Nixon was wrong.
They know that.
They know what shopping sickness is, and Republican personality disorder.
They were inoculated against it. Young.