Beatrice

Beatrice

Oral history from Kansas City, Kansas

Beatrice grew up in the Argentine District in Kansas City, Kansas with several siblings. Her mother passed away when she was very young and her father worked at a steel plant. Although the family was often busy, they always ate at least one meal together. She went to Pittsburg State University on a full ride scholarship and graduated with an accounting degree.

Late 1900s

Kansas City, Kansas

Beatrice (B)
Marta (M)

B: Recollection of my childhood is growing up on 25th Street in Kansas City, Kansas, and it's the Argentine district. That particular district–our street had nothing but children on it. There…there were I'd say I was trying to think of how many houses and it was just like a ridiculous amount, like 30…30 plus houses on both sides.

M: And which [unknown] are we in right now?

B: We are in Argentine.

M: Not decade…What year?

B: This is like when I was five, so I–I'm 66 now. So that was 61 years ago. I was not quite in school yet, but I–I remember all the houses. And the one thing my mom always…I have eight brothers and sisters and my sister after myself passed away at the age of 17 months.

B: So there we..I have seven living brothers and sisters, five girls and two boys. And at that time there was only me and the younger sister.

B: And I remember all the kids and we could go out and play at the homes…were so totally different in that we didn't even lock our doors. I didn't know that, but I knew that the doors were always open and at night we didn't even lock’em.

B: And my dad worked…There was on the corner of 20…I lived on 25th Street…so the corner of Strong [Avenue] and 24th was a steel plant and that's where my father worked for years and years and years.

B: And the kids would go out to play around lunchtime. And when that whistle blew at four o'clock, we knew we had to be home. Four o'clock if we weren't home, we were in trouble because we all ate together. That's the one thing I remember is all eating together as a family. We may not have liked what we were eating, but that's what we're going to eat.

B: But as I got older and I went into school–there was a school, a Catholic school right across the street. So everything was close to–the school was just down the road, not even a half a block away.

B: There was a local grocery that's where most of–all our groceries were bought because we didn't have the stores like we do now, where you can go from Price Chopper, Kroger, wherever these stores, and we'd go out and play.

B: But the interesting part about all of us playing is that we had enough for a couple of teams, baseball, which is what we played. The people down the street and across. So a caddy corner to where we live, a cornfield, somebody planted a cornfield. So in order to get to the ballfield, which was on 24th street, we'd have to run through the cornfields and I don't know what it was about it, but we could have walked, but we always had to run through these cornfields because I think we watched too many scary movies.

B: But we'd get there. We’d play and then [at] four o'clock, the whistle would blow because it seemed like before you knew it, it was done. And we were back at home eating dinner.

B: We lived in the–we were the second house on–on the west side of 25th Street. But like I said, we had–we had neighbors. It was–she was an older lady, but all her grandkids were always out there. So she practically raised your grandkids, which was very typical of a lot of parents–grandparents, they had their grandkids. Kinda like it is now. A lot of kids are being raised by their grandparents, but they were always at our house.

B: Mom would say, well what's more, one more mouth to feed. But we thought we lived in a humongous house. We had a small porch. So of course, my desire is always to have a small porch, which I still don't have. But I have a deck in the back.

B: But we–we–we would–we'd eat dinner and it just seemed like all we–we couldn't go out to eat…play afterwards because you start getting dark. And if we did, it was right in that…around the yard. But I mean, I'm not kidding you. That's the street that had the most kids. The kids were like–each family had at least five kids. I would say one of the families down the road, the Monroe family had 12. So they can have a baseball team all on their own.

B: But we grew up with a lot of these kids. Lot of them were not my age. My cousins were my age, but I mean, there was [sic] houses all up and down the street. And lot of them –1965 is when they rebuilt that area, urban renewal came in and my family moved from 25th Street to 26th and Metropolitan [Avenue], and that's where my mother still lives now. So they've got a brand new house.


B: I tell everybody when I because I–went to I went to St. John the Divine School for a couple of years. And then it was, well, of course, Catholic schools have always been schools which pay for and my folks could not afford to send me there. So I went to the elementary school which is three blocks down. It's still there. And then I finished there.

B: In the meantime, I went and I graduated from Emerson [Elementary School] and I went to the middle school, which was Argentine middle-school, which is now it used to be the high school, but it's fifth grade and then it was sixth grade, you would go to the middle school. And I was one of the last…last to graduate from Argentine High School in 1972 before it became JC Harmon.

B: But my friends, they didn't live on my same block because they were all either older or younger. But I had a girlfriend on 24th street and a girlfriend on 26th Street that we came and back then they had alleys so you would come across the alley and it wasn't like crossing streets. You wouldn't have to worry about getting run over or anything.

B: So we hung out together, which to this day we're still friends. We see each other. Well, before all this [Covid-19 pandemic] happened, we were seeing each other once a month, getting together for lunch or breakfast or something. And they have families of their own and grandkids.

B: Now, I’ve…I've been married for 33 years, but we do not have any children. I have lots of nieces and lots of nephews. We have…I think we have 17 nieces and nephews and 11 great grand nieces and nephews? On my side. Yeah. And my husband is–his family is all in Mexico City and he's got three-bit three. Let's see. He's got two brothers and a sister. And they have three…six…nine. So he's got like ten…ten nieces and nephews.

M: So are you in pretty good touch with all these nieces, nephews?

B: We just talked to my, uh, my nephew in Cancun. We were calling them about the hurricane to make sure he was okay. He said We're waiting for Delta. And I said, Oh, the plane? He started happy that the hurricane is it Why are you waiting? Because there's that the name of it he goes, Yeah, they used up all the letters of the alphabet.

B: And I told my husband, Oh my God, I can't believe I did. That. It was Delta Airlines.

B: Yeah, we still keep in touch. He does have a brother that moved here and he’s in Independence [Missouri]. We don't see him. We haven't seen them very much since all this would pretty much stay away from everybody.

B: The only one [person] I see is my mom because she's–she's 89. And so for about two to three months nobody saw her. We were too worried that anything was going to happen. And I told my sister, you know, I'm at home all the time. I don't go anywhere. There's no reason why can't; my mom's going nuts.

B: So I see her two or three times a week. I'll go down there and I go say “come, let’s take a ride.” So we'll take a ride and it's kinda helped her with her sanity. I think if I wasn't able to get in my car and go and just take a ride. I'd go nuts too. Yeah. Yeah.

B: But it's…I see it so different when we're growing up. I mean, we did what they told us to do. These are kids. Back then…We all–we all married. And my wife, I have a brother who got divorced and then a sister who got divorced and we were all so devastated–because at that time, divorce was not one of the things that you saw that much, you know–but it was something it was it was a big step for me because being the eldest of all of them, I thought, you know, why should somebody be in something that they're not happy with? Life is too short.

B: So I mean, it's, it's a lot of things change. But one of the things I'd like all my nieces and…I'd love for them to carry on the tradition of food. A lot of–some of the younger ones don't know how to cook. Now I do have one niece that cooks up a storm. She makes us look bad.

B: But they…and we are all married too different…in different I married a Mexican, my sister married a Cherokee Indian. We've got all kinds of nationalities. And so it's different and you've learned a lot of different things. You may not like everything, but you either–you…don't have to live with them. You know, the hard part is living with somebody. So it's been interesting, but we've all learned.

B: Just recently within the last couple of years. Well, we get along really well, [my] brothers and sisters. We have our arguments, but then it's–it's over. It's not anything that we're mad for years For anything like that. But within the last couple of years, we've–we've gotten together once a month to eat: we’ll go someplace and eat–just all the siblings. We’ll take my mom with us.

B: And when–when the pandemic started, I still have a sister that says I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going to go on scared. She's scared. Well, I said I understand that you just have to be careful who you are around. And so we–we've been ordering from local places and we bring it into the house and they come over to–will go to their houses.

B: And next, as matter of fact, next…Sunday, we're gonna get together at one of my youngest sisters’ [house]. The next to the younger sister it’s her turn. So we're gonna go to her house and have–I don't know what we're having yet. I didn't even ask her. Usually I'm the first to ask because I wonder what? She's going to have stuff and we're all going to go over there and it's really nice because even the boys go.

B: And lot of time…You know, when my dad passed away in 2011…and he…the only thing he asked is that we take care of mom, which, you know, it was kinda like a given but he had to hear it. And he [unknown] the boys. Once he heard it from the boys, he was okay and he passed on. But the boys…

B: All the girls have said we are so amazed that the boys have taken on the responsibility that they had because they were anything mom wants or needs, come and mow the grass and all that is done.

B: But for years it's only been a year-and-a-half, but before that, somebody has always stayed with her.

B: We have a sister that got divorced a few years back and so she went in to stay with my mom. She's there so we don't stay like every…if somebody was there every night. But it wasn't something that was a burden for us because we were just we…were raised that way, you know?

B: I think I see a lot of the younger kids where it would be hard for them to do that. Because they carry around. My sister says “My kids already said that they're going to put me in a nursing home. I'm going to kick their butts.”

B: I am I–I told my sister, my youngest sister, go, what am I gonna do? I said, I don't have kids. There's nobody to take care of us. And she says…She goes, “I'm going to take care of you and Ryan, her youngest, is my god son. She says “he's going to take care of me. He's already told me.” I said I've got all these kids are going to take care of me, so I don't think I have to worry.

B: But I–I–I want to in growing up, I was used to being around just my area. Argentine was just the area. I thought that's all that existed. I had no idea that there was Turner. I had no idea there was Missouri. I had no idea.

B: And when I went to high school. We ventured out to the Turner one day and got caught by truancy officers. But we told him we just took the wrong turn. I guess they are more vulnerable than we thought and we–we went back to school, but it was fun.

B: I mean, I can't say I never skipped school because I did my mom [unknown] does and you thought I didn't know but I did. So we the girls say my girls, I know they're gonna do the things I did right there.

B: So from–from high school, I got a scholarship, full ride scholarship, and I went to Pittsburg State University. I graduated with an accounting degree. First semester was really rough for me because I've never been away from home. I always wanted to call home. And back then you had to pay for your phone calls. Mom says, I remember her telling me one day, “We love you but you can't call the time. I can't collect want me anymore.”

B: But it wasn't that it was just time for me to fly off. And then next, that was the first semester. Second semester, I didn't even come home because by then I was used to it and it was okay. And she was worried that I'd flown the coop.

B: But I think part of my first semester [of] college was hard. I lived in a dorm. I had a roommate. She didn't like me. And I thought, why doesn't she like me? You know, she was a white gal and I thought “must be because I'm Mexican.” I mean, because people said, “Well, you gotta be careful because when you go away, people are not going to say, oh, you're different.”

B:And so she…what ended up happening is that…she moved out of the dorm and I couldn't understand why that was one of the things that devastated me a lot because I thought I don't understand.

B: And all the other girls were white girls from little small towns and I had no idea people lived on a farm with chickens. But I got to meet them, we'd go and stuff.

B: But so next–the following semester, this girl that moved out came to see me. And she wanted to apologize for her moving out. So I want to know why you did it. I mean, what happened? Is it because I'm Mexican, Is it because I want to know because I'm out here in the wilderness not knowing what the heck.

B: She says, Well, I had a boyfriend, she had a boyfriend. And Pittsburg State University down in Pittsburgh, Kansas is Bible Belt–Baptist Bible Belt country. She said “you weren't Baptist.” I said “What?” She said “you weren't Baptist.” She goes in and I could be that…I as like “I’m Catholic.” She goes, I know that was because you had to be Baptists. That was a shocker to me. I mean, I just, I guess I didn't realize at that point that there was different religions either.

B: It was a big, big step for me and I had people, I've made all kinds of friends. I've got people that are, I don't know what religions there and it doesn't make any difference what they are. It's the person that they are.

B: So I finally graduated from college, came back to come home and after being out on your own, it's hard. So I told my dad I–I didn't want to talk to him. But I said “Dad,” I said “I want to buy a house.” And go, Oh my God. Why do you want to buy a house? You know, you're not married. But what if I don't want to get married? I think it'd be a good investment, blah, blah, blah. So he finally agreed.

B: And I bought my first little house. And this little house was the house that I met my husband like seven or eight years later, and I'd already been living in it. And when we got married, he moved in there and fixed up the house. The house looked totally different when he moved when we moved out, then when I moved in, but because he's very handy. Very, very handy.

B: So like I said, we moved from there and when…I worked in different…my first job as a matter of fact, before I got married, my first job, I couldn't believe that I got a job. I've always been in the oil and gas industry. And I had my hiccups there too. You know people–people are not used to seeing different people of different colors that were used to the white people. And my boss, who was a very strong Catholic, so I thought, oh, we’re going to get along.

B: Oh my God, he was–I remember one day he said “You are too gregarious” and I thought I don’t know that word. I was just freaking out. I didn't know what that word meant, so I had to go home and look at that. But what's wrong with being happy with talking and what's wrong with that word? But he was just…people would talk to me before they would talk to him and he didn't like that. He wanted to be the main one. But my years there…I was probably there 12 years and then they–the company moved to Houston.

B: So from there I had various jobs but they've always been in the industry. My last job was–was the same way and they moved from…to…they all moved to Texas because that's the hub for the gas and oil industry. And I told…I was working this job. I told my husband, I…these hours are going to be crazy, but I mean, it's a job. Let's look. Working 60 hours a week. It was like crazy. And some days I'd see my husband's somedays I wouldn’t.

B: I thought I was already 50 by then and I said, you know, I better start thinking about what I want because if I don't, then I might be by myself or might not and I have to decide what I want for me [sic].

B: So when I was like, I was by then I'd already been there [at the company] seven or eight years. I told my husband after the first of the year I'm going to look for a job. He didn't believe me.

B: But I said I am. I said I think I need to be home more and I'm going to try to find something really close to the house. I know it's not going to pay well, but you know what? That's what I'm gonna do.

B: So I went to go work for the Turner School District and my sister says, “Do you want to be a secretary?” I said “No, not really.” I said, “But I want my time to be busy.” I don't want to have to worry about three minutes. I'm well, probably five minutes from my house, three miles. I said I can do that for five or six years before I retire. And that'll be okay. I'll be alright.

B: And at first, I didn't like it–because I thought I'm not doing anything that I learned all these years in school–but after the first year, my–my mind kept saying it's okay. You just do a check-in, you do it, get it done. So anyway, I wound up working there for six years and I retired two years ago…January it will be two years that [sic] I have retired.

B: [Since then] I've been at home doing whatever I want to do and it's been great. It's been really good. But I tell my younger nieces, nephews, it's gonna be…because I have one that's a teacher and she says it's so hard. And the kids and I go, Yeah. It's hard…with I mean, I didn't have kids but I tell my mom, I don't know how you did it. You had eight kids and they have two kids and they're complaining.

B: And she goes, well, I was always at home. I said, yeah, you were always at home, but I tell you what, I'd rather be working than at home with kids. I think it would be very hard. I only know because I took care of my brothers and sisters. Well, my mom was off doing–you know working sometimes. She didn't ever work out of the house but like she’d sew or she'd make food and sell it and or stuff like that. But somebody had to be watching the younger kids. So that was enough for me.

B: But I'm trying to think of what else I can tell you. I don't know if I've gotten…

M: I will totally agree with you that I would have gone completely insane if I hadn't been able to work while I [laughs]...had my kids.

B: Well, I had my mom always says, Oh, but you made so much more money. I said, But you know, mom, it takes a while because you do you think make money, but you have to have your plan. And I said, making money at the end was not an important thing for me. I'm much happier now.

B: And I didn't realize it because I thought, Oh, I'm gonna get this and this. I think I don't know. I never for a minute thought that I didn't want to retire. I mean, I knew I did, but I didn't know if we're gonna make it or not, but I think it's been–it's really been good.

B: I have a friend who's 70 years old. She looks fantastic. You would never, never, never know. She looks…she looks like she's probably 60. I mean, she doesn't look bad at all. And she's scared to retire because she doesn't think she’s…she's on her own. I go, “You know what? You're gonna do fine” you're going…and she's been off for the last three months and we had a little talk last week and she says, “You know, I think I am going to be fine [cuts out] to go eat and I like to buy us have girl, you're not talking buddy.

B: I used to go out all the time. I used to eat out everywhere. I said, “And you can still do that if you want. But you're going to find that that's not that important anymore and you don't have to buy something to wear at home–some days I don't even get out of my pajamas. You know, I did dress up today. Well, not dress up. Just put on a shirt…

M: I love the flowers.

B: Right?

M: Yes. Can I ask you a couple of follow-up questions?

B: Sure.

M: Okay. So we were well into your story. You had talked about the different…like the different people that your siblings had married, Mexican somebody married a Cherokee and we were well into your story. I think we were past that before you actually identified yourself as Mexican.

B: Oh…

M: Could you talk a little bit about, like, that? Like did you think of yourself growing up as Mexican? Or what did you know about how your parents or grandparents or whoever came to Mexico…What did you know about that whole thing?

B: Well, my mom…my grandmother was from Mexico. My grandfather was from Mexico. They were both Mexicans. And from what my dad tells us–told us because he's gone–is that they had money. They were–they were what they considered wealthy. And my grandfather would come here to work on the railroad.

B: So that part always confused me. Okay. If you're wealthy…Well he [my father] says “We’ll you're wealthy if you're working the land.” And he says all his kids were little because my grandfather came to work, went back and he was killed. And my dad didn't talk about that for a long time, but he was five when my dad…when my grandfather was shot. And what they did was rob him of the land and the cattle. And so basically they had nothing at the end.

B: I said, well, you know, dad and my dad was a very giving man. He was just whatever, I mean, his brothers…My dad was in [the] Korean War and he would send money. So there one day if he got married, he wanted to have money and grandma would say, “Well, we don't have money. Take it from what you need to.” Of course, when he came back, he says there was nothing. He says they used it all.

B: You know, I kind of identify in that. Sometimes people think that because I use it as my husband's family, he came to the United States and they thought he was rich, but he wasn't rich. But he would always send money because it's, you know, hey, let's send him a little bit to get them by.

B: So it was always that they've got that he had the money that he did and he didn't. And that's the way it was. My daddy said “I'd send money.” They used…and he's got money. He goes and then when I was going to come and get married, there was no money in the house.

B: As a matter of fact, the house where my grandmother lived still stands. Probably built–oh gosh–it's gotta be over 70–80, now probably close to 100 years old now. And my dad got part of the house and grandma…grandma had step-children. And so the daughter was going to get some of that too. So when dad sold it, she got some, dad got some. But the house sold it and it was sold for twenty five thousand dollars.

B: Can you imagine the house now? You can't even touch hours for less than two hundred thousand dollars. But the house is still standing and the guy that bought it got divorced, and so he didn't want to live there anymore. And my sister–my sister bought that house. And I want to say she's–she bought it for a little bit more than what he bought it for. I mean, he didn't–he didn't make money on it. He just got the money there. But she's got it and she's fixing it up and it brings back a lot of memories to see grandma's house there.

B: But my dad would say that he lived–there was [sic] three–four families that lived in the house. The house is very small. It was like one bedroom, one bath, and there was…

M: Where's the house?

B: It's on 25th Street where we grew up in Argentine. And it was…there was a room, probably four by eight [feet], just real narrow, and they use that one as a bedroom. And mom said that's where she and dad stayed for a while before they moved out. But then dad had another brother and his wife, and I think it was only three families because my other aunt would only come during the day when he was working. They [would] drop them off and they were all there.

B: The house is small…The living room was probably the biggest room of the whole thing, the bathroom small. And it's…it's perfect for one person, but not for a family of three different families. So I told my sister, I don't understand why you want to buy that house because I just want to keep it in the family. She's got a lot more tradition, she says, than we do.

B: But when we moved down, when my dad bought the house down the street, he said that house sold for…he bought it for eight thousand dollars. I said “really, that's a lot of money.” I mean, I remember telling him that that's a lot of money. He said yeah, but, you know, we had one bedroom–one bedroom, living room, a bathroom, and then it was like a walk-through room to the kitchen. You had to walk through a bedroom to the kitchen. And that was it.

B: I remember probably in the early–in the late sixties. I don't remember what dad put in a new bathroom and it was huge. I mean, there's the laundry room, the bathroom, and the bathroom that was there before became a bedroom for the boys because all the kids slept in one room; and mom and dad slept in the walk through. So we lived there most of our lives; we just thought that–that was the house.

B: So I didn't–I've never really wanted a humongous house because I was comfortable in a smaller home like that. But we all live within probably six or seven miles of each other. So we're all very close.

B: I have…well, actually there it's probably closer now because I had one [sibling] that moved closer in five miles within radius…all of us live within [this distance].

B: There was [sic] times when we were growing up where I moved out and then my sister went to school, came back…My brother moved to Nebraska for a few years at his job and then came back and decided he liked the area and he came and I both have accounting degrees. But he became a firefighter. And my other brother became a firefighter.

B: The two brothers I have both were firefighters once getting ready to retire. The other one retired five-years ago now…and they're all younger because I am the oldest. And I have two sisters that are nurses. And I have a postal worker sister, and then the other one worked with me at the school district.

B: So we all went to school. There's only one..two…one that was so close and didn't finish and we tried to get her but she didn't fish. She goes, “Eh, I'm okay.” Okay. But now she instills that in her children.

M: [Unknown] that you're all you all went into basically professions that serve your communities. Fire fighter, postal worker, teacher.

B: Yeah. Yeah. I–I would say I don't see you as an accountant. I love numbers. You know. I said I saw if there had been a degree and customer service or something like that, I probably would’ve. I think that's probably why I did so well in the district because I would see all the people coming in. And I enjoy people.


B: And I think from–I always want to know what people were from. I want to know where they are. About their parents, siblings…because I had gone through things where I thought I don't understand why people don't…like I was telling you about my roommate. She did not like me.

B: And, you know, the funny thing about her. She was so strict. She was a very strict Southern Baptist. And after her and her boyfriend broke up, she–she–she kinda went out of her own way. She was an opera. She became an opera singer, not professionally, but opera.

B: And we were gonna get married. She said, I heard you're getting married. I want to sing at your wedding. I said “You do?” I said, Okay, I let her sing at my wedding and it was beautiful. She did a beautiful…opera at my wedding and she did a beautiful job. I have not seen her in probably 30 years now, but I've lost communication. She went to New York and she said, “I'm living with a guy, we're not married.” She goes, “I hope you don't get offended” that you're living with him, not me. I don't care.

B: [Audio cuts out] but he's not–he's not–he's–he's…I can't remember what nationality which kinda threw me, but that's usually what happens with people that don't they they they don't know the world. She was sheltered in her own…kinda like I was in Argentine. You just learned to be around people and I've been with a lot of people they go they just insulted us…they didn’t insult me. I didn't say anything. I didn't take it personally. You know, I didn't take it personally because they're [the people who insult me] the dumb ones.

M: But yeah. I mean, that’s fascinating that she wanted to sing at your wedding after she couldn't…Do you have no idea why she wanted to sing at the wedding?

B: I think she probably thought, Hey, I treated her bad enough that I don't want her to think that way.

B: And her family. Many times before that…No, after it was afterwards. I think twice I went to go see your family. Family was very nice. But I could tell I mean, I could tell that they weren't they were really surprised. And I said, “I don't think your mom or dad liked me.” No. No. But she says “What it is is they're not used to seeing.” She goes.

B: Look, she lived. I can't even think of the name of the town because Pittsburgh, close to Pittsburgh is Joplin and then it's Oklahoma. But it's right before Oklahoma. Some[thing] Springs…Baxter Springs. She lived in a little town called Baxter Springs [Kansas]. I don't think they had any Mexicans or any kind of Hispanic groups. I think if they had blacks, it was would've been amazing.

B: But I just recently…we went to my sisters. They go, we're gonna take a little road trip. You want to go? I said “Where are you guys going?” And they were going to go to Oklahoma and they're gonna go down and see the Pioneer Woman. I said, I know who she is, actually not one of my favorites, you know, I don't really wanna go. [My sisters said] “Oh, you need to get out.” [I said] “Well, let me let me know if you guys go,” because they plan stuff and then something falls through.

B: So anyway, long story short, yeah, they were gonna go and I said, You know, I told my husband I think I'm gonna go ahead and go with them. I just need to get out. And he said, “Okay, go ahead and go.” I went…

B: Well, my sister's roommate, I've met her before. And that's another one we've talked about her because she own…they own an ammunition plant in Winfield, Kansas, they have a lot of money.

B: But you meet these people and to think down to earth. So down to earth, money is not one of the issues you can tell. But anyway, she–Sandy, my sister says, “Do you remember Noelle?” I said “Yeah, I remember her.” She says, “The only thing I asked you is don't talk politics.” I said “I'm not usually one that does.” I said, “You got it.” She goes “because, you know, they're not the same politics that we are Democratic Party or the Republican or Democrat.” She says, “We don't. We want this to be a fun-filled week.” And I said “You're telling me.”

B: She goes, I know I'm going to tell my other sister that to us. Anyway, we go down there and it will go to a city called Pawhuska, Oklahoma. I think the number I read the when we were going it was like 8500 people in the city. And my concern was staying at a hotel. So we rented an Airbnb and we met owners. They're the nicest people. I mean, I was prepared to see how they were going to react to us coming.

B: This is the first time in all the years that I've lived that the reaction was–there wasn't a reaction. It was just like regular people and it was kind of a good thing. It's more like there's more of a mixture now. People are just used to it, I guess.

B: [Then] Sandy, my youngest sister, says, there…Noelle’s mom's coming. You guys have never met her. She goes, she's really nice, very nice lady. She originally was the owner of the ammunition plant, but as she's getting older because she's probably in her late seventies, maybe, she’s passing it on to her daughter. She says she's going to meet up with us. So we met up her and in [the restaurant] it walks is older guy–older man.

B: And Sandy says, Do you know who that is? I said No. She says “that's Chuck Drummond.” I said “Chuck Drummond?” And she goes, “Yeah, you know who Ree Drummond is?” I said “The Pioneer Woman?” She says “That’s her father-in-law.” I said, “What's he doing here?” She says, “I just found out Noelle’s mom is dating him.” I said, “Oh my God.” She goes, “So just be nice to him.” She always tells me that because she knows I'm very direct.

B: So we meet [sic] him. Oh, my god, this man is he was just…I was amazed because he's older, so I expected, you know, a little bit of a what's the word I want to say? Maybe he was going to be more…I can't think of a word. We weren't going to be as appealing to him, you know.

B: No. No. He was just as accepting. That's what I want–that’s the word I wanted. He was the nicest man and he was…that was on a Thursday night and he says, We were just going to be there Friday and come back home. And he says, “You know what?” He says “Tomorrow, I want you girls to be ready at eight o'clock, I’m picking you up and we're gonna go for a little ride.” Okay.

B: We're all ready. He took us to tour the whole ranch and where they lived. The family cemetery, which to me, I thought the family cemetery…how many people went? And we didn't get to meet his [daughter-in-law]…the Pioneer Woman because she was filming. He took us to dinner. He took us to breakfast first and then we had dinner at…there's a pizza place that they own too, and he was the nicest man.

B: And I think to myself, you have 11 thousand acres of land. I complain because we have a quarter of an acre. There are people that…He talked about his ranch hand that he had. He said, “Do you like Mexican food?” and I started laughing. I said, “Are you serious?” He said, “You know how to make enchiladas?” I said, “Yes.” And he says “Girl, I'm coming to your house” and I started laughing at that. Maybe he doesn't think we're Mexican–that was my first thought [laughs].

B: What's my first thought? But he says, “I love those” and I said, “You know what, you can come to Kansas City. We're going to show you” and I told the girls, if they come to Kansas City, they’re going to have a feast because they're not the only ones that can show us around. But it was–it just depends. There's a lot of people that don't. But I mean, I remember I'm going back back [in time] again.

B: But in high school, I didn't really have a lot of friends that were anything but Mexican. They were all–we hung around in a little group. Jesse, who you've talked to before, him and I are godparents to one of his nieces. And I mean, we're just because–it's because it’s my best friend's brother.

B: And we didn't hang out because he was always what I told you I was with [unknown]. I would tell him. But he's old in high-school. Three years is a lot of years. You are pretty much at the same age. So we didn't hang out together. He would see us and we'd say hi and all that. But he–he is. As the time has gone on, we've seen we've seen more and more of each other. We help in the same food kitchen and different things like that.

B: But just recently he [Jesse] got an award and I posted it on Facebook. One of the girls that I went to school, this girl I haven't seen them in about 40 years. I talked to them. I always talked to the people in school, but I didn't hang out with them. And now it's more…Oh, let's get together, let's do this. But come to find out this one girl married a Hispanic man. The other one didn't. It's the same boyfriend she had from when she was in…

B: But as the years have gone on, all the groups were segregated. Now they're all together.

B: I remember my dad used to say, it's easier if you marry your own kind. And I thought what is he talking about? But as the years went on, I understood. He said it's you know, it's hard enough to maintain a marriage to keep it intact. And if you have different…if you have somebody who's a different nationality and they have certain wants and likes or–it's harder. It's harder. That's what he meant.

B: But it's been…I've had a good life. I haven't–I can't complain. The only thing I would have wanted children, but it wasn't meant to be. So that did not happen.

M: Bea, I am so, so sorry, but I have another meeting at three.

B: Sure. No problem.

M: Don't leave yet. Hang on.

B: Okay.

M: I have a quick question and then I have one last thing I want you to say before three.

B: Is it almost three? Yep. Oh, my God, it’s almost three.

M: But we can always do a follow-up to send you an email asking for, like if you're doing this reunion with your six sisters, I'd love to see a picture of you and your sisters today and some old pictures maybe of you and your sisters to compare. That would be wonderful.

B: Okay.

M: Quick question is: Where was your grandfather shot and why?

B: He was shot in Mexico on his ranch. And he was shot because I think my dad said that they were…[My grandmother was shot] because of the sale of cattle or something that he [my grandfather] wouldn't sell them. Because they know my dad actually know–knew who had shot him and he [the murderer] was still living.

B: And I–I remember asking my dad, do you want to meet him [the murderer]? He goes “No.” He goes “I don't.” So I would have wanted to I wouldn't want to say why. I mean, a lot of it is practically out of stupidity…somebody told me to or whatever. But yeah.

M: And then my last question is can you repeat, now that we're recording, the recipe for the chilaquiles with red sauce and scrambled eggs?

B: Sure. You're gonna do some tortillas, you're going to fry them up, I like to make little squares or triangles. Fry them up in a little bit of oil. Put them aside to drain. You're going to cut up some onion, cut up some garlic. I put a whole onion and I put a clove of garlic. And if I feel two cloves, so it's kind of guess…and you sautee them in the oil that's remaining. Not a whole lot of oil. It's not more than one-fourth of a cup.

B: And then you add tomatoes. One can of tomatoes with, you can add your jalapenos however spicy you and I'm doing blend those up, pour them into the–your skillet, saute it until it's sauteed a little bit.

B: Then you take…I would start off with four eggs and then maybe add, I'd say with the can [of tomatoes] four or five eggs. And you scramble them and scrambled into your mixture. And you can salt, salt it. And then just scramble. I like my yellows mixed really good [sic], you know? And then I add the chips at the very end. And you're good to go.

Marta Caminero-Santangelo

English

Audio

Kansas City, Kansas