Melvin St Louis Interview, UNST 390 Spring 2019, Conducted by Christopher Duxbury, March 19, 2019.
I conducted the interview in person using a snowball microphone to capture the audio better. The interview was easy to conduct and organize a time because my grandfather lives with us, so timing and scheduling was not an issue. I did not have to edit the interview all that much since Mel spoke clearly, and the transcription software did a great job at transcribing it. We conducted the interview in my living room, which is generally very quiet. Some obstacles I ran into were my grandfather not wanting to go into detail or talk about hard times with his younger life.
My interviewee was my grandfather Melvin St Louis. He grew up in Rural Tolland, Connecticut during the depression on a dairy farm. He had 16 brothers and sisters, two of which died at a very young age. His family had a tradition of serving in the military, so he too joined the military. He later married my grandmother, and raised my mother and her two sisters Michele and Melanie. He was a welder for a couple of companies including Lycoming and Honeywell. He also helped to develop new turbine engines that would be used in aircraft and tanks for the military.
According to Social Explorer, about 11% of the population of Tolland, Connecticut in the 1940’s were laborers which would include farmers. This further enforces what my grandfather talked about with how growing up on a farm was a very unusual thing in the area in which he grew up. “Census Data from 1940.” Social Explorer, www.socialexplorer.com/a9676d974c/explore.
According to the US Census Bureau, the average size of a family in 1940 was about 4 children nation wide. Large families were rare during that time, which enforces with what my grandfather was stating. This is important because it brings a different perspective on how my grandfather lived. U.S. Bureau of the Census. “Average Population Per Household and Family: 1940 to Present.” U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, 15 Sept. 2004, www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hh-fam/tabHH-6.pdf.
Women joining the workforce was not an unusual site in the 1960’s and 70’s when my grandmother joined to help support the family. According the Harvard Business Review, about 34% of working aged women were in the workforce, and that exceeded 50% in the 1970’s. Weinstein, Amanda. “When More Women Join the Workforce, Wages Rise — Including for Men.” Harvard Business Review, 1 Jan. 2018, hbr.org/2018/01/when-more-women-join-the-workforce-wages-rise-including-for-men.
Chris: Can you state your name for the record.
Mel: Melvin St. Louis.
Chris: And you do not want this on a public website. Correct?
Mel: Correct.
Chris: All right. So the first question you grew up in a time during the Second World War. Can you briefly explain what life was like growing up?
Mel: We had a regular very close family and there was a lot of love and thought we were a lot of we funny and safe. My parents never showed us fear of anything even a second world war. So we’re kind of protected as children.
Chris: Now was it commonplace for families in that time to have large amounts of children like your family?
Mel: No. Although a lot of farmers their families who were probably in five six children. Large families like ours were not common.
Chris: And what were some of the benefits and detriments to growing up with so many siblings, well we have always had our own ball team.
Mel: We don’t have to go running around looking for goods to play ball with. We always had plenty of time to play. We were a very close family.
Chris: So when I was looking at some of the census data, For around the 1940s and 50s in Tolland County Connecticut said about 11 percent of the population were labor workers. Was it unusual for you and your family to be farmers in that area. What was it like?
Mel: Well we had like a small farm in our family. But my dad never complained, they worked in the factories. My dad worked in a factories during the Second World War and he worked in a factory just about all of his life.
Chris: OK. So what prompted you to go into the military and what year did you end up joining and get deployed?
Mel: I guess I got into the military because my brothers my older brothers had all gone into the service and my uncles my grandfather and my father were both in the draft during the Second World War and of course neither one got picked because my father had a larger family and I kinda because it was like a tradition of kids then at that time.
Chris: And then what year did you end up joining.
Mel: 1957 I got deployed to Germany and Nineteen, no I’m sorry. It was 1954 I got deployed to Germany in 1955.
Chris: OK. And what did you end up doing in the military.
Mel: We. I was in a Company that was I want to know what you would call it more or less uh trying to find information and check in where were the people were. The Opposition. Other people that was in more or less uh there was reconnaissance, intelligence gathering.
Chris: And when you got out of the military what was the transition back to regular civilian life. Was it difficult to find a job or get acquainted to your family again.
Mel: No it wasn’t difficult to get a job. Actually places like Pratt and Whitney were looking for people to go to school in sheet metal and welding which was. You starting to build a lot of jet engines gas turbine engines and stuff that was a actuator. A lot of work was around. Finding a job. Wasn’t wasn’t hard until about nineteen oh 1958 59 it was kind of a recession and a lot of layoffs. But in a trade that I was in Pratt and Whitney had a trade school that I went to and I learned how to do welding a sheet metal and that was quite quite easy to find a job.
Chris: So can you talk a little bit about how the role of your grandmother and your mother raising you changed from the time that you were growing up to the time that you married. My grandmother Nana.
Mel: Well most of also women took care of the family during especially after the war. The men went to work the women more or less took care of the families the time never changed really until oh I’d say the 60s 70s when women started getting into the workforce. A lot of the women were in the workforce during the Second World War and they continued in the workforce but like our family was so big that grandma and mom and grandma always took care of the kids. And we had aunts that used to come down all the time and the women used to do a lot of chores and stuff around the house like cooking or canning and stuff like that during the summer.
Chris: All right. So did that end up changing at all. When you and Nanna ended up getting married and raising your three children.
Mel: Well yeah because the cost of living it kind of kept on increasing in the area where we lived and it was necessary for the mothers of the children go to work part time. Most of that work in a different hours than the men. Like if I was working nights she worked days if I work days she worked nights and had to in order to support the family. You wages didn’t increase that much That I think the price of product went up faster than the wages then really.
Chris: Now was it common in that time for families to drive far distances to have a large commute in order to get to work. Or how did that work.
Mel: Well I’d go a long way. About fifty five miles each way but most people try to live in the area where they worked. It was a necessary two to move closer to where you work. Back when I got into the supervision one of the requests they wanted me to do is the move closer to work which I did then and that’s the way it had to be.
Chris: Now was it difficult to find care for your children. If both you and your wife were working or was having such a close knit family extremely helpful with that.
Mel: No we didn’t have we had people I used to take care of our kids after school and stuff like that. Once the kids were at school age wasn’t hard to find people would take care of your kids like the neighbors would watch kids. We had a neighbor to check on the kids after school. If we worked the same time. But that was only for a short time but it was necessary for my children to you know help out at home and like my daughter was good doing my cooking and stuff like that. Well I but that was there was a little bit different, children helped around the house and stuff. I guess enough to keep to keep everything going.
Chris: Now would you say that from you raising your children to help out with the House versus now would you say that that role children helping out families in times of need. Do you see that having changed at all.
Mel: I don’t know if it really has changed. It depends on how the parents control not controlling children but have their children help out around the house. Most families still help around the house. It does. It seems like it’s not as tough as it is because it most parents are working and they can support a family a little easier than they used to.
Chris: OK. Well I appreciate you taking the time to let me interview you.
Overall I believe that the interview went very well. My grandfather told me that he enjoyed sharing some of his life with me. It seemed as though he did not want to give up all of the information I knew he had, but I felt like I did not want to push it, and ask for information or a sotry that he did not want to share with me.