So, this is Boris Elise interviewing Hazel Van Camp on June 22, 2015 at
2:10. All right, so Hazel. Can you take us back to the time, you know,
when you were telling me before about the whole conception process and
meeting your husband to be, do you mind sharing that story with us? Oh,
doctor predicted that I would never be able to have a family because I'd
had a little fever. And so when Arlo proposed to me. I told him that I've
been told that, and he was gone for quite a while and then come back and
says, I want to take my chances. So we were really surprised and tickled
when I got pregnant.
Then we had the Our boy in October 51.
So how long after you got married did you conceive? We were married in
March of '50s, so.
And I never had a sick day all the time I was pregnant.
Woke up in the morning about 2 o'clock with labor pains. He was born 1
minute before midnight.
Can you tell us like about your lifestyle, you know, what you did and what
your life at that time my husband was working for a farmer.
So what did your average day look like? Mine, uh, well, taking care of the
house, crocheting.
No, that's OK. Don't worry, this will be edited in like all any. Pauses
all my questions will be edited out and stuff like that so we can just
have a conversation too. I know it's weird with the recording right there
, but um, but I'm very curious about what the process was back then. So
did you have a lot of doctor visits or where did you live exactly? Were
you in a rural area or an urban area? girl? I suppose
56 miles from town. And would you visit the doctor in town?
In a small town.
Were there just like one doctor or is there one in the town? What were
those visits like? Just, you know, just regular visits, yeah. So did he um
walk you through what to expect or did you know what to expect from your
mother, or I had no idea.
The doctor explained it for me. So, um, Had you planned on having the baby
in the hospital in the town? Yes, in a different town. Why is that?
Because there was no hospital in the town where the doctor was. So was
that a long drive? No. 8 or 10 miles. Um, so when your labor pain started
up, well, first of all, how was your experience of pregnancy? Were you, I
felt better when I was pregnant and when I was other, any other time other
than being heavy in the front. Why is that? Because you got that extra
weight? No, I mean, why did you feel better? I don't know, I just did.
Never had a sick day. All the time I was pregnant. On all three of them.
That's great. Some women were just meant to have babies, yeah.
So, um, OK, so then take us back to when your labor pain started up. You
said at 1 in the morning,
you know, 1 or 2 or something like that. And you um Were with your husband
and were they just um were they kind of minor at first like you could work
for them they were bad at first then they kind of led up and then they
said and they get lighter.
So then at some point, did you call the doctor and he said go to the
hospital or did you guys just decide to go? We waited a while and went.
And they called the doctor after we got to the hospital.
So, can you tell us about the hospital experience?
They wanted to give me. Uh, gas. I refused to take it because I wanted to
see that baby when I was born. Oh, that's really touching. Yeah. Um, yeah
, because I know around that time they, you know, would give people gas or
scoamine or ether, and women don't remember the experience at all.
I would get through all of it. So each, so each with each child you
refused gas. Um Um, so was it a long labor process? Well, off and on, it
wasn't bad until right at the last. Did you have to push for a long time?
Not too terribly long, no.
Just the pains would be there and then they'd let up and then for a while
and then they'd come back. Did you give birth on a, on your back on the
bed? Did you have stirrups or anything? Yeah. What were the stirrups like
? You just put your feet in them so they're.
So, um, What was, do you remember after you gave birth, did they give you
the baby right away, or did they?
That I don't remember.
Would you stay at the hospital for very long after you gave birth? Well,
back then we did. How can you, um, since they're gonna edit out my, my
questions, can you say things like sometimes, you know, I, I stayed a long
time at the hospital or something to reference the hospital for us just so
that when we're editing it won't be a problem to you 4 or 5 days I imagine
, yeah. Um, did you nurse, pardon, did you nurse? I tried to, but there
was nothing there for the baby. He said I was starving him.
Really, we had to put him on a bottle. Was it like that with all three
children? Yes. How long, how long did you try to nurse before they
suggested the bottle? I don't know how long it was when the doctor told me
I was starving like we had to do something. I don't remember how long it
was. Do you remember at the time what the what was in the bottle? Because
I know you guys didn't have formula. No, we use regular milk. And I don't
remember what we put in.
Of course you heat it up.
That's a long time ago.
I know that's why we we uh we're so happy to be talking to you, yeah. Um,
OK, so then you were able to bring your child home. And what was your home
life experience with your child, with the baby?
Well, it's good because he wasn't a cranky baby. And then I babysit My
sister-in-law's baby that was just a month younger than him. They were
small enough to put them in the same crib, one of the other, and when my
baby saw me picked the other one up, he didn't like that.
He raised a heck of a fight.
They're very intuitive, aren't they? babies babies, they're, they're good
intuition, you know, like little people. I never even thought about it
when I picked the other baby up to take care of it, you know, and he let
our yell.
Did he sleep good sleep through the night.
And the doctor gave you some medicine. And got them switched around and I
never had a. Never had a fussy baby. So the medicine helped him sleep how
they turned around. That's good. So then, um, how long did you wait
between that baby and the next one? Was it right away or was there? Uh,
she was born in 52 in December, so October, November, December 14 months.
And that when I got up in the morning and done a big load of wash. My
husband was working about 15-20 miles from town.
And labor started. So I called down there where he was working and, and
the lady answered the phone and she says, oh, Hazel, uh, they're in Akron
and I have no idea where they're at. So
Uh, I hung up but it wasn't too off for long and he come driving in
because they had just drove in their yard when she hung up the phone.
Wow. So as soon as they drove in, you guys went.
I have everything ready.
They had to do my, get my clothes off for and everything, somebody else
did. I didn't.
But that one didn't take us long. Was it the same doctor that delivered
you? All three of them. It's nice. So he knew what you were what you were
like and what you wanted. That's it. Do you remember um meeting the baby
after you delivered with the second one?
You're asking me to remember a long time. I know I'm terrible. I'm just
curious if they put the baby in a nursery or if the baby stayed in the
room with you. Oh no, all babysitter and the nurse would come in and long
enough to nurse them and feed them and they take them back. And so did you
look at them through the glass, or you know, did you visit him at the
nursery or did they just bring him in for feeding? You, you pretty much
stayed in bed and they brought, brought him in to feed him.
Did you um I suffered from any like tearing or anything like that residual
like recovery stuff? No, no. So you have those terrible hemorrhoids like I
had no.
Um, OK, so then, um, you've had 3 children, right? Yeah, so was the third
one any different, or were they just, you know, that one was different
because we was about 25 miles from the hospital. You dropped the other two
kids off with his family, went to the hospital and delivery was on the 2nd
floor. They took me out on delivery, and he went down to get a bottle of
pop. He opened the pop and the doctor was there and says, you have a
daughter.
So he thought we'd better quit or we'd never make it in time.
That's the way to have a baby though,
right? So you have to be in pain for too long. Did you labor at home for a
long time before you went in? Not too long because they started out harder
than the others did. Yeah, I, they say they speed up, you know, as you go
on, you have more children.
No, I was never sick.
When you so since you had um other children, the other children help out
with the baby or anything.
Um So can you think back to around the time where their birds around the
same months sheep. Were they in similar like summertime or wintertime? Oh
, June, what's the last 1 October and December. The first one was in South
Dakota, so it was, so that must have been different. That was different.
What was it like to have a baby in winter versus summer? Oh, I don't know
, you just had to keep them more bundled up if you took them out. It's all
different. So the farmhouse have good heat? Mhm. Wood, we had the
potbellied stoves.
You had to bring the wood in and. Yeah, a lot of work to keep things hot
and keep things cool back then, huh, back then that's what we used for
cooking and heating.
You had to bring cobs in there. Help start the fire at the kitchen range.
And the second one threw them all on the floor.
And make her pick them up and if you went in the other room for something
, you'd come back cough all over the floor.
So is that how you heated up milk on the on the in the cook on the rage,
yeah.
Interesting. So did you have, um, did you, you know, so did you use any of
the farm animals milk?
Yeah, cows. So right there on the cow, you right there on the farm, you
could just milk the cow and use that for feeding the baby while you
boiled it or something. I don't remember that long and we put something in.
I don't remember what it was. Sorry, no, that's understandable. You know
, I've said my birth story a couple times now. I forget things every time
, remember new things every time. If you think of anything else, that we
would be glad to get as much information as possible so we can always come
back. Uh Well, interesting. So is there anything else that you can think
of that we didn't talk about regarding that time?
OK. Actually, can you think of anything else?
Let me look at my questions.
We had a good babysitter and dog.
Put the kids out in the yard and then he'd go to crawl under the fence and
he'd grab him by the pants and pull him back. And you'd go holler for him
and the dog could come to the house and then go back and get him. Bring
him up to the house, the dog didn't show up. He was laying down sleeping
someplace across the dog.
That's good. I wish our dogs were like that, and the man came to see my
husband one time and we went walking around out to the barn, and the dog
was behind him and nail a wagon, and he turned around because my husband
was gone. So he turned around and started to the house. The dog stopped
him at the gate. He couldn't go any farther.
Kids were in there,
so you just possessive,
yeah. So when you brought the babies home, did you introduce them to the
dogs at all or the dog?
00. No, I can't remember really introducing them to him.
He he took, she took care of it. What kind of dog?
German shepherd. Wow, those are very smart dogs. Is she sure was. And I
picked the boy up one day to spank him for some reason, and fortunately,
we had her tied up, otherwise she come out after me. She was protecting
that boy. Is that that boy right there? No, that's my second husband. Oh,
I missed 50 years by 6 weeks. Wow. He didn't quite make it.
Yeah, that's a tough thing with, you know, having a long full life
sometimes. some good ones on the way.
Let's see. Did it, was there anything that surprised you about the process
of having children since you weren't really knowledgeable before you
started? Other than. Be surprised that I got pregnant.
Were you, did you have um sisters or brothers? I had one of both older
sister, a younger brother. Did you see his birth when you were a kid? I
was 6, but no.
My sister was the oldest and I was, I don't know, somewhere else when she
had him, so.
He that dark brought him.
I wish, right?
All right, let's see.
I think we're pretty good, um. Those things I gave you, you won't be
interested in at all. That's just about me. You don't. No, I'm very
interested. Please can I keep it? I'm very interested in it.
Yeah, I'm absolutely interested in it. I was reading some of it um before
we started, I think it's fascinating.
OK, well, I think it's fudge time. So I think we'll go ahead and hit stop
on the recorder.