WEBVTT 00:00:00.829 --> 00:00:07.037 This is Boris Solis interviewing Sharon Holloman on June 22, 2016 at 9:20 00:00:07.070 --> 00:00:11.857 a.m. for the Creative Push project. OK, so we know a little bit about your 00:00:11.890 --> 00:00:19.646 story already. You, um, met your first husband at a young age. Yes, 16. 00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:24.056 Well, actually 15 when I met him and got pregnant and had to drop out of 00:00:24.089 --> 00:00:30.776 school and uh 3 months after we were married, he left, never seen him 00:00:30.809 --> 00:00:36.756 again. So you were 3 months pregnant. I was 4 months pregnant when then 3 00:00:36.789 --> 00:00:44.396 months later he left, so he never saw his child. Wow, what were you, um, 00:00:44.429 --> 00:00:48.116 going through emotionally? Did you have family there? I, my mom and dad 00:00:48.149 --> 00:00:53.717 was real good with me. They helped me out a lot, um. 00:00:53.750 --> 00:01:00.226 They that will all be picked up. Oh, they uh stood by whatever I decided 00:01:00.259 --> 00:01:05.596 to do of course back then you couldn't go to school. You had to drop out. 00:01:05.629 --> 00:01:11.367 So I dropped out. I had Warren and then I took a correspondence class, 00:01:11.400 --> 00:01:16.467 took, uh, summer school, and was able to graduate with my class, which I 00:01:16.500 --> 00:01:22.156 thought was quite good because I was working plus going to school and 00:01:22.189 --> 00:01:26.855 raising a little. Baby, but my mom and dad helped a lot. Did you live at 00:01:26.888 --> 00:01:31.415 home with your parents? No, I had a little apartment. Wow, you were really 00:01:31.448 --> 00:01:37.536 mature at 16. Yes. So, um, did your mom or your family members talk to you 00:01:37.569 --> 00:01:42.576 about the process of pregnancy and birth, or were you prepared? Um, 00:01:42.609 --> 00:01:50.117 actually, everybody told me, oh, it hurts so bad and Like I told you. I 00:01:50.150 --> 00:01:54.555 kept waiting for it to hurt, you know, really hurt, and it never did. It 00:01:54.588 --> 00:02:02.007 was uncomfortable. I have to say that, but uh. I didn't find, of course, I 00:02:02.040 --> 00:02:09.957 can take a lot of pain. My pain tolerance is pretty high. So, it was fine. 00:02:09.990 --> 00:02:15.995 How was your pregnancy? Um, went to the doctor right away, and it was 00:02:16.028 --> 00:02:19.957 fine. I didn't have any problems. Of course, right at the end swelling, 00:02:19.990 --> 00:02:25.677 you know, your legs swell and such, but I didn't have any problems, uh, 00:02:25.710 --> 00:02:28.396 about, uh. 00:02:28.429 --> 00:02:34.196 I tried to nurse and uh poor little guy almost starved to death because 00:02:34.229 --> 00:02:40.967 there was nothing really coming out. So we fixed that, he went on formula. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:49.000 Um, But other than that, it's. It was tough. To do that. So how old was 00:02:49.479 --> 00:02:56.126 your son when you met your second husband? Uh, Warren was, uh, probably 18 00:02:56.159 --> 00:03:03.596 months. And uh Carl and I got together. I was with him just long enough to 00:03:03.629 --> 00:03:10.416 have 2 kids. And left Jimmy was very abusive. 00:03:10.449 --> 00:03:17.555 Uh, matter of fact, his mother. took me down to my parents in Blythe. They 00:03:17.588 --> 00:03:24.436 had moved there from needles and uh She loaded me and the kids up and took 00:03:24.469 --> 00:03:30.686 us down and I got out from under him. What, um, what was the circumstance 00:03:30.719 --> 00:03:34.267 that you met him under? 00:03:34.300 --> 00:03:39.525 I was born and raised in needles and so was he, and it was just, we just 00:03:39.558 --> 00:03:42.505 got together eventually. 00:03:42.538 --> 00:03:46.237 When he wasn't drinking, it was a real nice guy, but when he was drinking 00:03:46.270 --> 00:03:49.116 it was very abusive. 00:03:49.149 --> 00:03:55.475 Was he um was he good with your baby? Was that part of the draw? 00:03:55.508 --> 00:04:00.755 Not really, he wasn't much of a father figure. 00:04:00.788 --> 00:04:08.156 So, um, so you were basically like rescued from this terrible situation 00:04:08.189 --> 00:04:14.636 and um you you were starting a new life basically um but to backtrack a 00:04:14.669 --> 00:04:19.197 little bit, so when you were married, uh, were you trying to get pregnant 00:04:19.230 --> 00:04:27.230 ? No. I never tried to get pregnant. I was fertile myrtle, you know, just. 00:04:27.928 --> 00:04:29.928 Just happened. Was there anything memorable about your pregnancy or the 00:04:33.869 --> 00:04:38.717 delivery? Did you, um, deliver in hospital, in the hospital, all four of 00:04:38.750 --> 00:04:43.637 them? Did you take any sort of medication? No. 00:04:43.670 --> 00:04:49.067 So, just my vitamins for, you know, pregnancy vitamins, but I never took, 00:04:49.100 --> 00:04:54.906 uh, never had the block. I never had uh shots or anything like that, just 00:04:54.939 --> 00:04:59.627 was all natural. So, um, did you have any, take any classes or anything? 00:04:59.660 --> 00:05:02.606 How did you cope with the pain? 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:07.265 I have a high pain tolerance. Did you do any like breathing techniques or 00:05:07.298 --> 00:05:13.926 walk around or? Um not really. 00:05:13.959 --> 00:05:19.276 Did your water break in the hospital or at home? No, at home. Yeah. I, I 00:05:19.309 --> 00:05:23.197 always waited until it broke and then I knew better hurry up and get down 00:05:23.230 --> 00:05:26.805 there. You know it's actually really unusual for a woman's water to 00:05:26.838 --> 00:05:30.726 spontaneously break. You actually seemed like you had a body made for 00:05:30.759 --> 00:05:37.967 giving birth. Yes, I do have a body for birth. Um, OK, so you're starting 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:43.166 your new life and you have 3 young children now. Are you working? How are 00:05:43.199 --> 00:05:48.717 you making that happen? Uh, yeah, I was a waitress, um. Of course, you 00:05:48.750 --> 00:05:53.116 know, that's the easiest thing to be when you're raising kids as a 00:05:53.149 --> 00:05:59.276 waitress because you can always get a job. So I did that and then I was 00:05:59.309 --> 00:06:06.697 real lucky after I had my last child. That I applied for a job with the 00:06:06.730 --> 00:06:12.127 Riverside County Assessor's office and I got the job. So I always had the 00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:18.486 good job for insurance for the kids, but I always worked 2 and 3 other 00:06:18.519 --> 00:06:20.656 jobs. 00:06:20.689 --> 00:06:27.217 You know, so it could have clothes, extra money for stuff, yeah. So then, 00:06:27.250 --> 00:06:31.067 um, let's talk about your 4th child. So what was the circumstances? OK, uh 00:06:31.100 --> 00:06:38.606 , Scott, my 4th child, he, uh, It was really a surprise because Jimmy had 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:45.036 like uh maybe a 7% chance of fathering a child. 00:06:45.069 --> 00:06:47.156 And 00:06:47.189 --> 00:06:54.265 Fertile myrtle here. We had a baby. He didn't think it was his. So, uh, 00:06:54.298 --> 00:07:02.298 for a long, long time. He would not acknowledge Scott and uh. 00:07:02.819 --> 00:07:08.515 Then he ended up having twin boys that died at birth. So all of a sudden 00:07:08.548 --> 00:07:13.106 he goes, he calls me out of the blue one day and says, Sharon, my mom says 00:07:13.139 --> 00:07:21.139 you're having trouble with Scott, and I go, And What? Well, then he told 00:07:21.358 --> 00:07:25.926 me his story that he had uh twin boys that had died at birth and that he 00:07:25.959 --> 00:07:29.906 thought maybe Scott was his. 00:07:29.939 --> 00:07:36.586 Down to the mole on his back, yes, it was his. So did they, um, meet? Did 00:07:36.619 --> 00:07:41.187 he ever? Yes, uh, Scott went to stay when he was about 6 years old. He 00:07:41.220 --> 00:07:46.586 went to stay with uh Jimmy and his wife for a summer, and of course his 00:07:46.619 --> 00:07:52.745 stepmother did not really want him around, so that didn't pan out. And, uh 00:07:52.778 --> 00:07:57.507 , Scott's dad just recently died. 00:07:57.540 --> 00:08:03.106 But we all got together about 4 years ago and had a good discussion. 00:08:03.139 --> 00:08:07.877 Everything was pretty good. So when you reflect back on your experiences 00:08:07.910 --> 00:08:15.910 , what are, what are your thoughts? Well, I have to say I do not regret. 00:08:17.199 --> 00:08:23.995 Any of it. There's a couple things I would have changed along the way. But 00:08:24.028 --> 00:08:29.236 had I not experienced what I experienced, I would not have my four good 00:08:29.269 --> 00:08:37.269 children. And grandkids and great grandson. So basically, it was tough. 00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:41.946 I'm not gonna say it wasn't tough because it was. 00:08:41.979 --> 00:08:49.547 But up until 1972, I had my parents and then they both died. And uh I've 00:08:49.580 --> 00:08:53.976 always been very lucky. I've had a lot of friends. 00:08:54.009 --> 00:09:01.875 Not so much financially, but. Just there to help me if I needed something. 00:09:01.908 --> 00:09:06.125 Never got child support for any of them. 00:09:06.158 --> 00:09:10.625 Can you talk about um how your relationship with your boys, how they feel 00:09:10.658 --> 00:09:16.456 about you and they love me very much. They call me every day. Now, Warren 00:09:16.489 --> 00:09:21.927 in Oklahoma, he doesn't call every day, but uh Scott calls me every 00:09:21.960 --> 00:09:28.917 morning to make sure I'm OK. KT, he works in Alaska. He calls. 00:09:28.950 --> 00:09:35.816 They uh really do respect me. Do they understand what they understand 00:09:35.849 --> 00:09:39.206 exactly what I went through. 00:09:39.239 --> 00:09:46.467 They were raised by babysitters basically because I had to work so much. 00:09:46.500 --> 00:09:53.606 But All in all, and I'll be 71 in August. All in all, it's been a good 00:09:53.639 --> 00:09:55.775 ride. 00:09:55.808 --> 00:10:01.505 Done. You're awesome. That is perfect. Do you have anything else you wanna 00:10:01.538 --> 00:10:06.500 add? No, I, I'm, I'm good.