Voices of the Ozarks – Connie Nicholson

Want to subscribe to Voices of the Ozarks in your podcast app? Just copy this link: http://ozarkregional.org/blog/?feed=podcast, then paste it into your podcast app’s add a feed field. You can also click the podcast icon on the sidebar to subscribe in Apple Podcasts.

:18

What’s your name? Connie Nicholson

When were you born?  April 7, 1948?

And where were you born? Fredericktown  

Well, I lived on, well, I don’t know the address. Across the street from where I live. I was going into the 5th grade. I went to school in Fredericktown over there on High Street. 

So, as a child, you lived across the street from where you live now? 

Yes, the house that I bought now on 306 North Mine LaMotte, yes.

I have four brothers and I’m the only daughter.  I raised Mikey, Ricky, and Randy and I’ve got a brother, we’re 14 months apart, so I just helped take care of them as I was growing up.

Were you the oldest?

Next to the oldest. My brother is older than me, Jerry.

So, as a kid in Fredericktown, what did you like to do?

Used to play in the yard, tag, hide and seek and night. We’d put cans on our feet and walk. Then I got a pair of roller skates. That was the happiest day of my life. Then my brother and I got a bike to share, that was the greatest thing. I had great parents. 

Connie recollects Christmas and decorating. She had a great childhood and great parents. She and her siblings had everything they needed. 

They played baseball in the vacant lot behind the Brown Shoe company. She recalls being a tomboy and climbing trees and the flagpole in front of Brown Shoe company. 

6:20

She recalls that for awhile they didn’t have an inside bathroom, they had an outhouse. She tells of the family dynamics that the kids didn’t take part of parents discussions, they were sheltered. 

She recalls the the train was still running when they lived there. She talks about the train depot.

Her dad worked in St. Louis during the week and would come back on weekends. During the summer time she and her siblings would sometimes go up and stay in his apartment when he worked. 

At the home in Fredericktown her mom gardened and canned. She helped with the gardening, snapping the green beans. The didn’t keep any livestock. She helped raise the boys. She recalls her mom being sick sometimes and thinks maybe she had a nervous breakdown. They were all born in the hospital. 

She recalls the old schools and how they were laid out and where they were.

11:05

Connie recalls the apartment in St. Louis. She describes the apartment but does not remember where it was. 

She describes the street on Fredericktown where she grew up and the kids she played with. She describes the various buildings that were there over the years and some that still are such as the tavern which used to be called Seabaughs, now it is Tom’s Bar. There was a laundry and a store that got tore down but the old barber shop building is still there. Sometimes things would flood because it was so low though some of it got built up.

15:20

The sometimes attended several churches over the years but she does not remember which ones.  She mentions that earlier on they lived out on J road. In those years, when she was younger, she recalls going to kindergarten and the mats they laid on. 

There were no town parks back then and they would just play in open lots. Later on they did have the swimming pool and teen town, both of those were very popular. After football games they would go to teen town which was near the old school. She recalls being a tomboy and her high school years. In her Highschool years she  would sometimes drive up to Flat River with her cousins. They would also go to the stockcar races in Colbalt Village on Friday and Saturday nights. When she was 11 to 12 years they would go to the movie theater on the town square.

19:19 

She compares her childhood with kids today and says she had it better. She mentions that kids today seem to grow up to fast and that there are too many broken homes. She talks about visiting with her Highschool friends and the stores that they had around the town square. Some of the stores she mentions: The 5 and 10 store – Ben Franklin, P&Hirsch was next to that, Kelly’s Jewelry Store, a tire store, Schultes, which has different household wares, Sondermans and Seabaughs which were furniture store, the Democrat News was on the corner across from the funeral home. 

23:00

There is some discussion of her brothers and her father who was a plumber. Her brother Randy worked at Jimmy Thal’s for awhile and then worked with her father doing plumbing. Her brother Ricky worked at Gifford’s Lumber Company. Her father didn’t care for St. Louis, there wasn’t much to do there aside from work. He preferred to be down here because he could get outdoors and hunt and fish. In Forest Park in St. Louis you couldn’t hunt and fish. She discusses their time in St. Louis and how the neighborhood wasn’t as safe so they didn’t visit as much after a point. Her grandfather, who was also working there and staying with her dad,  was stabbed and almost died. That seemed to be a turning point for their spending time there. 

26:10 

She discusses her cousins, aunts and uncles in Fredericktown. Most of them have now past on. She says there weren’t many festivals that she remembers except the 4th of July which she remembers fairly well. It wasn’t very big and they didn’t go on many rides but they walked around. She remembers that later on there was the Azalea festival. She recalls that when she was very young and living on J Hwy, they played cowboys and Indians, jumped rope, they played with jacks, she had a baton which she twirled and hit herself in the head. She doesn’t remember ever fishing but she hunted squirrels with her dad. She’d help him clean the squirrels. 

32:10

The house on J was small and made of concrete. She lived there until the 3rd or 4th grade. There was no inside bathroom, not tub or shower, they used a wash pan. They didn’t have a bathroom until they were in the house on in town. They moved to town when she was going into the 5th grade. First they rented a house on Schulte Lane, then later in the house on North Mine LaMotte.  

35:10

She talks about her dad fixing up the house, building kitchen cabinets, adding closets and shelves and more. She talks about having a radio and a black and white TV. They watched the news, and Matt Dillon and old shows such as the Twilight Zone. It scared her. 

36:20

Connie describes a bit about family life with her mom and dad and siblings. She says she was a happy kid and that her mom and dad were very loving. She says they never went without. She reminisces about her mom and that she was a good mother that encouraged her to be self reliant. 

39:20 

She describes learning how to drive a standard transmission car, taught by her brother. Offers stories about her cousin driving them to Flat River and being a teen in this area. Cruising around town and getting her first car that her dad bought her when she was 16. It was a convertible and she called her friends to go out on the town. 

41:30

She describes meeting the guy who she ended up marrying. They met at a football game. She talks about The Pig, A & W and other restaurants and businesses that they frequented as a kid and later as a teen. A few stories just about doing things around town, running errands for her mom. 

45:09 

She tells about her first job washing dishes at Graham’s Cafe, Truck Stop which was across from The Pig. Her aunt was a waitress there. She would stand on a square Pepsi box and and wash dishes. Nearby on OO there was a dance and party place called the Villa. People would come into the restaurant after the dancing. She made 50 cents an hour. She only worked Friday and Saturday nights, 11pm to 7am. She would sometimes bus tables and get tips. She really seemed to have fun working there. Got her Social Security card at 12 years old. She shares a story about getting the left over donuts that didn’t sell. She would take them home for her brothers and mom to eat. 

50:00

She was never in any clubs that she can remember. She was too busy being a Tom-boy! She was happier to be playing cowboys and Indians. She was a stubborn, determined kid and insisted that she be allowed to play as she wanted. She says she would never back down and sometimes got in fights. Kid stuff that she would later outgrow. She reaffirms that her parents encouraged her to stand up for herself and to be her own person.

52:50

She recalls the name of a neighbor when they lived on J Hwy, an older woman her mom was friends with named Ma Murray. She lived in a house that is now the Cornerstone Church. She would go and visit with her with her mom. Connie says she was very nice old lady. She describes the house and mentions that she had a coal stove to heat the house. She often sat on the porch and Connie would ride by on her bike and sometimes go visit. 

54:30

She describes the old Brown Shoe company and the family across the street that she would play with. They built a brick addition to the concrete  building and made a restaurant for the factory workers. It had been a donut shop at one time.  Her friends lived there too at one time, Marsha and Donna. Her friend Gracie lived down the street.

57:31 

Connie talks about her fiancé and then husband who was a helicopter pilot. He once flew into Fredericktown, and landed in the Brown Shoe company lot. From there they flew to the Farmington airport. She describes the marriage as good but it didn’t last. They had one child, a boy. They were stationed in Hawaii and Kentucky. 

59:00 

Connie describes raising her boy mostly by herself. She worked at a factory in Farmington for 17 years, Built Best. She lived here during that time, lived in the same house that she lives in today. 

She says she’s still good friends with Bonnie, her sister-in-law. 

As an adult raising a boy she stayed busy.  Her mom thought she’d have more kids but she never did. As a single parent she sometimes clashed with her parents but at the same time they stayed close. Having to work while raising her son was difficult but she’s thankful for how it all worked out. Currently her son lives in Fredericktown. 

*The views and opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Ozark Regional Library or its staff.