• Format
  • Transcripts
  • Interviews
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  • Text
• Extent
  • Duration: 23 pages (transcript)
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
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  • HL_MSS01-04_Moody_DelSesto_2002-10-09_transcript

Alva L. Frady Delsesto 1 Name of interviewer: Susan Moody Name of interviewee(s): Alva L. Frady Delsesto Date of interview: October 9, 2002 Length of interview: 55:11 Locations: Jackson County, NC Start of Interview Susan Moody: Today is October the 9th, 2002. I’m at the home of Mrs. Alva DelSesto. My name is Susan Moody, and this is an oral history interview. We are at her home in Sylva, North Carolina. Mrs. DelSesto, do I have your permission to record this interview? Alva DelSesto: Yes, you do. SM: Thank you. Before I forget, I want to start and tell you thank you for taking the time out to talk with us today and I’m sure that you’ll provide us with a lot of good information. [Laughs] AD: Well I hope so. It’s a treat to have you. SM: When and where were you born? AD: I was born in Sylva, North Carolina. It was July the 17th, 1923. SM: Oh, okay. And how many children were in your family? AD: 10. SM: There were ten children? AD: 10 children. SM: Could you tell me where you were in the span? AD: I am the eldest. SM: You’re the eldest? AD: Right. SM: Were there, how many girls and how many boys? AD: 7 girls and 3 boys. SM: 3 boys and one of the boys I bet is the youngest, right? Alva L. Frady Delsesto 2 AD: The youngest boy is my brother. The only surviving of the 3. SM: Really? Aw, okay. Do you know if your parents lived in the Sylva area most of their life? AD: All their lives. SM: Were they born here? Do you know that? AD: I believe so. Now my father may have been born, I can’t remember that area. But, you know, it’s toward the Balsam Gap, that area. SM: Oh, okay. So that’s close by here? AD: Yes, in the area, yes. SM: And what did your parents do for a living? AD: Well my mother was just a housewife, and my father did many things. Of course, I was born during the depression, so he worked for the WPA at one time. SM: Oh, okay. AD: And he did farming. And he worked in the logging camps because my grandfather used to do that. So, he did quite a bit of that. He also worked when Fontana Dam was built. SM: Now where is Fontana? I’m not familiar with the area. AD: Tennessee. SM: That’s in Tennessee. AD: It was the TVA. SM: Oh, okay. AD: Tennessee Valley Association. That’s where Fontana Dam was built, during the war. Yes in that same area, in that same general time. SM: Time frame? So, your father travelled and stayed there while he was working or did he go back and forth? AD: No, he was transported. He went back and forth with someone. Alva L. Frady Delsesto 3 SM: Oh, so they, like, buddied up and went. Oh, okay. AD: That’s right. SM: Okay. AD: And then one time he worked in Lexington, North Carolina in the furniture factories. So he had done many things. And he did farming too. SM: Now was the farm, do you remember, I’m sure you do remember. Was it a, like, that you would grow what you ate, or would he sell the... AD: Yes, definitely. Like I said, I was born during the depression. Because I was 6 years old in ’29, that’s when the depression hit. So, basically we were rather well-off because we grew everything and we raised the pigs, we had the cows, we had the vegetables, the fruits and everything. And also my grandparents ran the corn mill. They used to grind the corn. It was on the road going down between here and the church. SM: On this road that we’re on here? AD: Yes, yes. The one with the water wheel. SM: Oh, okay. Alright, so they had the mill in this area that would grind the corn? AD: Yes. SM: Was that what most people raised? Were corn crops? AD: Yes, corn, wheat, basically. Sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, just garden vegetables. For your own use. Not for sale. And then berries, of course. There were always blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, all of that in this area when we were growing up. SM: As children, did y’all go pick berries and things in groups? AD: Yes! And as a matter of fact, I can remember as a child picking blackberries and walking over the mountain from here to Cullowhee to sell the blackberries for 10 cents a gallon. Can you believe it? And now I pay four dollars and a half for a pint. [Laughter] SM: Where did you sell them over in Cullowhee? AD: To whoever wanted to buy them. We just picked the berries, we carried them and we’d knock on the doors so whoever wanted to buy them, we would sell them the blackberries. SM: Oh! Okay. Oh, I bet they were good too. [Laughs] Alva L. Frady Delsesto 4 AD: Yes, oh yes. SM: So, basically you lived in the town up until World War 2? AD: I lived here. I was born right down on the road. SM: Where it kind of slants down? AD: That’s right. My father’s house is that little red, the little house on the corner there where all the Halloween decorations are. SM: Yes, yes ma’am. AD: My nephew lives there now, since my father and mother died. But I was born in the little house across the road, the little one room house. SM: Oh, my goodness. AD: So I’ve always lived here. SM: So during, well, in between the time of when you were a younger person and the time the war broke out, were you able to attend school in this area? AD: Yes, I graduated from – I was the first class to graduate from the old stone building in Webster. SM: Oh. AD: I graduated in 1941. SM: 1941, Okay. AD: And I attended school in the beginning, we had the wood building. You wouldn’t call it wood building, what would you call it? SM: A side building? AD: Like wood, but it was in back of where that old school is now. SM: Did all the children in the area attend that one school? AD: Right, right. Alva L. Frady Delsesto 5 SM: So was it broken into different classrooms or was it - AD: Oh yes. Oh yes. I never went to a one room school. SM: No, okay. AD: We started with first grade, second grade, and so forth. SM: Well, um you said you graduated in 1941, didn’t you tell me? And I’m assuming that your siblings graduated right behind you as the - AD: Well, my sister did but none of the other children graduated. We all went to school, but my sister and I were the only two that graduated from high school. For one reason or another. Everybody else dropped out. SM: Well the ones that dropped out, did they stay in the area? AD: Yes. Basically, up until the service we were all local in this area. SM: Between the time that you graduated from high school, can you tell me what you did after that? AD: Yes, I graduated from high school in June 1941, and I entered Biltmore hospital school of nursing in September of ’91 [probably meant ’41] and I graduated in 1944. SM: Okay, 1944. And Biltmore nursing is that towards Asheville? AD: It’s in Biltmore village. SM: Okay. AD: I believe it’s now a nursing home. SM: Oh, okay. AD: Then a hospital, where I graduated from. SM: Oh okay. So, when you got out of school you went directly into your nursing program up there? AD: Right. SM: Were there other women in the area that - Alva L. Frady Delsesto 6 AD: There are two of us. Two girls. Myself and a cousin of mine, Helen Frizzell. SM: Uh-huh. AD: She also graduated from the same hospital and she was in the service also. We were the only two girls locally that went into the service. SM: When you, I’m assuming when you got out of high school I’m assuming you wanted to be a nurse and that you had went to the school. Could you tell me what you were doing and where you were when you heard that the war had broken out? AD: Yes, it was on a Sunday afternoon and we were walking from the nursing home to the cafeteria for supper. We call it supper, maybe they call it the evening meal. But, that’s where I was. I remember it very distinctly. SM: Did it come over word of mouth, or over the radio? AD: No, over the radio. Right. SM: When, could you tell me the way that made you feel? What you felt when you heard that? AD: Well it’s frightening. It’s frightening. I mean we had heard of the war. We knew there was a war going on, but up until that point we weren’t involved in the war outside of helping with the other countries. But then now, you know, we’re at war and I had a brother that I knew would be going. And other family members. And it was frightening. But of course, right away we think, “now we’ll be going too,” because we still have three years of nurses training to do, but that was already in my mind. SM: That was one of my questions. Did that inspire you to decide to go into the service? AD: Oh sure, because then they’d have the dances locally in the area for the soldiers or whatnot and of course we were always invited to attend. And of course, it was very, we were young and eager. And up until then we had been very naïve, basically. Because there were very few methods of transportation so basically, we stayed home, went to church, went to school and that was about the size of it. SM: That was another one of my questions I was going to ask you. When you went to school, did you stay at that school, or did you travel back and forth to classes from here to -- AD: Biltmore? SM: Yes ma’am. AD: We lived in the nursing home. Alva L. Frady Delsesto 7 SM: Oh, okay. AD: Yeah. We lived in the nursing home. SM: So you had to, during, right before the war you attended the parties in all that area. AD: Right. SM: When you decided – graduated and decided that you were going to sign up, did you have a choice of service to go into? In other words, could you have gone into the Air Force, the Navy, or was it-- AD: To be perfectly frank with you, I don’t remember that. I just assumed I was going into the Army Nurses Corps. And I, now if you ask me that, at that point I don’t know if you had a choice. I do remember a friend of mine, who was afraid of the water, who would not sign up for the Navy and ended the whole war on a hospital ship back and forth over the ocean. [Laughs]. SM: Goodness. AD: But, I don’t remember if we had a choice. I just remember that I was going in the Army Nurses Corps. SM: With the war going on, and you were still in your nursing school, was there a lot of talk within the nurses or the people that were getting ready to graduate that that was what they wanted to do? AD: Well, not necessarily because there are only three of us that I remember that went in. So it was just like everything else, you make a choice. SM: Mmhmm. AD: And you know by that age, too, some of the girls were getting married or had other ideas. But that was just our goal, can’t answer for other people. SM: Yeah. AD: But there’s always talk. We’ll always have choices. SM: Yes ma’am. Within the area did you know a lot of the young men that were signing up to go into the Army at that time? Alva L. Frady Delsesto 8 AD: Oh basically, yes. Because at my age, and most of the people I knew were the same age: my uncle, my brother, and cousins. As a matter of fact, I had one aunt who had 5 sons in the service during World War II. SM: Five? AD: Five. [Inaudible]. You may remember [inaudible], he was the youngest one in the family because there were 15 children. SM: Oh my goodness. AD: 5 of them went into the service and 5 of them came back, so that was… SM: Wonderful, isn’t it? AD: Right. SM: Well, in the community, during the time you were in school and you were getting your degree and all, were you involved in any clubs or activities that you can remember during that time? AD: No, not really. Like I went directly from high school into nurses training. And then nurses training, it was six and a half days a week when I went. You know. SM: They kept you there, then. AD: That’s right. So, you didn’t have very much time. You know we got one half day off a week and sometimes you’d have an evening off and one of my friend’s mother, we used to go visit her because none of us had very much money during those days. And we would go visit her on the evening and she’d always give us ice cream and cookies or something and give us the 10 cents to ride the bus back to the nursing home. As a matter of fact, now her daughter came to visit me a couple of weeks ago. She still lives in Asheville. SM: Oh my goodness, isn’t that wonderful? AD: Yes. [Inaudible] SM: When you decided to go to nursing school, was there a tuition or did you get a scholarship, or did you work and pay your own tuition, or…? AD: I had, if I remember correctly, the tuition was something like $100 or $90 or something like that. And a friend of mine had seen me in the school play and she came to my house on Sunday and you know she thought I looked like someone who needed to go on to school, would like to go on to school. And she had 4 children and she wanted to know if I wanted to come stay with Alva L. Frady Delsesto 9 her during the summer and help her with the children. And then she was going to help me get into school at Western Carolina and I told her I had already planned to go to the Nurse’s Academy. Well I did, so I worked, and one of my uncles loaned us $50, which my father and mother paid back to him because, can you imagine the tuition? SM: Oh golly. That’s… [laughs] AD: So I stayed with her during the week, you know, $5 I got paid for the week. [Laughs]. It was really Magnolia Hall, they lived over in the Savannah community near the nursery. You know where the nursery is there on 441? SM: Yes, I do. I went past that, so I do know where that is. AD: Well it’s directly across from there. SM: Oh, okay. That’s really wonderful. AD: Am I talking too much? Am I saying too much? SM: No. No. You are fine, thank you so much. I’m a little – this is my first interview so… AD: Oh, I see, I see. SM: When you made the decision to enlist, I asked you if you had a choice of service. How did your family feel about you going into the Army? AD: Well, I must admit that my father and my mother were always very tolerant, very supportive, and if we wanted to do something they were behind us. I can never remember having to fight my father and mother for anything. They were always there for us. SM: Once you go into the Army, did you have any special training that you had to go through? Like a boot camp or anything? AD: Well I had to go through basic training. And I took my basic training at Camp Rucker in Alabama. I don’t remember the town. It seems to me it was Augusta, but I’m not sure. But it was Camp Rucker, Alabama. We had to go there, if I remember correctly, I don’t know if it was a month or six weeks, how long. And then when I left there then I went to Camp Gordon in - that was in Augusta, Georgia. Camp Gordon was in Augusta, Georgia, right. So I was stationed there, and I was there on the V E-day. The V E-day - SM: Oh, okay. Can you tell me more about that? Alva L. Frady Delsesto 10 AD: Yes, I worked in the operation room. And. I was on a call, so I couldn’t go to any of the festivities because I was on a call. You know because everybody was really excited about that, you know? SM: Yeah. AD: And I worked in the operating room there when I started. You know when you go they always ask you what you want to do, and they always give you something else usually. [laughter] SM: Oh, is that the way it goes? AD: Right, so one of the doctors from Waynesville was stationed there. So, he said to me, you know, “How come you are not in surgery?” So, I said, “Well I requested it but I didn’t get assigned it.” He said, “Well you want to work in surgery?” I said, “yes.” He said, “report in the morning.” So, then I went to surgery there, and stayed there until, you know [inaudible]. I was transferred from Augusta, Georgia to Kennedy General Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. SM: Memphis? AD: Memphis, Tennessee. [inaudible] SM: [laughter] Well when you went to the service, and after you go through with your boot camp, and all of that; I would assume it was only women in your boot camp? AD: Right. Oh, yes. Only nurses, only nurses. Because they had the, what did they call them, like you call them nurse’s assistants or something now, but I can’t remember what the name was in the service. I can’t remember. SM: It was kind of like a candy striper or something? AD: Yes, yes. Something like that because they went in and they were trained also, but they were separate from us. They were like nurse’s assistants or something like that. I can’t remember what they were called, isn’t that terrible? SM: When you were in the training, did you get training for weapons and things like that, too? AD: No, no. We weren’t trained in weapons, but just the basic training. You know, for in case of gasses, you know? We had to wear the masks and I remember one time we had a dance on Saturday night, so we all had our hair all up in pin curls. And then they called the drill, and we had to go, so we had to take our helmets off and the bobby pins flying. [laughs] SM: Oh my goodness! Alva L. Frady Delsesto 11 AD: It was kind of interesting. But, you know, we had to put the masks on, and then they’d put the gas out, you know go through that business, but we didn’t have any weapons training. SM: Well, when you were trained in Alabama, did you get leave to go home during that time or did you have to stay there the complete time? AD: No, we didn’t get any leave. [inaudible] SM: So you went directly from training to Fort… AD: Fort, Camp Gordon. SM: Did you, were you able to request if you wanted to stay state-side or go overseas? AD: You could always request, but that didn’t mean you were going to get it. But you see, I didn’t go in until ’45. SM: Okay. AD: So, then the V E-day was in ’45, was it not? So, I wasn’t in that long, by that time the war was basically over. {inaudible] SM: So, while you were, six or seven weeks you were in Alabama, but during the time that you were in service, could you tell me something about the ration cards and things like that that they used? AD: Well we had the PX. SM: Okay. AD: We had what they call the PX, so it’s like what you call a store inside there, so basically whatever we needed we could get. But anything, of course, that was rationed, you know, [inaudible], we couldn’t get it, but we were able to buy anything we needed from the PX. SM: So, back home were your family maybe - did they have to ration what they used and things? AD: Well, with us living on the farm, it was different than the cities. SM: Mmhmm. AD: I’m sure they rationed certain things, but I wasn’t home any. [laughs] I wasn’t home, so I don’t know. Alva L. Frady Delsesto 12 SM: During the time that the war was going on, that you were in the service, were you aware of special volunteer efforts that civilians were making for the war effort that… AD: Of course, you heard that all the time because we were in the states, so we had communication all the time, so of course we knew what was going on. Well when you’re young you don’t worry too much about that. [laughter] No, really. SM: Yes ma’am. AD: I mean we were warm, we were fed, and we were getting paid. So, you know you don’t, maybe that sounds pretty shallow, but I just don’t remember worrying about because so far as I knew my family was fine and I was fine. SM: Did you have a boyfriend during this time? AD: Well, not a steady boyfriend. I did meet, when I was in Augusta, Georgia, I met this service man. It’s a good thing my husband’s not around. My husband died in July this summer. But he was extremely jealous, but I had met this guy. His name was Captain William J. De’Salvo, and he was one of the OSS troops in Italy. And I met him in Augusta, Georgia at Camp Gordon. And very nice, very nice person. Much older than myself at the time because I was very young. But, and also, he had a very special friend, and they used to call me Piney Woods Pete all the time. [laughs] SM: Oh my. AD: And our little {inaudible}, he was from New York, and the other boy was from Tennessee somewhere. But never anyone special until I met my husband. I also met him in the service, so it was quite interesting because being a nurse and being in the hospital and everything, when I was being transferred I was looking for in Birmingham, Alabama, when I was leaving Rucker, Alabama to go to Georgia. And I called to make reservations because I had an overnight and I told them I wanted a private room and the man laughed at me and he said, “lady all of our rooms are private rooms”. But you know used to being in the hospital you think of private rooms and wards. I don’t know what he thought I had in mind, but he said, “lady all of our rooms are private”. [laughter] SM: Oh my. AD: But that was, you know, just not a steady boyfriend. It was just people that we knew, because you weren’t in any one place a long period of time. And everybody had so many of the same – we were all from different parts of the country and we were all from together a melting pot, so to speak. So, we did things together, we went bowling together, we did - basically from the base you had everything. SM: It was on the base? Alva L. Frady Delsesto 13 AD: Right, or close enough so that you could go. Because most all of the bases were near cities. SM: In the cities did you get a discount or anything for being in the military? AD: No, I don’t remember that we had discounts. I don’t remember that. SM: When you were at the hospital, I’m assuming of course that it was soldiers that were your patients. Were these ones that were coming in directly from battle or can you explain to me how the hospital kind of worked, briefly? AD: Well I can remember one time that I worked on a paraplegic ward and those were all patients that were paralyzed. Some from the neck down, some from the waist down. [inaudible]. Then we had what we call the psychiatric ward which a lot of those patients were what they called Section aid. People who were bucking for a discharge. They weren’t crazy, but they wanted people to think they were, so they could get out, you know because the service is not for everyone. And also, now when I was in Kennedy General we had prisoners from Germany. SM: Oh, so you had some German prisoners? AD: Yes, we had some of the prisoners from there. And then of course, when you’re on the base you’re always getting people injured from on the base, too. SM: Oh, my goodness. [laughs] AD: [Inaudible]. You’re supposed to yell grenade and jump in the fox hole but he yelled grenade and threw the grenade into the fox hole so we ended up that night working late because all these people got hurt. SM: Oh, my goodness. Just not thinking - AD: Sometimes, these things happen. But then in Kennedy General I worked in the chest ward, so we had basically patients that had chest injuries of that type. Because, you see, you had different surgeries because Kennedy General is a rather large place. SM: That’s a big place. AD: Right, right. And I came home from leave when I was stationed at Kennedy General and when I got on the train, someone offered to carry my suitcase, and when I got home I didn’t have any suitcase. I didn’t have any clothes, I didn’t have anything. So then after I had gotten back home, I was there for a couple of weeks and they called me into the office and my suitcase had returned. [laughs] So that was quite a treat, you know, to get that back. Alva L. Frady Delsesto 14 SM: They just walked away with it, but - AD: Well, you know, in those troop trains moving around there was a lot of people. And the only way I got it back was when she called me to the office, it said a Lieutenant Frady or Fraudy. That’s the only name that was on it so I was lucky to get it back. SM: That was a question I was going to ask you. Was when you got out of boot camp or when you went into the service, what rank did you go in as? AD: I went in as a second lieutenant and came out as a first lieutenant. SM: First lieutenant. Okay, so I only know a little about that, but I’m assuming that means you moved up a rank. AD: Well, I automatically went in as a second lieutenant. Automatically, nurses, we went in as a second lieutenant. And then I got the promotion to first lieutenant. Because I was only in like a couple of years. I went in the year ’45 and then I was discharged in ’46. And from Kennedy General I went to Fort Dixon in Jersey. SM: Oh, okay. AD: Fort Dixon, that’s in Trenton, New Jersey. SM: After the war was over, did you stay in the Nurse Corps? Did you stay in the Army or did you get out? AD: Let’s see, VJ day was when? VJ day was, was it ’46? SM: I believe it was. AD: Of August? August the what? August the, I’m pretty sure it was August the 11th, I’m not sure, but it was August. It was VJ day, so then I was in the service for one more year. SM: After VJ day? AD: Mmhmm, after VJ day. Right, and I met my husband the first night I was in New Jersey. Because I had the three wards, three dermatology wards and I had gone to lunch. You know, 11:00, must have been while I was working 3 to 11 I guess. And had gone to, you know, for lunch. And when I came back these three guys were waiting in the hall for me. And one of them said to me, “you know you have a sick patient?” And I said, “yes, what’s the problem?” And they said, “Well how do we know he’s sick? You’ve got the keys and [inaudible].” So that was my husband [laughs]. So, I had a patient who was running a temperature and was sick. So that’s when I met him, so he tells everybody that we met with an argument and we’ve been arguing ever since. Alva L. Frady Delsesto 15 SM: Ohhhh. [Laughter] AD: And I tell everybody that that wasn’t true. We met with a discussion and we’ve been discussing ever since. [Laughter] But I met him and then he was discharged. He was down at dermatology, had a problem with his feet and hands. And so then he and his family came back down to visit me and I visited them in Rhode Island and then after… ** Something happened to recording for about 3 minutes from around 29:30 until 32:30. SM: Okay, [inaudible]. And so he was in… AD: Yes, he went to St. Michael’s College in Vermont and I stayed in Providence, Rhode Island. I worked in a regiment at a General Hospital, worked in the nursing home. And then the following year, we were married on June the 19th. And then I went to Burlington, Vermont wehre I worked in Mary Fletcher Hospital. Burlington, Vermont. And I worked in the outpatient department there with the clinics. I wanted to work in surgery. I always liked surgery, but they didn’t have an opening so I ended up in the outpatient department. SM: Oh, and your husband he worked… AD: He was in St. Michaels College. SM: Okay, so he was in college while you were working? AD: Right. SM: Okay. AD: And we lived in what was called Mike Town because they had moved all of the Army barracks from Fort Ethan Allen in… I can’t remember the name of the little town. To St. Michaels College because most of the students were ex-service men and most of them were married. So, we lived, it was called Mike Town. And when he graduated, the wives got diplomas also. SM: Oh, okay. So, one would be going to college while the other worked and then they would switch? With you being in the Army and your husband, were y’all eligible for, what was it called, the GI Bill? AD: Yes, he went to school on the GI Bill of Rights. SM: There were a lot of students then? Alva L. Frady Delsesto 16 AD: Oh, yes! And most of them, the majority of them were ex-service men. And most of the wives, we worked. We worked and they went to school. SM: Well did you ever come back to North Carolina to live? AD: Never, never, never. After I got out of the service, we were married and moved out and we lived in Vermont for a while. And then we came back to Rhode Island and we’ve lived there ever since. My oldest son was born in Vermont. The rest of them were all born in Rhode Island. But my oldest son was born in Vermont. SM: Would you travel back to visit relatives and things like that? AD: Oh yes, yes. We came back. Basically, we came back about every year. Tammy will tell you that. My children, you know. That way they knew my family. As a matter of fact after we came back to Rhode Island, I had to go to take, I can’t remember, I think it was three months of a course in Psychiatry, to have them get registered in Rhode Island because I had had psychiatric training here, but I hadn’t had actual hospital work. So in order to get my, it was required in Rhode Island that I had ‘x’ number of time… SM: Oh, okay. AD: In psychiatric training, so I had to go to [inaudible] hospital. And my first day on duty there was the day of Hurricane Carol. SM: Oh my goodness. You came in with a bang then [laughs]. AD: That’s right! I came in… But you know it was amazing because all those patients, all those psychiatric patients, trees were falling and whatnot, but it didn’t faze them at all. It didn’t faze them at all. SM: Oh my. AD: So I had to take that training, so I’m registered in North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Vermont. But I have an active license. If I wanted to start back tomorrow, all I’d have to do is go back to paying my dues and go to work. SM: Oh, okay. So, just like once you catch up on it you’re ready to go again? AD: Exactly. It’s just that you don’t have to keep paying your dues, they’ll put you on inactive status. Which is good. SM: With your family, I know you moved away. Could you tell me if all your brother and sisters moved away also? Alva L. Frady Delsesto 17 AD: I have, the sister next to me, lives in Springfield, Missouri. And my brother then was number three. He died in 19… he died when Aleshia was born and she’s 14 years old so he died, what would’ve been 14 years ago? 1988, okay. He died in 1988 or ’89. Cancer of the esophagus. And then the next sister lives in Rockwell, North Carolina. And the next one lives in Thomasville, North Carolina. Her grandmother lives here. And then another sister lives in Dillsboro, and then another one lives in Florida. She’s here now. And then my other brother was killed in 19… well he was killed 18 years ago in a tractor trailer accident in Waynesville. A tractor trailer overturned and he was crushed and killed. And the other one lives right down here in the blue house. SM: Oh, okay. Were any of your brothers in the service? AD: Yes, my brother that us, all three of them were in the service. Carl, I believe was in the Navy. Bud was in the Green Berets, and my youngest brother was in the Vietnam War. SM: Oh, okay. AD: Right. SM: If you had to think back on it, how would you say the war would have affected your life the most? AD: Well, basically, it moved me out of a local little area. Because basically when we grew up, at that point most people either stayed locally, worked locally and married locally, but see I went into nurses training and then I went into the service and I met my husband, then I moved to Rhode Island and raised my family. And then since then we’ve been back and forth here and yes, it definitely, it opened up a whole new world to us. Not that I think war is a good thing, don’t misunderstand me. But until then it was very, very… there was very little transportation so you didn’t go very far from home. SM: So, within the community that you grew up in, as you travelled back and forth, could you tell me some of the changes that were taking place being an outsider and coming back. AD: Oh, definitely, definitely. In the first place, the plumbing situation which is vital. You know when we grew up, we all had the outdoor toilets. Which I mean now is a thing of the past, and pollution. Good Lord, I can remember my grandfather, and maybe I shouldn’t report this on television, but the outhouse was below the creek. And when you think now, thank God that the health department has tried to instigate and have everybody instill septic services. And then even the housing situation. Most of us lived in very poorly constructed, small houses. And now, just look at the neighborhood. And at that point too it was basically, everybody in the neighborhood, in the community was family. SM: Within the area they were mostly family? Alva L. Frady Delsesto 18 AD: Exactly, exactly. SM: So, you saw an expansion of the… AD: Oh yes, oh yes. Definitely, definitely. The school system, I mean everything. I mean we were nearly and truly, when we grew up if you want to be perfectly honest I guess we grew up in abject poverty. We never knew we were poor, we had plenty of food. And having large families, you had plenty of hand me downs. [laughs] And we had plenty of love and discipline, too when we got out of line. No question about that. But it was really a lot of, I don’t think all of the changes for the better either. I think we were much safer. I think we were more content. And it’s opened up a whole new world, a whole new world. My grandchildren will tell me, “but grandma, that’s old-fashioned”. [laughs] My granddaughter said to me one time, “Grandma, what are them old lady shoes for?” And I said to her “Well I am an old lady”, and she said to me, “well just because you’re an old lady doesn’t mean you have to look like one”. And I said “Well I suppose I could put on my sneakers. That would be fine.” “Yes grandma, that would be fine!” You see? And I would never think of telling my mother something like that, or my grandmother. You know, the children have a lot more freedom today. Children have a lot more input into what they want, where they’re going and how they’re going to get there. And they don’t have any qualms about telling you that either. I don’t know if that sounds a bit radical, but that’s the way I feel because I can see it in my grandchildren. SM: Mmhmm. AD: But I’m very blessed, I have a wonderful family. I really, really do. And like I said my husband died in July, and had it not been for my faith and my children, I couldn’t have survived it. So, there’s some wonderful people out there. Still are, I found that out when my husband was still in the hospital. And it’s interesting, I have been retired now for 15 years. And when I went back when my son was in the hospital and went to visit. There are sixteen people in that operating room that I worked with 15 years ago. SM: Well, job security then. [Laughter] Oh, my goodness. AD: That’s the operating room, but the rest of the hospital is different. And it’s funny because I’d call them kids and they’d laugh at me because now they’re all in their fifties. But they’ll say to me, because I graduated in 1943, you know, ’44. I graduated. They’ll say, “well I wasn’t even born”, and I tell them “Well, that’s not my fault.” [Laughter]. And now, they’re in their fifties, but it’s a good work. It’s a good workplace. Means a lot. And it was very secure going back in there with my husband and with my son because so many people were people I had contact with before. And that makes a difference. It makes a difference. SM: When did y’all build your house up on the little hill here? Which I think is beautiful by the way. AD: As a matter of fact, 24 years ago, my brother that was killed I told you by the tractor trailer. Alva L. Frady Delsesto 19 SM: Yes ma’am. AD: Well he wanted to build a new house. So, he wanted to sell this house, so I bought this house from him, 25 years ago. And he built the house, you can’t see it, but it’s a little bit further up the hill. SM: So y’all used this as your summer house for vacations and things. AD: Right, well for many years we did nothing to it really. This is a trailer. This part, this whole section is a trailer. And then the other rooms were added on. SM: Oh goodness. Oh, okay gotcha. I didn’t even notice that. I can’t tell it at all. AD: Right. So that why we bought it from my brother. And then we used it, just came down occasionally and then after we retired then we started doing a lot of extra work. We put a new roof on it, we put the vinyl siding on it. And basically, it has been done inside out. SM: It’s beautiful. Well, let me ask you, before we conclude, is there anything that you’d like to tell me that maybe I’ve overlooked or that you think I might need to know about thinking back about the community and your life and how the war affected it? Anything that maybe I haven’t asked you about that you think is important that we should know? AD: Well, that’s hard to say. I lost an uncle. One of my uncles was killed and he was in that Red Ball Express. The Red Ball Express was that thing that carried supplies in England and he was killed in England. And so many people after the war moved. You know, people didn’t remain locally anymore. And that was the baby boomer after that. And employment was great. And I think we just lived, what was it Tom Brokaw called it? The greatest generation. I just think we just had about the best of everything. SM: From the time the war ended until… AD: Right, exactly. Because, and I mean even during the war because the people went into the war. Now, the people weren’t contesting the war then. I mean people really and truly believed they were fighting for our security. And I think the wars now are different. We’re still fighting for security, but I don’t believe people feel the same way we did. I think the wars are different. I don’t know if that makes sense or not. SM: Yes ma’am. AD: But, you know, we lived in a much more social world. There was much more feeling of security. And I don’t think we had the stress and the anxiety and to tell you the truth, I’m not patting myself on the back, but I have always been a pretty basically secure, happy person. And Alva L. Frady Delsesto 20 I think that makes a difference. I think individuality or your personality has an awful lot to do with what kind of a life you live. SM: Yes ma’am. AD: You know, I’ve always been one to roll with the punches and I believe in the Golden Rule. You know, do unto others that you would have them do unto you. And we had a good basic Christian upbringing. I mean we went to church and it was different then. We went to church in the morning and then we all came to my grandmother’s house and everybody ate and then we played in the cornfields and whatnot. And then we had supper and then we went back to church. And it was a routine. SM: A weekly routine. AD: And it was accepted. We weren’t always fighting against it. And hard work. I mean we had to work. What we made was called, you know, new grounds. We’d have to get out and all of these fields here used to be corn fields and wheat fields. And now look. Most of them are houses. What do you see? A little bitty garden. So, if they let us go from work, we were ready to go and play. SM: Okay. AD: And my grandmother, she canned. She preserved. She had those huge big basins, like this, tin. Big pieces of tin. You dried all the fruit, you dried all the berries. SM: Mmhmm. AD: And she had a can house. Full of cans. And we all worked in the fields and then when we was at noon time she’d holler for us and she’d bring us a big pot of soup or we would come home. SM: Ohhh. AD: And, you know, it was work. All the time. But still we had plenty of love and we had [inaudible]. So, the community has definitely changed. How many people do preserving anymore? You don’t see any corn fields around here anymore. You don’t see any wheat fields. I haven’t seen a wheat field here since I don’t even remember when. And orchards, my grandfather had cherry trees and apple trees. We had everything, so you know. But then after the war, people started spreading out. And then different elements came in, like I married and went away. Other people married and brought people in, you know. SM: Mmhmm. AD: But, I don’t know. I just think it’s been a great life. [Laughter] Alva L. Frady Delsesto 21 SM: Well, I have one more little question that I need to ask ya. If you had it all over to do again, would you do it like you did it and why? AD: Well, I think I just answered that question. SM: Yes ma’am. AD: I had a good life. I don’t think that if I had more money, or more education, or did anything different I would be any happier than I am today. I have a wonderful loving family. I have a home. I have, I don’t have a fortune, but I don’t have needs that I cannot supply myself or have a supporting family, so you know. SM: Mmhmm. AD: I can’t think of anything I’d do differently. Because I always loved people. I think that’s one of the first reasons that I went into nurses training. And the public nurse that used to come into my house because one of my [inaudible] and I think that she inspired me to be a nurse because she was just so special. SM: Aww. AD: You know, like I said, being local and then you bring someone in that’s warm and loving and outgoing, and interested in you, I think it brings something out in you. It has to be there to begin with though. SM: Yes ma’am, yes ma’am. AD: It has to be there to begin with. But you know, the helps along the way because that’s what I think a lot of the children don’t have now is a good role model. SM: That’s a possibility. Very true. AD: I mean how many great heroes do we have in the country? I mean people you really, I mean, there are no more George Washingtons right or Thomas Jefferson’s? SM: Well that’s-- AD: But, you know, I think you need that and so many of the parents work. So many children get their basic beginning from the parents. You know, but they have to work to survive. SM: That’s true. That’s true. Alva L. Frady Delsesto 22 AD: And so many parents, now, I’m used to being a grandmother. I was often called to the school to pick up somebody because my children worked too. And the principals would often say, “What would the parents do without their parents? And what would the children do without the grandparents?” And so many grandparents now are raising the children. SM: That’s true, too. AD: Which is very difficult when you get old, you don’t have the patience. That’s what they tell me, I’m waiting to get old. [Laughter] But it’s very difficult because young children just have so much energy. SM: Well I can testify to that. I know what you mean. You mentioned something, and I’m going to ask you one more little thing. I told you that was my last one, Who are your heroes? AD: Well, who are my heroes? Well, of course first thing is my father and mother really. My family because those are the first people I knew. And then like I said, that nurse. And then the Magnolia Hall, the people who came to church who were interested when they saw me in the school play and wanted to help me go on. And there were so many great people, it just seems to me there were. And then in school too. When I went into nurses training. We had wonderful instructors and the pace was different then. I think that has a lot to do with it. But, I thought Harry Truman was pretty special. [Laughter]. I mean, you know, he came from very obscurity, because you know when he became President, if you will remember the Vice President did very little in those days. And then for him to very shortly after Roosevelt was elected for the third time, fourth time wasn’t it? Fourth time. He died. And Truman’s the first one to go on those whistle stops if you will remember. SM: That’s right, that’s right. AD: So, and in that time when someone criticized his daughter when she had that recital, I mean he really gave it to that reporter and I think that’s good. I mean you can do anything. You can insult me, or whatever but if you start on my children, my claws will come out. I know I talk too much. SM: Oh no, you’re not. This is wonderful. AD: I’m sure they’ll probably want to throw this one in the trash can. SM: Oh no. This is wonderful. I mean I just can’t, thank you so much for taking your time to do this. This has been wonderful. AD: Oh sure. You know several of my classmates are still living in this area too. SM: Of the ones that graduated from the school… Alva L. Frady Delsesto 23 AD: From high school with me. SM: Ohh. AD: Harry Vance, he’s a minster. I don’t know where he is. And Mary Vance, Ruth Paris, used to be Potts. Ruth Potts. And Lloyd [inaudible], you must’ve heard of Lloyd [inaudible] [Laughter]. SM: So, they stayed in the area then? They didn’t move? AD: Yes, basically they’re in the area. And there are some more of them around, but these are the ones that I keep in contact, you know. Faye Buchanan. Faye Zachary. You know, so… SM: Well I just want to thank you so very much for taking the time to allow us to interview you. This has been an absolutely wonderful experience. I’m going to go ahead now and shut off the recorder. AD: Sure and thank you. SM: Oh, you’re welcome!

Alva L. (Lucille) Frady DelSesto is interviewed by Susan Moody. Alva DelSesto was an Army nurse during World War II. She discusses growing up and how the war affected her entire life. She talks about her interest in becoming a nurse, her time in the service, and how she met her husband. She discusses how different the world is today compared to when she was a child and how even her small hometown and community has changed drastically since she was a young woman and left home to go to war. Includes additional photographs of Alva DelSesto in uniform.

• Creator
  • DelSesto, Alva L. Frady, 1923-
• Contributor
  • Moody, Susan
• Format
  • Photographs
  • Transcripts
  • Sound recordings
  • Interviews
• Type
  • StillImage
  • Text
  • Sound
• Date
  • Date interview: 2002-10-09
  • Date: 1930s; 1940s; 1950s; 1990s; 2000s (Decade);
  • Date digitized: 2019-02-14
• Extent
  • Duration: 00:55:11 (sound recording)
  • Duration: 23 pages (transcript)
• Subject - Topic
  • Autobiography
  • Basic training (Military education)
  • DelSesto, Alva L. Frady, 1923-
  • Families
  • Farm life
  • Military nursing -- United States
  • Nurses -- North Carolina -- Interviews
  • Nursing schools -- North Carolina -- Buncombe County
  • United States. Army -- Nurses
  • World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Female
  • World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives
  • World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons
• Location
  • Jackson County (N.C.)
  • North Carolina, Western
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Source Collection
  • Western North Carolina Oral History Project Collection
• Identifier
  • HL_MSS01-04_Moody_DelSesto_2002-10-09_01
• Repository
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library