Hilliard Caldwell - Childcare while mother worked (clip)

Interviewer: Do you remember after your father died, which was during the war, and your mother having to raise the four of you on her own, that meant that she must have been working a lot, do you have any memory of what her hours of work would be?

Hilliard Caldwell: She would be gone all day. She’d be gone all day.

Interviewer: Like from early in the morning?

Hilliard Caldwell: We would get off to school and get back home and she would come in an hour or two after we got back home from school. So, it was an all-day thing.

Interviewer: Would she work on weekends?

Hilliard Caldwell: No, no. Very rarely was there weekend work. Saturdays was usually getting things cleaned up from the week before and Sundays was church, and dinner, and relaxation and that was about it.

Interviewer: Do you remember before you were school age, how were you taken care of during the day when she working?

Hilliard Caldwell: There were two older brothers who were four or five years older, so we had that. And then keep in mind that back in those days, neighbors looked after neighbors’ children and maybe some next door or in the same apartment building that could ride herd over you and had the same authority as your mom did. And you respected your neighbors, you respected the elders. When they spoke to you, you listened back in those days. A lot of parents depended on neighbors to look after their children. We were told that you were to stay in this house or this yard depending on the weather or climate. You came out to play. You didn’t venture from your neighborhood, but you stayed there, and you were told what to eat for lunch. There was peanut butter and jelly and bread for you to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You went in at twelve and you made that sandwich, you had some lemon to make lemonade, or Kool-Aid. I remember I grew up on Kool-Aid. You made a pitcher or a quart of Kool-Aid and that was it. So childcare was not like it is today where you carry the children off to an institution. You stayed at home and the older brothers looked after the younger brothers. Many of us owe our growing up childcare to our older brothers and the neighborhood. Many of these neighbors next door would come over and say, “Is everything okay?” and if something happened you would go to the neighbor for guidance. If you did something, and the neighbor felt it was bad, they could punish you. When your mom got home…

Interviewer: …she would punish you again.

Hilliard Caldwell: That was the good old days, didn’t kill any of us.

Interviewer: Right.