Description:
Donald Ruminer talks about his life.
Transcript:
Interviewee: Donald Ruminer
Interviewer: Hazel Ruminer
Interview Date: April 12, 2007
Interview Location: Ronald J. Norick Downtown Library, Oklahoma City, OK
Transcribed on April 28, 2020
Hazel Ruminer: What were your parents like?
Donald Ruminer: Well… they worked, grew up on a farm, met each other in the rural farm towns of
Arkansas around Batesville and Lake Ross and Sage along the wide river. They knew each other as they
were young and knew for several years and then finally married.
HR: How far back can you trace your family tree?
DR: I have pretty detailed records for six generations back on the Ruminer side. And I got even more
information, not quite as detailed, for several more generations back.
HR: What were your grandparents like?
DR: Well, they were always supportive and my grandmother died when I was fairly young and my
grandfather lived for a number of years. He was on the farm always tellin’ me farm stories and always
told me or showed me how to make things. He showed me how to make a whistle out of a tree limb; how
to trim it, loosen the bark, cut a notch, and make a whistle and blow in it. He gave me a hog once. He told
me, showed me how to tell if it’s a good hog — if it was a fat, healthy hog. He said, “I would look at the
curls on the tail and if it had a curly tail, it’s a fat, healthy, good hog.”.
HR: Where did you grow up?
DR: The first few years we were on farms, rural in Arkansas, and in Oklahoma. But in the third grade, we
moved to the city. We moved here in Oklahoma City and we’ve lived here since that third grade. Water in
August says 1938 or 37 — somewhere in there when I moved to Oklahoma City.
HR: What was it like when you were growing up?
DR: Well, it was fun and peaceful and things to do.
HR: Did you ever get into trouble?
DR: Oh my, real trouble? My serious trouble was in grade school. I was a junior policeman and I got in a
fight and for punishment, I had to give up my junior police belt for three days.
HR: Do you have siblings?
DR: I have two younger sisters — Ramona and Jackie.
HR: And what were they like growing up?
DR: They were obedient. They knew they had to mind me. They were fun to be around and we did a lot
of things together. Ramona was only… I think 18 months older and when we were in high school, we
went to ball games together and actually had double dates together… did dates together with both of
them.
HR: What did you look like as a job?
DR: Oh as always, fairly big. Always sort of quiet. Always participating in a lot of different things.
HR: Were you happy as a child?
DR: Oh yeah, we always had good things to do.
HR: Who were your best friends and what were they like?
DR: Well in grade school or junior high, some of my buddies were my neighbors. Scott Muse, preacher’s
son, and Glenn Woods lived down the street, and Gerald Cox were three of the buddies. They were from
grade school. Junior high age, time of high school and college my buddies would’ve been Jim Cox, R.W.
Sargent, or Mary Wilburg. Some of those I still see today.
HR: Who was the most important person in your life? Can you tell me about him or her?
DR: Well the most important people were my mother and dad, their influence on me and how they coach
me and things they did for me or ask me to do.
HR: What’s one of the most important lessons you’ve learned in life?
DR: Well from them, they worked all their life and they were faithful Christians so work and hard work
and honesty and live a good life.
HR: What are the proudest moments of your life?
DR: Well, the thing that I was most proud of is the family mine sprouted against my mother and dad and
as we’ve made and our children I was always proud of them.
HR: When have you felt the loneliest time in your life?
DR: Well, A few times I’ve been hospitalized and those are sort of lonely times when you’re stuck in a
hospital room waiting for a doctor to do something.
HR: How would you like to be remembered?
DR: Oh, I’d like to be remembered as an honorable man, a Christian man. One that worked all of his life.
HR: Had either of your parents been married before?
DR: No, daddy I think was 25 and mother I think I believe, 21 and they thought marriage was for life and
that’s the way they lived their life.
HR: Did you ever hear of how the story they met?
DR: Well, they just grew up together in the same country area and knew each other/
HR: Do you think they loved each other?
DR: Oh yes.
HR: Do you think they loved you?
DR: Sure. I was the favorite.
HR: Did you love them?
DR: Sure.
HR: Are you closer to one sibling more than the other?
DR: No, it’s just sort of different things we did with each other. Ramona was closer to my age and she
was a twirler in the bands so we had some things like that in common and we double dated some together.
And Jackie was younger, but we did games together and chase games and different things like that so.
Both of them were likable, it just different ways that I...
HR: How would you describe the appearance of each of your siblings?
DR: Well the youngest was redhead and freckled face. She never outgrew her freckles. And Ramona was
dark-headed and maybe more serious? I don’t know.
HR: Do you think you’re different from your siblings?
DR: Well you see, of course. Male versus female. But traits that I had, friendships in my life, I enjoyed
moving and traveling. Neither one of them liked moving or traveling. Neither one of them are too much
of a risker taker.
HR: How do you think you were different from each of your parents?
DR: Well really not too much different. They were both hard-headed and had goals and wanted to
accomplish something and worked and saved and enjoyed having good times. I share some of those same
thoughts and characteristics with them.
HR: Did you consider yourself a city kid or a farm kid?
DR: Well most of after moving the city in third grade I was a city kid. Though every summer, I’d go back
to visit a cousin in the country but still lived in the city
HR: What did your homes look like on the outside?
DR: Most of our homes were just plain framed homes.
HR: How about inside the homes? How many stories did you have? Did you have a basement?
DR: No.
HR: How was it decorated?
DR: I believe all the homes are one story and no basements. The furniture was plain. Living room, couch,
chairs, dining room table, chairs, kitchen. Stuff just well kept and order. Nothing fancy.
HR: Were there special places where you couldn't go?
DR: No.
HR: Did you feel comfortable at home?
DR: Oh yeah, got to do everything. We’re invited to do everything at home.
HR: Did you ever feel like you were poor or average or privileged?
DR: Well, just average. I knew we weren’t rich.
HR: Does your family keep the place neat?
DR: Yes.
HR: What kind of responsibilities did you have? What chores did you have?
DR: Well as a boy, my chores were outside. I had to help with the yard work, weed, trash and the other
chores I had was if we needed milk or bread, I had to walk the couple blocks down the store and do the
errands like that. And that two sisters, Ramona and Jackie, their chores were inside. They had to help
make beds or help iron or help cook or help with the dishes.Those their chores were inside
HR: What kind of things did you like to play at playtime?
DR: Most of the games centered around chase. Run the daughters down or the kids down or the neighbors
down with some sort of chase game.
HR: Was there any special toys that you liked?
DR: Yes, the special toy that I learned to like young was how to make a rubber gun. I don’t think they
make em’ anymore. Take some, make a pistol handle grip and you put a piece of a broomstick on it and
you attach a clothespin. One hand, with a grip and make that clothespin have a stronghold and then you
cut off a strip of the inner tube, put a knot in it and put it in that clothespin and stretch it over the barrel
and you’re ready to fire. A pellet, a rubber sling at someone. That was one of the fun toys I had.
HR: Did your family always have electricity?
DR: No, the first time I can remember we moved to a small-town, Wayne, Oklahoma, and we actually
had for the first time electricity. And for the first time, we had a telephone. It was a party line the
one-year you crank the handle the long and the short or whatever and it's a party line and everyone would
listen in when you talk. That was our first electricity and our first phone.
HR: Where did you have your first radio?
DR: Well, we actually had a radio. It was a battery powered radio there at Wayne. It wasn’t hooked to
electricity, just to a battery like a car battery.
HR: Where did you get your first television?
DR: After I’m married, in the early fifties when mom and dad got their first television.
HR: Do you remember the first television you first saw? What did you think of it?
DR: Well, I thought it was almost like a miracle.
HR: What shows did you like?
DR: I didn’t watch any of them. They were boring.
HR: Did your family travel a lot when you were young?
DR: Yes, they did. My mother and dad as they were young and as they had their children. They were
married and had children in Arkansas and they moved from Arkansas to Wayne, Oklahoma. Bought a
small grocery store and stayed over a year or so, then moved back to Arkansas with another little small
store and moved back to Oklahoma and back into Oklahoma City. And when I was in high school at the
end of the war in 1946, mother and dad had both worked in Douglas during the war and had a small
grocery store. They quit their job at Douglas, sold their grocery store, and we took a three months
vacation. We traveled from Oklahoma, Northwest through up Kansas and Colorado, Wyoming, Montana,
and clear into Canada all the way the West Coast. Washington, Portland, California, Arizona, New
Mexico, and Texas. And we took a tent with us. We slept in the tent some and we stayed in motels some
and we actually had some relatives on the way, but we spent three months on the road. And, as always, a
fun trip for me to remember.
HR: Have you ever been out of the country and where have you been?
DR: Yes, I think that traveling was fun for me and my job as I got out of school was on seismograph
crews and we moved all the time. I graduated from college in 1954 and up till 1975, 21 years, we moved
27 times in states all over the Southwest. We’ve traveled overseas a couple of times and each trip is
always fun. Our first trip overseas was to Portugal to help establish a mission camp there in Lisbon. And
we went back to Portugal again with an effort with the church and then made a trip; Portugal to Madrid to
London and back home. And we made another trip of Oklahoma to Berlin and Frankfurt and Switzerland
and Rome and back. And we’ve enjoyed traveling and the countries and the food and seeing how the rest
of the world lived. We traveled to Canada. We’ve traveled to Mexico. Mexico several times and Canada
several times.We've been to Australia and New Guinea and one of our fun trip, probably most the trip I
enjoyed most was we spent well over three weeks in China. In China, we were the guests of the National
Petroleum Company industry and we got to visit a number of sites in China and get a history of their Oil
Business and their drilling and their activities in certain areas of China and how and what they were
doing. So, traveling has been a part of our lives forever.
HR: Do you remember the first day of your school and what it was like?
DR: I started first grade when I was five in a little town in Arkansas called Iuka. And we were just sorta
out the backdoor and across the fence line into a little one room school that was separated by a curtain.
My dad taught on one side, I think he had sixth, seventh, and eighth and I was on the other side with one
through sixth graders I believe. That was my first school and during that time, our teacher was flooded
out. The rain came and our river flooded and my teacher couldn’t come and my mother, who was a
licensed teacher, got to come down and be our substitute for a day or two in that little bitty school.
HR: What did you wear to school? Did you wear pants?
DR: I don’t remember what I wore. Pants or short pants or overalls, I can’t remember. Just suitable for the
country living.
HR: Did you eat lunch at school or at home?
DR: There was no cafeteria, I believe, I just walked home. Most of the kids had come aways and brought
a sack lunch.
HR: Did you have a lot of friends at school?
DR: Well, there was always a lot of people, yes.
HR: Were you a nerd, popular, or a jock?
DR: I don’t know whether I’d be any one of those. I participated in sports and I took a lot of math classes
and science but I don’t know whether I was a nerd or not. But anyway, I had an interesting seral area.
HR: Were there any teachers that were an influence on you?
DR: Yes, two teachers in high school probably influenced me the most. My track coach was Ray Van and
he came to be our track coach when I came to be a junior. The first year, my track coach was John
Muskogee. He was the football coach. He didn’t care anything about track and would show up once in a
while, just before me. But Ray Van liked track and he participated, he came out there and encouraged
everyone. I knew Ray Van as a member of the church, we attended church together and he visited our
home several times to have lunch. When we had a rainy day in our track season, we couldn’t go and run
in the mud. We’d sort of stay and exercise in the gym. He liked two things: he liked table tennis and ping
pong. When we’d play ping pong, I was always his partner and we’d beat everybody there. But when
they’d play basketball, he wouldn’t even pick me, I was no good. And he was a tough, hard player when
he played basketball. The other teacher in high school that probably had an influence on me was in
geology. When I guess I was near… I finished the eleventh grade, looking about part time jobs and I’d
always worked in the grocery store. But, Oklahoma has always been giving oil well drilling work in oil
fields and thought ‘I could get rich if I got in those oil fields’. But I was too young, no one would hire me.
One of our neighbors was an old tool butcher. He worked in the oil business a whole bunch of years and
he said if I wanted to get rich, said I should be a geologist. I didn’t know what the word meant. But, I
knew that we offered geology in high school and the next year, I enrolled in another science course. I
already had enrolled in biology and one other science. Anyway, they had a super teacher, I think her name
was Kelly, I don’t remember her name. Anyways, she was an excellent teacher and made it easy for me in
that class. In geology, you have to learn how to spell big long names: geologic time table, geologic chart,
fossils, I had a hard time spelling. But if you took the test and you missed 3 or 4 and you didn't make a
hundred and you wanted to do better, you could study and take the test over. And the second time over,
the best grade that you could make was a 95. Well, if you missed 3 or 4 at 95, you could study some more
and take it again and the best grade that you could make was a 90. I did well in that class cause I’d usually
miss 1 or 2 or 3 spelling on the first time. By the second time, I had learned how to spell them. Another
way she made it easy for me was at the end of each chapter, there was 10 or 15 questions and if you’d
answer those questions, you’d get bonus of 5 or 10 points and I answered every question after every
chapter so I had a good grade in geology. She made it easy for us and interesting for me, so I did like that
and I went on in school and majored in geology.
HR: You said you ran in track. Did you letter in track?
DR: I lettered in track. You see, my track coach, he was my buddy, played no favorites. And in track,
you’re measured by a stopwatch. If your time is not as good as the other guys, you don’t get to run ahead
of him. So, I was sort of back up track, but I enjoyed track. I liked the competition. I liked our coach.
HR: What kind of clubs or extracurriculars were you in?
DR: Well, I was in the Capitol Hill RedSkins Pep Club and I also participated in the junior high and
Capitol High School band all the time I was in school. I played in the band, I played trumpet.
HR: Did you go to the prom?
DR: I went to my senior prom. I took a date and I went to go dance and I struggled through a dance or
two, I think. We took in a late movie and went home.
HR: How old were you when you started dating?
DR: Oh, I don’t know, seventh or eighth grade. I went to a school play at junior high and my date was a
girl that lived behind me. We took a bus up to Capitol Hill Junior High and went to the play and rode the
bus home.
HR: What was your dating like and did the girls call the boys during that time?
DR: Oh, I dated quite a bit. Yes, occasionally the girls would call, but it’d usually be something like ‘did
you know we’re having a party’ or something or ‘are you up to date on this, provide information’ and
then usually it’s something like ‘would you like to go with me’. But, it was just sort of an occasion a girl
would call.
HR: And you said you played in the band so that was a big part of your life.
DR: Yes.
HR: In high school. What kind of music did you play?
DR: Well, of course, our band music was instrumental and march music and concert kind of music.
HR: What instrument did you play?
DR: I played the trumpet and I still play the trumpet, I play in a little small band now. Just a golden oldie
tunes and country and western and old popular songs that people knew in the 30s and 40s.
HR: Did you learn to drive in highschool?
DR: I didn’t turn 16 until it was the second half of eleventh grade and I got my license. I had the last half
of my eleventh grade and all of my senior year that I could drive, had my license.
HR: What was your first car?
DR: The first car I bought was an old beat up 1924 T-model. It wouldn’t run half the time and I had to
work all one summer and got rid of it.
HR: How did you feel about going to college?
DR: Well, my mother asked ‘did I want to work as a checker and a sack boy for the rest of my life’ and if
I didn’t she said I’d better make sure I went on to college. So, I was interested in going to college and I
got to get a degree in college.
HR: Where did you go to college?
DR: University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma.
HR: Did you ever consider any other school?
DR: No, it’d cost. OU was handy and convenient and state-run school was reasonably inexpensive.
HR: And your reason for going to college?
DR: Get rich.
HR: Did you clear goals as far as majors and career?
DR: Yes, I started out with a major in geology and I continued on through with that till I graduated and
went to work.
HR: Did you have a social life while you were in college?
DR: Almost none, I worked part time and I didn’t live on campus except one semester. So, almost zero on
campus social life.
HR: Did you like your college years?
DR: Well, in one way, I did but in another, I didn’t. I was exhausted and I thought if I ever get out of
school, I’d only have to work four days a week or five days a week and only 40 hours week and I thought
what it’d be like on a vacation.
HR: Are you still friends with anyone from that time in your life?
DR: Yes, two or three. Jimmy Cox, we were in college together and Mary Ruth, another girl and a few,
one or two others. Still live in the Oklahoma City area, I still see them occasionally.
HR: Can you tell me about your first kiss?
DR: It was a party, spin the bottle. You walk around the house and you kiss the girl.
HR: Did you believe in love at first sight?
DR: No, I did think that I was attracted to girls by their appearance and the way they acted or behaved I
thought well, that would be someone fun to date or acquaint with. But it just, that kind of attraction.
HR: Can you tell me about your religious spiritual beliefs?
DR: Yes, I am Christian. I am a member of the Church of Christ. I’ve served as a fill-in part time
preacher. I’ve served as a Father of the Church. I’ve served as a deacon and I’ve served as and continued
service as a bible school teacher.
HR: Do you believe in afterlife?
DR: Certainly.
HR: What it would be like?
DR: Well, it says it’s going to be better than this life. No pain, no sorrow, no tears.
HR: When you meet God, what do you want to ask him?
DR: Well for me and my curiosity, it’d be about geology and the rocks. I want him to give more details
about the creation of the Earth.
HR: What was your Christmas like in your home growing up?
DR: Oh, they were very plain. We almost never had a big decorated tree and our Christmases were ‘need
a new pair of pants’ or ‘need a new pair of shoes’. There are more gifts that were more practical.
HR: What was your Thanksgiving like?
DR: Oh, we never had turkey. My mother didn’t like turkey, it was too dry. So, we would always have a
big dinner with chicken.
HR: How did y’all celebrate birthdays?
DR: Well, everybody had a birthday. We had cake and ice cream and had to give presents and sing happy
birthday and remember what their birthday was.
HR: Is there one birthday that you remember more than any other?
DR: Well, there was one sort of unusual. One year, a few years back, my birthday was leap year and when
I had my sixteenth birthday, counting fours, my granddaughter was 16 that year and we had a combined
“happy sixteenth birthday” with my granddaughter. So, that was sort of different.
HR: Is there anything about your children that you would like to want to say?
DR: Well, I am always proud of them.
HR: How many children do you have?
DR: We have four children. We have four daughters: Debra, Karen, Donna, and Kathy.
HR: And do they work?
DR: They all work. Debra, the oldest one, is a school teacher. She’s out at Tuttle. Karen is a school
teacher and she teaches at the Mid-Del area. Donna, she works for a chemical company as an accountant.
And Kathy, our baby, works for the Oklahoma City Police Department.
HR: Did you ever have any dreams or requests for your children to do?
DR: Yes, I hoped and wanted them to be a faithful Christian and I wanted them to have church as part of
their life.
HR: Has there been any divorce with any of your children?
DR: No, there hasn’t.
HR: Are you still married to your same wife?
DR: Yes, 55 years. We got married on leap year, too. 52.
HR: Can you tell me anything about the illnesses you had when you’ve been in the hospital?
DR: Well, I think I was 45 or 46 or 47 when I was ever hospitalized and I hurt a knee. I had to go in for
cartilage repair. And I thought ‘how could my body give out’? I thought my body was indestructible. But,
they had to fix a cartilage and that sort of slowed me down. And then, the next summer I hurt another
knee. I had to go back in and fix another cartilage. And then after that, it just seemed like my body
collapsed. I had to have my appendix out. And then I had to get my gallbladder out. And then I had to
have my shoulder fixed. Then I had to get my stents put in and then I had to get my back fixed. Then I
had to get some more stents. I’ve been lucky though, I had super doctors that patched me up each time.
HR: Did you ever think about dying?
DR: Everyone is gonna die, yes.
HR: Are you afraid of death?
DR: No.
HR: If you were to give any advice to my or my children or our children or even children to come, what
would it be?
DR: Well, I guess the information example my mother passed down worked hard all their life and were
Christians and tried to do a good job with their families and participate with them and do things with
them. Be around them or help them and encourage them.
HR: What is your ethnic background?
DR: Well, I guess it’d be caucasian. The Ruminers are as German heritage and we have some early
history of one of the Ruminers being in the New England area somewhere in the 17, 1800s. They
gradually migrated down to Tennessee and then Arkansas and then Oklahoma. They got to spell their
name Ruminger and they dropped the ‘g’, and then it was just Ruminer.
HR: Who were your favorite relatives?
DR: I guess my favorite relatives were two of my aunts, Ruby and Estel. Off and on when we were
young, they stayed with us for a short time and a couple different times and they didn’t marry till they
were old, they were 30. They always worked and they always had money and they’d always send me a
birthday present on my birthday. If we were on over at their home or even if we weren’t in the country
where they were, they would still send me a birthday present and my sisters, Ramona and Jackie. So, I
liked them.
HR: What were the classic family stories that you had?
DR: Well, there were dumb things that we did when we were small and one my mother used to like to tell
was that I was gawky. She had me all dressed up for church or something and just had my bath, a new
fresh ironed starch clothes on and I fell down in the mud on the way to church and she just picked me up
and patted me for being gawky.
HR: What kind of songs do you like?
DR: Well, I like some of the old favorites that they were singing in the 30s and 40s. I do like even some
of the popular music. I don’t like too much of the jazz music and some of those hip hop music, but I still
like that instrumental band music, the classic music. And old country and westerns, I kinda like some of
the Elvis Presley. He had some pretty music, had some music I didn’t like. Even the Beatles, I didn’t like
their music in general, but they had some songs that were pretty, had a pretty melody.
HR: Were you ever in the military?
DR: Never in the military. Forever.
HR: What do you want to be remembered as?
DR: Well, I hope they’ll remember me as a good daddy and father and husband and I worked and that I
was a Christian.