Description:
Dr. Gloria Joan Pollard talks about her life growing up in Oklahoma City.
Transcript:
Interviewee: Gloria Joan Pollard
Interviewer: Female first cousin, unnamed.
Interview Date: 5/22/2007
Interview Location: Unknown
Transcribed By: Katie Widmann
File Name: Gloria Joan Pollard (Dr.) 5-22-07Note: Although the file ID’s her middle name as Joan, Gloria states that it is Joanne.
Female Interviewer: Please tell me your name, your birth date, our relationship, and where we are?
Gloria Joan Pollard: My name is Gloria Joanne Johnson Pollard. I was born June 2, 1943 in Oklahoma City to Ester and Goldy Johnson. My dad’s name was Ester, he said because he was the prettiest child his parents had.
FI: [laughs] Okay. Where did you grow up?
GJP: I grew up in a little enclave called Green Pastures, which is northeast of Oklahoma City.
FI: What was it like?
GJP: It was idyllic. It was pure country. We raised things that we ate, things that we grew, or things or animals that we had. Grandfather sold vegetables in Oklahoma City. He raised two gardens in the country and sold those vegetables to make a living.
FI: What is our relationship, Dr. Pollard?
GJP: We are first cousins and we’re trying to hesitate because we don’t want to get too involved.
FI: I agree. Meaning, your father is related to?
GJP: My father and your mother were brother and sister.
FI: That’s correct. Now, tell me, what is your earliest memory?
GJP: My earliest memory is the two-room house that my mom and dad, my brother and I lived in. My brother and I had a baby bed and as I thought about it when I got older, I think that baby bed was painted with lead paint. It was royal blue and I remember the smell.
FI: Okay.
[both laugh]
GJP: It was a close relationship. Mom had this dictionary, a fairy tale dictionary. I don’t know where she got it, but every night she would read to us from this dictionary. It had fairy tales, but it must have been a sample book because we never got to the end of the fairy tale.
FI: [laughs] Okay. That’s a fond memory. You told us your parents’ name. What were your parents like?
GJP: They were fun. My mom was mischievous. She loved practical jokes. My dad tried to be serious but whenever something happened that was funny, he’d get up and leave out so we wouldn’t see him laughing. I think he wanted us to think he was a really stern man. However, he was strict. He was the one who punished us, and he was the disciplinarian when Mom didn’t have the courage, because we’d say something silly and she would laugh. We didn’t take her discipline very seriously.
FI: Where were they from?
GJP: My mother was from Okmulgee and Earlsboro. I think she stayed in Earlsboro, so those two areas. My Dad was from Watonga and El Reno. He spent time there with his maternal grandparents.
FI: I see. How did they get to Oklahoma? Do you know?
GJP: Yes. My grandfather and his brother came to Oklahoma with their mother from Mississippi. They went and settled in Watonga.
FI: I see. How was your relationship with your parents? I heard you talk about they were fun parents and your father was a disciplinarian. Overall, how do you feel your relationship was?
GJP: I felt that we had a really close family. They stressed values, positive values. We were the first ones at church, I think, every Sunday, whether it rained or snowed or whatever. Dad taught Sunday School for a while, and Mom would come later after she prepared dinner for Sunday. They made us do our homework. They participated in – well, Mom was president of PTA for a while. Dad made sure we got to the football games. They shared with us some of the values that they had been taught.
FI: I see. Let me ask you this. Talking about you and your older brothers, how many sisters? How many siblings in your family?
GJP: [laughing] There were three girls and seven boys.
FI: I see. You were the oldest?
GJP: I am the oldest.
FI: I see. That should have been fun.
GJP: Oh yes. I was responsible for seeing that they stayed in line while Mom and Dad were gone. It didn’t always work.
FI: All right. What was your grandparents’ names? Let’s say on your father’s side.
GJP: On my father’s side, his dad’s name was Johnny Johnson, and his mother’s name was Willie.
FI: On your mother’s side?
GJP: Her mother was Ida, Ida Scott. Her dad was Ernest Dickson. Her stepmom was Maddie Dickson.
FI: Where is your mom’s family from?
GJP: From Okmulgee.
FI: Okmulgee, and you told us about your dad’s family. Do you remember any of the stories they used to tell you?
GJP: I don’t think I’d want to share them. There was one story, though, the relatives told on my granddad Johnny. He was widowed. His wife passed away and he had to raise – I think about – did he raise 11 of the children from the second set? He had cows and every day he would go off to sell his vegetables. He would come back and his cows would be in the neighbor’s field, and the neighbor started telling him she was quite upset with his cows getting loose. One day, he told the children to watch the cows and they watched and saw that the lady was opening the gate to let the cows in because she wanted to be a girlfriend for my grandfather. I thought that was one of the really funny stories.
FI: I like that. Did she become –
GJP: No. He was a devout widower. [both laugh]
FI: Who were your favorite relatives?
GJP: As I said earlier, all of them, because they all had so many different personalities. You can go the whole spectrum.
FI: Describe your school life.
GJP: School life was life. We did not want to get sick and have to miss school, because our teachers were so special. They treated us very special. Our parents, the whole community, supported the school. Our teachers would visit our churches in the community, so it was a close relationship. You could have funerals at the school. Many of our social activities were held at the school, so the school and the community were closely knit. They were family. The teachers had the right to do whatever they felt was good for us and tell our parents later, and parents would decide whether they needed to follow up with more discipline.
FI: Did you walk to school or did you ride a bus?
GJP: Oh, we had a bus, and the bus stopped in front of our house and waited for all the children to come out.
FI: That’s special. Did you enjoy school?
GJP: Loved school. Loved it.
FI: Describe what kind of student you were.
GJP: They said I was teacher’s pet.
FI: You were smart.
GJP: They called me smart.
[both laugh]
GJP: I didn’t see all that. I had to study hard. I just remember my first experience in kindergarten. I had a teacher named Alberta Smith. You know how at the end of school you go for the summer and you come back in the next grade? Well, we went to the first grade in Miss Gamble’s class. Mrs. Smith came in and said she wanted all of us to come back into her classroom to see if we had forgotten how to read over the summer. She had me sitting at her desk. She had a long, yellow #2 pencil in her hand. I forgot a word, and she hit me in the head with that #2 pencil. [laughs] I’ve hated #2 pencils ever since then.
FI: A moment you won’t forget!
GJP: I will never forget. She was one of our best teachers. I think when she retired, she went into preparing taxes and she did that until her death. She could have been in her 90s.
FI: I see. So she loved life also.
GJP: Yes, she did.
FI: Tell us what your winters were like growing up, the winter months.
GJP: I thought snow was deeper when we were growing up. We did wait for the second snow so that we could make ice cream. We would play in the snow. We weren’t kept inside, and if it would freeze, the kids in the community would get together. There was a pond – we didn’t know anything about danger. There was a pond that would freeze, and we’d all go and play on that pond. It never cracked. The Lord was with us.
FI: That’s right!
GJP: Winters were fun.
FI: Being the oldest child, you had many responsibilities as a young person. How did you cook your meals?
GJP: I had to watch my mom. I made my first scratch cornbread when I was in the second grade, and from that time on, I watched her. She was my idol. Everything that she did, I watched carefully. I made one mess. She told me the pastor and his family were coming over for dinner, and she told me to never put baking soda in cornbread. I couldn’t figure out why, so I put some baking soda in it. We sat down to eat, and she looked at me and she said, “You put baking soda in the cornbread, didn’t you?” I said, “Yes.”
FI: What did it do to the bread?
GJP: It just made it look funny.
FI: [laughs] I see. Okay. We talked about you being the oldest of ten children. What were they like growing up?
GJP: There were ten and we kind of paired. My oldest brother and I paired. We could sit for hours in the same room, even after we became adults, and never say anything to each other, but commune spiritually. He and I would get in trouble together. We got angry with each other once. He got into a fight with a cousin, and I tried to get between them, and he had picked up a brick to throw at her and he hit me.
FI: Oh my gosh!
GJP: So I chased him all over the community. We ended up at your mother’s house. [both laugh] She made me stop and they took me to the doctor, and he had to stitch it. But I was anxious to get him. That was the only time we ever got into it with each other.
[both laugh]
FI: That was special.
GJP: Yes. The others pretty much did what I told them to do when Mom and Dad worked.
FI: They were obedient.
GJP: Yes. They were obedient.
FI: That’s good. We talked about you getting in trouble with that particular incident. What was the worst thing you did?
GJP: One of the worst things that I ever did was to like Elvis Presley. We had a jukebox at school, and I stood by the jukebox and they were playing “Jailhouse Rock.” I was doing my little dance right there by it, and Alonzo went home and told my dad. I had Elvis Presley posters all over my room. I had records. I had a million dollars’ worth of stuff in my room and didn’t know it. My dad make me take it all down, take it out in a field, put it in a barrel and burn it. I lost my wealth early.
FI: We talked about one of your favorite teachers. Did this particular teacher have a strong influence on your life? If so, tell me about it.
GJP: It’s so hard to say a favorite teacher because they were in phases. I can remember all of my teachers. As I entered junior high school and high school, Los Angeles Chosen, Clara Luper, Johnny Phillips, Miss Morissette, Doris Cones. Doris Cones was a person who influenced me. She wrote a letter for me to get into the Ph.D. program at OU. When I was accepted, I ran to her house. I mean I drove fast and went in to tell her I was in. That was the day that she had passed away. I didn’t get a chance to tell her. She was my real mentor and I certainly can’t forget Nancy Davis. Nancy Davis is a guru, I guess you might say, for OSU.
FI: You talked about one of your stories from your childhood. Do you have any other favorite stories from your childhood?
GJP: Oh my. You don’t want to hear my stories.
FI: I know you have many.
GJP: Some of them are just kind of personal. We did some things that I really – [laughs]. Well, let me tell you one that’s not so terrible.
FI: One you can tell the public.
FI: We were next to – our home was right next Our Holiness Church. One Sunday, Dad let us stay home from Training Union. My cousin, I don’t know if you were there or not, but we lived in the country as I said. We had what we called stickers, cockle burrs. It was really hot, and the people were in church just singing and praising and had all their windows open. We had no air conditioning. We decided since all the car windows were down, that we would put cockle burrs in all the cars and we did, just to see how the people would respond. We went in the house, turned out the lights, and got in the window in Daddy and Mama’s room. The people came out and the loudest person was a really heavy lady who had a deep, masculine voice and you could hear her all over the community when she sat on those stickers. They knew it was us because they had kept their children in the church.
FI: [laughing] Now that’s funny. That’s a new one. I was not with you then. Would you describe yourself as a happy child?
GJP: I think so. People were nice. People had a positive influence, all of our neighbors. They kept an eye on us when our parents were not around. The relatives, as I said, were really excellent. We had a young uncle who was like our brother. He wasn’t too much older. We had two, and they kind of kept an eye on us and they’d play tricks on us. They gave us – what was it? We thought it was cough syrup. It was liniment. We couldn’t tell on them because they’d pull another trick on us.
FI: You’ve talked about your best memories. What about your worst memory?
GJP: Oh, goodness. My worst memory would be losing people in the community because they meant so much. Whenever one of them would pass away, I would take the obituary and get a little notepad, and write down things that I could remember about them. I kind of collected those things and they’re still in a box. That was so I could remember. Worst memory would be getting spanked because Daddy would save up. He would say, “I’m gonna getcha.” Every time we’d do something – “I told you I’m gonna getcha.” He would get us.
FI: You’ve talked about some important persons in your life. Can you tell me about the most important person? Can you identify one?
GJP: (slowly) I would say my husband. He and I grew up in two different kinds of families. He grew up without a mother. His father raised them. He had several stepmothers, but they weren’t around too long. His father – we thought they were rich because his dad worked at Tinker. We didn’t think of ourselves as being poor because we had two parents and they both worked. We had our needs met. He thought that we were better off than they, because they only had meat on Sundays. It was different, and when we got together and got married, we sat down and decided how we were going to raise our children. We said we would take them on trips so they would learn history. He believed in feeding them. Even though we worked hard, he would always want to get the best brands and things for our kids. That’s one of the things our kids remember now, is Daddy would bring our lunch to school and he would have a package of cookies, a package of meat, a loaf of bread and several cans of pop. We’d have to share it with our friends. He and I spent 40 years together, plus the time from 8th grade through high school when we were dating each other. That was a very pleasant memory.
FI: You said, “was.” I understand he’s deceased.
GJP: Yes, three years ago.
FI: In life, what would you do for fun?
GJP: Travel and meet family and eat. Cook. I love traveling and I love family, so that’s fun. If I can’t do those things – and church. Church is very important. It’s like another family.
FI: I agree. Did you have a nickname growing up? If so, how did you get it?
GJP: They called me Hopalong Cassidy because I had post-polio and I wore a brace. I think all of us had nicknames. They called me that, and then my first name is Gloria. In the African-American community, pronunciation is different. They called me “Glory, glory hallelujah.” So I went by the name Joanne until I became a professional. My professional name is Gloria. My friends call me Joanne.
FI: And your relatives call you Joanne.
GJP: My relatives do too.
FI: Who were your best friends and what were they like?
GJP: I think I had best friends at different times. Beverly Thomas Williams has been a really close friend. We’re saying friends outside of family. My best friends were my family, like you and Evelyn. We were sort of a trio. Beverly and Susie Wright, who was really the smart person. She was the math person in our class. She lives in San Jose. Myra Jerrick, Beverly Harris, Delores Dillard. We have a little group that was in our graduating class.
FI: I remember Sharon and Barbara.
GJP: Barbara Richardson Miller, Sharon Brown. Sharon was valedictorian. I was salutatorian by a point. [laughs] Point something.
FI: I thought it was the reverse.
GJP: No.
FI: Okay. How would you describe a perfect day when you were young?
GJP: A perfect day?
FI: Mm-hmm.
GJP: A perfect day was in the summertime. Mind you, we had no air conditioning or anything like that. We’d get up and Mom would have us clean the house. All of the kids would just disperse. I would get a book I liked. We had a wellhouse in the back of the house, and I would sit in the door of the wellhouse and I could see the woods, the green trees and everything. I’d read a book and daydream and hear the children. I could hear them in the distance. Because we were in the country, you could hear it all.
FI: Their voices?
GJP: Uh-huh. Yes.
FI: What did you think you were going to be when you grew you up?
GJP: A psychoanalyst.
FI: Oh! Why? How did you choose that profession?
GJP: That’s what I wanted to be. I wanted to go to Barnett College in New York. When I was in the 12th grade, I had to write a research paper. My mom did day work, and I went to the city to use the library. Mom worked for the VA director’s wife. A new psychoanalyst was at the VA, and she arranged for me to go in and interview him. I learned that it would take me 16 years to become a psychoanalyst. When I got in college, I figured I didn’t have enough money and enough time [both laugh], so I went into English and French and minored in psychology.
FI: Well, that was close enough.
GJP: Yeah. I had to use that in the classroom.
FI: We’ve talked about your best memories, grade school, high school, college. Well, maybe not college. Graduate school. Any one of those categories, can you identify your best memory at any one of those levels?
GJP: My freshman year, I went to Oklahoma Christian, which is on Memorial Road. I was one of three African-Americans to attend there. We were the first. I took a class, my composition class, freshman Comp. We had to write a journal every day. I commuted, so I would drive and park until time to go to our first class. I’d write in my journal. As I was writing one day, it hit me that I was an adult. My parents didn’t have to let me live in their house. I was on my own so I started crying. It scared me. [both laugh]
FI: That was the awakening moment.
GJP: That was an awakening time, yes. I have a lot of stories which I would not tell. I’m saving them for when I write my autobiography.
FI: Okay. Tell us about your husband. He really is an important person in your life. How did you meet your husband? How did he propose?
GJP: Oh goodness. Okay. I was in 8th grade and he was in 9th grade. I saw him walking down the hall. I told my girlfriends, “Look at him. He’s pigeon-toed. He’s so cute.” [both laugh] I don’t know how we got together after that, but I broke up with him shortly after that. He didn’t want to break up. Well, he wrote me a note saying he wanted to break up. That evening he said he’d changed his mind. I didn’t change my mind. When the bus would come to pick us up, he would come to the door and open the bus door for me to get on. He’d run and hold for me and I’d sit in another seat. We’d get to school and he’d open the door for me and I’d go through another door. Mind you, I had on braces. It was an interesting thing. He said I proposed to him. I was in college at the time and he was in the Navy. In my second year of college, we decided we’d go on and get married.
FI: And you said it’s 40 years later?
GJP: 40 years later, and four kids, and fourteen grandchildren.
FI: Oh my gosh. I didn’t know you had fourteen grandchildren. How has your life been different that what you’d imagine?
GJP: I guess I lived in a fairy tale world. I wanted things to be just the way I wanted them, and when I meet people, I sit down and think, “I’d like for this scenario to take place.” It doesn’t happen that way.
FI: At least you think.
GJP: I think that way, and I keep thinking that eventually things will be just the way I want them. Every once in a while, they have been when I’ve been with my children. The last trip that I took with my husband, we went out west and the children wanted it to be perfect. It was pretty close to perfect.
FI: Beautiful. What do you do for a living?
GJP: I say I’m an educator. I’m currently a career specialist with the State Department of Career Tech. They ask, “Can you get me a job?” That what counselors and people ask me, and no, I can’t do that. We work with young people in the high schools and tech centers to help them focus on what it’s going to take them to be successful and help them to select a career that is in tune with what they really want to be. We don’t want them to just jump into something because it sounds glamorous, something that may not be for them. We want them to start in actually elementary school. We’d like for the teachers to let students be aware of careers, and then go through different phases of training and assessments and internships and job shadowing so that they’ll say, “Oh. I didn’t know all of this was in the medical field. I didn’t know all of this was in the business field. Hey, I can specialize in this.” We try to help young people to make wise career choices.
FI: Tell me, how did you get into your line of work? I know you’ve had different professions. Would you share that with us?
GJP: I taught high school, went from high school to the university. I went from University of Oklahoma, since I mentioned OSU earlier. I went to OU, and then I always say I got wanderlust. I wanted to go to San Francisco, and a friend of mine worked at San Francisco State. I worked with at-risk students there at the Unified School District. They were concurrently enrolled at San Francisco State. I got a chance to work with those young people. Some of them were homeless. Some were supporting their families. They were coming to school after school. Some of them had businesses, so they were entrepreneurs. But California just wasn’t for me, so I came back. I thought with this experience from high school to college and back, I could go and work at a high school again and encourage young people with the knowledge that I had, encourage them to look around. Well, that worked because I got into school to make it work. That initiative was around for about five years. I worked at Millwood with Dr. Griffin, who was a great mentor. We did some great things there, but from school to work, I was drawn to the State Department of Career Tech. That used to be vocational ed. I’m currently doing that, and when I’m called on to do little workshops, I’ll do those workshops in the community for agencies or individuals who need my services.
FI: Do you like your job?
GJP: I like my job.
FI: Good. Do you have any favorite stories from your work life?
GJP: [pauses] There are stories that I think I – let me tell this one. It’ll work. I taught senior English, and advanced placement English, and I had relatives in my classes when I worked out at Star Spencer. I always had relatives, and that was an experience. We were in the classroom one day. I was teaching and the students were very attentive, and we heard this loud noise next door, and then we heard chairs. I had two students. One was a cousin, and another was a close friend in that class. They both were karate experts, and they asked me, “Do you want us to take care of that?” I said yes. They went out and the other students were asking, “Can we go?” “No, you may not go.” They went and it got quiet next door. The teacher was standing in the hall and she came to me and said, “Thanks, because I was going to let them kill each other.” [laugh]
FI: Oh my gosh. [laughs] Okay.
GJP: She was a good teacher. I think some of the students just got kinda hyper.
FI: All right. What lessons has your work life taught you?
GJP: I have learned to be patient. When people have problems, when they fly off the handle, I listen. It maybe directed to me at the time, but it is meant for somebody else. I’ve learned to listen to that and let them get it out of their system, and then sit and talk. They always end up apologizing. I always tell them that you don’t always have to apologize. Sometimes you need a release. I’ve learned that I want teachers to be teachers. I want them to care for the students. I don’t want them to go into teaching because it’s something that will carry me until I get a real job. Teaching is a real job, and if you don’t love children, you don’t have any business in the classroom.
FI: Time to turn the table. This is your chance to tell me what you’ve learned from me or what I’ve learned from you, and I will share –
GJP: [talking over FI] You have learned from me [both laugh] to stay out of trouble, I think. You remember when Mom and Dad went to Grand Lodge and left us at home, and you, Evelyn, and I and all the little kids got in the car. It was a stick shift. Evelyn said she knew how to do the gears and I said I can guide the car. I think you could do the brakes. We took the car from my house up to your house and got stuck in the mud, and we made all the little kids get out and push the car. [both laugh] We told this story to your dad when you were celebrating your 40 years for doing music at the church.
FI: I did 30 years.
GJP: I told that story and he asked you when you go home, “Did that really happen?” You said yes, and he said, “I ought to whip you now!” But a neighbor saw us and she said she didn’t know whether to go out or just leave us alone. She saw that we got it under control.
FI: I remember that.
GJP: I did get you into trouble. I had dogs chasing us and we did a lot of things, but those were things country kids did. We made our own fun.
FI: We did. I remember a birthday party you and Evelyn gave me. It was probably my only birthday party but it was fun. It had a lot of gag gifts but it was fun.
GJP: Was that when I – no, I gave a gag gift where I put a mouse in a little box and put it in some bigger boxes and wrapped it. I don’t know who I gave that to.
FI: I didn’t get that. Thank goodness. What was I like as baby? Do you remember? As a young child?
GJP: You were fun. You were naïve. You just trusted people and when you turned 13, you ran down to my house and Evelyn was there. Evelyn is our other cousin. You said, “I’m 13 now! Tell me what you all have been giggling about all this time!” [both laugh]
FI: I remember that! I do remember that.
GJP: I love that moment. It was special.
FI: You would tell me all the time, “You’re too young. You’re too young. You’re not old enough.” I felt special at 13. Let me ask you this. Do you remember any of the songs we used to sing? I remember one that –
[both together]: Rusty Old Halo.
[talking over each other]
GJP: - so rough that it scratches. Something like that. Was that a Mahalia Jackson song?
FI: It was a Mahalia Jackson song.
GJP: We sang it at church.
FI: All the time.
GJP: You played the piano. You and Evelyn and I, I think.
FI: By request we’d get that song.
GJP: Then there was another one – music was a wonderous link with God.
FI: I’ve forgotten that one. But I remember “In the Garden.” What were the hardest moments you had when you were growing up? Any particular thing that you can identify with?
GJP: The hardest times were [pause] I guess whenever family members got injured. My sister, one of my sisters, had a seizure of some kind and we had never seen anything like that. They had to rush her to the hospital. That scared us. I got hit by a car getting off the school bus. An elderly couple didn’t stop for the bus. I went behind the bus instead of in front. Poor people nearly had strokes. They took me to the hospital. I was alright. A cousin was in a car wreck – Donald. Tragic car wreck. It was bad. Lots of family members; that was really hard. I think one time that really scared us was when we couldn’t find one of my little brothers. He was 3, I think, and he disappeared. We had parameters. You couldn’t go so far in the community. We could not find him, so the community started sweeping our area. When we finished sweeping our area, we went across Westminster. Some people there asked us, “What are you doing?” We said, “We’re looking for our little brother.” They said, “Was he such-and-such height? He over at Miss Railbank’s house in the bed asleep.” They didn’t know who he was.
FI: That’s community though. They allowed him to go to sleep. That’s precious.
GJP: That’s community.
FI: Focusing back on me at this time, did you have any dreams for me?
GJP: I knew you were going to be a success. I knew because when the minister at our church, our family church, said that you were too young to be the pianist, and the neighboring Methodist church asked them to come and play for them. Dad said, “She’s on her way.” You played for them for 40 years.
FI: 30, and I’m still playing so it’s probably 40.
GJP: You were smart. You and Gwen – your class was one of the smartest ones. Our teachers did capitalize on smart students. That’s one thing that kind of bothered me. The slow students didn’t get the attention that the really fast students got. However, they must have picked up on something because some of them became their own businesspeople. They were a success, so they didn’t let being ignored in some instances. They didn’t let that hold them back.
FI: In spite of it, they were successful. Well, I think we’ve covered practically every question that I see here. Is there anything you’ve never told me that you want to tell me now?
GJP: Oh, I wouldn’t tell you in public. [laughs]
FI: [laughs] Alright. Then we’ll move on. Are there any words of wisdom that you would like to pass along?
GJP: Words of wisdom. You have lived words of wisdom. My daughter was one of your students when you were principal at Northeast. She still remembers your standing in the hall with the bullhorn. It was like you were an icon. They knew that when you were standing there, you were about business. She always talks about that, and whenever we’re planning family reunions, even though you say, “I’m not going to do it,” you’re the main one. “When are we going to do this?” Since 1956.
FI: Well, in our years.
GJP: Our parents started it, and they handed it over to us. We’re trying to hand it over to our kids, and I think we’ll let it go pretty soon.
FI: I think so, but we’re enjoying it.
GJP: Oh, it’s fun.
FI: How would you like to be remembered?
GJP: I just like to be remembered. I hope I did something that helps somebody. What is that Ms. Byrd taught us? “If I have wounded any souls today, if I have caused one foot to go astray, if I have walked in my own willful way, Dear Lord forgive.” (Transcriber’s Note: This is the first verse of a hymn by C. Maud Battersby called, “If I Have Wounded Any Soul Today.”) I love that. Hopefully, anybody whose life I’ve touched, if I’ve done anything wrong, forgive me.
FI: Bless your heart. I agree. You’ve had a beautiful life. Is there anything we didn’t talk about that you would like to add?
GJP: We didn’t talk about having the polio. I was six months old when I had post-polio. They didn’t know what it was. They called it everything from club foot to infantile paralysis to whatever. They didn’t even call it polio. They just called it post-polio. I spent a lot of time in hospitals at Children’s Hospital in Bethany at the Children’s Convalescent Center. I think it has a new name now. Everybody was always feeling sorry for me. Poor thing. She’s in the hospital. They didn’t know I had private tutors. Every child who had a birthday, every child had a birthday on that same day. We all had ice cream cake. We had toys. At every holiday, we had more gifts than anybody. I was constantly sending things home. That was a thrill. Actually, it was a blessing for that to happen. At the Children’s Hospital in Oklahoma City, they had this large auditorium. I was in a body cast, so I had to be carried on a gurney. Some were in wheelchairs. That auditorium had all kinds of pictures on the walls. They were all fairytales, wonderful things. They would take us all down and show us cowboy pictures in black and white. Every Saturday we’d go and see cowboy pictures and cartoons. On Sunday, one of our church members, Miss Cleo Robinson, would come in and teach me my Sunday School lesson at my bed. The other children would go down for Sunday School. I was in and out of the hospital through my sophomore year in college. I guess a very special time there was when my husband came in. He was my boyfriend then, and snuck in a bunch of fruit. They weren’t supposed to bring fruit. He had fruit and gum and all kinds of stuff. After that, I asked the doctor if people could bring it in and the doctor said sure. I said to put it in my chart. It was not – I went through a lot of pain but the good that came out of it was worth the pain.
FI: I’ve certainly enjoyed this interview with my first cousin, Doctor Gloria Joanne Pollard. It has been a thrill to hear about your life.
GJP: Oh, thanks. You’ll have to forgive the tears. They’re tears of joy and memory.
FI: I appreciate it. Thank you.
GJP: Thank you.
End of Interview.