Mary Levine interviews her grandmother Mary Rosalee Levine about living in 3 different southern cities

00:01 Hello, I'm Mary Levine and I'm here with my grandmother, Mary Rosalie Levine also known as Lala. Today is Saturday, November 25th. It's the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and the interview is being conducted at our home in Vestavia Hills, Alabama. So, Lala, how are you feeling?

00:21 I am feeling great. I've eaten for two days.

00:25 Yeah.

00:26 Which I think you're supposed to do. It's a tradition, right? Yes.

00:30 So that's perfect. Okay. I'll just go right into the interview. So my first question is, what was it like growing up in North Little Rock, Arkansas?

00:41 Well, first of all, North Little Rock is certainly different from Little Rock. There is the Arkansas river that divides the two cities. And of course, we think North Little Rock is so much better than Little Rock. But it was a very wonderful childhood. The only thing that was really hurtful during my growing up period was World War II. That was the bicky. I was three years old when World War II started or when we declared war against Japan and entered World War II. And I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know exactly what it was. And we would go to the movie theaters and we would see the newsreels and you would see that there were bodies piled on top of each other. And of course, that was horrifying to me. But this is what you saw in the movies and this is how you stayed in touch with what was going on in the world. We did not have tv.

01:46 That's insane to think about. Just no tv.

01:49 It is insane to think about, but I guess.

01:52 Thank goodness for the movie theaters.

01:54 Yes. Yeah. That was your favorite form of entertainment.

02:00 Okay, I guess. Okay. On a bit of a lighter note, did you have any, like, favorite stories from your childhood or just a funny one or like.

02:11 Well, I was born on my dad's birthday. We have the same birthday. And being a doubting child or a questioning child, I would ask, was I really born on October 16th the same as Daddy? And they assured me, yes, I was. And I finally was convinced that we did have the same birthday. And it was legal.

02:36 It was legal, yeah. How? You have to fact check sometimes.

02:40 Yes, you do.

02:41 Okay. Then the third question we kind of already talked about because it was, how did World War II impact your upbringing? Unless you had anything else to add or.

02:51 Well, it really did impact my upbringing. We were a family full of cousins. And I had five cousins, male cousins that went off to World War II. And thankfully, they all came back safely.

03:06 That's awesome.

03:07 And one of them came back and he wanted to start a frozen Food business. Now, he asked my dad to give him some money to join the frozen food business to finance it. But daddy was not as gung ho on it. He was more conservative. So he did not share in the vision that my cousin had. So he did not partake of the frozen food business. But later on, the frozen food business that my cousin started, he sold for millions of dollars to Bird's eye. Oh my gosh, I'm sorry.

03:46 Mary you could have been a millionair child, man. Yeah, I think about that forever.

03:52 I know it well. I thought about it too, but different times, you know. But I guess it's miss opportunities too.

04:00 You should find some family, friends of friends and be like, hey, guys. Yes, we almost invested. That counts for something.

04:10 Oh, goodness.

04:12 Okay. Another question I had was when you started to notice the civil rights movement or integration making an impact on your life?

04:25 Well, there was Central High School in Little Rock, and I was in college when that event occurred. And we had a lot of publicity and we had the military in Little Rock. And eventually we did live through that and it was successful. And then about seven years later, I worked for the YWCA in Memphis, Tennessee. And I was charged with integrating the leadership camp there. Excuse me, camp. And it was very rewarding to do that because we had six young black ladies, young teenagers that entered our camp, and our other teenagers, about 120 others, beautifully accepted the integration. It was a wonderful experience and the teenagers really made it work. They were very open and they loved each other. And it was good lesson for the older people, I think.

05:38 Yeah, I bet so.

05:39 Yes, indeed.

05:41 I guess the open mindedness of young people is always really important.

05:46 It really is, yes. I think as we grow older, we get a little bit scared of doing things.

05:52 Yeah, that's good to learn about. Okay, I have another question for number five. Speaking of your job at the ywca, what was your first job?

06:05 Well, my first job was an American history teacher and geography teacher. And when I graduated from school, from college, the two most popular professions were nursing and teaching. So I became a teacher. And it seemed to be a really good profession for me. And when I was a teacher, I also was the advisor for the Y team clubs. Later, the YWCA in Memphis presented a job to me of being the head of the program director of the YWCA for the teenage programs. So I accepted that. And I loved working with the teenagers, but mostly I was working with adults, so that was fun too. But it was quite rewarding for me to still see the teenagers because they are so enthusiastic. And it's very contagious.

07:04 Yeah.

07:05 I have a special love for teenagers.

07:07 Yeah, they're very fun. They are sometimes. I don't know. Did you have a favorite thing to teach?

07:14 I loved teaching about the wars, actually. World War I, World War II.

07:22 Yeah, there's a lot to those.

07:25 Yes, there are. Yes. And I think if you don't live through that, you know, it's kind of hard to accept. World wars, My goodness. That's almost overwhelming to think about.

07:39 Yeah, it definitely is. Like, when I hear about it, I can't imagine.

07:44 It's very hard. Yes.

07:47 Yeah. Okay. Another question I had was, how was your experience transitioning from North Little Rock to Memphis to Birmingham or just the differences between the places?

08:01 Well, I loved Memphis when I lived in North Little Rock. We used to travel to Memphis to shop, and it was about a three hour drive. So Memphis was a wonderful town. They had the Cotton Carnival, which was a wonderful, fun experience there. And living there just made it even more real. What a great town it was. But the funny part was that most of the people that I worked with and met in Memphis had come from Mississippi. So I met more Mississippi people than I did Tennessee people.

08:36 It's still different than North Little Rock.

08:38 Yes, it was. Yes.

08:40 So, yeah. And you liked it either way?

08:42 I did indeed. And then coming to Birmingham, my third southern city, it was extremely easy to live here. I've always loved the people. The one thing that I had to learn was to learn to like football.

08:58 Yeah. And you do?

09:01 I. Yes, I very much do. And I met my husband, and of course, that was a big plus for me. And I have lived here for, let's say, about 60 years.

09:14 Wow. It's a long time to be.

09:15 That's a long time. Yeah.

09:18 But. Yeah. Okay, let's see. And then speaking of your life, now that you're in Birmingham, would you say that your life has turned out differently than you imagined it would when you were younger?

09:33 Well, I think that it turned out the way it probably was supposed to. It's better than I could have imagined. I think God certainly had a plan, as he does for all of us. And to have my wonderful son living here in Vestavia and my wonderful granddaughters, especially you. You are okay. You're the okayest granddaughter ever.

10:05 Thanks.

10:06 It makes it so, so special that we're all together and we do have fun with. With each other.

10:12 Yeah.

10:13 I think we've been able to learn from this interview and laugh a lot, too.

10:19 Okay, let me see. I guess switching gears a little Bit to more of an economy question. In your opinion, when would you say that the US Economy was at its healthiest?

10:34 I think after World War II. That's when my father started a World War. A war surplus store with my uncle, and he was able to make a very good living from it. And I think a lot of people enjoyed the economy after World War II. There were new industries like the frozen food industry. And thank goodness that was a blessing that we did recover from World War II and that we were able to have the new modern techniques that we have today. And we even had TV come in. We only had black and white at first, and then when we had color tv, that was just so special.

11:26 Yeah. Coming from the radio.

11:28 Yes. We only had three channels. The major networks that you could watch. And I Loved Lucy was the most popular one. But we enjoyed the news, and the news commentators really were just like Princess does because they explain things about the world, and we enjoyed that connection.

11:51 Yeah. Well, that sounds really good. Especially after the war. It could have been scary.

11:56 Yes, indeed.

11:58 Turned out well.

11:59 And I must say that after World War II, you would go to the movies and you saw a lot of the movies about World War II. And finally in 19, in the 50s, they started making musicals and you didn't see so many war stories again.

12:20 Okay, let me see. Skipping forward a little while, I was just going to ask if you have anything that you remember about the financial crisis of 2008.

12:35 We did have friends that had lost jobs and had to go into different locations. And I remember that some stores went out of business and you just wondered when it was going to get better or if it was going to get worse. So that was a little scary time. But we have recovered really well from that, I think.

13:04 Yeah. Do you think it taught you anything, like to be cautious?

13:08 You're exactly right. Yes. It did teach you to be cautious. And you don't make anything unless you save some.

13:16 Yeah, exactly. So, yeah. Okay. A more fun one, I'd say. What's a recent sort of technological advancement you wish you could tell your younger self about?

13:30 Oh, my goodness, the iPhone.

13:32 Yeah.

13:33 You would not have believed that.

13:35 No.

13:37 It can do so many wonderful things, and I wonder what it's going to be able to do in the future.

13:43 It's crazy to think about that.

13:45 It is indeed. But the downside of that is that I notice when people go shopping, they are shopping and they're on their phone at the same time. I know that's multitasking, but sometimes. Sometimes it's a little Rude. And I think that we get involved in our phones too much while we're doing other things. Maybe we need to put it down for a while, take a breather and just look around and smelled the flowers.

14:15 I agree. Because phones just kind of make up everything now. And I'm grateful for them, for things like listening to music, taking photos, just like, kind of capturing memories. But we don't have to be watching them all the time.

14:29 No, you're. That's a lesson learned.

14:32 Yeah. Let me see. And then I guess, last question. We've talked about a lot of stuff. Historic events you've been through already, but would you say there's a historic event you've lived through that was most impactful for you?

14:52 Well, of course. The war. And then today, we still have not found world peace. And you are wondering about what's going to happen in the Middle East A lot. I certainly do. And I hope that in the future we can put our differences aside. I know we have many cultures, but we have got to find a way to work together, to live together, and to love each other. Sounds simple, but it's not.

15:29 Yeah.

15:30 Not at all.

15:31 It's just problems every year.

15:33 Yes.

15:34 But. Yeah, I don't know. Hopefully we slowly find ways to get better.

15:39 We just have to, don't we?

15:41 Yeah, I think we can.

15:43 We're just fortunate to live in the United States that way.

15:46 We definitely are. Yeah.

15:48 Yes.

15:49 Hearing about things going on across the world just makes you really grateful. Yeah. Well, that was my final question on here. Thank you for letting me interview you.

16:02 I have enjoyed every moment of it.

16:05 I'm glad.

16:05 And I hope you have more assignments like this.

16:09 I'll let my teacher know. All right. Well, I guess that's it. Thank you for listening.