Ada Orton Ruden and Randi Ruden Krantz

00:04 All right. My name is Ada Orton.

00:08 And I'm

00:11 101 years old

00:14 Plus a little bit more.

00:20 And the date is December 16th. 2012 location is San Francisco and my partner's my daughter Randy.

00:32 And I'm Randy Rutten prints. I'm 64. It's December 16th 2012. Where in the San Francisco story booth and I'm talking to my mother.

00:45 Okay, Mama. Tell us something about your family. You told me before we came here that you wanted to talk about your family in their ethnic background. So tell us about your your parents and your grandparents and where they came from. Well, my mother was Norwegian.

01:08 I'm both sides of the family.

01:11 And

01:15 Grand Theft Auto V. That's her father.

01:19 Was a handyman in

01:23 Aiden

01:26 Norway

01:28 He was about nineteen at that time and I think about 20 when he immigrated to the United States.

01:39 And Grandma Valby they were both they both came from about the same area. They had learned area in Norway, but that her family was more prosperous.

01:56 They had more there were a lot of them the goldsteins, but they were more prosperous.

02:06 And when Grandpa Bobby yacht to America, I don't know about the trip to Iowa, but that's mostly what I know about is that he was in Iowa Decorah, Iowa, and that's another interesting thing there, but that's aside from the Boyd. It's there that you have the seeds for the heirloom tomatoes that we get today.

02:40 Anyway

02:44 Grandpa ruins, Grandpa

02:49 I'll be what's working for a construction company.

02:55 Eddie Grandma Bobby they were not married then.

03:00 Was

03:02 The cook for the construction company

03:08 And

03:12 Anyway

03:16 As I told Randy many time.

03:25 Story that

03:27 Grandma Goldstein

03:30 Gamble Ball, but the Goldstein told Randy that she got married one day.

03:42 And that evening she cooked for the construction 70.

03:47 And of course

03:51 They wanted to build at make a home for sales and they didn't.

03:59 They wouldn't have the money to pay for any land in Iowa. That was already very pretty well settled.

04:09 So they decided to

04:12 Homestead

04:15 I got that right or they decided to Homestead in them.

04:23 Dakota territory because

04:29 That was South Dakota was not a state at that time.

04:35 So they can't be tamed.

04:40 South Dakota, and they got

04:46 A quarter of an acre they land was set up.

04:52 For 640 acres a square and they got a quarter of an acre foot of the section. Are you a quarter of a section? I mean a hundred sixty Acres?

05:10 And that were required to do certain things to keep the land. They had to build a house. They had to live in that house and they had to start to turn the land into some sort of Agriculture Venture and they must have had very prudent.

05:35 Primitive

05:38 Implements to work worth

05:41 I think probably.

05:44 Grandpa

05:46 Balbi

05:49 Head to

05:52 Used

05:56 Hand

05:58 Directed plow, you know to dig up the soil.

06:03 And make

06:05 And make it usable for

06:09 4

06:10 Growing things no the crops

06:16 Let me goooo. I know they goof wheat.

06:20 And I know they grew olds.

06:26 Later on there was flex, but I don't think right away.

06:32 What about rye and rye?

06:36 And I've been trying to figure out.

06:39 What kind of animal?

06:42 They used.

06:45 For their their wagons, he must have had a wagon to get to the territory.

06:52 You know what supplies?

06:55 Yeah, they must have but I don't know enough about that. I don't know either. I wondered if that was a source of the cattle auction, but I'm not sure.

07:09 And I know that.

07:13 We never had mules on the phone.

07:17 And I'm sure that Grandpa bought me never had meals either so they must have had some sort of.

07:25 Horses

07:28 U-Haul supplies

07:31 To the land

07:35 And

07:38 Anyway

07:41 They

07:45 Complied with all of the requirements and I know my mother was a very afraid of fire so they had did have a prairie fire and what the house at least was destroyed.

08:01 And maybe

08:04 Maybe a second house, but I'm not sure about that.

08:10 End

08:15 Let's see. What else?

08:17 Well, since I came from Norway, they obviously spoke Norwegian at home. But what about your grandmother? I Met Your Mother and and the rest of the family. Did you all speak Norwegian Bliss feet Norwegian? Why not? Because when the Norwegian Escape to grab them when they came to America that were going to be Americans there for that. They spoke English and my mother never smoked Norwegian to us. I would I hardly know a word of it.

08:56 But

08:59 Now Grandpa's all bill was very poorly educated.

09:06 And he spoke English.

09:10 But you spoken with the decided X and so he was never very fluid and he certainly didn't ever learn to ride he had to sign these documents with an X. And they was asking will have to be notarized and I remember there a garage or

09:33 Notarizers ready time

09:37 So what was your relationship with your grandpa and grandma Bobby how well did you know them? Did they come to see you often or did you go to see them well?

09:49 Grandpa balbi

09:53 Usedto come over to our farm

09:59 What's a what's a horse and buggy to visit you did that quite a few quite often and I think that

10:13 That my father was quite fond of you.

10:20 And he had a great deal of respect for you.

10:24 Now your father was not Norwegian know my father was definitely not no reason. So what was his ass make background? Well, his ethnic background was English.

10:38 The first time is art that we know of came to America from Great Britain about 1633 and settled in, Connecticut.

10:54 And then his mother was from Germany yet.

11:02 Your father's mother was Germany. Yeah.

11:07 But she was actually she was born in New York. She was born her parents, but her parents both came from Germany both came from Germany.

11:19 And there were two other sisters from that family.

11:27 And Ida team Lee who is much married to

11:36 And then I'd never work.

11:39 They are they all lived in Iowa, Waterloo, Iowa to Iowa. So then your grandparents were married and I will write your I mean your your parents know your grandparents were married in, Iowa.

12:05 Yeah, they were married Niall something. I didn't know for quite recently, but then they also came to South Dakota to Lake County. Yes. They also gave came to South Dakota to Lake County, but they didn't they didn't come early enough so they can get the lion that way and I don't know what kind of job.

12:33 That Grandpa Orton had my grandpa art.

12:38 But they write they had enough money so he can buy up some land.

12:47 And

12:49 What I was going up.

12:52 There was a quarter in which I remain house was located and there was a quarter.

13:03 North of no south of us. Where am I?

13:08 Brother Bill lived

13:11 When he was growing when it was married.

13:16 And then there was what we called the cross the road which was another quarter on this is all in Rutland South Dakota and then

13:31 In the next section

13:34 On that same side of the highway there was an 80 was called the school section, but it wasn't needed for far is school section because it was a country school probably.

13:49 A mile and a half away the

13:57 Nick's County that was all that was already like anyway.

14:06 The

14:08 Cross the road. That's a hundred sixty Acres.

14:16 Belong was belong to my aunt Emma who is father's old assisted and Aunt Mary. Who was he?

14:27 His younger sister

14:30 And

14:34 Father got the 80

14:37 So that there was that much land in the family when I was growing up and that was a lot of land for one family 2hat. Well, yes, but Grandpa Bobby was acquiring land because he was an astute.

14:59 Farmer, and he could they worked hard and did a rambutan took over some of these of these places that the that they yeah grab football bit to go over some of these some of the land.

15:19 That the other

15:25 People lost. Yeah, they lost it because I couldn't complete the requirements, right? So they were it I would say

15:35 Probably

15:41 Probably three-quarters of black and then there was something in in North Dakota to and I kind of figured that out that was for my mother's older sister.

15:58 And Anna

16:02 Went to live after she married and ourselves.

16:07 Evan engram fantasy football again was very

16:18 Astute furnished railroad car of supplies for his daughter and snooze doesn't know when they went to, North Dakota.

16:35 So he had done very well in America, even though he had come to the United States very poor. He really did very well very well.

16:50 And who would that when they did that when he did that?

16:57 Add seltzer water to wandering eye anyway.

17:05 Went through it all and make it back and while the grandpa evolving to do the same thing next year and he refused.

17:15 Well, I would have refused to I think.

17:19 But he was very good to his children and Furnishing them with. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I had to be very very efficient in order to do that because they were very poor when they came to the Dakota territory.

17:41 So let's talk about your mother little bit. What? What did she do before she married your dad she has school in the country school and rolled her bicycle back and forth from where they were living to the school.

18:00 And she taught some of the at least one of the neighbors.

18:06 That I knew after I was going up.

18:10 And that was

18:13 RC dice I think there were two dices. I think it was RC.

18:20 So you told me you told me at one point that of all the people of all the relatives the one who influenced you to do. The best you could was your mother. Did she want you to be a teacher?

18:36 2 or what do you want you do not necessarily to be a teacher, but she wanted to be sure to go to school to go to college to go to college. Well course by that time we had a high school, you know, so we both graduated from high school, but when you were little you went to Country School, right? Yeah when we were little we went to go to school.

19:07 Which is probably

19:12 What almost a mile and a half from the house, but we had to walk there school and then for high school Rutland had a school by then. So you graduated from Rutland already graduated from high school both of us and how old were you when you graduated from high school?

19:37 I was

19:42 15 I think and so then what did you do afterwards?

19:48 After you graduated from high school, what did you do? Well, then we went to live with Grandma Orton.

19:57 In in now

20:00 Madison South Dakota and went to the

20:08 Eastern State Teachers College both of us

20:13 But of course I and Helen my sister L was there three years ahead of me.

20:21 And when I register registered, she helped me a lot to get the Great Courses to put put me in line for what I wanted to do. Well when she went to the college there was nobody to advisor and I think they were touched. She was very young.

20:47 She was fifteen or she was because yeah, yeah no more than 15. Yeah. She had to be 15. So anyway.

21:02 They were trying to make her a grade school teacher in elementary school teacher and she didn't have good advice on that in the first two years. Finally. She got she got to know what you more what you want to do and she was taking English courses. She might have to be a high school to yoyo. She want to be a high school teacher teaching English and you wanted what did you want to be? I want to be able to start with ideas that I wanted to be a doctor.

21:43 But my priorities changed to considerably why oh, why Because I Got High graduated with a with a degree in education, but minors in

21:58 Biology with an emphasis timer no apology for art and math and a little

22:10 Chemistry

22:13 Well

22:14 What happened was? I did all of my teaching?

22:20 Geometry might student ETI me cuz we had to student teach and demonstrate that we could teach before we could get our certificate.

22:34 And what I graduated?

22:39 I was young and you were 19 when you graduated for your college. I was 19.

22:49 And I couldn't get a job. This is a 1931. It was hard to get jobs in your well. Yeah, there was jobs were scarce.

23:00 But I couldn't get a job.

23:03 And finally

23:06 What happened was?

23:12 Mr. Big's through Who was the

23:15 The registrar at Eastern State College

23:21 Called me and said there was an opening in Rutland. He says I want you to take it but it wasn't in math know. It wasn't too bad and it wasn't it in miles. It was an English and you didn't want to teach English. Well, no, I didn't want a DJ and you didn't think you were qualified to teach. Well, I knew I wasn't I knew I was I had taken just the very basic courses in the in English to finish what I had to have in order to graduate.

24:03 So so Mister Iverson, I just came out of the blue and he came out to talk to my dad who was the president of the school board of the time?

24:19 And told him that he would like to have me teaching.

24:27 My father wasn't at all enthusiastic about that and your dad was on the school board while he was a person. So he was afraid that people would think it was very you were beginning a job when so many other people couldn't day there was depression time, right?

24:51 So anyway, they talk back and forth.

24:56 And Mister big sister kept telling me you can do it you can do it. And what did your mother say? Your mother said? She wanted me to take it. She said you could do it. Yeah. She said I could do it too.

25:11 Well

25:13 I did do it, but I was I told Randy the first year was awful.

25:20 The freshmen kids walked all over me.

25:25 They did and then I besides that I had my sister my younger sister.

25:35 In the sophomore class

25:38 And my brother

25:41 My second brother was

25:44 In the senior class. Are you are teaching them your so I was teaching my sister and my brother too.

25:53 Well

25:55 I suppose I was fortunate I didn't get fired that first year after the first year I didn't.

26:04 But I decided I had to change my priorities because I couldn't teach math. I wasn't going to be able to meet you at the reasons. You couldn't teach math was because girls weren't supposed to teach math. Right? No girls were not supposed to teach math at that time or Sion. That was boys that did that.

26:32 And

26:34 Women could teach English naked teach Latin French and maybe some of History.

26:44 And of course business classes like typing and so forth forth like that.

26:51 But anyway, I decided I had to make myself.

26:56 I had to change my priorities and make myself.

27:01 Capable in English

27:06 So I went to the University of Minnesota during the summer and took English classes.

27:17 I took a lot of English classes.

27:24 I took Shakespeare classes. I took romantic poetry classes. I took classes in 18th century prose.

27:40 And in English novel

27:46 And well cards didn't do that all in one year One Summer that was to rid of or about for Somers.

27:55 And anyway the second year.

27:59 I went back.

28:03 And decided I had to do things differently.

28:08 So then

28:10 The Freshman Class by that time had matured a little bit and they weren't

28:19 Crazy little kids anymore. They were older and so was I

28:25 And we got long up better and then you taught in Rutland for 4 years, right? And then what did you do? Well, wherever I went to Hurley South Dakota and taught there.

28:44 And I

28:47 I've had two classes in.

28:50 In sophomore English 1 class was all girls and the other class was all boys.

28:59 And

29:02 The reason was

29:05 That the girls were taking

29:09 Homemade mac and the boys were taking some sort of.

29:15 Work for the farm or something of that sort so they could be separated.

29:27 Then why I did add class in.

29:33 In American literature to something else because it was anyway, and you wanted to when you thought about getting a master's degree in English at the University of Minnesota. You wanted to specialize in American literature. That's right lot of people found on American literature in those days. They did. It should be English, but they did in Minnesota. They had a specialist in American literature and he was very good.

30:11 So I had taken American literature courses to there.

30:17 And in in Hurley, that's where you met your husband my father right and his family. His ancestors also came from Harland know that's right. No way. So we have lots of Norwegians in the family more Norwegians and everything else, right?

30:43 So during the time that you were teaching I know that Helen wanted to teach too, but she had a hard time getting a job. Can you talk about that time a little bit the first year and held was out of college. She got a job at 142, South Dakota.

31:06 Which is just outside of Rutland about 10 miles and she taught English there for 2 years.

31:16 And

31:18 Then

31:22 I was still in college.

31:25 And I know that.

31:28 We my friends and somehow I used to go to visit her at 1 when we were at Madison.

31:36 Fact we should I start walking to 2 1/4 from from Madison.

31:44 And

31:47 Somebody would meet us. What would come along office offer us a ride in the winter? And we took a ride didn't think anything about it.

31:59 But poor and Helen that was a very very bad time for her when she couldn't get a job, but that was a little bit late cuz she went she got another job. She thought that that after her two years of experience in Wentworth. She should be able to get another job what she did, but it wasn't even more, North Dakota.

32:26 And it was a full-time job.

32:31 40 she was there for two years.

32:35 Edwards cheap left there. She still thought she should be able to get another job, but this is depression and jobs were very hard to come by.

32:49 So

32:50 She decided she would like to go to the University of Iowa and get her master's degree.

33:01 And since I was teaching

33:04 I had some.

33:07 Some

33:10 Funds which I could help her with.

33:14 And so she went to the University of Iowa at Iowa City and got her master's degree in English.

33:29 She would like to have it in journalism.

33:34 But she didn't have enough previous credits. It would have taken her long to get that.

33:42 Well, and she also worked at a cafe in Iowa City Jail pay her.

33:50 For food she got her.

33:55 Got her food for that. But even after she got her Master's she couldn't get a job for a while know there was a depression tonight. It was a very hard time for her. What did the what did the neighbor say about the Orton girls getting all this education? Well,

34:22 The

34:24 Some of the neighbors said the art and girls were smart.

34:31 And they are the NL that sort of thing but they couldn't do anything else. They didn't know anything about cooking your favorite house or anything like that. Well, they were wrong about that mom cuz you're a fantastic cook. Well not anymore. You always were fantastic. And so what about you had a younger sister to the app Marie? She was a lot younger that you and did she want to be a teacher. Like you said Helen she graduated she went to

35:10 Aberdeen

35:13 Which was the

35:16 Well, there was the Eastern State Teachers College was at Madison Northern State Teachers College was Aberdeen and she went to Northern State she was taking

35:32 Commercial cops because she wanted but after two years and you're

35:40 Well, then by that time your and tell him had a job and farmer was so anyway between the Northern State teachers college, but two years she decided she wasn't going to be like me and Helen she didn't want to be a teacher and course. You also had three three brothers who were living in that they were farming. They were all farming.

36:14 And

36:19 Did any of them want to leave the farm or were they all happy to stay on the farm?

36:26 Well your uncle John really wanted to go to college.

36:32 But Grandma Orton put a stop to that.

36:35 Cuz he had to be on the farm Yoshi told him he had to be on the farm and help us the other.

36:43 Okay. Okay Mama. We're running out of time here. So I just want to ask you your hundred and one years old and I don't know too many people who are a hundred and one years old.

36:59 But what's what's not good about being a hundred and one years old.

37:05 What's not good? It said you can't do a lot of things that you did before here. I am in the in a wheelchair dependent Walker if I get out of the week wheelchair.

37:23 And I'm really clumsy.

37:29 So that I don't do things too. Well well, but all of that doesn't matter Mama because you give us so much joy and what's good about being a hundred one.

37:43 What do you do for fun? What do we do for fun? Well when we were in St Louis

37:51 One thing we did was to.

37:54 Go to the baseball games of the

38:00 Show the Cardinals. Yeah, who's your favorite baseball team?

38:04 Ricardo hell yeah course

38:08 And what else do you do? Well, I read Kindle and you read Kindle and what else?

38:17 Well we go out to eat occasionally go out to eat. And what where do you live mama? I live with.

38:27 With you and Steven wherever you are, and where's that? Well, sometimes it st. Louis sometimes it's Sacramento and sometimes it's Berkeley, right? So how do we get from place to place by car ride when getting bad and you hop into the van and hop out of the van was actually hoping maybe but I guess so so I think you're doing pretty well for a hundred and one years old and who else lives with us besides. Oh, we have two words, right? We have two birds and who are they at? Wanda's hypatia? She's she's a cockatoo.

39:11 And the other is

39:13 Gussy

39:16 He's a little cockatiel right? He's he's been your bird for you. Even before you started Living With Us. Oh, yeah, he's he's devoted to you. Okay. Well what?

39:32 What do you think?

39:36 Is good advice to give to your children and all the all the other artists in the family. All the little ones in the family. What's good advice about living a long life. How how did you do this Mom?

39:54 You the last one in your family family? I didn't do it on purpose.

40:03 I'm not sorry. Well, no. No, I'm not. Sorry.

40:12 But you don't have any good advice for us. Not a special. I know you're not going to say to drink which is what people say a lot of times. Yeah.

40:24 And just very very very briefly. You had great relationships with your grandpa Orton, right? Oh, yeah, my grandpa Horton.

40:43 What's a very well?

40:47 Well, he was just an exceptionally nice person and he had gone to Oberlin College one year.

40:58 About the time the Civil War

41:03 Broke out. Well, he couldn't go there any longer than that. Cuz all the men had to join the Army he's so he was in it. He was a civil war vet there right now then then.

41:19 After the war he came to Iowa and then then to South Dakota and will you tell me one thing about him that you regretted he died when he died before I graduated from high school. You really wanted to do.

41:40 Little longer at buddy. He was very ill.

41:45 He had a bad heart.

41:49 But he was another person who really encouraged you.

41:54 Become educated. I was born left-handed Lionel mom. So just tell the story about how they tried to keep you.

42:12 Well, I can't be told my mother.

42:17 Time is left hand behind my back. So I had to write with my right hand what course she had talked.

42:27 Helen

42:29 And me

42:31 And John how to read now to right before we started to school. So I had to write with my right hand, but now that I'm and one.

42:47 I've reverted to being left-handed mostly cuz it's easier. Well, that's good Mom. Yeah, it's easier. I love you Mom. I love you too, dear.

43:02 Thank you.