Teagan Mcgrew and her grandmother VonVon talk about growing up as a child of 11 kids and her viewpoints on the economy then v.s. now.

00:01 Hello, I'm Teagan McGrew, and I'm interviewing my grandmother, Yvonne Howdershelt It's the day before Thanksgiving, November 22, 2023, and we're recording this interview in my grandmother's kitchen in Brewston Mills, West Virginia. I'm going to start off with some questions. How many siblings do you have?

00:18 10.

00:19 Are you the oldest, middle, or youngest child?

00:22 About as middle as you can get. Number six.

00:27 What was it like growing up in a big family?

00:30 It was challenging. It was fun. If I were to do it again, would I? Probably.

00:43 Did your siblings go to college?

00:45 Yes, most of them did.

00:47 Was there any. Or was there a difficult time with money because of so many siblings?

00:52 Oh, yes, all the time.

00:54 What was an example of a different or a difficult time?

00:57 Well, at Christmas, we shared presents. For example, one Christmas, my sister and I needed a hair dryer, so we had to share a hair dryer. It was one of those big plastic kinds that look like it came from the moon.

01:16 Was there a difficult chance or was there a difficult time, like with college, like the expenses of college or just like everyday living?

01:25 Yes, college. We all work.

01:27 Your timer went off. Okay. Was there a difficult time with money, with college because of so many siblings, like funds and stuff?

01:38 Yes, we, for the most part, we got scholarships, we got student loans, and we worked. And at that time, the student loans would be forgiven if you did teaching in an area such as the Indian reservation, which is what I did to pay off my college loans. And that's what all of us did. Yeah.

02:07 That's interesting. Okay. If you had a chance. I know you already said this, but if you had a chance to live in a smaller household, would you?

02:18 Probably, yes. I think. I think an added note is that if you were to ask each of us at the time what our goals were for the future, we would say to grow up and have our own apartment or our own house.

02:38 What was your first job?

02:42 It was working at a hamburger stand, flipping burgers. And that was only a month. And then I went and washed dishes at a nursing home. Oh, actually, that didn't last very long. My economics teacher in high school told me they had a position open at the newspaper to teletypeset. So that's what I did.

03:12 What did your parents do for a living?

03:14 My father was a college professor. He taught foreign languages. He spoke five foreign languages fluently. And my mother was pretty much a stay at home mom until my youngest brother went into kindergarten. Then she worked as a nurse's aide at the nursing home.

03:36 Okay, these are the more economic questions. How has the economy changed since you were young?

03:44 I grew up in the 70s. Well, I graduated in the 70s and there was an oil, a worldwide oil embargo and there were lines at the gas station. And I can remember my first car. I had to pay something like 18% interest. Home mortgages were pretty expensive. I think all the way up until the year 2000. They were in the aughts. The 20 after 2000 when the interest rates were 3 and 4%, I thought, wow, I wish they were like this when in the 70s and 80s because I wasn't able as a single person to afford a house. And so people thought that the economic times were really bad now. But they, they need to go back and look at the 70s.

04:47 What are some important economic events that you've experienced and how do, how do these events make you feel?

04:56 Gosh, I think I was pretty so much steady that gas embargoes and recessions, I was already prepared for them because I learned how to manage my money conservatively, so I didn't feel the upswing so much. As an example, I was a pretty poor college student. My idea of a delicious meal was this can of steak and potatoes over rice. I thought I was splurging. So when you, when you learn how to give up stuff. Oh, yeah. The other thing I was going to say as a college student, I just had the basics. I lived with my sister in an apartment and we only had three cable channels because the cable was $8 a month.

06:05 Oh, wow.

06:06 So we didn't splurge for the, you know, and we didn't have cell phones. We just had the basics. We had a roof over a house, we paid the utilities and we ate food and we walked a lot of places and we bought the cheapest cars that we could afford.

06:26 Let's get a smart. Do you think access to the Internet has made it easier to buy things or to spend more money?

06:35 Yes, definitely.

06:37 I always think of like Amazon. It's so easy just to click a button. Do you spend more now than you did in the past? Like relative? Like if they were probably like around the same amounts, do you think that you would spend like you spent more.

06:50 Now than then because of the Internet? Yeah, yeah. But there's also another factor there. Since it's so convenient and you can compare, you can do price comparisons. I mean, that's the other advantage to the Internet. You don't go to malls. A lot of malls are closing. So I forgot what the question was.

07:19 Do you think that you spent More now than you did.

07:21 I definitely spend more now, yes.

07:24 Yeah. What do you think of the economic situation compared to previous generations? I think we kind of went over that. But like previous as in like a long time ago or like.

07:40 I think that there's a misperception because growing up in a huge family the way I did, when I look back, we had a very decent middle class living, and this was back in the 50s and 60s and my father was just a teacher. He was just a grade school teacher at that time. Yet we had a fairly modern house and we had new vehicles and he was able to invest in property. So I think maybe the 50s and 60s economically may have been good times. But then like I said, as a big family, you learned not to have much. I can only remember having maybe two or three sets of clothes for school and only two pairs of shoes and. But we didn't, we didn't think we were poor.

08:43 Yeah. Y'all are just living.

08:45 Yeah, yeah.

08:51 In the state of the economy, would you rather live in this generation or yours as a 20 year old?

08:56 I guess you already said 20. Yours. Mine is a 20 year old.

09:02 Like if you were a 20 year old, would you rather live like in your time or like a 20 year.

09:08 Old, as in like this based just on the economy? Like I said, I didn't weather the ups and downs. So to me it's hard to say because now I'm retired and I've invested and so I have a lot more money. Back then I was just getting out of college.

09:36 Yeah, yeah.

09:37 But as far as weathering the economics, I, I could do both. I mean, I just learned to do both. So, I mean, I'm not feeling really sad one way or the other.

09:52 Yeah. What do you think, what do you think the worst time, like time period would be to live in due to the economy, like the, like in like the 20s.

10:04 It was like, I'd say probably during the Depression.

10:07 Yeah, yeah. That would be.

10:11 See, the only thing that we experienced that had any similarity when we went through Covid, the whole interruption of the supply chain was something that, that we weren't used to. We were so used to getting what we want when we want it and, you know, having to wait six months for a piece of furniture. But like I said, I, I was patient. I didn't. I don't ever have to need something right away. So I don't think that we were even close to, to the Depression. Plus the depression was so bad that we had to get out of it by going into World War And. And then people not only lost their property and stuff, they lost their loved ones in the war. And we're kind of fortunate because our whole attitude towards getting involved in wars have changed. So I think they had two or three hard things going at them at one time. Plus we have all these vaccinations and modern medicine, and so they're hit with double and triple whammies. They're hit with war, they're hit with poverty, they're hit with disease. I don't think they had penicillin back in the Depression era. So, yeah, I don't think we'll ever have it as bad as we did during the Depression and the World War.

11:51 What do you think the best time to live in would be because of the economy?

12:00 I was thinking maybe the late 50s, early 60s were a good time. And it was. It was the time of new inventions. We were going into space. It was a very promising time, of course, till the President got murdered.

12:23 Unfortunate.

12:25 Today was actually the anniversary. I still really. I don't know if they'll ask you the question, but that was one of the most shaking things of my childhood. Was the President of the United States getting assassinated? Because he had just come to our town and he actually took a picture with one of my friends. Really? Yeah. John F. Kennedy.

12:47 That's crazy.

12:48 And I. I have in. In the living room, I have the note from Jackie. I as a kid. I sent her a letter.

12:57 She sent you on back.

12:58 She sent me a thank you back, and I have it framed.

13:02 That's Jacqueline Kennedy.

13:04 Yeah.

13:05 Oh, my goodness.

13:06 Yeah. I was only 8, and I just learned how to handwrite in second grade while I was in third grade. And it was so devastating because everybody was crying because we were told at school. And my family sat around the TV for three days because we only had three tv. But I wrote a letter, and I guess it's in the Library of Congress. And I said, well, I didn't write it right. I said, I have 10 brothers and 10 sisters. I meant to say there was 12 of us or 11 of us all together, but. And I said, I feel so bad for Caroline and John Jr. Maybe they can borrow a couple of them.

13:56 That's funny. Maybe they'll bring it out someday.

14:01 I. I was told I could go to the Library of Congress and my letter would be there. Yeah. So I think the next time I go to D.C. i'll.

14:08 That's so cool. You should. Okay. Where do you think the worst state, like, the worst state to live in right now would be?

14:26 It's really hard to say in some ways the whole politics of West Virginia, I don't like it at all because I don't think it's really helping the working class. However, in West Virginia, I mean I made it okay and I have a nice home and I'm living okay and it's a simple kind of life that I like. So I would say that it's really hard to determine because each state has its pluses and minuses and so you have to look at different factors. I mean I made it here economically with a college degree. I had a lot of opportunities here and but it was the politics that I had to struggle against because it was a good old boy system and it was really hard getting my foot in the door. Other places might have the same thing. I kind of miss Nebraska, but Nebraska, had I stayed there, I probably wouldn't be as wealthy. I don't think I would have had my opportunity was working at a large university. And in Nebraska I would have had to live in a larger city, Lincoln, that has I think 300,000 people. So I, I, I probably maybe Mississippi might be, yeah, the hardest state.

16:02 Like everyone says like California or Because like there's like a bunch of politics or like the price of things are like insane.

16:11 That's a good point. I forgot California. See it's a double edged sword because I have relatives in California. They have the fifth largest economy, really world. So my brother lives there and he's done really well. He has the beauty. He even made the Prevagen commercial on tv. They were on national tv. The Prevagen. But once again I think, I think it's if you have a work ethic and if you've really been determined to make yourself a good living, you can go almost anywhere and do that.

16:51 That is a good point. Would you choose to live like, okay, if you could live anywhere? Like if it was like here or like on like a middle of nowhere, just like farm or like in the city or in like a suburban area, what would you choose? Like given like the economic or like relationships with like people around you?

17:14 My siblings have done the same thing. We always end up in a place that's close to a college or university because we like a diversity of people both in race and in ages. So it's really nice to have young people around. We don't like huge cities. Morgantown is big enough for me. It only has less than a hundred thousand in the area, access to airports. We're not that far from Pittsburgh, so I couldn't, I Couldn't be in a farm in the middle of nowhere if I had to drive 60 miles.

17:55 Yeah.

17:58 I think that where I am now is pretty ideal.

18:03 That's good. Is there anything different that you wish you would have done whenever you were younger or, like, leading up to now?

18:13 I think I would have been. I think I should have paid more attention in school in connecting the dots on economics. I mean, I think I did well with what knowledge I had, but I. I learned a whole lot more when I went into the accounting profession and talking to other people in my profession, things that I learned, didn't learn in school. So I think in college, if I would have probably joined more professional groups instead of just fun groups like, I mean, I did. I. I was part of the future teachers. But I think. I think I needed to expand my horizons and I. I don't know how to put it, just been more astute about how to get ahead quicker because I felt like when I came here, I had to take 10 steps backwards and start all over again.

19:36 Okay, last question. What is the best advice that you have for younger generations?

19:43 I think you need to use all the resources that you're given to you from your parents and your school. Education is so important, and you have to always work to the best of your ability. You can't. You can't. Well, I have a lot of advice, a lot is to really develop your critical thinking skills. Because people going on the Internet, not knowing how to research and believing anything and everything is extremely destructive to a society and to friendships and to families, to relationships. So, yeah, use your resources to the best of your ability. That's good.

20:37 Okay, well, that's our interview.

20:40 All right.

20:41 Thanks for interviewing.

20:42 Sure.

20:43 Okay, bye.