Evelyn Palmour (EP) and Doreene McCoy (DM)

DM: When we made the final move to Oklahoma from Nebraska, I was 13.

EP: Yeah, I was 11. Our folks had had this grocery store, you know, they did a credit business. They let people charge groceries. And the crash came about that time, and the people were out of work. They were honest people, but they just didn’t have the money to pay their bills. So in 1935, Daddy sold the store.

DM: And we were headed to Oklahoma, but before we left town, Mama, she went around and told all the people that owed us money, she said, ”We are moving to Oklahoma and we’re not coming back, and in lieu of money we’ll take personal property.”

EP: Mom and Dad drove that Model-T truck loaded to the hilt with stuff, and our uncle drove a 1928 Chevrolet pulling a big old trailer. Mom and Dad went ahead in that truck, and Uncle Glenn and you and I came along later in the car. Of course the roads weren’t paved, they were just gravel. So rather than be real close and eat all that dust we stayed back a mile or so. But on the way down do you remember all that we had a flat tire and it was dark and Uncle Glenn of course knew how to change the tire but we had no light. Of course, you were 13 years old, you were Miss Priss and so you had a compact.

DM: Oh yeah.

EP: So you stood in front of the headlights and reflected the light back–

DM: With my makeup mirror —

EP: With your mirror so he could change that tire. And wasn’t that ingenious, I tell you?

DM: Oh yeah, oh yeah. Well, I know when we got to Oklahoma and unpacked the truck, I was amazed at all the stuff. Some of it I had never seen before. But it was what people had forfeited for their grocery bill that they owed our parents.