Evelyn Long

Through my years of going to school in Cardington and participating in many different events throughout the community I came to know Evelyn Long. She was always the local news paper reporter and was always around the town doing different things. Evelyn is that person that everyone knew. I always thought she would be interesting get to know and hear about her life and experiences since she has almost always lived in Cardington and has reported on so many different things so this is why I chose to interview Evelyn. I learned a lot not only about Evelyn her self but the world of reporting and the small town of Cardington too. I chose to share the part of the essay where Evelyn is talking about her life. I believe this really shows how times have changed since she was a young child.

My childhood was growing up on a farm we didn't have any nice privileges, no bathrooms, no running water but we didn't know any difference. Everybody was poor, nobody had a bathroom. My Grandpa didn't have indoor plumbing. Clear up till now, there is still not a bathroom in there. But ya know my kids say, “how'd you live without a bathroom?” Well we didn't know the difference. We had an outhouse and we got our little pan of water we took baths every Saturday night and my mom had to carry all the water in the laundry room, well we pumped it in the house, we had to pump it and then she carried out to what we called the milk house and then we would wash them, we didn't have a dryer, everything was on the line. People think today that they need new cars and all that and new homes and your grandfather and I grew up in the depression and we grew up without all that. Theres more and more people relying on you know federal government to take care of us. But I, I think that's the biggest thing I notice is that people are coming to rely on Washington instead of being self reliant. We would all bail the hay and we all drove the horses and when my Grandfather died, he wouldn't allow tractors, my grandfather would never allow tractors he was old, so when my grandfather died my dad got a Massey Harris. We were the proudest people in the world we owned a tractor. I learned a lot just from having to work, just working, and you didn't play Nintendo and you didn't play all these games you worked. And I know the value of work so I think growing up poor probably shaped me in life.

Evelyn has had many opportunities in her life that many people growing up in her time didn't have. I wanted to know if throughout her life she had any regrets. The only thing I regret and it probably wouldn't have worked is that I didn't complete college. I had a chance to go to college. I was down at Cap (Capital University), only a thousand dollars a year I could have had my degree, but I couldn't make my mind up what I wanted to be. I wanted to be an actress, I wanted to teach, all this stuff I couldn't make my mind up so I just quit. But I had a great social life, Jonda, I was dating a guy every night, going to the movies, I loved my social life at Cap. But if I wouldn't a quit I would have never met Willis [her husband] because I'd a been in college and we would have never crossed paths and he was gonna go a second career in army when he got out he was gonna sign up again and something made him not to if he had we would have never met. So things were supposed to happen. But that's the only biggest regret is that I didn't get my college degree when I had a chance for a thousand dollars a year. My folks hated it when I quit because they borrowed money like they did with everything, they borrowed to send me. If I had to say one thing my big regret is not getting my college degree.

I always dreamed of marrying just the right guy and having kids and because I was told I never could have kids. That was something that I realized was fulfillment and I think when I first dated Willis Long that was the completion. So when I met Willis I knew that was what I always longed for. And then I had a physician that found he could make me where I could have kids so when I had them I was really fulfilled because I never thought I would have kids. Since meeting the right guy was so important to Evelyn I thought I would find out how she came upon this perfect guy. Well we went to school together he was just a little guy that was real quite and you didn't hardly notice him. In school I didn't really pay any attention to Willis until 1953 I was down in the grocery store and ran into him, he had just gotten home from the service, and I didn't even know that. Wow was he good lookin, where has be been? My sister Norita was dating Olen Calbor and Olen was Willis's favorite best friend out there. So I kept telling Norita, “You oughta see Willis Long, he's good looking duh duh duh”. I said well get me a date with him. She came home in May of '55 said we saw Willis Long, he's gonna call for a date. So he called me on May 5 for a date, we went out the next night, and one week later he asked me to marry him. [Giggles] It was '55, we got married in August. You never know, you could go far away looking for someone and here there right in front of your eyes. I miss my husband. I am very unhappy but I just keep plugging. But I wouldn't, well I can't say that I am depressed or any of that stuff it's just that if he were here I would be really happy.