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| Fielden Cato |
OMA: Fielden was born in 1916, wasn't he?
PA: Fielden was born in '14, I was born...
OMA: I have to count 'em up.
DEBBIE: Did he (James Cato) and Grandma get married in Illinois?
OMA: No, Missouri.
DEBBIE: And then I've got here born June 2, 1871. Is that how she spelled her maiden name, H-E-R-R-E-L-L? She was born in Thebes, Illinois?
OMA: She was born in Byron Hill, Illinois.
DEBBIE: Okay, now that's probably true because I was looking through some old records and I couldn't find her being born in Thebes so I was looking in the wrong place. (This is before computers!)
Conversation...
DEBBIE: Okay, she died August 16, because I've got the little thing in here from when she died. Okay, now, your grandpa's name was Chap?
OMA: Yeah, my grandpa's name was Chap. Chapman Cato. He might have come from Illinois. I don't know, but I got it written down in my book that Cindy gave me several years ago that he was born down on the old river, on the old place, that 40 that they sold.
(NOTE FROM ME: Where is this little book. Talk to Doris???)
PA: Well, I know what my mom always told me ... that he was two and Uncle Sam was four when they come from Illinois to Missouri and he laughed about his grandma. Grandpa went to the Army and never come back and his grandma had cleared off some land and she was plwoing oxen and she cut a root in two and it come back and hit her on the shin and he was a little fellow and he laughed and she whipped him. I know, that's what my mom always told me.
DEBBIE: Okay, that's your dad. But your grandpa...?
PA: He was born in Illinois. He come from Illinois to Missouri.
DEBBIE: So do you know what HIS dad's name was? Or his mother?
PA: No, I don't know. Debbie, my dad died when I was three years old. My grandma had been dead for years, and . . .
OMA: And mom didn't know that much about them, because she only lived with him eight years until he died.
PA: Only what Dad told her, that's all. Mama's told me all my life that Dad come from Illinois when he was two years old to Missouri.
OMA: No, she came over. He was borned in that old house across the river. Well, now that's what Cindy told me, that he was borned in that old house across the slough.
PA: Now, Pete and Bud will tell you different though, that he come from Illinois.
DEBBIE: How old are Pete and Bud? Are they older than you guys?
PA: Well, Bud was ninety-some when he died.
DEBBIE: Okay, well, Pa thinks he was born in Illinois but you think he came from where?
OMA: He was borned in Missouri, my Grandpa Cato was. Bollinger County.
DEBBIE: Bollinger?
OMA: Bollinger. I can't talk well with these teeth, but Bollinger.
DEBBIE: And do you know the name of the town?
OMA: Well, it was out from Advance. Greenbriar, we called it. It was a little town, Greenbriar, but Advance is the biggest town. It would really be Marble Hill, I guess, because that's where the courthouse is, huh
DEBBIE: Do you know when him and Grandma Cato go married?
OMA: Well, they was married on his birthday, second day of August or September.
PA: ...they was married on Dad's birthday and he died on Mother's...
OMA: Well, that's what I said! ::she's getting riled now::: They was married on . . . well, it's the second day of September. And he died on Mom's birthday. But we'd have to figure it up. He was 52 years old, I think, when he died.
PA: He'd have been 53 the next day. I mean the next day he died in June, he'd have 53 in September.
OMA: Yeah, he died on Mother's birthday, second of June.
PA: 1915 is when he died. When they got married, I don't know.
OMA: Oh yeah, Fielden was a year old when he died.
PA: Well, I was three when he died.
DEBBIE: Here's another picture of Grandma Cato
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| Etta Mae Dora Cato |
DEBBIE: I remember . . . you know what I remember? Not very much, but one thing I remembr is that we were living in that house over on Ivy Street and she always carried her change in one of those little black change purses that clipped shut.
We went to church one day and she left that change purse on her dressing table and when we came back it was gone. She had $5 (or $10) in it. (That was a lot of cash then).
PA: Yeah, who did we finally...
DEBBIE: That Bruce. They accused Donnie of doing it first. But then we found out that Bruce had come in and taken it.
PA: Bruce, a kid that lived there close to us, he took it.
DEBBIE: I always used to love to see her when she'd take her hair down because her hair was so long.
OMA: That's what Larry says. He says, "I can remember my Grandma combing that long hair and I thought that was pretty stuff!" He likes long hair.
PA: But you know, before she died, her hair got to where it wasn't so long anymore.
OMA: It came out. Her hair was thin but she still had quite a lot.
PA: Well, Fielden's almost bald headed!
OMA: Well, look at me, mine's thin!
DEBBIE: I've got a picture of you and Uncle Preston. I don't know anything about him.
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| Oma and Preston |
PA: You would have liked him. Boy, he used to...
OMA: All the kids liked him. I don't know why.
PA: He had more patience. He used to get Gloanna and Doris in the bed with him and he'd sing to them until they went to sleep.
OMA: Yeah, you know, he usually went to bed singing and got up singing. I'd go to bed complaining and get up complaining! ::we all laugh:::
PA: He'd listen to television and read all the same time. No, they didn't have television when he was living, did they? He'd listen to the radio.
OMA: He listened to that all the way to Oakland that day in the ambulance. Me sitting there rubbing his head, top of his head. He had a headache. He had to listen to Jack Benny and Bob Hope and Red Skelton. He listened to them all the way over there.
PA: Ever once in a while he'd laugh out. You know, he'd be reading and listening to it. You wouldn't think he was listening but ever once in a while he'd cackle out loud.
OMA: Well, he'd read a book and listen to the radio at the same time. They didn't have TV. But you know what his doctor up there told me, that Dr. Andre? He said he had one of the smartest brains he'd ever seen in his life.
DEBBIE: What'd he do for a living?
OMA: Well, he worked for Davies for a while. But he worked on a golf course and that was just farm work, just labor I guess you'd call it.
PA: He worked for Davies Machinery for several years.
OMA: Yeah, he worked for Davies down here. Then they sold out.
DEBBIE: Did you meet him here or did you all come out together?
OMA: Well, no, we went to school together in Missouri. He was born in Alta, Missouri.
PA: We knowed him practically all of his life, since we was only little boys. I was, I don't know, I was 10 or 11 and he was ...
OMA That doctor said, you know, said he's been doctoring a long time and said anyone what had gone through what he was... said his brain, he knew everything up to the last minute. He was a diabetic. He was going to Dr. Ziemer and getting along pretty good but Ziemer had him on a diet, you know. Preston always was a big eater, he liked to eat a lot. And I told him, because he hadn't had any (?) since he went to Hagen. He said, "Well, what's wrong with that Dr. hagen. You know, when you start insulin, you can't just take a break." And then when we picked him up at Veteran's Hospital they asked him about it and I told them and he said, "Well, what kind of doctors do they have down there?! They should know that any time you're on insulin, you have to keep it up. You can't get off of it all at one time." So they said that was what was wrong with him. And, there was one man, I can't remember where I was working and he was talking and he said they did him the same way. He was going to some doctor here, in Visalie, and he said he wanted to switch and he went to Dr. Hagen. And he said Dr. Hagen took him off of insulin and he said he got to where he couldn't walk. He was getting paralyzed, going right up his legs. And he says, "I knew that had to be it." And he says, "Boy, I got right back to Visalia, and that doctor put me back on insulin and I straightened up!" And Dr. Ziemer told me that too.
DEBBIE: Was he sick for a long time?
OMA: No, he wasn't sick for a long time.
DEBBIE: He just got sick all of a sudden?
OMA: Well, he was kindly sick there too for about two or three weeks, I guess, maybe a month. But then he just took bad all at once.
DEBBIE: How old was he when he died?
OMA: He was only 35 year old.
DEBBIE: Oh my gosh! You're kidding! He was young!
OMA: But that's what I had several of the doctors tell me. If Hagen hadn't took him off insulin, he'd probably still be alive. And I said, "Why did they tell me he had polio?" And he says, "Well, they had to put something on the death certificate."
DEBBIE: Then, you don't believe he had polio?
OMA: Well, it's not on the death certificate. No. Just says pneumonia. It was a virus. His brain wasn't paralyzed because he knew everything till the last minute. The doctor would tell him, " Now I'm going to ask you something." He couldn't talk and he couldn't move. He'd say, "I'm going to ask you something. If the answer is no, you blink once. If the answer is yes, you blink twice."
And he would.
(End of tape)
Thanks to Linda Henry (Alice's granddaughter) and Diana Ritchie Ottley (Fielden's granddaughter) for some of the photos.
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