Colleen: My dad was a farmer. We was raised on the farm around Beaver Dam.

Naomi: He was a hard worker.

Colleen: He was a hard worker, yes. He was an orphan and wealthy people took him to raise; John Jacobs of Westminster, around Westminster in Hared. Dad inherited all their money so we was in pretty good shape.

Naomi: But they never gave us any of the money. They tried to take it away.

Colleen: Well, they didn’t have much left when they got old and everything.

Naomi: We lost the farm.

Colleen: Did we lose the farm?

Naomi: Yes. Cause I was away from home at that time.

Colleen: We had a very good mother. She was very, very strict and kind and loving. So was dad.

Naomi: Yeah, they both were.

Colleen: He was an orphan and you know what I mean? When you think now, those people give him everything they had, as an orphan, but he always fought the in-laws. There was always something there.

Naomi: They didn’t allow us children to go there either. I was born, I think at 117 Westminster – it’s a museum now where they are…where I was born. I went through it and the things is just as we lived there, but as I say it’s a museum now and they got teddy bears and candles.

Colleen: Still got the alligators?

Naomi: No, no, nothing like that, but it has all kinds of like antique things and it’s really nice. She’s never been there. I wanted to take her but we never got to go.

Colleen: Well, since we moved away everything has changed. I lived there for how many years…?

Naomi: I don’t remember. You weren’t there very much of the time.

Colleen: Huh?

Naomi: You weren’t there very much of the time.

Colleen: I moved there. I lived there and went to Hared School.

Naomi: Yeah, that’s true.

Colleen: I went there all my life! (Laughter) How many years difference is there between you and me?

Naomi: 12 or 14…I don’t know?

Colleen: I don’t know.

Naomi: But she used to take care of me. There was so many of us that she says she took care of me when I was little. I stayed with her a lot of the time too in Columbus Grove. They owned a jewelry store and I worked there at the jewelry store. That’s where I met my husband. We were very much in love, but I don’t know we just…the people didn’t like me there. I don’t know why?

Colleen: You just thought so.

Naomi: I know they didn’t because I could tell. You can tell when someone likes you and when they don’t! (Crying) They turn their head and I didn’t have a chance.

Colleen: Naomi you were sick!

Naomi: Was I sick? Well, I guess I was, but they made me sick. I was alright before that. They just didn’t treat me nice. My husband didn’t stick up for me either.

Colleen: We don’t want to hear about that.

Naomi: But as I said, I still don’t think they loved me, and I can tell when someone likes me (Crying).

Colleen: Naomi you was always loved. Yes.

Naomi: In their way.

Colleen: Don’t say that. She stayed with me and lived with me.

Naomi: Yes, and my husband was from Columbus Grove. He met me at the jewelry store. I was working there and he came in.

Colleen: We had that store before we came to Findlay.

Naomi: Columbus and I lived…but you know, I can tell when someone likes me by the time they hold you? They are cold, and I can tell by shaking their hand if they like me, but…


Naomi: It was nice. We had a nice childhood.

Colleen: Yes, we had a beautiful childhood.

Naomi: A loving mother.

Colleen: Yes.

Colleen: We raised chickens! We had four brothers older than we, and of course they done all the farm work but us girls did the house. WE had a lot of chickens and we raised a lot of garden food. We weren’t poor.

Naomi: I thought we were poor.

Colleen: You don’t know what poor is! (Laughter)

Naomi: I used to help clean the rooms and you know what I used to do? I’d sweep the dirt under the carpet! (Laughter)

Colleen: She told a story! See!

Naomi: She’d send me to clean the room and I’d sweep it under the carpet!

Colleen: I never did that. I’m a straight-shooter!

Naomi: I used to haul the wood too. I’d fill up the wood box every night.

Colleen: You know, we had a nice time. We had a farm. My dad was well off and we didn’t suffer.

Naomi: I thought we were poor.

Colleen: Oh for crying out loud! You don’t know what poor is! It was rich in love.

Naomi: I remember my dad used to have sell corn and stuff like that to take us to the movies. We’d have a stand out in front and sell corn.

Colleen: Farmers do that!

Naomi: Things like that cause we wanted to go to the movies so he fixed the stand up, but he didn’t collect enough money to go to the movies.

Colleen: No, Naomi, it wasn’t that bad when I was home. But that’s farmers! You know what I mean? They take that stuff out of the field and they don’t keep money on hand.

Naomi: I know.

Colleen: And daddy…

Naomi: I didn’t know that.

Colleen: Well then don’t tell everything you don’t know! (Laughter)

Naomi: That’s what I remember.

Colleen: Loving, very kind. I was in the plays and everything at school and I enjoyed it. But, I don’t forget the principal. I was up on the stage as Little Miss Muffet and I had those little bloomers on, you know? I got up there and my bloomers fell down and the old man was kind of a guy and he was going like this, “Ho ho ho!” just like Santa Claus you know? And everyone would see him.

Naomi: I can’t top that! I think he shut up. (Laughter) See, I’m telling tales! Just old men you know?

Colleen: We lived on the farm. I worked at Woolworths and I had a good life. Asked for a transfer to Florida and worked in Florida at Woolworths, worked the floor and I really had a snap, you know what I mean? Happy. Mother got ill and I had to come back home to help her out and I met Vilas Niswander and I don’t think we went together a month and we were married. We didn’t go together very long and we just got married. I had a boyfriend down there and I was in love with him but seeing mom and dad brought me home; of course mom was ill.

Naomi: I had a boyfriend from Buckland too but I married Bob from Columbus Grove.

Colleen: Huh?

Naomi: I married Bob from Columbus Grove.

Colleen: Bob Bowers, yeah.

Colleen: 1916, was it? Oh no, that’s when I was born. I imagine it was in the 30s but I really don’t know. I’d have to go look.

Naomi: Yeah, in 1951.

Colleen: That would be about right.

Colleen: Four, two boys and two girls.

Naomi: I had twin boys.

Naomi: I had four!

Naomi: You had four children?

Naomi: Yeah. Four boys; Larry, Terry, Jerry and Barry.


Colleen: Cindy, Debbie, Mike and David.

Naomi: We owned a jewelry store in Grove. Bob was from Pandora and he repaired watches and clocks in Pandora. So, when we got married we decided to open a store so we opened it in Columbus Grove. Well, that was close and we did clocks and jewelry and it just kept getting bigger and bigger. Then we moved to Findlay.

Colleen: They had a beautiful store in Findlay.

Naomi: Yes, you have to cause it’s on the main street.

Colleen: There is a big clock out in front in memory of her husband.

Naomi: He was a good man.

Colleen: Yes, he was a good man.


Naomi: We started the store. He was a watchmaker and then when we got married we opened up a store.

Colleen: See, I had a steady boyfriend in Florida and mom made me come home so I left him down there and then I came up and I met Vilas and we only went together just a short while and was married, but he was a beautiful man. We got along just perfect.

Colleen: Probably ’38, I just don’t know.