APPLEBOME:

This is Edward Applebome and I'm speaking with Mr. Walter Wallace on Tuesday, February 11, 1986. We're beginning this interview at about two in the afternoon. We are about to interview Mr. Wallace about his immigration experience from Lithuania in 1923. Mr. Wallace, can you tell me where and when you, you were born?

WALLACE:

I was born in Lithuania, a little town Kurscinas.

APPLEBOME:

Could you spell that for us?

WALLACE:

K-U-R-S-C-I-N-A-S, Kurscinas.

APPLEBOME:

And what year were you born in?

WALLACE:

I was born February 14, 1910.

APPLEBOME:

Your birthday is coming up in a few days. Can you tell me a little bit about what life was like growing up in Lithuania?

WALLACE:

The part I remember the most is when I was about four years old, we were, that's in 1914, the World War was just started and Lithuania became battleground between Germany and Russia. So we were routed from Lithuania to Russia. My mother, my brother and my uncle and me, the four of us, my dad had come to America the year before, he tried to send for us but when the War started over there the, uh, you couldn't, you couldn't come to the United States. So we were routed to Russia and we were in Russia for about, until 1921 and before we could get back into Lithuania, after the War was over and peace treaties were signed.

APPLEBOME:

You had to flee your village?

WALLACE:

Yes. We had to flee the village. We were routed into boxcars and many, many Lithuanians were moved out and as went through, as I remember, as my mother told me, from Lithuania into Russia towards St. Petersberg. Why, people would be dropped off at different villages and towns and they could find their way to farms and that's how we survived, found our way to a Russian farm and we lived there till 1921.

APPLEBOME:

And was your uncle able to get work there?

WALLACE:

He worked on the farm, so did my mother, she, it, was a large ranch so she got a job as a cook and he actually was one of the laborers out in the fields.

APPLEBOME:

And what did you do?

WALLACE:

Well I, when I was old enough, they sent me to Russian schools and I was there until 1921 when I was eleven. My brother was three years younger so we both went to Russian schools and learned the language. One little incident about Russian schools I might mention, the times were so bad that we only had a bucket but didn't have a dipper for drinking water and all of the students were asked to save their pennies until we, enough money was saved to but a little dipper, and so that's our drinking water was from a bucket and a dipper. How many colds people got or other diseases I guess we'll never know.

APPLEBOME:

Tell me what your family name was then?

WALLACE:

Valis, V-A-L-I-S, Valis and this was changed when we arrived in the United States, my dad went to a lumber mill and he couldn't write, read or write and when he was hired, foreman asked him, "What's your name," and he couldn't spell it so it sounded like Wallace so that's the way it was written down, as Wallace.

APPLEBOME:

Did you see any fighting during the War?

WALLACE:

Only the, only what they call, not, oh pictures like where they show soldiers and I remember some were German soldiers with a bayonet, bayonetting babies and kids, sort of stir up the moral for the Russians and others to fight the Germans.

APPLEBOME:

And after the War was over, you were able to go back to your village?

WALLACE:

And after the War was over, why the Russians permitted the people to get back to whatever country they came from. And so it took about, the War was over in 1918, it took about three years, 1921 before we were finally able to connect with our relatives and my going back to Lithuania.

APPLEBOME:

What was the village like when you returned?

WALLACE:

There was a lot of, of course damage was done in terms of shells. But there was still farms there and a lot of them you know, had burned village huts out but there were still farms going on, people lived there, in fact my grandfather survived all that time, I don't remember how but when we got back to Lithuania why my mom had me and my brother and she wanted to go to work so she couldn't keep, feed both of us so I was turned over to my grandfather where I stayed for two years till we connected with my dad to bring us to United States.

APPLEBOME:

When you had left at the start of the War, was it because you were forced to or seemed like a safe thing to do?

WALLACE:

Well, it was kind of a safe, safe thing but I guess, uh, told to get the heck out of the way because the Germans were coming so we were routed. Many of us, of course, like my grandmother and my grandfather, they stayed on, they faced it. But I guess the younger people got out.

APPLEBOME:

What kind of work did your grandparents do?

WALLACE:

He was, worked, living on a ranch, just a laborer. They all, all these people, my relatives, none of them had much of an education, they were just laborers and my dad never went to school at all.

APPLEBOME:

Was it a farming village?

WALLACE:

Yes, it's a farming village.

APPLEBOME:

What kind of farming?

WALLACE:

Usually raised like flax and wheat and then there was some cattle. We were like, I suppose, like in the south years past where you were almost like a serf, you were attached to the land, you were allowed to keep a cow, uh, and a pig and a few chickens for your milk and meat for the winter and then you're like a sharecropper, you're given, the people give us so much of the fruits of the land that survived during the winter, next planting season.

APPLEBOME:

What were you hearing from your father in the United States, did he write?

WALLACE:

We didn't hear anything until we got--

APPLEBOME:

Oh right, you told me he didn't write.

WALLACE:

Yeah, yeah, he didn't until we got back to Lithuania and some, I don't recall how my mother somehow got contact with him 'cause a lot of these people and our family was like that, I don't know how the first got here but all the others we had cousins or somebody over here that would send the money. That's what happened to us, my dad made enough money and sent for us.

APPLEBOME:

And when he went over for the first time who had taken care of his travel?

WALLACE:

Apparently, one of the, his sister was here and she was married to another Lithuanian who had a little education so he was in business over in a little town over in Washington, and he save enough money to send for us, for the three of us to get over here.

APPLEBOME:

So, what did you hear about his life, if anything ?

WALLACE:

We didn't hear anything until, say about eight or nine years, didn't hear, in fact my mother, in order to satisfy the kid's curiosity, told us that he had died and we just dismissed it, that we didn't have a father period, until we finally got back to Lithuania, when she contacted him through some means, I don't remember how.

APPLEBOME:

And you knew--

WALLACE:

And then we knew that he was alive.

APPLEBOME:

But as a child you believed that your father had died?

WALLACE:

Had died, yeah. So, but as I recall it wasn't such a big deal. My main worry, over there, because its a poor country and Russia was in that War during that time, so the main item was to get some food to eat so the other worries were secondary, you know. Here you might worry about how you don't have a father but at that time, as I remember, it wasn't a big deal.

APPLEBOME:

So then, how were arrangements finally made for the rest of the family to come?

WALLACE:

Somehow or other my mom, through I guess my grandfather, found an address from my dad and contacted him and we, couldn't write but he had his cousin, or his sister who could write, contacted my mother and then finally got, took about two years to get the paperwork organized and--

APPLEBOME:

Who was able to read the letter when it came?

WALLACE:

I was, I was the only one that read my letters for my mom.

APPLEBOME:

What language was it in?

WALLACE:

Lithuanian.

APPLEBOME:

Do you remember what the letters said?

WALLACE:

No, I don't remember. I remember my mom, uh, very, showed a lot of anxiety or desire in expressing trying to get back together with my dad and she would dictate these letters and I would write them.

APPLEBOME:

So that was when you found out that you still had a father?

WALLACE:

Yeah, that I still had a father.

APPLEBOME:

Were you surprised?

WALLACE:

I don't remember. I guess, I'm not sure I had any feeling, you know, I didn't have a father and now I did have one (he laughs).

APPLEBOME:

So tell me how it was when you finally left the village, what kind of arrangements were made?

WALLACE:

Uh, my, I lived with my grandfather and he, my dad and my dad had married, my grandmother, my grandfather had a second marriage so he had two, a man and a woman who were, I guess would be my uncle and aunt and they, my uncle arranged for, to take us to a train station once we got the money and got the tickets I guess, I don't recall how that was arranged but he took us to a train station and he--

APPLEBOME:

And who was it, you your mother--

WALLACE:

And my brother, Stanley, who's now, lives in Spokane, Washington. And we, took us to a train and he rode with us to Kaunas, which is the capital of Lithuania and then a train and then he put us on another train that routed us to Berlin.

APPLEBOME:

What did you take with you?

WALLACE:

Just clothes and not much else. Clothes on our backs and I think my mother in order that we didn't lose her boys someplace or other on the way, she had written out our names and our destination on a piece of white cloth and she sewed the white cloth to our backs to our coats so that wherever we disappeared, why we'd, somebody else would route us back to the, to her. And so we travelled to Berlin and from Berlin to Denmark and from Denmark to Sweden where we got--

APPLEBOME:

Do you remember what other boys in the village said about your leaving?

WALLACE:

Well they were all very, very jealous, I remember kids my age and I still remember one boy's name. Very jealous and very envious, the fact that we were able to get away and america looked like, you know, streets were paved with gold in our minds.

APPLEBOME:

Did people really believe that though, that the streets were paved with gold?

WALLACE:

I mean that's the feeling that we had, well that there were not really in that sense, but the feeling was that you could come here and make money and there were a few that, people had come here in the past, went back and bought some land, say a few acres and they told us what a wonderful country it was but they want to come back and live in their, buy land and become farmers again.

APPLEBOME:

Did you have any regrets about leaving your village?

WALLACE:

Ah, not much, we had some much excitement and anticipation. I think I had regrets, we had our little dog by name of Tuzuk, my grandfather had, that I had a hard time parting with him--. And maybe some of the kids but not too many, there was too much anticipation to see what America was like.

APPLEBOME:

Did your grandparents consider coming with you?

WALLACE:

Would they like to come with us, to America you mean?

APPLEBOME:

Right.

WALLACE:

They probably would have, very much, but uh, there was, they didn't have any tickets, so they, they, I'm sure they hated to see us leave but they also felt, well we're going to a land where more opportunity than they had in their lives.

APPLEBOME:

Did you ever see them again after you left?

WALLACE:

No. We corresponded with them till they passed away. I still correspond with three of my cousins but all the correspondence usually goes my wife, usually goes like, what's the weather like, what the kids are doing, nothing about the government or, see Lithuania is now under Russia, so nothing comes out in terms of smacking like politics or anything like that.

APPLEBOME:

Can you tell me now a little bit about the boat trip over, where did the boat leave from?

WALLACE:

It left from Sweden, I think the town was Goteburg as I remember it left from Sweden and--

APPLEBOME:

And how had you gotten to Sweden?

WALLACE:

We went by train from Lithuania to, I don't know why this, uh the route was like this except that's the way the tickets were read, from Lithuania to Berlin, Germany to through Denmark and then to Sweden and we were on one of those Swedish boats which were, uh, freight plus a few passengers and we were down in the hold. As I remember you could almost hear next door people shoveling coal into the furnaces, like steerage, you know.

APPLEBOME:

Do you remember the name of the boat?

WALLACE:

No, for a long time I kept trying to keep track of it but I don't anymore, no, uh, and it was, everything was new to us, we were on the boat and--

APPLEBOME:

Were you enjoying yourself?

WALLACE:

I think we had a lot of fun, we were, my brother and I would go up to the decks where the first class passengers were and then we'd get chased down again, uh, we didn't belong there. So we had a lot of fun going there. One of the amusing things on that though, I think I told the lady was, we didn't know where the bathrooms were, nor had we seen bathrooms before and so when we had to go why the boat, the crew was Swedish, we were Lithuanians, we couldn't communicate so I remember my brother and I finally went and found the galley or the kitchen and then I proceeded to take my pants down indicating that we wanted to go then one of the cooks took us over, showed us where the bathroom was and how to flush the toilet, then we took our mother and showed her, the facilities. And the food was different when, of course, from the galley they bring the food out, laid out on the tables and we had little time getting used to it, I, as I remember it was bout three weeks on the boat before we got to New York.

APPLEBOME:

Did the boat stop somewhere between Sweden--

WALLACE:

No, it was just a, one of these slow boats I guess. Remember this is 1923, there weren't any big passenger ships.

APPLEBOME:

What was different about the food?

WALLACE:

Well, we're, uh, Lithuanians are uh, they don't salt or pepper anything like this, a lot of their foods, and these were more, what's the right word to say, more with salt or pepper or other things that, and of course, we didn't, we weren't used to that kind of food. So it took a little time and I remember the first time, you might think well you see a banana, you eat it. It's a different taste if it's the first time you taste it, you probably can't remember but I remember tasting it and then it had no taste at all, you just didn't feel like its anything worth like eating. Oranges another. we hadn't seen oranges in Lithuania, those were on the ship that I remember we had.

APPLEBOME:

Were there other immigrants in steerage?

WALLACE:

Uh, I don't recall but there must have been some but we weren't the only ones, there must have been some but I don't remember.

APPLEBOME:

You and your brother didn't play with other boys?

WALLACE:

No, as I remember just my, I don't even recall seeing any other boys, 'cause we were just the two of us running up and down the ship's ladders when my mom wasn't looking.

APPLEBOME:

Did any of you get sick?

WALLACE:

No, I don't remember that we were. I think my mom go sick but we didn't. I don't remember that we were.

APPLEBOME:

Do you remember getting into New York Harbor?

WALLACE:

Yes, I remember seeing the Statue of Liberty and before that, you know, when you come into the harbor, uh, in order to expedite people through the Island, they had a doctor come aboard and he was screening people, checking and I remember my mother had dandruff in her hair and she was afraid that that would keep people out and do we, my brother and I were trying to comb the dandruff off before it got to her turn. We were all lined up like this, you know, doctors there and so the doctor would look over each one and pass or if you didn't quite meet the physical requirements they'd put you to another side and finally we got through and then we were asked and we got off the gangplank and went through the Ellis Island, but I don't remember much about going through the Island. But I remember being on deck and the doctors examining us, screening us to see which ones were allowed to get down the gangplank.

APPLEBOME:

Were you worried you might be rejected?

WALLACE:

Oh, all of us were, yeah.

APPLEBOME:

Did you see any people that were turned back?

WALLACE:

Yeah, there were some turned back, I remember some, some young lady, a gal ahead of us that was turned back and we were, she, from Lithuania also and my mother asked her, I remember, what's she going to do? She said she's just going to jump overboard from desperation.

APPLEBOME:

What do you think that would have done if you had been sent back?

WALLACE:

I don't know. I don't know what we'd have done, we might have jumped overboard (he laughs) I don't know. But that was a real big worry, you're standing there , you see whether your left or right, you get off the gangplank or stay on board.

APPLEBOME:

When you got on Ellis Island, did you remember anything about the examination?

WALLACE:

No, I don't, apparently nothing, nothing that would strike us too much 'cause we apparently breezed right through, and maybe the initial examination on board cleared us enough that we didn't have to bother too much.

APPLEBOME:

What did it look like?

WALLACE:

The Ellis Island?

APPLEBOME:

Yeah.

WALLACE:

It looked like a bunch of stalls or something, you know, you go through and different people were like asking different questions, of course, we couldn't answer them anyway and I guess they finally routed us through and somehow they got us on a train and I don't remember that either, how we, you know. I remember going into New York and seeing these big buildings and looking at them, you know, and hadn't seen them and so impressed and impressed with the boats and the ferries and the tugboats that were, you know, blowing horns in the harbor, but I--

APPLEBOME:

Did you like it?

WALLACE:

Oh, I think it was real impressive.

APPLEBOME:

Do you remember any of the questions that they asked you on Ellis Island?

WALLACE:

No, no.

APPLEBOME:

Or seeing any of the other immigrants there, what the other people looked like?

WALLACE:

Yeah, I remember seeing all kinds of them dressed in different national habits. Maybe the reason that none of it stuck too well is that we were so anxious to get on land that we didn't pay too much attention. Everybody was concerned, how do you get through this?

APPLEBOME:

So when you finally landed in Manhattan, what did you do then?

WALLACE:

Well, somehow, somebody must have guided us to a depot and got us on a train, on the right train. I can't imagine, we couldn't have done it ourselves, it must have, somebody must have met us there and guided us to the, where we were going, headed us towards Chicago.

APPLEBOME:

So you rode on a train to Chicago?

WALLACE:

To Chicago and, one little incident I remember on going on a train was, was a first introduction to us, was some salesman comes by and down the aisle of the train and dropped boxes of candy in the seats, you know, they were buying them and I remember he dropped one by us and we were curious and my mother of course was saying, "Don't touch them." And we opened a box when she wasn't looking and tasted a few chocolates, course we didn't like them, never got used to, never had them before. And then that salesman came back on the way when he got them all distributed, then he came back and see who'd opened them and those that opened them why he wanted money for it (he laughs). And I remember my mother scolding us and arguing with he salesman and finally calling the conductor over, of course the conductor speaks English, we're Lithuanian, I don't know how they understood. Finally my mom, and of course money, you don't know how to count it, I mean what you know, a dollar bill or five dollars or whatever, I don't know what the guy got out of us, out of my mom but he got something. But as I remember a story why mu mom told us, at the next stop why they kicked the salesman off with his candy boxes, so that was our first introduction to American ways, I guess.

APPLEBOME:

You didn't even stay in New York City overnight?

WALLACE:

No, I don't remember staying in, I remember we stayed one or two days in Chicago before we could catch a train to the West Coast.

APPLEBOME:

Did you and your brother carry the bags?

WALLACE:

The bags?

APPLEBOME:

Whatever--

WALLACE:

Oh what just, yeah, they were like, all we had was like you know, burlap sacks or things like this that you carry, there weren't any suitcases, we didn't have any.

APPLEBOME:

Do you remember what you were wearing?

WALLACE:

I remember just like jackets or coats and knickers. There weren't long pants for us to wear, you know, down to hear and then some long socks and shoes and of course shirts.

APPLEBOME:

Were you aware that you were dressed differently?

WALLACE:

Oh yeah, you could tell people were staring at you, we had these little funny hats and clothes are different, yeah, we were pretty much aware of it.

APPLEBOME:

You arrived in Chicago and then what happened?

WALLACE:

Oh, well you had to stay over, I don't know, for some reason a day or so and I remember that we, one incident where someone had brought some bottles of milk for us, one or two bottles and we ran out and my mother sent me down from the hotel, downstairs and I remember walking across the street to some little store, carrying the bottle and trying to make the man understand I'd like to have another one, which he did, and giving him some money and taking the bottle of milk back. And so we lived, we were there about two or three days I don't know for what reason. I guess for somebody to route us to the next, to the next train heading for Seattle.

APPLEBOME:

What were some of the things in Chicago and New York that were different from what you had ever seen before?

WALLACE:

The big buildings, a lot of traffic on the streets, you know, the cars, the trucks, horns honking.

APPLEBOME:

Did you have cars in the village you had come from?

WALLACE:

No, we had some tractors out of Germany but we didn't have any cars, hadn't seen a car till we got to Berlin or one of those cities.

APPLEBOME:

What else, was the food different?

WALLACE:

Yeah, I don't know how we got by except perhaps on the train, uh, people carrying, you know, selling sandwiches or things like this that we bought. I don't recall ever being in a dining room, must have survived by eating foods from whatever was peddled while we were on the train.

APPLEBOME:

Were you afraid at this point?

WALLACE:

Afraid?

APPLEBOME:

Yeah, traveling on the train, just you, your mother and brother?

WALLACE:

No, we were just, I guess. anticipating reaching our destination and we did see a lot of, like mountains, going through the Rocky Mountains, it must have been on the train. We took the electrified railroad I remember they've got there at Milwaukee, the St. Paul railroad took us to Seattle. Then from Seattle down we had our, we went down to Chehalis which is between Portland and Seattle and Chehalis was about fifty miles from Raymond, Washington where we were due. Raymond, Washington was right on the coast and Chehalis was inland and we missed a train connection in Chehalis and it's a little town again and so the three of us were waiting and finally comes evening and the man in charge of the train station tried to kick us out. Well we all started bawling so he locked us in and left us overnight till the next train, till we could connect to Raymond the next, the next day.

APPLEBOME:

Let's take a break for a second and we'll flip the tape. This is the end of side one of tape one of the interview with Mr. Walter Wallace. END OF SIDE ONE BEGINNING OF SIDE TWO

APPLEBOME:

This is side two of tape one of the interview with Mr. Walter Wallace. Mr. Wallace, we're up to point where the train is ready to head towards Raymond?

WALLACE:

We were, that's about fifty-six miles so I think it must have been an hour and a half or so and we landed in Raymond, it was in the evening and it was light rain as I remember was falling and we were expecting my dad who I wouldn't have known anyway but, 'cause we hadn't seen him. But there was another gentleman that met us, my dad was at work. It was evening about 7:00 I guess. He was working in a lumber mill and this gentleman happened to be Lithuanian, he met us. So he took us to, to a boarding house where my dad was staying and then that evening, probably around 9:00 or 10:00 when my dad came home, my, we hadn't seen him but we were all sitting around like in the kitchen at this lady's house, the boarding house and this man came in, a bald-headed man and everybody's trying to whisper like, trying to see, "Would you remember?" you know, but I, a four year old kid, well I didn't remember. But I thought since you were whispering would I remember, I'd pretend I do remember so I went over, my brother who was none, he followed me and we came over and hugged him, glad to see him and that was my meeting with my dad in this country in 1923.

APPLEBOME:

What did your mother and father do?

WALLACE:

My mom was there, of course she, she recognized right away but she let us first, waited first to see if we would recognize him but we didn't, but that's how I remember meeting my dad the first time.

APPLEBOME:

Had you been excited at the prospect of seeing him?

WALLACE:

Not particularly, I think so much of the country was new to us and everything that we were more enchanted with the country than we were with anything else, really. Yes, I'm sure there's a father, somebody we could depend on for bringing, you know, food and shelter and what not, so probably that way but not particularly, I think mainly the excitement of the new country.

APPLEBOME:

You and your brother basically had a good time on the trip over to Raymond?

WALLACE:

Oh, I think, yeah we had a darn good time (he laughs).

APPLEBOME:

You knew how to enjoy yourselves?

WALLACE:

(He laughs.) Yeah, yeah.

APPLEBOME:

Do you think your mother enjoyed herself?

WALLACE:

I think she was more concerned not to lose us someplace (he laughs) or that we would get into some trouble or get hurt or but--

APPLEBOME:

Other than the chocolates, did you get into trouble?

WALLACE:

I don't recall anything more particularly except that train depot in Chehalis where we stayed overnight. I don't know where we went to the bathroom or anything. I can't remember now, but it must have been, have been a bathroom in the station there.

APPLEBOME:

What did you do in Raymond?

WALLACE:

Oh in Raymond we, we stayed in the boarding house my dad had then we, he rented an apartment in about a week's time and we moved into an apartment and that was about twenty-five dollars a month as I remember, and that was too much money so we finally found a farmhouse on the outskirts of the town.

APPLEBOME:

What kind of work was he doing?

WALLACE:

He was a laborer in a lumber mill and so--

APPLEBOME:

How had he traveled all the way up to Washington, what was the story behind that?

WALLACE:

Ah, he landed like we did in. in New York but to get to Washington, he must have had even more trouble than we did but, uh, he had a sister in Raymond and with her husband, so his destination was Raymond just like ours was and then I don't remember how the sister happened to settle there with her husband but that's where, there were other Lithuanians there also, sort of like a small colony. Raymond was about 3,500 people, must have been, I don't know, a hundred Lithuanians altogether in the little town.

APPLEBOME:

Were you and your brother sent to school?

WALLACE:

We weren't, we landed in November and in January we were both sent to school. I don't remember how the teacher decided what our names should be except from the sound like Vladook is mine in Lithuanian, his name was Tasook, so she gave me the name Walter, she gave my brother the name Stanley, and that's the way it was. And we started in first grade. Of curse, I was thirteen and by that time, by June when we were out of school, I finally got promoted 'cause I was too big physically, to third grade and by June we were able to communicate in English. Kids learn pretty fast and I was, so next year I spent, oh, a year in fourth grade and then that was, I guess I was fifteen or so and I had went to the principal, could speak English better, told me I'd be an old man unless he promoted me out of the grade so he bounced me from the fourth to seventh grade and spent the year in eighth grade and then got to high school, again I convinced the principal to let me graduate in three years, which he did, and so I was out of school in seven years and of course I'd gone to school in Lithuania.

APPLEBOME:

Did you and your brother like it in the United States ?

WALLACE:

Oh very much, very much. It was kind of bad for awhile till we got to know people and speak the language and quit being called like greenhorns or you know and when we, people say, they ought to preserve your own heritage or something but all we could think of was, we didn't want to be different, we wanted to be like the rest of the Americans and so--we wanted to dress like them, play like they did and then we, in a year or so we were able to communicate real well.

APPLEBOME:

Did kids give you a hard time because you were immigrants?

WALLACE:

Oh yeah, kids are cruel, you know. all the kids were cruel (he laughs) you've probably seen the same thing--

APPLEBOME:

Did you get into fights?

WALLACE:

I'm sure we must have. I'm sure, trying to think, I remember one little incident, when we got to Raymond. It was about Christmas time, we could see these Christmas trees in different houses, we walked around and hear music occasionally and we thought, one of these days we're going to be like that. But to us it was like, you probably read Israel Zangwill's, The Melting Pot , years ago it was published, I liked that book because it was, you know, showing how people become Americanized and--

APPLEBOME:

How did your mother adjust?

WALLACE:

She had a harder time because she didn't work, she stayed home and took care of the kids and so she didn't learn English as fast as we did, she finally did, could get along and speak English. And she was able to read Lithuanian, she went as far as third grade so she could read the Lithuanian papers and we got those from Chicago. But she had a harder time adjusting than us kids did.

APPLEBOME:

Did you get along with your father?

WALLACE:

Oh yeah, yeah, got along, we got acquainted little by little and got, you know, and he, he seemed to have missed us so he took to us and tried to be a father to us.

APPLEBOME:

What did you do after finishing high school?

WALLACE:

I got a scholarship to Washington State University and I'll tell you how big the scholarship was, it was thirty-five dollars (he laughs) a scholarship, but thirty-five dollars paid for a room for one semester in a dormitory so in 1930. So I went to Washington State University.

APPLEBOME:

Now it pays for one night.

WALLACE:

Yeah right (he laughs), the University and then while there I got a job as a janitor to sweep the dormitories so that I had money to live on.

APPLEBOME:

You must have been a good student if they gave you a scholarship?

WALLACE:

Well I was Valedictorian in the little high school class, that's where the scholarship came from. So it took me four and half years to get a degree but finally got a degree. Got out in 1935, remember that's a pretty rough time. Only job I could get was working the mine, gold mine near Sacramento. I remember when Roosevelt became President he deregulated gold from $20.80 an ounce to thirty-five dollars an ounce so that opened up a lot of gold mines that people had and that, I happened to get a job in one of them as a shoveller of ore underground and saved a little money and finally got a better job in a steel mill.

APPLEBOME:

Have you ever been back to Lithuania?

WALLACE:

No, no, I've been back as far as Sweden, only on a business trip but not for--looked over the Baltic Sea over there towards Lithuania but that's as far as I got.

APPLEBOME:

Are you curious to see your old village?

WALLACE:

I would but I got into work on Atomic Energy work and I was afraid to go to Russia 'cause I might be detained for what I know, or what I knew at the time. So I never had the hankering to go. The only place I'd like to go would be like the, see the Holy Land but aside from that, this is like heaven right here, living right here.

APPLEBOME:

Its nice that you feel that way.

WALLACE:

Yeah.

APPLEBOME:

Okay, thank you very much.

WALLACE:

You're welcome.

APPLEBOME:

This is the end of side two of tape one of the interview with Mr. Walter Wallace. This is the end of the interview, Interview Number 156.