Sylvia Montgomery

Sylvia Montomery Transcript
Interview by Mark Walker, Mike Meyers, and Sonja
Time: 41:19
Also Present: Arlie Sommer 

0:00:00.0

MIKE MEYERS: My name is Mike, and I live in Portland, Oregon and I live in southeast Portland.

MARK WALKER: My name is Mark Walker, I was born in 1968 and I was born and raised in northeast Portland. 

0:02:50.7

MONTGOMERY: ‘K, Sylvia. Lived in Portland Oregon, born 1952.

WALKER: Whoa! Ha ha ha. Whoa way up there. Ha ha ha. You would be about 4 years older than I am.

MONTGOMERY: About 4 or 5 years older um hm. Just had my Birthday.

SOMMER: What did you do for your birthday?

MONTGOMERY: Oh I used that weekend, that previous weekend to celebrate my 40th high school reunion from Jefferson High School.

0:03:27.8

SOMMER: Wow that’s great. Will you tell us about Jefferson High School? And then we’re just going to go around and ask questions as we-

MONTGOMERY: Oh my, Jefferson. Went to Jeff my Freshman to my Senior year, uh my special study was medical, and music, that was vocal. I sang with the girls’ glee and acapella choir. Oh I loved all the studies that I had. Math, PE, and we had science, home economics, all just the basic ed. But my favorite was medical. And, it was medical pre-occupations, of which the class would go down to Emanuel Hospital. So it was pharmacy, occupational therapy, physical therapy. Uh worked in the burn unit, cancer unit. Um, which was really something seeing the children going through cancer, but it really enlightened me that how much you can keep your spirits up to battle this disease. So then we're looking back into the ‘60s. Oh but that um. But overall I enjoyed going to Jeff. It wasn’t the label that people had put on it. Ya know, when I was my Freshman year, ‘Oh you’re going to Jeff. Gasp.’ Oh I enjoyed every year.

SONJA: Every year?

MONTGOMERY: Yes every year, the teachers were great.

SONJA: Yeah?

MONTGOMERY: Yeah. It was good.

SOMMER: Did you have a question Sonya?

SONJA: No more. No more.

SOMMER: No more?

0:05:52.7

MONTGOMERY: No more school? No more school [laughing] uh I, I did take a course at Portland Paramedic. And that was in ‘70... about ‘79, 1979. So I took that course as a medical assistant. Uh now one thing with Jeff my Senior year I was one of the elected students to start with the best Kaiser Dental Program. So... Well that’s about all the schooling I’ve had, other than that it was just keeping my head in the books like I do now. Always encourage everyone, school starts, you start back to school. Yeah, pick up a book [laughing] every school year. So I’m getting ready to go back to school, I’m gonna home school myself, Sonya.

SOMMER: What are you gonna home school yourself about?

MONTGOMERY: Well I start with all the basics; I pull out all my educational books. Even if I have to go back to grade school. [laughing] yes. I and briefly go through them. I pull out all my medical books, I love bible study, and I even have primary bible study books. I taught Sunday school...

SONJA: Oh.

MONTGOMERY: Yes, and from the ages of, I would say with, maybe 3rd graders up to adult class. So I also take myself through a bible study. So I have a lot to do. A lot of studying to do.

0:07:41.5

SOMMER: Could you tell us about um, what the neighborhood was like when you were growing up? Um or what... you just had your birthday. Do you remember a birthday as a child?

MONTGOMERY: Oh my many Birthdays, and because I’m an August baby [laughing], all my birthday parties were outside. The weather seemed much hotter than it is now. Um, but it was fun getting all the neighborhood children together, and I celebrated my birthday with my brothers, and we just invited everyone. We didn’t have to send out invitations ‘cause the neighborhood was full. Just baked a cake, and had the ice cream, and just enjoyed the day. Um, our play area, as far as the neighborhood, was open to all of us. So, from Boise School on Fremont we climbed a hill that is now the uh, Grand Central Bakery. That was a little neighborhood store. And on the side of that store was a hill, and I would hang out with the boys trying to keep up with them. And we would have dirt clod fights. And there was a little bush, little stickery bush, and I remember the older folks called it a cuckobuds and in the hot summertime we put on sweaters, so that these stickers would stick on your clothes, and that’s how we would aim. Uh we would play some of the television favorites. Like Robin Hood. So were breaking branches, and doing the Little John, Robin Hood and Little John, and fighting with our staffs. Um, and there were the girls. We would just pull out our little Tressie Dolls, and roller skates, get into mother's closet and get her jewelry [laughing]. So, we, we had a lot of fun doing that. Um, I enjoyed hanging out with my father. Uh being in the garden with him, we didn’t have community gardens. Because everyone had a lot of land on their home. So, just about everyone in the neighborhood had a garden, and, the fall of the year, the women would get together and can, string beans, and pears...

WALKER: Black eyed peas...?

MONTGOMERY: Oh we would shell the green beans. We didn’t have black eyed peas. We would shell the green beans. Um, some of them we would just break up and steam them on the stove, and do the whole canning process. Now one of the favorites was called pickled peaches. You don’t see that anymore, very delicious. Uh the canning process; boil down your peaches, and put cloves, put about 5 cloves in each peach and put ‘em down in the globe Mason jar, and oh.... so you can imagine the winters that we had. We enjoyed it. And because I went to Boise School, I had lunch at home. So, that was a treat. Little break away from school [laughing]. 

0:11:05.3

MEYERS: Uh. I have a question. When you was going to Boise School... how, how was the school? Back in them days?

MONTGOMERY: Oh the schools were fun. The teachers were very strict. Um, but we had fun. We’d go all over the school ground and...

WALKER: Did you have to wear a uniform or anything?

MONTGOMERY: No uniforms. Uh the dress codes... Everyone stayed nice and neat. Whatever you had, there was no peer pressure...

WALKER: No baggy pants?

MONTGOMERY: No, Nooo baggy pants. Now some had to. Some would wear, you know, there was a lot of hand-me-downs. But, it, it was okay. We didn’t start feeling peer pressure until maybe about the 8th grade.

WALKER: Right.

MONTGOMERY: Yeah, but other than that, stayed nice and clean, keep yourself neat. Get to school on time. And study [laughing] so we kept our heads in, in the books. The teachers took out enough time. One of my favorite was uh, reading. I love to read. But I was a slow reader. So they took me out of my class. That was uh, I think my 7th grade class. And I had to go to a special class.

MEYERS: Special ed. class?

MONTGOMERY: A special ed. class. And I sat down with the teacher. And I remember what I read. It was about making soap [laughing].

WALKER: Okay.

MONTGOMERY: And so I read at my own pace. And she asked me questions about what I read. But she missed some of the detail to it. Now maybe I’m havin’ a big imagination. I told her about the mechanics, of the machines, that made the soap, and how it was cut. And she says [laughing] ‘go back to class’ [laughing]. So they found out I was just a slow reader, but I could understand. And I told her about the gears and everything, because, I worked with my father who was a mechanic.

0:13:08.3

MEYERS: Now when you got to high school as a Freshman, how, how was High School?

MONTGOMERY: Oh I loved it. The halls were too long though [laughing]. So as a Freshman we had to get used to the long halls and the extra flight of stairs. Uh, but it being still in the ‘60s, kinda like the hippie days, you know we wore our bright colors, and go-go boots, and the boys with the long tailed shirts, and [laughing] collared shirts. Oh [laughing] it, it was fun. It was fun, yeah. Hanging out with the, hanging out with the Seniors ya know...

WALKER: Did you go, did you go to games and stuff. Any football games?

MONTGOMERY: I did. I loved the games. Didn’t understand what they were doing [laughing]. I’d end up hollering for both teams. Ya know, just get the ball and run [laughing]. I didn’t want them to get tackled so, I had to learn to just keep my thoughts to myself ‘cause someone would holler out, ‘what’ya doing hollerin’ for the home team?’ I just didn’t want the guys to get tackled [laughing]. But yeah, I, I enjoyed football. I also played football Uh with my brothers so... I but I felt a little different when its, when it’s High School. And... Yeah controlled game. Not like street football.

0:14:32.7

SOMMER: Could you play sports in High School?

MONTGOMERY: No, I, I didn’t. Um....

WALKER: She was the beauty Queen!

MONTGOMERY: Um, Oh [laughing] no, I just stayed with biology and medical. I didn’t wanna get tackled. I didn’t want anyone to swing the bat at me. I didn’t want the ball [laughing]! I did a big change from, from uh grade school to high school but, I loved to run.

WALKER: She hanged out with the Seniors, I mean, when she was a Freshman. She finds these people to hang out with. When you’re a Freshman you don’t wanna hang out with Freshman cause you’ll get, you’ll get beaten up.

MONTGOMERY: That’s right [laughing].

MEYERS: ... You hang with Seniors, then they’ll think you’re a Senior and they won’t touch you.

MONTGOMERY: Yeah, ‘cause they think you’re someone if you’re hanging out with the Seniors.

MEYERS: ...That’s how it was when I went to High School.

MONTGOMERY: Yeah, so um. No, I, I, I didn’t really want sports too much. I didn’t want anyone tackling me but, uh physically I wouldn’t mind, wrastling with anyone. But I, I, No. I don’t think I wanna be caught down on the floor. But girls wasn’t in the wrastling teams then. Um and as far as sports, I don’t even recall us having a girls’ basketball team.

WALKER: No. No. Jefferson, Jefferson didn’t have a Basket ball team, they had Jefferson dancers.

MONTGOMERY: No. Uh Jefferson dancers… That started about, maybe the later part of my, my Sophomore year. Uh Jefferson was a, a great school for arts.

WALKER: Yup. Yup.

MONTGOMERY: Yup. So, we did have dance, teams, we had a great theater group. Um, Danny Osborne, he led um, one of the, I believe it was dance and musical ensemble groups.

WALKER: Yeah ‘cause I went to Jeff my Freshman and Sophomore year.

MONTGOMERY: Yeah?

WALKER: Yeah.

MONTGOMERY: Oh, right...

WALKER: In the 80s.

MONTGOMERY: In the 80s. So you were still part of that...

WALKER: Yeah old school.

MONTGOMERY: ...Old school part. And we, oh, it, it was good. I mean everyone liked going to the assemblies. Now usually students will back away from that. But our teachers, the music they selected was great. Anything from Roger Herman Stein, to James Brown, so you were thoroughly cultured at Jeff. I mean, you, you know the only thing left for you to do was just tour the world. 

0:17:07.7

MEYERS: Not me. I didn’t go to Jefferson.

MONTGOMERY: You didn’t go to Jeff?

MEYERS: I went to Grant.

MONTGOMERY: Oh. Right, the Generals...[laughing].

WALKER: Big, big rival between, between Jefferson and Grant.

MONTGOMERY: Yeah. Well see, Jefferson was all-city champ.

WALKER: Yup, yup, yup. Back in the yeah....

MONTGOMERY: Yeah, we were all-city champ.

WALKER: Yup. They, they, we had a problem with them every time we played Jefferson. It’s like, they wanna see who was gonna take it.

MONTGOMERY: ‘69 to ‘70. We had our, we had it together [laughing].

WALKER: Until ‘73, till we knocked you guys outta the playoffs [laughing].

MONTGOMERY: well see, the best, the best had left [laughing].

WALKER: Yup

MONTGOMERY: ‘73 the best was gone.

WALKER: Yup

MONTGOMERY: Yeah. We, no we took all the greatness with us.

WALKER: Yup.

MONTGOMERY: But uh yeah. It was. It was great. My upbringing... the people that I surrounded myself with, the teachers, even going back up to Jefferson High School occasionally, and talking with some...

0:18:05.7

SONJA: I know you.

MONTGOMERY: You know me? Is that what she said? Wow.

SOMMER: Yeah. How do you know her?

SONJA: From school.

SOMMER: From School?

MONTGOMERY: You may have. School or church, that’s where most everyone I, ...

SOMMER: Did you work in the schools at all? Or...

SONJA: Yeah.

MONTGOMERY: I went back to Boise and did tutoring for reading.

SOMMER: Where did… Did you go to Boise? No? How do you think you know her?

SONJA: Bible school.

SOMMER: Bible School?

MONTGOMERY: Well I visited various churches throughout my childhood.

SONJA: School.

MONTGOMERY: Through school? Through a school?

SOMMER: She went. Sonya went to Jefferson...

SONJA: Yeah.

SOMMER: ...But you think you know? Were you involved at Jefferson at all? Do you have kids?

MONTGOMERY: What grade school did you go to?

SONJA: I don’t know.

MONTGOMERY: Yeah, you see. Uh, the choirs would often visit the grade schools, you know as we were recruiting them to come to Jeff. You know, or for other various high schools. And so we did, we had some great performances that we took, to the grade schools.

SONJA: Yeah.

0:19:24.8

SOMMER: Do you remember having choir into your grade school?

MONTGOMERY: Well all right [laughing].

SOMMER: That’s cool. So what year were you in grade school? The ‘70s or…?

SONJA: Yeah.

SOMMER: The 1970s. Would that, would that have been the right time though?

MONTGOMERY: Uh. Let’s see here, I graduated in ’70, so ‘70 would have been the year that we did our tours. Alright [laughing], good. Yeah...

0:19:54.4

SOMMER: You said your Dad was a mechanic?

MONTGOMERY: My Dad was a mechanic, and I, I forgot to, I was gonna ask my mother. It was Rocky Butte... uh, but it was, he worked for the city as a mechanic. But that’s where they were located, out on Fremont. Remember that?

WALKER: Yes I remember that.

MONTGOMERY: Okay.

WALKER: It was a, it was a garage.

MONTGOMERY: Yes!

WALKER: Yes. I remember that. I go by there almost every time. And so when I’m going to school, and I see that sign saying Rocky Butte... Garage.

MONTGOMERY: Aright. Yeah. And the prison was located right behind it!

WALKER: [Laughing] Oh yes, Rocky Butte Prison oh yes and so-

MONTGOMERY: I didn’t want him working that close to the prison.

MEYERS: Right behind the garage there was the big-

MONTGOMERY: There was the big prison.

WALKER: So, Rocky Butte prison. Yup.

MONTGOMERY: Yes. I was like, Oh I don’t want my Dad working here. [laughing]

MONTGOMERY: Yeah but that was fun. And going up to the Rocky Butte lookout-

WALKER: Oh yes, Rocky Butte Point, oh yes, oh yes. The one that closer to night time, when you go up at night time you can see the whole city. Oh my-

MONTGOMERY: The city was Beauuutiful. Yes it was beautiful, so bright. My father often time took us there and my father used to love driving down to the country side. Go out past al... um Alpenrose.

WALKER: Yup Alpenrose.

MONTGOMERY: And we would, we would drive all through there and, in those days you could let your children get behind the wheel of the car. [laughing]

0:21:23.6

WALKER: How long has the Bakery been there?

MONTGOMERY: Uh which Bakery is that?

MEYERS: On Fremont, the Hostess—they had the Hostess store right there by the blood…

MONTGOMERY: As long as I can remember that Hostess bakery has been there.

WALKER: It’s been a long time.

MEYERS: You remember the dairy—the drive-thru dairy? You drive through and get the…

MONTGOMERY: Yes, I remember the dairy; the drive-thru dairy, the ice cream, very delicious.

WALKER: You remember the days when they were delivered on the porch?

MONTGOMERY: Yes I do. I grew up on Kerby, down the hill from Boise school, and we would have our milk delivered and have the old wood…

WALKER: Wagon?

MONTGOMERY: Yeah, the old wagon would come up, and I think also a little bit on Borthwick. I – I remember the old milk box there. 

0:22:14.6

WALKER: Do you remember Humboldt School?

MONTGOMERY: Humboldt—I don’t remember Humboldt back in the early—late ‘50s and ‘60s.

WALKER: It was right down the street from Jeff.

MONTGOMERY: Okay, ‘cause that was a newer school that they…

WALKER: The welfare office.

MONTGOMERY: The welfare office…

WALKER: On Vancouver.

MONTGOMERY: Yes, I remember when they built that. [laughing] I was like, ‘What is a welfare office?’ [laughing] You know, then it wasn’t welfare, I forgot—you just said you were getting something through the—you know, through the state.

WALKER: So it wasn’t Oregon Trail or nothing, or…

MONTGOMERY: No, no no no it was just—you were just getting ‘state assistance.’

WALKER: Oh, okay.

MONTGOMERY: Yeah, and heard very little about that. Dads were at home and working every once in a while you’d hit a bad financial part, you know, with your family, and had to get some help, but…

MEYERS: It wasn’t that long?

MONTGOMERY: No, no one stayed on it a long time. It was just for help. You know one thing I remember?

MEYERS: What’s that?

MONTGOMERY: The plain labeled foods.

WALKER: Oh yeah, generic foods.

MONTGOMERY: Generic foods. But it wasn’t called generic foods. It was military…

WALKER: You had the boxes…

MONTGOMERY: Yeah, all that. Military rations that they issued, so I guess probably to every city and, you know, people were kind of ashamed that they had to pick that up, but they had the best meat, and the cheese—oh my goodness! I remember times that we had to—to use that, and you had to be hush-hush about it and of course kids are not going to be hush-hush about it and of course kids are not gonna be hush hush, after a while you'll find out, ‘Oh, you got some of that cheese! You eatin’ it too!’ [laughing] It was fun. You saved upyour money and go to Ted’s store, which was down below Boise school…

MEYERS: Nice talkin’ to ya!

[Mike Meyers leaves]

0:24:05.5

MONTGOMERY: Nice talkin’ to you too! I hope to see you again. But no, we would save our little change up that Dad would give us on payday and, when I lived on Kerby, and I was about seven years old when we moved there. Anyway, we would go to Ted’s grocery store and that’s where we’d get our little nickel candy. So, Ted’s store soon closed and then we moved from Kerby to Borthwick, and I did not understand the moving process. So here I am seven years old, I’m living on Borthwick and Fremont and I go back on the other side of Boise on the hill of Kerby, and I went to tell the people they had to get out of my house! (Laughter) And I remember the teenage girl explaining to me that, ‘no, your family has sold your house.’ I was like, ‘What? Mom and Dad didn’t tell me that, though!’ So I had to show her where we moved, and my mother said ‘You did what?’ I said ‘I told ‘em to get out of my house!’ (Laughter) I just thought we were owning two houses, you know. Yeah, so, from that point on I started listening more to my parents about buying and selling homes, and my father would get us around the table and explain all that to us. He explained our finances, come home and put his money on the table and says ‘Okay, I want you kids to stop asking for money because here’s my check, here’s the money, this goes to the house payment, this goes here, this goes on the car…’ So we learned about those—yeah—how to do our finances at a young age.

WALKER: Yeah, I grew up—I went to Woodlawn grade school over off of—in the Woodlawn district, Woodlawn Park—Northeast.

MONTGOMERY: Oh okay, off of Dekum?

WALKER: Off of North—it was—I lived on North Portland Boulevard for about eighteen years and then I moved from Mallory to Sumner for the rest of the time, and then my grandma stayed on Fremont and Mallory and my aunt still stays across the street from there. My grandma’s deceased, so she still lives across the street from where my grandma used to stay. She used to come over and keep my grandma company when she was, you know, feelin’ lonely or whatever. So she died back in 1987. Yeah, she passed away.

MONTGOMERY: You miss her?

WALKER: Yeah I do miss her. She got that house that was right there on the corner of everything; you just sit down there and eat watermelon in the summertime, watching everything happen, everybody walking by, and… I miss that.

MONTGOMERY: Yeah, nothin’ like grandma. I didn’t get a chance to know my grandmother.

WALKER: Oh really.

MONTGOMERY: No, but grandmothers are special, and now that I have a bundle of grandchildren myself, I’m understanding how special grandparents are, because you can always stay a child with grandparents. Mom and Dad gon’ tell you to grow up, but grandparents are gonna hold on to you. Yeah, my oldest grandson he towers over me, but there’s just a certain little stand that he has when he gets by my side, so… and I love him.

WALKER: That’s good, bless his heart.

0:31:26.4

SOMMER: I heard that you might be able to explain what it was like when the neighborhoods were connected because they used to not be divided between Boise and Eliot is that true?

MONTGOMERY: This is Eliot here, which now we call Tubman school.

SOMMER: It’s called what school?

MONTGOMERY: Tubman, it’s called Tubman. Okay, but Tubman was Eliot, so when they closed—they didn’t close Eliot, they changed it to a—what was it, sixth, eighth grade? Middle school?

SOMMER: Yeah, you’re—okay, you’re talking about the schools.

MONTGOMERY: Uh huh. And to keep the name Eliot, they put it with Boise. And Boise was just Boise school, not Boise-Eliot.

WALKER: What about Beech school?

MONTGOMERY: Um, Beech school—I didn’t go across Interstate very often because Beech went down that hill. If you were going to Beech school you were bused to Beech school.

WALKER: Bused?

MONTGOMERY: Yeah, I’d take the school bus.

WALKER: It’s not very famous is it?

MONTGOMERY: Most—when you were coming up you were close enough to your school. Also the teachers—the teachers didn’t stay long distance from the schools, you know—it wasn’t nothin’—talkin’ about it’s snow and no school, you know. The teacher could be your neighbor, so—everyone was right in the neighborhood. You know, you didn’t close the school down. No, even going to Jeff, you know, we weren’t allowed to wear pants, but you put your pants on and change in the locker room. I’m kind of like a rebel, I said ‘I’m wearin’ pants!’ [laughing] No, but this—and even across the street here—I think this was Ann Palmer’s—was it Ann Palmer’s bakery? I can’t quite see the… So that was a—yeah, that was a big area and for the…

WALKER: Chuck’s?

MONTGOMERY: Chuck’s. That was a pretty good neighborhood market. Unthank Plaza wasn’t there. All those were individual houses. We didn’t have a lot of apartments then. It was houses, yeah, only houses. When I attended Boise, I believe we went to Eliot. The boys went to Eliot for shop classes and the girls had to do their home economics class. So about seventh, eighth grade they finished completing a shop class and home economics class at Boise. We went to Mary Natha church which was on Beech and Borthwick for bible class.

WALKER: Mary Natha’s moved to twelfth and Prescott.

MONTGOMERY: Yes, mm hmm. So do you remember it when it was on Boise—close to Boise school?

WALKER: No.

MONTGOMERY: Well that lot is still vacant, yeah. They haven’t built on it yet. But that was Mary Natha church.

SOMMER: Why did they move then?

MONTGOMERY: The church was gettin’ old, and the congregation was starting to grow, and they got their location…

WALKER: Now my grandma’s church burned up—Morningstar.

MONTGOMERY: Morningstar, that was one of the…

WALKER: On Ivy.

MONTGOMERY: Neighborhood churches, there were a lot of people that attended Morningstar, and I grew up at House of Prayer for All Nations on Albina and Mason. We moved from Southeast—was it—not Tacoma Street. I think it was located on Sixth by the Cash & Carry store out there on Sixth. So, that’s where I went to church and so then we bought Albina and Mason, which was a Finnish congregation. They sold their church. But then I found out the history I just was wondering’, ‘Oh, you’re staying in the Albina neighborhood!’ Well, I’m thinking it’d just be named Albina, but I found records going back to 1826. So from Fremont and Albina Street, which wasn’t called Albina at that time, up to maybe about Skidmore—that was called the Central Albina and it was a territory. It wasn’t part of Portland. I didn’t know! [laughing] And I’m like, ‘Oh!’ But they made it sound so new: ‘Oh, I live in the Albina neighborhood!’ [laughing] But, I thought hey, that’s nothing new! It’s been around for a long time, and mostly Finnish, Scandanavian, which—I said oh, so most of the merchants that were on Mississippi—I understood them speaking with an accent. And our neighbors, ‘cause I grew up in a mixed neighborhood—Portland was not a predominantly black neighborhood—none of this. Boise school was not a predominantly black neighborhood. It was mixed: Asians, Canadian, Polish, Finnish, German, you know. You name it, it was there. So a lot of people say ‘Oh, you’re pretty cultural.’ I say-

0:37:21.7

WALKER: What were some good TV shows when you were growing up?

MONTGOMERY: Oh, Bonanza, Rifleman, we had-

WALKER: Good Times, Jeffersons-

MONTGOMERY: No, that wasn’t until like my senior year, but it was basically still turn your radio on and listen to the boxing matches. Yeah, you’d exchange your notebook paper, you know, you bet so many pages [laughing] you know, from your notebook paper just trying to see if Cassius Clay was going to win. Yeah, that was your currency. Everything was—whatever you bet on your notebook paper was your currency.

WALKER: I Love Lucy was on. Was that good?

MONTGOMERY: I Love Lucy, we watched that, but now at nine o’clock a lot of things were taken off. Even Flintstones. Flintstones was a—kind of like adult cartoon, so, Flintstones come on, you get ready to go, you know, to bed. But it was fun. Lots of Lawrence Welk. [laughing] Oh, and the Pink Panther, Twilight Zone, and I had mentioned about Robin Hood. Yes, Saturday matinees. No one came out the house until they watched their Saturday matinee.

WALKER: Really?

MONTGOMERY: Yeah, Frankenstein, Dracula, you know. You had to-

WALKER: Pink Panther?

MONTGOMERY: Oh yeah, Pink Panther came on at night.

WALKER: That was an adult show?

MONTGOMERY: No, that was a regular weekly show, the Pink Panther. But it showed some of the, you know, the classic movies. I can say classic movies now that I’m older. [laughing]

0:39:13.8

WALKER: So there wasn’t nothin' like Roseanne or Friends or Full House, or-

MONTGOMERY: No, no.

WALKER: Nothing like that back then?

MONTGOMERY: No, there was one called ‘Wait ‘til Your Father Comes Home,’ and that was an animated cartoon, and they kind of wondered, you know—if they show that, what time of the night should they show that and it wasn’t wondered, you know—if they show that, what time of the night should they show that and… it wasn’t like the cartoons they show now. You know, there was no cursing and showing the skin and talking back like Bart Simpson. They didn’t have that. The Jetsons—that was a good show. We watched the Jetsons.

WALKER: Was Hawaii 5-0 out when you grew up?

MONTGOMERY: Hawaii 5-0 was more high school. Yep. Hawaii 5-0.

WALKER: What about MASH?

MONTGOMERY: MASH, that was after I got out of high school. Like my senior year MASH came out. I’m a Trekkie. I’m a Trekkie, yes. So, Star Trek came out, oh I had to push Bonanza off to the side.

WALKER: How about Gilligan’s Island?

MONTGOMERY: Yes. Definitely Gilligan’s Island. We had to watch Gilligan’s Island to see why were they not getting it? They can’t get off this island, what’s wrong with them? They had enough time to build a boat!

[Laughter]

WALKER: So they were all good TV shows, huh?

MONTGOMERY: Yes, and Zorro… Now not Erroll Flynn, that’s back awhile. But Zorro took my—just, you had to watch Zorro. Yeah, that was a number one.

[Everyone thanks each other]