Monica Mayer (MM) and Spencer Wilkinson, Jr. (SW)
(MM): My father, he was full-blood German, and my mother was full-blood Indian. And, you know, it was pretty tough in the 60s growing up, you know, half-breed, so to speak. And I must have been about 7th grade, 8th grade and I wasn’t doing well in school–and I’m the oldest of 3 girls so–Our dad packed us up in his pick-up, took us out to his old Homestead land, which is about 18 miles North of Newtown, in the middle of nowhere. And he packed us some lunches and some water. All three of us girls, dropped us off out there at like 7 or 8 in the morning and said he wanted all the rocks picked in the northwest corner in one big pile and that he’d come back that night to pick us up and it better be done. So there we were working hard all day long. He comes back and we’re dirty, stinky, sweaty, sore muscles, crying–We must have been a sight to see. My dad pulls up in his pick-up and I looked at him and I said, since I was the oldest–my two younger sisters are like hiding behind me–“Dad, we don’t think this is fair we have to work this hard.” And I just remember him saying, “Is that right? Well do you think I like working hard like this everyday?” I said,“No.” He said, “You know your mother said you girls don’t like school and you’re not doing very well. And we decided that you’re gonna come out here and work like this so your hind-ends will get used to how your life is gonna to be when you get older.” So I said, “Well, if I’ve got good grades would we have to come out here and work this hard?” And he said: “No, that’s deal.” Well, you didn’t have to bust my head twice up against the brick wall. My two younger sisters and I were laughing about that, because they remember that particular day exactly the way I remembered it–One day of hard labor changed everything.