Cathy and Kelly Slumber

Cathy and Kelly Slumber

Interview transcript

Kathy: Hi, I’m Kathy Slumber. I’m here from New Orleans, LA. I’m 47 years old and I’m in NYC this week with my daughter who’s graduating from LSU, and we’re here to celebrate.

Kelly: What was the best present you’ve ever gotten?

Kathy: The best present I’ve ever gotten . . .I think I was in the third grade. And I know you know my mom didn’t work and my dad was just a clerk on the riverfront, and he didn’t make a whole lot of money, and there were three of us. So we didn’t get a whole lot. In fact, I don’t think I had any clothes that were bought in a store until I was about twelve, because I got hand me downs from my cousins, and because my mom could sew she made a lot of stuff.

One Christmas I got this ice skating outfit for barbie. It was made out of deep purple velvet, trimmed in fake fur. And we would bring em to school and sit in the school yard and put our barbies and kens out and play at recess and at lunch and everybody wanted their barbie to wear my ice skating suit. And I think I was maybe twelve and I was sneaking around my parents room and in their closet mom kept a lot of stuff and I found the pattern that she had made that for me, and it was like I couldn’t believe that she had done it because it was perfect, she’d made . .

Kelly: You thought she had bought it?

Kathy: I thought she had bought it. And what was so special is that no one else had one. I was the only one with it, and she had made it for me all by herself. That was my favorite present I’ve ever gotten.

Kelly: It’s a good present.