Cooper Simmonsen : Hello, my name is Cooper Simmonsen and I am here today to interview Kaye Felt, and she is my grandma, so that is our relation to eachother. The date is currently September 24th, 2024. The purpose of this interview is to explore Kaye's experiences in the long 1960's. Kaye do I have your oral consent to the recording of our conversation today?

Kaye Felt : Yes ma'am.

KF: I was born in Boise, Idaho in 1953.

CS: How many siblings do you have?

KF: Four.

CS: Four, okay. And what did your parents do for work?

KF: My mother spent most of her career working in the government at HUD and my father was a manufacturer representative and he traveled alot.

CS: Okay, I will get on with some questions about your life and the long 1960's. So how we do it is 1955-1975, that whole period.

KF: Oh okay.

KF: Well, actually Idaho is a very conservative state and when my husband graduated from college, I think after he graduated they started the draft. He was very anti-war, and so was I, and he ended up getting a conscientious objector, being classified as that, and went to the peace corps for two years. But he told me, and I always found this interesting, he told me that the people at the draft office really worked with him so he could go to Africa instead of to Vietnam and I thought that was interesting.

CS: That is interesting

KF: Because I would assume that the recruiters and the people that work with you in Idaho, fairly conservative, may not tend towards helping people out that much

CS: So to clarify he got drafted and then chose to not-

KF: Right, and that's a big deal. You've never experienced the draft and it really makes you more aware of the war and the death. Right now we don't hear much about our soldiers or the fatalities and without a draft, most of them are lower-class people that don't really have alot of money to go to school. I think that is the big difference. You knew people who went to Vietnam, and you knew people who came home and had PTSD. In my community, or at least from what I read and my interpretations was that it was a useless war, we were never going to win, I was not sure why we were there, and the government was not open about how many people were dying. One of the things I really remember was that I learned that North Vietnam and South Vietnam came to a truce but Nixon decided to have them put it off so he could win the election. There was a lot about that war that did not make me happy, and I think that I mentioned to you that there were probably ten years where I could not say the pledge of allegiance because I was so ashamed of our country.

KF: Yeah, they weren't drafted and Gary, my husband, was my older brother's bestfriend and I knew him because he would come obver to visit Ron, my brother. He would walk through the house and go "hi". I was just the little sister. That's what I remember of Gary, so I didn't really know a lot about his experiences with the draft until after he got back. I did hear that he had gone to Sierra Leone.

CS: For the Peace Corps, right?

KF: Yes

CS: How so?

KF: I am trying to think back, let's see. Kennedy was asssinated in 1963. The Cold War had been going on since the end of WWII and Russia decided that they wanted to put nuclear missles in Cuba. So there was a six day period where, I mean literally, Russian ships with nuclear missles were headed toward Cuba and the United States ships were headed toward the Russian ships. Probably for a whole year they had nuclear bomb drills, which affects you because, it's like, if there is a nuclear bomb you are supposed to get under your desk or line up against the wall with your head down in your arms. I was fairly young, but I always thought, "How is this going to protect me from a nuclear bomb?". I was smart enough to know that, I had seen the big white cloud. But I was still young enough that I remember I was worried about not finding my parents. I decided I would just go home and they would drive and pick me up, so my logic was not real clear. But during the Cuban Missle Crisis, there were several high level officers and politicians that went into hiding, or bunkers. It was a tense time because you did not know which one was going to pull the trigger first. But Kennedy stood up and didn't back down, and the Russians turned around. It was very tense for everyone.

CS: And that was tense everywhere you went?

CS: That was in Boise? Someone had a bomb shelter?

KF: Yes, quite a few people did. Of course, you never thought true at that age "What are they staying alive for if they survive?".

CS: Yeah

KF: They were really rich in my mind.

CS: Well, I mean, if they had the means to just build a bomb shelter.

KF: Oh, yeah. Out of concrete, it was nice. They had a few pictures in there, probably nicer than my house.

KF: I didn't read comic books. I was aware of the "mushroom cloud" and saw pictures of the testing in Nevada where it just scorches the whole Earth and people burn with their skin on and, I mean it is a total wipeout. I remember that, and I didn't have a bomb shelter.

KF: Yeah, I remember the war protests and I remember the march over Selma's bridge. But in Boise, Idaho I knew one black in highschool and I thought it was really neat because we made him homecoming king. So, I did not have a lot of black experience, but I was certainly aware of the discrimination. I remember hearing about Emmett Till getting murdered, lynched, it was horrible. I remember when Kennedy changed the laws to make integration a law. I remember seeing this one little black school girl being taken to a white school with armoured men all around her. I remember the Governer of Mississippi getting on TV and he said, "White now, white forever, no segregation over my dead grave". So you were aware of it. Boise, Idaho was pretty sheltered.

KF: I read a lot and I watched a lot of news. I have just always been a curious person about current events.

KF: Well, I remember hearing from a few adults that they wished Martin Luther King would just shut up, settle down, and be happy. So there was very little understanding and still is not a huge understanding of what it is like to be black in America. I don't remember a lot of people talking to me about it. My parents weren't necessarily prejudice, except against the Japanese which always cracked me up. As I've grown up I realized that was because of the WWII, but I don't know. Did that answer your question?

CS: Yeah, it does. And actually, we were talking about that prejudice against Japanese people today in class.

KF: I know, when my mom would say that... I never heard, except for Martin Luther King to settle down... I never heard prejudice comments from my parents, ever. Except the Japanese. I would just kinda laugh and go, "what's the deal with the Japanese?". But then as I have gotten older, I realized she was a product of WWII.

CS: Yeah, that kind of shaped a lot of people.

KF: I think it shaped her. It is kind of interesting that there wasn't that long held prejudice against the Germans. Isn't that interesting?

CS: Yeah and we were talking about it and it is because the people, they talk about the European front and you go there and they are all singing Christmas songs, they look like them, they all have the same cultural norms.

KF: Exactly, they look like them.

CS: Yeah, and then when you go to the Pacific front, they were calling them savages and whatnot.

KF: Horrible, horrible drawings of Japanese people and how they were depicted.

CS: Oh, you mean in propaganda?

KF: Yes.

KF: Yes. I remember Kennedy's assassination shortly after the Cuban Missle Crisis, and I remember Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination and I remember the assassination of Lee Harvery Oswald, who shot Kennedy. They were moving him to a different jail, and a guy just walked up and shot him with all these police around. I remember Robert Kennedy getting shot. So, you know, there was a lot of violence and unrest. But I do remember Martin Luther King.

CS: What do you remember about that?

CS: Yeah, and you said how, especially the older generations, would say that MLK needed to settle down. So, I am sure their reactions to groups like Black Panthers-

KF: "What is he complaining about" [laughing].

CS: That's interesting

KF: And frankly, I think he could still find things to complain about today.

KF: You know, Cooper, I just remember watching it on TV and hearing people who knew him talk. I lived in Boise, Idaho. No, I don't remember a lot of people talking about it. I do remember people being extremely sad and in shock over JFK's assassination. They weren't happy, I suppose about Martin Luther King but they just weren't as tied into it. I never heard anybody mention it, to tell you the truth.

KF: Mostly TV, newspapers, and magazines. I remember reading Newsweek a lot. I can even remember that we were the second family on our block that got a TV. So, it was reletavely a new medium. We watched test pattern for about four days, we were all excited. Do you know what that is?

CS: No.

KF: Test pettern is a thing they used to do to make sure you are getting the signal, and it is just a black screen. So, that was exciting.

CS: That is funny. What did you watch on TV?

KF: I don't remember any favorites, I can't.

KF: Yeah, a lot. I was just thinking. I would watch TV when the Beatles were on TV or anytime musicians were on TV. We used to have to buy 45s, which are very small records and play 45s. You would go buy one when it came out. I was thinking about this project and I heard on the radio that the day after JFK was assassinated, the Beatles came out with "She Loves Me", and just started thinking, "Wow. Look at how music changed from 'She Loves Me' to Woodstock". Huge, huge. I would go to concerts if I could, or even if I wasn't supposed to [laughs]. So music was a big part of it.

KF: The Who, Crosby Stills & Nash, Neil Young. Pretty much anybody that was at Woodstock, but I did not make it to Woodstock.

KF: Yeah, I was jealous [laughs]. I look back on it now, it was kind of a mess. But yeah, I remember it. It was pretty influencial.

CS: Was it a big controversy?

CS: Okay, I'm back. Kaye's phone died, so we are just going to resume where we left off. Hopefully it's still working. We left off on your experience and influence of the counterculture that was prevelant in the hippies.

CS: Yeah, thank you for that clarification. That was your experience, so that is completely valid. Were there people in your life that were interested in that counter culture movement?

KF: Well, my husband. Big time. He was politcal buff and an English and History major, so he had a lot of knowledge. He learned a lot in the Peace Corps and I think that is initially what I liked about him. A lot of people said he was really good-looking and I honestly did not notice because I liked his mind so much. I need bright people around me because I'm not that bright.

KF: I didn't date that much, but it was obviously conventional. You know, going to a dance, riding in the back seat, the boys open the door, the girl look pretty and smell nice. One of the reasons that Gary and I got along so well is that the first sign he gave me lit up and it said "bullshit" because I was the first woman to ever call him on it. So I was pretty, and still am, assertive. You know, never bought into the role of "women", that's why I can't cook [laughs].

CS: What do you mean? What is that?

KF: I just remember that they used to have marches, women's movement marches and they would burn their bras while they were marching. Or marched without a bra on. It was a point of being liberated, you know.

CS: I guess that's a pretty good way to show that [laughs]. I haven't heard about that.

KF: At least it brought attention to the cause [laughs].

CS: I am sure a lot more people listened.

KF: Oh a lot more watched. You know that, anyway.

KF: I think that they invention of birth control is what played a major part in what was "sex, drugs and rock&roll". You know, because that is unheard of. You don't have to worry about getting pregnant. But, I think that contributed to the movement. Does that answer your question?

CS: Yeah, I was just asking what you remember of it, so yes.

KF: But, again, it is like any movement. It is still ongoing. The Me Too Movement, black justice. We are moving towards a more perfect union. We are just on a little detour here.

KF: Oh yeah. I was going to college and I was sitting at a bar waiting for my friend to get off work and the manager dropped by and said something like, "Well you're not much to look at but we need some help". I went "Okay. Gee, thanks" [laughs]. It was horrible, just horrible. The big joke was to do a "man sandwhich wih women", all the men had notches on their belts. It was very, very misogynitic.

CS: Yeah , I guess that shows how far we've come in a way.

KF: Yeah.

KF: Yes, it did. I think the main thing was the marching. All the people gathering and marching for a cause. We don't really see that anymore and it really just brings it to the forefront.

CS: Yeah. Well, thank you for your time Kaye. Those are all the questions I have, so I apreciate you and sharing your experiences.

KF: Well thank you for your time.