A: Everything. I was in charge of all the exhibits. Virginia Fossey was the only paid employee. I had to see that she kept it swept and dusted. I put the exhibits in. If someone brought something I had to get her set up for cataloging it. There was all the correspondence and stuff and lining up movies for the kids to see on certain Saturdays. Whatever needed to be done, I did.

Q: You had a board of directors? 

A: Yes, I had to report to them every month. Every year I gave them a summary of activities for the year. Howard Balsley was on the board -I’ll never forget- and every year when I’d give the report, he would clap when I finished. He would say, “Billie, you did such a good job, I vote we double your salary.” (And of course, it was volunteer) So by the time I gave it up, I had a lot of zeroes for salary. Every year he would say that. But I made a lot of good friends. I’d be working there and there would be a knock on the door. Howard Balsley was one who, if he would see my car out in front, he would knock on the door and come in and visit and tell me old-timer stories while I was doing an exhibit. There were two or three other old-timers who would do that. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with them.

Q: Is there a special story you remember?

A: He (Howard Balsley) told me a story of how the “Yellow Circle” mine was discovered. He brought the rock down and donated it to the museum while I was there. This old prospector – can’t remember his name- used to go to Howard and Howard would grubstake him. Howard would buy his food and stuff. So he came and told Howard that he had dreamt of seeing this yellow circle in this rock and he knew it was uranium. He knew it was high grade and if he could get another grubstake he could find it. So Howard grubstaked him and then he was gone a month. Howard thought for sure that he was just going to be out his money. But he showed up in town and told Howard that he had found the rock with the yellow circle in it. That’s how it was discovered. Then he said, “Would the museum like to have it ? I’ve got it in my yard.” I said, “Certainly”. So he brought it over.

Q: It’s on exhibit to this day.

A: Isn’t that wonderful?

Q: Did you take part in politics or social clubs? What did you do for entertainment? 

A: Not too much. I did belong to the Mary Martha Society for the Baptist Church for a number of years. We furnished dinner for the Lions Club meetings every month. We cooked the dinners and served it to them for a price. That’s how the Mary Marthas made most of their money. I helped with those for years. When we had a day off that we could really get away from everything, we headed for the hills.

Q: For fishing, picnicking?

A: We went hiking and rock hunting.

Q: Why did you move to Arizona?

A: Harold was offered a better job. At that time we had two daughters of college age so it really made a big difference. He was doing exactly the same work that he was doing here – instrument technician – but he was making several thousand more.

Q: He was working at the mill here at the time? 

A: He finally quit Atlas and went to work for Texas Gulf. He worked down there a couple of years before we moved. The Texas Gulf job was better than the uranium mill job. This one in Arizona at a paper mill out of Snowflake paid a lot more so that is why we moved.

Q: Did either of you have health problems from working in uranium or living with him while he worked in uranium? 

A: I think Harold has quite a few problems. I think his osteoporosis is from his radiation exposure. They don’t recognize that. But he is using oxygen now at night. Really, we are quite fortunate. I think it’s because we were healthy to start with and not smoking helped.

Q: When you went to Arizona what did you do for entertainment and to keep busy?

A: That was hard after having Harold’s grandmother, Grandma Belle, to check on her at least twice a day or so and when Harold’s folks would go on trips, I’d take care of their mail and their bills and stuff, besides all the other stuff and the kids, too. Then we moved down there and our last daughter went off to school and we were alone. That was the most horrible. So I found a job. I became secretary to the manager of the local bank, the only bank in Snowflake. I was secretary to him for a number of years until Susan got out of college; then it didn’t pay for me to hold a full-time job because it just put us up in another bracket for more taxes.

Q: How long did you live in Snowflake and Arizona?

A: We were in Arizona 35 years before we moved back.

Q: What brought you back to Moab?

A: It was time to come home.

You asked about when I was a teenager here in Moab, what we did for entertainment. In the summertime we used to pick fruit for Mr. Evans. He had a big orchard that probably took in the (Cliffview) area. He had a big strawberry patch and cherries and apricots, peaches, apples, pears, and grapes. All of us teenagers that wanted to could go down there and he would pay so much for your work.

Q: Do you remember how much you got for a box of strawberries or peaches?