THE INSTITUTE OF TEXAN CULTURES
Oral History Office
SUBJECT: English Heritage - English War Bride
INTERVIEW WITH: Barbara Goen
DATE: 21 April 1998
PLACE: Lubbock, Texas
INTERVIEWER: Diane Gray
TAPE 1, SIDE 1
G: My name is Diane Gray. I'm a research associate at the Institute of Texan Cultures, with the University of San... University of Texas at San Antonio. We're at the Southwest Collection Library, on the campus of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. Today is Tuesday, April 21, 1998, and the time is 2:26 p.m. I'm speaking with Mrs. Barbara Goen of Floydada, Texas, and she has agreed to come and share some of her history as a World War II English war bride.
Barbara, you participated in an historic event fifty years ago. You were an English bride wed to an American GI, who, with thousands and thousands of others like yourself, immigrated from your mother country of England to settle in America, especially in Texas. Barbara, spend some time this afternoon sharing memories from your life at this time in history. And I'll start off asking you if you would explain the circumstances of your migration.
BG: When I first met my husband, in an English pub, and the name of it was the Winning Post.Barbara Goen 2
G: W-i-n-n-i-n-g ?
BG: I-n-g.
G: Okay.
BG: The name of the pub at the Winning Post was in York, England, which is in the north part of England, and it's very famous for its race horses. And that is where I met J.D. Morrison. We dated for quite a while and then we were married at St. Chad's Church in York, England, in May 1945. And my son, David Morrison, was born in February 1946. I stayed behind in England and J.D. came to the United States and... (break in tape)
G: Go.
BG: I left England in March of 1947, and came by sea on the ship named the Edmund B. Alexander, which was an old, old ship. But since it was full of war brides and small children, it was supposed to be a very, very safe ship. Well, we encountered a storm. We were supposed to land at Staten Island in one week, and it took fourteen days. The storm was dreadful. We had to go way south to the Azores is the reason it took so long. We almost ran out of drinking water and had to drink lots of tomato juice which, incidentally, made me very sick. We arrived on Staten Island and then I proceeded on my journey to Texas, by train, to Fort Worth. Stayed there just a few weeks and didn't know at the time, but my husband was already seeing Barbara Goen 3
someone else, and I was divorced by the time...while I was in Fort Worth. And then came out to west Texas in about May BG: of '47, and stayed with his...with J.D. Morrison's parents and his sister, Virginia Cage. Virginia Cage and I have been friends all these years. Many wives, I have read, have had similar sad stories, to come and find that the marriage wasn't going to work after all. But here they were in American and you had a babe in arms, so what did you decide to do? You have a place to stay but you've got to make a decision for your life.
BG: Well, the decision was made for me when I went into a drugstore in Floydada, while...the time I was staying with Mr. and Mrs. Morrison and Mrs. Cage. And, of course, my English accent at the time was very, very pronounced. And I wanted a box of Coty's face powder. And I went into the store and this very handsome man asked me what I needed, if I needed some help, and I said, "Yes, I would like to buy a box of Coty's face powder." Well, he could not understand what I was talking about. So I finally went over to the case and showed him the box of face powder that I wanted to buy. So from there on out we started dating, and in December of that year we were married.
G: Oh, really?
BG: Uh-huh.
G: And his name?Barbara Goen 4
BG: His name is W.W. "Bud" Goen.
G: Okay.
BG: We had originally planned not to marry until April of
BG: 1948, but housing was very scarce at the time and a little house...and I've heard of houses with half-baths, but this literally had a little half-bath in it, in the bathroom. And you couldn't stretch out, all you had to do was just sit in with your knees straight up.
G: Oh, my.
BG: But it was wonderful for me, because after all the war years everything was...in America was so wonderful to me that this little tiny house with a living room and one bedroom and a kitchen and this cute little half-bath became vacant. So we decided to go ahead and marry in December, on December 20, 1947, instead of waiting until the following April.
G: Okay.
BG: My husband, at the time, was working for, we called him Doc White; he was a pharmacist and had a drugstore there in Floydada. And I was the housewife, and my husband has a daughter named Melinda, who we both legally adopted at age four, and I have raised her ever since. And of course she is just like my own daughter.
G: You and Mr. Goen had a child of your own, besides adopting Melinda into the family, as a full family. Tell meBarbara Goen 5
about your son.
BG: Okay. My son, our son, is Mark Goen, and he is forty-nine years old and he lives in Amarillo, Texas.
G: What does he do for a living?
BG: He's a sales rep.
G: Yeah?
BG: For a firm in Amarillo. I think the name of it is Straus-Frank. And has been there for - oh, I'm going to say about fifteen years. And he's a single guy; he's never married. And...but he now has a girl friend of which I'm crazy about.
G: What does Melinda do for a living now?
BG: She is a children's counselor.
G: Uh-huh.
BG: Incidentally, they - both Melinda and Mark - went to Tech.
G: Oh, yes.
BG: And so did two of my granddaughters - they both went to Tech.
G: And did...is Melinda married with children or is she on her own?
BG: Yes, Melinda is married and has three children.
G: Wonderful. Let me ask you about setting up your life here in Texas. Now, you have met Mr. Goen and married him. Although you came across as a war bride, now you are Barbara Goen 6
marrying a civilian man and setting up life with him. So tell me about those years.
BG: Well, they were very happy years. We didn't have very, very much money, but we had love and happiness and we lived in some tiny little houses at first, but were able after
BG several years to buy our home, the one I live in now. And my husband was born and raised in Floydada.
G: Oh, was he?
BG: Uh-huh. And his father, Claude Goen, was the sheriff of Floyd County - I think in probably 1916. I may have the dates a little off, but it was either - I believe it was 1916.
G: And Bud always ran the pharmacy?
BG: He wasn't a registered pharmacist, but we hired Doc White, which was Bud's former employer, as a pharmacist.
G: Oh, I see.
BG: And we had it for about twenty-two years.
G: My. What was the name of the pharmacy?
BG: Goen Drug.
G: Goen Drug. What did you do over the decades that you've been here? You were certainly a housewife. Did you get involved in other things?
BG: Oh, yes. When...in 1947, when I realized I had to have some kind of employment, I worked as a secretary for Floyd County Judge Grimes, for probably about a year. Then when Barbara Goen 7
we purchased the drug store, which I believe was in 1952, I worked for seven years in the drug store. And then I went to work for Lighthouse Electric Co-Operative in Floydada, which serves rural farms and houses for electricity. I first started as just a general flunky, you might say, and then ended up as cashier and then as billing clerk. And
BG: then when I was in my...I think it was late 50s, when I was in my late 50s, I was taught how to use a computer. Then we went...our billing went to computer so I was then a computer operator.
G: Uh-huh.
BG: And I worked for Lighthouse Electric for twenty-five and a half years.
G: My! When did you retire?
BG: I retired in 1983.
G: And you started in the '50s?
BG: I started in 1959.
G: Yeah. Were you a member of any civic organizations or social clubs?
BG: The only one that I was really...well, I did belong to the Bluebonnet Needle Club, which was in Floydada, for a short while. But I wasn't...I didn't belong to that very long. And then my friend Pat Rucker and I belonged to the Cosmopolitan Club, which was here in Plainview.
G: I had a chance to speak with Pat about that, but I'd Barbara Goen 8
like you to explain in your words what the Cosmopolitan Club was and how you participated.
BG: Well, it consisted of war brides of all different countries. In our club there was, oh, several of us English brides, German, Polish, Japanese, Hawaiian, German.
G: How often would you meet?
BG: Well, I...really, it's been a long time ago. When I BG: was working I couldn't participate like I would liked to have, but I think they used to meet about once a month.
G: Yes.
BG: I think that's right.
G: In your early years over here was that a comfort, to meet with other foreign-born ladies as you were adjusting to American life?
BG: Yes, it was, especially my very good friend Pat Rucker.
G: Yes.
BG: I didn't really know very many others. But it's quite a...an experience, when you come from a very English-speaking country and you end up in a town that you hardly know anybody and you go into a store and ask for something and every thing stops. Everybody's mouth flies open, because they've never heard...an English...a person from England before I came. So I was really the topic of conversation for quite a long time in Floydada, Texas. And another thing that comes to my mind is when I arrived in Barbara Goen 9
Fort Worth. This is going back a little ways, but when I arrived in Fort Worth, I went to a restaurant and they had fried chicken. Well, I'd never eaten fried chicken and I tried to eat it with a knife and fork.
G: Oh! [laughter]
BG: And everybody started laughing. And I said, "Am I doing something wrong?" And they said, "Well, Barbara, you're not supposed to eat it with your knife and fork;
BG: you're supposed to eat it with your fingers!" So that was quite an experience, which I'll never forget. I was totally embarrassed.
G: I'll bet you were. That was a culture shock for you!
BG: Yes, it was.
G: Well, while we're on the subject, what other kinds of foods were unusual when you came over?
BG: Well, black-eyed peas.
G: Uh-huh.
BG: Bell peppers, sweet potatoes - or yams - I'd never, never eaten any of those. And while I was in England, before I came to the United States, my sister-in-law at the time, Virginia Cage, would send me care packages, and she sent some canned corn one time. Well, I didn't know what... we'd never eaten corn, not for human consumption; we used to feed it to the chickens. So food was very scarce, and I was very glad to get something to eat, so I opened the can and Barbara Goen 10
added sugar to it and made pudding out of it. I didn't know it was supposed to be eaten as a vegetable.
G: Uh-huh. That is funny.
BG: But I have learned to love the American-grown foods - black-eyed peas and sweet potatoes...
G: Yeah.
BG: ...are my favorites.
G: Indeed? And have you...when you came over were you a cook or did you have to learn cooking styles?
BG: Unfortunately I tried to cook the English way, which didn't go over very well with the people I was cooking for.
G: [laughter]
BG: But I have learned, more or less, to cook the American way now.
G: Yes.
BG: And I still like tea in the afternoon and hot tea. That was at the first part of my life over here, but I'm... really do say that I prefer coffee, now, to tea. I drink tea when I go to England, but that's about the only time.
B: Really?
BG: Hot tea, that is.
G: And what other English customs did you bring with you - habits or manners or mannerisms?
BG: Well, a very reserved mannerism, which is very typical, I think, of English people. When we make friends, we make Barbara Goen 11
friends for life, but we're not as out-going, I don't think, as the majority of the American people are.
G: Yeah. Yeah. But you're friendly enough; you do have friends I'm sure, lots.
BG: Oh, yes. I've got lots of friends. And Floydada has been a wonderful town to me.
G: Has it now?
BG: And when I met Bud, I knew that I would never go back, not to live, in England, that this was going to be my home. I had these children, and so we talked about being a...for
BG: me to get my citizenship papers.
G: Yes.
BG: Which really scared me, but I thought, well, if I'm going to stay here and be a mother to these children and be a good wife, I think I ought to become an American citizen. So in 1952 I went to Lubbock and took the exams, oral and written too, and then got my citizenship paper.
G: You have that with you, don't you, right now?
BG: Yes, I do. I'm holding it right now. And it is dated January 31, 1952.
G: What process did you have to go through to become a citizen?
BG: Learning American history.
G: Uh-huh.
BG: And the judge at the time - I really can't remember, I Barbara Goen 12
don't believe it was this one on the certificate, but he was a very hard person to get any help from. He was a very outspoken person, which I really didn't care for him at all. And he just scared Pat and I to death when we decided we were going to take our citizenship papers. But after it was all done he told us that he was just doing that to prod us and make us go ahead and do it. But I wished he'd had some other way of doing that.
G: He wasn't altogether pleasant, was he?
BG: No, he wasn't.
G: I'd like to photocopy that for our files. Will that be G: all right with you?
BG: That will be fine.
G: Okay. And the document we're looking at is Certificate of Naturalization for Barbara Sylvia Goen. And so now you're an American and you're a Texan.
BG: Right.
G: And have been here quite a long time, a good fifty years.
BG: Yes, fifty years.
G: Yes.
BG: Uh-huh. Well, fifty-one, actually, now.
G: What are some of your fond memories about living in the state of Texas?
BG: The friendliness of the people.Barbara Goen 13
G: Yes.
BG: The wide open spaces. But I still miss the green of England and the trees. And also the conveniences of - like washing machines and dishwashers and beautiful cook stoves, and things like that which we were not lucky to have when I was in England. My first little washing machine was just a very small one. I think it would wash one sheet in it. But I was just as proud as if I'd had a million dollars given to me...
G: Yes.
BG: ...when I first got that tiny little washing machine.
G: [laughter] It made life easier for you, in a way.
BG: Yes. I was like a child playing with a toy.
G: Yes. Was it - just for curiosity - was it a machine that was hand-run, or was it electric?
BG: It was electric, but you had to turn the crank for the wringer part.
G: [laughter]
BG: And it was probably about twenty-four inches square, I imagine.
G: Yes.
BG: Well, no, not twenty-four inches. Probably about twenty inches square. But I thought...my husband bought it for me and I was very, very proud of that.
G: So you've enjoyed the modern conveniences?Barbara Goen 14
BG: Yes, I have. I can't remember, really, what year it was - it must have been 19.., the early part of 1950. We rented a house from a man whose name was Mr. Wright, and at one time he'd been also the sheriff of Floydada, and he had passed away and we rented his house, which is a very old house, but his - I believe it was his daughter, I cannot recall her name, but she told us that we could have all the furniture in it, if we would like it, to buy it for fifty dollars. So that's what we did, that's what we started our housekeeping - with an iron bedstead and a couch that the spring was broken.
G: Uh-huh.
BG: And several things like that. But we lived in that
BG: house for, oh, I'll say four or five years.
G: Did you?
BG: And kept the furnishings for probably that long. But we were very lucky, we got lots of furniture for fifty dollars.
G: [laughter] I'm sure you did. Well, you got your house furnished.
BG: Yes, we did. I'm sure it wasn't the best in the world, but still it was furniture.
G: Do you still have any of those pieces?
BG: No, I'm afraid I don't.
G: Okay. I was just curious. You never know what hangs Barbara Goen 15
on over the years.
BG: I've still got lots of mixing bowls that I've had for about that length of time.
G: Uh-huh.
BG: But as far as chairs or anything like that, I don't have.
G: You've brought a couple of passports with you. Tell me about those passports.
BG: Well, the earliest one I have was issued in 1955.
G: Mrs. Goen is looking through her American passport. 1955. What was the occasion that you had your passport at that time?
BG: I was...well, we were, as a family, my husband and Melinda and Mark, were going to go to England for a visit in BG: August of that year. But my mother, who was still living in England at the time, became very ill. And my brother sent me a cable and said if I wanted to see her alive I'd better come now. And that was in May of 1955, and I was able to be with her for three weeks before she passed away. And then my father, Thomas Kenward, K-e-n-w-a-r-d, he died eleven months later, but I was not able to go back to England for his funeral.
G: What other opportunities did you have to return to England? Over the years?
BG: Well, I had...at that time I had three brothers living Barbara Goen 16
over there, and their families. Since that time one has passed away, my middle brother Frank. Passed away with Alzheimer's disease. But I still have two brothers living. Jack, my oldest brother, is ninety-four years old, and he was an insurance agent until he retired. And he lives in West Wales now, which is in the British Isles. And then my younger brother, Laury, his real name is Laurence Kenward, he's a retired pharmacist, and he lives in Warrickshire in England, which was very close to where I lived in Coventry for many years.
G: How old is he now?
BG: I believe Laury is eight-nine.
G: Yeah. So you're the baby of the family?
BG: I was the baby. My mother was forty-one years old when I was born.
G: Oh, my. Have they been able to come over here to visit you?
BG: Yes, they have.
G: Oh, really? When did they come?
BG: Well, my brother Laury has been over here several times, he and his wife. They were quite travelers. My oldest brother Jack, he had never been out of the British Isles. Well, he said he did, he went to Ireland one time, but we all laughed at him. He'd never, never been on a plane, and in 1993 I talked to my niece and she said that myBarbara Goen 17
brother Jack had already applied for his passport and they were coming to see me.
G: Uh-huh.
BG: That was in 1993. And he was...did amazingly well. He was eight-nine years old at the time, and he got to ride in a big eighteen wheeler truck, which he thought was wonderful, and we took his picture. And he said, "You'd better take my picture in this because those old fogies when I get home they won't believe I did this!"
G: [laughter] Was this his first trip to America?
BG: First trip to America.
G: My.
BG: First time he'd been out of England, really. We told him going to Ireland didn't count.
G: Had he been on an airplane before?
BG: No. He'd never been on a plane before.
G: Oh, my. Well, it's a good thing you were over here so he could stretch his little wings.
BG: Right. I told him...we told him, everybody told him it was time he did, because the other members of my family had already been over here and it was time he did that too.
G: Yes. Yes. What's this newspaper clipping that you brought with you?
BG: That? This is a clipping that my brother Jack, at age eighty-nine in 1993...Barbara Goen 18
END OF TAPE 1, SIDE 1
SIDE 2.
G: ...oral history with Barbara Goen and she's been telling us about her oldest brother, Jack, who had come to visit the U.S. and see her in Texas for the first time in 1993, and is explaining about a newspaper clipping that she's got in front of us.
BG: Yes, I'm looking at this clipping which was in the local Floydada Hesperian, which is published and printed in Floydada, Texas. And I have a picture of my brother, Jack, and his daughter, Josie Powell, also of Wales, and myself, Barbara Goen, in my home in Floydada, Texas.
G: It's entitled "Goen Visited by English Relatives." So you made the papers!
BG: Yes, I did.
G: You did. How long did he stay with you?
BG: They stayed three weeks.
G: Oh, that's a long time.
BG: Yes.
G: Well, good.
BG: He couldn't believe how straight and wide the roads were. I took him to Matador one time, which is just east of Floydada, and you can just see for miles and miles and miles. And he said, "Well, where's the trees?" And I said, "Well, that's one thing we don't have very many of here." Barbara Goen 19
[laughter]
G: It was his turn for the culture shock.
BG: Right.
G: Well, those are wonderful memories. I would like to photocopy this, if it's alright with you?
BG: That's fine.
G: Okay. And this will be in your file along with your recording. Is there anything in particular you'd like to share, in closing, about life here in Texas for you?
BG: Well, my life at first was pretty rough. It was hard; I won't say rough, it was kind of hard. And I had some disappointments, but all in all I had a wonderful fifty years here in the United States and I've made many wonderful, wonderful friends. And I will remain here until I die.
G: This is your home.
BG: This is my home.
G: Well, I'm pleased that you're an English Texan. And an G: American citizen. And, from what you told me, you've contributed a lot to your community and certainly to your family, and your life has been fulfilled, a fulfilling one, don't you believe?
BG: I believe so.
G: Well, I really appreciate you spending the time talking with me and sharing these memories.Barbara Goen 20
BG: Well, I've enjoyed it very much.
G: Thank you. We will close this at seven minutes after three p.m.
END OF TAPE 1, SIDE 2