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Logan Saunders 0:00
Oh, this is Logan Saunders with Lindell. Linda and Randall Baker for the country doctor museum interview. Where did you guys both grow up and kind of How was life growing up?

Linda Baker 0:10
I grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. My Daddy worked for the railroad. My mother was German. He met her in the Air Force in Bremerhaven, Germany. He liked the girl here he met my mother fell in love, got married over there. And he had to get married, German wise and Air Force wise. He stayed over there for a while, married, had my oldest sister then came to Hamlet, North Carolina, lived with my grandmother had me I was born in Hamlet, Carolina. And then he got a job with the railroad in Raleigh. And that's where we stayed.

Randall Baker 0:49
I was born in Nash county. I was raised in Nash County. We thought Monday to work, we haven't come at night or whatever. But I was always, I went to NC State graduated NC state and then came back and then I left and went to Hamlet for a while, two years and then came back. But that's where I've been in Eastern North Carolina all my life.

Linda Baker 1:12
Who did you meet at NC State?

Randall Baker 1:14
yes, that's right. My wife

Linda Baker 1:18
We've been married 47 years we met at NC State. He did not like me. He said, I can't afford a girlfriend. I work hard for my money, whatever. And I said, Well, can't you have a friend that can be your friend because you know, y'all work and study together and college and I was like, I can be your friend. He wouldn't have nothing to do with me. And then all of a sudden, two months I said about damn time. Anyway, that's the way we began.

Randall Baker 1:51
Watch your language

Logan Saunders 1:52
When you started to get into a career, what kind of careers did you guys pursue?

Linda Baker 1:58
Well, I didn't really have a career I've worked in factories or working standard products that makes the gasket around your windshield, the rubber gasket around your window. And I worked there 12 years because I got off at 430. And I had three children and I want to be home when they got out of school. So I worked. And I worked at Premier Circuit Assembly that made wires to circuitries and all kinds of stuff. And I got off at 3:30 there so I could be at home with the children. I didn't want career.

Randall Baker 2:31
Well, I grew up on a farm, raised [Inaudible] and cucumbers, and then I decided that I didn't want to farm the rest of my life. So I went to NC State and graduated went to aircraft management in Ocracoke and got out of there and

Linda Baker 2:55
AB Rose

Randall Baker 2:56
And went AB Rose Incorporated and worked there in and then I left that field and went in the insurance business for a little while but then I came back but I started my own business. And then I worked for Nash General Hospital as the ground superintendent and that and then retired from there and my business grew and grew.

Linda Baker 3:20
And then it got so that Dan didn't want to be at Food Lion anymore. He took over the business. And he kind of laid back and was decide to lease and then Dan became the boss and

Randall Baker 3:32
I told him I was going to go sell it. If anybody did want it. And he said oh no daddy don't sell it.

Linda Baker 3:37
So he got all his shares out of Food Lion

Randall Baker 3:39
The girls didn't want any part of it, they all helped me work since they were 9 years old

Logan Saunders 3:48
As you think back about your life, like growing up in a rural area, what are some challenges you faced maybe like somebody like close to you faced and then who was there to or what was there to kind of like help them get over this challenges such as like friends, family, neighbors, church, or healthcare professionals?

Unknown Speaker 4:02
Okay, that's the paper right?

Logan Saunders 4:04
Yes Maam

Linda Baker 4:03
Ok well when we first got married, a lot of family members gave us furniture to help us furnish our apartment. My husband worked at Swift Meat factory in Wilson. We also ate Sunday dinner with his parents after church. We moved to Hamlet, North Carolina when my husband found a job in the Soil Conservation Service. His older brother helped us move. About two years into our marriage. We had two children. My husband's mother would send us monthly about $20 to help us out. Then after two years, we move back to Nash County. We saved our money and was in the process of building a small home. My husband's father sold us an acre of acre and a half of land for $1. We were just about to start building when the county came out and saw we had to have a gravel road to our property. It was going to cost $1,800 We had saved $5,000 for the whale set to take in Have a cost for the house. So his brother lent us the money for the gravel because the loan was about to expire and we had to start another loan and delay the building if we didn't come up with a gravel road. We now have been living our house 39 years we also had another child, which completed our family of five. Since the early years of our family, it was sickness of our children and help from a grandmother down the road helping us with our different children's illnesses. Now the children are adults, married with their children. And now we are the grandparents who helped with the children, course there aren't any children except one. As we get older, 67 in years we sometimes need our grandchildren and grown children to help us in our everyday lives. It is very nice to know that they are willing and happy to help us back. There are no challenges when you have a loving family to help you. And of course the Lord was always helping us to.

Randall Baker 6:05
Well, when I was a sophomore in high school, my dad became disabled and became very ill. And of course he was bedridden for 17 years but our family worked well together out on our little farm and my dad worked [Inaudible] company at night in Wilson any farm during the daytime and he became ill he had to retire and he had to drawl a receipt because he could never meet gain any more employment and he had to break his pension and disability. From me insurance from Swift company well my brother it was one year older and we had maintain a farm and keep it going and we raised Tobacco and cucumbers and we both went to college he went to Carolina went NC State but that is the way farming supplied us with money to be able to go to college. We had a lot of help from other farmers and family members such as Millard Bone and Kelsey Bone they passed away now and others to help us make 1000s of [Inaudible] very good and God was leading the way all the time. After graduating college I started working at Swift and Company just like my dad I hadn't had a great deal of guidance from the coworkers because they'd been there forever and me and made a career at the plant. But I worked ar Swift anf Company for about six months and they told me to all employees come to the cafeteria one day for one meeting. Well this is when I got the news that the plant was closing in about three months and again been there all year we wouldn't get any money. So I had been there for like three to six months and it was going to close before the year was up and had to find another job thats when I didn't know what to do I just got married I just got married and just payed my loan off from NC State but and so I found a job in [Inaudible] insurance with the good Lord's help but I had to go you know, had to move to Hamlet in Rockingham and all kind of worked there for two years and had a chance to come back home to Nash county. I like the people like the job but I was thrilled to come back home. I have been hurt on the job before working at [Inaudible] or whatever and Sharkey had give us money for Christmas for the family when the kids were little. I hurt my knee couldn't work, waiting for workmans comp took 28 days to get it but thank God churches and good people and God helped me through all of it.

Linda Baker 9:12
He hurt his knee right before Christmas. [Inaudible] 11 months apart. And Swift turned into Dinner Bell, which was same thing, you know, hams and stuff like that. And we didn't have any money. I didn't work I had too look after them. And a church gave us $100 which helped, and back then a $100 went a long way a long way and we didn't know what to do Santa Claus was coming but no money coming in. Because we had to wait for so many weeks for the money for when he got hurt .Oh god, I can't believe this, we didn't want to ask our parents.

Logan Saunders 9:52
So you say like having that like really good connection with the community like church that people like that kind of help to get through everything.

Randall Baker 9:58
Oh, yes sir

Logan Saunders 10:02
Like as your children are, you know they're grown now they had their own kids what are some of the challenges like they face today? Maybe you face today like how they would anything that same community is still the same way as it is now , or do you think its kind of changing now.

Linda Baker 10:16
The women are a little different today with the young boys. Drugs its not good. There's a lot of things that take their attention away whereas we worked real hard Danny Kimberly Christie did a little bit but we've worked on the weekend cut and grass to make extra money as kids today and you know, I agree I saw it on Facebook. It said C E L L phone, and then it showed a picture of a person in jail said that's why they call it a cell phone. If you're in prison for this phone, because when it rings your brain says like

Randall Baker 11:05
no communication skills because of this

Linda Baker 11:09
that that's changed a lot.

Logan Saunders 11:11
You think like like kind of like how, you know cell phones are kind of more like dependent on it is kind of changing like how the communities work and how people

Linda Baker 11:20
Yes, because the cell phone is taken this and this away from everybody. Grandparents, Mother Father, yeah, you know, you we didn't have that that we didn't have. Well, we went to his parents, my parents were in Raleigh I'd call him every week and we'd go to his Mama's every weekend and eat dinner with them and stuff and we all sat around and talked and talked and talked. No, the phone has taken the family away.

Logan Saunders 11:55
Well, I think that's it. You guys got any other questions or things you want to add?

Linda Baker 11:59
No, we are just old thats all.