Interview with Elsie Parsons

Broome County Oral History Project

Interview with: Mrs. Elsie (Atwood) Parsons

Interviewed by: Susan Dobandi

Date of interview: 21 August 1978

Susan: Mrs. Parsons, could we begin this interview by having you tell us where you were born and something about your early childhood, your parents and what they did?

Elsie: I was born in Le Raysville, Pennsylvania, and came to Binghamton at the age of three and at that time of course a IBM was International Time Recording where my father worked and my mother was a wife and homemaker. I had one sister.

I went to the public schools of Binghamton. I graduated from Binghamton Central High School and a my last year in high school I worked at Cornell Dibbles Funeral Home just answering telephone and helping as sort of a receptionist then I went to a Potsdam State Normal School. When I came back I was hired by Dr. Daniel J. Kelly whom we all loved in the 5 & 10 to be exact well I suppose that everything had been taken care of at the board meeting naturally but that was the first announcement before the letter came to tell me that I had been hired as a kindergarten teacher in the public schools.

I taught in Benjamin Franklin School and in later years I came over to teach in Horace Mann because the principal of Horace Mann School was the one I went to when I entered kindergarten and he asked Dr. Kelly if I might come and teach for him so my friends all said, “Oh no, they won't transfer you.” But somehow I found out they did so, I came over ‘cause a people thought I wouldn't want to leave a new building to come to an old building because that was before the new one was put up, Horace Mann, but a I enjoyed my life very much. I taught until—I taught half days after my first child came and then I taught a I had stopped teaching entirely when the boy came so that a I could stay home all the time and just be a housewife and help with the business here.

Susan: Do you recall how much you made when you first started teaching?

Elsie: I think it was $1,100 and I thought that was an awful lot of money and my parents did, really, today it doesn't sound like very much but a I think that's about what I got, that or $1200, somewhere around that neighborhood when I first started in but after three years of course I didn't marry until after the three years were up although I did meet Mr. Parsons before that time but I wanted to be sure that I had my permanent certificate for teaching so if I wanted to go back and teach and I did teach until the children came so I had quite a long career as a public school teacher in Binghamton but a my husband went in business in 1928. 

Susan: ‘28. What did he do before he got into this business?

Elsie: A he worked for E-J before that. 

Susan: Oh did he?

Elsie: Uh huh.

Susan: That's interesting.

Elsie: And in 1928 he went in business with a Mr. Titus and we had the Titus Parsons Funeral Home on the southside and then we bought—we moved over here to the westside of Main St. so that we were across the street at 86 Main for four or five years. Then we bought this house. 

Susan: It's a beautiful home.

Elsie: Yes, J. Stewart Well owned it but he wouldn't sell. We wanted to buy it sooner but he lived here all alone with just one servant which wasn't enough to properly take care of a home and he just wasn't interested in selling. We had sent people to inquire of him but he said, “What would he do with the money if he did sell?” So, we couldn't buy the house next door which was the carriage house, the white house with the red blinds at that particular time, but my husband bought it later for a friend of ours who is single and wanted a place in this area so she could be close to us. Her father was a minister and she doesn't have any close relatives so we bought the house as soon as it was make use of to a nephew.

Susan: Can you recall some—some little things that you did when you were growing up that you did that was many years ago?

Elsie: Yes, I agree with you. I a, well skating was what I enjoyed the most, I think. Of course I did all the other things too. But I think skating and playing tennis were my favorites when we were in high school and ice skating course I did rollerskate.

Susan: What were some of the biggest changes that you saw in the community as you were growing up?

Elsie: Well you mean in the buildings or the business or what? I know when we moved to this funeral home and went in business here I think a great many people besides myself we did it in all due respect we used to call Monsignor "Father" McLean and I can see even today the gorgeous arrangement of flowers that he sent when we had our opening and he was always very nice to us. And we had a girl in every room when we had the opening to tell people about the room. We'd give them a little history of the house because of course it is a—a very beautiful building and that added, I think, a great deal to our opening and the girls who did it enjoyed it and a they were always very very nice to us. We enjoyed a lovely friendship between the sons and Father McLean of course that dates back a good many years which you can't remember I'm sure but a and—

I don't know, I think that I enjoyed even grade school as well as high school a lot more than people do today. It seems to me we had good times and we had more parties and things like that when we got together in groups and sororities and things like that—that we enjoyed it. Some of the youngsters today don't get quite the pleasure out of it that we did, at least it doesn't seem that way to me. They want a little extra to have what they call a good time from what people did when I was young.

Susan: How many children did you have?

Elsie: Two.

Susan: Two. Do you want to tell us about your daughter?

Elsie: Oh my daughter lives in California and her husband works for Farm Food Machines Co. He is a comptroller and she is a wife and homemaker and they have three lovely children. My son is single. He's a bachelor by choice and so I don't think he is going to give me any grandchildren, I don't know. He's in Denver, Colorado.

Susan: Where did your daughter study her painting?

Elsie: She studied in he local schools and then she went to college and took it up in a—oh I'm sorry—but she does do nice work, I think, I enjoy it very much.

Susan: Do want to go into your activities with the local clubs here in town?

Elsie: Well, I'm the past President of the Civic Club of Binghamton, an organization that of course was for many years ago and is for the interest of the community and of course I am also a past officer of Monday Club but of course Monday Club has a different object. It's more of a lecture club and I also belong to Zonta Club International and I'm active still in that and that is for businesswomen, of course, Zonta Club International, and I enjoy that very much. I belong to West Presbyterian Church and I'm active there still.

Susan: You’re active in the business, which we know with all these phones ringing.

Elsie: Yes, Yes I still am active in the business—stay active in that and I really enjoy it. If there is something you can do for people when they are going through three of the most difficult days of their—maybe first time they've met with death and it's very difficult to accept and if you can do something to help guide them and help them out a little bit over those three days, I think it's well worth while.

Susan: There has been a lot of talk about how old fashioned we are in the way we take care of our loved ones. Do you see any a improvement of that in the foreseeable future?

Elsie: Now I don't quite understand the work improvement—a you know at the time of death a one in the past has always wanted to have a funeral service and have the friends come and some people like to have their friends view the body—others like to have a closed casket, others like to have the casket open for the calling hours and closed for the funeral service which of course I think is the natural way to do things but a there is a change the younger people of today.

Susan: They have—they have been cutting the hours.

Elsie: That's right. 

Susan: Which makes it easier on the family.

Elsie: Yes, it does make it easier on the family and I notice a considerable difference because we used to have at least three sessions of calling hours and now we have not more than two and a I think that if you have a notice in the Binghamton Press and the Binghamton Sun your friends always make it a point to find time to come at the time you stated in the paper. If they really are a good friend and they want to come they make it their business to get here whenever the family sets the time so that it is easier on a family to have only two hour sessions of calling hours rather than three or four but some people particularly, Armenians and Polish people still insist on about three or four. 

Susan: The old fashioned way.

Elsie: Uh huh. But now some people have only one. A few people and a if there is sufficient notice in the Binghamton Press and the Sun I think that covers it very nicely for a family.

Susan: Let's get on to something else. Is there anything more that you would like to a—

Elsie: I haven't given it much thought a—I've told you where I've taught, of course I taught Sunday School too.

Susan: Are you concerned? Are you concerned for your grandchildren that there are so many articles written about “why Johnny can't read” and “what's wrong with our school system today?”

Elsie: I'm very concerned about that, yes, and I think it's going to be corrected. I think people are becoming aware of it but it has taken a long time for the general public to wake up that children have been pushed on from the second to the third, fourth, fifth and sixth grade and through high school without really properly covering the work that should be theirs to do during that period of time. I'm very concerned about it, yes.

Susan: And it is sad when we have so much to work with these days than we had when you were teaching school.

Elsie: Very true. Very true and there is more to cover too than there was when I was teaching a—a great deal more to cover and children should become aware of it in the early years of schooling. I formed the habit of doing things and doing them and earning their promotions—not having them just passed on which is really what has been happening and the general—I think we’re really just waking up to the fact, I think other than teachers it hasn't been very well recognized.

Susan: And really the teachers haven't had too much to say about what—

Elsie: That's very true, they haven't a they have been sort of promoting this let them go in the next grade.

Susan: So that people in years to come will know that a lot of us haven't been satisfied with the way things have been going bu we have to go along with—

Elsie: And on the college level it's too bad they are no longer held to cutting classes. It's just that they cut them there is nothing really serious happens about it. They just go when they feel like it, do as much work as they care to and sometimes even when they have four years of college they just go on for a year or two if dad and mother want to support them which is tragic really. It’s a, children should grow up to know that they're going to be responsible for themselves at a certain age. Take care of themselves that way. 

Susan: Well, thank you Mrs. Parsons, it's been very nice talking with you.

Elsie: Well I've enjoyed talking with you. It's been a pleasure I assure you.