Interview with a Grandmother

Interview with Virginia Darr

November 30, 2011

 

                I decided to record the life story of my Grandma. Her name is Virginia Darr. She is ninety one years old and lives in the Fairfax nursing home. I asked her, “Grandma, what is the most exciting part of your life?” “Well, she said, “The most exciting part of my life was flying. Ever since I was a little girl at age five or six she always wanted to fly. You could tell I loved flying from an early age. My parents had a two story chicken house on the farm I lived on. I loved to gather eggs up there from the straw. So one day I decided hmm. I would like to fly. So I borrowed her mother’s umbrella from the roof of the chicken house thinking the umbrella would support me as I came down.” (She chuckles)  “There was a pile of straw and I landed in the pile of straw so I didn’t hurt myself. You could say that I was an early Mary Poppins fan. The umbrella was not useable after that.” Laughing, I listened as she continued, “She said, “The most interesting part of my life was, “when I was flying and teaching being a parent. I think those things were the most important and most exciting. I love flying. I love flying and that it is most important.  I flew because I would enjoy it and I also flew because at that time her husband was flying but he didn’t have to that much of a help so I could fly to be a backup. I flew piper 180s and piper 160. Bill Clam was a friend of my fathers who owned a cement place in Alexandria and retired and lived in Tampa Florida. So we flew his plane down to him.  Bill Clam had a six passenger plane, which was large for a plane.  There my husband and I would spend some time with him.” She found flying to be the most exciting part of her life.

 

I asked her, “Do you remember a person, place, event, or story that influenced any part of your life?  What would that be?” She replied, “A person, place, event, or story that influence part of my life was moving from the Midwest and coming to Washington and working during wartime in D.C. The people that I met and worked for were important at that time in my life because I was young, Twenty years old. I worked for a New Englander and had great difficulty understanding him. I liked him and respected him a lot. But he had such an accent; it was difficult understanding him because she was from the Midwest. So he was my first employer. He was unused to somebody who unfamiliar with a New England accent. He would dictate on a machine and then I would type what letter he had dictated for office documents. I worked a secretarial job.” The experience of her first real job demonstrated how the working world functioned and how to respond to that environment for many years afterward.

 

I asked her, “Now Grandma, Are there parts of your life you would like to change?”  “I would like to have traveled more after your grandfather died. After he died, I quit traveling. If I had done it over I would have continued to different countries and seeing the sights and learning about the different cultures. I asked her, “Was it financial difficulties that prevented you from traveling? “No,” she replied.  “I could afford to travel; it was not financial at all. I would have been by myself. I did not want to go to a foreign country that had a much different language and it would not have been as much fun. I kept waiting for her sister,” who said, “I can would go with you.” “But,” my grandma replied, “She always got bogged down with her daughter and the responsibility’s that came with being a mother.” My grandma regretted that she let the lack of available time from her friendships prevent her from trying new experiences.

I asked her, “Are you like the person you were 50 years ago? 20 years ago? 10 years ago?”  She replied, “No because I have learned so many new things. Also my vision is no longer good. (My grandma is blind) I have had to change my lifestyle considerably. I can no longer drive. I cannot do a lot of things I used to be able do effortlessly. So I had to change your lifestyle of living.” Due to learning of new experiences and changing in her physical health she is changed.

 

I asked her, “Who has been affected by your life?” “Well,” she replied, “My children and my husband have been. Also political people have been affected such as Representative Gerry Connolly, Senator Mark Warner, and Bill Clinton. I worked for their campaigns and worked for a volunteer in the white house after Bill Clinton was elected. I answered the phone. They had a line to call the white house with problems so I was a live voice instead of recording. I enjoyed that very much.”  Her family and politicians were affected by her life.

 

Lastly, I asked her Grandma, “What are some of the things you have learned about life?”  She replied, “I have learned from life that I had to have a sense of humor.  I have learned that I have to work hard. I have learned that I have to have a goal. That I have to set a goal of some kind you have to accomplish. That’s about it. A person has to have a sense of humor and patience. Things do not always turn out the way you hoped. So maybe if you have patience and a sense of humor they will.” She informed me of the importance of how a person reacts to a situation.