Carolyn Jones Oral History Interview

Oral history interview by Mary Heers with Carolyn Jones. Topics include: Swimming in the early morning hours each day; Growing up in Delta and work on her father's cattle ranch, such as driving the tractor, chopping the hay, and cattle drives; Working as a potato peeler at Artic Circle as a young teenager and continuing with other responsibilities through high school; Attending BYU and getting a degree in nursing; Practicing putting in IVs on her own hand; Her first job as a nurse at Logan LDS Hospital being a baptism by fire; Marriage and children; Working on call in the OR recovery room after the birth of her children; Missing out on time with family and family events because of calls to report to the recovery room; she and her husband building their own home; Always planting large gardens and bottling food after the harvest; Grinding her own wheat and baking her own bread; Being resourceful with local food sources; Bottling Deer and fish meat; Being grateful for having the ability to work and provide for her family; A long career as a nurse during a "golden age" of nursing and retirement; A time her husband was seriously injured and brought to the E.R. while she was working and riding in the ambulance with him to Salt Lake; Her husband occasionally being away for work as an electrician for weeks at a time, and feeling like a single mother when he is away.

Ms. Carolyn Jones was raised in Delta, Utah, where her father was a cattle rancher. Her earliest jobs were helping on the ranch. As an early teen, into college, she worked as a potato peeler (and then moved her way up) at the Arctic Circle in Delta. She went to school for nursing and worked as a nurse for 42 years in Cache Valley, Utah. Aside from her nursing career, she raised five children and worked hard in her home and garden to grow and can as much food as she could, often with her husband working out of town.