Olive O'Mara, West Valley City, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, June 22, 2002: Saving the legacy tape no. 569 and 570

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THIS IS AN INTERVIEW WITH OLIVE O'MARA 0 JU E 22 2002. TH INTERVIEWER IS BECKY B. LLOYD. THI I THE PROJE T ' VI TH LEGACY: AN ORAL HISTORY OF UTAH'S WORLD WAR II VETE " TAPE NO. 569 AND 570. BEC: This is an interview with Olive O'Mara at her house in West Valley City Utah. Today's date is June 22, 2002. This is part of the Saving the Legacy Proj ect. My name is Becky Lloyd. Olive, let's start with when and where you were born. OLI: I was born in a little town called Scottdale- not the "s", Scottdale- in western Pennsylvania in 1920. My parents were teenagers (laughs). Mother was eighteen, my dad nineteen when I was born. BEC: Were you the oldest child? OLI: I was the oldest. This little town is in the middle of a mining area, a coal mining area-not in the town, but all the area in western Pennsylvania was coal mining at that time. But having parents so young quite often I lived near Mother's people in the coal mining area, in the mining towns we called them, and other times I lived in Scottdale, where Dad's parents lived. Because they were so young, they tried to get Dad into a business. He didn't do well, and then he would go back to the mining towns where Mother's people were and he would work in the mines until he got an injured shoulder or something, and then we'd be back and forth. So I had a dual experience there as I was growing up. By the time I got twelve, I was starting high school. I had started school at age five, in the little mining town, called Thompson Number 2-I remember it well. Then I was so bored and they constantly asked Mother to let me skip a grade, and she didn't want to because of my age. But about the time I was to go to seventh grade, she and dad weren't having a good relationship among each other. They were young (laughs).