17. Local Black History

Bob Zybach: Was it Glenders Hill?

Velma Carter Rawie: Glenders. I would think of it as Glenders Hill. Whether that was what it was, but if I was referring to that hill I would call it Glenders Hill.

Bob Zybach: Did you do that when you were a kid? Would you say Glenders Hill or anything?

Velma Carter Rawie: Well, when you would say Glenders Hill you would just say, "Over by Glenders." I don't remember it being called a hill, it was just [inaudible].

Bob Zybach: We were talking about poison oak and I was bringing that to mind and those hills in there, that Tampico Ridge is marked on maps as Poison Oak HilL

Velma Carter Rawie: Oh. . . Well where I was thinking about all of the poison oak, you know, where the Rohners lived and then coming south all along the Highway there where they have planted some new Christmas trees in there and there is an Arabian Horse place in there now along in there; that hill was just solid poison oak. That's where the boys went, the army boys went, out on bivouac and stuff, up in there. Oh, they got poison oak!

Bob Zybach: How did you hear about all of that?

Velma Carter Rawie: Well, after all, we had an army boy staying with us in town and you heard it.

Bob Zybach: It is called Poison Oak Hill now on the maps, do you think that it might have come from that era?

Velma Carter Rawie: I think that's where it got the name Poison Oak Hill. Boy, those soldier boys were in bad shape!

17. Local Black History

Bob Zybach: Now, when the army came in, you said that there were actually no minorities of any kind in the community; no chinese or blacks?

Velma Carter Rawie: No, I don't remember anybody but we had everything after the Camp came in here to Corvallis.

Bob Zybach: Was there any resistance to that?

Velma Carter Rawie: No there wasn't any, I wouldn't say. I have always felt that Corvallis handled the situation real good.

Bob Zybach: There was no racial problems?

Velma Carter Rawie: I never heard of any.