Dick and Shirley Graybeal , November 29, 2013

File

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Project :

As part of the completion of the Master of Applied Historical Research program at Boise State University, Angie Davis interviewed long-time residents of the Boise Bench. The subjects’ lifetime experiences range from the interwar period, Depression Era, and through the post-war period as Boise’s suburban Bench neighborhoods were transformed from rural farms and orchards to the metropolitan outskirts of suburban Boise. The subjects interviewed range in economic, social, and cultural backgrounds and persuasions, their perspectives contribute unique insights into the ways that Boise’s rural communities reacted to and dealt with international, regional, and local historical events.

Dates

November 29, 2013

Extent

1.16 Gigabytes

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Additional Description

Abstract

In an interview with Angie Davis on November 29, 2013, Dick and Shirley Graybeal discuss growing up and raising their own family in the Boise Bench Neighborhood. Shirley describes her family’s move to Boise from Indianapolis in 1949, the house they moved into which was built by Everett Bechtel, working as an usher at Vista Theatre as a teenager, and some of the health complications she has experienced. Her parents opened Thriftway Furniture on Latah and Alpine, the store sold the first televisions and microwaves in Boise, as well as toasters and electronics. Dick discusses his career and his childhood growing up in Castleford, Idaho. He recounts visiting an aunt in Boise during his young years, attending Boise Junior College, and becoming a broadcast engineer in the National Guard. He was later employed by a number of local broadcast stations, and helped construct the first ‘Earth Station’ (a 30ft. dish) at Boise State University.

They also discuss the businesses in the neighborhood including bars with slot machines, the increase in the legal drinking age, having technology like televisions in their homes, the schools they and their children attended, some of the war time activities they participated in like scrap drives, and some of the challenges and struggles they dealt with as parents.