Juanita Bass, Interviewed by Barbara Pratt, November 12, 2018
Location of Interview: Frankfort, NY
Juanita Bass was born in Bridgewater, NY in 1935. At various points in her life Juanita worked at General Electric, raised her family as a stay-at-home mother, owned and operated a restaurant and bed-and-breakfast, and sold her own brand of food products in grocery stores. In this clip she talks about her father taking care of her family when they were sick.
JB: When we all got sick, my dad would bring our beds out of the bedrooms and put them all in the big front room in front of the old wood-burning stove. He had us all there so he could take care of us all together. Every day he’d look at you and see if you were feeling better, and if you were feeling better, you could sit up on the edge of the bed. Then the next day you could get out of bed and sit in the chair by the stove. The day after that you could go to the doorway, look into the kitchen, but not go into the kitchen. So, every day, he wanted us to feel better. At the end of the measle bout that we had, we could finally go out into the dining room, into the kitchen, and you knew you were all better.
Click here to listen to the full interview or to read the transcript.