Interviews
I conducted interviews with Jean Long on three separate occasions: July 16, August 20, and August 21, 1974. We recorded from 3:30-5:45 p.m. on July 16, and from 9:30 a.m.-3:00 p.m. on the consecutive days in August. All of the discussions were held at the farm home of her daughter, Inez Rasmusson, Route 3, Menomonie--about two miles south of the city. At each session Jean Long, a short (less than five feet), bespectacled, grey-haired woman, who looked fifteen years younger than her 83 years, was dressed in a comfortable pants suit. She wore a hearing aid. Except for the first hour of the July 16 session, when Mrs. Rasmusson puttered in the kitchen, all interview sessions were uninterrupted except when we quit for lunch on August 20 and 21. On those days we spent about two hours eating a light lunch that Jean Long prepared in her daughter's kitchen, and discussed areas we might cover once our tape-recorded conversation resumed.
Researchers of various disciplines or with many interests should find a wealth of useful information in Jean Long's recollections and reflections. The sketchy commentary here will hardly serve as a substitute for a researcher's thorough scrutiny of the abstract and index below, nor will it take the place of a user's discriminating ear listening to Jean Long's vivid and detailed descriptions of memorable events she either witnessed or played an active role in. Still, I would like to point to, in particular, the comments on her early life as a highly independent, fearless young woman who taught in Montana during the second decade of the twentieth century; her feelings about the role of a farmer's wife during the 1920s; her story of how she got involved with the Farmers Union and the WPA rural workers education program; and her recollection of the years she spent doing educational work for the CCW and the Wisconsin Farmers Union. She shares on tape many personal impressions of individuals who were important in the national or state Farmers Union organizations between 1930 and 1960, including those who built Union membership by planning and organizing farmers around purchasing and marketing cooperatives headquartered at South St. Paul. Jean Long and her husband were probably the closest of personal friends to Kenneth Hones and were often called upon to help iron out differences between the bombastic Farmers Union president and other directors or members who strongly disagreed on a question of general policy or over a specific issue.
Jean Long also provides a detailed explanation of the organization and functions of the Farmers Union youth program--a highly successful effort to educate young members of Farmers Union families about the importance of education, cooperatives, and legislation--and reflects at length upon her long association and continuing friendship with Gladys Talbott Edwards, probably the most skillful and talented woman in the history of the National Farmers Union.
The researcher will find the tape recordings almost totally free of interference except for the recordings made on July 16. The bothersome but infrequent clanging resulted from Jean Long's foot playing with the steel legs on a foot stool that rested on a bare floor. The tapes made during August picked up some squeaking sounds from the leather couch as Jean Long sought a more comfortable position.
Abstract to the Interview
The tapes for this interview have two tracks: a voice track containing the discussion and a time track containing time announcements at intervals of approximately five seconds. The abstract below lists, in order of discussion, the topics covered on each tape, and indicates the time-marking at which point the beginning of the particular discussion appears.
Thus, the researcher by using a tape recorder's fast-forward button may find expeditiously and listen to discrete segments without listening to all of the taped discussion. For instance, the user who wishes to listen to the topic on “TREATMENT OF WOMEN ON THE MONTANA FRONTIER” should locate the place on the second track of side one, tape one, where the voice announces the 07:50 time-marking (the voice says at this point, “seven minutes, fifty seconds”), and at this point switch to the first track to hear the discussion. The discussion on “TREATMENT OF WOMEN ON THE MONTANA FRONTIER” continues until approximately 10:00 at which point discussion of the next topic (“DIFFICULTY OF TRAVEL ON THE MONTANA FRONTIER”) begins.
Notice that in most cases sentences beneath each headline explain more about the contents of the topic. For example the sentence underneath “TREATMENT OF WOMEN ON THE FRONTIER” gives further details on what appears on the tape between 07:50 and 10:00.
Index to the Interview
The index, which is keyed to the same time announcement track as the abstract, gives a single alphabetical listing of all proper nouns and distinct historical phenomena which appear on the tape/in the abstract. Each entry is followed by one or more four-part citations specifying the location(s) where the entry appears. For instance, “COMMITTEE FOR A BETTER FARMERS UNION” is followed by the citation 8/21/74 - 3:1, 01:45. This indicates that a reference to the Committee for a Better Farmers Union appears on Tape 3, Side 1 of the August 21 interview, within the time-marking beginning at one minute, forty-five seconds of the time announcement.
The index includes cross references, and no subheadings except in the rare instance of a considerable number of entries for the heading.
NOTE: THOUGH THE VOICE TRACK ON THE TAPES AND THE ABSTRACT BELOW BEGIN RENUMBERING THE RECORDINGS WITH EACH DAY'S INTERVIEW, THE USER COPIES ARE LABELED #1 THROUGH #9. UNTIL THIS IS ADDRESSED, USERS WANTING THE INTERVIEW OF JULY 16 SHOULD REQUEST USER COPIES 1-3, USERS WANTING THE INTERVIEW OF AUGUST 20 SHOULD REQUEST USER COPIES 4-6, AND USERS WANTING THE INTERVIEW OF AUGUST 21 SHOULD REQUEST USER COPIES 7-9.
Other Materials
Also part of this collection is one folder of publications used by Jean Long in the Farmers Union education program.
