George Oldham

Partial Transcript: George's mother and father married in N. London. His older sister, Kate, was born there. They moved to the US at the turn of the century. His father had two brothers, Will and Frank. Will died when he was a teenager and was a notable young artist. His older brother, Frank, lived into old age but never had children so the Oldman family died out in England. George's paternal grandfather was wealthy and owned a lot of real estate in the London area. He hired a solicitor (attorney) to do a genealogical study and traced the Oldman family back to the time of Oliver Cromwell, when the monarchy was overthrown.
George's mother's side of the family: George was going through family photo albums and found a photo of a beautiful blond girl of about 12 years of age which was titled "Nel Tyler", who was his mother. She attended a deaf/mute school in London after having had a 'traumatic experience" as an infant. George remembers his mother as being hard of hearing and she had some difficulty with her speech.
Tyler family (George's mother's family): George's mother had a sister, Annie, and 4 brothers. Their father had passed away. Three of the brothers immigrated to the US. Another brother, Will, stayed in England to care for their mother. Because one of the brothers stayed in England, George has several cousins in England.
As previously stated, George's mother and father emigrated to the U.S. at the turn of the century. They were called 'salvationists' (officers in the Salvation Army). George's family moved to New England. His father was a Salvation officer in charge at various cities including Boston, MA, Old Orchard Beach, Maine, Concord, NH and Leominster, MA (where George was born). Uncle Alf (on George's mother's side) became the Divisional Commander for the entire Southern U.S. for the Salvation Army.

Partial Transcript: My daughter, Martha, has been encouraging me to do an oral history about our family.

Partial Transcript: The Salvation Army was founded in England and was an important part of English religious life. The founder was English, and they were known for going into situations for the underprivileged, but particularly into pubs were they spread the word of the gospel. The Salvation Army is known worldwide for its brass bands. The husband of one of my cousins (Tony) was a member of a world-famous Salvation Army band called "Chalk Farm" band. He liked to tell a story about when they performed a world tour and were asked to play at the Vatican for the Pope.
My dad got involved in the Salvation Army because his father developed a drinking problem and lost much of the money he earned working as a Solicitor. I believe that my dad's involvement with the Salvation Army was triggered by wanting to go in the opposite direction of his father. My father was assigned to Camden, NJ when I was 4 years old. It was expected that the family of a Salvation Army officer would become involved in its work. There were 7 children in my family; I had 4 sisters and 2 brothers. The children were not interested in working with the Salvation Army so my dad became a Methodist minister. He lived out his years in NJ as a Methodist minister. In adulthood, all the children moved on to pursue their own interests in various locations in the U.S.

Partial Transcript: Dad ran a very strict household….no Sunday papers, no card games except we were allowed to play Fish and Chinese checkers, no dancing. Overall, Dad was very strict with us. Saturday afternoon was a very quiet time for all of us because Dad was preparing his sermon. We moved a lot because he was transferred frequently. I went to three different high schools. George began to attend college nearby. Since he didn't have a car the High school bus driver allowed him to ride the bus to college. During my freshman year of college, my mother passed away at age 55, my dad was transferred again so I had to arrange a new way to get to college. I had a friend who also needed to get to the same college, so we developed a new routine to get there. Her mother picked me up at home, drove us to the train station where we caught the train to college. The commute took two hours each way. I worked 2-3 jobs at college so that I had enough money to live in the dorms, thus ending my long daily commute. I met my future wife, Martha (nicknamed Teeny), at college.

Partial Transcript: My mother was an unusual person. My mother read everything in the newspaper. She was a preacher's wife raising 7 children plus 2 cousins, therefore, got behind on her reading. She put the unread newspapers under the cushion of her rocker which proceeded to get higher and higher. She eventually read all of them from start to finish. She never complained. She went to every church service as a preacher's wife.

Partial Transcript: I graduated from college in January 1943 and drafted in February. Teeny told a friend that she wanted to hear from me before I left for the military, so I wrote to her. I did my training in Texas and when I had my first leave I went home to NJ. I found out that Teeny was working as a waitress in Ocean City, NJ so I contacted her which is when our romance was rekindled.
I left Fort Nix, NJ in February, got on a troop train to Miami Beach Florida. The army had taken over some of the beach front hotels. There were 4-6 people per room. I was there for basic training and applied for the aviation cadet program. Before that happened, I was transferred from Miami Beach to Scotfield Illinois for radio school. While I was in Illinois, I received word that I had been accepted into the cadet program. I was then sent to Ann Arbor, Michigan for continued college education. Then I went to San Antonio to be tested for various positions. I was assigned to be a Bombardier. I graduated from Bombardier school and was assigned to Savannah Georgia in preparation to be sent overseas. I traveled to see Teeny (we were married by then) every day until my plane arrived for the trip overseas. I was flown to the Azores off the coast of Africa. After several more flights we ended up in India. Our mission was to harass the Japanese. When our mission was completed as Bombardiers we were given the option of either serving as navigators, taking supplies over the Himalayas to the troops in China or taking a ground job. My wife back home had just had her first child so I opted for a ground job. I was put in charge of the Post Exchange (PX). The war ended and I came home.

Partial Transcript: There was one interesting story. At the PX we had our own Coca Cola making equipment. We ran out of Coca Cola supplies, so we flew a B24 to Calcutta to get supplies, and then flew back. In another story, we flew 12-hour missions in B24s. In one mission as we were getting ready to drop our bombs the bombs were jammed; they wouldn't fall out. It was my job to take care of it. The bomb bay doors were open, the wind was coming in, the vanes on the end of the bombs were spinning and I had to keep the vanes from spinning. We proceeded to drop the bombs in the jungle.
I then flew home to Fort Mead, Maryland. I was able to get a 30-day recuperation leave. I was offered to stay on for another year and my job would be to interview and guide returning Air force officers, which I accepted. I rented a small house and brought my wife and baby. After a year I was discharged as a Captain in the Air force, then took a job teaching in a High School for 5 years. While teaching, I did graduate work at Temple University for my administrator's certification, became an elementary school principal for the next five years. Three of my children were at the school when I was principal. I then moved on to become principal at the Junior High School. I then got a job as assistant superintendent and superintendent in Parsippany, NJ.
my wife was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at age 46. My brother Frank also had Parkinson’s. I had seen what the winters in NJ had done to him. I took an early retirement at age 53 and relocated to WNC in 1975. We looked at several areas in WNC and chose to settle in Hendersonville. We rented for a year then bought a house in town. Wherever we moved to my wife was very active in the public and school libraries. I was not prepared for retirement. I was restless so got a job working at an orchard for a while. Then I applied for a job at the Kanuga episcopal conference center and became the assistant to the director for a while, until we bought our house. I had been hiking with the Carolina Mountain Club since we moved to Hendersonville. I met a hiker by the name of Perry Rudnick who was from NYC and left millions of dollars to the Community Foundation. My wife passed away in 1996. In 1997 I came to Carolina Village. I became very active at Carolina Village. One of my favorite activities has been to participate in "sing a longs" at the nursing facility where we sing old timey songs. Some folks who now have dementia are still able to remember the words to songs even when they can't remember their family's names.

Partial Transcript: Take me out to the ballgame; school days, school days; Carolina Moon keep shining, etc.
Another interesting story is that I had such a terrible overbite they almost didn't admit me to the aviation cadet program. They thought I wouldn't be able to manage an oxygen mask. When I got out of the military the first thing I did was to have orthodontic work so I had braces on my teeth when I taught. I enjoyed my years teaching. I taught 7th and 9th graders. My years as an elementary and Junior High school principal were interesting. (George goes on to recount many incidents that happened during his work as a principal). One of the schools I was principal of had a racially mixed student body which resulted in some problems. The black students all sat together in the cafeteria. The teachers in the lunchroom tended to zero in on the black students if there was a disciplinary issue. Much to the chagrin of my PTA president and student council I rearranged the homerooms so that they were racially diverse. The students then went to the cafeteria by homerooms which solved the problem.

Partial Transcript: my dad as I mentioned was a Methodist Minister. The Quaker influence came through my wife. Her mother was a 'birthright' Philadelphia Quaker. My wife did not have a chance to go to Quaker meetings ('Friends Meetings'). My wife's father had a car (there was one car in the family)…he was a Presbyterian. There was no one to take their daughter to Quaker meetings. After I returned from the service, we had no car, so we attended the Methodist church. Once we got a car we started to attend Quaker meetings. We attended meetings in NJ, NY and Philadelphia.

David: What is it about being a Quaker that speaks to your heart?

I think the openness to others without judgment. The heart of Quakerism is that there is God in everyone. Early legislators in NC were all Quakers. Quakerism moved from the eastern part of NC to the western part.

Partial Transcript: I hope I leave some good memories of family times together. I hope that I can be instrumental in helping the remaining members of the family get to know each other. We've had 2 or 3 very successful family gatherings, relatives from throughout the US and England.

Partial Transcript: I hope they will have a good sense of humor. I hope they remember the good times we had together as a family.

Partial Transcript: I appreciate the opportunity to share some of my memories and thoughts.

Partial Transcript: I have one but I don't think it's appropriate. George sings a different song: Love is something if you give it away, give it away, give it away, you end up having more. For it's just like a magic penny, hold it tight. You won't have any. Lend it, spend it and you'll have so many. They'll roll all over the floor. So, love is something if you give it away, give it away, give it away. Love is something if you give it away, you'll end up having MORE!