Interview with Romona Walker

SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES

ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM

Interview #1846

WALKER, ROMONA

WALKER, ROMONA (1928-)

Interviewed: 2019

Interviewer: Lea Goldstone

Index by: Lea Goldstone, Sophie Clark

Transcribed by: Teresa Bergen

Length: 33 minutes

First Interview Session (February 13, 2019): Digital File

00:00:00

LG: Today is February 13, 2019. My name is Lea Goldstone. And I'm interviewing Romona Walker. We're here in Marshall, Wisconsin. And this is being conducted for the Madison General School of Nursing Alumni Oral History Project, 1905 to 1982. For sound quality purposes, could you please say your name and spell your last name?

RW: Romona Harland Walker. Do you want the Walker? Or the Harland is my--

LG: You can just spell both, if you'd like.

RW: Harland is H-a-r-l-a-n-d, and Walker is W-a-l-k-e-r.

LG: All right. Perfect.

RW: Out there, I'm known as Harland.

LG: Okay. So tell me a little bit about your upbringing.

RW: I grew up here in Marshall, 400 people. My mother was a graduate of Madison General Hospital. So of course all my years, I knew I had to be a nurse or I would be offending my mother. Goodness. Marshall was just small. We had a nice 00:01:00school. And as soon as I graduated from high school, I came to Madison General. And graduated from there and worked there for a year, and was married. Worked there for another year. And had two boys. Nine years later, I went back to Columbus Community Hospital and worked nights on the surgical floor and staffed the emergency room.

LG: And, so would you say, you said that in your family they kind of expected you to go into nursing.

RW: My mother did.

LG: Was nursing popular just in this community?

RW: No. No. My mother was the old, called her the town goat. Anybody that was hurt or sick, they called my mother. And she went. She never drove. My dad would always, I can remember nights as a kid, we'd go out to Deansville or down Depot 00:02:00Street or wherever. Dad would take her. And he and I would sit in the car and wait for her to do what she had to do.

LG: So was it kind of a big change for you coming from a small kind of Wisconsin community into the nursing community at UW Madison?

RW: No, I don't think so. I mean, I went to Madison enough to--

LG: Oh, I see.

02:29

RW: I wasn't just in Marshall. (laughs)

LG: And what was your perception of nursing school prior to your attending?

RW: I knew always, that's what I was going to do.

LG: It was just set?

RW: Yeah.

LG: That's awesome.

RW: Yeah.

LG: So what years did you attend?

RW: I graduated from high school in '46, and from nursing in '49.

LG: And you said you'd been to Madison before. But what would you say excited you most about going to UW Nursing School?

RW: No, I didn't go to UW. Madison General.

LG: Oh, Madison General. I'm sorry.

RW: Madison General!

LG: What excited you most about being there?

RW: Well, I just knew I always wanted to be a nurse. And it was just, to me, to all these gals coming from all over, I think when we got there, I think there were 40 of us. But by the end of the week, I think we were down to 25, maybe.

LG: Just by the end of the first week?

RW: Yeah. You know, these gals would come and you know, this is what they were going to do. And some were homesick and some just didn't like it.

LG: Was that first week, what was your experience in that just like first week of being there? Like what kind of things did you experience at school?

RW: Getting up every morning at 6:30 and going over to McConnell Hall for devotions.

LG: Oh. Describe what are devotions?

RW: Church, prayer group. We were expected, and we used to roll up our pajamas 00:04:00underneath our housecoat or whatever, coat, and over we'd go. Because we all lived at Rest Harrow, yeah, Rest Harrow. Then we'd have to walk out and down to the basement of, what was that, gymnasium or whatever we had? And we had our prayer meeting and we came back and got ready for school.

LG: So what was the dorm that you said you were living in when you--

04:37

RW: Rest Harrow.

LG: Rest Harrow.

RW: It was right beside, it was on, what was that street? It was right behind Rest Harrow. Right behind the McConnell Hall. It was the original dorm. The dorm that my mother was in. (laughs)

LG: That's amazing.

RW: Do you know when your mother attended school? Six or seven, '26 or seven.

LG: Oh. Amazing.

RW: I should have looked those things up. Because I know I haven't got them down there. It's always in my head, I guess.

LG: So what were your experiences living in Rest Harrow?

RW: We were a fun group. Close group. And we still are to this day. The whole class couldn't quite fit in. A few of them went over to the hospital to live. And we had some of the teachers lived in the dorm. And we had a little, what was her name? It started with S. We had a little house mother. She was old and she was only about five foot tall. And she couldn't get past second floor. So third and fourth floor, we didn't worry about her coming up. Because we would many 00:06:00times study in the night, you know. Go in the closet to study. Because she might get up that far and find us.

LG: So what were kind of, what kind of social and recreational activities did you do with your friends during that time?

RW: I think we all had boyfriends as we came in. And so, and we went home on Friday night the first six months. And socially, we had a few smokers and we had a drugstore just a block down the street. They went down there. Otherwise, we didn't have any money. And we really didn't go anywhere. And I'd walk from, when I took the bus home, I walked to the bus station because I didn't have the 00:07:00extra, I think it was a dime. But you know, we didn't have the money.

LG: And were guys allotted any sort of stipend by the school?

RW: No.

07:13

LG: Oh, okay. I see. Cool. All right. What do you miss most about your time in school? Kind of more the fun aspects of it.

RW: We were a very close group and we still are today.

LG: Do many of your friends live in Wisconsin?

RW: Yeah, they're all, yeah. We've got Chicago, I can't think right now. I should have written them all down. Yeah, they're right around. We had some in Madison. Lillian just died. I mean, after all, we've been out a good many years. Eunice is over at, where is Eunice, Bob? Where is he?

Bob: What?

RW: He does all my remembering. Where is Eunie? Dodgeville.

Bob: Dodgeville.

RW: Dodgeville. And where is Dorothy?

Bob: Sauk City or Prairie du Sac, one of the two. Well, they're both together. I don't know which one she--

RW: And of course just lost Lillian in Madison. We've lost quite a few. We have one in Milwaukee, and we have one just into Illinois. I can't remember where she is.

LG: All right. So shifting kind of more to your training, can you describe some of the technical training that you engaged in? Like what kind of stuff did you study in class?

RW: Well, we had, we had our, hmm. Nursing arts. Our nursing arts. And then we would go to a class and we had a teacher who was, who stuttered. So we had time 00:09:00with her. And anyway, then we had this classroom, and then we had a room where we learned to make beds and give enemas and douches and all that stuff. We learned all that in the basement of McConnell Hall.

LG: Oh, and how many, I remember seeing some photographs of this. How many classrooms were in the basement of McConnell Hall?

RW: Going downstairs, way down at the end of the hall and to the left we had a really nice classroom. And then into the front toward, what street is that? I can't remember. Anyway, there were two classrooms. And then we had a kitchen that we, you know, sometimes made things there. That was down the hall toward the elevator, across from the elevator.

LG: And what were your classes like? Like who were your professors? What kind of 00:10:00examinations did you have?

RW: Well, we had very good teachers. Our, one that taught us like making the beds and all that, what do you call them? Nursing arts? She had a little speech defect, and so we kind of, you know, [unclear]. She was good. She taught us all the basics of that. And then we had, that was [Sablocki?]. And then we had [Sabotka?], who did nursing arts. She was a very intelligent lady. And we had most of our classes with her. A few classes with Miss Evans, who was head of the Nursing Arts Department. Miss Collins, of course, was our director of nursing. But she didn't do any teaching. Let's see, what else. I can't remember. We had a 00:11:00professor come from the university for, what class would that have been? I just don't remember what classes those were. But he came over.

LG: And did you have any, were any of the professors physicians? Or was it all just people in the nursing--

RW: It was all nursing. We didn't have any physicians that taught.

11:41

LG: And were there any, speaking of people that you remember, were there any faculty who played an important role in your education specifically?

RW: Well, I don't know. Our nursing arts teacher, she was flaky. (laughs) And 00:12:00the other one that taught some of the deep classes. She was a very [unclear], that was [Sabotka?]. She was a very intelligent lady. And then she, the nursing arts gal, she'd follow us around and do [unclear] But she was not the greatest, but we learned. And then this [Sabotka?], who did all our other classes, she was really good. And we had a few professors that came from the U for, I don't remember, just certain class. That was about it.

LG: And were there any particularly challenging parts of school that you remember just struggling through?

RW: No.

LG: Did anything spark out to you as something exciting, or that you wanted to pursue in the future?

12:57

RW: I just knew that I was going to be a nurse. And you know, I went to school 00:13:00with, knowing that I had to do this. It wasn't hard. It was fun. We had really good classmates. We had good togetherness. Helped each other with things. And of course we got up, always had to get up in the morning early, go to our prayer meeting, and then go to work. And work until, I think it was ten o'clock. And then come home and have classes until noon. And then eat and come back, classes again at one. Believe me, I sat near a window, because you'd have to open it and shut it to keep awake. (laughs) Classes in the afternoon. And then we had to go back and get people ready for supper and pass water and all that stuff. I mean, 00:14:00that first year we did a lot of aide work.

LG: And did you guys, oh, sorry, did you guys have any rules that the school set on you at all? About like traveling or curfews?

RW: Oh, yeah. We had to be in at nine o'clock at night. We had one night out till eleven, till twelve.

LG: And was there anywhere that you like weren't allowed to go? Or could you go to like bars and restaurants?

RW: We weren't a bar bunch.

LG: Fair enough.

RW: We were not. Bob, were there any bar bunches when I was in nurses training? Robert?

Bob: I wasn't listening.

RW: (laughs) Turn on your hearing aid.

Bob: I was reading here. What?

RW: We were not, we didn't go to bars when we were in nurses' training, did we? Not that bunch?

Bob: Bars?

RW: That's taverns. (laughs)

Bob: Well, yeah. No, I guess not. We'd go out eating and--

RW: To a movie.

Bob: Movies.

RW: I can remember going to a movie one night and I had to be in by ten. Boy.

Bob: Yeah. And we had the car in the parking lot and we couldn't--

RW: Couldn't find the damn thing.

Bob: And there it is, finally found it, and away we went.

RW: Oh!

Bob: Yeah, they were pretty strict about coming back in.

RW: Oh, yeah, you've got to be in. I don't know what would happen if we wouldn't. I don't remember.

Bob: Oh, if we generally went someplace, we'd go someplace where they had a little band for dancing in a bar or something, in one of the bigger eating halls.

RW: But we didn't have much time off any weekend.

Bob: No, that's for sure.

LG: Rigorous course.

RW: No, we didn't go anywhere. When I went home on the bus, I walked to the bus station. It was up by the square. And I think it was a nickel to get on the bus.

Bob: And when you were in Chicago, you walked in the Loop all alone. Imagine 00:16:00doing something like that today? Oh, man, that would be, stabbings and shootings. Oh, that's terrible.

RW: Yeah, we were at Cook County for nine months.

Bob: Yup.

RW: And it was eye-opening. I had never been to, I don't think I had ever been to Chicago before. Had I?

Bob: Not before. No.

RW: No. I learned to walk to the Loop. Thought nothing of it. I lived on tenth floor. And my classmates were, our class went down in two bunches. So there were only eight of us down there. And we were all over that 15-floor dorm.

16:45

Bob: That was down in Cook County, and there were a lot of bad boys around there. (laughs) Boy.

RW: To go to work, we had pedes, orthopedics, and men's medical. That's what we 00:17:00took down there. Psych. Psych, too. And we would have to walk through the halls. What do I want to say? Down in the basement. There was--

Bob: For the Loop?

RW: No! Going to the [unclear] hospitals. See, there was a general hospital, there was a men's medical, there was pedes, there was orthopedics, psych. And so I think we went to four of them. And we'd have to walk down through the basement and down past the morgue. Got to stop and look in there once in a while. (laughs)

LG: Interesting. And when was this?

RW: This was in, I graduated high school in 1946 and from nursing in '49. So I 00:18:00was down there in '48.

LG: And speaking of that experience, because that sounds very interesting. Were there any practices or methods that you learned in school that would be kind of unusual today? Or that you don't see used---

RW: Probably bed baths. (laughs)

LG: So what were those?

RW: Well, you gave the patient a bath. You'd be all set up with your basin and your washcloth and your soap. And their clothes that you were going to change into. A lot of bed baths.

LG: And what were the kind of medical procedures, just because I know it was so different, and just hearing it firsthand, what were kind of some of the procedures, like IVs, or vaccinations, that would be kind of strange.

RW: See, we didn't get to do IVs until the last year. We had, there was one RN 00:19:00that started all the IVs in Madison General. She had her tray. And you know, we had IVs going, some of them, 24/7. It was just a lot of that. And she would go, have her tray and make the rounds at the hospital. And we'd leave messages to who had to have it or what. And one gal did that.

LG: And are there any memories that stick out to you about your time training at Madison General?

RW: We were a very close group. And we still are today. Yeah. We were, you know, we worked together. We played together. We just had a good time. And we are, as 00:20:00I say, friends today.

LG: And do you have any like stories or anecdotes, just that you remember from school?

RW: Probably nothing you'd be interested in. (laughs) One bunch of girls that were smokers, they'd have go down to the, uh, what was the name of the store? Drugstore. They would all, there was a place in the back there. As I say, none of us had any money. We couldn't go anywhere. Even movies. And besides, we worked. We got up in the morning and went to breakfast and worked until about nine. Had classes till 11:30. Ate. Classes again from one until 3:30, and back 00:21:00to work till seven. And then we had to study. We had a full day.

LG: And is there anything else that you would want to say about your training before we move on?

RW: I'm never sorry that I went. My best friends are girls I met there from all over. And we still are today. We had good supervision. We were safe. Even walking, you know, we had to walk outside at night over to the hospital. But we didn't have to be afraid. Even after I graduated, I moved down near the stadium. And another gal lived at her home, kitty corner across the street. She and I walked to work at night. Thought nothing of it. There wasn't the crime, there 00:22:00wasn't the stuff you had to be afraid of.

LG: All right. And then just for a little bit about your life after Madison. So just tell me a little bit about your career after you graduated.

22:20

RW: Okay. I worked for a year nights at the hospital. And then I was married. And then I worked for a year days at the hospital. Then I had two boys. Stayed home for eight years. Then I went to Columbus, to the hospital there. And I was night supervisor. It's a small hospital, though. We had, first floor was medical. There was about thirty patients there. Second floor was OB, and then there was a long-term care on the other end. And then I had surgical floor on third floor. And surgery and all that was on the other end of that floor. And I 00:23:00was night supervisor and staffed the surgical floor. We didn't have a lot coming in. There was, I'll bet in the five nights that I was working if we got in two people into the emergency room. You know, there wasn't a lot.

LG: And what kind of cases would you say qualified for emergency room care versus just general care?

RW: Lacerations. Well, I guess we'd have some gals who were pregnant and bleeding. Those we would not take to emergency room. We took those right to OB. And they had a room that they took care of those. And if we had any suturing to 00:24:00do, we had to call a doctor in. We had one doctor that lived just a block behind the hospital. You could see him coming out. We knew when he was coming. And our surgeon was just three blocks away. And we had a couple of doctors from Waterloo. And that's about it.

LG: Mm hmm. And how long did you work as a nurse?

RW: I guess I worked a year at Madison General. And then I worked, then I stayed home for eight years. And then I went to Columbus and I was there till I was 64. So I was there--how long was I at Columbus, Bob? I'm thinking 40 years, almost. Thirty-five?

LG: And did you have any like specializations while you were nursing? Or did you just in general?

RW: I had the surgical floor and the emergency room.

25:17

LG: And what was your experience like with that?

RW: Well, in emergency room in a small town, we'd probably get in two or three in the night, lacerations and that kind of stuff. Car accidents. I had to call somebody to help me out. As I say, I had to call a doctor in. Except weekends, toward the end, we had a resident come from UW and was in the house from Friday night until Sunday evening. So they helped us out.

LG: And what were some of the challenges that you faced in your career, if you 00:26:00can remember any?

RW: I don't know. I think as far as a challenge, I think every night was a challenge to me. That I was going to be sure I could take care of these people. And just be there for people.

LG: And were there any particularly fulfilling moments that you can remember?

RW: I don't know. I think every day was. Every night was. You know, we always were, people were grateful--I think people were more grateful in those years anyway, but for what you did for them. You know, we used to have patients, and good lord, we'd have those patients for three months at a time. And we were so full, always, we had them in the hall. But we would, some of those people, some 00:27:00of those little kids, we had a little pediatric floor. And I can remember a couple of children that came from Waterloo. We figured we raised those kids. I mean, the parents were teachers. And as soon as that child had a little something, came to the hospital and the doctor admitted it. Admitted easier then.

LG: Mm hmm. And did any, you said before that you've been back to Madison. How was it coming back for reunions?

RW: Oh, yeah. Our class is very close. We talk on the phone all the time. We have our own reunion every summer. And to see, to come back to the meetings and to see people we knew. And I know one time I went, and neighbor gal over here 00:28:00who came from, where did they come from, they came from Milwaukee or somewhere. Her sister was a grad. And she called her sister up and said, "I saw Romona today!" We just, it's always nice to go back.

LG: And what advice would you give to nursing students who are kind of going through what you went through right now?

RW: I know it's a very different situation today. But when you're in nurses training, you've got to give it your all. You've got to be there for people. You've got to take what you're given, you know. You're not always, sometimes you think oh, yeah. But you have to put up with and handle it and come out on the 00:29:00right end. (laughs) It was a good ride.

LG: And is there anything else that you can think of that you'd want to add for anyone in the future listening to this interview to know?

RW: My close, I grew up here in Marshall. Small town. And my closest friends today, and still today, are my nursing classmates. We talk often. We have our reunions. We've traveled together. We've gone to Hawaii. We've gone to California. We've gone east. And that is, we had a classmate in New York and we have a classmate in Chicago. The first traveling we did together, we went to Chicago to see [unclear]. Yeah. We've done a lot together. We've been very close.

LG: Great. And is there anything, I see you jotted down some notes. Was there anything that you wanted to add that you thought of prior?

30:15

RW: I just put down my classmates, who are my very dear friends. And now we just buried Lillian Damon. And we've got, four of them are gone already. And I guess that's pretty good for 90, right?

LG: Yeah. That's amazing that everyone has been able to share what they've learned in their life and through nursing school.

RW: We have one, Sarah Mortici, who grew up in Madison, just below, down in the, what did we call that? I can't remember. They were all not Mexican, but anyway, she's in the east somewhere. And we think she probably died. The last time we 00:31:00sent something to her, she said, "I don't want the damn thing. Don't forget me." So she had had ten children, and I think she'd had it. And Dorothy and Eunie, our bunch right here. And we'd get together all the time. Talk on the telephone.

LG: It's amazing. Well, great. Is there anything else that you can think of before I conclude the interview?

RW: My nursing career has been wonderful. My schooling, oh I couldn't have had better classmates. And you know, in those days, you weren't away from home much. I grew up here in Marshall, 447 people. To go to Madison to live was something. I used to walk to the bus station to come home. It cost me 50 cents to come 00:32:00home. It just, we were such a good group together. Helped each other. Even when we went somewhere and somebody didn't have the right clothes. I can remember when we just had gotten there. We probably were only there a couple of months. And Eunie's dad died. And she didn't have anything to wear. We didn't have a lot of stuff. We all went through our closets and got enough for her to wear to get her going, you know. We just were close friends.

LG: That's great. Well, great then. If that's all, I will conclude this interview. And just for the record, we'll be sending either a follow-up interview form. And we have the form for you to sign, and the tape. But I really appreciate you letting me interview you.

RW: I enjoyed having you. I don't know how many of my classmates I told, "I'm going to be interviewed!" (laughs)

LG: Amazing.

33:04

[End Interview.]