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Trevor N. Rayhons

Dr. Christopher R. Martin

COMM COR 1010: Mass Communication and Society

10 September 2015

Oral History Project

George Schmidt. Grandfather. 84. 6 September 2015. Garner, IA.

Sixty-five years of age are between my grandpa George Schmidt and I. Born in 1995, I

grew up with modern technology and have watched it evolve throughout the past nineteen years

of my life. Interviewing someone who was born in 1931 assisted in my understanding of what it

was like to watch some of the most important technology of our time, be created and then start to

change. We began our interview late at night on Sunday, September 6, 2015 in the house my

grandfather has lived in all of his life. Him and I sat in the kitchen, feet from the living room, a

room that has seen the myriad of changes in technology over the past fifty-five or more years.

In the early 1900s, my great-grandparents Adam and Maria purchased a Victor hand

crank record player after immigrating to the United States from Russia. Being German and being

forced to live in Russia where they werent allowed to pursue their own religion, they were

completely in favor for anything that would help them and their children learn since they were

free to do so in the United States. My grandpa George recalls, My folks were all for us kids

listening to music on the player. They wanted us to learn how to polka and they wanted us to

hear German records so that we knew what they sounded like. Along with some old German

records, my grandpa and his siblings listened to Bing Crosby, Kate Smith, and the Andrew

Sisters. Paying just $0.25 for a record, his siblings and him bought them at a store called

Kresges, which was later named Kmart in 1977.

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As time started to move on, the new item in the Schmidt household was the radio. Being

that my father use to always say its a privilege to go to school so you learn something, Pa was

completely for the radio so that us kids could hear about what was going on in the world. It was a

way for us kids, and especially my folks to learn, stated George. In the mid-1930s in Adam and

Marias living room sat their Philco battery radio. At noon Adam would come in from farming to

eat lunch and listen to the markets on WHO out of Des Moines, IA, because they had the best

markets and he wanted to hear the weather forecast. Maria didnt have a lot of time to listen to

radio but when she did she would listen to the program called Baby Snooks. Us kids would

listen to lots of different programs but we would always love the Inner Sanctum, because that

was a scary one, says George. He also recalls, We would always eat supper, then kneel and say

the rosary, and then Pa would let each of us kids pick our favorite show and we would get to

listen to it once a week.

In 1941, the Schmidts got electricity in their home so they upgraded to a plug-in radio.

From hearing the President, weather, and radio shows, to the news of Pearl Harbor, my grandpa,

his siblings, and his parents, appointment listened to the radio as a family. The transformation to

FM radio was great because it has solid non-static stations. To this day my grandpa George

loves the radio and him and his wife Arlene continue to listen to it together in the living room

just as my Georges parents did in that same living room, just only seventy years ago.

As time progressed into the 1940s, a revolution began: the television. At this point in

time it was rare to have a television set because they were so new and foreign that the typical

family saw it as a luxury and not a necessity as we see them in modern day. My brother Johnny

was a salesperson, so he brought home a Hallicrafters television set. We put the antenna up on

that windmill and we could get two stations: Des Moines and Minneapolis, recalls George. As it
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was getting into the late 1940s, most of the Schmidt kids werent living at home anymore but my

grandpa George remembers his parents watching, I remember Mamma, Bing Crosby, Bob

Hope, Red Skeleton, and the game show Ive Got a Secret.

In 1951 Adam and Maria moved to town so my grandpa and his brother Pete bought a

19-inch color television. The reception wasnt all that clear, but Ma and Pa just thought it was

the neatest thing, remembers George. Adam and Maria would watch the Lawrence Welk

Show and the $64,000 Question hosted by Hal March. Companies like Dodge, Ford, Lucky

Strikes, Camel, and Coca-Cola were sponsors, along with different soap and salt companies. For

local television, companies like John Deere would sponsor. George said, Ma and Pa really

loved it. It was nothing like they ever had before and it was an entirely different world of

information and entertainment for them.

Almost during the same era as television sets came the viewing of films, or what we refer

to as movies in present day. We started going to the movies on Wednesday and Saturday

nights lots were cowboy movies with Johnny Mack Brown, Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers,

recalls George. Movies were $0.25 for kids and $0.40 for adults, and the theaters only sold

popcorn. Some of my grandpas favorites were White Christmas and Lassie. You know

some films were controversial. I believe it was Clark Gable from Gone With the Wind who

said Frankly my dear, I dont give a damn. You know people didnt like that he talked like

that, George said. However, as time went on, people grew to accept different aspects of

different films, but Adam and Maria kept a short leash on their kids, as they were never allowed

to see R rated films.

Learning was extremely important in the eyes of my great-grandparents, as well as my

grandparents. My grandpa George found that some of the most influential films that he grew
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from in knowledge were war films because he saw patriotism and it helped him and his parents

understand America in a different light. Although my grandpa aspired to go to college, films

about American soldiers encouraged him as in the early 1950s as he joined the U.S. Navy.

Movies changed people and took the viewers to a different place where they could experience

other stories and new adventures while also learning about something new.

In 1954 my grandpa and grandma wed. After my grandpas time in the military, they

moved back to Iowa and lived in the same home that my grandpa grew up in. To this day they

still reside in the old white farmhouse just outside of Garner, IA, which has seen the incredible

changes in technology, just as many other older homes have experienced throughout time.

Although my grandparents never chose to experience the Internet, digital games, or smartphones,

they believe in what my great-grandfather Adam believed, It is a wonderful resource and there

is so much to learn.

Discussing with someone so much older who has knowledge of the change of technology

was extremely fascinating for me. Interviewing my grandpa not only educated me in the

beginning stages of the technology I use today, but it opened my eyes to what I have watched

begin in technology in my lifetime. Technology like the change from analog to digital television,

to smartphones, smart watches, and even to the current beginning of virtual realities. The world

is ever changing and just as my grandpa and my great-grandpa believe(d), technology is a tool

and there are endless possibilities. There are infinite opportunities for us to discover, create, be

entertained, and to most importantly, to learn.