"[I didn't date] much [as a teenager]. I only had three boyfriends. Well, I had two, then I married Mr. Todd. There was another that died not too long ago. His name was David Magallanes. I was very serious with them because I wasn't looking for a whole bunch of boyfriends or anything. So then when I met Mr. Todd, there was him and I forgot all about the other ones. Around my time, there was some [Chicanas who dated Anglos]. One used to run around with a Mexican guy and he got killed in the war. So she started dating an Anglo. He was very mean to her. He used to beat her. But it was because she gave him reason to [do so]. I mean he didn't have to beat her up, he could have just left her. She was messing around with other guys.

We used to try to act like movie stars. (laughs) We went to the movies and we wanted to imitate that Eleanor Powell so we were dancing. Loretta Young was my favorite actress. There was one that we thought was a beautiful guy. I forgot the name of the guy but your mom, and I, and Jessie [our friend], and Josie [our cousin], and all of them, we fell in love with him. (laughs) We were full of our fantasies, too."

Me as a teenager

courtesy of Josephine Todd

"It [the Morenci Royal Theater] was a theater, it was okay in the beginning but when this guy came and took over, he wouldn't let us go to where they sell [concessions]. He wasn't Frank Martin. He was another guy. He didn't have no arm. They used to call him Charlie. He was a hateful son-of-a-gun. One day, I told Nati, "I'm gonna go in there and buy me a candy bar. What's the matter, my money's just as good as anybody else's?" So I went and walked in and bought me a candy bar and they sold it to me. But I think it was mostly us that we didn't want to be treated like that anymore because we had been pushed around so much. That guy was a hateful son of a gun. Some of them Mexicans used to go.

We had an old time radio [for entertainment] and we were the only ones with a radio in the neighborhood. It was during the Depression or we were just getting out of the Depression. My daddy went and bought one of those table radios, real cute little radio. When it was time for Joe Lewis' fights, he would put it toward the window and you could see all the neighborhood people sitting by the back of the window listening to the fight. They were mostly kids, mostly grownup kids, friends of Chelado. They couldn't come to the house so they had to listen <outside>.

There was Jack Benny [on the radio] and there was one that the door squeaked. What was it, The Inner Sanctum? It squeaked the door when it was opening. We used to get all thrilled with that. (laughs)

Any kind of music [was my favorite]. I used to like to sing and I used to like to listen to the radio when they were playing music. I used to like to dance but the dancer in the family was Tere. She was a jitterbugger. They wouldn't even let us go to the dances. We went to the dance, we would just peek through the door and pretty soon we start going in and in and in. Then when it was time for us that we should have been home, we rushed out of there so fast. (laughs) It was at the Morenci theater, the Imperio, they used to call it El Imperio. It was mostly Mexican people that went.

In the Depression, [we] was real poor. Then we begin to have a little more and then the fashions changed. It was when I went clothes crazy. I remember when the "new look" came on. At the beginning there was hardly enough material to make clothes. Then later on the "new look" started. That's what they said, the "new look." The blouses with puffed sleeves and the skirts way down to your knees or down to your ankles. The baby doll shoes. The colors more bright. I remember the white blouses. [The hair] in those pompadours and the pageboy. I used to have the pageboy like Joan Crawford.

We got fashions of our own [in Morenci]. I remember when, I think it was Carmen [my sister], or one of them got these "showgirls," made out of copper wire and then they stretched it. They used to put it in their hair and around the pageboy. [It kept the pageboy] in place. I used to go and steal things from Carmen [my sister]. (laughs) She used to have some wildroot, she used to call it wildroot. It was a green bottle. One day I went and poured it all over my hair. (laughs) [It was] stiff. It was something like a spray you get nowadays to make your hair stay. They used to have that waveset. I went and put it all over my hair. Oh, Carmen used to laugh at me. She didn't get angry, she laughed 'cause I used to do such stupid things. I couldn't get rid of it. (laughs) It did after I washed and washed, cause [I used] a whole bottle.

Later on I used a rinse, a golden rinse. I never dyed my hair. It was to get the highlights out of your hair. My hair was a sort of a dark brown and I used to put this golden glint and used to make it look reddish. (laughs) I used to buy this lipstick called Tangee and that was the best lipstick that I ever used. [I used] a sort of a light red. I didn't paint my face like a clown or anything. Real light, everything. It was when they was selling Avon's. They were selling Avon's then. I used to use that, what was the name of that? They're making it all over again. I forgot the name of it, but it was the best smell.

I remember when Carmen had [stockings] way up to her knees and this friend of mine and I told 'em, "Let's go and dress up and go to church all dressed up like grownups. I think I must have been about thirteen. I stole a pair of stockings from Carmen and high heeled shoes and we went into Mass (laughs) with our feet wobbling all wobbly. We just done it for fun.

I didn't have no boyfriends, no nothing. I only went with that David Magallanes, he was my first boyfriend. I sure liked that guy but I was embarrassed to go around with him because he was too dark. (laughs) I felt better with him than anybody else. [He worked in the mine.] He was lots older than me and he died not too long ago.

Joe [Lopez] and I became the best of friends and the best of everything. He was one of the gang. Nobody ever knew that he was my boyfriend because we all went in a group. He walked with us to the show and somewhere. He was a nice guy. I sure liked that Joe. [He went into the service.] [He wrote to me] but the one that used to write me real love letters was David. He was in the service [too]. I used to save them [the letters] but when they destroyed the house [to expand the mine], I think they [were lost]. After my parents died, they [the family] went into my mother's papers and they threw them all away. I had a bunch of papers but I never saved any. I used to write to Joe. We used to write to each other.

Those are the only two boyfriends I ever had. They went to the war and then I wrote them a letter that I had married. I married Mr. Todd. Even Joe came over one day and I was coming from the store. He stood behind me and he says, "Josefina." I turned around and it was Joe. I didn't even know he was in town. I already had Tomas. My mother sent me to the store for something, I don't remember what it was, but anyway I was coming when he talked to me. He wanted me to leave Mr. Todd and go with him. (laughs) But I never [did] tell nobody. Your mama was the one that told me. She says, "I don't know what your plans are, Josie, but don't you go and make any foolish things. I know Joe's in town and he's gonna go after you and don't you do anything foolish." I told [her], "No, I'm not." She said, "Because I think he wants you to leave Mr. Todd and go with him." But Mr. Todd never knew about it. I never even mentioned Mr. Todd to any of them guys. I never told and one day I told [him], "You know Mr. Todd, don't you ever accuse me or even think that I would go with another guy. Maybe you will, but I won't because I won't be hurting anybody but myself if I turn out to be [a] good-for-nothing wife." (laughs) That's why I married, to stay forever. Like it or not. (laughs) He may not have liked it but he had to."