Oral History
Interviewee:  Ramona "Mona" (Gonzales) Perales (b. 05/26/1920 - d. 10/03/2012)
Interviewer:  Tom Slaback [SHM Volunteer]
Audio Number: 742
Duration: 00:21:43
Date:  November 9, 1999
Acquisition Number:  ACC# 2021.057
Topics Discussed: Harvey Girls; Life on the House Cars; Wickenburg; Williams; Flagstaff; Holbrook; Winslow; School in Congress; Phoenix; Playmates; Clarkdale; Verde River; Harvey House, Needles California; Ash Fork; Section houses; Granite Dells; Santa Fe Railroad; Southern Pacific Railroad; Albuquerque; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Skull Valley Depot; Cherry Arizona; Iron Springs Depot; Drake, Arizona. 

Time          Topic /Subject Discussed
00:01:22    1920 – Born on Mohave Reservation – Needles, California
00:01:37    Mother was an original Harvey Girl
00:01:39    Mother met Dad
00:01:43    Mother had already been married
00:01:50    Ramona and sister and brother
00:01:52    Lived in a house car
00:01:59    Traveled from California to Arizona to New Mexico
00:02:02    Went to school in all the little towns
00:02:21    Mother Isabel and Father Luis
00:02:28    Father foreman for railroad track
00:02:29    Mother – Harvey Girl
00:02:45    Ramona, brother Lawrence, Sister Socorro
00:02:58    House car divided into kitchen
00:03:01    Dining area
00:03:02    Bedroom
00:03:07    Bathroom was outhouses
00:03:14    Tubs where ladies did washing
00:03:18    Soaked clothes and boiled them
00:03:26    Times when pulled out on small siding
00:03:32    Early morning catch engine to train
00:03:44    Sent flatcars for outhouses and tubs
00:03:54    Snowy weather – plow in front of engine
00:04:08    Always a lot of fun
00:04:17    Song – “Congress will shine tonight”
00:04:23    Gold and silver in mines
00:04:27    Moved to Wickenburg
00:04:31    Williams
00:04:34    Flagstaff
00:04:36    Holbrook & Winslow
00:04:43    Congress always stuck in her mind
00:04:50    Used to play on boulders
00:04:52    Went to school in Congress
00:04:57    1 room schools
00:05:09    School was in town
00:05:21    Phoenix – 3 story hotel
00:05:36    Dad could lay on the track, eyeball it, straight as an arrow
00:05:47    Had men working for him
00:05:50    Got in trouble
00:05:57    Men left  push cars
00:06:06    Kids put push car on track – not siding
00:06:15    Headed for the tunnel
00:06:21    Men on push car caught them coming back
00:06:29    Couldn’t sit down for a month
00:06:40    Father was foreman of section gang
00:06:54    Side railing had house cars
00:07:01    3 families
00:07:03    Commissary
00:07:12    Fresh fruits when got into smaller towns
00:07:16    Trucks from farms
00:07:23    Fresh vegetables
00:07:25    Nice, happy life
00:07:43    Prescott stuck in her mind
00:08:01    Playmates: Billy, Bobby, Dorothy
00:08:03    Dorothy was the Time Keeper’s daughter
00:08:21    Boys were Commissary keeper’s children
00:08:50    Kids did everything together
00:09:00    Tunnel country – flat
00:09:17    Congress or Clarkdale
00:09:36    Verde River
00:10:02    Other tunnel – Hillside
00:10:56    All the kids got a “Whippin’”
00:11:08    Always close enough to walk to school
00:11:17    Didn’t remain in area very long
00:11:21    Went to different schools
00:11:26    Every time section was finished, house car would move
00:11:32    Flagstaff – Winter – All  families went to passenger cars
00:11:57    Cooked with woodstove
00:12:03    Always warned before moving
00:12:24    Mama would bring in chickens
00:12:28    Other families had rabbits
00:12:35    Put down outhouses in brought in tubs
00:12:39    Very few families
00:12:50    Most of the crew were single men
00:12:51    Men lived in different cars 
00:12:54    3 families
00:13:06    Mother did laundry for all the families
00:13:17    Harvey House – Needles
00:13:28    Mother’s specialty was shirts – starched
00:13:36    Men would bundle shirts up and put them on the water tower
00:13:45    Mother would launder and put back on the water tower
00:13:48    Men would leave money for her
00:15:08    Mother did not work at Harvey House in Ash Fork
00:14:15    Shopping in Ash Fork
00:14:21    Going to movies
00:14:30    Phoenix – Movies – missed passenger train
00:14:50    Rode freight train caboose
00:14:51    Freight train would take them back to house car
00:15:05    Prescott was very small town
00:15:14    Other towns – whistle stops
00:15:16    Section house in Flagstaff
00:15:21    Section house in Granite Dells
00:15:46    Sometimes took 2 engines to pull train up hill
00:15:54    Coal fired
00:16:00    No special engines
00:16:10    Snow time plow
00:16:27    Pushed snow out of the way
00:16:32    Passenger cars
00:16:36    Quite a lot of cars
00:16:42    Carried flatcars with rails
00:16:44    Pipe and equipment
00:16:58    3 house cars for families and quite a few house cars for workmen
00:17:07    House cars were large
00:17:22    Stove, table, beds and tub
00:17:38    Mostly Mexicans
00:17:48    At  night built big bonfires
00:17:50    Tell stories
00:18:04    Always a guitar for music
00:18:18    Started living in house cars at 3 years old
00:18:25    Parents thought needed proper schooling at age 7
00:18:48    Settled in California
00:19:08    Other children were white
00:19:25    Chinese worked the Southern Pacific Railway
00:19:31    Santa Fe came in 1879
00:19:49    Southern Pacific came in 1882
00:20:01    New Mexico
00:20:06    Albuquerque and Santa Fe
00:20:15    California oil derricks
00:20:22     Santa Fe Springs
00:20:42    Skull Valley Depot
00:20:43    Used to be in Cherry
00:20:52    Taken to Skull Valley on a flatcar
00:21:03    Iron Springs Depot from Drake
0021:44    End