Interview with Lin Schrottky, 05/01/2017

Sam Brahm: Hello, this is Sam Brahm interviewing

Lin Schrottky: Lin Schrottky

SB: on May 1st, 2017 at 5:22 PM and this interview is for the campus Oral History here at UW Oshkosh. Thank you for letting me interview you.

LS: It's my pleasure.

SB: Alright, so before we get into your college career, I just have a few background information questions. Where where you born?

LS: I was born in Oshkosh, went to school in Oshkosh, went to highschool in Oshkosh and went to college in Oshkosh.

SB: So, you were here your whole life?

LS: Yup been here my whole life.

SB: What type of neighborhood did you grow up in?

LS: A normal one at times, kids running around, we were bikers, we were riding our bikes all spring and summer. We had a sandbox so everybody came to our house 00:01:00to play, and my uncle was a carpenter, and what he did to learn how to build a house, was he actually built a very small house, so we were the only house in the neighborhood that had a playhouse that was a real house, so we had a lot of people at our house.

SB: So basically, it was a blue-collar community?

LS: My father actually worked in a bank, so we were upper middle class

SB: So, could you tell me a little more about your family?

LS: I have a brother and a sister, and my father worked at the Oshkosh savings and loans his whole life. He was in the army reserves and he completed 22 years of service, active and reserve. He retired from service and worked at the 00:02:00Oshkosh saving and loans and got many people loans for homes and he was very proud of that. My mother was a stay at home woman until they were all kind of older. She became an aid and they needed a school secretary so she became the school secretary. She loved doing the lunch money because she would always buy out the Kennedy quarters, and she had a very large coin collection, and she loved making the decisions of, well, does a boo-boo qualify for a band aid, or do you just have to go and wash it off.

SB: Alright, so you said you went to highschool here, Which one?

LS: North was not built, so the only high school at the time was the one out by (Highway) 41.

SB: What were your parent's thoughts about higher education, and going off to college

LS: My father, won top honors in his class, and his parents could not afford it for him to go on to college, so he went to a trade school. He was a very intelligent man, and I am sure that he would have been a very good educator. My mother was basically left home and became a secretary in Oshkosh. She came from a family by the name of [Sarawater?]and she worked as a secretary. My parents met singing in the choir at church and I still belong to that church, and they just hit it off. During the war, she went and helped nurse my grandfather, who 00:04:00was dying of pancreatitis. My grandmother always believed that my mother married my father for his insurance money because she was sure that he was going to die in the war (laughs) and considering that they were married for a long time after, I think that she finally realized that there was more between them than the insurance money.

SB: What type of activities did you do in high school?

LS: I really didn't do… I really didn't enjoy high school, and I was active in my church, and my family was active in the church, my family was always in the church. My mother was the superintendent of upper grades, my father taught Sunday school and he became the superintendent of the lower grades. We were very involved in many church organizations. The church was really our thing. My 00:05:00sister and my brother were in the band in high school and I was the oldest and my brother was two years younger than me, and my brother was another year younger. The story of our family was that they kept trying until they got a boy, and then they stopped. My parents had to work at the concession stand, which was basically a hut, that was at the football field by Jackson. That's where all of the high schools and the college would play all of their football games, and I was always talked into coming and helping out at that stand, and all the money that was raised there went to the band that my brother belonged to, so I always got hornswoggled, and one night the high school, the catholic high school and 00:06:00the University played and we sold over 1000 hot dogs. I do not eat hotdogs.

SB: I bet at some point hotdogs just become disgusting.

LS: (laughs) Yes, yes, yes, yes, the ground was just a cement slab that got cold and the only good thing about serving hot dogs was that you got to stand next to the boiling water so I would stay home. I feel like the short end of the deal.

SB: Just one last question, what type of church organizations?

LS: I belonged to St. John's Lutheran church on Main, and quite frankly, I think every other church moved so it is the only one on Main. It was a family church. My father would probably tell you that he and his father helped nail the 00:07:00shingles on the church, and he was always proud of that, and we always believed that that was our church.

SB: Alright, now transitioning into your college career, what type of student were you?

LS: To begin with, I didn't really know why I was here. It was more of the case of, I was always expected to go to college. I think that basically it had to do with the fact that my father couldn't go, and that was very much important to them that I got an education, and I was the first one in my family to go. I tried the general classes and I just-- Let me say this, I was told that high school was the greatest time in your life, I didn't buy into that, it just 00:08:00wasn't my thing. But in college, I kind of felt a little bit better but I just didn't put the studying together because you have to learn how to study in college and I just didn't. So after two years, I bombed out, and so I had to take a year off. My parents did not yell, they said go get a job. So, the first job I got I lasted 3 weeks, and then I got a job at [unclear], which isn't really a good place to work, let's put it that way. After it was repetitive, it was long hours, my parents were smart enough to know that I'd get tired of it, and I did, and so after a year, and so also half the money that I made was going to my father. He said it was rent, but he was putting it away for me so if I 00:09:00wanted to go back to school, I had the money to go back. He did not tell me that, he was sneaky about it. So, after a year, I decided to come back, and I was motivated. I also did some volunteer work with retarded children, and that's what I wanted to do with my life, teach retarded children. Then I came back, and I found people that I liked, and a couple of my friends were in a sorority, gamma sigma sigma. I was not a joiner, I did not join, but every time they needed an extra pair of hands, I would get hornswoggled into doing it, and I did not join the sorority until after I graduated college. I was always doing things, and I was always involved in things, and found some very good friends. 00:10:00My best friend was named Linda, and that is my name, and we made another good friend, and her name was Lynn and Marti was the 3rd musketeer. We were always together, and we were always doing crazy things together, and my friend Linda, and my friend Lynn was day and night, you know? Whenever one said that the glass is half empty, the other would say the glass is half full. It was like they were kind of constantly arguing, they were like continuously, it wasn't like vicious or anything, it was just they could always never agree on anything. Separately, they were very wonderful, but we went through high school together, and in senior year, Lynn died. Lynn won every award that you could think of, but she 00:11:00was sick every spring with a sore throat, and she died of tonsillitis, and that hurt, and I always felt like I had… [unclear] …so all three of us became teachers, I was special education, Linda was music and elementary, and Marti was a [unclear] teacher too, so all three of us, so every time all three of us got together, it was kind of like a teacher's meeting. Marti went up and got a job in Marinette, Linda got married and moved to Fond Du Lac, and after I graduated, I got a job teaching in Sturgeon Bay, and I taught special education for about 00:12:00four years.

SB: So, you for were all high school friends that…

LS: We weren't… we kind of knew who each other was, but we didn't really know one another until college. I knew Marti first, and through Marti, I got to know Linda, and through me, she got to know Lynn, we kind of hooked up that way. That was the way it was. We would go, we would study together in the library, we would go to the plays, we would do something together. It kind of anchored me, and also if I had a problem, you know, studying, or someone else did, the other ones would be there for them, so I think they got me through my education. I do not think I would have made it through without them.

SB: What would you all do together outside of studying?

LS:(Laughs) Oh dear, well, when I was in middle school, I had a blood problem, and I was on bed rest for a whole year. So, I went to school with a speaker, and it was a rough way to go to school, let's put it that way. I was just so happy, and so glad to go to school, and to be with people. I just enjoyed people, and I just found myself being good with being with people who were kind 00:14:00of a bit different. Yeah, one of the summer classes that I will remember the most is when I had a class with a girl that had murdered her mother, and another member of that class was a nun. She had been cloistered and she was coming back for her teaching degree so she could be, you know, out in the world, and believe me, that was a very interesting summer. (Laughs)

SB: Yeah you got both ends of the spectrum there.

LS:(Laughs) It was really odd; it was really odd. I know it sounds really odd, but the three of us were able to form a friendship and to help each other, and I would always just find interesting people, it was just really special, and I just enjoyed education. When I was a child, you know how there is the jet, blue 00:15:00bird, and the turtle?

SB: Not really, no.

LS: Well, the jets are the A1's that are quicker with everything, the next, they will learn, they will be fine. But I was a turtle because I was not good at reading. That put me in the remedial classes, and the thing is when you are in bed for a year, you learn that one of the best things that you can do is read. Let's put it this way, in that year, my reading improved like you would not believe. I would go through books like you would not believe. My parents would stop by the library and pick up books on the way home and they would bring me a whole stack, and I would go through them, so that turned me into a voracious reader then. If I would not have had special education I would have become a 00:16:00librarian, because you could always find me in a library after that. I am a voracious reader, I always have to be reading, and I think that that has put my education in front of other people's, and I am always pushing books onto people, you know? Like 'Have you read this? Here ya go!' (laughs). It has just always been my thing.

SB: So, during your time here, did you live in the dorms at all?

LS: No, no, I was a townie, all four of us were townies. Which kind of left us to do more than normal, you know? One semester, I was trying to register for fall classes, and I was told no, I couldn't, and I went to Dempsey and said 'Why 00:17:00can't I register for classes?' and they responded, 'well, you haven't paid your dorm fees'. I said 'I live at home, I have always lived at home, and have never lived in a dorm…' 'Well this says you have to pay your dorm fee or you cannot register for classes'. So, then I went to my father and said 'they won't let me register for classes' and he called and he yelled and that was really bad. So finally, Oshkosh Savings and Loans had an attorney, and he did things for dad and dad did thing for him, so "my attorney" wrote a letter to the school saying that I have never lived in the dorm, and I always lived with my parents and that they could produce affidavits that said I have always lived with my parents. For 00:18:00some reason, after that they said that it was ok and I could register for classes, I don't know why they decided that, and let that go(laughs), and because my name was Schrottky, all my grades would be incomplete, and I would have to track my teachers down, and I would say, 'what did I do that I am getting these incompletes?' 'Well I turned in your grades'. It was normally because They could not spell my last name, so eventually I got my grades but it was like every time I had to make sure that they got it right.

SB: During your career here, from what you were told, what happened here on black Friday [Thursday]? Just students telling you, and how you gained the information about the events?

LS: I was actually in Dempsey. I got out basically before it started, and I was 00:19:00walking on the mall, I was going to be meeting my friends at Reeve, and it started. The breaking of the glass, the typewriters being thrown, out and the things like that. It was… I guess nobody believed it and of course they were herding us into the building, so we went down to Reeve and we saw the SWAT teams coming and then we realized that what we heard was true. And we saw them going to Dempsey and then the demonstrators throwing chairs. It was pretty… I guess we really didn't know what was going on. I think what was really terrifying was 00:20:00[unclear]-- We really didn't know what happened, it was just one of those situations that it wasn't you, it wasn't me, they didn't understand what was happening, they didn't understand, they just wanted to know if they were safe. It was just a very frightening time, and it turned out that two of the leaders were two of the guys that were in my Wisconsin History Class. They started out the year fine, then as the year went on, they wouldn't come on time, so that 00:21:00they would come late and the teacher would not yell, and then finally about a month before it happened, they just stopped coming to class, which we liked, because they never took notes, they just kind of sprawled and they just, you know, it was like they didn't… I still don't know what their point was. I have always been in the church [unclear]-- My parents, said we should do something 00:22:00about that, and what could you do? It was just one of those situations that you couldn't. He was a military man and he was at a lost. A lot of people were frightened, a lot of the African students were scared, and I don't know if people really understood what the leaders really wanted.

SB: Have your perception of the event, at all changed since you first were there, until now?

LS: I think there were some points. I kind of think it went the wrong way. You look at Reeve Union, and you see a large building, well way back when, we did 00:23:00not have a large building. The back end of Reeve was the place where everyone was, and we were all in this big room together, but the sororities were here, the fraternities were here, the baseball players were here, the history club was here. We were all in a group together, and the international students were here, and we were all together, and you could go between them if you wanted to talk to somebody in the history club, you went over to talk to them. If you didn't have the notes for a class, you could go over to the athletes table and say, 'do you have the notes?' 'Oh, yeah sure. Here you go, take them.' It was free, and everyone had their thing, but it was a free-flowing thing. Then after that, everyone had to have their own part, and the black student wanted their own 00:24:00place, and then it started that everyone had to have their own places. I think we lost a lot because when it first started and we were all together, we were together, but we were separate, but we were together. Then everybody was wondering, and then nobody comes. And it's like, you had everyone together, and now you have all these different places for them, the Women's… you know, it was just divided up, and it's like you got what you wanted, but they did not like what they got. It is just really strange. I never understood it.

SB: What was your view on the university's response to what happened on black Thursday?

LS: I think they just didn't know if it was an isolated incident, or it was 00:25:00something more. I think that they were afraid that it was something more. It wasn't. It was an isolated bunch of people who came up with this. But I think they thought they had to take a stand, they had to establish order, they had to establish, they had to take steps so that it was clear what their stand was so that it was prevented from happening again. I think at some point they went too far, I think there were some points that could have been negotiated, and it could have been dialogued, but they felt like that they had to make sure that this was not a monthly occasion or something like that. And in hindsight now, I 00:26:00think a lot of people who took the stands, I think would have softened it a little bit, and are going to get more open to things. Things were happening in other places, but those were other places. But when it happens in Oshkosh, it's not good, and they got scared.

SB: And one more question about that, you said how two of the leaders were in your class, and you saw their behavior…

LS: You saw their behavior go downhill. I guess my feeling was, if you are here to improve yourself, if you are here to be educated, you should be part, you are 00:27:00responsible for your own education. You can't take education and say 'here you go". You have to participate, and I just felt like their participation kind of was like it was not worth it, where I think they should have… they should have… It was like they were blaming everyone else for their own… I don't know if they were incapable of studying or if they didn't know if this was above them, or maybe they thought it was below them, I don't know. , but it's like they just disconnected, and they just kind of brewed up this frustration, and unrest, and things like that, you know, also I, you know, they were dressed like everyone else in the beginning, and then they all of the sudden they wore bells, 00:28:00so you could hear them coming down the hall, and they got more ethnic in their dress, let's put it that way. It was kind of like… I don't know, they were trying to challenge or something, but I felt that they weren't here to learn, that was view. I don't know why they were here, I don't know what their plight was, and I have no idea. But it's just like they disconnected, but they were not relating to other people, and I just don't know.

SB: A couple more questions about your time here at UWO, were there any 00:29:00professors that had an influence on you. You told me about the one with the two kids in it.

LS: Dr. Noise, yes. Oh, he was such a wonderful man. When I started working here, I met him again, and he was just so wonderful. He wrote the history of this university. He was just… Nobody has ever said to me, 'may I have the pleasure of calling you Linda?' He asked permission to use my first name. Nobody has ever done that, and he was just a very fine gentleman, and he was researching the… The Lincoln train! And he discovered that it wasn't on time. It was a couple of minutes late and he was so excited because he was going to… and he was going to go research this and he was… He was just so happy about 00:30:00it, and he was just a very special man and he was always just… and he would kid me, have you seen the statue in front?

SB: Yeah

LS: Do you know what it is?

SB: No clue.

LS: It is called the guardian. It's an angel and it has a sword. He would always kid me, when I started here I was the night person, so I wouldn't go home until 1 o'clock in the morning, and so he would always tell me, well just remember, you have the angel, and she has got a sword (laughs). I never really knew what that meant like she was going to come to life and come to my rescue, but he was very very nice to me and he was the only one who called me Linda, and that was my name. He would call and he would ask me to research things for him, and find 00:31:00things for him, and stuff and one day he called my phone and someone else answered it for me and he went 'Linda? We don't have a Linda' and I was like, yup that's me, and I knew it was Dr. Noyes, I knew it was Dr. Noyes. There were some more… There was another professor who was very good, and I did things for her. She and I were… Let's say I did things for her that I maybe wouldn't do for other people, and the payoff was that she said, If you ever have any questions, If you ever have anything you need to know, I'm your person and there were some situations that I needed some medical knowledge, and I would call her up and I would say 'well, let's go for a cup of coffee' and that was our password because she did not drink coffee, and I didn't either. Then we would talk, and then she would talk and and I would tell her the situation, and she 00:32:00never told me what to do, she would always say 'well, if i were you, I would think or I would do…' and she helped me out a great deal. Yeah, that was our thing, let's go get a cup of coffee. She was very nice and she married and left the university. We had some very fine people that you knew were going to go on, let's put it that way. When I turned, when I was into, When I left circulation and went into interlibrary loans, there were people who needed materials to go and get a degree and we would get odd stuff all over the world for them, and we did it because you know that these were the ones that were going to go on, these were the ones that were going to discover things, these were the ones that were going to come up with the formulas, these were the ones that learn to interpret 00:33:00the world. One of our professors, Dr. Edmund Lindal, his thing was about memorials, things like that. I believe that he worked with the 9/11 committee. He also worked with the holocaust… and he was really such a great guy. Ed White, he was really great, and we had the Ice man, we had a guy who would like to do oil research in Antarctica, and we would have to get him ready to go, he would do all this, he would request all of these articles on ice, and lots of weird stuff like that, and we would always tease him for it and we would say 'you can't take this'. We thought we got him ready and then, we got an email 00:34:00from Antarctica. 'Could you possibly email me…' and there was one more article that he needed so I went to the distance library and then I knocked on the door and said 'how distant are you, and does your library cover?' and she said 'I don't know', and I said 'well does it cover Antarctica, and she said 'yes it does'. So, we kind of had her, she was the Antarctica person and he had the habit of losing his library card. We told him 'do not loan it to any penguins' and he said he wouldn't do that, and he would sign his the articles he sent us, he would always say, the Ice Man, he would always sign his name "The Ice Man" or "On the ice" or something like that. So, I think he came up with some very interesting things about ice and then he he did a lot of interesting research, 00:35:00so it was really interesting to see the different things that are researched and done, and we have also sent things to different places. We sent stuff to the presidential library, we have sent our materials to other countries, it has really been interesting all the different places.

SB: Now we are going to transition into your post college career. What was your life like right after you got out of college, like right after you got out of college?

LS: Oh, well, I was going to set the world on fire, I was going to be the greatest teacher. And then I discovered it wasn't as easy as people thought. I was… It was a three-room schoolhouse, there were two teachers, and, we were 00:36:00out kind of a little bit from Sturgeon Bay. It was ok but it just kind of… it was just difficult in the end because people made up their minds and wouldn't change them, and would not reach out if you needed help, and that was just not right, I just kind of burned out after a while. I told my parents that and they told me just to come back and my friend would come back to get a degree [unclear]-- But I also have to have money to pay them so I did a lot of subbing in the school system. I taught high school forestry, I taught chicken farming, 00:37:00how to calm the flock, I was in charge of the orchestra one day, so I got to lead the orchestra, and I taught typing. When I was, an undergraduate I learned sign language, and the high school teachers had a heart attack and so for a whole semester I was the teacher, so I had to learn sign language and I was thinking, at one time of becoming an interpreter. I'm here to fix problems. One day I went in the cold and I touched the metal, and all the sudden my hand blew up in hives, the thumb and the forefinger, and it was frostbite. So, it went, 00:38:00except for one thing, I could see my hand, I could move my hand, but I can't feel my thumb, I can't feel my first finger, it's just… I have to keep it covered in the wintertime because it will cause future damage, the fact that I have motion is still good. If you have problems with your hands, then you can't be an interpreter. So, then I got a job at Oshkosh public doing retroform, which basically taking their card catalog, and forming their database and that night, when I got the job, in hindsight, was very important. I did that for a couple of 00:39:00years, and then University was doing the same thing so I was asked to do that, and then during the day they would would need people, people got sick or people went on business trips, or people went on vacation or something, or had operations, so I started subbing around here in the library, and then I started taking library tests and tried getting on the staff, and I was finally hired in 1990 but between '84 and '90 I was doing a collection of all the jobs, and I would walk in the door and they would say 'Who are you now?' or they would start going around and saying 'Who isn't here?' and 'What happened to so-and-so?'. It was kind of like I was never me, I was always someone and but it was good education, because I got to know this place, and I got to know all the different jobs and that helped a big deal because when I was finally hired, it was good, 00:40:00even though it was the night shift, although I was a night owl so I could… My favorite part of being a night owl was if someone got upset, and they demanded to talk to a higher up, I would be very happy to tell you where the director's office was, however the director went home at 4:30 (laughs). It was… It was good. And then I made the change from the night position to the day position which was different because I actually was home at night which was odd, I had to stop being a night person, and then went over to interlibrary loans and that was fascinating because you got to talk to people, and to all the libraries all 00:41:00around the world It was just really fascinating to… you could be sending things to [unclear], or you could be receiving an article from the University of Guam, you could be sending something back to Melbourne, Australia. It was just really fascinating.

SB: You talked about being a LTE…

LS: Yup. Limited time employee

SB: How was it… Were you ever nervous because you didn't have a… A secure position?

LS: It was ok, but I worked with people who valued me, and who supported me, and made me feel welcome and made me… you know, 'if you need me, come ask me', 'if 00:42:00you, if anything bothers you, anything you need to know, I'm here'. And a lot of times I would ask somebody how to do something, and they would say 'well, you are never going to have to do this', and then two or three days later, I would usually have to do it. So, I tried to have them tell me how to do it just in case. So, it was just really… I was lucky I had people who supported me, and who were on my side, and there were some scared times at times but-- See at this time, the library at night was not a good place. There were drug deals, there were… you know, and they cleaned it up, but I mean when I told my parents I was working here at night, they were like 'oh, I don't think that's too good' (laughs). I said 'no, no it's alright'. So usually any time I walked around, I 00:43:00would knuckle my keys, and I had a special ring that had two sharp edges on it, and when I came to work I always wore that ring because I figured that if anyone messed with me I would carve them up good (laughs). The deal was that, there was a parking lot in back, and I said I don't care what happens during the day, but there was a parking place… my car had to be parked in the back, and I had to be able to see my car, go to my car, and drive home. So, the arranged it at 6 o'clock when everybody left, I could go and park back there, so that was all I cared about. I just need to see my car, so I can go home at night. And that was when the riots were happening. Do you remember those?

SB: The St. Patrick's Day riots?

LS: Yes! Yes, yes, yes, that was happening, and that year it was really something. My brother is a fireman, when I got the night position, I had some 00:44:00connections that they didn't know I had, which was my brother was fireman, and he was up on New York Street, so he was our first responder. I also… There was another company down by the Oshkosh Avenue Bridge, and there was a big company down on CP(?), and the fire department was 3 shifts, A, B, or C. So my brother was on one shift, Marti was on shift and another guy that I knew who was a battalion chief was on the third, so all three of them told me that if anything ever happens that you don't like, if anything happens or if you you don't feel comfortable about anything, you give us a call. And I got the numbers for the the firehouses. Not the alarm ones, but the private numbers, and they said, we 00:45:00can be here in a couple of minutes, and we can take a look at anything you want us to take a look at. So, I had the whole fire department behind me, I was ok. Then the one night they set the fire to the house over on John, I had left the library and I was home, and my brother was on, and Joe was on, and we would all listen to the fire calls, and I heard my brother say, 'has a brown car cleared?' because they were using our parking lot to stage, and Joe said 'no car here'. And basically, what my brother was saying is that did I get home. And I had and Joe was telling him that her car wasn't here, she's home. Nobody else knew about it, but in that moment, when they were talking about that brown car, they were wanting to know on that on the phone. That was scary, that was very very scary. 00:46:00The people were running in the fire and that was just really stupid. They are lucky that people didn't get very badly hurt.

SB: Alright so, you had the unique experience to here of seeing how rapidly technology can grow and become better. How was that like?

LS: We have to make out… If you wanted to request an article, you had to make out a card, and if you wanted more than one article, you had to make out more than one card. Now we do not do that anymore. We use to have to fold our overdues and send them, and now we email everything. We use to get articles sent on paper, and then people would have to come to the desk to pick up their paper 00:47:00articles. We don't do that anymore, so it is just basically more, and with the databases we have, we have access to thing that are truly extraordinary, and there are universities that will share materials and things that would be inaccessible to people years ago. It just really opened up a lot. We see Mormons, the Brigham Young University. They have a lot of things that share with the world that they have. It is just really-- One of our instructors is doing some research on the Vietnam situation and we are getting books for him, and who 00:48:00have gotten him books from all over the world. From Leon, France, from the university of Oregon, we have got some from Harvard university, we have gotten things all over the world for people and it is really kind of being able to reach out and touch people and get them things. It is really kind of fascinating.

SB: When you were… This is kind of going back a little bit, but when you were switching over from…

LS: Circulation to interlibrary loan?

SB: No, from putting the stuff on the database, what did you all have to do for that?

LS: What we had to do was match what was the book we had, to what was in a database, and then we would mark it as a holding of the library's. There is a 00:49:00database, LCLC, where all the books were, and you just had to find the copy that matched the copy that was the holding of your library. And then you would acknowledge that is what you were holding, and then that would go into the database, and the world would know that you have a copy of that book. Plus, then, that would add to your holdings list, so people could look into that list and go 'oh yeah, that is the book I want and you have got it'. Or that's the book I want and somebody from the different university knows you have it, so they can order it and you can send it to them. Si it is a global, putting together. It is like the consortiums now. The thing is libraries don't really exist anymore, because of the price of books, because of the price of the 00:50:00databases and things like that, they are consortiums that work together, and so if there are 40 libraries, each of them do not have to have copies of the same book. You can move them around amongst the libraries and it is money saving, and it it serving. It is serving the public, and I have faith in Libraries, I'm sorry. I will… They are never going to be replaced by the internet. The materials are going to be moving differently, but there are always the libraries and I think there are also always going to be paper books, because there are still going to be people that want to hold it in their hands so, I do think eBooks are going to replace real books. They are convenient, but they are still 00:51:00some people out there that want the real thing.

SB: Since… Well basically you have been here, so since you were a student here, and since you still see student life every day, how has it changed the most?

LS: I would guess it is more forced. I would like to see people take more advantage of their time here, and realizing that it is an opportunity to meet people, try new things, to talk to people, to find out about ideas and… The ability to appreciate things, that maybe you aren't exposed to or something like 00:52:00that. But I think a lot of people have attitudes, or I do not that it I do not want that, where I think they should be more open and give it a try, because you never know. I think a lot of people are not taking advantage of that, and that is sad because obviously I never bought into that high school was the best time of your life, and it wasn't. Where college is the chance to find people who you you like. But you to experience different people and I think, just as much as the book learning and the papers and the projects. I need to know people, and sometimes, I can remember one person that I just needed everything I had to deal 00:53:00with her, and I swear, every group activity I had, I wound up with that woman, and I just… And she was everything that was just… But for some strange reason, we clicked, and everyone said that she was overbearing, everyone couldn't stand her, everybody… But for some strange reason, I like Rosie, and she liked me. She just was… You just had to see a different side of people, and sometimes, people give up too easy. You don't really take the time to really get to know people. I think that this is just as much a part of education as the book learning, and the projects, and things like that, but it just getting to know different people, and I've meet some very wonderful people, and very brave 00:54:00people. I have also meet some people that I really hope they make it in this world because they are (laughs) a little bit square peg in a round hole. They are nice people, but they are just-- You know? I just sometimes, and the problem is some of the electronics that people use, like texting, and the… You don't… It takes away the interaction… The face to face interaction, and when it comes down to it, you are going to live the rest of your life with people, and you are going to have to learn how to motivate them, you are going to have to learn how to work with them, you are going to have to learn how to supervise them, and you are going to have to do that face to face. You cannot do that with a computer. You cannot do it with an iPod, you cannot do it with a cellphone. I 00:55:00that's why I am afraid that this generation used them.

SB: Alright, just 2 more questions. What you do now does not really go with your major.

LS: Nope!

SB My question is, would you have ever guessed this is the route you would have taken?

LS: No, but I have to tell you, my worst nightmare. It was at a library, how about that? Like I told you, I was always the turtle. We had our library period, and we went to the library together, and I will never forget, one day I found a book and I wanted to read it, and the librarian, who I know, who was a very 00:56:00wonderful person, basically took it out of my hands and said, you cannot read this anyways, and she took it away from me, and that kind of was a pivotal thing in my life because then I wanted to read more, and I got better at it, but that was kind of my library horror story. I have always felt at home in libraries, I've always liked libraries. My parents were readers, they always encouraged us to read. My father when he came home from work, basically to free my mother up, he would sit and he would read books to the three of us and he sometime would have to read the same book three time. But reading and books have always been a big part of my life. The joke is, that I will never have a lot of money in my 00:57:00life, but whoever gets the paper poundage from my books will probably make out ok. I am pretty happy with what I have, the library has been good to me, I think I have done very good things for the library, and I am looking forward to seeing what changes are coming, and seeing what I can do.

SB: Alright, and then, you mentioned earlier about Marti and Lynn, do you guys still see each other at all or…?

LS: Well, Lynn as I said, died. She never graduated. Linda, I am afraid is dead. She was bipolar, and she left two children. Marti and I talk, she lives up in Marinette still, her husband has MS (Multiple sclerosis), but every once in a 00:58:00while we will get together, and we just get crazy, or I go up to her cottage and we always talk about things, and she is the person that when my head needs straightening on or if I am not sure about something, she is always the one that points me in the right direction and she also, in sorority, was my big sister, so she has always been very special, and when she left, and I stayed here, her parents lived here, and I helped her with her father until he died, and I also helped out her mother. The joke was, when the four of us went out, we always had a designated father because for some reason something always happened to our vehicle, so the joke was, 'can I go to bed, or am I the designated father?' and 00:59:00then whoever it was would have to come and get us and take us home, and everything like that. We had a good time, and I miss them. I miss them though. I would have loved to have seen what they would have turned into. I had a hunch that Lynn would have wound up probably as head of the education… department of education, and Linda would have been a principle now I am quite sure. It is just-- You don't understand how things happen in life. When Marti and I get together, that is one of the funnest things we talk about, things we use to do, crazy things we use to do. We wanted to make Lynn happy because she died when we 01:00:00were young, and through… we tell her [Linda's] kids the crazy stories that helped us love her, but I'm sure grandparents don't like it when we tell them.

SB: Alright actually one more. What advice would you give current students?

LS: To try everything. To do… At least try. I know people don't understand it but, not being able to do something, or failing to do something, is sometimes the most valuable thing you can do. It teaches you to think, and to experiment, and as I say, you got to get to know people. I know there are people now that I run into that I graduated with, and I would do anything for them, they would do 01:01:00anything for me. If I hadn't taken this opportunity to to get to know them, I would have missed out on so much. I think people with electronics miss out on so many people. That is wrong, so try everything, do everything, and if you like it, fine, great, if you try something and you don't don't like it, don't do it again. That's fine, but you have to get out there. Life is something you have to be a part of, and college is about learning and things like that, but it's also putting yourself out there, and getting to know people, and asking questions, and getting answers and learning how to listen to people, and learning how to 01:02:00ask for things. It is an opportunity that what is going to learn is going to set you up for the rest of your life.

SB: Is there anything that you would want to add?

LS: Nope, I do not think so, I have told you all. First of all, I am not a Mrs., I am a Miss, I have never been married, I have three cats that own me. I have a Siamese cat that is the CEO and I am the laborer. Nope, I am pretty happy. I am going to be retiring in August, I have a whole trip to England planned, I have always wanted to go to England. I am a Shakespeare buff. Depending on how you look at it, Shakespeare wrote probably around 42 plays. My friend and I have are 01:03:00planning on seeing all the plays, live performances of them, I am down to 2, and she is down to one. So, we are going to Stratford, the place where Shakespeare performed to see her 1, which is the same for 1 for me. So, she will beat me, she will finish before me. Shakespeare has a lot to say about life, and I found a lot of Shakespeare, and that has helped me understand things. I am glad he is still around after 400 years. So, I think that is about all I have to say.

SB: Alright, Thank you very much and congratulations about your retirement.

LS: Yes, yes it's about time.