by Chelsee Tuni

I interviewed my grandmother Betty Ann Thomas Williams because I think my grandmother is very special and I love her very much. She has also lived a long time and can remember a lot of things about when she was growing up before there was electricity, telephones, television and very few people drove cars. She said during the time she was growing up, the trains would pass by her house a lot. My grandmother said she was a very hard worker when she was my age. She also said she still likes to keep busy and help other people.

My grandmother’s name is Betty Ann Thomas Williams and she is 63 years old. My grandmother is ½ Paiute and ½ Shoshone Native American Indian. She was born in Mina, Nevada, on October 17, 1937. Her mother’s name was Helen Leona Bell who was a Paiute lady from Schurz, Nevada and a very good mom. She died on March 19, 1979. Her father’s name was Ed Thomas who was a Shoshone from Berlin, Nevada. He died in February of 1950. My grandmother said her mother was a homemaker who stayed at home and took care of her children and also did housework for many families while living in Reno. Her father worked in the Southern Pacific Railroads for many years. The railroad went from Las Vegas to Reno every day and it was the main way to carry goods because there were not a lot of truck drivers back then.

My grandmother had a pretty big family when she was growing up and said she was the oldest girl who took very good care of her younger brothers and sisters for many years. She had 6 brothers and 2 sisters and 3 are still living in Reno, Nevada. Her youngest brother lives in Las Vega. Her brothers names are: Harry, Bert, Albert, Robert, Richard and James Thomas. Her sisters are Shirley and Helen. Her brothers Harry, Albert and Robert and sister Shirley died many years ago. Betty has always been very close to her family and enjoys going to Reno to visit them. They get together a lot for dinners and parties. Sometimes we all just go up for a good game of volleyball in one of my cousin’s yards. We usually get my grandmother out to play, but she and my aunts usually just sit around laughing.

My grandmother said she lived in Mina, Nevada, until she was 8 years old, then her family moved to Reno to the Indian Colony. I asked my grandmother what she did when she was my age, since they did not have any electricity or televisions and she said that they always had fun playing with cousins and other relatives. There were so many of them, they could always make teams and she said they never fought with each other and they always took care of each other.

She said one of the favorite things they did while living in Mina was to wait everyday for the train to come through town. They became friends with the train driver who was named Charlie Chaplin who gave them train rides. They knew exactly what time he was coming through town every day so all the kids would run down to one end of town and wait for Charlie to honk his train whistle. He would stop and give them a ride from one side of town to the other everyday. She said while living in Mina, the biggest thrill was to wait for the train rides every day. She said she liked to play school and there was an old shack that had a tin roof that all the kids would climb up on and they would play school. They liked to play on the shack because they used the tin roof as their chalkboard.

Betty said that the old Indian people liked to travel around and visit each other a lot so there were always a lot of people coming to their house. She said it seemed like there were always a lot of new kids to play with when visitors came around. They also traveled to Schurz a lot to visit relatives. She said they did not miss having a television or electricity. My grandmother said they did not have a car when they lived in Mina so they walked a lot to the store with their older grandmother. Once in a while her Aunt Avis, who owned a 1937 Chevrolet, would come down and take them places. Since Mina was a very small place, there were not a lot of places to go, so they just stayed around home, helping care for the younger children and making up games to play.

When Betty was 8 years old, she moved to Reno and went to school at Southside Elementary School. When she was 12 years old, she lived with a dentist and his wife to help take care of their small children, and she got paid for it. In the mornings she helped get all the children ready for school, then the dentist would take them to school. My grandmother went to school at Manogue High School because the family was Catholic. When they came home, Betty helped feed the children and get them ready for bed. She said the family liked to go to Monterey, California, at lot to water ski. She would sit on the beach with the little children and watch them while the adults water skied.

Betty recalls that during those years it was common for young Indian girls to move in with rich doctor and lawyer families and help them take care of their children. She still tries to keep in touch with the family and says that now they have a lot of grandchildren.

Later Betty attended Reno High School and said she was very active in sports. She said this because when she was growing up, she and her brothers and sisters and many cousins played ball games such as dodgeball, baseball, basketball and kick-ball.

Betty came to Fallon during the summer before she graduated to live with the Charlie Frey family to also care for their young children. While she was in Fallon, she met my grandpa Smokey and they were married a couple of years later on May 10, 1958.

My grandpa, Clinton "Smokey" Williams, lived on a ranch in Stillwater, where Betty still lives today.

My grandmother has become very good friends with the Frey family and still helps them. She now helps them care for the grandchildren. She also helps care for Mrs. Jewell Frey because she is getting up in age. I think she just likes my grandmother to come over and visit with her every week since she is very close to their family. We like to visit them also and we call her "Grandma Judy" just as if she was our real grandma, too.

My grandma said her favorite place to work was at the Headstart as a teacher for preschool children at the Fallon Indian Reservation when she first moved to Fallon. She said she really enjoyed working with little kids and the other teachers were also very fun to work with. My grandmother also drove CCSD bus #13 for 13 years.

Today my grandmother just piddles around and hauls all her grandchildren whereever they need to go. She still lives on the ranch where she and my grandfather did so she still helps farm and helps raise our horses and sheep and always helps us take care of our dogs.

Betty has two daughters, my mother Cathi (Tuni) and my Aunt Julie (Blackwater). She has four grandchildren, me and my bother Wyatt and my two cousins, Rusty and Trent. She also likes to spend time with her sons-in-law, my dad and my uncle. They are always teasing her a lot and playing tricks on her. She said my uncles keep her young with their wise jokes. My grandfather died in 1982, before I was born so I never got to meet him but my grandmother is always telling me nice stories about Smokey.

I really had fun doing the interview with my grandmother because she told me a lot of interesting things about her life and it seemed like she had a lot of fun times growing up. She seemed like she did not miss having a lot of things we have today. My grandmother is always happy and always smiling. Once in a while we must get on her nerves and she sends all the grandkids home but usually not for long. I like to talk to my grandmother and we are always talking. Sometimes she picks me up from school or takes me to town, just to walk around in the stores.