ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW
Mary Ellen Crowe
November 21, 1983
by Barbara Higgins Aubrey

0:01:16	Discussion about moving to Springfield from Alexandria Virginia.
0:02:55	Used the double living room of the Col. Quarters for sorority meetings and cheer leading.
0:03:20	Talked about how the wind blew in the door and how spooky the creaking of the house was.
0:03:51	Guard at the gate would open the car door and peer in at her and her dates.
0:04:29	Sergeant taught her and her sister to drive.
0:05:05	Lived in a rented home in Alexandria.
0:05:22	Exciting to live on base at the Armory.
0:06:05	Sergeant also taught her and her sister to play pool at the officer's club.
0:06:43	Describes the Officer's Club.
0:07:28	Most of the officer's dependents were either younger or older.
0:08:03	Had a monopoly on baby-sitting.
0:08:24	Talked about how they set up the house.
0:09:13	Talked about the cupola and the wing where she and her sister lived.
0:09:39	Talked about her dog and his habit of playing in the fountain.
0:11:30	Sisters would play tricks on each other in the wing of the house Quarters.
0:12:15	Mother did most of the house work except for the heavy work.
0:12:52	Mother would entertain the officers and their families on New Years Day.
0:13:30	West Point cadets came to tour the Armory.
0:13:50	She and her sister gathered up all their girl friends to help entertain the cadets.
0:14:56	Talked of a legend of a passage under the house Quarters to Bldg. 13.
0:16:56	High schools used the grounds as athletic fields.
0:18:26	Talked about how her mother probably contracted for outside help cooking for large entertainments.
0:19:45	Father got a job at Savage Arms after retiring after one year at the Armory.
0:20:25	Finished High School at Classical.
0:21:00	Lived in Oklahoma, Missouri, Washington, Pennsylvania, and Switzerland.
0:21:40	Had been to 14 different schools by the time she completed her Masters degree.
0:22:23	Mother originally from Penn., father was from New Jersey.
0:23:00	She and her sister were born in Philadelphia. Brother was born in Medford Mass.
0:23:43	Talked about how her father graduated in two years from West Point then went to M.l.T.
0:25:13	Mother had two brothers in the services. Natural that she married into one of the services.
0:26:46	Parents were married when mother was 26 and father was 28.
Side B
0:27:45	Col. Crowe, her father, taught mechanical drawing at West Point. He also played the clarinet.
0:29:00	Father was a family man.
0:30:00	Father enjoyed cooking for the family.
0:31:40	Mother did not know how to cook when she was first married.
0:32:00	Mother was brought up not to bother herself with things like cooking.
0:32:55	She and her sister were given the key to the door gate in the iron fence.
0:33:51	Used an unused guardhouse as a playhouse.
0:34:25	Father retired after his year at the Armory.
0:34:37	The Armory post was considered a “plum” post by people finishing up their careers
0:35:32	Thought it was exciting to live there. Didn't focus on the fact they produced arms.
0:36:16	Talked of how she was not aware of the history of the Armory when she lived there.
0:37:00	Did not know many army children. Thought she had the best of both worlds living most of her childhood off base.
0:38:31	Father didn't collect guns. Kept his home separate from career.
0:39:01	Noticed her father, at times, was under heavy pressures, but was not aware of what they were.
0:40:13	She and her sister were not put under pressure to perform.
0:40:36	Allowed to be normal teenagers.
0:42:28	Talks of her brother, where his room was. Did not know how he felt about living at the Armory.
0:43:48	Met two kinds of friends: Friends who were introduced to them by their parents and friends they met at school.
0:45:27	Joined a Congregational church because it was the nearest denomination to the Presbyterians.
0:47:10	She and her sister belonged to an ice skating club in West Springfield.
0:48:00	She and her twin sister used to dress alike because they liked the same kinds of things.
0:49:38	She and her sister had very different friends.
0:51:00	Describes her life in a Switzerland Catholic boarding school.
0:52:00	Her parents did not have to tell her how to act at the Armory because they knew she had adapted well to very unusual circumstances, as in Switzerland.
0:55:20	Mother died on Sept.24, 1983.