"I just thought that was heaven on earth"

          My name is Mary Ann Egan, and I was born in Redwing, Minnesota. We moved at a very young age to Minneapolis. We resided here until we moved to Sioux Falls a few years ago. I had just one brother who was three years younger, and we were great buddies. He was a dear, dear friend and brother. We were very close. We spent a lot of time each weekend going fishing or visiting relatives about 40 miles outside of Minneapolis at Lake Minnesota and Howard Lake. My cousin Sally, she was, in fact my husband and I had breakfast with her last winter and we had lots of fun. I would go out from Minneapolis and stay with her for a couple weeks every summer and she would take me out to the barn and we would jump in the hay mounds and gather up the cows and I just thought that was heaven on earth and then we’d go in and go to the living room, which in those days was called the front room, and we would, she would play the piano and we would sing all these songs like red sails in the sunsets and all the war songs, it was fun. My mother was 1 of 13 children so I had, oh, 45 cousins. I think they really helped shape me. We were all very good hardworking people. One of my cousins ended up he was at the University of Minnesota same time I was and he graduated and went onto John Hopkins where he helped invent CRP, and then ended up as a doctor in Miami. Our 60th wedding anniversary very memorable. All of our grandchildren and children were there at one time or another, that was truly memorable. The only unfortunate thing was that our son Mike passed away 13 years ago tomorrow exactly. He of course wasn’t there but his 2 sons were, and they are wonderful boys so we are very very fortunate.

"We didn't think that [the war] was tough, we just did what we had to do"
 

I can remember getting my first job at 13. I was, I think I was in the eighth grade when I was 13, anyways a friend of mine’s uncle was the personal manager and he was able to get us a job at Sara’s Folding Circulars and I remember at that time I knew it was very important to get an education because I certainly didn’t want to fold circulars the rest of my life. It was really a magical time I thought. A good friend and I, Betsy Jones-Rans was her name, then decided that we wanted to make a horse out of cardboard box so we got a great big long butcher knife from one of our kitchens and we were carving the horse out and we think we are going to ride the horses around the block, this is on 24th and Hinapin Minneapolis and anyways, but I had great big cut in my finger and it went right down to the bone and in those days you didn’t rush like to the doctor like we do now just put a band aid on it and hold it real tight and let it heal up. And anyways if I'd see Betsy before she passed away I'd show her my scar and wed talk about the fun we had making that horse and just about cut off my finger. Oh yes I think we were in the 3rd grade actually. Looking back on what children have to contend with today, it was of course after the war, I can remember in grade school I can remember folding bandages, and rolling bandages, and big paper sails every fall for the war effort. We did a lot for the servicemen, and I think that’s when I really learned my interest in philanthropy and altruism and how necessary it is to help others. We didn’t think of [the war] as tough, we just did what we had to do. I can remember not ever having very much meat. We’d have to go to the, we’d have to turn in our fat, I can’t remember for what reason, and I just, I guess I was just oblivious to why we were doing all of this. We just did it, ya know? And I think it was impressed on us that we couldn’t be wasteful because the starving children in China, and we had to eat everything on our plate, and things weren’t really as lavish as they are today.

 

"We were so limited in those days"

 

I had decided [what I wanted to major in] in grade school, and I had always planned on being a teacher. My mother had been a teacher and my aunt and I really, I really loved children and I really wanted to be a teacher. I thought it would be really exciting and one time I remember watching some television show and I wanted to be a detective, or a secretary for a detective, I don’t know if that was from some tv show or what, but I thought that would really be cool, but I really had no skills as far as typing! I think the importance of an education I really really feel in those days, was imperative. When I entered the University of Minnesota the women had the choice of becoming a nurse or a teacher or something else, and then when we graduated all of those girls, oh it was SLA, science literature and the arts, that was the other thing, and every one of those girls has to go downtown to the Minnesota Minneapolis School of Business and take typing classes to become secretaries. We were so limited in those days as far as professions that we could go into. I just think it’s wonderful today that there are so many jobs available. Of course I was scared to death, I was just a little girl from West High School. The university was a huge huge campus and I imagine it is much much bigger today but I just saw that the professors for the most part were very very good instructors and down to earth good professors and teachers and the build of education cared about the students.

"I loved every minute of it"

The biggest deal was to get over to the U on a bus or a streetcar and then stop at the café there on the bridge and have a cup of coffee. I remember I hated coffee but I learned to drink it because it was only a nickel a cup. I really, till this day, drink a lot of coffee, but I really don’t like the taste of it! We always went to the football games and we loved the hockey games and I don’t remember going to any basketball games in those days. I just, you know transportation was a challenge in those days. Nobody really had cars because of the war and I think my friends were just beginning to own cars and it was a matter of taking a bus everywhere or a streetcar, so that was a challenge. They definitely allowed [cars], but like I said because of the war not too many people, well they started to get them like oh late in my high school years, but that’s how I remember it. I remember joining the AUW, I think it was, Association of University Women, and I remember going through Rushing of course. We couldn’t go through Rushing or join a sorority unless we made our grades so that was even, made us put forth a lot of effort to go through Rushing and become a member of a sorority which was, a lot of people advised because they just felt in such a large institution that it was important to be a part of a small group that you really got to know well. I definitely remember, I loved every minute of it, it was Alpha Phi, a sorority, and we did an awful lot of charities and like heart funds and I became very involved in that. I ended up being treasurer my junior and senior year and I learned a lot from that. I learned that I never really wanted to handle my check book after that because it was a lot of work! Oh I have nothing but fond fond memories of my time in Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota I really feel it was a wonderful institution and I still do, and I am very proud of the fact that I have a degree from the University of Minnesota."