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Identifier
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PUA_MS166_004
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Title
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Mary Easton oral history recording
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Description
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Mary Easton oral history interview on the Gay Nineties and Barbershop Ballad Contest, recorded July 2, 2025 at the Friends of Historic Forest Grove Old Train Station Museum in Forest Grove, Oregon. Elle Griego, the interviewer, was a History and French undergraduate student at Pacific University from 2022-2026.
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Easton was born in 1934 in Scappoose, Oregon. In the interview, Easton shares her life story, describing her childhood in the Forest Grove area, working as a teacher, running the Ace Hardware store with her family, and traveling overseas. She reflects on the changes in Forest Grove over the years, including the decline of the festival, the number of local businesses, and community involvement.
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The Gay Nineties was an annual festival in Forest Grove, Oregon, centered around a theme of nostalgia for the 1890s decade. The event, which ran from 1947 through the 1990s, featured a parade downtown, residents dressing up in 1890s-themed costumes for the celebrations, local businesses decorating their window displays, and the crown jewel of the event, the Original All-Northwest Barbershop Ballad Contest, which earned Forest Grove the nickname “Ballad Town U.S.A.”
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This is one of a collection of oral history interviews on the Gay Nineties Festival and the Barbershop Ballad Contest at the Pacific University Archives. This recording is accompanied by a transcript, which was made through AI in 2025 with manual corrections.
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Date: Year(s)
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2025
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Date: Display
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July 2, 2025
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Extent
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1 video file (1 hr., 9 min.)
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Copyright
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http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
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Contributor
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Griego, Elle
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Format
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MP4
