JJ: Yes, but I have a copy of one of the others, the one with the three boys in the barn hanging tobacco. It's been passed down in my family. My dad had it, I guess, and then my mother gave it to me. I just assumed that it was a photograph someone they knew took, which I was surprised about, because I didn't see any other photographs of him from that time period. I didn't really think that much about it until I saw the photo you sent me.

JM: Did your father work in the tobacco fields for a long time?

JJ: Yes, in the Winchester and Mt. Sterling area. He came to Cincinnati when he was about 16 or 17. Then he ended up marrying and settling down here in Cincinnati. He eventually became a contractor and did carpentry work. He did some for himself for awhile and then worked for another gentleman. That's the only occupation that I can remember him having.

JM: Who did he marry?

JJ: He married Gladys Makeever in 1930. She was from Cincinnati.

JM: When were you born?

JJ: 1941.

JM: How many children did your parents have?

JJ: Just me and my brother. My brother was born in 1931.

JM: When did your father pass away?

JJ: In 1959. He was killed in a construction accident.

JM: Is your mother still alive?

JJ: She passed away last year.

JM: Did your mother ever work in her life?

JJ: She did a little bit of secretarial work. Once she got married, she didn't work.

JM: Did you go to college?

JJ: I took a few classes, but didn't graduate. I was a secretary before I had kids, and then I quit once the kids started coming. And then I went back to work when they got to be teenagers, started as a secretary and ended up doing human resources and payroll work.

JM: Did your father ever tell you much about working on the tobacco farm when he was a kid?

JJ: No. When I was a kid, I didn't really think much about that. And now I wish he would have talked more about it. We used to go down there to visit, because I still have aunts and uncles down in that area. We'd go down to visit quite often, but he really never said too much about the work.

JM: Did he ever talk at all about the conditions in his life at that time? You can't tell from the picture whether he was really poor or just working on the farm.

JJ: I don't know. They didn't have a lot of money, and there were 12 kids in the family, but I don't know that they were extremely poor. He never talked about being really poor.

JM: Did you know his parents?

JJ: I vaguely remember his mother. She died when I was small. His father had already passed away when I was born. My father was the second youngest of the 12.

JM: When you went down there to visit, did they still have the tobacco farm?

JJ: My Aunt Pearl and my Aunt Ollie had tobacco farms, but neither of them was the original farm that my parents and grandparents were on. I don't know if my grandparents actually owned a farm or if they just rented it. (The caption says they rented it, and in the 1920 census, they are listed as renters.)

JM: What was your father like?

JJ: He was a very nice guy. He was very caring, gentle, a good father. He was not real outgoing, but not shy either. He liked to do a lot of handiwork. I remember that he made a doll house for me and my cousins. He enjoyed doing things like that when he had the time, but he worked an awful lot.

JM: What do think about the fact that a number of photos of your family were taken by Mr. Hine, and that they were shown as examples of child labor?

JJ: I was kind of surprised, because I know in those days, families did it. It wasn't like they farmed him out to work for somebody else. They had big families, and the kids had to help on the farm.

JM: What did your father like to do for recreation?

JJ: My parents got into square dancing a lot. And they liked to play cards with friends.

JM: Where did you live when you were growing up?

JJ: Golf Manor. It was about 10 miles from downtown Cincinnati. At the time, it was a suburb which was out fairly far. The city limits were at the end of the street we lived on.

JM: What kind of house was it?

JJ: It was just a little ranch house. There were two bedrooms on the first floor. And then my father finished the second floor. He put stairs up there, finished the attic, and made a room and a bathroom up there.

JM: One of the arguments that people had against child labor was that it was keeping children from going to school.

JJ: A lot of the schools there would have adjusted their schedules to accommodate the tobacco farmers.

JM: How far in school did your father get?

JJ: I know he got through the eighth grade, but I'm not sure how much further he got. I know he didn't graduate from high school. But his life turned out fairly well for what he started with. He had a nice family, and he was happy.