Frances Blanton oral history interview, 1992 November 24

Longtime Charlotte resident Frances Blanton discusses her family, and her childhood and adolescence. She describes visiting her grandparents on their farm in Cabarrus County, where they made their own butter, cream, and sausage. Mrs. Blanton began dating at sixteen, and recalls her father's rules for suitors and opinions on acceptable and unacceptable activities for women. She describes what she did for fun in her youth, including attending school dances, parties, movies, and church activities. By age twenty she married, and remarks that most women at the time had married by age twenty-two or twenty-three, or they didn't marry at all. Mrs. Blanton touches on differences between the culture of her youth and of the time of interview. In particular, she believes that there used to be a greater emphasis on family, that discussions of sex were taboo, and that relatives tended to stay closer to home once reaching adulthood.