Iacovino, Jo Ellen

              
ORAL HISTORY OF JO ELLEN IACOVINO
Interviewed by Keith McDaniel
December 16, 2011
 
MR. MCDANIEL: This is Keith McDaniel, and today is December the 16th, 2011 and I am at the home of Jo Ellen Iacovino here in Oak Ridge.  Jo Ellen, thanks for taking time to talk to us.
MRS. IACOVINO: You're welcome.
MR. MCDANIEL: Let's start at the beginning.  Tell me about your family, where you were born, if you don't mind, when you were born, where you went to school.
MRS. IACOVINO: Okay, well, I was born in 1937 on a farm outside Nashville.  It's actually on Slater's Creek, I understand, but we didn't stay there very long and moved into the city.  I'm number eight out of ten children and my oldest brother was sent -- he joined the Army or he got drafted, I don't know which and my mother decided we'd just come to Oak Ridge to win the war.  That's so everybody came and when we first came, I couldn't go -- we weren't in Oak Ridge.  We were in South Harriman and that's the first school I went to here.
MR. MCDANIEL: South Harriman?
MRS. IACOVINO: In South Harriman, and --
MR. MCDANIEL: And what grade were you in?
MRS. IACOVINO: Would that be the first grade, I guess, or maybe I was in the second grade.  I think I was in the second grade.
MR. MCDANIEL: Was that Bowers or was it South Harriman School?
MRS. IACOVINO: It was South Harriman, I believe.
MR. MCDANIEL: It was the old South Harriman --
MRS. IACOVINO: It was the old South Harriman School.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. IACOVINO: And I have to say I was brilliant in that school 'cause I could read already and so anyway, we had a pretty good time there and then we got to move into Oak Ridge in this wonderful place called Happy Valley and I went to school in Happy Valley.  And we lived in a trailer.  I'd never seen -- I lived in a little stone house in Nashville, when there were houses, you know, brick and everything, wood around us.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: But I'd never seen a trailer and they were just amazing to me.
MR. MCDANIEL: And Happy Valley was across from the K-25 site.
MRS. IACOVINO: Across from K-25 is where my mother worked and my sister worked and I guess my brother worked.  My dad didn't come.  He had worked for the Post Office and that was considered a critical job --
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: -- so he couldn't do that.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now what year did you come here?
MRS. IACOVINO: Well, we came in 1944.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. IACOVINO: And we stayed just a year.  We stayed and came back -- we came back home in 1945.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay, but you came in '44 and you moved into a trailer in Happy Valley.
MRS. IACOVINO: Moved into a trailer in Happy Valley and --
MR. MCDANIEL: And how many kids were there with you?
MRS. IACOVINO: Well, let's see.  I had one brother who went to -- he was in boarding school, so he wasn't there.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: And Colleen, my oldest sister, Colleen was working and so the rest of us were there.
MR. MCDANIEL: Were there?
MRS. IACOVINO: We were all there in the trailer.
[Laughter]
MR. MCDANIEL: Now how big was this trailer?
MRS. IACOVINO: Well, it was called a double trailer.  I don't know why.  It was really small [laughs].
MR. MCDANIEL: Was it?
MRS. IACOVINO: It was.  It was an interesting time and the bathroom, of course, was down the road.  Not the road -- you had to go on these wooden sidewalks; go down to a bath house.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: And I'd never taken a shower in my life but that's all they had down there were showers.  You had to remember the soap and the towel and it was just a nightmare but it was a nightmare in a way.  Another way, it was just like a big camp-out, you know --
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: -- it was just fun.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, because it was pretty rustic, wasn't it?
MRS. IACOVINO: Oh, it was very rustic and our trailer was up close to the fence back there and so we could go back there.  We weren't supposed to go up to the fence, but my brother, who was just one year older than I, he and my sister, who was just one year younger, we would go back there and play.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: And we would see the guard.  Every now and then, we'd see a guard on a horse back there and playing in the leaves, and we had a good time back there and walking to school.  We could walk to the school.  The school was also a trailer.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well that's what I was going to ask you about.  What was in Happy Valley?  Because it was a temporary construction camp, basically, wasn't it?
MRS. IACOVINO: It was.  It was sort of self-contained, though.  It had a movie theater and a bowling alley and it had -- and the store, I went in -- of course I was really -- and I was kind of small for my age, anyway, so I couldn't see over the counter.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: When I would go in, it was just dark.  Everything was dark; everything was just put together.  Wood, you know, I'd never seen anything like that.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: I think it was a Post Office in there, if I'm not mistaken.  And that wasn't very far from our school but we'd just get on that little wooden sidewalk and walk down to the school and it was crowded.  There were just lots of children in there.  We had to share our desk and they were just regular desks, you know, but you had to have two children in the desk.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: Not only that, we had to get up and go out so two more children could take your place.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.  Hold on a second.  
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay, good.  So you were talking about Happy Valley and the school and the stores and --
MRS. IACOVINO: Yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: -- all the things that were there.
MRS. IACOVINO: Right, well there really, you're right, there wasn't very much there.  It was just the trailers and the basic -- the bare necessities, I guess and -- but anyway, in our classrooms -- we shared the classrooms with other age groups.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: And we would go out in the hall and, of course, the teachers would be out there and they would put -- it was like butcher paper.  I guess they had butcher paper to do it.  They just lined the wall with this paper and we were doing murals out there.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh really?
MRS. IACOVINO: On the wall.
MR. MCDANIEL: So while the other students were in the --
MRS. IACOVINO: While the other students were in the class --
MR. MCDANIEL: -- were in the classroom?
MRS. IACOVINO: And there wasn't a cafeteria.  You had to bring your lunch or go home for lunch, which was just down the road --
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: -- so we could do that.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: So it was quite a different school than the other schools I had been to, already.  I'd been to St. Anne's.  I started out at St. Anne's in Nashville and then South Harriman and now this Happy Valley School, so [laughs] I didn't know what school was supposed to be.
MR. MCDANIEL: You didn't think you could go down any further, did you?
MRS. IACOVINO: Well, you know, you just don't know.  You just do whatever they say to do next.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now what grade were you in in Happy Valley?
MRS. IACOVINO: I think I was in the second grade.  I meant to ask Colleen for sure, but I think that's it.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.  But you had activities, you know, you had other friends to play with in Happy Valley?
MRS. IACOVINO: Oh yeah, there were just lots of children there.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: And my baby sister, she -- there was one house in Happy Valley, up on a hill, with a little valley and then up on a hill was this big, white house and they turned that into a nursery school and so she would -- that's where she spent her time, because my mother worked.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: So she would go to the -- she called it her Nazi School, which embarrassed us, terribly.  We tried so hard to get her not to say that.
[Laughter] So, but anyway.
MR. MCDANIEL: So your mother and Colleen were both working? Well, what did they do?  What did your mother do?
MRS. IACOVINO: You know, I know -- I don't exactly know what it was but she said she was a leak detector.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right, right.
MRS. IACOVINO: So I don't know what kind of leaks she detected, but it's the first time I'd ever seen her put on slacks.  She wore slacks.
MR. MCDANIEL: So is that -- is that right?
MRS. IACOVINO: My mother wore slacks. [Laughter]
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, my goodness.
MRS. IACOVINO: Well, I mean, that was the time when women just wore dresses, you know and she --
MR. MCDANIEL: Now how old was your mother at that time?
MRS. IACOVINO: Gracious.  How old must she have been?  She was in her '40s.
MR. MCDANIEL: Was she? 
MRS. IACOVINO: She was born, I think, in 1901, maybe so that would make her 46.
MR. MCDANIEL: So she was 43 -- yeah, 40- yeah, sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: Forty-something.  [Laughter]
MR. MCDANIEL: So you -- but you went to school there and you --
MRS. IACOVINO: Went to school there.
MR. MCDANIEL: -- did you have -- probably with that many kids, you never went out to eat, probably because --
MRS. IACOVINO: Oh, there wasn't any place to go out to eat, anyway.  Oh, no.  No.  I don't recall -- well, we went into Oak Ridge sometimes and there was a -- what was that place?  We always went into church and sometimes we had to go to church at the theater 'cause that's where church was, or Chapel on the Hill, if you went early enough.  We had one chance to go to that early mass there.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: And then we'd go to the theater and then there was a restaurant in Jackson Square. Oh, I don't remember what it was.
MR. MCDANIEL: But did you go there to eat?
MRS. IACOVINO: Sometimes.
MR. MCDANIEL: Occasionally.  Sometimes.
MRS. IACOVINO: We did do that and then -- so apparently, we spent the summer here, which was, you know, I have vague memories of that.  I remember my dad used to go and buy us shoes, which was really hard because you only had the -- you had to have ration stamps to get shoes and the boys wore out the shoes.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: So we had these little cardboard shoes that if we got them wet, they would just -- that'd be the end of them.
MR. MCDANIEL: Disintegrate.
MRS. IACOVINO: So if it started to rain, you had to take off your shoes and walk around barefoot, which I didn't really mind.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: Not in the summer, anyway.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: But I remember going to the Alexander one day.  Colleen met her husband here and so we went up there to see Blackie and we were sitting on the porch of the Alexander, and I had new shoes.  I had new saddles.  They were saddle oxfords.  I was so proud.  I think -- I don't know how many pairs of shoes I had during the war, but not too many, I guess.  I was really proud of these shoes.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: And that's my only memory of the Alexander was sitting on the porch.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sitting on the porch.
MRS. IACOVINO: Sitting on the porch, there.
MR. MCDANIEL: I bet there are a lot of people have memories of sitting on the porch at the Alexander.
MRS. IACOVINO: Sitting on the porch and they had rocking chairs, I'm pretty sure it was -- and it was a rocking chair.  Sitting up there in a rocking chair.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.  Kind of like the Cracker Barrel.
MRS. IACOVINO: Yeah, it was.  I could see the tennis courts.  [Laughter]
MR. MCDANIEL: So your family stayed here.  You say you stayed here a year?
MRS. IACOVINO: Just a year and Colleen got married in the fall and then we went home.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. IACOVINO: We moved back to Nashville and so -- and I went back to St. Anne's and Cathedral School there and -- but I loved Oak Ridge.  I came every summer.
MR. MCDANIEL: because Colleen was living here?
MRS. IACOVINO: She was here and she would say, "Oh yes, you can come up."  So we would come up and spend the summer with Colleen; go down to the big pool, you know?
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh yeah.
MRS. IACOVINO: Oh, that was such a deal.
MR. MCDANIEL: Was it?
MRS. IACOVINO: Oh, in Nashville, we had -- there was a pool -- it was at Centennial and it's just a little pool but the Oak Ridge pool, oh.  That was the pool.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: So we loved it.  So when I got out of high school, I thought, "Man, that's where I'm going."  So I came on back to Oak Ridge and I got a job at Loveman’s.  Worked at Loveman’s and Betty Graham was there and she was such a dear thing and I worked -- I started out in the stock room and then, but she helped me learn to design the windows and I helped her with fashion shows, and I loved that job, but then I got a job at K-25, which paid more, so I went there.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, Betty Graham.  It seems like I interviewed Betty Graham.  Was that -- 
MRS. IACOVINO: You may have done.
MR. MCDANIEL: -- is that Elaine's aunt?  Elaine Graham's?
MRS. IACOVINO: No, not Elaine.  Betty Graham was the wife of the Unitarian minister, Arthur.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay, all right, okay.
MRS. IACOVINO: And he's -- they were gone from here, oh, when did they move?  They went away and went to Virginia.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. IACOVINO: And then she came back after he died.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. IACOVINO: She came because she loved Oak Ridge.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: And they had had a house up on Oak Lane and so she came back.  But --
MR. MCDANIEL: But anyway, you worked at Loveman’s, which was a department store.
MRS. IACOVINO: I worked at Loveman’s.  It was the department store.
MR. MCDANIEL: It was the depart- and where was it located?  It was in --
MRS. IACOVINO: You know, it's down there where --
MR. MCDANIEL: -- the shopping center where --
MRS. IACOVINO: -- yeah.  Where the engineering firm is there?
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, right next to the Old Ridge Theater, right?
MRS. IACOVINO: Yes.  Well, down in that next --
MR. MCDANIEL: That next --
MRS. IACOVINO: -- in the next block.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: It's -- oh, why can't I think of the name of it.  I know the --
MR. MCDANIEL: Jacobs?
MRS. IACOVINO: Jacobs Engineering.  Jacobs Engineering is there.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. IACOVINO: So -- and those places that they've blocked in, those were the windows.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: I loved doing those windows.  They were such fun.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now is that where the sporting goods place used to be?
MRS. IACOVINO: No, I think the sporting goods was one --
MR. MCDANIEL: One more down.
MRS. IACOVINO: One -- yes, one more down.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. IACOVINO: And I don't remember what was there when Loveman’s was there.  Something was and the drug store was -- 
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: -- Big Ed's where Big Ed's is.
MR. MCDANIEL: Yes, yes, yes.
MRS. IACOVINO: So.  Austin's.
MR. MCDANIEL: So you worked there and --
MRS. IACOVINO: And then I went to work at K-25.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, what year did you go to work at K-25?
MRS. IACOVINO: Oh, maybe '57, '56 or '57.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.  Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: And I met my husband there.  And so we married in Oak Ridge in 1959.
MR. MCDANIEL: What did you do at K-25?
MRS. IACOVINO: I was in Central Forms and Records.  I did forms.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. IACOVINO: So -- it was fun and I worked in the Administration Building and then they built a new building just across the thing and then they had all the -- they had tons of records that they had filed away.  So pretty soon they said, "Well, we need to catalogue these."
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: So I was doing that.  So -- but then --
MR. MCDANIEL: So that's where you met your husband?
MRS. IACOVINO: I met my husband and I worked there and I also worked at Y-12 for a little bit and then I had three miscarriages so I was working and not working and working and not working.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: So finally, I quit the plants and I went back to work for Betty.  She had moved to -- she was in Knoxville and let's see, that was Miller's, then.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: And I'd had such a good time -- I didn't make as much money but I thought, "Well, I enjoyed that so much, I'd just do that," and that's what I did.
MR. MCDANIEL: So you went to work at Miller's in Knoxville?  Downtown?
MRS. IACOVINO: Mm-hm.
MR. MCDANIEL: Downtown on --
MRS. IACOVINO: Well, it's where the old --
MR. MCDANIEL: -- Henley.
MRS. IACOVINO: -- yeah.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, on Henley, that's what I'm --
MRS. IACOVINO: It used to be Rich's and then it was Miller's.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. IACOVINO: And so -- yeah.
MR. MCDANIEL: But now -- I guess it's now it's across -- UT owns that building, now.
MRS. IACOVINO: Yes they do [Laughter] they come full circle.
MR. MCDANIEL: I remember my mother taking me to Miller's and -- on Henley when I was growing up.
MRS. IACOVINO: Yeah.  Right.
MR. MCDANIEL: So --
MRS. IACOVINO: I used to always wish, you know, that I -- I wanted to go to school but there wasn't really one in Oak Ridge.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: And I used to think, "Wouldn't it be great if it was in Oak Ridge, ‘cause I didn't have any transportation to get to Knoxville."
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: But finally, I did.  I did -- we moved to Kokomo.  Let's see -- I hadn't been to UT then but then when we came back, I started to go to night, at night, to UT and I went for a little while and dibbled and dabbled and then I went to Roane State for a little while --
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: -- and then I went back to UT for a little while but I never did graduate.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: But it was easier, then.
MR. MCDANIEL: It's never too late.
MRS. IACOVINO: Well, I don't know.  It might be too late.  [Laughter]
MRS. IACOVINO: Might be too late, now.  But --
MR. MCDANIEL: I tell this story of my mother.  She went to work after the four of us were at least in high school.
MRS. IACOVINO: Yeah?
MR. MCDANIEL: And then she ended up working at ORNL and of course, they helped pay for her -- she wanted to go to college.  So she got her bachelor's degree at the age of 62.
MRS. IACOVINO: Isn't that wonderful?  Now if I had stayed out at the plant, they would've helped me go to college.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, exactly, exactly.
MRS. IACOVINO: Didn't do it.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, that's all right.  But you lived in Oak Ridge?  I mean, you know --
MRS. IACOVINO: I did.  I lived in Oak Ridge.
MR. MCDANIEL: -- except for, you said, you moved to Kokomo.
MRS. IACOVINO: We moved to Kokomo for a few years.  It was a strange thing.  And I loved some people I met in Kokomo, but I just despised the weather.  It was just so cold and windy or hot and windy.  That was the two weathers.
MR. MCDANIEL: Really?
MRS. IACOVINO: And so we were happy to come back.  When John -- he went in business for himself.  I guess the plant there, it had Union Carbide and Cabot and all -- they changed, and so he was going to have to go someplace and he didn't want to go to Boston or New York or Texas or somewhere.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. IACOVINO: He said, "Well, we'll just go on back and I'll start my own business."  Which he did do.  So we came back.
MR. MCDANIEL: Came back.
MRS. IACOVINO: Because Oak Ridge is just -- it's one of those places.  You just – it’s home.  So nice.
MR. MCDANIEL: What makes it so special?
MRS. IACOVINO: I don't know.  I think -- it looks so different, for me, always.  You know, if you grow up in an old city with a downtown that's old and beat up and, you know, although I have to say I miss real sidewalks but it just looks so different.  It just looks so clean and I just -- I liked it.  It was small.  I guess I like small.  And so I just always wanted to be here and of course, the schools are really good and we were going to have our family.  We wanted them to go to these schools.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: And so they did.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: So all my kids went here.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. IACOVINO: And they all went to UT.
MR. MCDANIEL: Did they?
MRS. IACOVINO: They all graduated from UT and they didn't name a street after me.  I thought they should've done.  [Laughter]
MR. MCDANIEL: You bought and paid for one, didn't you?
MRS. IACOVINO: I thought -- I did.  No, I'm kidding but no -- that's I think UT is an excellent school also.
MR. MCDANIEL: And you -- how many children did you have?
MRS. IACOVINO: Four.  I have four children.
MR. MCDANIEL: Four?  And they all went to Oak Ridge?
MRS. IACOVINO: They all graduated from Oak Ridge High and when they got to UT, they were good over there.  They were really ready to go.  
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: You know, they were the ones that could get jobs as proctors and, you know, they -- it's because they knew their stuff.
MR. MCDANIEL: They were prepared.
MRS. IACOVINO: They were prepared.  They were.
MR. MCDANIEL: Exactly.  Exactly.
MRS. IACOVINO: So they're all off doing wonderful things.  Tony's an architect and Julie's an electrical engineer and Gabriella's a writer and Susanna's a, you know, she got her degree in cultural studies.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: She got a Master's in Cultural Studies.  I said, "Susanna, you'll never get a job."
MR. MCDANIEL: [Laughter]
MRS. IACOVINO: Was I wrong.  She's a vice president of a little company over there -- it's a big company, actually, and what they do is market research.  They study culture.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MRS. IACOVINO: So [Laughter]
MR. MCDANIEL: Well.
MRS. IACOVINO: So don't pay attention to, you know?
MR. MCDANIEL: Exactly.  Well, you know, they're kids.  They were not going to pay attention to you anyway.
MRS. IACOVINO: Oh, they weren't going to pay attention to me anyways but she did the right thing and they all did the right thing 'cause they got a good foundation.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.  You know, one of the things that a lot of people talk about Oak Ridge is, you know, the kind of people that were here.  You know, what was -- it was probably a little more metropolitan than, you know, Happy Valley.  You know, once you -
MRS. IACOVINO: I think so.
MR. MCDANIEL: -- once you think back.  So --
MRS. IACOVINO: I think so, maybe.  I don't know.  I was too little to really know, but yes.  I think you just meet all kinds of wonderful people and they're just -- well, I mean the whole thing about opening night at the Playhouse, for instance.  They would just go down there in jeans and a shirt and whatever.  Brilliant people.  Lots of talent.  They appreciated theater, that's why they went, but they didn't think you had to dress up.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: Which used to just really irritate Betty.  [Laughter]
MRS. IACOVINO: She was from New York and wonderful places and she thought we ought to dress up and not -- I loved to dress up but it was okay if we didn't.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, exactly and that -- and you know, you mentioned the Playhouse.  That's another thing that Oak Ridge had that a lot of areas don't.
MRS. IACOVINO: Don't have.  
MR. MCDANIEL: Is all the cultural activities.
MRS. IACOVINO: All the cultural activities.  That's exactly right.  My kids were in the Playhouse.  They absolutely loved it.  And they took advantage of all the musical possibilities, you know, and they played piano and oboe and violin, and what other things did they play?  
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: But yeah, because there were things that they could do, you know, just whatever they were interested in, there seemed to be a place where they could go and get some time in that.  Tony took fencing.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?  And not just for the kids, but for adults, too.
MRS. IACOVINO: Yes, yeah.
MR. MCDANIEL: There were those kinds of opportunities for adults, weren't there?
MRS. IACOVINO: Right, yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: What things did you get involved with, you and your husband?
MRS. IACOVINO: Well, I used to love guitar.  I played guitar a little bit and I don't do that anymore but -- and certainly -- just all kinds of things, you know, mostly, I guess, I was just the mother. [Laughter]
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.  
MRS. IACOVINO: Back then.
MR. MCDANIEL: Did you get -- I mean were you active in any clubs or organizations in town?
MRS. IACOVINO: Yes, I was and I am, still.
MR. MCDANIEL: That's right.
MRS. IACOVINO: Yeah.  You know, you just -- it turns out that whatever your children are doing, that's what you better have been doing.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: So you know, I was at the Junior Playhouse.  I was the President of that Board one time and out at Jefferson, I was President of the PTA out there for a little while and I got so upset about their cafeteria.  I thought it was just, you know, I thought the food wasn't healthy.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: And I raised a stink about it and so when the two older ones went to the High School, they said, "Oh Mother, please don't join the PTA."  [Laughter]
MRS. IACOVINO: It was just when the High School was doing the open lunches, where they could go out.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: So I thought, "Well they got enough trouble.  I won't do it."
[Laughter]
MRS. IACOVINO: I didn't go down there.  So anyway.  It was good, though.  They had a good session at the High School.  They did.
MR. MCDANIEL: I'm sure you've got some great stories about your life in Oak Ridge, interesting things to tell me.
MRS. IACOVINO: Well, let's see.  What could it be, you know, I'm just -- I told you, I'm just little old me, just plain.  I just, you know, I go to St. Mary's.  I do what, you know, those kinds of things and --
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: I was -- when John had his business for himself, he was a manufacturer's rep and his office was, of course, in our house all the time.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: So I was the in-house and he was the out-house.  [Laughter]
MR. MCDANIEL: There you go.
MRS. IACOVINO: So, you know, I helped with that.  So I didn't have a lot of time to -- I didn't do so much.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.  Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: But I sewed a little bit and then I finally got over that.  I didn't want to do that anymore.  [Laughter]
MRS. IACOVINO: You go through stages.  Yeah.
MR. MCDANIEL: You go through stages. 
MRS. IACOVINO: Yes, you do.  So --
MR. MCDANIEL: Things that you want to do.
MRS. IACOVINO: Right, a few little costumes here and there and then you think, "Oh well, that's not so good."  So --  [Laughter]
MR. MCDANIEL: Well.  Had you become an expert, you'd be running the Costume Shop down at the Playhouse.
MRS. IACOVINO: Well, I'm not going to be doing that.  I'm definitely not going to be doing that but I did enjoy the Playhouse a lot and we did a lot of volunteer stuff for the Playhouse and in fact, I was in several productions.
MR. MCDANIEL: Were you?  Tell me some of the productions you were in.
MRS. IACOVINO: Well, Paul Ebert, bless his heart.  He always casts me as a crazy old lady or a witch.  Those parts, I could have just like that without asking.   [Laughter]
MRS. IACOVINO: So I played in "Arsenic and Old Lace," one of the crazy old ladies.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: And I played in "Bell, Book and Candle," the crazy old witch aunt and I played in, oh, when the kids were in the Playhouse, I did several plays.  "Wiley and the Hairy Man," and I was a witch in that.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: With the children.  And I played Mrs. Cratchit.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, did you?
MRS. IACOVINO: Yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: In "A Christmas Carol".
MRS. IACOVINO: In "The Christmas Carol," and they were all in it.
MR. MCDANIEL: Were they?
MRS. IACOVINO: Yeah.
MR. MCDANIEL: That's a wonderful experience, wasn't it?
MRS. IACOVINO: It is.  It was great.
MR. MCDANIEL: To do something like that.
MRS. IACOVINO: It was great.  So --
MR. MCDANIEL: What was the last show you did and what year was it?
MRS. IACOVINO: Oh, gosh.  Maybe the last show was "The Foreigner," and it's been years.  Let me see.  By then, my children were kind of off on their own.  Oh, gosh, I have no idea when it was.
MR. MCDANIEL: Fifteen years?
MRS. IACOVINO: Oh absolutely, every bit of 15.
MR. MCDANIEL: Fifteen, sixteen?
MRS. IACOVINO: Yeah, mm-hm.
MR. MCDANIEL: Because I remember when they did, "The Foreigner," the Playhouse.
MRS. IACOVINO: Well, I think they've done it since I did it.
MR. MCDANIEL: Yeah, right, right.
MRS. IACOVINO: So they may have done it again.
MR. MCDANIEL: May have done it again.
MRS. IACOVINO: But I really liked "The Foreigner," so I liked being Miss Betty in "The Foreigner".
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, well good.
MRS. IACOVINO: So that was a good show.
MR. MCDANIEL: You know, my wife and I met at the Playhouse.
MRS. IACOVINO: You did?
MR. MCDANIEL: 21 years ago.
MRS. IACOVINO: Oh, my goodness.
MR. MCDANIEL: Yeah, we met --
MRS. IACOVINO: What were you doing?  Were you doing this or were you on stage?
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh no, I was a -- my bachelor's is in Theater so I'm an actor and I've been in, I don't know, 60 or 70 productions.
MRS. IACOVINO: Oh no.
MR. MCDANIEL: And at the Playhouse, probably 20, 25, you know.
MRS. IACOVINO: Wow.
MR. MCDANIEL: But anyway.  My wife, she's an act- she acted.  She also did some, you know, stage managed and, you know, did some tech work.  I think I was -- my ego was a little too big to do too much tech work.  So --
MRS. IACOVINO: Ah hah.
MR. MCDANIEL: -- I was one of those.  But --
MRS. IACOVINO: We sort of faded out of the Playhouse.  You know, you do things and then you just --
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, yeah.
MRS. IACOVINO: -- go on to something else and --
MR. MCDANIEL: Well sure, exactly.  Exactly.
MRS. IACOVINO: -- so I kind of don't do it anymore.  But I'm so happy that it's there.  In fact, my granddaughter was here over Thanksgiving and they went to see "Little Women," and she was just thrilled to death.  She thought it was absolutely fabulous.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: She's an aspiring actress herself.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.  Well what about Oak Ridge?  I mean, you know, I'm sure there has been interesting people that you, you know, were friends with or --
MRS. IACOVINO: Oh, my goodness.
MR. MCDANIEL: You know, who are some of the folks that made it special for you?
MRS. IACOVINO: I have a wonderful neighborhood.  The Jernigans live right there and the Sturms lived across the street.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: They were so wonderful.  And --
MR. MCDANIEL: Mel Sturm?
MRS. IACOVINO: Mel, uh-huh.
MR. MCDANIEL: Yeah.
MRS. IACOVINO: And they were so nice and oh gosh.  There's so many.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: There's so many. [Laughter]
MR. MCDANIEL: And you've been in this house since when?
MRS. IACOVINO: 1973.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay. 
MRS. IACOVINO: So we came back from Kokomo and we rented up on East Drive and June Adamson lived on the corner there.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: And she knew we were coming back and she said, "Oh, I know the Taboda's are going to move and their house is going to be for rent."  So sight unseen, I think, we rented it.  So we lived up there till -- just rented it -- until we -- and I had lived way east and when I first, after we -- first when we first married, we bought a little A house for $5,000.00.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: Can you imagine?  And so -- and after, we were about to have the second child, I said to John, "This is just too small. We can't be here."
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: So he never -- sight unseen to me, he went out and bought a new house out on West Outer, 989.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MRS. IACOVINO: It was the last house out there at that point.  And we moved in and then we were only there -- I guess just one year and we moved to Kokomo.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh really?
MRS. IACOVINO: So didn't stay there very long and that was the house -- my granddaughter loves me to tell that story.  It was built on a scorpion's nest.  So there we had a new baby and these little scorpions all over the basement and I called up the extension and said, "You know, I have this thing that looks like a scorpion."  He said, "Well, it probably is a scorpion.  We have those here."
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: They're little.  They're not as big as the ones you see in the desert, but they're -- they look just like them and their little tail curls right up.  So at night, I would get up to change the baby and there would be a scorpion in the sink.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh my.
MRS. IACOVINO: Oh, it was so scary.  
MR. MCDANIEL: We were at a party here in Oak Ridge here, not too long -- I mean a few years ago with some of our young kids and at someone's house, they had a pool and the kids were crawling around on the carpet and sure enough there was a little scorpion there.
MRS. IACOVINO: Oh my.
MR. MCDANIEL: We'll have them here, occasionally.  Not very much, but occasionally they'll show up.
MRS. IACOVINO: Well they were just everywhere.
MR. MCDANIEL: They were everywhere?
MRS. IACOVINO: So we kept calling the -- I called the Orkin people.  I said -- that's who I was having -- and I said, "Listen, this is Ms. Iacovino on the Scorpion Ranch, and they're just all over my basement this morning."  So they just kept coming out and finally, they brought this truck that had an arm that just went out like this and it just had poison all in it and they just soaked the whole front and all the way down, all over the lot and so it ran in the basement.  
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: So I got up in the morning, the next morning, and there was just a little layer of this poison, and all these floating scorpions in there.  It was just so gross.
MR. MCDANIEL: My goodness.
MRS. IACOVINO: So anyway.  I didn't mind leaving that little house.  I was just ready to go, I think.  So when we came back and just -- it was five years, I guess.  We came back and we couldn't afford to buy that house back.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: The price had gone up so much.  [Laughter]
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, sure, exactly.
MRS. IACOVINO: So anyway.  But that was way west and we rented way east and I said, "We're going to be in the middle."
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: So we just looked till we found -- and this right is -- right in the middle of Oak Ridge.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: For me.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.  
MRS. IACOVINO: So -- and we got it.  We said to the children, "Now, you can walk to school."  They never wanted to walk to school and so they said, "Well, we need a bicycle."  So they all had bicycles.  So they'd ride down the hill and then they'd call me and say, "Can you pick me up?" 
MR. MCDANIEL: Exactly.
MRS. IACOVINO: "And my bicycle?"
MR. MCDANIEL: They didn't want to go back up the hill.
MRS. IACOVINO: No.  It was -- then they had what is it, ten-speed.
It's a lot.  So anyway.  So and then the little ones, and sometimes I'd make them walk anyway.  But then they're so clever.  They got in the band and they said, "You know, we just can't go with a cello, this cello won't -- I just can't do that."
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, of course. That's why they got in the band.
MRS. IACOVINO: And that's why they got in the band.
MR. MCDANIEL: I have an 11-year-old and a 13-year-old, so I know exactly what you mean.
MRS. IACOVINO: Yeah, they figure those things out.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, good.  Good.  Anything else you want to talk about?  Any other stories?
MRS. IACOVINO: Oh, the -- oh, well, I don't know.  [Laughter]
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, now's the chance.
MRS. IACOVINO: Now's the chance.  And I don't have any other stories.  My goodness.  Well, the one story that -- this is so crazy.  We live on this circle and just before Tony got his driver's license, we still had that -- I bet you noticed that old car out there.  That -- they loved it. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: The Volkswagen.  It was just -- he couldn't wait to drive it, you know?
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: So we were preparing this speech about how it was if he had a wreck, he couldn't drive, we were going take the license, da, da, da, da, da --
MR. MCDANIEL: Of course.
MRS. IACOVINO: And John and I ran into each other on the circle.
MR. MCDANIEL: [Laughs].
MRS. IACOVINO: Is that ridiculous?  We were up at Edna Jones'.  Edna Jones lived on the corner, there.  That -- our circle -- I mean the corner -- it's a circle but it's almost a corner, you know?
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: It's really sharp and John, he was the first one to have a phone in his car.  And it was a big old blocky thing that was in the middle of it.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh sure.  Of course.
MRS. IACOVINO: And so he's leaving.  He's got an appointment and I had taken the children to school and I was coming back.  I was coming in and he was going out and we got to that corner and he was in the middle of the road and on the phone --
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: So we just -- I missed her mailbox, which was a miracle.  I got over and he just clipped the side of the van.  So I said, "Oh," I was so upset, so I came in and called the insurance company.  Do you know that insurance man was just laughing?  He was laughing.  I told him what happened and he was going, "[Belly laughs]."  And well, oh, I was so upset, I said to John, "I'm just going to drop that insurance."  And he said, "Don't you worry.  They're going to drop us."  [Laughter]
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, exactly.
MRS. IACOVINO: And they would only pay for his car.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. 
MRS. IACOVINO: They said, "How do we know you didn't just get mad at her and hit her car?"
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, exactly.
MRS. IACOVINO: So, well.  So they did drop us. [Laughter]
MR. MCDANIEL: Of course.  Of course.
MRS. IACOVINO: So then Tony just felt, "Oh, it's okay."  [Laughter]
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, there was a lesson.  You had good intentions but, you know, it just kind of --
MRS. IACOVINO: I did.  Well, you know, you just -- it's that old thing.  You just can't talk on the phone.
MR. MCDANIEL: That's exactly, that's exactly right.
MRS. IACOVINO: You got to watch that phone conversations when you're driving.
MR. MCDANIEL: That's exactly right.
MRS. IACOVINO: So --
MR. MCDANIEL: All right.  Well, unless you got something else --
MRS. IACOVINO: I don't have anything else.  I told you I didn't know anything. I'm just --
MR. MCDANIEL: Well sure.  Sure you were here as a child and came back as a teenager --
MRS. IACOVINO: And I came back because I love it so much.
MR. MCDANIEL: -- and came back as an adult.
MRS. IACOVINO: Yes, I love it so much.  
MR. MCDANIEL: You just -- you can't stay away.
MRS. IACOVINO: I'm sorry.  I can't stay away.  I love Oak Ridge.  Still do.  And I work for Keep Anderson County Beautiful because I'm so annoyed with the trash.   I couldn't believe the trash.  If you go up to the red lights -- and I'm sure it's in any city but in Oak Ridge, I've noticed it -- the medians there.  You stop at the red light.  If you look out, it's covered with cigarette butts.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: People don't think that's trash.  
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. IACOVINO: It is trash.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: Those same people that are throwing those -- they wouldn't think about throwing paper out or anything --
MR. MCDANIEL: Nope.
MRS. IACOVINO: -- but cigarette, boom.  There it is.  So I've been working with the Keep Anderson County Beautiful for that very thing, to beautify and its working.  I think we've done some things.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. IACOVINO: So I'm in -- and they did this big recycling thing on recycle day, America Recycles, they recycled tons of stuff; paper and old equipment and so I'm thrilled with that.
MR. MCDANIEL: So you're active with them?
MRS. IACOVINO: Yes, I really -- it's something dear to my heart.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.  Sure.
MRS. IACOVINO: I want that to work.  [Laughter]
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, exactly.
MRS. IACOVINO: So --
MR. MCDANIEL: All right, well thank you very much.  I appreciate it.
MRS. IACOVINO: Well you are so welcome.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.

[End of Interview]